Meals - Week Ten

I'm not as disciplined as I have been in planning my meals - but we have a few meals that we haven't had before each week. Some are hits, and some aren't but we're trying, learning and experimenting. That's what this is all about, so life is good. J

Here's what we ate last week - we're already in week ten of our meal planning.

Monday: Steak and Potatoes – yum! My favourite meal.

All of the recipes, other than Monday, were from the Clean Eating January-February 2012 issue. You can order that issue here:

Monday: I forgot to take meat out of the freezer in the morning, so we had frozen pizza. Oops - I guess it wasn't horrible because it wasn’t take out.

Tuesday: Beef and Broccoli Penne – the meat was marniated in orange juice, and that really made this meal. It was healthy chinese. The boys weren’t a big fan though.

Wednesday: I must be going senile because I don’t remember what we had for dinner tonight. Seriously, how can I forget what we ate four days ago?

Thursday:  Thai Chicken Tacos – this was a crock pot meal - messy but really good. To make true Thai food, you use a lot of peanut sauce and peanut butter, but Zach is allergic to peanuts – so almond butter was our replacement. It was fantastic.

Friday: Taco Bowls – this was a taco salad without the fried tortilla shell. It was delicious.

Saturday: Chicken Pasta – this was a made up meal by me. We chopped chicken into small chunks, cooked it with onion and red peppers and a can of diced tomatoes, mixed it with cooked pasta and cheese and baked it for 20 minutes in the oven.

We're doing really well with trying new meals every week. There are some favourites that we repeat, but not many. I'm happy that my family is open to me trying new recipes most days - cooking is much more fun that way.

Cheers! Kim

Inspiration Board - Kids Bathroom

It’s amazing what can happen with one innocent comment, isn’t it?

Yet again, I found a wet towel on the floor of the boys’ bathroom on Wednesday morning – it seems like that’s where at least one ends up after morning showers. So, this time, I asked why  child #2 had left his towel on the floor:

‘Mom, I don’t like the colour of these towels.’

‘Um, okay. What colour towel would you like?’

‘Well, I like green, so a green towel would be good.’

Huh? Okay. It’s odd reasoning, but I kind of understand. I updated the bathroom about five years ago, when the boys were fine with my style and preferences. I painted it so it was a different colour than the rest of the house, and attempted a beach theme – starfish, seashells, and a tropical blue paint. The towels were from our old house and were beige – boring but serviceable.

But not loved, apparently.

So, I’ve decided it’s time to update the room to reflect the kids a bit more – brighter and more fun.

So, just for you Zach, here are my ideas, all based around a green towel.

links to sources:  board and batten; hooks; artwork; shower curtan; vanity; towels

What do you think?

Cheers! Kim

52 Projects – Week Five – Pantry Organization

So, Mr. E and I spent the weekend a few weeks back, making these:

(Here’s how we did it)

Aren’t they great! And I found some similar, unstained ones at Michaels a few days ago, for $22 each!

I think we only paid a bit more than that for all the supplies – and we made six small boxes and three large ones! And these ones still needed staining. Yippee J

But, I digress.

I love the look of a clean, organized pantry, and once the boxes were finished, I couldn’t wait to put them in the pantry! But, I didn’t have a clean, organized pantry – mine was a disaster. 

Seriously – there was so much stuff on the floor nobody could actually get in there. We’d slide our feet in, lean over to grab something off the shelves, and hope for the best.

Spices were taking up a prime location, cereal boxes were jammed wherever they fit (and stayed in the middle of the floor), there were reusable grocery bags stashed in a corner, and nothing made sense. The shelves were overflowing with stuff – there was no room for any of the boxes we made.

Not any more – it’s fantastic!

This was a quick fix – I didn’t switch out the wire shelves or paint the walls to make the pantry seem more like a room, but I’m good with that. Having the space organized makes it easier to use, more efficient and the kids can help out by grabbing something when I ask. And, my main house goal for 2012 is to update the kitchen, so I want to finish that before I make any changes in here.

To make it easier, I didn’t do this organizing all at once – I did a section or a shelf at a time. Once I had a bit of open space, it was easier to move things around and keep organizing. It took me a few nights, but it was much less stressful that way.

I went through every shelf and threw out stuff that we’d never use – I was amazed at how much stuff should have been thrown out years ago.

Then I started sorting and organizing – woohoo!

Glass mason jars are filled with grains, some baking supplies and things that should stay airtight.

Baking supplies are all together

The plastic and reusable bags are now in pantry boxes and don’t take up much space – and don’t fall all over the floor.

Using the boxes has made a huge difference – there is so much space in the pantry now. And – we can see the floor again J

Having a personal challenge of completing one project a week is definitely challenging, but it’s such a sense of accomplishment seeing the project list slowly get longer!

Cheers! Kim

I'm linking this project up to:

Meals - Week Nine and two recipes - Beef Wraps and French Onion Soup

This wasn't the best week for eating healthy, or for being creative. I was out of town overnight on business, so that meant two nights needed to be super quick and easy so Mr. E could get the boys to their activities. It would be easy to give in and order take out, so not doing that deserves a high five!

Sunday: Home made nachos - these are always a big hit (maybe because we eat them while we watch TV!)

Monday: I was out of town, so Mr. E made the boys tortellini with spaghetti sauce. They used my home made sauce, so that counts as a healthy meal, right?

Tuesday: I was home in time for dinner, but not by much. Mr. E barbecued pork chops and we had mashed potatoes - what a great comfort meal to come home to.

Wednesday:  Sirloin Beef Wraps - These were quick and easy to prepare, and tasted really good. Fresh veggies made this light and refreshing, and who doesn't like to eat with their hands?

Thursday:  I had chicken planned for the crock pot, but I forgot to prep it the night before, so we had a frozen pizza. Not healthy, I know, but with swimming at 6:30, it had to be quick.

Friday:  Both Mr. E and I had lots for lunch (I met a girlfriend who lives out of town), so we only had a quick snack. There was a karate open house tonight, so Mr. E took #3 to that so he could check it out - that meant take out for the kids. And you know what? They didn't really enjoy it. Honest. So we'll try to limit that as much as possible.

Saturday:  Mr. E and I were on our own and thought about going to the local pub for a glass of wine and some appetizers. I made french onion soup instead - that was a much better idea! This recipe is amazing and we love it - I make it a lot.

I love this picture - it's from the Fine Cooking website but it looks just like my soup - because we have almost the same bowls! My Mom gave them to me a few years ago - she got them as a wedding gift more than 40 years ago.

So another week of meal planning came and went - this wasn't as successful as usual, but I think we managed to balance things fairly well. Schedules are a challenge  in our house, so as long as we eat healthy 80% of the time, we should be good.

Cheers! Kim

A Milestone in our House

There are some major events that make me realize that life goes WAY too fast and I wish it would slow down. One of those events happened today.

The boys came home from school on their own today - no more daycare.

That is a big deal to me - they're officially old enough to stay home on their own. Wow.

This seems like yesterday:

But it was more than five years ago.

Different events affect people differently - this one is affecting me. My kids are old enough to stay home alone - how old does that make me?

I know it doesn't make me any older, but that's how it makes me feel.

Life goes WAY too fast.

Kim

52 Projects – Week Four – Pantry Storage Boxes

I’m slowly working towards my 52 projects around the house – this might be a tough goal to accomplish. Weekends seem to fly by and before we know it, Monday is knocking on our door.

But, I’ll give it my best shot – and I’d rather have less projects I’m happy with than more projects that I’ll end up redoing. Quality versus quantity, right?

The next project in my ‘series’ is an idea I had after seeing this pantry redo

What’s not to love? And you know what I loved most – the boxes on the shelves. They added some rustic charm to the pantry and made it seem more part of the house instead of ‘just a pantry.’

But, finding boxes like that around here proved impossible. To me, anyway. Maybe they exist, but not anywhere that I knew about. So I made my own – with a lot of help from Mr. E.

We used inexpensive supplies that we picked up from Home Depot:

I played around with the sizing of the boxes on paper, to make sure they would fit on our shelves, and fit beside each other. 7” wide was the magic size for the small boxes.

So we measured twice (or more) and cut one box to make sure it would work properly.

Once we knew it would work, we began the first assembly line step – cutting the pieces. We ended up with a lot because I wanted six small boxes.

I also loved the colour of my inspiration boxes, so the next step was the long, slow process of staining all the pieces of wood. They’re pine, so they took the stain quickly. It just took a LONG time – a few evenings of staining, waiting and wiping. I took over the kitchen table for about a week while everything dried (good thing we have an island that we could eat at!)

  

Since it’s winter here, and we had the weekend without kids, we assembled the boxes in the house.

The compressor stayed in the garage, so the nail gun wasn’t very loud. And we didn’t freeze in the garage. J

Once we got the hang of putting the boxes together, they didn’t take long.

I added some vinyl letters that I cut with my Slice. I think it makes the pantry look more personalized, and everyone can find things in the boxes this way.

So, what do you think?

 

This was a time consuming project, but I think the time we put in was definitely worth it. These will help organize those items in the pantry that took up a lot of space.

Now, just to organize the pantry so these will fit on the shelves!

Cheers! Kim

Meals - Week Eight and a Spanish Pork recipe

Wow! Eight weeks of meal planning and trying new meals almost every night. That must be a record for me. I'm happy with how this is working out. My binder full of recipes is getting used, and so are my cookbooks (I have lots of those). Nearly all recipes are good, so we haven't had to resort to take out yet. And keeping a record of what we've had makes the organizing junkie side of me happy too!

So, here's week eight's meal plan for the week, and a recipe from Clean Eating magazine that was really good.

Monday: Home made Macaroni and Cheese. While I couldn't find this recipe online, here's where it came from:

The mac and cheese was creamy and rich and definitely didn't taste like it was good for you!

Tuesday: Spanish Pork with Potatoes - this was good and didn't take too long to make. The goat cheese was a bit strong for the boys, but they said it was really good.

Wednesday: Subs - Mr. E was out of town and I decided that being lazy was okay for a Wednesday. So, the boys had subs (and I had leftover mac and cheese from Monday!). I didn't realize how expensive subs were - aren't they just sandwiches? All in, it was nearly $20 for the two of them (of course they got the combo which came with pop, that they never get during the week). Yikes - we won't be doing that very often.

Thursday: Crockpot BBQ Chicken - the boys helped me put this together in the morning before we headed out. An easy sauce and a bit of stirring made this come together really fast. It was okay - the sauce didn't absorb into the chicken very well, so it got average reviews.
This was the first meal that didn't make it back into the recipe book - not bad after eight weeks of meals!

Friday:  the unseasonably warm weather must be leaving the viruses and germs around, because I was not up for cooking anything. Mr. E whipped up burgers and hot dogs with a side of 'home fries' which went over really well. The home fries are fabulous and the kids ask for them all the time - I'll have to show you our tips and tricks.

So, onward and upward - here's to week nine of menu planning and healthy eating.

Cheers! Kim