Quest for Healthier Menus

A couple of weeks ago I decided that to get past this almost 3 month plateau I am on I needed to plan healthier menus. So I searched the wonderful resources of the web and the local library, and my dear cousin gets me a subscription to Healthy Cooking for my birthday (it changed this last year from Light and Tasty to Healthy Cooking). I was determined to find meals that my family would like and that our waist lines would like also. You know... that's not so easy. We like what we like. There is a reason I am on this particular weight loss plan. So, on my quest to healthier menus, I got sidetracked. The healthy cookbooks from the library and the magazines are all earmarked and ready to be copied, but to get to the lighter fare on websites (at least most of the ones I looked at) you have to pass by the good stuff... or is that, the not-so-good for you stuff. So, I am thinking that tossing in a lighter fare menu or recipe here and there is definitely a good thing, but moderation is probably where we should live. Afterall, God gave us those different tastebuds for our enjoyment, not to torture us.

In the last 4 days I have tried 4 new recipes! I get tired of the same ol' things to eat. I remember a childhood friend's family had spaghetti every Friday night. At the time, it sounded wonderful to me and I remember thinking that is what I am going to do when I grow up... Monday night is chicken night, Tuesday is hamburger night, Wednesday is.... well, you get the picture. There's no way I could do that! The only thing we may have 2 weeks in a row is pizza!

When I started the "Quest" I also opened another Delicious account just for recipes. I love this!! I have one account for business and personal. It has all the blogs I follow and they are listed under various tags such as decorating, crafts, Sunday School, weddings, etc. Then the one for recipes has tags for resources (recipe blogs or sites like Taste of Home), appetizers, breakfast, fruit, pork, etc. So when I go to plan my menus I go to that Delicious account and can pull up those recipes or I can search for more ideas. It is so handy. It probably won't be long before I open another account for A Mari Celebration. If you haven't checked Delicious out, you ought to. A free organization tool! Fun!

Here's the 2 week menu for this round. I am going to go back to Friday so I can include the recipes I tried this weekend, since there are keepers and I want to share them with you!

Friday- Homemade pizza with copy-cat "Papa John's" sauce (mmm, so good! I made a double batch and the rest froze it in 1/2
cup containers)
Saturday- Cowboy Sandwiches (the recipe has a different name... these were ok, don't know that we will have them again..)
Sunday- dinner- homemade lasagna, cauliflower, green beans, salad, rolls and lemon crumb cake (this cake was in the Healthy
Cooking magazine and I couldn't get a link to it. It is a dense cake. I liked it, but my family isn't real hip on
lemon.)
Sunday- after church- slow cooker pulled pork with homemade coleslaw and perogies. (oh, my! the recipe said the pork tastes
better the second day and boy was he right! Last night, I was thinking it was an awful lot of steps to go
through to get that result.Not hard steps, just time consuming, but today I am thinking it was definitely
worth it. I will double the sauce recipe next time, though. It's a keeper for sure!
Monday- Butter Roast Chicken, crash hot potatoes, and peas (The chicken recipe is one I have hadfor years and my
family loves it.)
Tuesday- beef tips and homemade noodles, mashed potatoes and carrots
Wednesday- leftovers
Thursday- enchiladas and corn casserole
Friday- Lexington Style chicken, baked potatoes and broccoli (another favorite chicken recipe)
Saturday- taco roll (taco meat and cheese rolled up in a pizza crust)
Easter Sunday- Cheese stuffed Pork Roast, cheesy mashed potatoes, broccoli casserole, carrots, cauliflower salad, homemade
yeast rolls, deviled eggs and I am sure dessert will be served but I don't know what it will be yet!
Sunday night- chili dogs
Monday- chicken paremsan, linguine and green beans
Tuesday- cube steaks and gravy, mashed potatoes, and peas
Wednesday- pizza roll
Thursday- bbq ribs, mac and cheese and baked beans

So there's a peek into our culinary world... as you can see we will be relying on moderation! If it is between food that we don't enjoy and adding more exercise to my schedule it will have to be exercise!

New Tool

I know last week was a busy one for just about every household! The clothes, the Easter meal, the programs, Easter baskets... it goes on and on! I spent Monday getting things for my Easter tablescape. (Oh, how I love to do that!) While I was at Bed, Bath & Beyond I thought I'd ask about my Calphalon pan. My dutch oven's non-stick surface was coming off and I wanted to check on the warranty. One of the clerks asked if I needed help so I asked about the pan and he said it shouldn't do that and to just bring it in and they'd give me a new one since Calphalon has a lifetime warranty. Then I remembered that some of the lids have a seal that was coming off and I asked about that... No problem! Bring in the whole set and I'd new one! So, a couple of days later I packed up the whole set and exchanged it for a brand new set! The set is valued at $550.00, and it was funny to make Rachel think I bought them just because mine were showing some wear!! Lesson learned: buy quality and they will stand by their product.

I suppose that the pan set is a "tool" I use to keep my family fed and happy, but the new tool I wanted to mention is a web site: http://www.cozi.com/. It is a family information center. It has a calendar, list center, journal, and a photo thingy I haven't used. Now if you have little kids and you are the one that plans and executes all of their activities, it may not be as useful to you. But on the other hand, the main reason I like it so much is because of Larry. He was constantly asking what my schedule is and would forget as soon as he asked!! Now, my schedule is online and it is color co-ordinated for each family member. So, Larry can now look at my schedule without having to wait for one of us to get home or whatever. And with older kids and all that fills their schedule it is nice to keep up with their plans. This is still pretty new at our house and the kids haven't exactly participated other than what I put in the calendar, so we may have to see how that goes. But for Larry and I to stay in sync it is working good so far!

Another tool I got this last week is a Cricut!! I am so excited about that! If you are thinking I am getting ready to go fishing you couldn't be more wrong!! I suppose I could do a scrapbook page about fishing.... anyway, I have wanted one for quite a while. My sister-in-law has one and when I was at her house for Thanksgiving I used it to make lettering for my Sunday School bulletin board. It will make letters up to 24 inches!! I am actually more excited about the many bulletin board uses I will get from it than I am for scrapbooking. It sounds like a "good" excuse, but it is true: It is for church work! The "It's All About" is from the Cricut. Our unit was named "Move Over Santa" so I wanted to do a bb using that.

On Sunday we had our friends, the Stewart's, over for Easter Dinner. I set the table using 3 plates and I'd never done that before. It was a little awkward when serving a meal family style and not in courses. It was pretty, though! I meant to take pictures of the table after the tablecloth was ironed and after all the chocolate crosses were put on. I couldn't put the crosses on until the last minute because Bo is a Fye and loves chocolate! He usually is very good about not getting onto things but I didn't want to tempt him!! The menu was alot like everyone else's: I made ham, sweet potatoes with pineapple, green beans, corn casserole, cauliflower, and cheese chunks.... Amelia made a wonderful layered salad, stuffed eggs, and broccoli salad to compliment what I made. For dessert I made a Paula Deen recipe, strawberry cake, and banana pudding. We were stuffed!!

I used the blue Fostoria I got from my step-mother and a white on white set I got from my mother-in-law. Last month my centerpiece was too tall for conversation and this one is a little on the short side. Next time maybe I will get it just right!! This year was different all around. We had never had company over for a holiday meal. We didn't take one picture of us in our Easter clothes or in front of our usual Easter background, the purple budded tree out front (I don't know what it is). And the biggie for the year was that this was the first Easter we celebrated without Rob here. It was a bit hard for me and it was probably good for me to have company and not focus on him not being here. I hope to get Easter pictures of Makenzi soon!

It is Monday and I have yet to figure out how to do the meme thing.. but here is the menu for the week:

Monday- Easter leftovers

Tuesday- balsamic bbq chicken, scalloped potatoes, and carrots

Wednesday- spaghetti, french bread and salad

Thursday- cubed steak and gravy, mashed potatoes and green beans
Friday- we will be gone... McDonald's?

Saturday- taco salad

Sunday- pork roast, baked potatoes, broccoli, rolls and deviled eggs

Well, I hope you have a great week. We have another busy one lined up, as I am sure you do too. I have come across this quote twice lately and thought I'd leave you with it:

"You can't speak a kind word too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late."

-unknown

I showed her!

Ok, so Rachel may know me better than I know myself where computer time is concerned. I did try to post 2 other times, but I had trouble with the keyboard. I was seriously wondering if I should even be doing it! One other time I was on Bebo and I had written this long blog and Larry and Rob came home from work and had to check their stocks and instead of checking on my screen name they switched to Larry's... so, you see I have had several attempts to blog go wrong one way or the other! And I have been busy! Last week was testing at Ryan's school and so I helped out with that, we were in revival and I shopped for a new refrigerator. I don't like to shop, but I do like to get new "toys!"

My new toy arrived yesterday. Our old refrigerator is older than Rob! We bought it and a stove when we moved into our first house and although we have been on the second stove for a few years the refrigerator is still running strong, we just needed more room. We have needed one for a few years, but the kids were in college and then Rob got married and so finally we were able to get it. They cost a little more than they did 23 years ago! And then if you know Larry you know he had a list of things that it had to have. That is one thing I appreciate about my husband. When he buys something he buys quality. Right now I have 2 refrigerators in my kitchen. I moved a free standing cabinet and put the old one in its place. We already have 2 freezers in the basement (beef and deer) and there really isn't anywhere except the laundry room to put the old fridge so that it won't be on the same circuit. And I don't really think I want it in the laundry room, but I know I will like having the second one available, especially during the holidays! Oh, well, we'll see!

I haven't had time to figure out how to get all of the banners and such on the blog page. But one thing I enjoy reading on others blogs is the Monday Menu Planning. Usually my menus start on Thursday. The ads come out on Wednesday and so I make my menu and my grocery list. I have a list that is on my computer that goes according to the aisles of my grocery store. (I would rather go back home and get my list than try to shop without one!) Anyway, I am always interested in what other people are cooking. I know it is not Monday or Thursday, but here's our menu for this week:

Tuesday- balsamic bbq chicken, baked potatoes, baked beans and salad
Wednesday- chili
Thursday- pulled pork & slaw sandwiches and curly fries
Friday- chicken parmesean, green beans and salad
Saturday- "second blessings"
Sunday- ham, scalloped potatoes, carrots, broccoli, devilled eggs, cheese chunks and rolls
Sunday after church- pizza burgers, veggies and dip, sugar cookies
Monday- sirloin steak, roasted red potatoes and salad
Tuesday- roast chicken, fettucine, broccoli
Wednesday- church dinner

On Wednesday nights our church serves dinner at 6pm to make it easier for people to get to church. We have very dedicated ladies that prepare a meal every week! We haven't been going because our schedules are crazy, but we are going to try to start going. We will be going more to get to better know the people we worship with, but having someone else fix dinner for me sounds pretty good, too!

I need to get going for now. This has been fun and I hope to meet you all back here in a day or two!

Talk to you later! Mari

"The best way to get on your feet is to get on your knees." -unknown