5/20 Meal Plan

A little late getting this up, but I have had it in a rough form in a word doc so now it will officially be on the web...


Sunday:
B- Banana Bread and apple slices
L- Hubby had a hot dog, little girl had turkey and cheese slices, and I had a quesadilla that I dipped in avocado hummus
D- Low Carb Enchiladas that I prepped and froze on 5/14


Monday:
B- Cereal
L- turkey, cheese, apple, carrots and almonds
D- Leftover ham (from Easter!), brown rice that I froze last week, organic mixed frozen veggies, cut up fresh pineapple, and a little soy sauce all mixed together


Tuesday:
B- Cereal
L- Quesadilla, plain yogurt, avocado, and pear
D- Mini Pot Pies- I used a my own version by making my own bisquick with whole wheat flour (as seen  on Around My Family Table's site)- These turned out REALLY good!


Wednesday:
B- Banana Bread
L- leftover Mini Pot Pies, apple
D- Slow cooked Ribs, twice baked potatoes (trial run for next week when I attempt to make a big batch to freeze), and green beans


Thursday:
B- Oatmeal
L- turkey, cheese, pear
D- Slow Cooker Lentil Soup with the last bit of frozen ham from Easter


Friday:
B- cereal
L- No idea haha
D- Sausage and Brown rice casserole prepped and frozen last week


Saturday:
B- French Toast?
L- tuna melts (didn't make them last week)
D- Probably going out (our once a week allotment haha)

Officially Potty Training my 22 month old

I have been putting my little girl on her potty since she was around 17 months old, but knew she wasn't 100% ready to officially begin training until more recently. 

Currently it is raining outside and that is one of the reasons I decided that this week would be the perfect week to stay home and get her trained. 

The first thing I did was decide how I wanted to train her. 
I originally was using stickers as a reward for when she went in her potty, but decided that for this week I would use mini M&Ms. 

We don't eat candy in our house often and I even stopped using sugar when I bake, so choosing to use M&Ms was not something I decided on a whim. 

Little girl gets one tiny mini M&M for peeing and 2 for pooing, which is the smallest amount of chocolate possible! 

She is very proud of herself when she uses her potty and gets so excited for her "chocalit"! 

I ordered her 12 pairs of Fruit of the Loom panties from Amazon and 

6 Waterproof Vinyl Diaper Pants to go over the panties when we go out of the house. 

She has been waking up dry 6 out of the past 7 nights and even gets up at night to go to the bathroom and both today and yesterday she woke up with her underwear dry and ready to go to her potty.

Day 1:

5 Panty Changes

4 due to starting to go potty and then stopping herself to finish in her toilet 

1 plain old accident

Not too bad.

Day 2:

She is just waking from her nap and has only had one accident today! When I was in the shower she frightened me because she is usually really good and sits and plays on the iPad until I finish my shower, but today when I looked she wasn't in the room. I called her name a few times as I quickly dried off and she came running in saying "pee pee" and she had no panties on. When I went to her potty she had gone poo all by herself complete with taking off her panties! 

If things continue this way I will be one happy diaper free momma for about 2 months before baby girl #2 arrives haha

When I'm Pregnant and Have Energy...

For some odd reason I had an amazing amount of energy last Monday and Tuesday. So.... what do you do when you are 7 1/2 months pregnant and have energy to spare??? 

This is what I did Monday:

Saturday evening my husband decided to walk into a farmer's market and see what he could get with $2. He walked out with THREE cantaloupes. Thanks hubby, but how are we going to eat 3 very ripe melons? We ate one Sunday for breakfast and I cut up the other two to freeze. (and yes, those are my daughter's toes almost in the sink)

Next, I put a whole chicken I got on sale in the crock pot to cook for about 7 hours on low. 

After the chicken comes some sweet potatoes that were going to go bad unless I did something with them. I boiled, mashed, and then placed them in the freezer for an easy dinner side in the future weeks. 

I then grated and squeezed all the water out of about 2 zucchinis for Zucchini Tots, which are loved by little girl. 

After the chicken was done cooking I started to shred it and put together Low Carb Enchiladas. I realized I rarely follow recipes to a T and this was no exception. I used fresh tomatoes, black beans, and topped it with olives. I also split the recipe into two smaller containers so we could eat one for dinner and freeze one to use at a later time. 

The frozen Enchiladas. I wrapped in plastic and then froze for two hours before placing into a ziploc freezer bag. This allows the food to be the perfect size to plop back in the baking dish later and doesn't take up a lot of space in my freezer which equals a WIN in my book. 

The leftover shredded chicken and the chicken "parts" left in the crock pot with carrots, celery, and water to make broth.

What I did Tuesday:

After cooking the broth on low all night it was ready to be strained and then put into individual 2 cup portions in ziploc freezer bags to be used some other time. I waited until the broth cooled and then placed the ziploc bag into a cup and used a ladle to fill up the bag. Easy, cheap, home made broth!

While I was preparing the broth I also cooked up all the organic brown rice I had in my pantry. I needed some for a recipe I made Tuesday night, but also wanted to have some easier to access when I felt like using rice. I cooked the rice and then put it into 2 cup portion sizes while the rice was still warm to trap some moisture. Once I want to reheat the rice from the freezer all I have to do is take it out and microwave it for some "instant" organic brown rice. 

After a long week of rain and watching mommy cook and freeze food Friday was the perfect day to head to the park. Can you tell she loved it?!?! 

May 13th Meal Plan

Yay... I am sticking to my meal plan... plan :) Since deciding to do this I have actually spent less on groceries and we only eat out maybe once or twice a week max as opposed to 2-4 times like we used to.

Sunday:
B- Leftover German Pancakes I made Saturday
L- Not sure...
D- Frozen Meatloaf


For the husband I will try and make bacon, cheese, and egg "hot pockets" for him to take to work for breakfast since he said he wants something savory... yup he said savory.

Monday:
B- Cereal
L- Hummus, carrots, cucumber, cheese, crackers, kiwi
D- Low Carb Enchiladas

Tuesday:
B- Oatmeal
L- Zucchini Tots (Lillian loved them and I got some more zucchini for cheap)
D- Brown Rice Casserole with Turkey Sausage

Wednesday:
B- Cereal
L- Black Bean Quesadilla (using leftover tortillas, cheese, and black beans from Tuesday night)
D- Ham Fried Rice (using frozen ham I still have leftover from Easter)

Thursday:
B- Oatmeal
L- Mac n Cheese (we didn't eat any last week)
D- Chicken Broccoli Alfredo 

Friday:
B- Probably cereal again
L- Leftover mac n cheese
D- Sausage, Potatoes, and Spinach hot "salad"

Saturday:
B- Banana Bread and fruit
L- Tuna Melts
D- Going out


Kinda excited about doing these meal plans weekly and planning on making enough of most of the meals to freeze a second meal so I can have a break in future weeks from cooking. This freezer cooking experiment is going to help me decide what I will be making to freeze before baby #2 decides to appear in August.

5/6 Weekly Meal Plan

Sunday:
B- cut up melon and an Entenmann's Rasberry Danish Twist
L- Grilled Cheese, almonds, and carrots
D- Husband brought home BBQ from having to work on a Sunday (FREE)



Monday:
B- Cheerios and melon
L- Zucchini Bites (sooo good!) from Curious Country Cook and a pear

D- Stir Fry made with chicken from the freezer, frozen stir fry veggies, and rice noodles

Tuesday:
B- Breakfast Oatmeal Bars from Anja's Food 4 Thought

L- Carrots, Cucumber, cheese, crackers,
D- Frozen Chicken I had ready to throw in the crock pot, baked zucchini fries, and mashed sweet potatoes



Wednesday:
B- Cheerios
L- Mac and Cheese with Veggies
D- Meatloaf from freezer

Thursday:
B- Banana Brulee Oatmeal from Debbi Does Dinner
L- Leftover Mac and Cheese from Wednesday
D- Clam Chowder on Sourdough

Friday:
B- Leftover Banana Brulee Oatmeal? or regular oatmeal with raisins
L- Hard Boiled Egg and Avocado Salad
D- Ribs, spinach, and leftover mashed sweet potatoes

Saturday:
B- Mini German Pancakes made with whole wheat flour and fruit and syrup topping
L- If it's a nice day we will probably eat out.
D- We have a coupon for Bertucci's and my husband wants to take me.