New Year's Day Fish Traditions

Cheese ball with crackers

 New Year's Day has always been a big cooking day for me.  I cook a large variety of our favorite appetizers and of course New Year's Punch.  We feast at lunch and supper with our spread of goodies.

Today we've had sickness plaguing us since Christmas.  It seems to be the flu.  Thankfully not many folks have lost their appetite and the traditional meal was still very much anticipated. 

Star Anise Waffle Cookies - reminds me of our days in Singapore

Hummus and veggies

Asparagus Beef Roll Ups - my favorite!!!

Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts - DELICIOUS!

Lime Fruit Dip with fresh fruit

New Year's Punch

 Here's my recipes in case you want to try some!

May your year be filled with lots of quality family time around the table!

Mixing Up the Lunch Menu

School is in full swing and menu planning just kicked back in gear.  I wanted to start off the year with organization for breakfast, lunch AND supper - not just supper.  I've been trying to mix it up with breakfast so we are not just having cereal every morning.  I have also tried new things for lunches because my Fish Sticks are not peanut-butter-and-jelly-every-day kind of kids.  I don't blame them.

So I came up with a guideline to help me keep lunches creative.  This guideline helps me in my grocery planning also.

Mondays:  Sandwiches
Tuesdays:  Wraps
Wednesdays:  Soups
Thursdays:  Frozen packaged
Fridays:  Finger foods / Kabobs

Here's what we've tried so far in the last 2 weeks: 

M - peanut butter and Nutella, turkey & cheese, tuna salad
T - leftover chicken salad in a wrap, bacon bit and cheese quesadilla, and salmon & cheese quesadilla
W - leftover beef stew, canned ravioli
Th - Bagel Bites & Pizza Rolls (I'm not one to buy the frozen packaged stuff but we don't do any of the lunch meals at school so this a treat for my kids)
F - the picture below left today in their lunch boxes - It's pizza in a bowl with a side of crackers- they had it last week too and it was a big hit!

I'm always on the lookout for good lunches that don't hurt my grocery budget and don't take too long to prepare.

turkey ham, pepperoni, bell peppers, cheese cubes, olives & cherry tomatoes

Yummy Lunch Idea

 Last week I scored big with the Fish Sticks in their lunch boxes.  We had Pizza Kabobs...a recipe from the Menu Plan I told you about from Pinterest.  Canadian bacon, cherry tomatoes, chunks of mozzarella, pepperoni and chunks of bread (not in photo).  Use pizza sauce as a dipping sauce.  They loved it!  I think we'll add black olives and a few other veggies next time.  Try it!

Menu Calendar

I pinned this amazing-looking Meal Planning Calendar on Pinterest.  I checked out the website thoroughly and decided to give it a shot.  I purchased almost all of the supplies for myself at Walmart.  I spent $35 to purchase the card stock printed off for the above Menu Calendar.  When it arrived, my girls and I had a good time together cutting all 100 recipe cards, punching holes in them, reinforcing the holes and putting them in rings.  We then cut out all the numbers and catagories and put magnets on the back.  We stuck circular magnets on the backs of the plastic gems.  It made a big mess but was a fun activity to share together.

The author hangs her calendar on the wall and hangs all 11 categories of recipes on the thumb tacks at the bottom of the calendar.  I think I've decided to keep mine in my office area and keep the cards in a box or Ziploc.

Because I had already planned our March menu and shopped for the groceries, I just wrote in the meals with the dry erase marker for this month.  Next month, I plan to use the calendar with its recipes.  It's a simple process and I look forward to trying out the recipes and method.  I'm hoping it will simplify things for us and maybe even save some in grocery money.  I'll let you know how it goes.  The site actually allows you to copy all of her recipes for free off of her site and tells you exactly how to make your own.  She also sells them completed and partially complete.

The same site offers a lunch menu calendar.  I was curious to see what types of things she offers for packed lunches.  I purchased the PDF file for only $5.  I printed them on cardstock from Walmart and put them together just like the above calendar.  She has some super ideas but making a different lunch for 5 days doesn't seem simple or feasible (budget-wise), especially since some of them involve more cooking.  I'm happy to have the recipes though and think I will use some, just not using the daily system that the author does.  I found all the recipes to be nutritious and simple after flipping through them.

Stay tuned for the update.

Real Food - Real Complaints

It seems like it's been much longer than 10 days since we started eating only real foods.  I will admit that once or twice for the sake of convenience, I had to throw out a few processed things to my family.  This week the $2 Wacky Pack at Sonic sounded pretty good to 2 little Fish Sticks who had been shopping with their Mama all morning.

Here's some of my feedback in bullet points thus far:

** It does require a bit more planning - especially for breakfast.  I've been spending time in the evening throwing together muffins, biscuits, etc.

** Packed lunches are the biggest challenge.  My Fish Sticks say they miss the more snacky things like chips or pretzels.  They miss the variety of items in their lunch boxes also.

** Suppers haven't changed much at all.  Some things have made it better like homemade salad dressing and fresh parmesan instead of processed.

** Breakfast is so much more healthy.  I have been making 1/2 gallon of homemade crockpot yogurt every other day to keep up with their yogurt intake.  We've been making homemade granola and eating them together with berries or fresh fruit. 

** Natural sweeteners taste just as good as processed and in moderation are tons better for us.

So far, no regrets from this Mama.  I can already see some permanent changes that I will make after my challenge is over.  Anyone else doing this and loving or hating it?  Any drop outs?

Day 1

The Halloween candy is put up and we are geared up to start Day 1 of our month of "real foods."

For breakfast, I made Lorrie's Lazy Granola the day before.  (Recipe coming tomorrow)

The Fish Sticks ate it over plain yogurt with honey and I had it with some milk with sliced bananas on the top. 

 For snack we had 3 slices of blocked sharp cheddar with 4-5 Triskets.

Lunch was natural peanut butter with fruit spread on whole grain bread, hummus with carrots and grapes.

Side note - I bought these things at Aldi and although the peanut butter and fruit spread have a small amount of sugar, they are free of corn syrup and about 1/4 the price of the 100% natural things I found at Kroger.  It was worth the purchase to save the money.

For supper, I have pintos brewing in the crock pot for my favorite refried beans, ground turkey with taco seasonings, and all the trimmings for a Mexican buffet.

So far so good, if I can get my 5 year old to understand "Mommy said NO HALLOWEEN CANDY!"  :)

Roman Bread Pudding

 In History last week we came to study the Romans.  The book occasionally give recipes for the lesson or a craft.  It seems that we rarely do them although Ruth begs and begs.  We just run out of time or just forget.

So I promised we would try the Roman Bread Pudding.  It sounded a little like French Toast to me and the ingredients sounded very healthy.  You soak bread in milk and fry in olive oil and top with honey.

 I thought it looked like a pretty good lunch.  I also thought it tasted pretty good.  The Fish Sticks review?  Well, they said it was soggy and so it wasn't heartily consumed.  Oh well.  Surely if the Romans ate it, it should be good enough for Fish Sticks.  Maybe we should try the Victorian 4 poster bed craft made from a box next time.  They might like that better.

Lunch Rut?

I get into a lunch rut with my kids sometimes.  I try to mix things up a bit so they don't get tired of the same ole thing.  My Fish Sticks who stay at home with me are not crazy about sandwiches.  They eat them occasionally, just don't prefer them.

I try to think of the basic food groups that I want to include in their lunch and come up with variations.

Today their protein was almonds, dairy was a cheese stick, carb was whole wheat pretzels and veggies were a carrot and homemade tomato juice.

Nice change from the typical PBJ sandwich, chips, apple and cookie.