Meal plans

Here are my meal plans for last week and this week:
Monday: split pea soup and homemade bread
Tuesday: pasta with sauteed mushrooms and homemade bread
Wednesday: chicken sausage with rice and brocolli
Thursday: slow-cooker chicken nachos
Friday: dinner out
Saturday: tortellini, leftover chicken sausage and brocolli (for the kids). Olive chicken and rice for me and Al (chicken was in the freezer).
Sunday: ate on the road

Monday: Italian wedding soup (from the freezer from Mom's last visit)
Tuesday: More olive chicken and rice, cut up veggies & spinach dip
Wednesday: Indonesian rice salad
Thursday: Baked ziti with veggies and homemade bread (maybe bread, we'll see how the day goes)
Friday: Twice baked potatoes with spinach
Saturday: Al is feeding the kids
Sunday: Homemade pizza

I can't seem to find my cable to connect the camera with the computer, so no pix for now.

Laundry et al

I'm sorry to perseverate about the laundry situation here, but it is really disturbing how much of my time is spent on the laundry. I've really been careful about inspecting clothes to make sure they really need to be washed before they go in the hamper, but it just continues to pile up and pile up. I'm reluctant to hang out with my friends during the week because I might fall behind in the laundry. Just when I start to get on top of it...it's time to change the sheets. Or wash the diapers. Or Penelope comes down with a stomach bug featuring diaper-busting you-know-what. It's really depressing.

Meal Planning

One positive thing that came of having no car during the week was some serious meal planning that came from only being able to shop once a week. I'm going to try to stick with this as it as cut our grocery bill almost in half, and has solved the "what's for dinner" problem which used to be the bane of my existence.

Anyway, I was telling all this to my friend Talisyn who shares the "what's for dinner" problem and she asked me to post our menu plans. So here they are, for the past 3 weeks. I'm lucky that my mom has been coming down every other week and bringing a ton of food, so that is planned in. I haven't included the weekends for some weeks if we were socializing or traveling, etc.


Monday: spaghetti with parsley, garlic and parm, salad.
Tuesday: olive chicken (from mom)
Wednesday: soup (mom brought) and homemade bread
Thursday: veggie lasagna. More bread
Friday: fish sticks, pasta, frozen veggies
Saturday: Roast chicken and veggies, mashed potatoes (we had friends over).
Sunday: didn't cook

Monday: Veggie stgir fry with soba noodles, chicken potstickers (from Trader Joe's)
Tuesday: Chili mac
Wednesday: Quesadillas with spinach and refried beans
Thursday: chicken soup (in the freezer from mom's visit last week)
Friday/Saturday/Sunday: we were traveling

Monday: kale enchiladas, spanish beans and rice
Tuesday: shepherd's pie and roast veggies (mom brought)
Wednesday: Italian wedding soup (mom brought)
Thursday: Spinach/bean burritos
Friday: Meatball parm hoagies
Saturday: homemade pizza

So that's this week and the 2 weeks prior. My actual menu plan is more detailed as I have the recipe source and plans for cooking (ie when to defrost stuff) written out as well. It's nice to have it all figured out, so I can just stare dumbly at the page when I'm overwhelmed during the week. I'm happy to post recipes etc if anyone is interested.

I've got wheels! I am now the proud owner of a 2004 Ford Windstar, bought from another midwife in the neighborhood and a former teacher of mine from Penn. This is so great. I think this must be the biggest car in the world. Everyone else is going for efficiency and gas mileage and I am driving the biggest car in the world and all I am is thrilled because I don't have to bend over to get the carseat into it, and I can put my jogger in the back, and I've already outfitted it with a huge supply of diapers, wipes, paper towels, spare clothes, snacks and water bottles. And the only place I ever go in it is to and from the kids school (3 miles each way).

I'm glad the days of dragging the kids home on the trolley are over.