Meal Planning An It Feels So Good The October Edition And A Peek IntoNovember

It has been a while since I have planned out an entire month worth of meals and now I am kicking myself for not starting my routine up again before the beginning of the school year. 

The Meals

Stuffed Zucchini

Hawaiian crockpot pork

Turkey tacos

Pesto ranch chicken

Salmon and veggies

Apple cinnamon honey pork

Spinach artichoke chicken

Chipotle spinach and chicken twice baked sweet potatoes

BBQ pork

Cilantro lime chicken

Mongolian beef

I did not add the meals that were on the calendar, but did not get made for one reason or another because we didn't get to taste them so I can't say how good or how awful they are. 

I am so upset that I lost my stuffed zucchini recipe because it was delicious! I think I can recreate it from memory so here is what I can remember in case you want to give it a whirl.

Cheeseburger Zucchini Boats

1. Cut Scoop out the middles of 6 large zucchini and scoop out the middles

2. Saute Zucchini middles with 1-2 Tbsp of butter until soft and set aside.

3. Saute 1 onion finely minced until clear then add 1 lb. of ground turkey (beef) and saute until cooked 

4. Add Sauteed Zucchini back into Onion and ground turkey mixture and mix together. 

5. Add 1/4 cup tomato sauce (you can add more if you like, but don't let it get too runny)

6. Add 1/3 Parmesan cheese to mixture and stuff back into zucchini boats.

Top with cheddar cheese and bake until cheese is melted. 

Another recipe I made up as I went is My Hawaiian Crockpot Pork.

Place 1 pork tenderloin in crock pot and add enough water to cover 1/4 up the side of the pork. Mix together Pineapple juice, soy sauce, and brown sugar to taste and add that mixture to the crock. Cook on Low for 6-8 hours. I am going to try using chicken or veggie broth next time I make this instead of the water

The 2 recipes I highly recommend are the Mongolian Beef and the Spinach Artichoke Chicken. Not everything I make turns out, but these 2 were AMAZING! Brent actually made the Mongolian Beef, but I made the quonia and edemame to go with it.

Now that October is almost done (holy crap that went by really fast) let's take a look at what November will bring. This weekend I will be shopping for next month and I will have to be quick because I will need to go at nap time while the monkey sleeps because I am not sure how B-daddy will be feeling after his lover biopsy Friday. Hopefully it won't be too bad and hopefully he gets good results and we can stop worrying about what high liver enzymes mean. 

As you can see we we still have Turkey Taco Tuesday, and we aren't really trying out any new recipes. We are sticking to the basics and keeping it easy , healthy, and delicious.

I will end this short but sweet post with a sweet picture of my girl and her brand new Buzz Lightyear. one of my babies got him for her and I may or may not have cried it was so sweet!

The Race

Yesterday was such a surreal day. It was our second time racing for the cure as Creedon's Crusaders and oh what a difference a year has made. I know I haven't blogged much about mom's cancer or lack there of now, but it just felt too personal to really blog about besides to say she is doing GREAT! Basically mom has kicked cancer's ass. She has gone through multiple surgeries, drains, chemo, radiation, just to name the easy parts of all of this. We won't even mention the countless days spent in the hospital as a result of the chemo. These past 2 years feel like a dream and it is so easy to forget how bad it all was when everything is so great now. It makes me sad somedays because I find myself saying I am so glad these 2 years are over, but I don't want to forget the good while trying to block out the bad. 

Last year we were much more organized when it came to the race, but we already have ideas for next years race and yes it involves costumes and the hope that I can talk Mom into doing the 5k with us.

This year Nicole and I ran the 5k (and we didn't die and now I am pumped to get back to running), Emily and Debbie walked the it, and Mon and Jen walked the mile. My mom who just had surgery walked a freaking mile and with a head of curly grayish, brownish, blondish (she says) hair! This time last year she felt like crap and was bald as a newborn baby. Oh how much things can change in just a few months. We are so blessed to have this wild amazing woman still with us!

I think we will all have a lot to be Thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Mongolian Beef

I you are looking for a new recipe to try out I HIGHLY recommend THIS one. I have had it pinned on Pinterest forever and Brent happened to spy it the other day when we were looking for some Brent friendly gluten free recipes and he was really excited to give it a try. We went with a really lean cut if meat which was really healthy and only ran about $11.00 for 4 servings. 

I will have I say Brent is definitely the better cook between the 2 of us specially when it comes to meat so I let him do the hard work on this meal (darn). I did however prepare an extra large pot of quinoa in vegetable broth to go with it and some steamed frozen broccoli to eat on the rest of the week. We of course couldn't eat an Asian meal without edamame which was Mckinley's favorite part. This kid lives for edamame! She also loved the quonia and broccoli, but since she isn't a huge fan of red meat I got to finish that off for her which was just awful.

I think if all of our new recipes turn out as amazing as this one did Brent might actually enjoy the gluten free lifestyle. I just want to say P.F. Changs I hate to tell you, but our Mongolian beef might be better than yours.

Plans and Changes

I am finally jumping back on my serious meal planning. Last month I kept everything pretty simple with crock pot Mondays, taco Tuesdays, pasta Wednesdays, breakfast for dinner Thursdays, and pizza Fridays, but I am ready for some new recipes. I also have a new motivation. Daddy D is going gluten free because of a few health issues he has going on and he was told to cut out white flour and white rice. This will be a little tricky because a lot of gluten free products are made from rice flour, but I think kicking the flour habit will be such a huge change on his body a little rice flour won't do anymore damage everything else has already done. I also plan on trying my hand at bread machine baking so we shall see how that goes.

We just got back from our latest shopping trip and Brent had asked if our grocery bills would go up now that he will also be eating gluten free and after seeing our $230 bill got a little scared until I reminded him this was basically a months worth of meals. I plan on us eating leftovers and a lot of these meals can be divided in 2 and frozen for later use which means next months planning will be even easier. I am also psyched about my new to us freezer that will be moving into our shed to house all of these delicious meals.

Now let's take a look at how all this madness come together. There isn't really a science to and now that I think about it almost exactly how I put together my lesson plans for school. I make a plan, make a list, and get to work. I start by searching Pinterest and the internet for interesting recipes (gluten free of course), then I make a big list, figure out what ingredients I already have and what I will need, and then I decide when we want to eat them. I wasn't going  to plan out an entire month, but I just got so caught up in the excitement that I went ahead and did it anyways which just makes my life easier. There are still a few things we will still need to purchase like the salmon because we like that to be fresh and I will need a few more lbs. of ground turkey, but my freezer is full so we will pick that up fresh as needed. 

The first picture doesn't do my kamikaze meal planning justice. Usually there are scratch pieces of paper everywhere, it is missing my computer, and there is almost always a small child in the mix of everything. The snack cup is evidence of her presence.

I typically do not plan anything for the weekends since we usually have leftovers and we spend a lot of time with friends and family so this gives us a little meal leeway.  Now these recipes on these days are not set in stone. If we want or need to switch them around we do it. I am just such a visual and hands on person that I need it to be down in writing so I can process all of the information. We have already switched a few things around (all of the salmon recipes have switched to Friday since Brent takes care of that and I have cross country meets on Thursday evenings) and I have already eliminated a recipe because of a conflict (we do this prior to grocery shopping so we don't waste any $ on something we don't need).

You might wonder how we decide what days we eat what and that is simple. Monday is always a crock pot meal because I am usually exhausted on Mondays after a long weekend and a long day of getting everyone back into a routine at school. I also almost always have a ton of pork stashed in my freezer hence the main ingredient in all of those dishes being just that. We love pork in this house and crock pork is the best! Tuesday is always Turkey Taco Tuesday. Tacos are simple, easy, and healthy. Plus they are easy prep and and clean and I just like the alliteration in the name. Wednesday and Thursday are my days to try out new recipes. Usually they are chicken recipes that I can prepare ahead of time and or freeze for a later time. Fridays as I said earlier will be grill nights typically salmon and veggies. Now don't think we don't ever have any fun because at least one Friday a month we will be throwing in a Mellow Mushroom night since there is one opening walking distance from our house and they have AMAZING gluten free options. 

These next few weeks are pretty crucial for the success of Brent's new healthier lifestyle. I have been through the unglutenizing and it can be rough and you are really hungry at first, but preparation and planning is the key to success so whatever I can do to make this transition as easy as possible for him is exactly what I will do. 

Calling It

As of September 22 2013 I am calling potty training a win! We made it through the zoo in panties (we hit every bathroom in the park just to be safe), but I think 3 days in panties equals potty trained. We aren't brave enough to go bare t night or naptime, but I am ok with that. It lets me hold on to my girl being a baby for a little longer. 

Mckinley started going on the potty around 16 months. We never wanted to push her because I knew she would go when she was ready, but he kind of took to it. Some weeks she would go all if the time an other weeks she wouldn't want anything to do with it so we just went at her pace. It wasn't until this summer that we started pitying on a pretty consistent basis because we were home a lot more and we went pants off dance off when we were at home. I actually feel like this just d if hindered our progress because anytime I did put pants or a diaper on the girl she would just get lazy and just go.  

Finally last week we took her to pick out some big girl panties and she went traight for the Sesams St. pack and there was no going back. I sent Mckinley to Mrs. Julie's in panties and a few backup diapers and after 1 little accident we were good to go!

So we have been in panties since Friday and except for a puddle on Papa and Yaya's back porch we have been in panties ever since. We still wear our cloth trainers because I sure do t have time to take apart the entire car seat and wash it. I am thinking about hitting up Babies Are Us since I need to return some stuff and get ahead on my Christmas shopping and picking up one of them thar car seat pads. 

I may or may not have gotten a little sad when my girl put her own panties on all by herself. I stil can't believe my little squishy punkin head is a big girl panty wearing 2 year old. Good news I can now say put on your big girl panties and deal with it and really mean it! Her booty looks so tiny without her big ole fluffy bum. 

My big girl panty wearer and her 2 boyfriends!