Menu Plan Monday - Back to School Edition

(This post was written on my husband's computer because of my daughter waiting until the last three days of summer to do her summer reading assignments for her honors English class on my computer, hence I don't have access to any of my images or pictures. It's boring, sorry.)

For more menu ideas visit Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday.

Summer will officially be over on Wednesday when my kids go back to school. I know, we are much later than most areas of the country but all the public schools in Oregon start after Labor Day and our district starts on the Wednesday after Labor Day.

I started my new job (at my children's elementary school in the library) last week and I LOVE IT! I really love the people at the school and I'm really enjoying the job itself. I have worked at the school off and on in temporary jobs for 4 years and it feels good to be back. It is only 4 hours a day which gives me a life outside of work, too. However, I have the feeling that I'm going to be adjusting this week and feel like I'm working full-time!

With this "adjustment" period in mind, I've planned some easy meals this week.

Breakfasts:

• Cereal, fruit
• Oatmeal with berries
• French Toast on the first day of school

Lunch:

• Chicken salad sandwiches on croissants (special for the first week of school, I don't normally send croissant sandwiches in the lunch boxes!)
• turkey sandwiches, fruit,
  
• yogurt with granola, homemade granola bars, fruit
• string cheese, lunch meat, crackers, fruit (or carrot sticks and ranch)
• Thai noodles (for Hubby and I, the kids won't eat these but we LOVE them!)

Dinners:

• Cottage Cheese Casserole, veggies with ranch
• Soup and Bread
• Chicken Crockpot thing (chicken breasts, Cream of Broccoli and Cheese soup, milk, cook in crockpot til meat falls apart. Shred chicken, serve with sauce over rice)
• Pasta bake , breadsticks
• Pancakes, hashbrowns, fruit
• Friday First Week of School Celebration! Navajo Tacos (Indian fry bread, refried beans, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, sour cream, salsa, etc), Spanish rice, chips, fruit salad, hot fudge cake for dessert! We will probably invite friends over to help us celebrate.

News of the Wierd

Kid, that potato is as big as your head! Don't try to eat that all at once now, ya hear?

What? It's for your whole family?

That I believe.

Jill

Wish Me Luck

In my ongoing quest to bring my chickens home, I am speaking to half of our city council members Thursday. I will be speaking to the full city council on September 2.

I will be explaining how ecologically smart owning chickens can be.

I will tell them how much it helps financially to have this versatile, cheap, healthy protein source available.

I will show them pictures of my children enjoying their pet chickens.

I will explain how allowing chickens will bring them into line with all the other cities in our area.

I will try not to blabber.

I will try not to appear like the "crazy chicken lady."

Mostly I will try not to faint.

Wish me luck.

Quinoa Caprisi Salad

I have an abundance of tomatoes in my garden right now. Most of them are cherry tomatoes - I planted yellow, orange, red, and a pear variety of cherry tomatoes. Right now the yellow and oranges are going crazy - the orange ones are my new favorite! They are very sweet and the perfect size to cut in half for a salad.

I was trying to figure out a way to use them that would have some substance to it.

You know, tomatoes that would fill us up.

I started thinking about my favorite way to use fresh garden tomatoes - a tomato and basil salad. Usually I just chop tomatoes, chop basil, toss them with some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Sometimes I add mozzarella cheese, sometimes not. How could I add some heft to this salad but still maintain the same flavors?

Quinoa! This is my family's new favorite grain. I've been experimenting with putting it in soups and stews. It doesn't have much flavor on its own, making it perfect to add heft without changing the flavor.

I made some quinoa but all I had left was about 3/4 cup - not enough to fill us all up, so I added some couscous. When the quinoa and couscous were cooked I rinsed them cool water so it wouldn't cook the tomatoes. Then I tossed in a lot of halved cherry tomatoes. You could use chopped big tomatoes but seed them so the juice doesn't drown the salad. I also added half of a thinly sliced zucchini - I have lots of those in my garden right now, too.

Then I added a few tablespoons of chopped fresh basil - I have a lot of that in my garden, too. Then I added a tablespoon or two of olive oil, a splash of balsamic vinegar, a generous sprinkle of salt and some pepper. Toss it all together and serve.

You could add mozzarella cheese to this and it would be fabulous. You could also add chickpeas or cannelli beans. I added a Boca chicken patty (a vegetarian chicken patty that we keep on hand for veggie girl) and had it for lunch today and it was fabulous. I've also wrapped it in a tortilla, added a Boca patty and hit it with a drizzle of ranch and it was to die for!

This salad would travel well in a container or in a wrap. With the quinoa, you get plenty of protein and all you would need to round out the meal was some fruit or a homemade chewy granola bar and you'd be set.

The most amazing thing about this salad is that everyone liked it - except my youngest. Kaden hates tomatoes so it wasn't even going to be tried. Well, he did try the quinoa part and was ok with that but he didn't love it.

This I could send for my 6th grader's lunch (she loves tomatoes), and Hubby and I would certainly take it for lunches. I keeps well in the fridge so I could just make extra to take the next day.

For more portable nutritious ideas, visit Nourishing Gourmet this week. She's having a Nourishing Portable Food Challenge, I hoping to get lots of great ideas.

Enjoy!

Jill

One of My Last Firsts

Do you see that boy up there? That is my baby.

Do you see that gap in his teeth? Those are his first lost teeth.

Why does that make me so sad?

I'll tell you why, because he is my baby and this is the last time I will have a child lose their first tooth. It's the last time I'll watch a child ride their bike for the first time, or go to school for the first time, or ride the bus for the first time.

Each of my baby's firsts have been lasts for me and while that in no way dimmed my joy over his first steps or first words, it has been bittersweet for me. Knowing that I'll never experience those firsts ever again has made me a little sad. I am content with my family and the decisions we have made regarding the size of it. I definitely don't want to be pregnant again! But still, my oldest leaves for college in two years with her sister just two years behind that. And my baby is starting 1st grade this year.

But time marches on. The only constant in life is change, right? I'm thrilled with how grown-up, mature, smart, friendly, kind and good my kids are becoming. But what about all those firsts?

There's always grandkids.

Jill

Menu Plan for August 24 -30 (A Big Bag of Potatoes!)

When I plan my menus, a lot of though goes into it. I decide what the weather will be like (ie, should we have salads and BBQ or casseroles and soup?), what my schedule will like (quick easy meals because we will be away a lot or more time intensive because I'm home and not so busy?), I factor in the budget that week (cheap meals?), and lot of other things.

Sometimes, however, my choices are made for me, at least in part. My husband brought this home from work the other day:That is 15 lbs of taters, my friends. We be having taters this week.

So with that in mind, and keeping in mind that I start my new job this week, this is what we will be having to eat this week:

Breakfasts

• baked oatmeal (with leftovers for snacks and other breakfasts)
• leftover whole-wheat pan rolls with butter and honey
• French toast (we have tons of eggs right now so I'll make extra and freeze for first day of school breakfast next week)
• cereal (Safeway is having an AMAZING sale on cereal and I'm buying it for $1 a box so I'm stocking up!)

Lunches

• leftover dinners
• one-eyed egyptians
• Ramen noodles (one last time before school starts and they get brown-bag lunches)
• Soup
• Mashed Potato Patties, fruit
  

Dinners

• Baked potato soup with homemade whole-wheat pan rolls
  
• Vegetable Pie (no potatoes but it uses up zucchini from the garden!)
• Baked Potatoes with broccoli and cheese, tomato and basil salad (from the garden)
  
• Spanish Tortilla, stuffed tomatoes (from the garden!)
  
• Meatballs and mashed potatoes, veggies from the garden (make extra mashed potatoes for mashed potato patties)
  

Hopefully the family won't scream "NO MORE POTATOES!" at me on Thursday.


For more menu ideas, visit Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Monday.

Jill

My New Favorite Recipe

This is my new favorite recipe (but check back tomorrow because I'll probably have a new one then!). I have been looking for a chewy granola recipe that was something like the stuff you can buy in the stores but had a lot more nutrition to it. The chewy granola bars in the store are basically puffed rice, high fructose corn syrup, a little bit of oatmeal, and a ton of sugar calories. I knew that I should be able to make something better but how?

I was looking for a no-bake cookie recipe the other day. It was 103 degrees out and I was NOT going to turn on the oven but we really needed a treat. I searched on google and found some great recipes (one of which we tried and liked, but it wasn't fabulous).

While I was looking I found a recipe for "Rice Cereal Energy Bars." Hmmm . . . looked kind of interesting. I tried them a few days later and WOW! We love them. I made some changes - I'm just that kind of cook. Here is how I made them:

Chewy Granola Bars ala Jill

Toast in a dry skillet until golden and fragrant:

1/2 c. sunflower seeds
1/2 c. sesame seeds

Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
Place in the bowl of a food processor:

2 c. dried fruit (I used a mix of golden raisins, apricots, and dried cranberries)
1/2 c. chocolate chips
the toasted, cooled seeds

Pulse until the fruit is chopped and fairly small but not pureed! Pour into a large bowl (a REALLY large bowl!) and add:

2 c. rolled oats (I pulsed mine in the food processor for a second so they were a little smaller)
6 c. puffed rice cereal (this keeps it from being heavy and dense)
1 c. dry powdered milk
1/2 - 1 c. flax meal

Mix all the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl combine:

1 c. corn syrup
3/4 c. honey
1/4 c. white sugar
1 1/2 c. peanut butter

Heat in the microwave until hot and thin (so you can pour it on the dry stuff and mix it). When it is hot, add:

1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract (I was out of this, but I would add it next time as I really like the taste)

Mix all the wet ingredients and pour over the dry, mix until well combined then press into a 10x15 jellyroll pan. Press it in really good. It will seem like there is way too much and it will never fit, just keep going!!

Cut into bar shapes before it cools then let it cool 'til firm. We couldn't wait to try them so we had the first few when they were still warm.

This sounds like a lot of ingredients (a CUP of corn syrup?? A Cup and a half of peanut butter??) but it makes a ton of bars - we got 33 bars out of this recipe. Half went into the freezer and half in the snack box.

This would be a great lunch box addition or a quick breakfast for my 16 yo who never takes time to eat in the morning. I'll be making this one again!

Notes:

• You could add other "healthy stuff" like rolled wheat flakes, oat bran, wheat bran or whatever. Just keep the total to the 8 cups. I think I would keep the rice cereal amount high or it would be really heavy.
  
• I added my dry milk to the dry ingredients because I have non-instant milk and it doesn't dissolve easily - you could add instant dry milk to the wet ingredients after you have heated it.
• We will leave out the chocolate chips next time and add more fruit. You can't taste the chocolate anyway and it just adds more sugar. Another 1/2 c. of cranberries would be fabulous.
• I used "natural" peanut butter and it worked fabulous. You could use crunchy (as the original recipe calls for) and then you'd have little nuts in the bars. I only had creamy.
• The toasting the seeds sounds like a step you could skip, but don't - it really adds to the flavor.

Check out Nourishing Gourmet for more nutritious portable ideas!
Enjoy!

Jill