Home of Slightly Cracked Dreams

Things are getting a little dire around here study/house wise. Swimming is once again taking up a fair chunk of time, which means I need to be more mindful of what I do with my time than normal. To that end this week’s menu plans contain lunch and snack items to be made for the kids. Also meal variations for the baby, who is now eating more than the 3 year old some days. So without further ado:

Monday

Lunch - Tuna salad sandwiches

Snacks - Jelly, fruit, vegetable sticks

Dinner - Meatloaf, pasta and vegetables (Baby: - purree’d vegetables and pasta finger food)

Baking - Honey Cookies 

Tuesday

Lunch - Pumkin Soup (freezing half for Thursday)

Snacks - Cookies, yoghurt, fruit

Dinner - Sticky Mango Chicken with pasta (Baby: - defrosted meat & veg puree and pasta finger food)  

Baking - Soak fruit for fruitcake overnight

Wednesday

Lunch - Cheese & Vegetable sandwiches

Snacks - Cookies, jelly, fruit

Dinner - Lions Meeting - Beef & Vegetable Ravioli for kids before we go (Baby: - same as big kids)

Baking - Fruitcake 

Thursday

Lunch - Pumpkin Soup (reheated from Tuesday)

Snacks - Fruitcake, yoghurt, fruit

Dinner - Braised Beef with Mashed Potato & Steamed Veg (Baby: - pureed braised beef and mashed potato)  

Baking - None

Friday

Lunch - Egg salad sandwiches

Snacks - Fruitcake, vegetable sticks, yoghurt

Dinner - Sausage Sizzle (Baby: - leftovers from Thursday night)  

Baking - None 

Saturday

Lunch - Baked Potato, Ham & Cheese Frittata

Snacks - Apple Muffins, fruit, jelly

Dinner - Veal Stroganoff with Mashed Potato (Baby: - mashed potato)  

Baking - Apple Muffins

Sunday

Lunch - Baked Potato, Ham & Cheese Frittata

Snacks - Apple Muffins, fruit, yoghurt

Dinner - Lamb Rissoles, Pasta and Vegetables (Baby: - purree’d vegetables and pasta finger food)  

Baking - None

What’s on your menu plan this week? Do you have a menu plan? If not, check out my How to Menu Plan post and then head over to Orgnaizing Junkie and post your menu and see what everyone else is eating this week.

Welcome to Spring here at Kin’s Home. The weather is already warming up (I had to buy summer clothes for the baby on the weekend), fans are on and salads are back on the menu. I know other parts of Australia are still suffering the cold, but here in North Queensland the winter is over and we’re entering the BEST time of year. It’s warm enough to swim (we went this morning) and there aren’t usually stingers around until the end of the month.

Also, after my horror August, September will be better, and is already off to a great start. I had the kids help with the menu plan today.

Monday - BBQ & salad at the club

Tuesday - Spaghetti Bolognaise

Wednesday - Steak, (homemade) potato and sweet potato chips and coleslaw

Thursday - Apricot Chicken and pasta

Friday - Marinated Lamb Drumsticks, Mashed Potato, Steamed Veggies

Saturday - Roast Chicken, Roast Vegetables

Sunday - Fish (fresh I hope!!), potato salad and steamed veggies.

For more menu’s head on over to Organizing Junkie

Here we are for another week. My freezer is bulging with meat, so we need to eat our way through it.

Monday - Corned Beef in the slow cooker with cauliflower, steamed veg and white sauce

Tuesday -  Meatballs and pasta

Wednesday -  Crumbed chicken, rice and veggies

Thursday - Sweet & Sour Veal Stir Fry

Friday - Sausages, Mash & Veggies

Saturday - Roast Chicken & Roast Veggies

Sunday - Fried Rice using leftover roast chicken

To see what everyone else is eating this week, head over to Organizing Junkie

I did start writing this on Monday, but as you will see by my previous post, Monday was not a great day, and it has taken this long to get around to finishing the menu plan. 

Here we are again, this week with a vegetarian edition as we have two exchange students with us, one of whom is a vegetarian.

Monday - Vegetarain Lasagne with salad and bread roll After the day I had on Monday we had Pizza.

Tuesday - Vegetable stew with mashed potato The exchange students were out so we had meatloaf. Yummy!

Wednesday - Pasta bake with salad and bread roll Mother-in-law to the rescue after another disastrous day with her spinach pie, salad and bread rolls.

Thursday - Try again for the Lasagne and salad and bread rolls.

Friday - Pumpkin and spinach pasta bake

Saturday - Out to the local pub for dinner

Sunday - Hamburgers/Veggieburgers

Head over to Laura’s I’m an Organizing Junkie for more Menu’s, even if the week is half over

Here we are again, another Monday and another Menu Plan. Although I did want to thank everyone for their response to my post Bye Bye Nemo??? over the weekend. I’ve had an absolutely huge response which is fantastic and it completely blew me away. Thank you all so much!

But now on to menu planning. We have a very VERY busy week this week, so my menu plan is a little sparse on the ground. I’ll give you a bit of a run down of my week as well in the plan, so you can see why I’ve done what I’ve done:

Monday - BBQ. I’m catering for Hubby’s Marine Rescue club’s AGM tonight, so more than the usual salads, sausages, bread and desserts are required. After that I’m taking all 3 kids into town for a quick birthday drink with a friend. Crazy I know.

Tuesday - Roast Pork. I picked up a fairly cheap roast pork yesterday, which should do us for 2 meals. Tuesday I’m up at the youth camp taking the group photo and organising to get it printed, as well as staying on top of my study (Tuesday is the main study day around here).  Depending how enthusiastic I am it may be done in the slow cooker.

Wednesday - Leftover roast pork. Probably rolls. Wednesday is my day off this week. I plan on cleaning the house and playing with the kids. I might try and organise a fun science experiment or two.

Thursday - Meatballs & pasta. I picked up some cheap meatballs at the shops yesterday. Thursday I’m catering the lunch for the youth camp. For 50 people. I need something easy for dinner. Although there may be leftover lunch I spose. Thankfully the big girls are in daycare so I only have one to worry about.

Friday - Friday night is the last night of the youth camp, and they put on a big dinner, so we’re going up for that, and will probably stay to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics, if the girls last that long.

Saturday - Take away. We are driving to the nearest city (2hrs drive) to pickup an exchange student who arrives at 6pm, so dinner will be on the run.

Sunday - Crumbed Chicken. I don’t think I have to do anything on Sunday. Hubby is working the radio in the afternoon, so I’ll drag all three kids with me shopping for the week, and that’s about it. Oh for a quiet day!

So that’s my week. No wonder I’m nervous. I did spend a lot of time in the kitchen on the weekend cleaning it up for all this preparation this week. I think I’ll be all salad’d out by Friday.

So to see what everyone else is eating, head over to I’m an Organizing Junkie.

Before I get started a word about last week’s menu. The meat loaf from this months Super Food Ideas is amazing. So simple, delicious (both the girls LOVED it, which is highly unusual) and versatile. As I was mixing it up I though the mix would make great rissoles or meatballs. You can also chuck more veggies in for fussy eaters (which I’ll do next time too). And the recipe is online at Taste.com.au. Healthy Meatloaf  Highly recommended and definitely a keeper! But now on to this week. Some old favourites appearing along with a new recipe.

Monday - Lamb Chops, mash & veggies

Tuesday - Chicken Caccitore

Wednesday - Spaghetti Bolognaise

Thursday - Apricot Chicken

Friday - Mexican Chilli Bean & Avocado Wrap

Saturday - Sausage Sizzle

Sunday - Roast chicken in the slow-cooker

So what’s on your menu this week? Head on over to I’m an Organizing Junkie  to see what everyone else is eating.

Here we are again. I’m on a empty the freezer kick - and I already have 3 weeks worth of menu’s planned. But for this week

Monday - Meatloaf from this months SFI
Tuesday - Apricot Pork hotpot (also from this months SFI)
Wednesday - Lions meeting (DH is joining this week, so the whole
family will be there)
Thursday - Cottage Pie (ready made in the freezer - needs to be
defrosted & cooked)
Friday - DH taking me out for my birthday dinner.
Saturday - Nasi Goreng from this months SFI
Sunday - Roast Chicken with all the trimmings

Yes, that’s right, it’s my birthday this week. I have pointed out two pairs of gold earrings I would like one of (both under $50) and requested a birthday dinner at my favourite (and most expensive restaraunt) for Friday night. Hubby has smartly agreed to these requests, so I am looking forward to this week.

Head over to Laura’s site to see what everyone else is eating this week.

Here we are again, another mad week at Kin’s house. I kid you not - mad!

I don’t think I’m going to be home at all this week for dinner, but I have put together a few meals so in the event I am, I have something to cook. My week looks a bit like this:

Monday - meeting (bbq)

Tuesday - dinner meeting

Wednesday - dinner meeting (but I may not even be here)

Thursday - away

Friday - away

Saturday - party

Sunday - party

Oh yes - my “relaxing” holidays just keep getting better and better. So, without any further complaining ado here are the meals we’ll be having this week if we’re home at all:

Crumbed chicken, mashed potato & veg

Asian Chicken Drumsticks with rice

Rissoles, pasta & veg

Sausage Casserole

Yes, even if we do eat at home this week, we’ll be eating out of the freezer. I really just don’t have time to shop at the moment.

Head over to I’m an Organizing Junkie to see what everyone else is eating this week

Wow, can you believe it’s the middle of the year alread? I’m sure I say this every week but I don’t know where the time goes!

We had a bit of a dodgy week last week with meal planning. Firstly the Hubby’s boss was in town and took everyone out for dinner. Not being ones to miss out on a free meal, we lined up the in-laws to watch the two big girls and had the most delicious steak. I could have eaten two they were that yummy. I was out Wednesday night at a meeting, and I’m still not sure what everyone else ate. Then Friday we  had forgotten about organised a surprise dinner for my father-in-law’s birthday on Wednesday and my mother-in-law’s birthday on Friday. We even forgot to get presents and had to buy them at 5:15pm just before the shops shut remembered to get them presents and everything!

But a quick check has revealed only two meals that weren’t prepared (although two are being prepared today - one for lunch and one for dinner/leftovers), so those two will be recycled this week as well. This is very much a “cooking from the freezer/pantry” week, and in actual fact I don’t need to buy anything for these meals. Hubby complained pointed out that the freezer was full of meat, so the next couple of weeks we’ll eat our way through that. I take no responsibility if I find some really great meat specials though…

But on to the plan:

Monday - Corned Beef, mashed potato’s and vegetables

Tuesday- Spaghetti Bolognaise

Wednesday - Pork Green Curry

Thursday - Sausages & Mash

Friday - Apricot chicken

Saturday  - Hungarian Goulash

Sunday - Leftovers

Laura from Heavenly Homemakers is hosting Menu Plan Monday this week in Laura from Organizing Junkie’s absence. Head on over to see what everyone else is eating, and have a poke around Heavenly Homemakers - I’m sure she won’t mind

Well, we’re back from camping and back into real menu planning with real food. M&M and I sat out on the back patio this morning and  went through recipe books and magazines to find things to eat this week. I did get one of my own choices in there - see if you can guess which one a 4 year old wouldn’t want to eat

Monday - Pasta and stir through sauce

Tuesday - Celery & Silverbeet Pie

Wednesday - Lamb chops, mashed potato & beans

Thursday - Pork Green Curry

Friday - Hungarian Goulash

Saturday - Chicken Stroganoff

Sunday - Mini Hotdogs

No recipe this week, sorry. Things are still recovering from the epic camping trip, which I’ll share with you over the next few days. Camping is great for relaxing, but not for rebuilding energy levels!

For more menu plans head over to Laura’s I’m an Organizing Junkie and see what everyone else is eating this week.