Menu Plan - March 14

A plan, a plan, boy do I need a plan!  Not only do I need a plan but I also need to stick with it.  And really it isn’t just a food plan that I need, I just need a whole life plan.  But we will start with this, once again and see what happens.

I’ve been craving roast for a couple of weeks now, but I keep putting off buying one.  Mostly because I know I would have to freeze a big portion of it, and I have enough, more than enough, food in my freezer.  Last week my goal was to eat out of the freezer and try to help make some room.  Somehow it doesn’t seem that I made a lot of space.  Maybe I will this time.

Monday:

B:  Boiled egg (70), Bagel thin (110) with cream cheese (60) and strawberries (??) plus coffee with creamer (35) (=325?)

L:  Tuna salad with crackers and grapes

D:  Italian Chicken breast** with broccoli/carrots and strawberry spinach salad

Tuesday:

B:  Breakfast Burrito* (180ish), yogurt (80), and a plum (35ish), plus coffee with creamer (35) (=330)

L:  Taco salad with Turkey meat* and black beans*

D:  Salisbury steak* with mashed potatoes* and green beans

Wednesday:

B:  Bagel Thin with ham and cheese (250) and orange slices (50ish), plus coffee with creamer (35) (=335)

L:  Spaghetti* with turkey meat* sauce*, broccoli and carrots

D:  Mushroom, bell pepper, onion* and spinach Omelet with toast

Thursday:

B:  Bagel Thin with cream cheese (170), yogurt (80), and grapes (55), plus coffee with creamer (35) (=340)

L: Ham and cheese sandwich (230), Pringles (100) and a plum (35ish) (=365)

D:  Raviolis* with spinach cream sauce* with broccoli and strawberry spinach salad

Friday:

B:  Toast with honey (150), yogurt (80), and orange slices (50ish), plus coffee with creamer (35) (=315)

L:  Leaving Open

D:  BBQ Ground Turkey meat* with tator tots*, and sautéed cabbage

*  In the freezer, cooked

**In the freezer, not cooked

Be sure to check out orgjunkie.com for more menu's! 

Meal Plan - March 6

Monday:

B:  PB & banana sandwich (235), homemade apple sauce (85), plus coffee with creamer (35) (=355)

L:  Cabbage & Turkey Soup*

D:  Garlic and Soy Sauce Chicken Thighs** with stir fried veggies (broccoli, carrots and cabbage)

Tuesday:

B:  Bagel Thin with cream cheese (170), yogurt (80), and grapes (55), plus coffee with creamer (35) (=340)

L:  Tuna salad with crackers and orange slices

D:  Mushroom, bell pepper, and onion* Omelet with toast

Wednesday:

B:  Boiled egg (70), toast with honey (150), and orange slices (50ish), plus coffee with creamer (35) (=305)

L:  Taco salad with Turkey meat* and black beans*

D:  Spaghetti* with turkey meat* sauce*, broccoli and carrots

Thursday:

B:  Breakfast Burrito* (180ish), yogurt (80), and a plum (35ish), plus coffee with creamer (35) (=330)

L:  Ham and cheese sandwich (230), Pringles (100) and a plum (35ish) (=365)

D:  Alfredo Mac* (310) with sautéed cabbage (35) and garlic toast (50)

Friday:

B:  Bagel Thin with ham and cheese (250) and orange slices (50ish), plus coffee with creamer (35) (=335)

L:  Leaving Open

D:  Salisbury steak* with mashed potatoes* and carrots

*  In the freezer, cooked

**In the freezer, not cooked

Be sure to check out OrgJunkie.com for other great menu plans!

Alfredo Mac

My regular mac and cheese recipe is an adaptation from the recipe found in a Better Homes and Garden Cookbooks.  For this recipe I took that basic idea and played around with it until I had the following.

Alfredo Mac

4 oz (1 cup) elbow noodles, cooked according to package directions

1/4 cup chopped onions

1/4 cup roughly chopped mushrooms

1 1/2 Tablespoons butter

1 1/2 Tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 1/2 cups milk

1 cup Italian cheese blend

2 Tablespoons bacon

2/3 cups sweet or English peas

Sauté the onions and mushrooms in the butter until tender.  Stir in the flour and minced garlic.  Stir in the milk and bring to a boil, cook until thickened, about 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and add the cheese then peas and bacon.  Stir in the elbow noodles.

It is ready to eat at this point.  Or you can pour it into a casserole dish and bake it for about 20-25 mins until it is bubbly.  If you are baking it you can top it with a little more cheese or even panko bread crumbs.

Additional Notes:

This made about four 3/4^th cups servings.  If you want bigger servings then you can always double it.

This recipe isn’t overly cheesy.  It does remind me more of an alfredo sauce than a cheesy sauce.  If you want a bigger cheese taste add 1 1/2 cups or 2 cups of cheese.  I kept it less because I was trying to cut down on calories.

I used the 1 1/2 tablespoon butter because that is what I had left of a stick.  You can up it to 2 tablespoons butter and flour with out any problem.

I used peas because that is what I had in the freezer that I wanted to use up.  You can change that to another veggie or add in an additional veggie.

Is The Bathroom Next?

I’m not even done with the dining room, and yet my mind is wondering on to the next room.  Of course I am stuck in the dining room until someone gets time to come do some electrical work for me.  And since that same someone has been also working on transforming a free chandelier for me I am not going to complain, much.  Okay so I’m not complaining out loud at least.  I wish I wasn’t waiting again, but I just keep telling myself it will happen.  It will happen.

The other evening when I got off of work I had a box sitting by my front door.  Don’t you just love coming home to a box to open?  Even when you know what is in the box it is a lot like opening a Christmas present.  Inside the box were two of the three items I order for the bathroom redo.  The above picture is a sneak peak at my new shower curtain.  I love it! 

I’m going with more of a girly girl look in there.  I guess since my bedroom is very bold with the red, I decided to go soft and feminine in the bathroom.  I’m also working on ideas to add in a little bling bling.  Because what girl doesn’t need a little bling in her bathroom?

I was originally going to paint the wall pink when I got the idea to go girly.  I’ve since changed my mind on that, mostly because I want to leave myself a way out, to be able to change up the bathroom in the future with out having to repaint it.  Right now the color options are a light shade of gray or maybe a cream.

With the new shower curtain I did buy the matching soap dish and tooth brush holder, but that was it.  While I liked some of the other accessories I decided they weren’t worth the cost.  I also didn’t buy a set of the matching towels, because I am tired of wasting money on something that just sits there and looks pretty. I’m trying to get away from everything being so matchy matchy, which will make it easier and cheaper when to decided to replace the shower curtain or change the bathroom up down the line. 

I feel like my shopping list of things to look out for keeps growing on me.  I still need something for the shelves in the yellow room, for the walls in the dining room and now for something to decorate the bathroom with.  I’m working on ideas for the red bedroom but I think I am going to try to repurpose a few things to try out there first.

I know in time each of the rooms will come together.  I’m just hoping that time comes sooner rather than later.

The Dining Room: The Chairs

The furniture that is going in my newly painted dining room comes with history.  It belonged to my grandparents for about 37 years, and now it is mine.  I know that I’m lucky to be able to keep it and keep a part of my grandparents, but at the same time I’m still very emotional about the reason it is now in my house.  My grandpa passed away in 1991, so over the years I've come to think about the furniture as my Grandma's.  Only now, do I remind myself that it was theirs together.  I know it was something they worked hard to save up the money to buy. 

My grandmother passed away in December and I’m still battling the feelings of how it should be in her house with her there, rather than my house.  I can’t change that, so what I did decide to do is give her furniture an elegant room to reside in.

In the blank slate post I had posted the picture of the gorgeous fabric that I had bought for the curtains, valance and to cover the chairs with.  Thank goodness for half off sales, because it wasn’t the cheapest fabric they had, but it was the one I kept going back too.  Sunday while my mom was sewing the curtains, with as much non experienced help as I could give her, she said that my grandma would be proud of the work I’ve done on the dining room.  That means alot.

Ah, but this post isn’t about the curtains, it is about the chairs.  Meet the dining room chairs.

Grandma had many grand kids and great grand kids to help dirty up the chairs over the years.  I figured the best thing to do would be to recover them.

As with many projects it isn’t until you get started that you realize that there is more work to be done than you had thought there was.  At some point over the last 37 years two of the boards that the seat cushions were made to were cracked.  Out best guess is that someone stood in the chairs or something.  I am so very fortunate that my daddy is handy and comes with tools.  He cut out and fixed up me some new wooden bottoms for those two chairs.

When we were removing the blue covers on these chairs, this is what we found under them.  

Isn’t that just the loveliest color?  We had some debate on it, momma calls it gold, but me, I think it is more of a yellow green color.  While the blue was removed, we did leave the original, umm color on there.  Maybe when someone else decides they don’t like the covering I have on there, they will also get a kick of the lovely color hiding underneath.

Now for the finished product, the lovely chair with it’s pretty brown, blue and gold striped material…

I love them!  I also think grandma would love them as well.

I can’t express how lucky I have to have parents that would give up their Sunday afternoon to help their home improvement challenged daughter recover seat cushions.

Now I’m off to talk to my brother about another projects I want to work on…

I'm linking this up over at Delightful Order.

I've also linked up at Thrifty Decor Chick's Before and After Party 

and Elements Interiors - Whassup Wednesdays.

A February De-Cluttering Recap…

The beginning of February was a busy De-Cluttering time for me.

Because I wanted to paint the dining room I first had to clean it out.  Basicly while doing the big floor switch out my dining room became storage for everything from both bedrooms, some kitchen stuff and a lot of odds and ends that had collected in various plastic containers that it was time for me to deal with. 

Next up I tackled the hall closet as well as the shelves in the bathroom.  While cleaning may not have been everyone’s first choice of spending a snow day I was excited about what I accomplished.  I did get rid of some finger nail polishes (some not even covering it) as well as lotions and body washes that I just never use. 

After being tired of having hard things falling out of the freezer on my feet, not to mention having to do the quick open, shove and close before anything else could fall out I decided to work on the freezer.  Even though I threw out everything out of date and freezer burnt I still have a freezer that is pretty full.  I used containers to help be able to find things much easier.  Oh how I wish  my freezer had just one more shelf in it.

Of course after the freezer was more manageable, I decided the fridge needed to match it.  I cleaned it out, including pulling the shelves/drawers out and washing them.  I also introduced some containers into the fridge, so far so good there.

The last de-cluttering I did this month was on four of my kitchen cabinets.  Two cabinets got switched around, and all of them went through some scrutiny on what I really needed in them.  I did stick some more things in a ‘to go’ box when I was done.

At this point I kind of wished I’d kept track of how many items left the house, even if it was just counting boxes.  But at the time, my goal was to just get things out of the house.  The ‘to go’ pile as very large though, and when it did leave the house, I could feel the difference. Which is the point of de-cluttering, right?  For doing all of that the first half of the month, I think I did rather well. 

I'm linking this up over at A Slob Comes Clean for her February Decluttering Update.  Hop on over there and link your own decluttering experinces or read others and maybe get motivated to do some during March. 

Meal Plan – Feb 28

I decided to treat myself again with some flowers this week. 

Meal Plan – Feb 28

Monday

B:  Bagel Thin with cream cheese (170), a cheese stick (80) and grapes (55), plus coffee with creamer (35) (=340)

L:  Tuna salad with crackers and orange slices

D:  Beef and Gravy*, with mashed potatoes and broccoli/cauliflower

Tuesday

B:  Boiled egg (70) Toast (90) with honey (60), grapes (55), plus coffee with creamer (35) (=310)

L:  Ham and cheese sandwich (230), pringles (100), and a plum (35) (=365)

D:  Omelet with toast.

Wednesday

B:  Peanut butter (90) and banana (100ish) sandwich (45), with homemade apple sauce (85), plus coffee with creamer (35) (=355).

L:  Cabbage & Turkey soup*

D:  Cheese stuffed shells** with sauce, sautéed cabbage and cucumber/tomato/avocado salad

Thursday

B:  Bagel Thin (110) with ham (60) and cheese (80) and orange slices (50), plus coffee with creamer (35) (=335).

L:  Bacon ranch chicken* salad

D:  Taco chicken breasts** with corn/tomato/avocado salad and carrots

Friday

B:  Breakfast burrito* (180ish) with yogurt (80), with plum (35ish), plus coffee with creamer (35) (=330).

L:  Leaving open for now.

D:  Turkey meatloaf* with mashed potatoes* and broccoli/cauliflower

*   In the freezer, cooked

** In the freezer, needs cooking

The numbers in ( ) are my calories counts.  Because of my calorie needs for the size I want to be at I try to keep my meals between 300-400 calories. 

I started with breakfast because those are the ones I can figure the easiest.  From this point forward my plan is to start a calorie tally as I am making things to put in the freezer.  It takes a little work, but in the end it is worth it for me.

Check out my tips on prepping veggies for healthy/single girl cooking!  If you are cooking for a family, still check it out, you might pick up a tip as well.

And don’t forget to check out OrgJunkie.com for other great meal plan ideas.