Meal Plan Monday - 2/16 thru 2/23

 

In January, I discovered the yumminess that is Baked Oatmeal.  It's like a healthy dessert for breakfast.  It satisfies my desire for something warm as well as my perpetual craving for cereal with milk.  And the recipe is easily adaptable to stave off boredom.  I've made several versions already: Zucchini Bread, Gingerbread, Blueberries and Cream, Carrot Cake.  I couldn't find a good Carrot Cake version that included everything that I wanted, so I made on up;  I hope to post the recipe soon.

Here's what else we'll be eating this week...

DINNERS

Saturday -Valentine's Date Night In from Columbus Fish Market, Chef Boyardee for Kat *

Sunday - Mustardy Pork with Apples and Onions from Dinner a Love Story {new}

Monday - Chicken Enchiladas {new} and Salad **

Tuesday - Spaghetti and Salad

Wednesday - Orange Chicken, Rice and Asian Veggies

Thursday - Pigs-in-a-Blanket ***

Friday - BBQ Chicken Tortilla Pizzas

Saturday - Cajun-spiced Tilapia, Jambalya Rice, Zucchini

LUNCH
??? - Buffalo Chicken from the deli for NerdDad, Leftovers for me

BREAKFAST

Carrot and Zucchini Bread Baked Oatmeal

SWEET

??? - Whoopie Pies from Food Network {new}

* NerdDad and I decided to do a Date Night In for Valentine's Day, since finding a sitter we trust with our kids is a bit challenging right now.  Kat had canned pasta (while I try to avoid these, I figure a splurge every now and then is fine).  And we all shared some corn chips and guacamole (from Trader Joe's - best guac!), as sort of an appetizer since Date Night didn't start until after bedtime.

** This made the last menu, but we were busy and it got put off until this week.

*** Mom has to work late, so this is an easy dinner for NerdDad and Kat. 

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This post is linked at OrgJunkie.com's Menu Plan Monday.

Striving for Balance

When I returned from maternity leave, I worked part-time for one month.  A combination of days off and work from home days made the transition back to work a bit easier, more gradual.  Working part-time also gave me a glimpse into the possibility that I could manage most of my job and get to spend more time with my kids! So I approached my boss about working four day a week on a permanent basis.  To my surprise, the change took a lot less convincing than I thought it would. 

So now I am working my normal 8:30am-5:30pm schedule on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday (and bringing home 80% of my previous salary).  And I'm spending Wednesdays with my kids! 

Today is my first Wednesday at home.  Only time will tell how the shift at work will go, and to be honest, the change has me anxious and feeling a bit more stressed than usual.  But I know for sure that I am looking forward to spending more time with Buddy and Kat.  I am excited to get to do a few of the activities that I've enviously heard stay-at-home moms talking about - story time at the library, mid-week trips to the zoo, art projects that take more time than I had on busy weekends. 

More on this change soon, but for now, I'm going to go enjoy it!

Shopping Success

I have a big fancy work party next weekend and need a new dress.  Kat needs new shoes.  So I decided to be daring and conquer both tasks with a single mall trip.

Sure - this might not sound daring to you... but unlike many women, shopping is not one of my hobbies.  I  try to avoid the mall if at all possible.  And usually, finding a dress is about as challenging as establishing a colony on the moon.  For this occasion, my ideal dress allows me to wear a full-support bra (thank you breastfeeding), isn't too clingy (giant mommy pooch), is modest enough to wear around colleagues but still flattering, and maybe a color other than black.  And if that wasn't enough, since I was going to get Kat new shoes, she would have to come with me.

I prepared for this adventure by planning a crock-pot dinner (Chicken Curry) and throwing it all together to start cooking at lunch time.  Since dinner was hands-off, I wouldn't have to worry about rushing home.  And I decided that leaving just after her nap would give me optimal Kat cooperativeness.  During naptime, I pumped so that NerdDad would have milk to feed Buddy while I was gone.  And just before we left, I snuck a pack of fruit snacks into my purse.

The store where we got Kat's last pair of shoes no longer carries her size (what's up with that?!).  She has wide feet, so the pickings were pretty slim already.  Since find a dress had a more concrete deadline, we moved on to that.  And somehow we made it past the kid play area with minimal whining.  Score!

When we get into the first department store, Kat announced that she had had enough of the stroller and wanted to "walk myself".  So we played "Follow Mommy", which surprisingly worked perfectly! She very obediently followed me around while I browsed each rack and picked out four dresses to try on.

And now here is the most amazing part of this story...  The first wasn't bad, but a little too casual for this party.  And the second was AMAZING!  In fact, it was so amazing, that I didn't even both trying on the other two dresses! The dress met all of my criteria AND it was only $60!  Thank you shopping gods!  Check back after this weekend; I'll post pics.

P.S. The rest of the trip was a success too: Kat got new shoes and sunglasses, Buddy was napping when we got home, and dinner was ready!

Meal Plan Monday - 1/26 thru 2/1

I have been meal planning in one form or another for quite a few years.  I’ve learned that when I don’t plan, I aimlessly wander the grocery store deciding what to buy, and we order-in or pick-up a lot more food because “We don’t have anything for dinner”.   But I already feel like I don’t have enough time, and I don’t want to waste time I don’t have at the grocery store!  And most of time, I prefer to my spend money on things other than mediocre restaurant carry-out. 

Basically, meal planning saves time and money!  What more could you ask for?

I hope to go further into how I do meal planning in future posts, but for now, I’ll just share what we’ll be eating this week.

DINNERS

Saturday - Celebrating NerdDad’s promotion with a carry-out steak dinner**

Sunday - Chicken Curry {adapted for crock-pot} and Rice

Monday - {Frozen} Fish sandwiches, Fries, and Veggie

Tuesday - Spaghetti and Salad

Wednesday - Chicken Enchiladas {new} and Salad

Thursday - Leftovers

Friday - Pizza Sandwiches

Saturday - Fancy work party, just simple dinner for Kat & Grandma

LUNCH

Italian Sausage Tortellini Soup {new}

BREAKFAST

Spinach & Bacon Egg Burritos

SWEET

Oatmeal M&M Cookies {new}

 ** Despite my above-mentioned opinion on carry-out, steak house carry-out is an exception and is awesome!  1. We didn’t have to spend a meal keeping our two munchkins under control at a white-tablecloth restaurant.  And 2. We didn’t have to pay exorbitant amounts of money for a babysitter!  Instead we got to relax in our own living room, eat delicious steak (I still haven't mastered steak), and celebrate!

What are you eating this week?
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The post is linked at OrgJunkie.com's Menu Plan Monday.

I'm baa-aack!

After a month-long hiatus, I'm back! It turns out that working a full-time job and being present (mentally and physically) for all the mommy/wifey stuff doesn't leave a whole lotta time to write a blog.  Who would've guessed!?!

Actually, I did guess.  Especially not enough time for the type of blog that I thought I was trying to write.  You know the kind - the ones with all the pretty pictures of food and crafts.  The kind that get pinned on Pinterest.  The ones with step-by-step photos and 14 pictures of the same cookie. Now, don't get me wrong!  I love reading that kind of blog.  I frequently use them for inspiration and ideas.  But, this is not ever going to be that kind of blog...

For starters, I don't have that kind of time.  If I spent as much time as needed taking pictures of cookies and posting about baking cookies, then I probably wouldn't have time to ACTUALLY bake the cookies.

And after reading this totally down-to-earth post from Okay BA! and thinking about it for about a week, I realized that a pretty blog is actually the opposite of what I want my blog to be.  (And the great thing about having a blog is I get to decide what I want my blog to be!)  I want to share real life - balancing two kids and a husband and a job and all the fun stuff!  And for me, real life doesn't include DSLR photos of my latest creation or the patience to explain every step of a recipe to folks in internetland.  For me, real life includes photos taken on my iPhone and a messy house in the background.  Real life means letting Kat help me cook and not having the time or energy to actually measure ingredients.   Real life is mostly spent living, and documenting real life is secondary.

And realizing all this removes a lot of pressure.  My goal isn't to gain hundreds of readers (but that would still be awesome).  I just want to share what I'm doing.  So expect more posts - honest, real life, messy posts.

Winter Hat for Kat, Part 3

Kat's winter hat has been stalled for the past several weeks.  I was able to extend the hat successfully.  But once I figured that out, the hat has sat on the end table neglected.  Which is just plain sad, 'cause the only thing I had left to do was weave in the ends.

I researched quite a bit to figure out how to extend the hat.  I read lots of suggestions about ripping out the bottom row(s) of stitches (like this), but I wasn't a big fan of this method.  First of all, it looked really tedious (and I'm lazy).  Also, Kat's hat was knit from the bottom up, with ribbing at the bottom, and most sites that I read cautioned that adding on to ribbing would result in a half-stitch jump between old and new stitches.   Finally, and probably most importantly, the thought of cutting into the work and having the whole thing unravel scares me!

Instead, I chose to use a contrasting color and basically sew a cast-on row to the bottom of the hat in the new color.  I threaded a yarn needle with the new color (gray).  I put the needle between the stitches on the original cast on row, looped around my knitting needle, and back through the hat in between the next stitch.  The biggest trick was just making sure to cast-on the same number of stitches that I had in the original cast-on row.  Once I had a new cast-on row, I continued the same rib pattern top-down.  And because I looped my new cast-on stitches between the old stitches, I didn't really notice any jumping, mostly just that the ribbing isn't exactly smooth (but I expected that).

So, what do you think?  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and I think Kat is too!  (What a ham, eh?!)

This project is listed on my Ravelry profile.

Hi Ho Hi Ho! It's off to work I go!

Please excuse my absence as I have been settling back into my routine at work and trying to figure out my new life as working mom of TWO!  And for added fun, this past week included: preparing for Christmas, an overnight visit of one of NerdDad's friends, one kid with pink eye, and both kids with ear infections...  And you have one very crazy week!  

Now that I'm back at work, my mother-in-law (MIL) watches Buddy and Kat twice a week.  (And at the end of the month, Buddy will join Kat at daycare for the other three days.)  Unfortunately, with Buddy's ear infection, he has been a lot fussier than usual (the sign that indicated an ear infection in the first place) and hasn't been napping well.  I know that it's because his ear hurts, and I had lots of ear infections as a kid, so I understand his pain.  But his fussiness really tests my patience.  Fortunately, I am able to hand him off to NerdDad when I've had enough, but my poor MIL has been struggling while watching both kids on her own.  Hopefully, the antibiotics will do their thing, and he'll be back to his old self again soon.

So far, the work-family balance hasn't been too hard, but I am also working from home half the week, at least until the end of December.  So the back-to-work adjustment is spread out over the month.  On one hand, adjusting to this new routine has been fairly easy, so spreading out the adjustment period has been nice.  But on the other hand, I know that another new routine is just around the corner, and I almost just wish I could get it all over with at once.  For now though, I'm trying to enjoy my workdays at home with my Buddy.

Yesterday, we started off the weekend with a little mid-morning Christmas shopping.  NerdDad and I each took one kid and off we went.  Thankfully the crowds weren't too heavy yet (probably because of the non-stop rain).  Between just a couple of shopping trips and a decent amount of online shopping, we have made a decent dent in our Christmas lists already.  Considering our usual procrastination, we're feeling pretty proud of ourselves!

After the busy week, I'm spending today getting into the Christmas spirit and recharging for the week ahead.  I spent the morning sipping peppermint mocha coffee and listening to Christmas music while making cookies with Kat.  It's been sooo nice!  A big thank you to NerdDad for holding Buddy all morning so that I could bake.  :)  He'll be rewarded with lots of cookies!