Meal Plan Monday

Week 5 W/E 11/6/11

Finally a new month and I can kick that stupid idea of no duplicates to the curb. It was a good personal challenge and I did try a lot of new recipes but I'm over it. Still going to try and keep it interesting but it's not the end of the world if I go back to my once a week curry.

As far as the no meat thing is concerned, we're going to keep it up. We're not going to be militant about it if we happen to get served meat product but we're not going to buy it to cook or order it when out. 


Monday: Sweet Potato enchiladas last day of the month,Halloween and something new. This may not happen because frankly I'm wiped from this weekend and I still need to go to the store.I'm using a combo of recipes. this one for the filling and this one for the sauce. The sauce I found out about from Mama. You should check her blog out, she's starting Meal Plan Mondays too.

Tuesday: Lavash wraps. They're easy, the hubby has been asking for them since we made them last and maybe I'll get a picture this time.


Wednesday: Lavash pizza. Because it's quick and I need to use up the rest of the lavash.


Thursday: This one I'm going to leave up in the air, I'm going to see Footloose with a friend and we haven't decided on a time yet.


Friday: Leftover night. I have a meeting at my church for Awanas. I get to learn all about it because I agreed to being the Commander-not entirely sure what I agreed to. I will find out what that entails Friday.


Saturday:Pasta, it's easy. Noticing a theme yet? The last couple of weeks have been busy and with the holidays quickly approaching life is getting busier and busier. I need easy to stay sane


Sunday:Tortilla Soup. It's going to be a long day at church with choir practice starting so to the crock pot I go!

Meal Plan Monday

Week 4 W/E 10/30/11

Week 3 went ok-ish. The cheesy corn loaf I was all excited about? totally disappointing. It was a frittata, I don't care what the cook book says. It tasted perfectly fine, but just way too much work for a frittata.The Black bean and Corn tortilla pie turned out scrumptious and the Oreo truffles were amazing. super easy and I would totally recommend the recipe. We also ended up eating meat at the couples retreat, it was a case of just needing to eat what we were served. I'm not beating myself up about it.I've just got to say it's getting more and more difficult with my personal challenge of trying not to do any repeats. I'm glad the month is almost over.

Monday: Quesadilla's with black beans

Tuesday: Veggie Pot Pie, I'll be making 2 of these. A friend of mine just had a baby and a bunch of us signed up to take meals over and tomorrow is my day. I may or may not buy some chicken to throw into theirs.

Wednesday: Yellow curry with chickpeas and veggies

Thursday: Pumpkin ravioli with brown butter sauce. I'm using this recipe for reference, she uses won ton wrappers for the ravioli and I thought it sounded easy enough. I'm not sure if I'll put sage in the sauce, the hubby isn't a huge fan and I really don't like buying fresh stuff I only have a single use for.

Friday: I'll be in Sacramento at Priscilla Shirer's Going Beyond conference with the ladies from my church. So the hubby gets to fend for himself.

Saturday: Burritos-I have no idea whats going in them, I'm grasping at straws. there's plenty other things I could make but I'm going for quick and easy here since I'll be gone most of the day. plus I'm going to have leftover tortillas from the quesadillas. 

Sunday:Lentil Stuffed Peppers

Lovely in Lavender

This lovely quilt was found at Goodwill for a pittance by my mother-in-law. It's a lavender whole cloth quilt that even has a sleeve. oh and can you see the scalloped edges? I don't know how anyone could get rid of it. Their loss, my gain. It's just the right size to cover my ottoman that has some bad wear spots.Here's a close up of the quilting, so pretty.

My MIL found this for me some months ago. She showed it to me a couple trips ago. I just now got it though because their cat Jerome aka romey decided it was the perfect napping quilt. He claimed it as his bed for quite some time. She had to wait until he was done with it.He has moved onto the clothes hamper, so I guess I can have it! We went to visit them last month and she let me take it home. Oh how happy it makes me, it's just so cozy. Makes me want to make a whole cloth quilt. if only my quilting skills were a bit better.

Octopus

Here's what I made for my friends son who just turned 2. The card is made of fabric I have no idea why I have, it's just soooo not something I would normally buy. It has kites all over it, and I made a quilt with applique kites on it so maybe I was originally wanting to incorporate into that? who know's? I liked it for the B-day card because it says make a wish on it, I very carefully fussy cut it so it would say it on the 2.

I had alot of fun doing the shirt. The dad loves Octopuses and the mom loves sea horses. I actually thought of this shirt right after I made this one for his first birthday last year and have been holding on to the template for the octopus this whole time. the sea horse fabric is leftover from a nursing cover I made the mom when she had him.

Meal Plan Monday

Week 3 W/E 10/23

Week 2 went well with the no meat and we haven't broken down and eaten out. The polenta casserole needs some tweaking but it was decent and I didn't end up using the same recipe for the zucchini sticks but they turned out all right. We did skip the black bean burgers again (finally making them tonight) and the tortilla pie didn't get made but that's being moved to tomorrow.

Monday: Tortilla and Black Bean Pie

Tuesday: Couscous salad with tomatoes, Persian cucumbers, and green onions

Wednesday(crock pot): Cheesy corn loaf. This is a recipe from a cookbook I've had and haven't used a whole lot called Saving Dinner the Vegetarian way: Healthy Menus, Recipes and Shopping lists to Keep everyone happy at the table. I've made a few recipes from here and have enjoyed them, I bought this because none of the recipes were crazy complicated, it's organized by season and, it has weekly meals plans and for each meal plan there's a shopping list. Basically it's laid out in a way my brain works.

Thursday: Pesto and Pepper sandwiches with spinach and mozzarella cheese with a side of Brown and wild rice with quinoa. This is a microwavable package that I picked up at Safeway to try, we'll see out it is.

Friday: We'll be at a couples retreat at our church and dinner will be served there so I wont have to cook. I'm just hoping it's vegetarian friendly

Saturday: Leftover night. I wont actually be home. I'll be at a ladies get together with Devi Titus, she's the author of the Home Experience and it's her and her husband that are coming to speak at the couples retreat. So my husband will be on his own for dinner. Everyone is bringing finger foods and I've decided to make Oreo Truffles, another fabulous recipe I found on Pinterest.

Sunday: Spinach and zucchini lasagna with garlic bread.

Progress

Making Progress on the baby quilt. I was originally going to add borders but I ended up on a 5X5 grid instead of 4X5 so I think borders will make it a little bigger then I want it. I'll see once I have it all pieced with the setting squares. I love my design wall. This is really the first time I'm using it to it's full potential. I pinned the blocks to it the other day and pulled it up and it worked like a charm. It makes me smile.

This is the last block I made and it's the best block of any type I've made in quite some time, if ever. See how pretty the points match up and everything came out the same size. It makes me happy that I'm actually making progress on my precision. It's been a long hard road for me, rotary cutting and I don't always see eye to eye.

That's about all for now. It's been a pretty busy weekend and I may be going to PIQF tomorrow after all so I better get to bed.

I do occasionally quilt

So I write on here aabout cooking, card making, and alot about other random stuff. One of the original reasons I started this blog was to document my quilting. So far that hasn't happened too much, mostly because I haven't been doing a whole lot of quilting this year.

That is in the process of changing. starting with this:

(sorry for the crappy cell phone pic, too lazy to get my actual camera)

This is the start of a baby quilt I'm making for my cousin. She's having a little girl next month. Hooray for me starting a baby quilt before the baby is born!

I'm doing this out of a Celebrate Spring! by Sandy Gervais charm pack I've had forever. I loved it so much I bought a few fat quarters from the line. I'm getting 9 pinwheels out of it. I'm kinda stuck not because that's not enough for either size or the pattern I wanted to do. i have 4 fat quarters but they're all light and don't have a high enough contrast with each other. I'm glad this week is busy with work and people coming to visit, because it gives me time to figure out what I want to do. I'm trying very hard to only use what I have and I know this is possible but I'm just trying to reconcile what was in my head with what is actually possible. What is especially frustrating is at one point I had 2 charm packs of this and I can only find one. I've recently organized all my fabric so I know it's not anywhere else. GGRR!! Oh well, it will work out.

Meal Plan Monday

Week 2 of Meal Plan Monday.

Week 1 went well, really well. A couple of things got morphed into each other and rearranged and I decided to do baked potatoes last night but for the most part we stuck to the plan. Best new thing we tried had to be the lavash wraps, I love micro greens. Oh and Avacado (already knew that one).

This week I'm trying a couple of new recipies and my BFF and her husband are coming for a couple of days so I need to make pretty food. Not that food normally isn't pretty. you know something special because company is coming? You know you do it too!

Monday: Red beans and Rice

Tuesday: Black bean burgers with homemade french fries and coleslaw

Wednesdays: Large mixed green salad with a mixture of beans and crunchy tortilla strips

Thursday: Polenta Casserole with Baked zucchini sticks. This is a new one. I saw the zucchini sticks on Pinterest a few weeks ago and have been meaning to try them.I may or may not make the dipping sauce The polenta casserole I found a recipe on allrecipes.com but I'm adapting it to use what I have.

Friday: Tortilla and black bean pie with spanish rice, chips and guacamole. This is very similar to the enchiladas I was originally planning on making but it looks prettier.

Saturday: Baked mac n cheese with mushrooms and spinach. I may be doubling this. or not doing it at all. My bff and her husband are leaving that night so I don't know if I'm cooking or we'll be going out for an early dinner. Also my mom and brother are stopping in San Francisco this day on their way back from Oregon.(this is hilarious to me because bff and husband are flying home to Portland that night, they're totally swapping.) So I may be having dinner for 6. Time will tell.

Sunday: Lentil loaf with mashed potatoes. I may change my mind on this one. I was having a hard time decidng for Sunday's dish.

Need ideas? here's some more Meal Plans

Kona Cottons

(I found this blog unpublished, yet complete. I wrote it on January 4th of this year.I have no idea why. Do you like quilting with solid colors? they seem to be more popular these days)

All over quilting blogs I see and read about Kona Cottons. I've seen Kona Cottons, all the pretty colors. At the time the quilt shop I was at had a ton of them and I was both inspired and overwhelmed by the array of colors.

There was just too many to choose from. Fast forward to now and I still don't quite know what I would do with them. I like patterns and solids seem so boring to me. However after perusing blog land I am inspired. I would love to try and do something with a grey or maybe a green.

The problem arrises in that despite the fact I live in one of the largest cities in the united states theres a huge shortage on quilt shops. Most fabric stores are geared towards fashion design students. Which I guess makes sense.

Britex probably has them,and is charging an arm and leg for them. There's quite a few nice quilt shops in Berkeley and Oakland but I don't get over there all too often.

However I found something close when I was at Beverly's the other day. Fabric from Gee's Bend by Windham. Now Beverly's only had about 6 bolts but they felt wonderful and they had just the right shade of grey.

It's been peculating in the back of my brai

n ever since and I think I know what I would want to use it with. Remember these fabrics?

Well they morphed into double this and despite having more I still don't know what I want to do with them, and yet I'm still totally in love.

So I want to get some of the grey and do what with? I keep going back to this pattern from Jaybird quilts.I think a nice grey would make all the other colors really stand out and unlike a lot of the other patterns I've been considering it wont force me to cut the large prints so small that you can't even tell what they once worse.

I'm excited, I love a plan. I just need to finish up some ufo's before I start something else.

*****Since writing this post at the beginning of the year I have gone through 3 more patterns that I like for the above fabric and decided again great and bought a nice olive green instead for a pattern my MIL had from a magazine. I have since changed my mind yet again and currently have settled on this pattern from Moda Bake Shop which goes back to my original grey idea, I just dont know!*****

Meal Plan Monday

The Hubby and I have a few goals for the new month. 2 of which are no meat for the month of October and really and truly sticking to our budget. So in an attempt to keep myself accountable I will be doing a weekly post of meal plan Monday. My weekly plan goes Monday-Sunday. I usually try to plan a meal for every night. That doesn't mean I cook every night (Some days get busy or I get home late and we'll either eat leftovers or pull something easy together.) If I plan for every night though I know what I have on hand and what I can make out of it.

Meal Plan W/E 10/9/11

Monday: Lavash wraps with hummus, tomatoes, green onions, avacado, and micro greens

Tuesday: Green curry and rice

Wednesday: Crock pot Tortilla Soup

Thursday: Lavash pizza with bbq sauce, green onions, and corn

Friday: Chickpea tacos with tomatoes,micro greens, cheese, and avacado. Served with spanish rice

Saturday*: Nachos with black bean dip and guacamole

Sunday: Pasta with homemade sourdough garlic bread

That is the full and complete list. If anyone reading this has any favorite vegetarian recipes that I must try this month I would love any and all suggestions.

*I'm babysitting that night so this will more than likely be a hubby fend for yourself night.

Great Week

It's been a good week, well actually a great passed 24 hours

• Best for my household-I was offered a nanny position yesterday. 19 month old girl. It's a funny story- I showed up for the interview Monday and the mom and I both realized that I had interviewed for that same exact position last year. I had a trial day yesterday and they offered me the position at the end of the day. One of the great things is the neighborhood they live in has zero parking so there is no expectation of me driving. So we finally can sell the car, which we've been talking about for like 2 or 3 months now.
• My BFF that lives in Portland found out yesterday that she's passed everything she needs to in order to be a certified nutrition and wellness consultant. Very proud of her for persuing her dreams and starting her own business.
• One of my BFF's that live here in San Francisco has been faithfully following the path God has for her and patiently waiting on God. I just found out she's in a relationship with a really great guy. oh new love how it makes my heart happy. (I'm a hopeless romantic, what can I say?)
• The last one coupled with a wedding I'm going to next week coupled with everything else makes me really really happy
• The phone I dropped in water a couple of weeks ago and thought was a gonner is in fact functioning which means I haven't lost all my pictures or my dads phone number.
• I'm on track to have a shop update by tomorrow night. I'm a little behind since I realized I need to make a Joann's run for thread but I should be good since all the cards are done other than the last step.

I'm sure I'm forgetting things but that's all I can think of for now. I've been putting off a bunch of stuff thinking I have all kinds of time since I'm not working but since I start bright and early Monday morning I need to now go get my act together and get my apartment clean and organized.(wow thats a really long run on sentence but I'm too lazy to fix it right now) I also have a birthday party and a going away party to go to this weekend so I need to get a move on.