November Meal Plan

Here's the meal plan I had for November.  Did it go totally as planned? No, because things always tend to come up, or people get sick and aren't hungry, or I get sick and am too tired.

Nonetheless, I did follow the meal plan quite well, and am looking forward to what December brings.  I was able to make my meal planning calendar for December in less than 1 hour, and I did my grocery list today.  Now I just need to cross off the items that I already have, and I'm ready for my weekly shopping trip on Saturday!

November 2017 Meal Plan


Meals (with links to recipes if available)

Steaks with sweet potato parmesan fries & pasta salad

• My husband grilled steaks because that's not my thing.  I made the fries and the pasta salad.  These fries are now a go to because Sami loves them!
• I didn't make the fries totally as suggested, I just used olive oil, coarse kosher salt, coarse black pepper and grated parm (Kraft).
• The pasta salad was just a Betty Crocker "Suddenly Salad", the classic one.

Spicy chicken sweet potato meal prep magic

• We loved this.  It's been going on my meal calendar every 3 weeks and it's easy to make so if I'm in a pickle, it's an easy go-to.

Crockpot bowtie casserole

• I had frozen some leftovers.

Greek Tacos

• My husband isn't crazy about lamb, and it's usually more expensive.  This time I made them with ground beef.  I've also made them with chicken.
• I don't put mint in the Tzaziki.  I add pepper and oregano.
• The relish btw, is really good.  It's great on sandwiches too.

Ravioli

• I usually by the store brand beef raviolis and I make them with Parma Rosa sauce (Knorr packet)

Parm & herb chicken tenders

• FYI the prep did not take 15 minutes.  Maybe I had more chicken then suggested, but yeah it took like an hour.
• I was not fond of the pasta sauce, but I didn't use crushed tomatoes.  I don't like tomato chunks, so I used diced tomatoes and tomato sauce.  Wasn't my favorite.  Next time I make these, I might just make them to go with a side of green beans or something.
• Sami loved these.

Slow Cooker beef & potato stew

• This was also really good.  My husband was a gem and helped me cut up the beef chuck.  I got everything else ready and browned the meat so that he could then dump everything in the next morning.
• Tip: I peeled and cut up the potatoes and put them in a glass tupperware and covered them in water.  This prevented them from browning.
• I under-seasoned, so don't be shy with your seasonings.

Pasta Primavera

• Neither my husband or myself were a fan of this meal.  This was my attempt to be healthy... go figure.  I really thought I would like it because I love peppers, but yeah... just wasn't for us.

Upside-Down Shepherd's Pie

• We ended up having a commitment the night I had this planned and never got around to making it... but I've mentioned this recipe in one of my posts and it's really delicious and I find it less time consuming than making a regular shepherd's pie.
• In this recipe, I make my own mashed potatoes (trick - add whipped cream cheese to them)

Garlic lime chicken & quinoa

• I wasn't overly fond of the marinade, but the quinoa was really good.

Pizza

• We always have pizza on the 19th.  It gives us time to think about Preston and remember him. While pregnant with Preston, if I ate pizza, he had a party in my tummy.  Nothing else made him do that.  Since it was his birthday, my husband ordered pizza for the firehouse in our neighborhood, and got pizza for us from the same place (Anthony's Pizza & Pasta).

Chipotle Chicken Nacho Casserole

• Is it obvious yet that I like Rachael Ray's recipes?  I've made several of her dishes and they are usually really good.  I watched her show a lot while on maternity leave and she made it look so easy.
• We hadn't had beef in a while so I opted to use ground beef instead of chicken.
• Tip: if you want leftovers, keep the meat in a Tupperware and cook with the tortillas the night of.  Nachos don't reheat well

Penne alla vodka

• I wanted to make this a couple days before Thanksgiving, but I fell ill, and my husband and child were already under the weather.  We didn't eat much and had leftovers.
• I did however make it this week.  It was surprisingly quick to make.
• I didn't have any vodka so I used rum (my house should always have rum).  It was really good.  I had some for lunch the next 2 days.
• I also made it with mini penne and Sami actually had a bit (after we bribed her with ice cream).

Meat Pies

• I haven't made these yet (we had plenty of Thanksgiving leftovers).
• I make my own full size meat pie - I'll have to put up the recipe at some point, I've made it my own.  That being said, I'd love to be able to make mini pies that aren't as time consuming which is why this recipe got my interest.

Taco bowls

• Haven't made these, and not sure what I did with the recipe.  Because there were a couple things I didn't make last week, I decided not to make these and try to make one of the other recipes instead... and then we had a craving for burgers, so yeah...

Mac & cheese

• I have my own recipe which I will have to put up at some point.

Sloppy Joe stuffed peppers

• I probably won't be making these Friday, because I was going to try to make the meat pies, but now I remembered that we are going out Friday, so... 
• I have made them before and they are delicious.  Great alternative to regular Sloppy Joes on buns.

I'd love to hear your feedback on these if you end up trying them.  The nice thing this meal planning is doing is that if I see my family loves a meal, I make sure I do it again in 3 weeks or so.  If they liked it, maybe I wait 4-5 weeks.  If they didn't like it, then I probably won't make it again or I might try again in several months (especially if I liked it!).

I'm a terrible housekeeper

There's no way to say this otherwise - I'm a terrible housekeeper.  I don't like to clean, I never took the time to learn how to clean properly and <gasp> I don't do it enough.

I’ll even dare to say I have messy tendencies.  Most of it stems from laziness, which I dread admitting, but it’s time for a change, and making this admission to family members, friends and strangers should keep me accountable from being messy/lazy right?

It’s a paradox...  I love being organized!  I love organization, and color coding, and bins to help keep things tidy and all that type of stuff… but then I get lazy and that leads to messy.

I miss the days where we could afford housekeepers to stop by every two weeks.  It was glorious.  Gone are those days unless we can find an affordable one; or better yet, I need to figure out this housekeeping thing.  Save me headaches, and money!

I have it pretty good.  Since my husband works from home, he takes care of the laundry, does the vacuuming and yard work.  He pitches in anywhere else he can.  I cook and clean the kitchen, clean the bathrooms and try to keep the rest of the house tidy.  Try… I fail a lot.

I’m tired of failing, and I want to teach my daughter how to keep a clean house, and I don’t want her to be living in a mess.  Granted I’ve seen a lot worse, and it’s been a huge eye opener.  I never want my house to get *that* bad.

So slowly, I’ve been trying to make intentional efforts to keep a cleaner house.  Because really, if I clean my stove the same night a mess is made, it’s a lot easier to clean than if I wait until the weekend.  It’s also not as time consuming because the spill is fresh.

I have made improvements since Samantha’s birth, and had similar habits when Preston was around.  I do the dishes every night.  Now most of the dishes go in the dishwasher, but I’ve never put any of Preston’s or Samantha’s things in the dishwasher.  For the first year, I probably went overboard and would boil Sami’s bottles clean, over and over again.  I did it so much the bottles started to turn yellow… at which point I realized I was going overboard.  In my mind, I wanted to be overly cautious.  We had been with Preston, but I didn’t boil his stuff every night and part of me wondered if that contributed to him passing away… and I know that’s crazy talk, but the mind of a bereaved parent will do that.  You tend to blame yourself when there’s nothing else to blame.

I wash Sami’s bottles, cups, plates, etc. every night by hand.  I have a pretty good system.  I wash them using a bottle brush and for the small components, a straw/nipple brush.  I used to rinse and place everything to dry and once, but now.. once it’s washed, not rinsed, I place the item in a little tub – you know the ones you get in hospital rooms?  Works great.  Once I’ve washed everything, I then rinse out the sink and start filling it with hot water and dump the contents of the tub in the sink to rinse everything.  As the water runs, I rinse out the cups/bottles and hang them to dry on a bottle rack.  Then, I shut the water and rinse the rest in the water that is in the sink.  And voila! What used to take me an hour and a half, takes me no more than 20 minutes.  If I have anything that doesn’t go in the dishwasher (thermal cups… I’ve put them in the dishwasher and ruined so many), I wash them with Sami’s things.

I then run my dishwasher.  I run it just about every night even if it isn’t completely full, and I empty it before I do the dishes the following day.  This has kept my sink from overfilling and keeps my kitchen from looking messy.

This year, we hosted Thanksgiving, with cooking assistance from my mother-in-law.  My in-laws were so wonderful and generous.  Before Thanksgiving, they hired housekeepers and I’ve decided that this is my clean slate.  I’ve said it before, after housekeepers have come by, but I hope I can make it a reality this time. 

I will make conscious efforts to keep my house clean. 

It’s been a week since they’ve been by, and I’ve not left any clothes on the floor of the master bedroom <highfive>. This is huge for me.  Don’t ask why it’s so difficult to place things in the laundry basket.  I don’t know either.. sheer laziness!

I’ve kept the stovetop clean.  I’ve wiped down the kitchen counters daily.  I cleaned the bathrooms over the weekend even though they had been cleaned only for a few days.

Hopefully I can keep it up… because it’s not something that comes naturally to me.  My next goal is to figure out how to efficiently dust without it taking 4 hours…

My most recent success – Meal Planning

If you are “in charge” of cooking at home, this post might just be what you are looking for.  For years, I have fought the “what should I make for dinner” battle.  I’ve been grocery shopping with ideas for the week in mind, no list, but once I get to cooking, my menu plan (that's just in my head) doesn’t pan out.  Either I forgot ingredients,  I didn’t felt like making “that” after all, or I’m too tired to make “this”.

Then add a picky toddler into the mix, and it’s frustration city!! 

Time, is it just me, or is there nothing such as free time when you have a young child (and maybe older child, I don’t know – not there yet)?

Earlier this year, summer time frame, I had started trying to meal plan.  I failed pretty miserably, but liked one thing I had found while browsing Pinterest.  Forgive me, I don’t recall the source, but it seems like a pretty standard thing in meal planning.  Select categories for certain nights (ex. beef, chicken, pasta, etc.).  And so, I selected 6 different categories:

·         Saturday - Chicken night

·         Sunday - Slow cooker night

·         Monday - Ethnic food night(Greek, Mexican, Asian, etc.)

·         Tuesday – Pasta night

·         Wednesday – Leftovers

·         Thursday – Leftovers

·         Friday - Beef night

I created a little calendar, and had each of the categories as a heading.  I added rows for breakfast, lunch & dinner.  I then made a list of some meals that I knew my family enjoyed, and plugged them in to the calendar and tried it for a week.  Let me say that this failed.  

One, I never meal planned more than dinner.  Two, my list didn’t have any order to it, so I wasn’t super motivated to look through it.  I did it for just a week and felt completely overwhelmed when trying to plan the following week.

Well about a two months ago, I took a page out of my husband’s book and started listening to podcasts on my way home from work (yay Bluetooth).  I thought, maximize your “free’ time,  instead of listening to celebrity trash on the radio… or better yet, the same songs over and over again, because that's just what's on.

I searched for meal planning podcasts.  I thought that this might give me some good ideas, and help me pass the time efficiently.  I listened to probably 10 different podcasts and some of them were absolutely useless to me.  But I did get some ideas from a couple of them, most notably this one: https://frugalfamilyhome.com/podcast/28

This podcasts gives 6 steps on how to meal plan for 1 whole month in 1 hour.  I strongly recommend it, even if I don’t follow the steps to a t.

Here’s what I’ve done so far and I’ve been successful for over a month now and have the rest of this month planned.  I even made it work, when one week I forgot my meal plan at work.  I was so frustrated.

I kept my concept of the 6 different categories I mentioned earlier which I hope you noticed includes leftovers which I actually have planned for 2 days a week.  I even have some weeks where I do 3 nights of leftovers depending on how much leftovers I think there may be or if I choose not to freeze the extras.

Then, I took a whole stack of the recipes I’d torn out of magazines I purchased over the years that were just cluttering up my baker’s rack (two birds, one stone - got rid of a lot of clutter) and I divided them up into categories: chicken, beef, slow cooker, etc.  See where I’m going with this?  I even made a few extra categories for sides, soups & salads, and desserts.  I figure, I might add salads to a night come summertime which goes with one of Shelly’s (from Frugal Family Home blog/podcast), additional tips on how to vary your menu.

My next step, is to pick one recipe from each category and plug them into my calendar (which I will try to link…) and then I keep the recipes clipped together, to the calendar - easy to find.

I then make a grocery list using those recipes.  I don’t know that all grocery stores have apps, or websites where you can make a list online, but mine does (King Soopers) and it’s made it so easy and much quicker.

From there, I look in my pantry & freezer, like suggested by Shelly, and I check off the items I already have, like say chicken broth.  That way, I’m not adding to my already overflowing pantry and I’m saving money.   

I started doing just 1 week at a time, because I was still organizing my recipes into categories, but I wanted to get going.  The first three weeks I did on a weekly basis, and then I created a meal plan for all of November minus the first 3 days.

I’ll share my meal plans, and recipes if the interest is there.  Most of these recipes aren’t my own, so hopefully I can figure out the source (it’s gotta be on those ripped magazine pages right?) J

In summary:

·         Create categories that work for your family (note I don’t like fish – no fish night).

·         Categorize your recipes (include your family favorites if you have some).

·         Select one recipe per category and plug into your calendar.

·         Keep your recipes together with your calendar.

·         Create your grocery list.

·         Cross off items you already have in the pantry/freezer

·         Don’t get discouraged.  It may take some time to get going, and won't take 1 hour the first time.  I still takes me more than an hour... I've only been doing this a couple months.

I was so frustrated on week 2 when I forgot my meal plan at work (I've been doing my meal planning during my lunch breaks).  Later that night, I thought to myself, well what can I do instead, since all my recipes are at work. 

·         I can make one of the dishes I made this week, because my husband really liked it and Sami liked certain components of it.

·         I can make mac & cheese from scratch because I know how to do that by heart.

·         I can use a freezer meal I have (leftovers from a slow cooker recipe).

·         We’re having friends over for steak, so I would have had to swap out my beef recipe anyway.

Another thing I learned, is not to be too tied down to say Saturday being chicken night.  I’d planned for a certain chicken dish for Saturday and then remembered we had plans to go out.  So I made Sunday be chicken night, and prepped the slow cooker meal that same night so that my husband could dump everything in on Monday morning.  Another tip I didn't mention that I heard in a blog, again I apologize, I don't remember the source - plan around your week... if your kids have soccer on Tuesday, don't plan a meal that takes 1 hour to prep. 

I hope these tips are helpful, and I look forward to sharing if my meal planning continues to work.  Perhaps it will, perhaps it won't.  Time will tell...

I thought I had it made

When we started introducing soft foods to Sami, she would gobble it all up.  She loved to eat, it was awesome!  She didn't make any weird faces, although you could tell she had her favorites in sweet potatoes and avocado.  I made all her purees myself (thank you Baby Bullet!) and enjoyed seeing my little girl get good nutrition and I liked being in control of what was going into her body.  I felt like a great mom.

We then moved on to foods like pasta, eggs and ground beef.  One thing I would make is Upside Down Shepherd's Pie, and she loved it!  Even the turnip.  “More, more, more!”  She also loved tomato pasta, and mac & cheese.

I thought I was golden.  I thought I had it made.  Boy was I wrong...

While she has been, and continues to be, good about eating breakfast (see breakfast rotation at the bottom of the post), at around 15 months, she would eat Shepherd's Pie no more.  She would turn her head and say "No" to veggies, and other things she'd previously loved like mac & cheese.  She even stopped eating blueberries which she used to eat by the fistful!  I have pictures to prove it…

I would try, and try and try, to no avail.  For months, all she ate were certain fruits, tomato pasta, cheese, yogurt (which remains her favorite food) and if I was lucky, sometimes a couple bites of a sandwich.  I felt like a complete failure.

I read a lot of articles, talked to other moms, and tried to get some tips.

• You have to keep trying.  Like really try - it can take up to 50-100 exposures for a child to even pick up a food in their hand let alone taste it.
• Try giving them variety in one sitting, including things they like and things they don't.  Law of averages, they'll try something new.
• Try something with a sauce that they can dip their food in.
• Think of the nutrition they are getting in chunks of 3-4 days instead of "did my child have veggies today?".  If she had some yesterday, it's not a big deal if she doesn't have some today or tomorrow.
• Food trays with 10-20 options.
• A food plate with different colors.
• Cookie cutters to make food more fun.

I tried most of these.  I feel like I definitely could have attempted some strategies more thoroughly - like the food trays and the variety in one sitting – I blame my time management for not doing a better job with this.  There are just not enough hours in a day!

It's certainly a work in progress.  I struggle with giving her veggies every night because it's not in my nature to cook with them a lot.  For the longest time, I couldn't eat them without feeling sick, and my husband doesn't care for veggies much.  I know, that is not a great excuse, and it’s a terrible example for Sami, but our habits are what drives us.

This whole meal planning thing, is helping me bring more vegetables into our diet, and subsequently Sami's.  I'm trying so very hard to make sure she eats what we eat.  This way she can see that we like it, and doesn’t think we’re trying to poison her, which the look on her face sometimes… that’s seriously what I think is crossing her mind.  Plus, I don’t want to cook 2 meals every night.  I don’t know about you, but this mama ain’t got time for that!

What strategies work right now?

Ever since I introduced BBQ sauce (the Kraft sweet honey one is her fav), Sami loves chicken.  Go figure.... she'll eat it every night, and often does because she doesn't get protein from anywhere else aside from cheese and yogurt and we’re having to cut back on cheese.  I’d say TMI, but who am I kidding, this is a mom’s blog – she has trouble pooping sometimes, so we need to cut back on things that tend to back you up, especially considering her low veggie intake.

Whenever I feel like she hasn't had a lot of veggies, or most of the time, any veggies, I give her a pouch, you know, those veggie/fruit pouches that you can get in the baby aisle? She usually will eat those.  I just don't want to give those to her every night because then she'll always know there's a fallback.

She won't touch beef, even ground beef.  Even in a quesadillas which again she used to eat.  So, I keep trying.  One day…

I can "sometimes" hide veggies behind the chicken, slathered in BBQ sauce.  But my daughter is no fool:

I made these awesome Spicy Chicken and Sweet Potato bowls.  I tried to give her a few bites, but of course "No" was her answer.  I made some sweet potato parm fries at the same time I baked the sweet potatoes for the bowls, and also cooked some extra chicken.  She actually tried the fries…with dip of course.  This is after months of trying to get her to eat sweet potatoes which she used to love.  Win for mama – sweet potatoes are back in the mix!  The following week, I cooked more chicken for her and this time, made peas & carrots as a side.  Not to my surprise, she wouldn't touch them.  She even batted them away.  However, I was able to sneak a few behind the chicken.  She was probably preoccupied because she usually notices what's on the fork, even if I cleverly try to hide it.  Last week, I did the same; chicken with peas & carrots.  She bobbed her head to the left.  Then to the right.  She had a puzzled look on her face.  She then tilted her head to get a better vantage point under the fork... "What is that?" she exclaimed with a "WTF" look on her face.  O..M..G..  It was the cutest thing, and we just couldn't stop laughing (I know, not making my case for getting her to eat peas).  Needless to say, I had to remove the pea to get her to eat the chicken.

One of my major struggles right now is finding lunch ideas for her.  She’s not getting much variety, and I don’t want to give her chicken for lunch because then she'll get sick of it…  Hopefully I can get her to enjoy some of our dinners and she’ll then be able to have leftovers for lunch.

I’ll be working on December’s meal plan next week, and I’ll try to get my November meal plan up in the event you are interested in it, or some recipes anyway.  As this blog is still getting going, I’d love to hear some feedback: would you like copies of my meal plans, recipes, what topics would you be interested in reading about.  I have ideas for sure, but I also want to make this enjoyable, and if someone out there has frustrations that I share, I’d so love to make you feel not alone in all this.  One of my next posts is likely to be about how horrible I am at housekeeping, because really, I am and it’s infuriating to me.


Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the U.S.  To all my U.S. friends, family and readers, I send you my best wishes for this holiday.  May it be filled with lots of family time, memories that you will cherish and of course delicious food.

Best wishes,
~Cat


Sami’s breakfast rotation:

• Eggs & applesauce (don't ask, she likes the combo)
• Yogurt (aka goo) & banana (though as of 3 months ago, she won't eat banana pieces)
• Smoothie (banana, blueberries, yogurt, apple juice, spinach)
• Oatmeal with cut up fruit
• Occasionally - waffles or pancakes

I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom

For a little history, please visit my Introduction page.

Growing up, I always figured I would be a stay-at-home mom, or would want to be a stay-at-home mom.  That’s what my mom was, and she was good at it, so it was only natural for me to think that’s what I wanted.

That notion went out the window when I moved from Canada to the US.  Once I had moved to the States, I had to apply to be able to work; I forget now if it was the application for the green card, or something to allow me to work until I got a green card.  Regardless, I was home for 6 months, which I knew going into this.  I thought, this is great! Ok, great aside from the 1-income...  I’d never had more than a week (maybe 2) off since I turned 16.  I thought I would get so much accomplished...

How wrong was I?  I was extremely bored, felt useless and had no real motivation.  I think some of it had to do with being in a totally new environment, not knowing where anything was, not knowing anyone, and just in general being overwhelmed by all these changes.  I didn’t even really want to go driving around because the new speed limits (MPH instead of KMH) intimidated me.  Our apartment was a mess, because I kept thinking, I can do it tomorrow.  I hardly cooked, which I still blame on the lack of counter space, but I could be delusional.  I feel for my poor husband… I must not have been fun to live with and he was probably thinking, who is this person I just married?!

Things improved significantly when I started working.  I had motivation and purpose in my life again, and was getting out of whatever funk I was in.  This gave me new appreciation for stay-at-home moms: I don’t know how you do it.  And it also helped me figure out that I don’t think I could be a stay-at-home mom.  I need mental stimulation (not that you don't if you are a SAHM) and 9 years later, I can say that my career is really meaningful to me.  I like being able to contribute to the family, and I have really good medical benefits, which with my health issues is really important for us.

I have a love-hate relationship with daycare which I believe is understandable considering my son was at an in-home daycare when he passed away.  Sami has been going to daycare since she was 11ish weeks old, but not an in-home daycare, because I couldn’t have done it without losing my mind.  We were very deliberate in choosing our daycare and they knew/know our son’s history and have done a beautiful job taking care and watching over her.  It is still extremely hard for me but my husband makes it easier by doing the drop off.  I love her daycare because they do teach her so much, and they do activities which I would have never thought of doing with her (like art when she was as young as 4-5 months).  She is so smart, and while I’d like to think she gets it all from me and my husband... :) I know I have to attribute at least some of it to daycare.  How they keep her occupied all day is beyond me.  The child will not sit still (unless certain things are on TV... don't judge me, I will blog about it), and I struggle to keep her stimulated just on the weekend.

The other thing I like about daycare is the social aspect of it, and how she gets to interact with other children at such a young age.  Growing up, I had friends that were my age on our street, but I didn’t get this type of interaction and I feel like it did affect me socially, and continues to, to this day.  I’m not an outgoing person.  I’m not well spoken (though I can write pretty well).  I’m certainly not as shy as I used to be, but I’m no social butterfly.

While I’ve titled my blog, “Cat’s: The Working Mom”, it certainly does not mean that stay-at-home moms aren’t welcome to read or comment.  I have a lot of respect for stay-at-home moms, and that’s a huge job.  So stay-at-home moms, you are working moms too!

So where am I going with all of this?  I wanted to give a little insight on how I got to where I am, but also reaffirm something I’ve learned in the past years.  Life doesn’t always go as planned, it hardly ever does.  You just have to make the most of what life shoots at you, and hopefully it will help you next time life happens, because doesn’t life just keep happening? Or is that just me?