Meal Planning 101

Having children has certainly made life more hectic, but before this year I always found time for meal planning. Now that my son plays on a rep travel hockey team and is on the ice 4-5 times a week, I feel like meals are always rushed and not very well thought out. Meal planning seemed to go out the window pretty quick. Anyone who knows me well will tell you that I am an A personality. I live by lists and need at least some basic structure in my life or I do not bode well. It would seem that keeping track of 2 busy kids is not enough structure for me and I’m finding myself feeling a little lost lately. Flying by the seat of my pants so to say. So I’ve decided to commit to planning out meals from Monday to Friday for the month of November to see if that settles my restless mind some. I think it will cuz I’m weird that way! Each Monday in November I’ll post the week’s menu for you all to see. Most of this week’s meals are recipes that I pulled from the new Kraft: What’s Cooking magazine as they’re quick to prepare. So without further ado, here’s this week’s!

Monday – hockey practice (4:30-5:50) & dance (6-6:45)
-homemade turkey soup/grilled cheese sandwiches

Tuesday- Pilate’s (6:15-7:15)
-salad/broccoli & cheddar quiche – Kraft mag pg 53

Wednesday – swimming (7pm)
-Weeknight ravioli bake for fam – Kraft mag pg 52
-Yves veggie sausage/kabocha for me

Thursday – hockey practice (6:30-7:20) & skating (5:30-6:20)
-Saucy Mexican Chicken – Kraft mag pg 56
-green beans
-mac n’ cheese for the fam

Friday – FREE!!!
-Leftovers!

I think this will be doable considering we’re in and out quite a bit. There, I feel better already! :D On to breakfast!

-1 cup water
-1/3 cup oat bran
-cinnamon

-raisins
-pumpkin butter
-walnuts

I took a ½ hour lunch today so I could leave at 3:30 for a dentist appointment. This cut out my gym time. Damn dentist!! Urgh…..I did go home and snuggle with my fur babies for a bit, though. Great stress reliever.

Lunch was another serving of Moroccan Chickpea Stew;

As per above menu, tonight was soup & grilled cheese night! I added some turkey meat that I had in the freezer and star shaped noodles along with baby ravioli. My grilled cheese was done up in an Ezekiel 4:9 English muffin with the last of my goat’s milk mozz, a piece of deli ham and a wee bit of pomegranate jelly;

Dessert was a piece of Caroline’s Vegan Pumpkin Bread with a smidge of macadamia nut butter spread on.

So how dinner works on a night like tonight where schedules clash is that I cook dinner and DD and I eat before she goes to dance. While we’re out the boys come home and pick up where us girls left off. Bingo-bango, everyone’s fed and happy by 7!

Candy confession time! This is what I snagged out of the office candy bowl over the course of the day;

And this is what I ate this evening;

I have to say that taking pictures of the junk I eat is working like a charm. I really wanted to go back to that candy bowl at work more than I did, but the thought of having to own up to it stopped me in my tracks!! Notice how pretty much all of it is chocolate? ;)

Project Feed Me food item of the week = boxed meals (eg. Hamburger Helper). Go buy some!!

Bye for now!!

Pilate’s & Biggest Loser

Well, I made it into work today! I’m SO, so relieved that DD was feeling more like her self when she woke up. Especially after reading THIS article this morning. Those 2 poor babies are right around her age! She ate a good breakfast, took her med’s like a champ and was excited to get back to school. Thank the heavens for that.

I got myself to bed at 9:15pm last night knowing that I needed to catch up on my own zzz’s, but that damn New Moon kept me up until 11pm anyways! Yikes! I must’ve slept enough regardless because I felt pretty good this morning. Breakfast may have been a factor in that!

-1 cup coffee
-1/3 cup oat bran
-raisins
-cashew butter
-Enjoy Life Foods trail mix

Seeing as today was my Monday and I had a back log of work to catch up on, the day flew right on by. Pre gym snack of the day was a Clif PB&J dipped Mojo bar;

JUST like a PB&J sandwich with out the bothersome bread! Loved it.

I’m guilty of trying to talk myself out of a run today and to use the elliptical instead, but then I read Leah’s post about how great she felt after her 4 miler and the deal was sealed!

Time: 45 minutes
Avg Hr: 161
Max Hr: 181
Calories Torched: 469
Distance: 4.5 miles

And, yes….I was very glad afterwards to have run!

Lunch was some leftover jade grain blend…

With some broccoli;

All I added to this was a wee pat of butter and some salt. Gotta have those 2 things with anything kind of rice because that’s how my Mom made it when I was a kid. I use to love when she made rice as a base for stew or chili because her rice was always so flavourful. Good ole saltiness!

Afternoon snack-a-roo was a huge honey crisp apple.

I only have one left so I’ll be buying more this weekend for sure. I think the season is almost over for them which is too sad for me to even contemplate. :(

We BBQ’d some turkey sausages tonight which I served with the rest of the green beans from the other night. The fam had some packaged noodles, too so I decided to mix up a 1/2ish cup of red kidney beans with a scoop of TJ’s spinach sauce. It turned out fantastic! Here’s my plate;

And just as a reminder, here’s what the jar of sauce looks like.

I scarfed back 2 of Allie’s aprican bites on my way out the door to Pilate’s. Hence no photo!

Speaking of Pilate’s…..at some point this class turned into a sweet kind of torture. By the time the hour is up every muscle in my body, but especially my core area, is trembling. OW-WEE! Mind you, that is what I paid for!

I’ve just settled in with 3 strawberry pumpkin coconut bites with some macadamia nut butter;

to watch The Biggest Loser. After that will be straight to bed for me. :D

Bye for now!!

A Sick Chick

***It’s week 3 for Project Feed Me! Click here to see what the food item of the week is!!***

I was up extra early today in order to get to the rink on time to pick my boy up from hockey practice. It was like leaving the house in the middle of the night! I grabbed 2 strawberry pumpkin coconut bites for the road. Too dark for pictures! We were home before 8am so I ate my breakfast then;

• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup sunrise blend with quinoa
• cinnamon
• pumpkin puree
• chocolate honey/macadamia butter
• Dorset cereal

DD was still ill so I called us in sick and then tried to get a doctor’s appointment for her. They couldn’t see her until tomorrow so I opted to take her to the walk in clinic and I’m sure glad I did.

Ends up she has a throat/ear infection and needed antibiotics. I can’t imagine how much worse she would’ve felt had I waited another day. We made it back home by 10am and she spent the rest of the day laying down watching movies.

The post man did drop off a sweet treat for me! Allie’s Aprican Balls that my BSI recipe won!

I was a little nervous that they would be spoiled since they took a bit to get here, but once I was saw ingredient list and how they were wrapped, I knew they’d be OK.

I tried a twist on the kids toad in a hole from yesterday for my lunch today. The urge came from a McMuffin that one of the hockey Dad’s gave me this morning. I didn’t get much more than a bite before my lovely son claimed it! Instead of bread I used a bagel and plopped an egg white into each hole. Unfortunately, the bagel hole wasn’t quite big enough so the egg white didn’t stay put! Meh…tasted just as good! I topped them off with some goat’s milk mozz. Two of Allie’s treats also made it on the plate.

The aprican balls were very good. I may have gone back for 2 more, but only I know for sure! :D

I spent most of the afternoon on the computer leaving the house again only to go pick up my new glasses(!!) and DS. I promise some photos of the new eyes when I don’t look so worn out! Sitting around all day can sure make a girl feel frumpy! I did spend some time outside raking leaves and playing with KC. He’s so full of energy in the cooler weather!

Dinner was a big serving of steamed broccoli, a Yves veggie burger with a LC cheese wedge, dijonnaise, ketchup and romaine and some jade grain blend that I had bought a few weeks ago at the bulk barn;

The grain blend was very good. This isn’t such a great picture of it but I have some packed for my lunch tomorrow and I’m anticipating better lightening for then. It’s got a very pretty green hue to it. Dessert was another piece of strawberry peach rhubarb pie. I didn’t bother with a photo tonight, though.

Not sure if I’ll be going to work tomorrow. It will depend on if DD still has a fever or not. As much as I’d like to stay home, I’d much prefer DD feeling healthy again! Tonight will be an early night seeing as I was up with the chickens this morning. Hope you all have a great Monday night!

Bye for now!!

A Worthy Cause

Happy Wednesday, everybody! I’m having an especially good day because I became involved in a huge movement that will help feed less fortunate families over the holidays. The campaign is called “Project Feed Me” and is aimed solely at keeping people less fortunate than us fed. The premise is very simple. Each Monday starting this week (October 12), Natalie will post a “food item of the week” per se. The items are picked from a Food Bank approved list and are very inexpensive. Everyone who registers is promising to purchase 2 of each item for the next 9 weeks. At the end of the 9 weeks, simply bring all your collected food to your local Food Bank. Easy peasy, right? So PLEASE make your way over to the website to register (and read much more information about this GREAT initiative)! Just a head’s up…this weeks item is canned chilli! I am so excited to see the final results!
On to breakfast, shall we?
-1 cup coffee
-1/2 cup rye flakes
-dried cherries
-macadamia nut butter
-cinnamon plum tea jam
Nom, nom, nom….
Work was busy again today, but I did manage to squeeze a pre workout snack-a-roo in!

I dipped these crunchy guys into my tea. Mmmm… I got a cute pen today for donating to a co-workers Walk for the Cure fund raiser. Check it out!
I rode the elliptical at the gym today which was rather delightful. Or, as delightful as sweating can be, anyways!!!
-Time: 45 minutes
-Avg Hr: 153
-Max Hr: 173
-Calories Torched: 442
-Distance: 5.1 miles
I made myself a very tasty sandwich for lunch today.
Soft flax bread, sunflower seed butter, dried cherries, carrots and lettuce. I’m not a big sandwich girl, but this was da bomb! I also enjoyed a mocha cappuccino in my Hallowe’en mug!
I started feeling snacky a few hours later so I broke into my (huge) grapes;
The kids had swimming lessons tonight, but I was done work at 4 so I had time to put a decent meal together. I roasted up a squash into fries as well as a pork tenderloin. Steamed green beans added some colour to the plate.
Dessert was a piece of pumpkin coconut chocolate chip bar;
Swimming went well. I enjoy going to the pool because I can spend the hour reading while the kids do their thing. I’ve got a few more things to get done tonight and plan on getting to bed early because DS is on the ice at 6am to 7:20 and I have to be there to pick him up. Fun times. Have a great night!
Bye for now!!

A Lazy Day & Hearty Stew

I enjoyed a nice relaxing day at home. The best kind, right?! I didn’t even roll out of bed until 9am and before I knew it, it was already 11!! Here’s breakfast!

• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup sunrise blend with quinoa
• cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• raisins
• almond butter
• carob chips

This was much the same as yesterday, but it was SO good I knew I wanted to have it again! I spent the next 2 hours farting around on the computer. Then I got some more chores done; vacuuming, stove scrubbing, cat litter changing…you know, the fun stuff! :/ Once that was done I drove DS over to a friends place. DD had a friend at our house, too. By 1:30 I finally had a minute for lunch!

This here is a small container of Fage, agave and Nature’s Path PB granola. Thick, creamy, wonderful. I only have on small container of Fage left. Thankfully I’ll be in Buffalo on November 13th! After that bowl was empty, I ate a Pumpkin Coconut Chocolate Chip bar;

I did a whole lot of nothing for a few hours, but did get up at 3 to get dinner going. I decided earlier today to make this Quinoa Stew which needed 2-3 hours of cooking time. Perfect for a lazy day! This is the brand of quinoa that I used;

I really like the Eden Organic products. I’ve always had really good luck with their products.

Back to the stew; I used 2 cans of chickpeas and 1 can of kidney beans because that’s what I had on hand. And I left the cilantro out…didn’t have any of that, either!

Let me just tell ya…this was AWESOME!! The whole family really liked it, too. And the bonus? Tons of leftovers. I packed up enough for lunch tomorrow, another meal and 2 more single meal portions. Those will go into my freezer once completely cooled.

Dessert was a slice of apple butter bread with some macadamia nut butter;

I do have a piece of Green & Black’s Maya chocolate for later on, but that’s it for now. Once lunches are made and backpacks packed, I’ll be settling in for some more TV time. Gotta take advantage of the laziness while I can!!

Bye for now!!

A Wet Vacation Day…

But I loved it! The cold and rain made it easier for me to get a lot done inside the house today. I just know that if the sun was shining the laundry would still be sitting there, the tub, bathroom and kitchen sinks would not have been scrubbed, the dishwasher would not be empty……I started it all with this;

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup rye flakes
• cinnamon
• macadamia nut butter
• cinnamon plum tea jam

I got the kids…and their cookies…dropped off at school, took Mom’s goodies to her place and then hoofed it up to the mall. Now that the cold weather has arrived I’ve come to the realization that I need some new dress pants for work. I hate buying pants. My hip to waist ratio is off **read: my ass is much bigger than my waist** so it’s very hard for me to find a fit. Smart Set is the only store that has pants that fit me pretty good and I found a nice pair there today as well as another pair of yoga pants for Pilates. Here’s the dress ones;

I was also in the market for a new black cardigan. This was the hardest item to find because most of the styles I liked had short sleeves and I wanted long. I finally found a great one at Suzy Shier.

I stopped in Chapters and bought “Eclipse”…

…and the new Clean Eating magazine. I will finally be starting the Twilight series tonight! I’m a real snob when it comes to my books and I HATE hardcover. Now that I have the first 3 of the series in paperback (the last will be out at Christmas time), I’m good to go. The best part about the 2 hours I spent at the mall? The clothes were all on sale and I got the book with a gift cert! YAY! My last stop was Starbucks for a Grande NF pumpkin spice latte;

Once home I got the laundry in before I sat down to lunch. I toasted up the last 3 corn cakes and served them with an egg white omelette and a mix of Fage & salsa spread on top;

My belly was happy after this so I got the rest of the housework done. I had just enough time for a coffee, cookie and some computer time before I had to head out again to pick the kids up.

These sugar cookies are always SO good! The stars must be aligned today because the kids haven’t squabbled once since they’ve been home! :D

Seeing as I had the time I made a nice roasted dinner tonight. On the menu was chicken breasts, turkey thighs, potatoes and steamed veggies.

This is probably the one meal that signals the change of the seasons for me. There’s just something about roasting food that screams fall to me! I enjoyed a pumpkin tart form CHSS for dessert;

There was also a small bowl of cookies n’ cream ice cream to go along with it, but white stuff does not photograph well with a flash.

Once I finish folding the laundry, I’ll be parking my rear on the couch to read my magazine and rest up. We have a busy day tomorrow with more fundraising and an out of town game later in the afternoon. What plans do YOU have this weekend??

Q: I’m on the hunt for some new, unique Starbuck beverages to try. Tell me what your favourite order is!!

Bye for now!!