Meal Plan

As I told you in my introduction, I love to cook. I have recently decided to try and cook every night of the week except for weekends. This is a huge undertaking for me because we used to eat out roughly 4-5 times a week. I have been meal planning for a few weeks now and it seems to be working out pretty well. Sometimes we get busy and or I just don't feel like cooking one night but I have done pretty well keeping to plan.

My meal plans are pretty much only dinners, but I am trying to include lunches and breakfast for myself during the week as well (because the cafe at work is expensive to eat at everyday). Some of our meals are as simple as taking something out of the freezer and some are fully homemade. We are not following any particular diet, but I try to use lower fat products.

From here on out I am going to try to post my meal plan on Mondays (that is usually when I create my plan). I think I will call it Meal Plan Mondays.

Meal Plan 8.22 - 8.28

Monday 8.22
Breakfast: Oatmeal
Lunch: Leftover Hamburger and noodles w/ creamy herb sauce
Dinner: Ling-Ling Chicken & Vegetable Potstickers


Tuesday 8.23
Breakfast: Oatmeal
Lunch: Buy lunch at cafe at work
Dinner: Roasted garlic spaghetti (fresh pasta from local pasta factory, we picked up at a farmer's market) w/ olive oil, Parmesan cheese and garlic toast

Wednesday 8.24
Breakfast: Egg "muffins" (scrambled eggs cooked in a muffin tin) (These are awesome to bring to work with me)
Lunch: Salad w/ tomato, cucumber, green onions, red pepper, carrot, turkey or tuna, ginger dressing
Dinner: Tamale casserole (old Weight Watchers recipe I used to make all the time)

Thursday 8.25
Breakfast: Egg "muffins"
Lunch: Leftover Tamale casserole
Dinner: Mongolian beef (We picked up this sauce and figured we would try it.)


Friday 8.26
Breakfast: Bagel w/ cream cheese (it is free bagel day at work on Fridays)
Lunch: Leftover tamale casserole or Mongolian beef
Dinner: BBQ chicken pizza (Fridays have become pizza night at our house.) (I buy the Trader Joe's pizza dough.)

Saturday 8.27
Breakfast: Not decided yet
Lunch: Out
Dinner: Ribs w/ corn on the cob (This is only a possibility, it depends on what we are doing that day.)

Sunday 8.28
Breakfast: Not decided
Lunch: Out
Dinner: Crock Pot Pot Roast (I'm trying this recipe.)


*Note: I am not being compensated for mentioning brand names, these are just the products I use and like. 

Crafts: Picture Frame Key Hook

As promised, here is a craft I recently had fun with. We have a shoe rack (from Costco) by the door to our garage, it tends to be a catch all for my purse, mail, our work badges, and our keys. I was tired of not being able to find my keys so I made this easy key hook.

What you will need:

- 4x6 picture frame (make sure it has a wide frame)

- wooden letters

- cup hooks

- 1 piece of scrapbook paper (pick a pattern or color you like, it will be the background behind the letters)

- glue dots

How to do it:

1. If your wooden letters are not painted, paint them in the color of your choosing. (I only painted the front and sides because you won't see the back).

2. While the paint is drying, you can prep your picture frame. Cut the piece of scrapbook paper to fit inside of the picture frame. Place paper in frame and close up back of frame. 

3. Next you take your cup hooks and figure out where you would like them placed (I did 4 hooks spaced evenly). When you are ready to screw the hooks in you might want to drill a small hole so the hooks don't crack the frame (I didn't do this and the frame cracked slightly). 

4. When the letters are dry place glue dots on the back of the letters, then place them directly on the glass of your frame in the layout of your choosing. (I lucked out that the letters I picked fit perfectly in the frame.)

5. Hang in your entry way and hang your keys. 

Now our entry way from our garage looks nice and neat.

Bare with me

For those of you following this blog, please bear with me. Life is crazy after getting married and I am struggling with juggling life, when to write a post, and when to take some time to relax. I have several posts thought out in my head, but I have yet to put them down in words. Stay tuned as I will be doing a post about our honeymoon, wedding (when I get all of my pictures from the photographer), and even a few craft related projects and some recipes.

I pose this question to you, what inspires you to post? Do you have a schedule of topics already planned out or do you just roll with the punches and post as things happen? Let me know in the comments because I am still new to this and learning as I go.

I leave you with this teaser picture from our honeymoon