Hubby, menu plan monday, Menu planning

Mom, What’s For Dinner? – Week of August 19, 2019

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Jump to the menu

Jump to my meal prep for breakfast, lunch, and snacks

This is the first week of school for 3 members of our family. I started school 2 weeks ago. This week, Hubby goes back to college. The Youngest begins 8th grade and the Oldest begins 10th grade.

Three evenings during the week, Hubby will be in his college classes about an half an hour away from here. He is going to be studying to be an Intervention Specialist like me. Hubby has to take 11 classes, student teach, and do observations.

So dinners are going to be a little different around here since he’ll probably be gone when I get home. Actually I know he’ll he be gone on Tuesdays when I get home. His class starts when I am scheduled to get off of work.

He delivers pizza and that is going to change. He used to just deliver on the weekdays. Since he’ll be in class 3 evenings during the week, he had to put his availability in for Saturdays and Sunday. I’m going to be on deck for any weekend plans for the boys. I could rely on him but not anymore.

Okay, let’s jump into the menu.

  • Monday – Hamburgers, French fries, and raw veggies
  • Tuesday – Stuffed Pepper Soup over Rice, Cheddar biscuits
  • Wednesday – Leftovers
  • Thursday – Balsamic Pork, Roasted broccoli, mac and cheese
  • Friday – Tacos
  • Saturday – Chicken nuggets, French fries

Meal Prep

Breakfasts – protein waffles with almond butter, oranges

Snacks – Fruit on the bottom yogurt, trail mix, snack box

Lunch – chicken breast, roasted potatoes, green beans, mini salad, dark chocolate candy bar

I got my protein waffle mix from Aldi. I was going to make homemade waffles but I found the mix and decided to try it.

I found a suggestion of buying the salad mixes but not using the toppings or salad dressing. I use the toppings but make homemade salad dressing. It’s so much easier using the chopped salad mixes when trying to meal prep.

Have a great week.

Traci

menu plan monday, Menu planning, Wee one

Mom, What’s For Dinner? – Week of August 11, 2019

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Jump to Dinner Menu

All of the sudden, the Wee One has gotten so much taller. I think he’s grown 3 to 4 inches in the last few months. He is almost as tall as me.

So I now call him him Youngest because it makes him upset when I call him the Wee One.

Anyway on Saturday, he kept saying “Mother, Where’s the Food?” Mind you it was 4 pm and not time for dinner. He found him some food to hold him over.

This is the theme of our household right now. Having 2 teenage boys – 14 and 16, they are constantly hungry. One or both of them are going through growth spurts all of the time. Argh!

I’ve been meal planning off and on throughout their childhood. Last year, it fell apart. We have been doing better with it. So when he comes up to me, I can reply this is what we are eating at such and such at ___ o’clock.

Of course, that does not mean their ALWAYS hungry bellies can wait until the scheduled time for dinner. They may still get food to eat. I just have to remind them they need to still eat dinner when I put it on the table. The Youngest is usually pretty good about still eating what I have cooked.

Sunday – Buttermilk chicken, Roasted potatoes, Sweet Corn Salad or Corn
Monday – Honey Garlic Chicken, Rice, Stir Fry Veggies
Tuesday – Mini Meatloaf Muffins, Mashed Potatoes, Corn
Wednesday – Leftovers
Thursday – Cheese Steak Sloppy Joes, Chips, Raw Veggies
Friday – Lime Cashew Chicken, Rice, Green Beans
Saturday – Chicken Dinner at the Sweet Corn Festival (Yum!)
Veggie Egg Scramble in the Microwave
Toast
Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli with Quinoa
Yogurt Cups with Granola
Mini Salad

Cinnamon Apples with Almond Butter
Trail Mix – I get mine from Trader Joe’s but you can certainly make your own.

Have a magical day,
Traci

Electric Pressure Cooker, Hamburger, Ingredients, Pasta, pasta, Recipes

Pressure Cooker Spaghetti (DF)

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Jump ahead to the recipe

The boys do not like when Hubby makes pasta dishes because he doesn’t always drain the pasta. He’ll rather use a slotted spoon to get out the pasta. Needless to say, it becomes very mushy.

So whenever we do have any pasta dishes, I’m the only one who cooks or if he cooks the pasta, he needs to be reminded to drain the pasta. I know us bugging him drives him crazy.

Making the spaghetti in the pressure cooker eliminates the need to drain the pasta because all of it is made in one pot.

Youngest is not always the best eater. He doesn’t always eat a lot of food at meals. When he ate 2 servings of the spaghetti, I knew this recipe was a keeper.

Hubby doesn’t always want to eat leftovers even though I plan for them during the week. He actually volunteered to eat the leftovers the next day. This also told me that this recipe was a keeper.

What you need for the recipe
  1. spaghetti noodles
  2. ground beef
  3. jar of spaghetti sauce
  4. water
  5. Italian seasoning
  6. optional: diced onions

Pressure Cooker Spaghetti

Pressure Cooker Spaghetti

  • Servings: 5
  • Difficulty: extremely easy
  • Print

Ingredients

  • 0.5 pound of spaghetti noodles
  • 0.5 pound of ground beef
  • 1 (26 oz.) jar of spaghetti sauce
  • 1 (26 oz.) jar full of water plus about 2 to 3 Tbsp. more of water
  • 1 small or 1/2 large onion, diced – optional
  • 1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil – optional

Directions

  1. Set your electric pressure cooker to saute.
  2. If you are going to add onions to your spaghetti, add the oil and then the onions. Cook the onions for 4 to 5 minutes or until translucent. Remove from the pot.
  3. Add the ground beef to the pot. Cook until no longer pink. Make sure you break up the ground beef so the pieces are equal pieces. (About 5 minutes) Drain the fat from the ground beef.
  4. Add the spaghetti sauce, water, Italian seasoning, and onions, if using them. Stir.
  5. Add the spaghetti noddles. (Break them in half.) Make sure the noodles are covered with sauce and water. Add a little more water, if needed.
  6. Set the pressure cooker to manual 8 minutes. Put the lid on the pressure cooker making sure the valve is set to seal.
  7. When it’s done cooking, quick release the valve.
  8. Stir the spaghetti.
  9. Enjoy with Parmesan cheese, if desired.

Notes:

  1. You can use ground turkey instead of ground beef.
  2. If you want to make it vegetarian, you can use the beefless beef from Trader Joe’s. Just start with step 4 unless you are adding the onions.

Have a magical day,
Traci

Family, travel, Writing Workshop

Where are they?

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Before the boys were born, I went white water rafting twice. Both times, we camped out with the Scouts Venturing post.

Imagine a camping site located in a valley.

Then there was a torrential rainstorm.

So what do you think happened?

The water pooled into my tent.

Oh, I forgot to give you one piece of key information. One of our friends and my father-in-law had traveled with us down to West Virginia.

So the water was pooling in my tent. Hubby, our friend, and my father-in-law were no where to be found. Cell phones were not as popular as they are now plus there would be no service.

I was freaking out and getting wetter.

One of the other people camping out with us had a camping trailer with them. So they invited me in the trailer so I wouldn’t get sick.

Finally they show back up.

They had been driving around looking for a hotel/ motel for me. A hamvention type of event was going on in the area so there was limited hotel/ motel rooms available. Or should I say, they found only one room.

It was a honeymoon type of room. There was one bed and a whirlpool tub. All 4 of us were sharing this room.

Hubby and I shared the bed. My father-in-law got the couch in the room. Our friend got the floor. The whirlpool tub was not used. 😥

The few photos I have of this camping trip.

There was video made of the trip. They included this song by Green Day. Whenever I hear this song, I am reminded of this camping trip.

Have a magical day,
Traci

menu plan monday, Menu planning, Recipes

Mom, What’s For Dinner? – August 2019

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Finally A Menu

If you would like to skip the introduction and go onto the menu, please click here.

I go back to work on either the 7th or the 8th. Technically I’m supposed to be going back to work on the 8th. However, some of the administrators have decided we need to have an extra day so that we can team build. I don’t know if they are actually going to have the team building day on the 7th.

Continue reading Mom, What’s For Dinner? – August 2019 →
Niagara Falls, photograph, photographs, Photography, travel, Writing Workshop

My Favorite View – Summer 2019

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This summer has been a different type of summer.

The boys are getting older so there wasn’t very many day trips. Let’s take that back – We’ve done day trip. I’ve done some road trips with each of them individually.

The Memorial Day tornadoes change the dynamics of my summer. Even though it didn’t directly affect me, it affected the area I teach in so that made me upset.

Continue reading My Favorite View – Summer 2019 →

Recipes, Travels, and Stories

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