Meal plan

This week I am planning early for the week. I am anticipating next week is going to be really really crazy so I am trying to get everything done before then. I haven't decided what I am  going to make for Thanksgiving dinner yet, I am going to have to think this over.

Well here is the plan for this week and a couple new recipes.

Monday-Meat Loaf-  this recipe is a little bit different but it is perfect for this time of year because this is when you can get Stove top stuffing pretty cheap. Right now you can find it for 89 cents at some stores. Just mix 1 lb hamburger, 1 box stove top stuffing, 2 eggs, 1 can evaporated milk. Put into a loaf pan and cook for 1 hour at 375.
Tuesday-Taco Night-  instead of doing tacos though we are going to do taco soup which is one of my favorites because it is so easy.
Wednesday-Pasta night- I have one pasta night a week and this week I am going to make fettuccine Alfredo with homemade Alfredo sauce
Thursday-Leftovers- I tend to have a lot of leftovers and if I don't set a night to use them up then they go bad in my fridge.
Friday-Date night- we are actually going out for dinner this Friday. We plan on just making our daughter mac and cheese to share with the babysitters.
Saturday- Deer steaks- We are having some friends over and we thought we would share some of our spoils. I have learned an amazing trick on how to prepare steaks from my friend's husband. You have to SALT the steaks ahead of time. I just take some course salt and sprinkle it on the steaks and let it sit for a half an hour and then let it marinate in your favorite marinade for 30 minutes. This is so amazing and I can tell you this, my friend's husband makes THE BEST steaks ever!
Sunday-Potato bar- I love doing this on Sunday because it is really easy and doesn't really take very much prep. I just use a can of chili and sour cream and cheese as the base and then add anything that I happen to have in the house, ham bits, olives, onions, green peppers etc.

Well, I hope this helps you all with your meal planning for the week. I am pretty sure that I have everything I need to make all of the meals so I might not even have to make a grocery run. I bought all of that meat last week and it is paying off.

Now on to planning for Thanksgiving? I don't know, I think it is going to have to be a toss up between pretzel jello salad and rainbow jello. We will have to see.

Menu Thursday

It is that time of week again, the time when you have to plan out your meal plan for the week to know if you have everything you need in your pantry or if you need to go out and get items at the grocery store. I like to plan as many meals as possible around what I already have but sometimes you just have to make a grocery run.

Sunday- Pot Roast, Mashed Potatoes and Veggies (at Harmon's last week I got a really good deal on roasts and so I have 3 in my freezer to work with)
Monday- Homemade Pizza- At the beginning of the month I splurged and bought a BIG bag of Mozzarella cheese from Costco and split it into 5 smaller bags so I could freeze the cheese that I wasn't using right away. It works out really well for us because my family loves pizza and we have it often in one form or another.
Tuesday- Chicken, Rice, Ramen noodle Casserole- I love this casserole because it is super easy to make and I always have what I need to make this. All you need is 1 can cream of chicken soup, 1 can chicken, 1 package ramen noodles, 1 cup rice, 1 cup water. Mix all of it together in a square pan and put it into the oven for 35-40 minutes or until the rice is cooked. I usually cook my water and noodles together separately for a couple of minutes to make them softer.
Wednesday- Taco night- I went out and bought 6 lbs of hamburger and then divided it up into 6-1 lb packages and put all but one into the freezer. That makes for 6 meals. We only have 3 people in our family so we just used 1/2 lb of hamburger for our tacos but I cooked it all up so I could use half for tacos and half for Thursday night pasta night.
Thursday- Pasta- I usually leave this a vague thing because I never know what kind of pasta I want. This night I had the left over hamburger so I decided to do Spaghetti and Meats Sauce. I also made some bread earlier in the week used it for garlic bread.
Friday - Crock pot curry chicken- Usually by the end of the week I am so exhausted that I don't want to do anything to extravagant. This meal is so super easy. 6 chicken thighs, 8 oz salsa, 2 TBSP of curry cook on low for 6-8 hours. Serve it over rice. It is super yummy!
Saturday-Potato Soup -It is supposed to get cold this weekend and so in anticipation I hope to have soup and possibly make some soup bowls. I usually just make this from scratch and put in anything that we have in the house to make it delicious. I have some bacon to add so I think I will put that in there.

Well, this is the plan for the week. I only really had to buy the hamburger but that is because I have all of the other stuff at my house. I tend to try and buy stuff on sale and then store them til I need them. I will keep you posted on what I buy during the week so you can have your stuff in storage too.

Monday, Monday!

Monday's are going to be cleaning tips and plans on crafts or activities that we plan on doing during the week. Today my cleaning tip is always start the day by putting one load of laundry into the washer. If you do this everyday then you won't have to do 5 loads in one day. It really does help to keep the sanity of those of us who don't LOVE to do laundry. 

I have a couple of different crafts that I am working on for this week. I am kind of a Christmas nut and I really like to have all of my Christmas crafts done by Thanksgiving so I can enjoy the holidays. This year I am doing baskets for the women in our family and some of my neighbors. 

There is only three things that you need to make them with, old newspapers, glue (both Elmer's and a glue stick), and acrylic paint. 

The first step is to roll the newspapers up into small rods. This poses very difficult at first but once you get used to it, it is second nature and you can do it while you are watching your favorite shows. I pretty much rolled a MILLION of them. You really only need 20-25 of them for one basket. It depends on how big you want to make the basket. 

After you are finished rolling them up then you just glue the end so that they stay in tight rods.

The next step is to start the base of your basket. You lay two rods perpendicular to each other. Grab two more and lay them out to make a star. 

Grab the bottom rod and pull one of the sides up and behind itself and then start weaving the rod in between each of the rods. When you come to the end of the rod then grab another one and fit them together snugly and keep on weaving. 

I weaved about 3 rods for the base and then I pulled the star rods up to start making the basket part. Just keep weaving until you get the size of the basket that you like.

When you want to finish the basket you cut off the rods sticking up so you are left with 1 1/2 inches to fold over and tuck into the basket. You will want to fold the rod over on the side that will tuck in the top rod in so the basket will be tight.

When you have completed the basket then you want to create a paint/paste so that the basket will stay together. I used the Elmer's glue and a brown acrylic paint, mixing it equal parts and then just painted the baskets. I did a thin layer so you could see the print behind the basket to create a worn out effect. I found it easier to paint the bottom half of the basket first then let it dry and then finish the other side and then let it dry. This way you didn't get paint on everything and you can handle the basket without getting paint on yourself.

The basket I just showed you was a small one but you can make big baskets, I just suggesting using more than 4 rods to create the base. Then just make the base bigger by using more rods to weave. On the bigger painted basket in the picture to the Left I used 6 rods but you could probably use up to 8 to make a pretty big basket. 

This was a really fun craft for me to do and it was super easy. Like I said once you get the hang of it then it becomes easier and easier. My first basket was a learning basket and it didn't turn out as well as these ones that I have made since. My plan for these baskets is to make a whole bunch and fill them with people's presents, like fill them with the home dipped chocolates and give them to neighbors. I will definitely post about the chocolates so if you want to take on my Christmas present idea then you will have all the tools. 

Tomorrow, TUESDAY, we will be blogging about a affordable meal plan for the week and some new recipes that we have stumbled upon.