Menu Plan Monday

This weekend was crazy so I didn’t plan my menu until very late Sunday night.  I had an absolutely terrible week last week for food waste; I was so embarrassed I didn’t even do a post.  Trust me when I say it was that bad. 

This week I’m trying to prevent that from happening again, so I’ve drafted a menu that uses up things in my refrigerator (spinach and a variety of cheeses being the two biggest things I’m concerned about).  I also seem to have an abundance of chips and crackers in my pantry; I foresee them making an appearance in my lunch box this week. 

I had dinner with my parents on Sunday and am cooking for dad on Tuesday lest you think I’m suddenly cooking major meals just for me. :)

Sunday

Shrimp and asparagus risotto

Monday

Lunch: Leftovers

Dinner: Leftovers and fruit

Tuesday

Lunch: Out with a friend

Dinner: Mushroom and spinach pasta, garlic-cheese flatbread  

Wednesday

Lunch: Soup and sandwich

Dinner: Leftovers

Thursday

Lunch: Leftovers if needed; sandwich if I’m out of leftovers

Dinner: Breakfast for dinner

Friday

Lunch: TBD

Dinner: Homemade pizza using either my own pesto pizza recipe (minus the chicken of course!) or this awesome looking recipe (I was also thinking of adding caramelized onions to it.  Thoughts?)

Breakfasts this week will be blueberry-almond muffins and Greek yogurt parfaits.  

What's on your menu this week?

This post is linked to Menu Plan Monday.

Weekly Wanderings

Food:

Apple Yogurt Cake – This is probably more suited as a fall recipe, but since I just came across it, it will have to do for now.  I’m also a fan of how simple this recipe appears to be.  It doesn’t even require beaters!  That’s exactly the kind of thing I need right now; simple and sweet.

Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake – I love raspberries, cream cheese, and coffee cake so this sounds perfect for me!  It’s going in a long line of to-try breakfast recipes. 

Eating Organic on a Budget – Some great advice from Cate of Liberal Simplicity.

Lemon Shrimp with Mustard-Herb Roasted Onions – Roasted shrimp is suddenly popular (I feel so fancy that it was on my menu last week!) and while I’ve found several different recipes, I think I like this one the best.    

Everything Else:

2011 RITA Nominations – The RITAs (so named for the first RWA president) were announced on two weeks ago and, as usual, there is much debate and commentary on what did and didn’t get nominated.  Personally, I feel that Meljean Brook was cruelly overlooked for her two Steampunk books, Here There Be Monsters and The Iron Duke.  They’ve gotten rave reviews both in and out of the romance world and deserved a nomination.  I guess RWA isn’t ready for Steampunk.  But it was good to see some of my favorite authors including Tessa Dare (a fellow librarian!), Zoe Archer, Nora Roberts, Loretta Chase, and Eloisa James get well deserved nods.

10 Things to Do Everyday to Stay Organized – Some great advice from Laura of I’m an Organizing Junkie.  I’ve started doing a 10 minute tidy up before bed and it has much such a difference!

Vegetarian Mezze Party – I officially want to throw this party; the recipes look fantastic!  Who wants to come?

What Do You Want to See – This is super timely for me as I just spent half the week agonizing over how I look in a dress that I may or may not be wearing in a couple of weeks.  Many thanks go to Reese for helping me see all the good stuff instead of the bad.

This post is linked to Friday Favorites.

A Bit of Randomness

I'm feeling a little scattered today so I thought I would upload a few random pictures I had on my phone of my house.  These are fairly horrible pictures as the iPhone (or maybe it's just me?) isn't the best camera ever. 

One of my April goals is to organize my office.  Why?  Because it looks like this:

Clearly, it needs some work.  You can't really tell, but I have all sorts of papers on my desk and on the chair.  That purple basket?  FULL of paperwork.  I need to get started on this ASAP. 

I recently acquired this chair for an empty corner of my room.  I think I need a lamp on the right side to hide those cords, don't you think?

A friend needed a place to keep her piano while she was looking for a buyer.  I volunteered my empty landing and Caty approves. 

I reorganized my bookshelf this past weekend and created a To Be Read (TBR) shelf instead of mixing them in with my other books, which are arranged by subject, then alphabetized by author.  This is good for the OCD librarian side of me. :)

Caty likes to get my attention by clawing at the carpet.  She only claws at the carpet on the stairs, and only on three specific steps.  No clue as to why and I'm not having any luck getting her to stop.  Any ideas?

What's random in your life at the moment?

Recipe: Potatoes and Zucchini with Parmesan

As so many things in my life turn out, this recipe turned out to be a little more complicated than I originally thought it was.   

Of course, that was because I neglected to read the entire recipe before I started cooking. :)

This recipe isn't hard at all; there are a few steps, but it's so delicious that's it's worth a few extra minutes of your time.  One of the things I love about dishes like this is that it requires so few ingredients and yields amazing and fresh-tasting results.

Enjoy!

Potatoes and Zucchini with Parmesan - Adapted from Gida de Laurentiis

 

4 small new potatoes

2 small zucchini, cut in half lengthwise, then sliced into 1 inch pieces

2 tablespoons butter

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

Salt and pepper

1/4 cup Parmesan

Bring a pot of water to a boil; add the potatoes and cook until tender, about 8-10 minutes.  Remove from the pot, cool a little, and cut in half.

Put butter, garlic, rosemary, and thyme into a saute pan.  Heat over medium heat and melt the butter.  Meanwhile, sprinkle cut potatoes and zucchini with salt and pepper.

Put potatoes and zucchini, cut side down, in melted butter and herbs and cook until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes.  Shake the pan occasionally to keep everything from sticking and the garlic from burning. 

Preheat the broiler.  Remove the veggies from the saute pan and place on a baking sheet lined with foil, cut side up this time.  Sprinkle with Parmesan.  Broil until the cheese melts, about 4 minutes.  Serve right away!

This post is linked to Tasty Tuesday and Delicious Dishes.

Menu Plan Monday

Last week a few things got moved around, but I did a much better job sticking to my menu plan.  I also plan to stick to my menu this week and try to eliminate any food waste. 

This week’s plan is a little different because I have two work functions and I’m cooking dinner a friend’s house.  My friend, who is Japanese, is going to teach me about tofu but I have no idea what we are making. 

As usual, I’ve planned both lunches and dinners.  Breakfasts are a choice of orange-oatmeal muffins, yogurt parfaits with fruit, and poptarts. 

Sunday

Lunch: Leftover Chinese takeout

Dinner: Celebrating my dad’s birthday with macaroni and cheese, green beans, squash and zucchini casserole, cornbread, and chocolate cake

Monday

Lunch: Leftovers

Dinner: Quinoa “Mac and Cheese”

Tuesday

Lunch: out with a friend

Dinner: Work function – Research Week awards dinner

Wednesday

Lunch: Leftovers

Dinner: Work function – CME committee meeting

Thursday

Lunch: Soup, peanut butter sandwich

Dinner: Cooking with a friend

Friday

Lunch: Leftovers (if needed)

Dinner: TBD

This post is linked to Menu Plan Monday

April Goals

1.      Budget – Stick to my spending limits!  I have limits for a reason and that is to keep my budget in check so I can save for fun things like travel and necessary things like a new computer.  I need to keep this in mind the next time I’m tempted to order pizza instead of cooking what I already have or buying something just because it’s on sale.

2.      Food – Stop collecting recipes.  It’s no surprise that I love everything about food – shopping for it, preparing it, eating it, serving it, you name it, I love it.  And a product of that is my mammoth recipe collection.  Sometimes I get a recipe on purpose, like when I’m looking for a recipe that uses a specific ingredient, but most of the time, I collect recipes that I think I’ll make one day.  The problem is, I have two binders and 4 folders stuffed full of recipes I’ll probably never get around to trying.  So this month, I’m going to stop printing out recipes to try.  I need to come up with meals based on the recipes I already have and turn to my collection first, not the Internet, when I want to make something new.

3.      Blogging – Set aside some time each day to blog.  This was a goal last month, and it needs to be one this month as well.  I have tons of ideas for posts and if I just sit down and get them written, my life would be so much easier.

4.      Social – Stay connected.  I’m an “out of sight, out of mind” type of person.  If I don’t see something often, it’s probably going to slip my mind.  I find this especially true of friends I don’t see or talk to on a regular basis.  I have some very good friends here in town that I rarely see.  I want to do better getting together (or at least talking) with them this month.  There is no reason to neglect good friends.

5.      Personal – Organize my office.  My office is a disaster.  It's completely unpacked and I've organized my bookcase (of course!), but I never organized all my paperwork.  I have a huge basket of paperwork that needs to be sorted and organized.  My desk has also become a clutter spot and needs to be cleared off and put to good use.

What are your April goals?

March Goal Review

1.      Budget – Stick to my spending limits and adjust accordingly.  I did better here.  I under spent in my coffee shops, fast food, and entertainment budgets, but I overspent in my grocery, restaurant, and gas budgets.  What really happened was I forgot to take into account that I went on vacation in March.  I had upped my gas budget to compensate for the higher gas prices, but I didn’t account for the fact that I would be driving to and from the beach.  I didn’t raise my budgets for groceries and restaurants, because, well, I forgot.  I guess I’m human.

2.      Food – Bust out the cookbooks.  We’ll call this a partial fail.  I did cook two recipes (look for one on Tuesday!) from my cookbooks and I kept this goal in mind throughout the month, but I failed to really follow through. 

3.      Blogging – Dedicate some time each day for blogging.  I did really well with this goal early on in the month.  I wrote some quality blog posts and didn’t allow myself to get behind.  But by the end of the month, I was back to where I started, blogging behind schedule, or worse, not blogging at all.  I must do better on this.

4.      Social – Establish a balance.  I did much better on this.  I’ve had several quiet days at home and I don’t feel like I’ve neglected anyone, including myself.  I’ve been able to get stuff done around the house and still enjoy being with friends.  I think going on vacation with friends really helped. 

5.      Personal – Read 4 books.  I actually read 7!  I read I’m a Stranger Here Myself, Gone Too Far, Lover Unbound, Lover Enshrined, Lover Avenged (I’m on a Black Dagger Brotherhood kick at the moment.  Don’t judge me; you know you love some angsty vampire romance too.), The Spymaster’s Lady, and listened to Over the Edge.  Currently I’m reading Lover Mine and next on the list are Not Quite a Husband and The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie; it’s time to get back to my Reading List.

How did you do on your March Goals?