Freezer meals for post-baby update

Done!:
Chicken Divan
Pigs in a blanket X2
Dinner Rolls (made with pigs in a blanket rolls recipe) X1
Hearty Bean Casserole X2
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls (1 batch)

Yet to be made:
Tator Tot Casserole (cheap frozen broc at Albies this week!)
Lasagna or Italian Casserole

Baby Boy Clothes Blessing!

Occasionally I like to look on Craigslist for various things. This time it seemed to be a blessing straight from our Heavenly Father! I was so excited to see that a local coffee shop (blocks away from my parents' house) was hosting a baby/toddler clothing swap! We had more than enough tiny baby girl clothes to get rid of some excess (we have plenty left even if baby boy turns out to be a girl!)

The cool thing was everyone else at the swap was looking for other sizes so they let me keep coming back (and encouraging me to do so) for another round! I probably got 50+items, all in amazing condition and much nicer stuff than I could afford otherwise. What a blessing!

My big helper is below posing with the clothes. There were so many I couldn't fit them all in one picture!

Menu Plan for the week of Feb 7th, 2011

Last week was quite a week with sick toddler #2 getting sick or whining constantly. A few hours after she started getting better toddler #1 came down with it. Life with littles is never boring, right!?

I'll try to keep adding to my list of freezer meals/food that is for post-baby. Here's the little bit I have so far:
2 Chicken Divans
1 batch of frozen oatmeal chocolate chip cookie balls
(making today) 1 Hearty Bean Casserole (to serve with hotdogs or with cornbread)

Here's what we will be eating this week:

Breakfasts: oatmeal, toast, eggs, baked oatmeal, lazy granola, and lots of cold cereal. Easy easy for mornings with sick kiddo

Lunches/snacks: leftovers, sandwiches, soup

Dinners:

Monday: Hearty Bean Casserole (doubling for baby freezer stash), hot dogs, green beans

Tuesday: Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup, yeast rolls

Wednesday: Beef Stroganoff, leftover yeast rolls, spinach

Thursday: Chimichangas and Taco Soup w/ Chips & Guac

Friday: Steak, potatoes, spinach salad

Saturday: On the road then plane to Indiana!

Sunday: In Indy!

What's on your menu this week?

My cheap kitchen help

Yesterday we had fun in the kitchen together. Which is a good thing since today was all about survival mode. My little one (Liv) has the flu and we spent most of the night and day cleaning up after the badness.

My little taste-tester...making a frittata with leftover hotdog buns, eggs, cheese, milk, pepperoni, peas and spices.

Morning glory muffins. I was thankful some of the dry ingredients stayed in the bowl long enough to be made into muffins!

Two little helper-bums, side by side. Very intent on their task!

Menu Plan for first week of Feb. 2011

*Someone* is turning really really old this week. Like major milestone birthday...but I'm not tellin' who:)

Last week I made a triple batch of Chicken Divan so we could have two for the freezer for after baby. Its a favorite here and we could've easily eaten two of the batches, but I made extra whole grain pasta to put under it and stretch it out:)

Here's what we will be eating this week:

Breakfasts: oatmeal, toast, eggs, baked oatmeal, lazy granola, morning glory muffins (using the huge bag of organic carrots from Costco!)

Lunches/snacks: leftovers, sandwiches, soup

Dinners:

Monday: Frozen pizza. NOT on the original plan but mom, grandma Pat and I tried out a ZUMBA class at Curves and I got home much later than planned!

Tuesday: Dumplings (marked down won ton wrappers at FM), brown rice, mixed veggies and leftover egg/cheese frittata from today's lunch

Wednesday: Lasagna, cauliflower, leftover bread

Thursday: Roast or Chicken in the crockpot w/carrots over penne

Friday: Pigs in a blanket (homemade blankets...didn't get to this last week), sweet potato fries

Saturday: Papa Murphy's pizza (really yummy veggie kind) or possibly out celebrating with the husband (any Wenatchee area readers have suggestions for a nice meal out...not crazy expensive, but not Denny's either:)?

Sunday: Super Bowl! We'll have company so hot dogs, baked beans (both in respective crockpots) and chips/popcorn. I'll probably make a big batch of chocolate oatmeal cookies.

What's on your menu this week?

Some shopping before my camera busted.

My camera is probably done for this time. The battery holder was loose before, but now it doesn't register that batteries are in there at all...no matter how much you mess with it. Bummmer! So...a few pictures of this past week's shopping before my camera bit the big one.

Walgreens: $3.76 (guess on the cents here) used $1.50 RR and got $10 back! Used free Breathe Right Coupon from last WAGS visit, bought baby forks and spoons on clearance $1.09 and snickers (last minute as filler to use RR) $0.69. More Maalox for the raging heartburn within me:)

Fred Meyer: $13 (approx) after $3 catalina from coffee mate. Cheap Broccoli, eggs, butter and $0.75 Ronzoni Smart Taste, which I primarily bought for the $1 of Classico peelie attached! (those make for $0.69 Classico at Safeway this weekend!)

Snacktime fun

Our morning schedule includes a 9:00am snack time. Its probably the girls' favorite food of the day...and one of the healthiest. Generally I do 2 veggies, a fruit, some protein (usually cheese or nuts) and some sort of carb like crackers or cereal. Once in awhile we do green smoothies and cheese, but they love the snack tray so much I rarely get away with that (although my green smoothie is usually shared so I make extra!). Yesterday I decided to stretch my creativity (of which I have very little!) and make the snack into a person. Here the result:

At least the toddlers liked it, ugly or not! :)