Week 328 Menu: Back to School

Hi everyone! Summer has officially ended at our house. The kids went back to school yesterday and the weather is turning fallish. I snapped this picture on the way to the bus stop this morning.

Things at my house are a little different this school year. My daughter headed off to middle school for 6th grade. She leaves a full hour earlier than the boys leave. This is making me rearrange my exercising schedule. I'm just going to have to get up even earlier now, I guess. That means I need to go to bed earlier than midnight. Ha!

My boys are starting at a new school that is closer to our house. The school was full when we moved to Washington in January. They're happy to be there, but it's kind of like starting over again...learning new teacher's and fellow students names, bus numbers, school layout, etc. I'm very happy because the kids ride the bus to and from school.

It's nice to have all day with just me and my two year old. He cries a lot less without his siblings bugging him. I'm sure he misses them though. It sure is quiet with just him at home. I have a lot more flexibility now without morning kindergarten pickup.

Anyway...let's talk about menu planning. I posted my menu last week and I followed it exactly! I don't always do that, but it worked out great last week. I've got to get this week planned out so I can head to the grocery store.

Tuesday

Last minute I made orange chicken instead of going out to eat to celebrate back-to-school (I ate a few pieces of chicken, but mostly ate sauteed garden veggies...yum!)

Wednesday

We get to have the missionaries over for dinner. We're having french dip sandwiches, roasted new potatoes from the garden and sweet potatoes, fresh green beans and cherry tomatoes and fruit. Warm chocolate chip cookies for dessert.

Thursday

Spaghetti with homemade roasted tomato sauce (spaghetti squash for me, noodles for the family), garlic bread, green salad, fruit

Friday

Pan fried new potatoes, chicken sausage, peppers and onions with homemade ranch for dipping

Saturday

Crockpot taco soup (without meat and cheese for me)

Sunday

Ham, potatoes, one hour rolls, salad and garden veggies (I'll just eat less of the high cholesterol items and eat more veggies)

What about you? What are you eating this week? Feel free to share. I love it when you do!

One Hour Rolls

These rolls are amazing! I've been making these rolls since 2001 when I was a newlywed and my sister-in-law shared the recipe with me. The rolls are light, fluffy, easy to make and they only take one hour! And delicious too! I've made these rolls more times than I can count, so I've perfected the art of making them. Here are some step-by-step instructions with pictures for you. Here's what you'll need. I buy pretty much all of the ingredients in this recipe at Sam's club, thus the huge containers. You need warm water, yeast, oil, sugar, salt, egg and flour. In the mixer bowl, add warm water (not hot), oil, sugar and yeast. Mix together. After ten or fifteen minutes the yeast mixture should be puffed up like this. Time to add the salt and beaten egg. Then mix in the flour. (I've used a mixture of half wheat and half white flour successfully.) Keep adding flour until the dough is manageable. It will be a little sticky, b

Don't like your house to smell like food? I've got a kitchen tip for that!

I have a smallish, one story house and if I cook food that is kind of smelly, like onions, the smell tends to linger in every room. This is a pet peeve of mine and (also my husband's). Over the years I've found a few ways to cook smelly food without smelling up the kitchen. Use your garage! I use my garage quite often to cook things in. I open the window and it airs out, especially when you open the garage door. I'm sure my neighbors wonder what I'm cooking. I've used two different kitchen appliances in the garage: my crockpot and my food dehydrator. Crockpot - I did this very thing today since I'm simmering chicken, onions, carrots and celery to make chicken noodle soup tonight. I don't want my house to smell like onions all day, so I plugged it in on my husband's workbench. Food dehydrator - when I make jerky, I plug the food dehydrator in in the garage. I don't really want my house to smell like meat for hours

Week 394 Menu

Hi there! This week is flying by! So excited that we've been having blue skies and warmer weather. Our snow is almost all melted and little bulbs are sprouting in the flower beds. However, we had our 10th snow/ice day last week!!! Hopefully it was the last one. Life has been busy, busy and I need to plan out the rest of our week's menus, even though it's already Thursday. Here's what we've eaten so far and what I'm planning: Monday: chicken stirfry, rice/quinoa Tuesday: breakfast for dinner Wednesday: flatbread pizzas Thursday: roasted butternut squash, pasta, chicken sausage Friday: tacos Saturday: leftovers Sunday: pot roast, mashed potatoes, one hour rolls Alrighty, that's what we're eating this week. How about you? What's on your menu this week? Feel free to share. I love it when you do! More from Jenny:

What is on your menu this week?

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