The weekend went by so fast!  The best thing about this weekend was all the rain we received in this drought stricken area.  What an answer to many prayers!  It was such a blessing to hear the thunder and the falling rain and to smell the freshness of the air.  And it was so cool today that it reminded me of being in Colorado (if I shut my eyes and imagined the mountains).

What sounds good to eat this week?  Here’s what we have in mind:
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Monday:  Salmon Patties, corn, salad

Tuesday:  Rotisserie Chicken, broccoli, carrots

Wednesday: Homemade chicken vegetable soup using Rotisserie Chicken

Thursday:  Chicken Tacos, black beans, avocado slices

Friday: Pizza, salad

We went out of town and had a wonderful time with our kids and grandkids this past weekend celebrating our daughter’s 30th birthay.  Now, it’s time to think about the work week and it’s time to think about food. Here’s our simple menu for this week:
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Monday: Rotisserie Chicken, corn, salad

Tuesday: Chef Salad with fresh veggies and leftover Rotisserie Chicken

Wednesday: Homemade chicken vegetable soup

Thursday: Italian Chicken Pasta (Barilla Plus Pasta) and salad

Friday: Pizza, salad

It’s Sunday evening again and time to think about this week’s menu.  Seems like I just did last week’s…the week flew by!  This week is going to be super crazy for me!  My husband will be making the salmon patties, and he has gotten quite good at making them since I got this teaching job!
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Here’s our simple menu for this week:
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Monday:  Salmon Patties (one of our very favorite recipes), corn, green beans

Tuesday:  Leftover Salmon Patties, baby lima beans, tomatoes & carrots

Wednesday: Rotisserie Chicken, leftover baby lima beans, salad

Thursday:  Leftover Rotisserie Chicken, broccoli, corn

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As I’m writing this on Sunday evening, I’m still thinking about the absolutely beautiful sunset sky we just saw.  There are storm clouds on several sides of us, and before the sun set, the colors were beautiful.  Plus there were some very interesting cloud formations.  Our creator is the master artist who can paint the sky with such beauty!
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Now to think about food.  Here’s our simple menu for this week:
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Monday: Rotisserie Chicken, corn, salad

Tuesday:  Chef Salad with fresh veggies and leftover Rotisserie Chicken

Wednesday:  Homemade chicken vegetable soup

Thursday:  Italian Chicken Pasta (Barilla Plus Pasta) and salad

Friday: Pizza, salad

Love the weekends!  Teaching school is very tiring.  Most teachers put in many more hours than some people realize.  It’s tiring physically, mentally, and sometimes emotionally.  If one teacher tells another teacher that they came home and were exhausted, the other teacher will understand exactly what they mean!  And there are other professions plus being a stay-at-home mom that understand exactly what is meant too!
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So how does the working mom, stay-at-home mom, or working girl eat healthy and spend minimum time in the kitchen?  Processed foods are not that great for us with all the additives (sometimes wonder if they came from Mars) and artificial stuff put in them.  One thing that helps is to go to the store on the weekend and stock up on fresh veggies and fruits.  With these you can have:.

• Assortment of your favorite fresh veggies sauteed in olive oil with salt & pepper (and any spices that you like too)
• Salad with green leaf lettuce and all sorts of raw veggies, avocado (ripe avocado is absolutely delicious in salads), nuts, Oat Bran Sesame Sticks (healthy alternative to croutons and sooo good!)
• Fresh fruit salad with assortment of your favorite fruits

.Here’s an example of something I fixed up last week, quick & easy:
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So…here’s our menu for this week:
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Monday:  Sauteed okra with fresh mushrooms & onions (cooked in olive oil with corn meal, salt & pepper), chicken (note the fresh veggies still have top priority)

Tuesday:  Italian Chicken Pasta (Barilla Plus Pasta) and salad

Wednesday: Chef Salad with fresh veggies and turkey

Thursday:  Some type of fish, sauteed okra with fresh mushrooms & onions

Friday: Pizza, salad

Love these three day weekends!  And I also love my special needs students who I teach, and I feel so blessed to be their teacher.  But…it is a very tiring job and I’m very thankful to have three days to rest up!  It’s going to be a long stretch between now and the Thanksgiving holidays!  I think I voice the opinion of most teachers.  🙂  With that said, here’s our menu for this week:
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Monday:   Eat at Qdoba – use Labor Day coupon for “Buy one entree, get one free”  Yay!!  We really like Qdoba’s food. (Wish our kids could all be here to eat with us!  They really like Qdoba, too, and their salad and chicken would fit in with Christi’s Freshology meals.)

Tuesday:  Sauteed yellow squash with fresh mushrooms & green beans (cooked in olive oil with salt & pepper and garlic powder), chicken (note the veggies have top priority)

Wednesday: Chef Salad with fresh veggies and turkey

Thursday: Salmon Patties, corn, green beans

Friday: Pizza, salad

Yay!! We all survived the first week of school. Most of us teachers were exhausted by this past Friday. The past two weeks, I did two 50 hour work weeks back to back plus my blogging job opps. This past Saturday, I stayed in my PJ’s most of the day and didn’t venture out of the house. We had good leftovers to eat so we didn’t really have to cook. It was a restful day! With that said, here’s our menu for this week:
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Monday: Eat out! Yay!

Tuesday: Chicken Italian Pasta, salad, sauteed yellow squash

Wednesday: Chef Salad with fresh veggies and easy homemade turkey bacon (free of nitrates,nitrites, etc.)

Thursday: Salmon Patties (we really like Salmon Patties, can you tell?), corn, green beans

Friday: Pizza, salad

Well, “summer” is over!  School is starting, and I have my room ready and nearly everything done.  I’ve been thinking about my menu planning for the next few weeks, and I’m really going to try to have healthier meals.  They will be healthy meals and full of flavor, but I probably won’t have a lot of exciting recipes to share with you.  Instead, I thought I would focus on healthy things to share with you during the next few months. Here’s an easy menu again for this week:

Monday:  Leftover rotisserie chicken, sauteed yellow squash with fresh mushrooms & onions, sliced tomatoes

Tuesday: Chef Salad with fresh veggies and turkey

Wednesday: Chicken Italian Pasta, salad

Thursday: Salmon Patties, corn, green beans

Friday: Pizza, salad

We had another great weekend! On Friday, we headed out to get our son moved in for the fall semester of college and also to see our daughter (Christi @ Frugal Novice) and her family on the same trip.  It’s always great being with family!  We had three family birthdays to celebrate, so it was a lot of fun!

Teachers and staff start back tomorrow, so I want a super easy menu.  Plus, I want to lose at least five pounds!   Here’s our menu:

Monday: Chef Salad with turkey

Tuesday:   Chef Salad with fresh veggies and turkey

Wednesday: Chicken Pasta, salad

Thursday: Chef Salad with chicken

Friday: Veggie pizza, salad

We had a great weekend!  On Saturday, we took advantage of Bank of America’s “Museums on Us” and went to the Ft. Worth Museum of Science and History for free.  After that, we got frozen yogurt at Yogurtland in what’s called “Montgomery Plaza.”  Yummy and refreshing on a very hot day!  Then we went to a little local museum (free) called “The Leonard Museum” which was quaint and had interesting history of the Leonard Department Store and Subway.  After supper, we headed home.

It’s great to check out the area around where you live (say a 50 mile radius) and make a day trip to museums and other areas of interest.  Makes for a lot of good memories and doesn’t cost much.

This is the last week before teachers start back, so I don’t want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.  We have a lot to do and accomplish this week.  Here’s our tentative menu:

Monday:  Chicken tenders, fresh veggie medley (yellow squash, okra, and onion coated with corn meal and fried in olive oil just until tender – one of our favorites!)

Tuesday:   Salmon Patties, corn, green beans

Wednesday:  Chicken Pasta, salad

Thursday:   Asian Chicken Fried Rice with Broccoli

Friday: Pizza, salad

It is crazy hot here in Texas! The Weather Channel forecasts 105 degrees or more for the next 10 days…10 days!!  Tuesday is forecast to be 109 degrees (plus the heat index)!  Oh, how I wish we could go to the Rockie Mountains in Colorado this week.  Specifically, Summit County and the Silverthorne area (forecast high this week is 77 degrees and low is 47 degrees), but since we can’t be there then here’s a little slide show of absolutely gorgeous scenery.  Note the picture of the outlet mall.  Our daughter, Christi (Frugal Novice), and I have shopped there several summers at the Silverthorne Outlet Mall on vacations throughout the years.

As far as menu planning, this week I’m trying something new on Monday.  Notice all cooking is done on the stove top.  NO OVEN USE IN MY KITCHEN THIS WEEK DUE TO EXCESSIVE HEAT!
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Monday:  Spatzle Swabian Egg Noodle Soup  (new recipe)  &  Salad

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Spatzle Swabian Egg Noodle Soup

.INGREDIENTS:

• Aldi’s Homemade Spatzle Swabian Egg Noodles imported from Germany, cook before adding to soup
  
• 1 can of chicken broth
• 2 chicken breasts cooked in olive oil and cut into small pieces before adding to soup
• 1/2 cup chopped onion, cook with chicken until browned a little
• Our favorite frozen veggies – 2 cups
• Spices (taste as I go, add a little of this & a little of that).

Simmer just until veggies are tender.  Top with a little shredded Swiss Cheese.

Note:  What is “Spatzle” and “Swabian” Egg Noodles?  According to Wikipedia, Spaetzle is a Swabian type egg noodle (made of wheat and eggs) of soft texture found in the cuisine of Germany and of Austria, Switzerland, and Hungary.  Swabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in Germany, so these particular type of egg noodles originally come from there.  Once thought a poor man’s food, these noodles are now a delicacy.

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Tuesday:  Salmon patties, broccoli and corn
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Wednesday:  Leftover salmon patties, fresh squash medley (yellow squash, zucchini, & onion), salad
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Thursday:  Scrambled eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, orange juice & pancakes for dessert
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Friday:  Pizza (Carryout pizza – not sure what kind yet)

Summer is passing by so fast…too fast! School will be starting before we know it, I’ll be going back to teaching, and our son will be leaving to go back to college. Now, for this week, I have a taste for fish so salmon is on the menu:

Monday: Easy Herbed Grilled Salmon, corn, baby French green beans

Tuesday: Leftover salmon, squash medley with onions

Wednesday: Italian Chicken Pasta with HEB Marinara Sauce (recommended by daughter, Christi), salad

Thursday:   Homemade chicken noodle soup loaded with lots of fresh veggies

Friday: Pizza, salad