Coconut flakes

I cleaned out my pantry and cabinets last week and found four bags of flaked coconut so I will be making some of the most perfect cookies in my brand new oven: Laura Bush Cowboy Cookies. That takes care of three cups...now what to do with the rest? Hmmm.

Tomatoes are finally coming around

Alex planted a jungle of tomato plants in our guest room this spring and after painstakingly transplanting them from container to container to container to garden box, they've finally started turning red.

I will admit that tomatoes are not my favorite food. In fact, when eating them raw, I sometimes gag. It's not pretty...for me at least. But Alex loves them...so what's a girl to do?

Hear are a few ideas:

Martini's Bistro - The Twist
Frontega Chicken Panini
Pan Fried Tilapia with White Wine & Capers

The Challenge this Month:

To create menus for eating and storing until the baby arrives.

So far, I've only gone out as far as two weeks with seven entrees I can freeze and save for later.

Here's what it looks like so far (starting March 3):

W - KS Fried Chicken (way better deal than KFC)
Th - Bolognese Sauce served over rice* (ATKFC)
F - 15-minute Veggie Bean & Tomato Soup* (RR)
Sa - Stuffed Bell Peppers*
Su - SFGP- Spinach & Artichoke Dip
M - Red Beans & Rice*
Tu - Eating out 'cuz we're picking up my mom from the airport

W - Chicken Tortilla Soup (BH&G)
Th - Chicken Spaghetti* (PW)
F- Onion Baked Salmon
Sa - Chicken & Rice Soup
Su - SFGP - Taco Soup*
M - Pizza
Tu - Zucchini Soup*

*Meals for freezing
- ATKFC = America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, RR = Rachel Ray, BH&G = Better Homes & Gardens Easy Everday Cooking, PW = Pioneer Woman, OMM = One More Moore

For Lent, our Sundays are taken up with our Small Faith Group meetings (SFGP = Small Faith Group Potlucks). Also because of Lent, we've got to work in our no-meat meals. And I'm not sure what my mom has in store for cooking, so that's why I have trouble planning the last weeks of March.

What I have planned, though, for more make-ahead meals is:
- Adobo
- Chili
- Butternut Squash Soup (OMM)
- Stuffed Shells (ATKFC)
- Baked Ziti (ATKFC)
- Lumpia
- Lasagna

It's going to be a lot of work, but I think I'm going to look forward to eating this month :P

Recent Library Picks

We don't have much time to spend in the library when Annie is with us, so I'm glad our library displays most of their cookbooks near the entrance so we don't have to do a lot of searching. Here are the last two cookbooks we borrowed. Hopefully they'll be full of recipes we can use.

The Best Make-Ahead Recipe: How to Cook Now ... to save Time Later
Better Food for Pregnancy

The first book I borrowed to get ideas for the next baby's first couple of weeks. I haven't had a chance to look through it yet, but I have a feeling most of the yummy recipes will be made for the oven. We still haven't fixed/replaced our oven (we're holding out as long as possible). But I will remain hopeful the book won't let me down.

Annie's Birthday Dinner

So this meal was certainly not catered to fit the likes of children. There were only two and at their age their main interest is not eating, so why fuss! And as far as difficulty, the whole menu was pretty fuss free...mostly dump, stir, and set it and forget it :)

Here's what we had...

1. Salad
2. Baked Brie en Brioche served with crackers
3. BBQ Cocktail Weiners
4. Taco Soup
5. Flower Cupcake Cake (and just realized as I was typing we forgot to serve some ice cream!!)
6. And to drink...hot apple cider

Cheap and Quick Meals

By no means are these meals super healthy. We just make them when we want to cut down on cost or time.

• Spam and Rice - Fry the Spam in a skillet and serve with rice. We also eat it with a side of peas :)
• Quesadillas - We always have cheddar on hand and like to add whatever meat we can, whether it be sandwich meat or leftovers.
• Mungo - Mung beans flavored with chicken broth and sauteed onions and garlic. This is something I grew up on and I love it. Annie likes it now, too. You could call it the Filipino version of Red Beans and Rice.
• Spaghetti and Meat Sauce - this is Annie's fave.
  Corned Beef and Rice - similar to Spam and Rice. You've gotta love meat from a can (or not).
• Ground Beef and Green Beans - From Grandma Mary's kitchen. Brown the beef, add a can of tomato sauce and a can of green beans. Season it with whatever you want and serve over rice. Yum!
• Fried Rice - Must have day old rice and garlic. Throw anything else you want in there.
• Chicken Salad with dried fruit - Shredded or chopped leftover or rotisserie chicken with dried cranberries, sliced almonds, and a little bit of mayo. Serve over a bed of greens or in a sandwich.
• Chicken Pasta Salad - Just like the one listed above without the almonds and cranberries and with the rainbow rotini pasta. I've even used canned chicken before (that's when I'm real lazy). I like to throw in some frozen peas as well.

Meal Planning

So when Alex and I were dating and when we were first married, we'd go out to eat all the time. I kid you not - sometimes 6 sometimes 7 times a week. Luckily, during that time we both had full-time jobs and lots of time to exercise. Nowadays, that's not the case. So meal planning has saved us and helped us prioritize things a lot more.

Create a Menu

Get inputs - We basically stick to a week long meal plan which only consists of meals for dinner - breakfast and lunch are almost always done on the fly. If Alex isn't available to give me inputs for what meals we want to have, I always have him approve the list when I'm done - although I am sometimes married to a garbage disposal I would rather him be ok with the menu than grimmace and eat.

Get Kitchen Inventory - While I'm making the list, I survey the the cabinets (we don't have a pantry - Argh!) and the fridge for items we already have and items we need (i.e. milk, cheese, eggs, etc.). From there I start to get ideas of what kind of meals we can make.

Create Schedule - I order the meals according to who likes what best so that that person can eat the leftovers for lunch the next day. This works so well for us and our work schedules. The meal of the day is also determined by what's in the fridge and what will go bad first. This is probably a no brainer.

Get Weekly Groceries

Make a list according to you kitchen inventory - The menu for the week should give you an idea of what you'll need from the store. By only going to the grocery store with the items you know you'll need has saved us a lot of money.

Plan on using extras - Sometimes you can only get certain things at the store that are too much for one meal (i.e. vegetables, a whole baguette). If I need only half of an ingredient for a meal, rather than making the meal bigger, I just plan another meal with the same ingredient.

Shop the ads - We try to only go shopping one day a week and I typically try to wait until the weekly grocery ads have been mailed to us. This also helps in deciding what we'll have on the menu. We make sure we get the best deals by comparing what's available at different stores.

Coupons - Use them if you have the time to clip them. We frequently use Costco coupons.

Change it up

Be flexible - Sometimes we get lazy so we don't follow the meal plan exactly.

Try a new recipe - Cooking the same meals gets boring so we try to make something new once a week or so.

Treat yourself - Go out to eat once in a while. Cooking at home can be a drag. And who wants to do dishes all the time? Not me. That is my least favorite chore. Lately we've been going to Taco Tues. at a local place here. Yum!

More Tips

Fit your meals into your budget - Sometimes during the month we have to make some pretty hefty purchases like plane tickets, and this month, a car seat. So many of our meals have been on the cheap side - like spam and rice, corn beef on rice, mac and cheese (with spam :), spaghetti). We don't eat like this all the time, but it's nice to know we can adjust our weekly spending easily with choosing the right meals.

Easy Meal Prep - If you have to cut veggies for one meal and more for another meal, just cut them all at the same time and save them in the fridge. You can do this for most veggies. I like to cut veggies and meat when Annie is napping. It never fails that she wants to be held right when your in the middle of chopping up raw chicken.