Down Mulberry Lane

Menu Simplicity...

Being a stay at home mom, I often fizzle out with the menus.  I cook breakfast, I prepare lunch, I make supper... and it goes round and round every day, with hardly a break.  Coming up with new ideas is frustrating at times and always turning to the oldies seems a bit boring.  However with a menu that changes from week to week, sometimes creating the next one, it gets delayed.  So, you fall back to some regulars in the cupboard and you feel frustrated with your lack of creativity in the meal department. 

Have you been there?  I found a nicer way to make a menu.  I'm still allowed a bit of creativity.  I'm still allowed to branch out from the old stand-by's.  And, if I desire an old favorite, that can be worked in, too.  I don't have to redo my menu every week and start from scratch to come up with something new.  Most changes in the menu can be brought on by a simple sale at the grocery store and just keeping in mind your menu. 

Here is how I compile my menus, to simplify menu making and still allow for something new and fresh.  I first sit down and write down all the things I like to eat, all the things my family likes to eat, and even add some nutritious things in there as well.  Then I categorize these foods.  We like mexican foods, so one of our categories is Mexican.  On Monday I assigned the day for mexican.  I have in my homemaking notebook, a list of Mexican dishes that we like to eat.  I try to be sure to have one or two of these on hand in the house at the same time.  Some examples of our mexican dishes are:  Enchiladas, Burritos, Fajitas, Homemade tacos, Taco crescent pie, and Mexican Scrambled Eggs (serve in a burrito... Nummm!).  When I do my shopping, I keep these in mind, as I've scanned the ads for the grocery stores and try to find a meal that falls in line with the sales of the food. 

On some days, I have one category, like Mexican has it's own day.  But other days, I may have Soup and Hot sandwiches together and I alternate between the two.   On Sundays, we eat only two meals, so they are larger meals in general and ones that I take more time to prepare.  The other days we eat three meals. 

I make the categories for lunch and for breakfast as well.  At first , I thought I would always fall back on the "old stand-by's", but I didn't.  With this style of menu making, I am more able to think ahead.  I also am on the ball come meal time and I am less likely to serve a meal at the last moment.  I'm not perfect, but my husband will agree that this has helped me stay on top of meals.  If you like trying new recipes, reserve a night for that... or simply add a side dish to a favorite menu. 

You may have enough categories to fill 2 weeks worth.  I caution you in working the menu that way, especially if you struggle in keeping up with your menus.  Make up a one week menu/ doubling up categories on one day's meals  (especially if you only have one or two meals under a category).    When you get used to your menu, it will be easy to work with.  You will have flexibility and ease with daily cooking and preparing of meals.  If a day ends up busy on your week's worth of plans, just flip flop a day, if needed. 

Now, seasonally, you may want to change your menus.  This way you can work with the change of fruits and veggies in a season.  It will also perhaps go with your activity better.  In the summer, I like lighter fresher foods, some grilled foods.  In the winter, I like a heavier meal... like chili!  But keep in mind, you likely won't have to completely overhaul your menus.  A tweak here and there may be needed, but categories are often still relevant to your style of eating and instead of eating baked enchiladas in the winter, you may change to a lighter taco salad in the summer. 

Well, I will end my post by listing a menu that I have used, to give you some ideas.  Note:  Side dishes and fruits and veggies are often not listed, but are in my head to include as I make out my grocery list.   Just didn't want to scare you thinking I don't eat fruits, veggies and breads on the side!  Also, my menu is heavy on supper meals.  It is actually best to make the last meal a bit lighter, however, my husband requests a heavy meal in the evening... since that is when he is around...and those are his favorite meals. 

Monday:  B:  Peanut butter toast with applesauce/alternating with egg muffins     Lunch:  is Soup or leftovers.   Supper:  Mexican

Tuesday:  B:  Cereal or something with syrup (waffles, pancakes, cornbread,) served with eggs, fruit, etc.  Lunch:  Hot Dogs (fried potatoes and sliced dogs, beans and weiners, hot dogs in buns and tater tots, etc.) or leftovers.   Supper:  Crockpot meals / alternating with baked potato meals

Wednesday:  B:  Hot Cereal (oatmeal, malt-o-meal, whole grain cereal)   L:  Mac 'n' Cheese or leftovers  S:  Soup / alternating with hot sandwiches (bread, meat or alternative, topped with mashed potatoes and gravy)

Thursday:   B:  Muffins (blueberry, streusel, cranberry/walnut, etc.)   L:  Sandwiches (egg, PB and J, veggie link spread, salad sand, grilled, etc.) or leftovers  S:  Pasta (spaghetti, mannicotti, cavatini, ravioli, fettucini alfredo, etc.)

Friday:  B:  Cereal or CHOICE   L:  Bean burritos or leftovers    S:  Burgers or Sub Sandwiches (sloppy joes, patty type burgers, etc.) 

Saturday:  B:  Bagels or Cinnamon Rolls    L:  TBA (usually potluck at church... and they "theme" the potlucks)   S:  Pizza or leftovers or popcorn or haystacks

Sunday:  B:  Farm Melts with some type of fruit crisp or fruit cake type item (not fruit cake, but apple cake or blueberry coffee cake, type of thing).   L/S:  Favorite big meals (chiK pot Pie, sour cream and mushroom patties, favorite veggie loaves, roasted chicken with the fixings). 

Remember to make the menu "yours".  It works best when you follow what you cook best and what is comfortable for you.   Always feel free to try something new on any day... you always have that option.  Having the basic plan will help you have more time to plan for some creative menus and some new recipes. 

Warmly, ~Melissa

My Top Three Favorite Breakfast Menus

I'm hoping you will join me in sharing your favorites.  I'm having a slump with breakfast making and want to get some ideas.  If you join in, please leave a comment, so I can visit your blog and we can share our ideas! 

1)  My family's favorite breakfast menu is currently Farm Melts.  Making Farm Melts, is simple, but it is a bit time consuming until you get it down.  We have a family of 6 and when they see the food come out... I usually have ample helpers, as they enjoy this meal.  

To make:  Layer these foods below...

Potato pieces (this can be anything you have on hand... leftover baked potatoes fried up, Southern Hashbrowns baked, tater tots baked, those flat tater tots baked, homemade hashbrowns, etc. )

Scrambled Eggs:  (Scrambled tofu is good, too)

Sausage pieces:  (Your choice, we like vegetarian links, morningstar links or patties, Dh enjoys beef links).  I cut to bite sized pieces

Lightly fried veggies (we enjoy peppers, onions, occasionally I'll add cauliflower and broccoli, even!)

Cheese Sauce:  (can be a velveta cheese block diced (cut a portion for your family size) with a little milk and melt in a double boiler... OR a cashew sauce is wonderful with this, too!) 

To make a menu:  Farm melts with toast, or muffins, or waffles... or rolls... it is good with most anything, but best with something on hand, otherwise breakfast could take a long time to make!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2)  Homemade Waffles with a fruit sauce.  (this is my favorite, but I rarely make it... the fruit sauce intimidates me on some days, which is silly, because it really takes very little time to make)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

3) Peanut Buttered Toast with Warm Applesauce smothered on top... Mmmmmm!  Quick and easy and GOOOD! 

Hope you'll join me!

Warmly, ~Melissa

Today's meals...

We had an odd assortment of meals.  Sundays tend to do that around here. 

Breakfast:  oatmeal and ww toast.

Lunch:  Submarine Sandwiches.  Everyone had turkey subs, but me... I had roasted vegetables with cashew cheese sauce on my sandwich... delightful!  Dh had roasted veggies with his sandwich as well. 

Supper:  Multigrain waffles and (some had eggs). 

Extras:  I hear them talking about banana shakes since we have over a dozen spotted bananas downstairs.  Paige and I are hidden upstairs, so we will stay out of the late evening sweet treats. 

Warmly, ~Melissa

Breakfast!... homemade powdered sugar!

I made cinnamon roll dough in the bread machine last night.  As I was putting the rolls aside to rise, I began to make the frosting and discovered I had not a DROP of powdered sugar in the house.  Town is 20 minutes away and really not worth the drive, so we were trying to figure out if we could make our own.  And we discovered we could!  

First, I tried white sugar and I was thinking blender, but my daughter suggested the coffee grinder.  So we pulled out the coffee grinder and added about a 1/4 cup of sugar to it and started grinding.  Soon I had some nice fine puffy white sugar.  I ground about 3/4 cup and got a little over a cup of powdered sugar. 

I then tried cane sugar.  (AND got my camera out).  Below are pics of the cane sugar and the ground cane sugar.

My husband was wondering why in the world I was taking pictures of sugar.  I told him I was going to blog about it.  He laughed and said... you're going to blog about making breakfast??  I asked him if he knew how to make powdered sugar and he said... ummmm.... "beat it to death?"   I laughed and said... well, that's why I'm going to blog about it... maybe someone else might run out of powdered sugar and wonder what to do next...!

Here are the two frostings I made with our home ground powdered sugar.  The brown one is from using the cane sugar.  I also had soy cream cheese in that one, which is why I had TWO frostings.  The other frosting is white sugar ground and was nice and fluffy.  I didn't  add quite enough sugar to the soy icing, but I was satisfied for myself and I knew it would melt into the rolls anyways, so I didn't bother making it quite as fluffy.  The color difference is soley from the difference in sugars, though, as I've made the soy icing with white sugar and it looks just the same as the one on the right. 

As for the rest of breakfast, we had our own style of Perkins skillet bowls on the side.  Layer in a bowl, hash brown potatoes (or those flat tater rounds), top with scrambled eggs, sausage of some sort if you prefer (dh uses beef sausage or lamb sausage... I go without), then top with a cheese sauce.  (Melting velveta with a tad of milk in a double boiler works great... however, I used a cashew alfredo sauce for my cheese sauce and found it quite tasty).  Todays doubles... cheese sauces and icings. 

Warmly, ~Melissa

Ginger Cookies

I thought I would share the pic of our ginger cookies.  They are nice cookies.  The family is enjoying them.  They are flatter than I expected, but they are staying soft, with a crisp edge.  We have a small melon ball sized ice cream scoop that we make cookies with and these are a rounded scoop and they ended up over 2 inches across.  The recipe was for large cookies, to make 24.  I made 30 and I still think they are quite large.  This box is about a 9 by 9 box that they are sitting in. 

I got the recipe from ALLRECIPES.  They are called Big Soft Ginger Cookies and were submitted by Amy1028.  Just in case you want to look up the recipe yourself! 

Warmly, ~Melissa

Tonight's Supper Table

Tonight we had chili and cornbread for supper.  I don't know why, but I really dislike chili the "first day".  The flavor is much better after it sits in the fridge a day. 

I tried a new recipe.  Dh's is as always, but I tried a new vegetarian chili.  It had rave reviews, but the flavorings are not to my liking at the moment.  I will try it again tomorrow and see if I like it better.  It is quite spicy, like Dh's favorite chili, and it had alot of oregano so tonight it tasted like chili with a jar of spaghetti sauce in it.  Weird is all I can say.  LOL. 

I also made two batches of cornbread.  One with soy milk and one with almond milk.  I actually liked the almond milk version better.  It was moister for some reason.  I had actually used the soymilk and forgot about my little one, so I had to whip up a second batch for her as well. 

Supper filled us up, but it wasn't our favorite.  My daughter suggested next time I make chili to let it sit in the fridge a day and THEN serve it the next day... for the first round.  Maybe next time I will.  *grin*

Warmly, ~Melissa

Pepper Jelly...

Yesterday I made 14 jars of pepper jelly.  A friend had asked if I would make some for them at the beginning of this summer.  I've been thinking about it for quite some time, waiting for the peppers to ripen... and finally I had enough to make some.  I was really glad to get that job done. 

I will be making some raspberry pepper jelly as soon as I get to the store or Farmer's Market for some jalapeno's.  Dh requested that jelly.  My jalapenos didn't come up in the garden, so I'll need to purchase those. 

Nice to get something into the pantry for a change! 

Warmly,  ~Melissa

Wednesday's Kitchen

Breakfast:  Waffles (with syrup or peanut butter and applesauce)

Lunch:  Assortment... Steve had leftover cavatinni, The girls had  turkey sandwiches, and I had lightly fried zucchini, yellow summer squash and onions with a bit of leftover spaghetti

Supper:  Rice, chicken and CORN ON THE COB (again! LOL)

Harvest/Freezer:  20 Quart bags of corn, 4 gallon sized bags of corn on the cob.

Warmly, ~Melissa

Tuesday's Kitchen...

Breakfast:  Waffles (either with syrup or peanut butter with applesauce on top)

Lunch/Supper:  Spaghetti and Sauce, with a green salad and french bread

Baking:  French Bread, made 3 small loaves, one for us and one for Dh and one for DH's leftovers

Warmly, ~Melissa

Monday's Kitchen...

Breakfast:  French Toast with beef sausage

Lunch/Supper:  Hot Dogs with Corn on the Cob

Harvest/Freezer:  24 Quarts of sweet corn for the freezer

Warmly, ~Melissa