the honorary swedish citizen

Over the last couple days, my Facebook status updates have been me either whining because I just couldn’t get my menu for the next two weeks done (to be fair, I messed up my back and just couldn’t concentrate) or whining because our bed we ordered in June is STILL NOT HERE.  

Its September now.  

I called several days in a row and then freaked myself out a little that they had a note in my file that said, “THE CRAZY ONE” and gave it a break for a couple days.  I called yesterday and after I was on hold for about 10 minutes (for the second time) she came back on the line and said, in a slightly rushed voice, “I need to call you back, we’re having an emergency at the call center.”  

Click.

Its probably lost again.

Anyway, I had a lot of people request my list of menu items for the next couple weeks.  This list sort of threw me for a loop because of a couple different factors.  

1. Craig now gets paid two times a month as opposed to every two weeks.  I try to stick with his pay schedule, because, well, I don’t really know why.  I guess that’s the way I always do it and it seems somewhat “Depression Era” now that I write it out.  Oh well.  But this means that there are more days per Menu.  I tried to do my normal 8 meals and we were still about a week out from his next payday.  Ooops.

2. I have decided to take on a “No Cold Cereal Challenge.”  I don’t know why.  It sounded like a good idea at the time.  Usually I bring home about four boxes of cereal, but this time it was just one.  I’ll let you know how this goes the first morning we are late for school and there is not one breakfast item in the house that takes less than 40 minutes to make/eat.

3. We are eating out a lot less.  

4. I have also worked this menu out for the first time where it is planned out TO THE DAY.  I have never done this before, just picked out what I wanted to make on that day.  I also never planned out lunches or breakfasts.  I was always a little leery of doing this because I like to be spontaneous.  Like, why have a frittata on the menu when I have a hankering for roast beef on that particular day?  And planning out lunch just seemed to be a waste of time.

Au contraire!  Having meals planned out to the day makes things SO FREAKING EASY.  You do all the work planning it out, and then you just do what it says.  

Done.  

So here’s a terrible photo of my menu for the week.  I am not so committed to it that I write it out in Sharpie.  

So the meals I have are:

Spinach and Bacon Frittata (5dollardinners.com)

Simply Lasagna, Homemade Bread, Salad (My own recipe)

Stroganoff (New one From Family Circle, haven’t tried it yet.  No, I am NOT TOO PROUD to have a subscription to Family Circle.)

Feta Spinach Chicken Burgers (From Sam’s. Go now and get them.  Now.  They’re that good.)

Chicken Fajitas (A mash up of a recipe from 5dollardinners and one in Family Circle.  I’m telling you- there’s good stuff in there.)

Awfully Easy Chicken and Cheddar-Mashed Potato Casserole (Chicken consists of throwing a bunch of chicken breasts in a crock pot and squirting half a bottle of bbq over it and then turning it on.  Its that easy.  Potatoes are from Food and Family and I haven’t tried them yet.)

Brown Sugar Chicken and Rice (From crockpot365.blogspot.com.  You NEED to check this website out if you are a mom, a busy person, lazy, or like good food.  Now.)

Salsa Chicken and Black Bean Soup (See previous note.)

Tarragon Chicken and a Salad (Rachael Ray.  You can find the recipe and photo here: http://jenah.tumblr.com/post/5044440359/chicken-with-mustard-tarragon-sauce)

Corn Chowder (Crockpot365, haven’t tried it yet.)

Peperoncini Beef Sandwiches (If you’ve never made this, it needs to be in your menu for the next week.  It is not much harder to make than the Awfully Easy Chicken deal and SOOOOO GOOOOD.  You can see the recipe here: http://jenah.tumblr.com/post/3593233084/peperoncini-beef-sandwiches)

Also, if you have comments/questions/rants/raves please post them here, not on FB!  Thanks, and happy eating!