Holiday meal planning

This time of year I find it more important than ever to have a good plan. This goes for menu planning as well as holiday activities - stop back in tomorrow for this year's holiday activity garland! There is so much going on that I don't want to have to think too much during the week, and I want to make sure we make time for the important things.

Today let's talk about menu planning - I will be using my slow cooker at least once a week, and I'll be doing quite a bit of freezer cooking, both meals and cookies! When you have an especially hectic week ahead, it helps to create a menu plan that uses many of the same ingredients across meals - that way you can prep several meals at once and then just finish them throughout the week. For example, this week I defrosted a large amount of lean ground beef for our meals. I cooked it all up with some onion and seasoning and then removed a third of it. The larger portion got taco seasoning for taco salads and a Mexican casserole. The smaller portion became sloppy joe.

For a day when you're planning cookie or candy making, it helps to schedule something from the freezer or a crockpot meal, both for lunch and dinner! My favorite crock pot pulled pork is a good choice because it's so versatile - serve it on sandwiches for lunch and then with mashed potatoes and green beans for dinner. It's also quick and easy to make into burritos, tetrazzini, or moo shoo pork.

For breakfast this week we'll be having oatmeal cake bars. I'll share the recipe later this week, it's based off of the delicious baked oatmeal recipe from $5 dinners. For lunches we'll be having soup, sandwiches and apples with peanut butter. Here's what's on the menu for dinner:

Monday: beef burgundy with noodles and stuffing
Tuesday: sloppy joes with baked beans and potato chips
Wednesday: cinnamon pancakes, eggs and candied bananas
Thursday:enchilada casserole with corn cakes
Friday: taco salads with chips and salsa
Saturday: steak mole with rice and guacamole
Sunday: lentil soup with grilled ham sandwiches

What's on your menu this week? For more inspiration, visit OrgJunkie's Menu Plan Monday.

Babywearing - A sweet ride

EmDee and I finally peeked out of the dark ages and decided to get Blackberries instead of the antique phones we had been carrying around. I was wearing Sugar Plum around doing some organizing and decided to try out the camera on my new phone. I've mentioned before that I have a real shortage of babywearing photos, and as with almost all of the ones I DO have, these are self portraits. The quality isn't great, but it's certainly not bad for inside. In one of them there is enough detail to tell I need to clean the mirror...{blushing}

What are you doing back there, Mommy?!

Oh, now I see. Who is that adorable baby over there?

Hey hot stuff, how YOU doin'?

Playing Store - more play learning ideas

I mentioned last week that one of our favorite uses for the big cardboard box was playing store. I'm glad Sweetpea thinks this is so fun, because it's a great way to practice counting, vocabulary and grammar, and her manners.

Everything we use to play store are things we have around the house. We pick toys from the toy box to "sell" and they get displayed on top of the box. Then we need money, of course. For that, some small paper from a note pad will do the trick.


We decided to get fancy and decorate it to look like "real" money. (at least she got the color right!)


Now we're ready to play! We take turns being the customer. The customer gets Sweetpea's play purse filled with the money we made. Once all the money is gone, we switch places and start over.

Anyone in the market for a hairbrush or some mega blocks? :)

I mentioned before that this is a great learning game. Here are some of the things we are practicing while we play:

1) Vocabulary - we practice using the words of the toys and phrases that you would use in a retail environment. (Hello, how are you today? What can I get for you? Would you like to buy some...)

2) Grammar - it's a good chance to practice using correct verb tense and personal pronouns, for example.

3) Counting - we count the items purchased and we count the money when we are paying each other. It also gives us a chance to talk about the value of certain things, though I think this might be a bit over her head at this point - when she is the clerk nearly everything is $2!

4) Manners - we practice how to greet each other politely, when to say please and thank you, and appropriate ways to say goodbye.

What kind of play learning games do you play with your children? I'd love to hear about the games you use!