MENU PLANNING MONDAY
This is my first attempt to plan my dinner menus for the week. It had been on my mind a lot over the past couple of weeks, but I hadn't done anything about it. I figured it would probably make my life a lot easier since food shopping here in Beijing makes menu planning on the fly very difficult.
So often I open up my cookbooks or food magazines and decide to cook a healthy, easy and quick recipe only to find:
*I can't get one or more key ingredient,
*I have to comb the 4 or 5 import stores to find a desired ingredient (and cross my fingers its in stock),
* or worse yet, one of the ingredients is a premade convenience items that doesn't exist here in China (i.e., spice mix packets, dip mix, pre-cooked chicken strips, sauces & salad dressings, etc, etc.).
More than once I've decided what to make for dinner only to put it off more than a day or two until I can gather all of the needed ingredients.
Anyway, you can see why weekly menu planning might just be a life saver for me! So when I saw the link up at orgjunkie.com, that was the push I needed to give it a try. So here it goes:
Mon: Ginger Pork (from WW Pantry to Plate cookbook)
Tues: Slow Cooker Japanese Curry (recipe from box - I just throw it in the slow cooker)
Wed: Diner Meatloaf Muffins Topped with Potatoes (Thanks to orgjunkie.com for this idea.)
Thurs: Waffles (recipe from The Best Recipe Cookbook & altered by me to be HealthIER - but still delicious) or Leftovers
Fri: Order Pizza or Leftovers (boys choose)
Sat: Leftovers
Sun: Homemade Pizza (recipe for dough from Allrecipes.com)
I was thinking I might even try to menu plan two weeks in advance so that I have one week to gather all needed ingredients. But, I'll see how this first week goes and adjust if I need to.
If you want to give menu planning a try, go here and link up too!
And as a thank you for stopping by my blog, I thought I would share with you a healthIER carrot cake recipe I concocted Sunday afternoon:
Healthier (yet still delicious) Carrot Cake
(I altered this recipe quite a bit, making it healthier, using a recipe passed on from a friend supposedly from the J. Paul Getty museum - not sure that is true, but that is what the unprofessional looking paper says. I hope to make this recipe even healthier, but still delicious, in the future. This was my first go with it.)
1 Cup (8 oz.) canola oil
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1 1/2 Cups light brown sugar
3 eggs
2/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2/3 cup oat bran
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
4 tsp pure vanilla extract
3/4 tsp salt
3 cups shredded carrots
1 cup finely chopped walnuts (optional)
1/2 cup crushed pineapple (drained)
Cream Cheese Icing (see below for recipe)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees (approx 180 degrees Celsius - google it for exact conversion). Combine all wet ingredients in a bowl and whisk. In a separate bowl combine all dry ingredients and whisk together well. Combine dry & wet ingredients and fold together until well blended and smooth. Never over mix or whisk or cake will become tough. Pour into greased 9x13 inch baking pan.
Bake 50-55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. If you want to make cupcakes, reduce baking time to 30-35 minutes. Cool completely, then frost with Cream Cheese Icing.
(Not healthier) Cream Cheese Icing
1- 8 ounce packages (250g) cream cheese, softened
3 tablespoons (1.5 oz) unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar (icing sugar)
Beat cream cheese and butter together until creamy, add vanilla & icing sugar a little at a time until fully blended. The longer you mix, the creamier the icing will be. Mix until desired consistency.
OUR WEEK IN PHOTOS
Sunday, April 3
We took a cooking class this day that taught us how to make traditional bread for the Qing Ming Festival. We are posing here with our works of art and the family who joined us.
#2At work. My husband, usually a very good cook, was having so much trouble with this dough. Somehow, despite carefully weighing all of the ingredients, he ended up with a very dry mixture. The rest of us were starting to shape our breads and he still had a powdery mess. I had to laugh! But eventually, (with some help from me!) it came together (literally & figureatively) and he made a lovely turtle!
Monday, April 4I see this electrical mess right outside our apartment complex driveway everyday. If you can put the potential danger of an electrical fire out of your mind, it is really quite hysterical that this capital city hasn't figured out how to 'straighten' this problem out. And it is right next to a busy bus stop. Luckily there is a small suface street between our sidewalk and this parkway. My husband and I joked that this might be how they are blocking the internet. We think it is some sophisticated technology, but really they are going around tangling up all of the wires.
Tuesday, April 5 On the way home from dinner in Ritan park to enjoy the blossoms, Paul found this lady on the street selling phone cards and convinced her to exchange the international phone card, our oldest son bought on accident, for a domestic phone card so we could go home and pay our internet bill!
Wednesday, April 6Nicholas loves to make funny Power Point presentations to amuse his friends. This night he came up with the idea to use his Ed Emberly drawing book to create more characters for his presentations because they are all made from simple shapes using simple instructions. (If you have children that like drawing or want to learn, I highly recommend Ed Emberly's books - so simple & so creative.)
#2
The first picture he made using the instructions from the drawing book.
Thursday, April 7 I got to observe Nicholas' class all day on Thursday. This was during the afternoon free work time. He and his friend were doing research for an upcoming paper.
Friday, April 7 Recent finger-print artwork Braden brought home from school. Last month they were studying Africa and these are the animals he made. I hung these up on my wall behind my desk.
Saturday, April 8 Braden & Reece took a seat on the wall while they were waiting for Dad & I to lock up the bikes. Then we crossed the street to check out the new bookstore from Singapore (Page One) in the new China World mall. We are so excited to have this bookstore! It has the largest selection of 'normal' books I have seen any where in Beijing! It is a wonderful new addition to our lives here in Beijing. I will go back soon without the kids so I can get lost amongst the shelves. They even have a hobby section and a HUGE cookbook section. And so many books in English!
COMING UP ON THE BLOG
*Sunday, April 17 - Alphanumeric Blog Hop for fun! This one is hosted by blog friend, Mel from her blog, I Speak Melsh. Stay tuned for more details. This one sounds very, very interesting...
ONE LITTLE WORD Blog Hop
*May 1 - OLW Monthly Blog Hop (One on 1) - I host this blog hop every month on the 1st. It is a blog hop for students of Ali Edwards' One Little Word class at Big Picure Classes. You can still sign up for the class as well as the blog hop (if you are a student). For the class, go to BigPictureClasses.com and for the blog hop, go to the OLW classroom message boards and there is information on how to sign-up in the Chit Chat section.
FAMILY x 12 Mini Blog Hop
* May 5 I will have a mini blog-hop to showcase my monthly personal project FAMILY x 12. If you are taking a monthly family photo (or would like to start) and would like to join us for a little support, motivation and light accountability, leave me a comment or send me an email and I'll be in touch with the details. (A family photo can be whatever you define as family, even if that is just you and your spouse/partner or you and your cat [dogs count too]!)
Recent Comments