Since a lot of people have been asking, I wanted to start off with an Alvah update :). He's still sleeping at night (yes!!!!), but my dear daughter decided as soon as he started sleeping at night she was going to be a complete pain in the tushie and not go to bed, no matter what I did, until about one am. I finally told her last night that she had better go to bed at the actual "bed time" that the parents are always going on about or there would be consequences. One, she was going to be completely thrashed when school starts in a couple of weeks. And two, if she didn't go to bed, on time, keep her lights off, her TV off, her books closed, her voice quiet and you know...go to BED, that she wasn't going to live to see her next birthday. It was either that or the whole, "If you don't go to bed RIGHT NOW and go to bed when I tell you to, you are going to lose your TV out of your room, your favorite toys and your lamp!". Since she already lost the ability to watch her kindle after 8pm (it gets plugged in out in the living room now as she proved herself untrustworthy to have it in her room at night), I think that MIGHT have gotten through to her a bit more. I'm still fighting to get her to bed before eleven, but at least I made progress. She's always been TERRIBLE about sleeping from day one of her life, but now that Alvah is actually going to sleep at night, she better get used to an earlier bedtime because mom is going to get sleep. Period!
As for everything else with Alvah, now that the meds are regulating a bit he's had a few temper tantrums, some of them bad, but the hitting and self harm is WAY more under control than it used to be, so that's definitely a good thing. We went to the psychologist this week and we talked about tweaking meds to get something for anxiety on board (because he does have that going on for sure), but we're just going to let everything just regulate and settle before we try anything else for now. Here's hoping everything remains good.
When it came to the menu last week we ended up being so busy that a couple of nights the menu plan went out the window and I had to punt, but overall I did pretty good with it.
This week, now that back to school running around is over with (I hope) I'm hoping to get back to a more consistent menu instead of rushing to throw something on the table because we ended up spending hours out of the house running errands and everyone is starving to death when we get home. Here's hoping!
The highlight of the week was definitely the biscuits. I finally got light biscuits! They turned out so good! Not the cheapest with all the butter in them, but I think I might try halving them with some beef fat I have in the fridge when I make them for dinner tonight (since it's also cold fat).
So, onto this week's menu!
Wednesday: Tacos (used up some leftover taco meat I had in the freezer)
Thursday: Pork chops in creamy BBQ sauce (I found some ANCIENT pork chops buried in the bowels of the freezer as I was getting close to the bottom of everything. They were badly freezer burned so I was hoping that the BBQ sauce mix would help to mask the nasty freezer burned flavor...it didn't really work that well, but we got through the meal), apple sauce (the last bag I had frozen, mashed potatoes, salad.
Friday: Fried chicken, oven fries.
Saturday: Sausage gravy and biscuits. Fruit cocktail.
Sunday: Steak salad (use leftover steak from dinner Tuesday that is in fridge)
Monday: Crock pot spare ribs in honey mustard sauce, baked potatoes, salad
Tuesday: Blueberry waffles (use blueberries from freezer), sausage links.
Desserts: Beignets with lemon curd (leftovers from fridge), vanilla pudding, home made ice cream (use some of the cream in fridge) with strawberries (we are seeing an uptick in temperatures this weekend with the wonderful glorious SUN shining, so I'm figuring on cold things for dessert are definitely appropriate!).
Snacks: Grapes, apples, home made crackers and cheese (note: Make crackers...didn't get to this last week), bread and butter or bread and butter with jam (note: Make bread).
Breakfasts: Leftover waffles and sausage, scrambled (or fried) eggs, English muffins, granola, yogurt with jam (or granola...whatever the preference), oatmeal.
Notable mention: My daughter made individual pizzas for lunch Wednesday (seen up top). We'd gotten a kit that made four pizzas super cheap at Fred Meyer a while back. I pulled them out of the freezer, defrosted them and we tweaked them a bit. I used my own tomato sauce (since the stuff that came with the kit looked old in the package) and we used some pepperoni for my husband's pizza from a little baggie we had in the freezer (once again their pepperoni looked kind of old). Overall they turned out well and the daughter had a lot of fun "making lunch" :).
And there you are folks. Our menu plan for the week. How about you? Eating anything good this week?
Well, there is just me and I know that I'm eating one lunch and one dinner out this coming week so I'm planning around that.
ReplyDeleteBreakfast is usually yogurt or cottage cheese, with fruit - occasionally a piece of avocado toast with tomato or an egg with leftover veggies.
My main meal tends to be mid afternoon and at the moment it's a lot of salads with a protein. I'm trying to use up what's in the freezer so proteins this week will be, already cooked chicken breast, ham or hamburger patties. If I want a hot meal instead I have HM ready meals of chicken & rice in tomato sauce or green Thai chicken curry in the freezer - I'll just add more steamed veggies to both.
A light supper most nights will be veggies with humus, tuna salad, or cheese on toast.
I'm not doing any baking this summer so dessert is usually fruit or something eaten out.
I'm trying to stick to a tight food budget this month - did a shop this morning and don't plan on going back until next weekend. I really need to use up the meat in the freezer (above my fridge) and then give it a good clean out before the Sept. and Oct. sales. I like to have the room in the freezer for things like onions, raw, caramelized, and packaged up with peppers - strips of peppers that have been open frozen and other veggies like carrots, turnip & sweet potato that can be either scalded & frozen or cooked and packaged up in ziplock bags. I'm trying to cut back on meat so want to have lots of room for the veggies when they are on sale.
Hope you have a good week.
I'm so glad your son is doing better sleeping. I really do hope you daughter will get into a better sleep routine too, especially with school starting again soon.
ReplyDeleteI still need to get out menu planned for the week but I am thinking lots of salads since the weather here is hot and we have heavy smoke from all the wildfires in the areas surrounding us coming in. That means I can't use my swamp cooler to cool our house down and I refuse to heat up our home since I can't cool it down again.
So glad to hear your son is sleeping better. I'm sure with your continued "tough love", your daughter will get into the sleeping routine as well. Sounds like you have it under control. Your menu sounds delicious.
ReplyDeleteMy menu this week will be:
Monday - Black Forest ham cooked in a dutch oven on the stove top, new potatoes, corn-on-the-cob and coleslaw. Save the water in which the ham was cooked in.
Tuesday - using leftover "ham broth" for extra smoky flavour, make crock pot "baked" navy beans, leftover coleslaw, and homemade dinner rolls. (First "almost meatless" meal)
Wednesday - 'Taste of Home' Garlic Chicken Spaghetti.
Thursday - Using leftover ham and dinner rolls, make ham and cheese buns under the broiler, fried potatoes using leftover potatoes from Monday's dinner, marinated cucumber salad. (Freeze any leftover sliced ham for another time.)
Friday - leftover "baked beans" served on toast, garden salad. (Second "almost meatless" meal)
Saturday - grilled chicken slathered with barbecue sauce, vegetable kebobs, garlic bread with cheese using leftover homemade buns.
Sunday - Chipotle pork fajitas, rice.
Desserts: seasonal fruit, no-bake chocolate marshmallow bars, berry granita.
Have a great week!