Once a Month Mom

Before I was complaining about how there are all kinds of baby food recipes out there and I was having a hard time finding toddler food. Well you won't hear me complaining about not having resources anymore. I have found so many fun things to try that I have maybe overwhelmed myself and am trying to figure out how to organize it all.

I think I'm going to start a binder of recipes, and try to do a monthly meal planner. This way I have all my recipes and menu in one place. I am definitely a person who needs to see my recipe on paper and not on the computer.

I told you before I'm not one that can make all my meals for the month and freeze them.  Pretty impossible here with my mini dorm fridge freezer!  But in my new obsession with finding new recipes and trying new things I have come across a great website!  I signed up for their emails and am loving it!!!

Every day I get an email that has at least one recipe in it, usually more!  I may not make all of them but it gives me lots of inspiration to try more than one new recipe each week!! Today I even got a meal plan for the week.  All of which would be new recipes for us!  They all looked great for us!!! I think it might be my next weeks meal plan!

This is just part of the email they sent! I love to be able to see pictures of the food, otherwise I may not ever try it!  If you're interested here is the website: http://onceamonthmom.com/?utm_source=OAMM+Daily+Update&utm_campaign=605bcd28e0-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
Monday -

• Toddler Lunch – hot dogs, corn, mandarin oranges
  
  
  

  Toddler Chicken Bites
• Snacks – pumpkin muffins, Turkey & Cheese Rollups
• Dinner – Ribeye steak, grilled asparagus

Tuesday -

• Toddler Lunch – Toddler Chicken Bites, applesauce, peas
• Snacks – GF Banana Muffins, Fruit & Yogurt Smoothies
• Dinner – California Turkey Burgers on the grill, spinach salad

Wednesday -

• Toddler Lunch – scrambled eggs, pancakes, banana slices
• Snacks – crackers & peanut butter, Fruity Breakfast Burritos
• Dinner – Pizza Meatloaf, lettuce salad

Thursday -

• Toddler Lunch – Toddlerific Pizza Snack Cups, green beans
• Snacks -cereal bar cookies, fresh veggies & ranch dip
• Dinner – Chicken Alfredo with whole wheat Penne, broccoli
  
  
  

  Toddler-ific Pizza Snack Cups

Friday -

• Toddler Lunch – ham & cheese sandwich, apple slices
• Snacks – Monster Toast, chocolate cupcakes (birthday party)
• Dinner – Grilled pizza (pizza dough, sauce, ground beef, mozzarella cheese)

Saturday – Lunch – Out for lunch

Dinner – Sausage Stuffed Loaf, cottage cheese with pineapples

Sunday – Lunch – Easter – Spiral Cut Ham, rolls, green bean casserole, jello salad

Dinner – Burgers on the grill, fresh frozen sweet corn

Pretty Great huh?!?!

Planning Ahead

Here may be my biggest problem.  I continue to say I'm going to plan out my meals for the week and stock up on everything I need during the weekend.  I'm great at it for a week or 2 then it's back to my same old habits and back to the same old food.

I really wish I could be one of those moms that make a bunch of meals, then throw them in the freezer, pull it out the day of and voila! Dinner is served. As it turns out while we live in the Netherlands our freezer is the size of a small dorm fridge so unless I want to be running to the store everyday I have to use it for meat and Jackson's veggie purees (hoping to be done with those soon).  It generally turns out I still have to run to the store every day but hey we try!

So back to planning the meals each week.  I'm going to do it!  I'm pretty sure with you all watching it will make me more accountable. So here it goes week 1.  Some of these are our "staple" foods but we have visitors coming that we would like to share with them our new found Dutch cuisine.  So this week seems to be a freeby.  I know I can't have a new meal each and everyday. That would be exhausting but I'm going to try for at least 2 new meals a week for a while! (Wish me luck!)

Monday: Homemade chicken nuggets and egg fried rice, strawberries
Tuesday: Mini chicken bagel burgers, broccoli and fruit
Wednesday: Schnitzel, mashed potatoes and fruit
Thursday: Pannenkoken with bacon and apple syrup
Friday: Moussaka and noodles with cheese for Jackson

If you don't know schnitzel is basically a pork tenderloin that you fry up so nothing to report recipe wise.  It's delicious and we love it. 

Pannenkoken are Dutch pancakes and I know there are tons of recipes out there but I buy the box (I know shame on me) that says just add milk :)