Menu Plan Monday - April 27

The potato sausage chowder that I made last week fed us for several meals! It was yummy, but I think I'll cut the recipe in half next time. :-)

I put my menu plan on Google Calendar with daily cooking notes and links to recipes. I have that set up to e-mail me an agenda every day. I also keep it current each day if I change meals. My menu planning calendar is available here if you are interested in seeing it.

Monday

Breakfast: green yogurt smoothies, toast
Lunch: black bean chili (from freezer), carrot sticks
Dinner: spaghetti with meat sauce, salad

Tuesday

Breakfast: oatmeal, apple slices
Lunch: probably sandwiches
Dinner: garam masala red lentil soup

Wednesday

Breakfast: green smoothies, toast
Lunch: grilled cheese sandwiches, homemade tomato soup (this soup is wonderful!)
Dinner: beef stroganoff, green beans

Thursday

Breakfast: cooked millet, orange slices
Lunch: black bean chili (from freezer)
Dinner: grilled salmon, green beans, scalloped potatoes & carrots

Friday

Breakfast: blender batter pancakes, eggs, fruit
Lunch: leftovers or sandwiches
Dinner: chicken stir fry with brown rice & lots of veggies

Saturday

It's soccer season, so we can't do the Brunch/Dinner thing for a while. :-)

Breakfast: green smoothies, eggs
Lunch: leftovers or sandwiches
Dinner: taco potatoes, salad or cooked veggie

Sunday

We usually eat a late lunch/early dinner after church and graze if we're hungry later. :-)

Breakfast: toast, hard-boiled eggs
Lunch/Dinner: chili, blender batter cornbread, salad


For more menu plans, go to orgjunkie.com.

Menu Plan Monday - April 20

I really did not menu plan at all last week, and it definitely messed up our budget. This week's meals will come from foods already in our pantry, except some dairy and fresh produce. I am hoping to do a bit of stockpiling this week.

I put my menu plan on Google Calendar with daily cooking notes and links to recipes. I have that set up to e-mail me an agenda every day. I also keep it current each day if I change meals. My menu planning calendar is available here if you are interested in seeing it.

Monday

Breakfast: oatmeal, apple slices
Lunch: black bean burritos, carrot sticks
Dinner: spaghetti with meat sauce, salad

Tuesday

Breakfast: green yogurt smoothies, muffins
Lunch: navy bean soup (leftover)
Dinner: potato sausage chowder

Wednesday

Breakfast: cooked millet, apple slices
Lunch: grilled cheese sandwiches, homemade tomato soup
Dinner: chicken stir fry with brown rice & lots of veggies


Thursday

Breakfast: green kefir smoothies, sourdough toast
Lunch: black bean chili (from freezer)
Dinner: beef enchiladas (recipe is for chicken, but I'm using beef), corn

Friday

Breakfast: baked oatmeal, apple slices
Lunch: leftovers or sandwiches
Dinner: grilled salmon, green beans, scalloped potatoes & carrots

Saturday

I'm trying a large brunch and see if I can get away with two meals, as I do a lot of cooking & baking for the week on Saturdays.

Brunch: blender batter pancakes, homemade turkey sausage or eggs, fruit
Dinner: chili, blender batter cornbread, salad

Sunday

We usually eat a late lunch/early dinner after church and graze if we're hungry later. :-)

Breakfast: toast, hard-boiled eggs, fruit
Lunch/Dinner: leftovers (I hope!)


For more menu plans, go to orgjunkie.com.

Resurrection Day Links

It's a bit late for this, but I have seen so many great ideas for celebrating Resurrection Day that I wanted to be sure to post some of them.

I love the Names of Jesus Garland at The Homespun Heart. Hat tip to Keeper of the Home for the link. I adapted this to use as a children's ministry craft. You can read about that here if you are interested.

Holy Experience shares instructions for making an Easter Garden. Although we should have had this ready for Palm Sunday according to the directions, we're making one today or tomorrow (haven't found plants yet) because it is such a beautiful and visual way of "remembering of the grief of old beginning, the dazzling wondering of new beginnings." If you haven't visited this blog before, be sure to stop by just for a taste of the writing!

Make your own Resurrection Eggs. I use these in our children's ministry every year. We hide them and everyone takes turns opening his/her egg, sharing the contents and reading the Scripture. It is a fun, interactive way to share the Scriptures relating to Jesus' death and resurrection.

We have also made Resurrection Rolls before. We make these on Saturday evening, but we leave them in the oven overnight, "sealing" it with tape. We "unseal" the oven in the morning and pull out the rolls after I have warmed the rolls up a bit. The first time we made them, the kids couldn't believe that the "tombs" were empty the next day! We are going to try making our own marshmallows for this instead of buying them.

The Archaeological Study Bible's Easter Story Site includes notes, images and information about several historical aspects of the Resurrection.

Try a 5-day Easter Unit Study.

Hold That Thought offers printable Easter-related Scriptures and quotes to make into a Scripture card ring. They also provide instructions and a template for children to make their own Story of Easter, scrapbook style.

Enjoy!

Menu Plan Monday - April 6

We ended up having leftovers a couple of times last week (almost unheard of in this house), so I didn't make everything on my menus. I love it when that happens! Because of that, I have some duplicates.

The breakfasts look large with whole grains and smoothies or a protein, but I am using smaller servings. I am trying to get a nice variety of nutrients in first thing every day. Ideas are appreciated!

Monday

Breakfast: oatmeal, green kefir smoothie
Lunch: quesadillas, carrot sticks
Dinner: Tuna Noodle Casserole, green beans

Tuesday

Breakfast: Leftover Oatmeal Muffins, scrambled eggs, fruit
Lunch: PB & J, celery sticks

Dinner: Lentils & Rice Casserole, salad

Wednesday

Breakfast: cooked millet, green kefir smoothie
Lunch: Crockpot Spaghetti, salad
Dinner: Red Beans & Rice, green beans


Thursday

Breakfast: sourdough toast, fried eggs, fruit
Lunch: leftovers
Dinner: Sloppy Joes, Baked Fries, salad

Friday

Breakfast: Fruit & Yogurt Delight with homemade granole
Lunch: grilled cheese sandwiches, carrot sticks

Dinner: Homemade Pizza, salad

Saturday

I'm going to try a large brunch and see if I can get away with two meals, as I do a lot of cooking & baking for the week on Saturdays.

Brunch: Blender Batter Pancakes, Homemade Turkey Sausage, fruit
Dinner: spaghetti with meat sauce or homemade pizza, salad

Sunday

We usually eat a late lunch/early dinner after church and graze if we're hungry later. :-)

Breakfast: toast, hard-boiled eggs, fruit
Lunch/Dinner: Easter meal


My menu plan calendar is available here if you are interested in seeing it. I keep that current each day when meals change (as they often do). It also includes daily cooking notes. I have it set up to send me an agenda via e-mail every day, which is very helpful.

For more menu plans, go to orgjunkie.com.

Free One-Year Missions Unit Study

I downloaded Mission-Minded LIFE: Teaching With God's Heart for the World last fall, looked through it, was very impressed, and never used it. :-) I already had a pretty packed homeschool schedule, but I knew I would want to use this at some point. However, the book may not be available for free much longer, so I wanted to make sure I posted about it.

The curriculum is written by Ann Dunagan, a homeschooling mother of seven, author, and co-founder (with her husband, Jon) of Harvest Ministry. She blogs about being a mission-minded family at the Missions and Your Family section of the Harvest Ministry website.

Teaching With God's Heart for the World is a two-volume out-of-print book that "presents a 'whirlwind tour' of God's enduring passion for missions - all-the-way through world history and all-across-the-globe."

I cannot give this extensive curriculum full justice here. You could use this as a year-long, multi-level homeschool unit study; stick mainly with the devotionals; pick countries or sections to enhance history or geography studies; or focus specifically on the missions teachings. There are also a number of teaching tips that are valuable apart from a study of missions.

This 600-plus page book is broken up into several sections because of its size, which makes it a bit difficult to navigate. Printing out the tables of contents for each volume and marking them with the downloaded section numbers would be very helpful.

This curriculum may not be available as a free download for long, so I encourage you to take advantage of it. The download is available here. Day 1 of the Daily Lesson Plans in Volume 1 Part 3 is missing, so don't miss the link for that, which is in the description paragraph of the Volume 1 Part 3 download.

If you download this and decide to use it, I would love to hear how you are using it. I am still trying to figure that out. :-)