Day 23: Meal Planning {Kinda}

Just joining in?  Read the entire series {HERE}.

Surely you've heard of meal planning, the genius idea of planning, prepping, and cooking meals ahead of time then freezing meals until ready to thaw and eat.  Some people do it so well they literally have it down to a science.  I'm envious of those people.  Good Lord.

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I can't get into it that much.  It's not that I don't want to have my meals planned for a month and have the positive results of all that entails.....it's that I don't have the brain energy or time to devote to planning that far in advance.  Call me lazy, but I can't (and I guess won't) do what these superwomen do.   Could I change my tune someday?  Maybe.  Till then I'm doin' it my way.  {Insert powerful laugh}.

Okay, my way isn't really a way but it's my version of doing something, albeit small, to semi-plan in advance (key word) what the family is eating.  I write it down on my Message Board I made {HERE}, one week at a time.

It gives me such satisfaction in my craziness to know what I am making and having for dinner.  Even if it's leftovers.  It's like one less thing to cram into this little brain of mine that is way overloaded already.

One of the hundreds of us who have been working hard on our 31 Days Series is Jessica with her
"31 Days of Freezer Cooking".  It's good.  Really good.  It made me want to venture more into this way of cooking.  You definitely need to click on over and check it out.

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For right now I am content with my hubby and I sitting down and planning what we are eating for the week.  We talked about trying to "double batch" some things and make some things ahead that are doable for us.  I also plan to learn as much as I can from the experts on this topic, although you will never probably find me cooking for an entire day or  10 pounds of beef at a time. :)  Hey, baby steps.  I am finding what is making me less stressed.  Isn't that what matters?

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I am totally curious about you---do you do meal planning?  Freeze-ahead meals?  Stress nightly over what to have for dinner?   Tell the kids Frosted Flakes or Cheerios?  How do you make your meals and meal planning less stressful?

Summer Must-Haves

We just got back from Disney and it was wonderful!  Sure, the weather was bleeping-hot, but what do you expect in Florida in June?  The kids were great in the car  (remember I bragged about them here... they didn't let us down!)  We ended up driving straight through both there and back...a 16+ hour trip one way!!!  We are troopers, our family.  :)

Now, I feel like summer has officially began.  Since we left for vacation 2 days after we got out of school, it hadn't hit me yet that school was out.  Today is the first day I am feelin' the summer love.  Ahhhhh.

I am dying to  know what your favorite summer snacks/salads/must-haves are.....do you make a special salad only in the summer when fruits and veggies are at their peak?  Do you have a great (easy) dessert to share with us?  Do tell!  Tonight my Hubby and I only had our littlest one home with us for supper.  I went grocery shopping yesterday so we had a ton of food, but neither of us really wanted to make anything big for just the 3 of us, so we got creative with what we already had.  Last night we had grilled chicken and had a couple pieces left over.  We chopped it up, threw it in a skillet to warm it, and put it over lettuce.  Hubby only put cheese and dressing on his (bor-ing!) but I felt like being a little more inventive and healthy.  Here is my creation with a little strawberry-poppyseed dressing, berries (okay, a lot of berries), and chicken.  Mmmmmm.

A big staple in my house in the summer is watermelon.  We. Love. It.  There are usually only a few days in the summer when there is not watermelon in my fridge.  Hubby, and my step-daughter, Kaitlyn, put salt on it.  Does anyone else do that?   I have tried it, and it isn't bad, but I prefer my watermelon straight-up, no sodium added, thank you.

No, I don't usually eat watermelon with daisies alongside, but these are the only pretty flowers really in our yard right now due to so many days without rain here in Ohio!

So share with me your favorite summer must-haves to eat......I can't wait to hear what you can't get enough of this time of year!

Coffee Cake...Mmmmm

Tonight my sweet Dad was up for supper as he does at least one night a week.  With my Mom now gone, we try to make sure Dad comes up to visit since so many of his meals he eats by himself.  I always try to send him home with lots of leftovers, and if I have time, some quick dessert.

Tonight, I looked in my cupboard and saw that I had a yellow cake mix.  I Googled "recipes with yellow cake mix" and saw cookies you can make with a cake mix, which I've done recently (and were tasty) but then I saw a coffee cake recipe.....now that sounded real tasty.  I've never made coffee cake before.

I do easy recipes.  Ones that my picky kids and hubby will eat.  This one seemed easy enough from All Recipes.com:

Ingredients

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
• 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
• 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant butterscotch pudding mix
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan, or a 10 inch Bundt cake pan.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the cake mix, vanilla pudding mix, and butterscotch pudding mix. Add the eggs, oil and water, mix until well blended. In another bowl, stir together the brown sugar, cinnamon and nuts. Pour half of the batter into the pan, spread evenly. Sprinkle with half of the nut mixture. Cover with the rest of the batter, and sprinkle with the rest of the nut mixture.
3. Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, then turn the oven down to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) and bake for an additional 35 to 40 minutes.

This is how mine turned out:

I did not have butterscotch pudding mix, but did have 2 boxes of vanilla, so that is what I used.  I was going to add some rum extract, but forgot.  I think that would have made it even better.  It's super yummy...I've had 2 pieces already and may eat the ones on this plate, too.

This will be my new go-to recipe for breakfast on holiday mornings or when I need to make a dish for someone.   This made a 13x9 pan, but could probably be divided into 2 smaller pans to give one away.   (but why would you want to do that??)  By the way, All Recipes is one of my favorite sites to get easy, family-friendly recipes from that have user reviews and ratings (which I am addicted to reading).  This coffee cake got 4 1/2 stars.  I give it 5!