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Menu Plan: July 6-15

Welcome back! I have been absent all week due to issues with my laptop. We officially started our grain-free at home journey this month. Since we do not have any known allergy or intolerance to grains, we will still eat them if we are served them in other peoples homes, but will make wise choices when we eat out to avoid them as much as possible. The only exception to this, of course, is Julian, who will not eat grains until his first year molars come in. The way that we eat grains is grossly distorted from how they used to be consumed and I am convinced this affects our health as a nation. Considering the government still recommends a large portion of your daily intake come from grains, many Americans are consuming WAY too many and not the right ones when they do. But, I digress.

Here is our menu for the next week or so:

Breakfast

• Friday: Chocolate zucchini muffins and fruit
• Saturday: Coconut flour pancakes and bacon
• Sunday: Eggs w/ sausage and fruit
• Monday: Chocolate zucchini muffins and fruit
• Tuesday: Eggs w/ salsa and fruit
• Wednesday: Almond flour muffins and fruit
• Thursday: Eggs w/ sausage and fruit
• Friday: Almond flour muffins and fruit
• Saturday: Coconut flour pancakes and bacon
• Sunday: Eggs w/ sausage and fruit

Lunch 

My husband takes a packed lunch (or dinner, if he works third shift) when he is working at the hospital, which consists of peanut butter and jelly or honey between two pancakes, veggies, fruit and a dessert. If he is working at the office, he eats lunch out, much to my chagrin! Julian and I had been eating leftovers, but too many times we were finishing everything at dinner, which left us with nothing for lunch the next day. I am going to try doing snacky style lunches for him and I. We will have smoothies and veggies everyday and rotate between hardboiled eggs and beans with cheese. He is typically home for lunch on Saturdays and we eat lunch at church on Sunday afternoons.

• Saturday: Pigs in a blanket, veggies and fruit
• Sunday: @ church
• Saturday: Shrimp curry w/ quinoa and smoothies
• Sunday: @ church

Dinner

•  Friday: with friends, bringing a salad
• Saturday: Leftovers
• Sunday: Salmon patties, veggies and fruit
• Monday: Chicken and potatoes
• Tuesday: Leftovers
• Wednesday: Red-Red w/quinoa and sauteed bananas
• Thursday: Salmon, veggies and potatoes
• Friday: Chicken cakes and veggies
• Saturday: Leftovers
• Sunday: Pigs in a blanket and bananas

What are you feeding your family lately?

Scripture Study: Creating an Atmosphere of Worship

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Lately, I have found myself getting easily frustrated and quickly irritated with both Kerry and Julian. I could throw out a bunch of excuses in an effort to justify my behavior, but that is not the appropriate response. My behavior is not the fault of Kerry or Julian. It is the result of my own sinful heart choosing sin rather than grace.

I reflected on my daily routine to see if there was any way that I could carve out more time to spend with the Lord, more time in His Word and, while I realized that I often do have more time that I could spend with Him, sometimes that is just not reality. However, one simple change afforded me the opportunity to spend literally all day with the Lord and not allow my homemaking and child-rearing tasks fall to the wayside. I decided to listen to nothing other than praise and worship music during the day. I did this yesterday for the first time and I noticed a definite difference in my attitude and my response to both my husband and my son.

1 Chronicles 16:23 Sing to the LORD, all the earth; Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day.

Romans 12:1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

Psalm 71:8 My mouth is filled with Your praise and Your glory all day long. 

 

According to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, the word worship shows up in scripture 114 times and the word praise 195 times. The word sing appears 99 times, most often in some variation of the phrase "sing to the LORD". It seems to me that worshiping and praising the Lord is an important thing to do. While I know that worship is not limited to singing, having praise and worship music flowing through my home during the day definitely adds to the atmosphere of worship I hope to cultivate in my home.

Another way that I am aiming to create an atmosphere of worship in my home is by committing Scripture to memory. I was blessed to come to know the Lord at a young age and memorized quite a bit of Scripture as a child, which comes back to me easily even many years later. I memorized Scripture in school, all the way through college where I memorized entire books at a time. I have let that go since getting married and having a baby, but that is something that I want to re-ignite in myself so I can be an example for my children.

I am planning on taking this challenge over at Intentional By Grace during the month of July.  
Will you join me? How do you create an atmosphere of worship in your home?

Recipe Reveal: Salmon Patties

One of my goals for 2012 was to serve fish once a week. I know that eating good fish can do wonders for your health. However, have you seen the price of fish at the meat market? It is hard for me to stomach the $5/lb for grass-fed beef, let alone the $10-$15/lb for good fish. What's a mama to do?

One way that I have been able to meet my goal of serving fish once a week is by serving my family salmon patties. I buy canned seine net caught wild Alaskan pink Salmon from Aldi for about $2.50/can. One can feeds all three of us one meal plus enough for Julian and I to have leftovers the next day for lunch. This is a frugal way to still be able to eat good fish!

Salmon Patties

1 can (14.5 ounces) wild caught salmon

1 egg

1 tsp. onion powder

1 tbs. parsley

scant cayenne pepper

1/4 c. unsweetened shredded coconut (or breadcrumbs)

Butter or coconut oil

Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl. Melt a small amount of butter or coconut oil in a pan on the stovetop. Form the salmon mixture into patties and place in the hot pan. Cook on each side about 2-3 minutes. We like to eat ours with homemade ranch smeared on top!

this post is linked to: real food wednesday and healthy 2day wednesday

 

Submitting to Rest

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I am dealing with an unexpected case of mastitis. It came on suddenly yesterday and, as anyone who has been through this before knows, it wiped me out! I don't know about you, but it is not easy for me to accept the fact that my body needs rest. Rest? There is laundry to do, a cleaning schedule to maintain, not to mention an energetic 13 month old to take care of.

So today, instead of tackling my cleaning list, instead of finishing purging the house for a goodwill donation, instead of working on my seemingly never-ending to-do list, I am resting. I am basking in the glory of having my husband home from work and watching him (and cheering him on from my perch on the couch!) cook, clean and take care of Julian for me. It is HARD, though! I want to be up doing, serving, cleaning, preparing etc. Yet, I know, my body will thank me by healing itself much faster if I rest than if I just powered through and continued with life as usual.

This unexpected rest has afforded me the opportunity to catch up on some reading, write a few blog posts, spend lengthy time with the Lord (so refreshing!) and sleep, oh glorious sleep. I am hoping to hit the ground running tomorrow, but, for now, I am thankful for the rest that God gave me, despite the fact that it came via illness.

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

Menu Plan: June 25-July 1

You may notice some repeats from the menu I posted last Monday. We were blessed to spend time unexpected time with our families this past week, which meant getting to go out to eat twice in one day. I, of course, ended up not cooking, so we had some meals to use up from last week. I made a HUGE batch of chicken and potatoes last week as well, so Julian and I will be finishing those up this week. We start our grain free month on Sunday, so I am trying hard to use up the rest of the grains in the house this week. Here is the menu!

Breakfast

• Monday: Fried mush, cantaloupe
• Tuesday: Sauteed brussel sprouts, bacon and cantaloupe
• Wednesday: Eggs w/ sausage, cantaloupe
• Thursday: Pancakes in a pan, fresh fruit
• Friday: Eggs w/ salsa, fresh fruit
• Saturday: Coconut flour pancakes, bacon and fresh fruit
• Sunday: Eggs w/ salsa, fresh fruit

Lunch

• Monday: Chicken and potatoes, cheese cubes
• Tuesday: Salmon patties, carrots w/ homemade ranch dip
• Wednesday: Leftovers
• Thursday: Olive Garden (taking a friend out for her birthday!)
• Friday: Snacky lunch (veggies w/ dip, fresh fruit, cheese cubes, beans etc.)
• Saturday: Family picnic (celebrating hubby's maternal grandparents 57th anniversary!)
• Sunday: Church potluck (celebrating hubby's family friends 50th anniversary!)

Dinner

• Monday: Italian stew, smoothies and organic sweet corn
• Tuesday: Brown rice pasta w/ homemade red sauce, smoothies
• Wednesday: Taco potatoes, smoothies
• Thursday: Leftovers, smoothies
• Friday: Curried brown rice pasta, smoothies
• Saturday: Leftovers, smoothies
• Sunday: Grain free pigs in a blanket, smoothies

menu plan monday 

Around The House: My Cleaning Schedule

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Some people view routine and schedule with disdain. They feel boxed in and enslaved to their schedule. Not me!  I have found that, without routines and a loose schedule in place, scary things happen. Things like the bathroom going uncleaned for weeks at a time. Things like four trips to the grocery store in one week. For me, routines and schedules provide freedom and peace of mind. I know when I wake up on any given day that there are certain things that will be accomplished that day and other things that I know I do not need to worry about because it is not the day for it.

While I have routines and schedules for all areas of home management, one specific area that has relieved stress in my life is my cleaning schedule. Today I am going to share that with you. Please remember that I am not saying that everyone needs to have a schedule, but I just know that this works for me and I want to share it in case someone else might benefit from it.

I like to set Tuesday aside as my cleaning day. I try to not plan any doctor appointments, play dates or errands on Tuesdays, but, of course, sometimes I can't avoid that and I have to readjust. While have routines and schedules has proven helpful to me, I have to remember that they exist to serve me not the other way around.

 I break my cleaning tasks down into weekly, monthly and quarterly jobs. I assign the monthly tasks to the different weeks of the month, so I am not adding several extra tasks to one cleaning day a month, but spreading them out throughout the month.  I accomplish the quarterly tasks as I have time during the month they are assigned. I realize that I have the distinct advantage of living in a small apartment, so I do not have as many cleaning tasks as a homeowner would have. Perhaps when we own a home, I will not be able to get everything done in one day. However, for now, this system works well for me.

Storms Family Cleaning Schedule

Weekly

• Mop kitchen floor
• Scrub kitchen sink
• Wash stove-top drip pans
• Vacuum
• Dust
• Scrub bathroom sink
• Scrub tub/shower
• Clean toilet
• Clean mirrors
• Change sheets

Monthly

• Clean refrigerator and freezer inside and out (fourth Tuesday of the month)
• Wipe down pantry shelves (fourth Tuesday of the month)
• Wipe down outside of cabinets (first Tuesday of the month)
• Rotate mattresses (second Tuesday of the month)
• Clean shower head (third Tuesday of the month)

 

Quarterly

• Flip couch cushions (August, December, April)
• Vacuum couch and chair (September, January, May)
• Wipe down dining room chairs (October, February, June)
• Change vacuum filter (November, March, July)
• Clean oven (December, April, August)

Do you use routines and/or schedules to accomplish things around your home?