I’ve mentioned many times about the help a menu can be with both time and budget. My menu planning is very simple. At this time in my life I only pencil in my supper meals. I keep breakfast items on hand – English muffins, dry cereals, oatmeal, fruit, eggs, and bacon. For lunch there are soups, canned tuna, tortillas for quesadillas or wraps, salad makings, etc.

In our earlier years, I also wrote down breakfast and lunch menus – partly due to a tighter budget, and partly because there were four of us and things needed to be a little more structured. With children there for meals, it was important to have meals at regular times. I also needed to know exactly what I was having for each meal so I could prep ahead. Now breakfast and lunch take place we feel like eating it! Kinda nice!

I sit down with cookbooks or my recipe box and look for new recipes or things I haven’t made in a while that match up to what’s in my freezer and pantry or what’s on sale in the grocery ads that week. I got broccoli on sale for under $1.50 a couple weeks ago, so I made cream of broccoli soup and had steamed broccoli as a side dish with another meal. The remainder of the broccoli got blanched and then frozen for future meals.

I’ll pencil in the days of the week, then the main dish, salad, and/or vegetable to go with it. Sometimes I may switch out the menu and make it on a different day, but I really stick to my menu for the week.

Here’s what I’ve planned for the next week:

The items with ** by them are new recipes. The others are things I’ve made before that we enjoyed.

Thursday – Day trip to Greenville to take Alli back to school
Friday – **Mini Meatball Sandwiches , Tossed salad
Saturday – **Chicken Strips with Blue Cheese Dressing , Celery & carrot sticks, French Peas
Sunday – Pitch in dinner – Potato Casserole, Salad, & dessert to be determined!
Monday – Tomatoes, Sausage and Pasta with Albuquerque Corn Salad
Tuesday – Chicken Stir Fry & Rice, Popovers – See my Recipe here
Wednesday – Leftovers
Thursday & Friday – Soup Supper for Deacons and their wives – Making several homemade soups, breads and dessert.
Saturday – Sweet Potato Pancakes , Bacon & Fresh fruit

Do you normally make out a menu? How does it help you? Has it helped your budget? What are you making this week?

With love,

Have you ever been in such a hurtful situation that it made you wonder if the Lord was seeing what was happening to you? You may be asking, “Where is God in all this mess?” In reading Genesis 29 I was reminded how Jacob is tricked by his Uncle Laban. He marries Leah instead of his beloved Rachel. However, after working for seven more years, he also takes Rachel as his wife. He loves Rachel, and despises poor Leah. Despises? Yes. Verse 31 says, When He (the Lord) saw that Leah was hated He opened her womb.

Can you imagine such a situation? Perhaps someone reading this truly can. My heart hurts for you, Friend. Some women are despised by husbands, fathers, children, co-workers, neighbors, and the pain is undeniably difficult to bear. But let me comfort you with the words of this passage – the Lord saw. It can be overlooked or unseen by men, but an omniscient, omnipresent God sees. Not only did he see, but He also favored her by opening her womb and giving her a child. See also His compassion as He grants this desire for Leah who so wanted Jacob to love her for something she could do that Rachel could not.

In chapter 31, verse 17 we read that not only did the Lord see, but at this time the Lord heard. Leah cries out for another son, and God gives her her desire. What she’s asking for is a request that would not be against God’s will – a wife wants a child. It was perfectly right that she desire and ask God for this request. What is it that you are crying out to God for? Perhaps you’ve been crying for some time. Don’t doubt that the Lord is hearing you. He does. Keep praying. Keep asking. See His sovereign hand moving in Leah’s life to bring about His will and remember that His sovereignty is also at work in your life today.

Rachel is an innocent person in this story. It wasn’t her fault that Jacob loved her more. She didn’t force him to take two wives. Her heart’s desire was also for a child and she prayed and agonized as her sister bore many sons, while her own womb was barren. She continued to long for a child. She must have kept praying, for verse 22 it says that the Lord remembered Rachel and hearkened unto her and opened her womb. Do you feel forgotten or alone in your situation – your painful experience? The Lord remembers you, Dear one. He loves you and thinks on you every day many, many times over.

Though you and I may not be in a love triangle and praying for a child (or maybe you are), we experience painful situations that parallel to this family’s. Be comforted by the truths that God sees your situation, He hears your cries, and He remembers what you’re facing. Tied to that is His compassion, His omnipresence, His omniscience, His omnipotence and His sovereignty. So keep praying and trusting. He is there with you now.

With love,

Facebook is an amazing tool. I have been able to reconnect with people that I hadn’t heard from in years! What a blessing to be “found” by them and then catch up on their lives and gasp at how many years have passed since our last meeting. Little children from my past are now parents themselves. My peers are grandparents, and I guess because I’m not in that role yet, even that is hard to imagine!

January finds us celebrating three birthdays. My mother-in-law’s was last week and we celebrated by making her a special dinner at our home. I had a new cookbook with some great recipes by Ina Garten (a favorite of mine!) and I was anxious to try out a few new recipes! We set the table with the china and crystal…

Then with the help of my Family Consumer Science major (and lovely daughter), we set to work preparing the meal. Allison tried a new recipe for Vanilla Bean Cheesecake that she found in my Cooking Light Cookbook. Oh, my! This was so yummy!

A couple changes she made were to double the crust. One recipe of the crust just wasn’t enough to bring up the sides of the spring form pan. She used blueberries in the topping and left out the port. We found vanilla beans at the health food store. The difference that some special ingredient like that makes is incredible. You could see the specks of vanilla in the cake. Mmmmmmmmm!

Lettuce Wedge with Ranch was a nice change from a tossed salad.

Couscous with pine nuts – so delicious and another welcomed change from rice or potatoes.
I made half the recipe and it was more than enough for 4.

This cooks up in 10 minutes. I sauteed onions first then added the couscous.

Roasted Butternut Squash
My recipe also called for 1 tbl of thyme. This added a nice flavor in the squash.

Here’s the birthday honoree’ with her birthday cheesecake.

Lemon Chicken Breasts

1/4 cup olive oil

3 Tbl minced garlic

1/3 cup chicken broth

1 tbl grated lemon zest (2 lemons)

1 1/2 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp minced fresh thyme leaves

salt, pepper

4 boneless chicken breasts, skin on

1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Warm the olive oil in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, add the garlic, and cook for just 1 minute but don’t allow the garlic to turn brown. Off the heat, add the chicken broth, lemon zest, lemon juice, oregano, thyme, and 1 tsp salt and pour into a 9 x 12 inch baking dish.

Pat the chicken breasts dry and place them skin side up over the sauce. Brush the chicken breasts with olive oil and sprinkle them liberally with salt and pepper. Cut the lemon in 8 wedges and tuck it among the pieces of chicken.

Bake for 30 – 40 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken breasts, until the chicken is done and the skin is lightly browned. If the chicken isn’t browned enough, put it under the broiler for 2 minutes. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and serve hot with the pan juices.

We had fun trying these new recipes. The best part was tasting them! If you try them, I think you’ll think so too! By the way, though this wasn’t a Sunday dinner as I usually post here, everything but the Butternut Squash would be very doable ahead of time for Sunday. I’d bake the chicken very low while at church. If the onions were sauteed beforehand for the couscous it would be done very quickly once you returned home. This would be a great menu for a Sunday to make dinner at home a special one!

Happy Cooking!

I’m a pretty structured person who needs routine. Life really flows easier with one, don’t you think? I’m not talking about a whistle-blowing schedule, but a regular flow of how a day goes. Especially with a family living together in a household, routine will help everyone know what’s going to happen and when.

Morning routine involves getting the coffee going, feeding the kitty, pouring the coffee into mugs, then heading to my Quiet place for devotions. I don’t make the bed, throw in laundry or empty the dishwasher until I’ve spent time with the Lord. Why not? First of all, I know that I need the Word of God to direct me. I need the Lord to direct my steps and guide my hours and my day. I also realize that one task leads to another. If I get started emptying the dishwasher and notice fingerprints on the microwave, I get out the glass cleaner and remove the smudges, then notice that a new towel needs to be hung on the rack. I get out the towel and straighten the linen drawer and then …well, you see where that’s headed!

After devotions, I make breakfast, clean up the kitchen, then get myself ready for the day. Then I start on the household tasks of laundry, vacuuming, dusting, bathrooms, etc.

After lunchtime I try to make sure that something is started for supper. I set the meat out to thaw, prepare potatoes for baking, cut up vegetables for a salad or begin making the bread. Even if it’s a meal that can’t be cooking in the crock pot, I feel a step ahead if I do a little prep after lunch.

Suppertime should be as close to the same time of day as possible. If everyone knows supper’s at 5:30, they can plan their schedule around that. Every family needs that time to connect and be a family.

After supper is an especially important time to have a routine if you have young children. Things should begin to wind down after the meal. Baths are given, books are read to quiet them, family devotions are shared together and prayers said. Then have a good routine of tucking in your children. I was blessed to have a husband that took on this responsibility with our girls. Each night he would read to them (the Mandy series was their favorite!), then they would pray and he would tuck them in. A regular routine makes the child feel safe and secure.

Another great routine is the after the kids are in bed. This should be time for Mom and Dad to spend together. This was often our date time when we had no one and no money for babysitters!

Then before you go to bed prepare the coffee maker so it’s ready to turn on in the morning. Set out breakfast cereals and the muffins, the bowls and napkins. Make sure book bags and lunches are packed and outfits are ironed and ready. Take a swift walk around the house and pick up misplaced items so that when you wake up in the morning you’re greeted with a neat house. It’ll make you happy to get up!

What routines do you follow to make your day run smoother?

With love,