Welcome to my food week- Day 1

Here is the view of my lap...

This boy has developed major mommy-love or as some like to call it, separation anxiety. I'm OK with it, I know it will pass. It just makes some things hard, like peeing, eating, showering, fixing my hair, putting on makeup, crafting, blogging, all that essential stuff.

Isn't it so cute how he sucks on his two fingers? I have tried to get him to take a paci and he cracks me up each time. I put it in his mouth and his little forehead gets all furrowed and scrunchy, like "what the heck is this dumb thing mom? Really?!" And then he spits it out in slow motion, kind of like I would if I was told I was eating some really gross meat casserole. Good visual huh?

So anyway, typing is tough but I will try.

I thought it would be so fun to have a themed week, I'm such a teacher at heart, dorky and nerdy for sure. I was looking at a lot of my photos I took to share and I realized a lot of them had food or recipes or food related ideas. Hmm, maybe it's because I eat a lot? I didn't get that personally signed Christmas card from my grocery store for nothin' (turns out, their top 100 customers only get those. Say what? I would have never guessed I spent that much time and money at the grocery, apparently, I do. I asked them just to make sure!)

Any-who, last week hit me like a freight train. We ended up having three showings on the day I was having my little hissy fit. Yes. Three. And we have heard absolutely nothing from any of those realtors. Jerks. At least call and tell us our house sucks, right? I figured out that they were just bringing their clients here and then to the house for sale down the street that is $20,000 less with granite countertops. Can I just tell you how much I hate granite countertops and everything to do with them? I will never get them for myself. Ever. You can quote me. This whole house selling business is such an awful emotional roller coaster except I don't get excited anymore, just hateful and angry and crestfallen. Every time.

So back to food week. I was wanting to do this last week like I said, I could go on about the evils of the housing market for days, but all those showings and nonsense really threw me for a loop.

Here goes. I thought it would be fun to share some of my food prep and meal planning tips this week since I really feel like those things make me more organized and less apt to call the pizza man at 4:30 because I didn't get anything ready for dinner. And I have all these stinkin' pictures I took!

For today, don't you love this buildup? Jeez, like I am presenting the cure for cancer or something!

I try to prewash all my dinner veggies and fruits sometime after breakfast or lunch and let them dry until dinnertime.

I know. Groundbreaking! Can you believe me? I know. I'm such a genius. Seriously though, I found that when the kids are busy playing right after breakfast or lunch, I have about 10 minutes to wash our veggies/fruits. It makes it so much easier at 4:30 (we eat early here) when I have to start the actual cooking process. You know that is the witching hour anyway, when the kids are home from school and its all crazy madness... it is at my house anyway. If I have extra time after the washing, sometimes I will cut or prep the veggies also. If I am using any kind of box items, like pasta or rice, I get those out too. Canned things as well, I just set them on the counter until I am ready. It seems to make the cooking process smoother. I don't know how much time it saves since I have to do it regardless, but it saves me from scrambling around like a nut job. Unless, those dang realtors call and want to come see my house in like 15 minutes. If they do, they will just have to look past my drying peppers on the counter.

my menus for this week:

• pizzas and salad (sale on Kashi pizzas at the grocery- love those) an easy night for me
• 2 potato frittata and fruit salad
• kung pao chicken (with tofu for me) and rice
• spaghetti and salad and french bread (been using my breadmaker like a madwoman lately)
• grilled cheese and veggie sandwiches and tomato soup (homemade bread again)
• tacos and homemade chips and salsa
• vegetable soup and deli sandwiches (homemade rolls, do you see a pattern here?)

I am also baking oreo surprise cupcakes for Valentine's Day. I usually make red velvet ones but Zoe found this recipe and I aim to please around here. :)

my things to do this week:

• mend a bunch of lost buttons and holes in clothes, I sound so "Laura Ingalls" here but I have a huge pile to tackle
• sew Brownie patches on Zoe's vest
• clean my laundry room, I may be painting it next week... we'll see

Have a great week everyone!