Menu Plan Monday with Laura at Org Junkie
Upcoming week:
Monday: Chicken & Wild Rice Casserole
Tuesday: Tomato Basil Soup (Costco USA)
One of our students, Xiao, is heading back to China for two weeks. Last night was her last night at home for the next while, so our whole house hung out in the kitchen chatting for the evening after church. While we chatted I pulled together tonight's dinner - and in a super helpful move, Xiao spent the time pulling meat off the chicken for me to add to dinner. So helpful!
I thought we had a meeting tonight so I made sure to have an easy dinner. Now that I've found out the meeting is actually next week I'm still super glad for an easy dinner. It's been a busy weekend. I look forward to eating quickly and easily so I can move on to other things I need to do, like finishing folding my laundry and sorting groceries.
I thought we had a meeting tonight so I made sure to have an easy dinner. Now that I've found out the meeting is actually next week I'm still super glad for an easy dinner. It's been a busy weekend. I look forward to eating quickly and easily so I can move on to other things I need to do, like finishing folding my laundry and sorting groceries.
Tuesday: Tomato Basil Soup (Costco USA)
Tuesday I have Discipleship Group at 8pm, and really want to finish getting some groceries put away, as well as prepping rice for Wednesday's dinner. So an easy soup to heat up from Costco is a great answer. Warm and tasty (it's one of my favorites) it's a big hit in our house - especially when I serve it with garlic bread.
Wednesday: Crockpot Chicken Teriyaki
Wednesday we had a doctors appointment at 4:30, and then a friend coming over for dinner and an evening with Paul, and I have a 7:30pm Women's Ministry meeting. This meal is easy and tasty - our house always loves it. It will be ready as soon as I get home, especially if I have the rice prepped the day before and only need to heat that up.
Thursday: Costco Deli Flautas with Mexi Rice
Friday: YOYO
Friday night we have a friend's birthday party in the evening and I get to see two friends in the day as well.
Saturday: YOYO
Saturday I hope to do some Christmas Baking (we'll see, resting might win) and then we have two parties in the evening - an engagement party and a birthday party. Thankfully they are a 5 minute drive a part so we can hit up both for a while!
Sunday: Crockpot Soup
Sunday is church - we have a few things to do in the day around the house, then church and will either have soup together as a house or will go out to eat with our students after church, since they like eating with our church friends.
Wednesday we had a doctors appointment at 4:30, and then a friend coming over for dinner and an evening with Paul, and I have a 7:30pm Women's Ministry meeting. This meal is easy and tasty - our house always loves it. It will be ready as soon as I get home, especially if I have the rice prepped the day before and only need to heat that up.
Thursday: Costco Deli Flautas with Mexi Rice
Friday: YOYO
Friday night we have a friend's birthday party in the evening and I get to see two friends in the day as well.
Saturday: YOYO
Saturday I hope to do some Christmas Baking (we'll see, resting might win) and then we have two parties in the evening - an engagement party and a birthday party. Thankfully they are a 5 minute drive a part so we can hit up both for a while!
Sunday: Crockpot Soup
Sunday is church - we have a few things to do in the day around the house, then church and will either have soup together as a house or will go out to eat with our students after church, since they like eating with our church friends.
Week in Review:
Monday: Tilapia with roasted vegatables & pesto rice / Crockpot Potato-Cauliflower Soup
This meal was easy and tasty to make - but during the meal I discovered that pregnant Tara does not like Tilapia. Thankfully the rest of the house did but to me it tasted like dirt. Fun.
Then it was off to women at prayer - a wonderful faith filled time. I'm so thankful to have time to worship with these ladies.
Tuesday: Greek Chicken Wraps with Rice
Tuesday was LifeGroup and this meal was a huge hit. It's not easy or fast but man it's good. I made it with brown rice for those of us with more food issues, and white rice for the rest. Lifegroup was really great - I love our small group times.
Wednesday: Ham with roasted vegetables & potatoes
Wednesday I ran errands and did stuff around the house. The meal was easy since the ham was already marinating. I chopped potatoes and boiled them, then mashed them with boursin and added veggies; this is when I was reminded that pregnant Tara hates broccoli.
Thursday: Crockpot Corn Chowder and Crockpot Potato-Cauliflower Soup
Thursday night was sister night which always means a crockpot dish is most helpful. Both these soups turned out wonderfully and it meant easy lunches and dinner over the weekend as needed. I prepped both of these on Monday so I would have an easy time throwing them in the crockpot early in the morning. I made sure to head home early since the following day was Paul's birthday - and not only would I be waking up with him and driving him to work after breakfast, but also I was heading to the states for the day.
Friday: YOYO
As I mentioned Friday was Paul's 30th birthday. I let him sleep in as long as he could get away with, then I drove him to work and picked him up breakfast on the way. It was nice to spend the morning together. Then I dropped him at work downtown and drove over to the States, which was a real labour of love since downtown and the highway to America are super far apart. The border was fine both ways - a 5 minute wait on the way there and 10 on the way back, but aside from that everything took way longer than anticipated, especially the killer traffic heading back through the tunnel, over the brides and into Vancouver. At least the shopping expedition was successful - for life, for our home, for Paul's party and for the baby shower I was throwing Sunday. I picked up Paul on my return and we unloaded the car together and then were ready for our date!
We headed out to Coquitlam to the VIP theater there. We love getting to eat at the theater and have drinks with our movie. We had pulled pork poutine, mac & cheese wedges, chicken tenders (for paul) and popcorn (for me), with beer (for Paul) and a virgin Pina Colada (for me). After the FABULOUS movie (Hunger Games, Mockingjay Part 1) we headed to Timmies to chat and hang out. It was nice. Then I dropped Paul off at our friend Glen's house - he was sleeping out there so they could go hunting in the morning.
Saturday: YOYO
Saturday I had Connor along for the morning as my sidekick. We hit up Costco, Ikea, Superstore and the Florist together. I made up some christmas chalkboard afterwards and created my christmas wreath. I cleaned around the house and made sure I had everything ready for Paul's birthday, and then finally had a shower and got ready for the party. My housemates were AMAZING and helped me pack up everything we needed and load the car and I was able to get to Paul's Dad's place on time to set up. Paul was waiting there to help when I arrived. We set up the beer and wine we were providing (we had a Porter and a Lager, as well as Chilean Malbec, a Gewurztraminer and some Sangria) and pulled together some punch for those that can't or don't drink. Thankfully we were having friends and family bring food, so I just needed to do a few appies (cheese, meats, dips & chips, etc) so that was really easy! And then we got to party! Since Paul had demanded no decorations it was very easy. We had a great time hanging out with those that arrived early, and then at 8 the party began in earnest. At 9pm we settled into the living room to do a "Roast" for Paul - which was less mean and more funny and sweet. Our friends lovingly mocked Paul and also said such kind words about him. It was a great reminder of who he is to us here, and who he is a man in general. He's lived in Vancouver 10 years this past fall and it was neat to see the impact he's made here. His Dad closed us off with a very sweet letter he wrote to him, and it was a wonderful time. Then the party continued until about 12 - we sat outside and roasted smokies and bear sausage and made smore's. It was perfect. We got home around 1:30am - a very successful night!
The only picture I have from the night! Ana and I out at the fire
Sunday: Chicken & Wild Rice Casserole Leftovers!
Sunday I was up at 8am, I couldn't sleep. Which was probably a blessing since I was throwing a Mexican baby shower at noon! I spent an hour gathering up stuff for the party since I'd done the bulk of the shopping, and then went through my house to gather up supplies from our previous parties to add. Then Paul loaded everything into the car for me - our car was PACKED. We had to bring everything to this venue - so we had a lot to cart there! Between Paul's physical labour offerings, Ana's coworkers amazing helpful attitudes and the planning team's work, this party went off awesomely! More will come on it shortly, but for now, here's a sneak peak!
Ana felt loved, I had a great time, the party was enjoyable over all - a huge win! After we packed up we headed home to unload then get ready for church and afterwards we hung out at home with our students until Paul and I could not stay awake a moment later and we finally crashed.
No comments:
Post a Comment