I missed posting my menu last week and am determined to start this week off in a more organized way!  Since my daughter has a gymnastics competition this afternoon and I have client deadlines tomorrow, I figured I should just post my menu while I have a few minutes.

I am going to make a large batch of veggie stocked pasta salad this evening so my kids can pack it in their lunches or use as a pre-practice snack this week. I did this a few weeks ago and it was such a hit. Its a great way to get fresh veggies in their diets and since they are all athletes they need the healthy carbs in the pasta. They seem to be much better fueled for afternoon sports practices. Other things being added to the lunch menu this week include tossed salad and turkey roll ups. My girls are not big sandwich fans which means I have to constantly be creative with their lunches. My son, on the other hand, would gladly take PB & J everyday.

On our dinner menu this week:

• Monday – Slow cooker fried rice
• Tuesday – Baked Chicken Taquitos and tossed salad
• Wednesday – Happy St. Patrick’s Day! We will have Colcannon (mashed potatoes & cabbage) with sausage since my kids are not big corned beef fans. Still looking for a St. Patrick’s Day meal idea? Check out my 5 favorite classic Irish meals recipes.
• Thursday – Leftover Buffet
• Friday – Sesame Noodles & mixed berry salad

Need more inspiration? Check out my Menu Plan Monday archives or head over to Laura’s at Organizing Junkie for links to hundreds of menus this week.

Don’t forget to submit your family oriented blog posts to our blog carnival called the “All Things Family” blog carnival - enter your submissions by 5 pm today to be included in this week’s edition.

So March is supposed to come in like a lion, but looking at the forecast for this week, I think we are in for lambish weather instead! Yeah, because I am sick of winter! We have a pretty standard week – lots of after-school activities – and I know that planning my menu for the week ahead of time is guaranteed to save me money, make my family healthier and lower the stress level in the house.

I am currently doing a review of the Palm Pre Plus for Verizon and am totally loving it (go read my post about the “Mom Palm” and you’ll understand why!). Well, I found a free app for the phone that anyone who does menu planning (or maybe this would be the motivation you need to start) should have – its called “What’s For Dinner?” The app lets you search for recipes online (from a huge group of sites), import your own recipes, and even create your own. You can even create the shopping list of ingredients for the meal you want to make. That’s what I call productivity. I can do my menu planning easily from anywhere and access the recipes on my phone in the kitchen.

So, what’s for dinner this week?

• Monday – Cashew Chicken in the Slow Cooker from the Better Homes and Gardens Slow Cooker recipe collection. Will serve with rice and mandarin oranges.
• Tuesday – Sloppy Joes, baked potatoes and mixed veggies
• Wednesday – German Potato Soup from the Better Homes and Gardens Slow Cooker recipe collection, too. Will serve with a tossed salad.
• Thursday – Lasagna and salad
• Friday – Quiche. I’m not sure what  kind yet, but I am in the mood for quiche this week.

Need more inspiration? Check out my Menu Plan Monday archives or head over to Laura’s at Organizing Junkie for links to hundreds of menus this week.

Don’t forget to submit your family oriented blog posts to our blog carnival called the “All Things Family” blog carnival - enter your submissions by 5 pm today to be included in this week’s edition.

The All Things Family Blog Carnival is at Dollar Store Crafts this week and as usual, it is full of great family related information. This week’s theme was frugality and money saving tips. Some of my favorite include:

• Jessica Hill, one of my favorite dollar store crafters, presents mad in crafts: Make crayons with dollar store molds posted at mad in crafts, a good use for those cute novelty molds they always have at the dollar store.
• Gina @ MoneywiseMoms presents Guest Post: Retirement Savings for Stay-at-Home-Moms posted at Not the Jet Set Guest Post on Moneywise Moms.
• Karen Eisenbraun presents Plant A Garden For Healthier Children posted at Healthy Theory.

and my own submission:

5 Ways to Save Money on Kids Party Decorations posted at Celebrate It – Creative ways to stretch your birthday party budget!

Go on over to Dollar Store Crafts for the rest of this week’s entries and don’t forget to check out some of the super cool crafts Heather has in her collection while you are there.

Next week’s carnival will be hosted at ProjectsForPreschoolers.com and the theme is St. Patrick’s Day Fun for Families – submit your entry now (or by Mar. 1, 2010 at the latest).

So we got slammed with snow this weekend and spent plenty of together time over the past few days. I’m pretty convinced the kids will not have school most of the week as the roads are still bad, people are without power and the schools are pretty low on the priority list in our area.

We did a good grocery shopping late last week with a rough menu in mind. Now that I have had a chance to really assess what we have, I have the menu for the week ready:

• Monday – Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy with broccoli
• Tuesday – Broccoli and cheese quiche with apple turnovers for dessert
• Wednesday – Steak and cheese subs and a tossed salad
• Thursday – Kielbasa, sauerkraut, green beans and fries for the kids
• Friday – Baked macaroni and cheese with veggies and dip

I spent the day cooking football and hockey watching food for the family. Between the meatballs, the pepperoni bread (I’ll post this recipe with photos later), and nachos, I think we have some good leftovers for lunch this week, too.

Need more inspiration? Check out my Menu Plan Monday archives or head over to Laura’s at Organizing Junkie for links to hundreds of menus this week.

Don’t forget to submit your family oriented blog posts to our blog carnival called the “All Things Family” blog carnival - enter your submissions by 5 pm today to be included in this week’s edition.

What you need:

• Clear plastic cups or parfait glasses (since the kids did these on their own, plastic was my first choice)
• Two packages of strawberry or other red gelatin
• Cool whip or other whipped topping
• Candy hearts for the top (optional)

How to assemble Cupid’s Cloud:

• Prepare the gelatin using the “Jigglers” recipe on the box. Put in the refrigerator for 3 hours to set.
• Once the gelatin is set, cut it into small squares or get really fancy and use Heart Shaped Cookie Cutters.
• Alternate layers of gelatin and whipped topping in the cup.
• Decorate the top layer of whipped topping with candy hearts, sugar sprinkles or even a chocolate kiss if you want.

Get creative:

• Swap out the gelatin for fresh cut strawberries.
• Use pink tinted whipped cream.
• Add a layer of crushed vanilla wafers or white sandwich cookies.

Use your imagination and let the kids have fun putting together this simple, but tasty treat just in time for Valentine’s Day.

Welcome to the new All Things Family Blog Carnival. The weekly roundup of some of the best family friendly articles, tips and ideas from around the web will be hosted at a different site giving you the opportunity to find plenty of new reads! Pour yourself a cup of tea, kick back and enjoy the following submissions to this week’s carnival.

Let’s Get Creative

• Heather presents Make an Eight-Dollar Playhouse posted at Dollar Store Crafts and how to Make Felted Sweater Mittens posted at Croq Zine – The Blog.
• CraftFail highlights projects that just didn’t quite turn out likes these Mickey Apple Treats – “Oops, these adorable treats didn’t quite work out. Get tips for making cute Mickey Mouse apple treats – what works and what doesn’t.”
• Wendy presents Recycled Crafts for Kids posted at Craft Jr., saying, “This post is really popular at this time of year for kids with cabin fever.”
• Learn how to paint permanent designs on your t-shirt using supplies you already have on hand with  The Incredible Painted T-Shirt posted at Make and Takes. Great kids’ craft activity!
• Annette presents Amazing Leonardo da Vinci Inventions posted at Craft Stew, saying, “I’m a big fan of technology books written for kids. I first discovered them when I homeschooled my son for 7 years. Even though those days are now long past, I still read and use this genre of books constantly.”
• Wendy presents Winter Word Puzzles for Kids posted at Classroom Jr., saying, “These free printable word puzzles are great for sneaking language art skills into kids activities.”
• Does your sister in law love your pecan pie? Does your childhood best friend miss your “to die for” chestnut stuffing? Print out a few of your favorite recipes on a pretty recipe card stock – the Free Printable Recipe Cards are posted at Celebrate It.
• Crafty Rose shares 101 Free Craft Tutorials : Best of 2009 : Upcycling Resolution 2010 posted at Fine Craft Guild .com.
• Randa’s Printable Play Money at FreeStuff4Kids continues to be a huge hit with kids of all ages.

Let’s Have Fun

• Madeleine presents How To Muck Up Gift-Giving posted at Mad Kane’s Humor Blog.
• Pamela writes about The BEST Birthday Party Ever!!! posted at Blah, Blah, Blog.
• Charlene presents Big Game PartyTips posted at Snackpicks, saying, “Are you hosting the Big Game party for your neighborhood, family or friends? If so, you are now the Head Coach. Make sure you have a good plan and recruit a team of assistant coaches to make your Big Game party an easy win.”
• Shannon has even more great Super Bowl Party Ideas posted at The Party Elf.

Let’s Get Real

• Having health insurance is an important part of maintaining a family- check out finding affordable health insurance when you’re self-employed posted at Christian Personal Finance.
• Nara says “Sometimes, people can mistakingly believe their partner is cheating”.  Find out abouth the False Signs of Cheating posted at Surviving Infidelity.
• June Tree tells the story of their winter family vacation in Walking In A Winter Wonderland For $1,300 posted at The Digerati Life.
• TSW Blog presents Managing Our Family Finances During A Jobless Recovery posted at The Smarter Wallet.
• Megan presents How to treat a sinus infection – by “cleaning” every breath you take posted at Sinus Home Remedy
• Jen teaches us ways to deal with the conflict of saving to make or tossing for sanity in  There’s Too Much Stuff at Moms Who Make Stuff.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of all things family (hosted at FreeStuff4Kids) using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

It was another busy weekend for us but I still took the time to plan my menu for the week. My goal this week is to use up as much as I can that we already have and not do a major grocery shopping trip.

• Monday - Spaghetti and meatballs with a tossed salad
• Tuesday – Sloppy Joe’s, baked fries, raw carrots/celery with dip
• Wednesday – Shredded chicken tacos, beans and rice
• Thursday – Turkey and Cheese rollups on a tortilla and vegetable soup
• Friday – Pizza and salad

Need more inspiration?Feel free to check out my Menu Plan Monday archives or head over to Laura’s at Organizing Junkie for links to hundreds of menus this week.

And tomorrow we are kicking off a brand new blog carnival called the “All Things Family” blog carnival - enter your submissions by 5 pm today to be included in this week’s edition.

Here are three easy things you can do to ease the effects of dry winter air on your family:

• Increase your water intake – yep, give your body a little help from the inside out. Make sure the kids are drinking plenty of fluids even if they don’t say they are thirsty – water, juice, tea and hot chocolate, even.
• Add moisture to the air – use whole house or room humidifiers to increase the moisture in the air. Not only will your skin thank you, but breathing the moist air will help keep nasal passages healthy and will help fight colds and flu. If you don’t have a humidifier, heat a pot of water on the stove and let it simmer (make sure you do not leave it unattended though) for a while.
• Seal in the moisture that is there. Give each family member their own tube of lip balm and keep hand lotions readily available in bathrooms and the kitchen for use after washing hands. You can also add a little bit of baby oil to the kids’ baths or apply immediately after bath time.

Just a few preventative steps will go a long way to helping your family stay more comfortable this winter. And, before you know it, we’ll be talking about the effects of summer’s humidity!

Some of our favorite humidifier styles:

Super Healthy Kids – I love all the photos and all the creative ways she has for introducing healthier ingredients into your kids’ diets.

OrgJunkie - Without Laura’s Menu Plan Monday, I would be a total mess. Menu planning is one skill that I have learned makes all the difference in our family’s diet, budget and it cuts down on the impulse trips to take out and fast food like you would not believe. Plus it’s easy – really.

Celiac Family – So, Heather really is my sister-in-law, but she has done such an amazing job of building a real community and resource site for families who eat gluten-free whether by choice or necessity. She is an amazing cook and all of her recipes are so good – you don’t even miss the wheat/gluten.

MommaSaid.net – Jen Singer is one of the funniest yet most sane Mothers I know. Her humorous parenting books are gems and if you need a quick reality check  and a reminder that you really are a good parent – just visit her site.

ParentHacks – lots of great advice from parents with kids of all ages. This site has been around for a long time and there is always something useful!

Dr. Gwenn is In – Dr. Gwenn is a pediatrician who shares news on kids health from a doctor’s perspective.

Have a great week! If you have any favorites – please share them in the comments – I always like discovering new sites.