Guess What We Did Yesterday…

More importantly, guess what my husband did yesterday! Check it out:

That’s my husband Mike front and center (in the blue shirt) at the New York Stock Exchange, ringing the closing bell to celebrate Foot Locker Inc’s 100th year of trading. No big deal.

(OMGSOFREAKINGAWESOME!!!!!!!!!)

While he was doing that, the kids and I engaged in our own shenanigans. We window shopped at the Lego Store, ate from a Halal cart, rode subway trains galore, hunted for dinosaurs and whales at the American Museum of Natural History, and hit up Toys R Us & the Disney Store in Times Square.

Oh hi there, polar bear! The Hall of Ocean Life at AMNH might just be my children’s new favorite place on the face of the earth.

Once Mike was done, we caught up with him to eat dinner at Junior’s and then headed over to the High Line, a 1.5 mile long elevated park built on an old freight rail line. How I’ve never heard of the High Line before, I’ll never know, but one thing I do know is we’ll be back there every time we go into the city. If you’re ever in NYC, be sure to check it out and take a beautiful little urban hike.

Sunset view from the High Line.

We had such a fun time and managed to keep our day trip mostly frugal: total travel, food and purchase costs were under $150 (half of which was our dinner splurge ). As a family we don’t go away on “big” vacations  (although we do try to visit Cape Cod for a few days in the off-season), but that allows us to fit smaller “staycation” outings like this one into our budget. Also, we’re lucky to live in an area with so much to offer, such as trips to NYC, the beach, camping, etc. There’s something really cool and fun about taking the time to discover what your own backyard has to offer.

Do you “staycation”? If so, what are some of your favorite local things to do for fun in lieu of going away on vacation? Share with us in the comments section below!

Monday Menu Plan: 6/25-7/1

Confession: I’m really bad at grilling.

Honestly, I’ve always avoided using the grill, designating those summer evenings of tasty charred meals to nights when my husband is available to man the station. I’m not sure why, but the grill has always intimidated me. Maybe it’s because I’ve pretty much burned  to oblivion everything I’ve ever grilled.

Regardless of my hang-ups, this week I’m instituting a change in my mentality. You’ll notice a grill-heavy menu, which I will be cooking ALL. BY. MYSELF. (Note to my husband, since I know you’re reading this Mike: If I ask you to take over, say NO).

I need to get over this redonkulous fear of the grill, and reclaim the mighty art of grilling from all those manly-men I’ve relied on all these years to produce my perfectly fire-singed morsels of delight. I mean seriously, if I can kick ass in the kitchen, I can certainly do alright cooking outdoors.

And just in case, I’ll have the eight closest chinese takeout restaurants on speed dial. No joke.

Do you cook on the grill? If you do, what’s your favorite grilled meal to make? Share with us in the comments section below!

On a side note, we’ll be going into the city on Tuesday because my husband is attending the New York Stock Exchange closing bell ceremony. He’ll be there to celebrate Foot Locker Inc’s 100th year of trading on the NYSE. How awesome/exciting/cool/exciting is that?!? What’s even more exciting is the prospect of finagling a tasty meal from the Halal cart while we’re there. Omnomnom.

Okay, so this isn’t a food-related picture. But it *is* a picture (that I sort of love) of my husband Mike and I. And I’m putting it up because I can. Also, because we celebrated our 6 year wedding anniversary last Wednesday. Yay for that!

Breakfasts: quick oats, eggs & toast, fresh fruit, homemade yogurt, homemade granola

Lunches: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (I wonder if I can grill pb&j???), pasta with olive oil & parmesan, leftovers, raw fruits and veggies

Snacks: raw fruits and veggies, pretzels, yogurt, applesauce, popcorn

Dinner:

Monday

• tomato pesto pizza (I was planning to grill this but it hella rained today!)
• spinach side salad

Tuesday

• dinner in NYC

Wednesday

• hot dogs
• grilled corn on the cob
• grilled summer squash & zucchini

Thursday

• grilled eggplant burgers
• spinach side salad

Friday

• poached eggs on toast
• spinach side salad

Saturday

• grilled chicken thighs
• grilled sweet potato rounds
• raw veggies

Sunday 

• grilled ratatouille over whole wheat pasta
• grilled corn on the cob

What’s on your menu plan this week? Share in the comments section below! If you blog your own menu plan, leave a link so we can check it out. And if you want information on how to plan a weekly menu, click HERE.

Monday Menu Plan: 6/11-6/17

Conversation time: I need to talk about dirty dishes.

I’ve been getting along just fine for the past half-dozen years doing the hand washing thaaang. Now that we’re in our new place though, I’ve been reintroduced to the water gulping, electricity sucking monster that is the dishwasher. I had one in the past, but for the life of me I can’t really remember actually using it (although at the time we didn’t have dirty dish mass-producing children yet, so that’s probably why). Being the Frugal McDougal that I am, I’m really struggling with the whole hand washing vs. dishwasher thing.

Now I’ll admit, I haven’t yet googled the heck out of the issue (like I usually do), I figured someone out there in the vast world of interwebs who reads my posts might have some good, relevant information taking up brainspace in their noggin that they’d be willing to share.

So I’m reaching out to you, my wonderful, amazing, beautiful, amazing, smart, funny, amazing readers:
What do you think of hand washing dishes vs. tossing them in the dishwasher?
Is one option greener/cleaner/more economical than the other? What’s your personal dish washing preference?

Breakfasts: quick oats, eggs & toast, fresh fruit, homemade yogurt

Lunches: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, grilled cheese sandwiches, pasta with olive oil & parmesan, leftovers, fruits and veggies

Snacks: fruits and veggies, pretzels, yogurt & fruit, applesauce, popcorn

Dinner:

Monday

• impromptu dinner at a friend’s house (originally rice & veggie soup with salad was on the menu, but our homeschool powwow ran gloriously longer than expected!)

Tuesday

• family pizza outing to Colony Grill

Wednesday

• crustless broccoli cheddar quiche
• spinach and banana “monster milkshakes”
• crusty bread

Thursday

• Homemade General Tso’s Chicken
• vegetable fried brown rice

Friday

• poached eggs on toast
• salad

Saturday

• beans and rice

Sunday 

• Father’s Day Cookout (?)

What’s on your menu plan this week? Share in the comments section below! If you blog your own menu plan, leave a link so we can check it out. And if you want information on how to plan a weekly menu, click HERE.

Monday Menu Plan: 6/4-6/10

Howdy folks. Long time no see. Did you miss me? I totally missed you.

With all the packing, moving, unpacking and trying to figure out how to maintain the fragile balance of harmony in our new home (aka trying to return my kids to their normally scheduled programming of minimal meltdowns), l totally fell off the blogging wagon this past month. Oh and also, I haven’t been able to stick to a menu plan for the life of me during all of this and have blown my grocery budget every week.

AAAAAH THE CHAOS!!! (insert maniacal laughter, hair pulling and running in circles here) It’s been craziness, I tell you. I blame it on the cereal.

Now I’m ready to iron out the wrinkles and get back into a groove of quasi-normalcy, starting with my return to the ever-reliable menu plan. Baby steps.

New Kitchen Love: I totally heart my new kitchen. Notice all that sunlight, openness and counter space. Ohhhh the counter space! (There’s even MORE counter space that you can’t even see from this angle. It’s madness.)

Breakfasts: quick oats, eggs & toast, fresh fruit, homemade yogurt

Lunches: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, leftovers, fresh fruit and veggies

Snacks: fresh fruit and veggies, veggie straws, yogurt, applesauce, popcorn, banana muffins

Dinner:

Monday

• roasted chicken
• sweet potatoes with butter and cinnamon
• green beans

Tuesday

• broccoli cheddar quiche
• spinach side salad

Wednesday

• dinner at my dad’s (I think?)

Thursday

• grilled cheese sandwiches
• tomato soup

Friday

• baked beans over toast
• spinach side salad

Saturday

• tuna salad on english muffins
• fresh veggies

Sunday 

• cheddar black bean quesadillas
• marinated tomatoes
• mango slices

What’s on your menu plan this week? Share in the comments section below! If you blog your own menu plan, leave a link so we can check it out. And if you want information on how to plan a weekly menu, click HERE.

Monday Menu Plan: 4/23-4/29

We’re moving this weekend. Between me getting sick with a case of whoknowswhat (I’d guess a mutant cold/flu hybrid) and trying to pack while the kids are home and my husband is at work, this week is a whirlwind of crazy. My menu plan is equally crazy, as I try to use up what we have in the fridge so I don’t have to haul it with us. The only grocery shopping I did this week was a loaf of bread and some cereal.

Let’s talk about the cereal. I never ever buy cereal, unless I’m too sick to make meals, getting ready to move, or having a moment of crazy – all three of which happen to fit the bill this week. I’m not anti-cereal, I just happen to think that oatmeal or eggs offer us more nutritious whole food for our money. While I don’t shop organically and can’t afford to frolic through the aisles of our local Whole Foods Market, I try to make the best decisions for feeding my family on our budget. Part of the decision for me includes avoiding many processed foods and the bucketfuls of added sugar my kids consume with cereal (which subsequently results in epic meltdowns or scraping bodies off the ceiling of our apartment). I know that from-scratch cooking isn’t exactly everyone’s bag, but I don’t have an excuse not to take the extra five minutes each morning to scramble an egg or simmer oats on the stove. This week though, I barely have the time to sit and type out this blog post… so cereal it is!

PS- Just to make it clear, this really isn’t any kind of cereal-hater post. If you’re an on-the-go person with no time to make breakfast or just prefer the taste or convenience of cereal or whatever, I can dig it.  I feel the need to fully disclose the fact that, were it not for being so conscious of what I shovel into my children’s bellies and where our hard earned dollars are going, I’d probably be gorging an entire box of Lucky Charms each morning for breakfast. No joke. I lurve me some cereal.

What do you usually eat for breakfast? Share with us in the comments section below!

Breakfasts: quick oats, eggs & toast, fresh fruit, cereal

Lunches: curried chickpea salad sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, leftovers, fresh fruit and veggies

Snacks: fresh fruit and veggies, animal crackers, spinach & fruit smoothies, homemade cookies

Dinner:

Monday

• black bean baked taquitos and corn for the kids
• chinese takeout for Mike and I

Tuesday

• turkey burgers
• tomato & cucumber salad
• broccoli salad

Wednesday

• roasted chicken
• quinoa
• whatever veggies are in the fridge

Thursday

• pasta with butter and parmesan
• whatever veggies are in the fridge

Friday

• takeout?

Saturday

• dinner at my dad’s

Sunday 

• dinner at my dad’s

What’s on your menu plan this week? Share in the comments section below! If you blog your own menu plan, leave a link so we can check it out. And if you want information on how to plan a weekly menu, click HERE.

Monday Menu Plan: 4/16-4/22

The weather is getting warmer. Do you know what that means? I’m officially in summer food brainstorming mode. Which means grilling/picnicing/camping-friendly dishes will be infiltrating my menu plan slowly and inconspicuously for the next few weeks, building up to a hostile takeover sometime in the month of May. Get ready because once we move(!!!) and get our grill set up, it’ll be on like Donkey Kong.

sweet bean salad: my new favorite summer-friendly food obsession

Breakfasts: pancakes, quick oats, eggs & toast, fresh fruit, oatmeal smoothies

Lunches: curried chickpea salad sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, leftovers, fresh fruit and veggies

Snacks: fresh fruit and veggies, veggie straws, goldfish crackers, spinach & fruit smoothies

Dinner:

Monday

• apple cheddar quesadillas
• sweet bean salad

Tuesday

• baked eggplant parmesan
• quinoa
• spinach side salad

Wednesday

• baked marinated tofu
• raw veggies
• sour cream onion dip

Thursday

• shaved asparagus pizza
• cucumber and tomato salad

Friday

• brown rice egg bowl
• sauteed garlicky green beans

Saturday

• pasta with butter and parmesan
• spinach side salad

Sunday 

• creamy curried chickpeas
• baked brown rice
• broccoli
• naan

What’s on your menu plan this week? Share in the comments section below! If you blog your own menu plan, leave a link so we can check it out. And if you want information on how to plan a weekly menu, click HERE.

Monday Menu Plan: 4/9-4/15

Yesterday was Easter. Our morning consisted of being particularly lazy, and then making these cute little Rice Krispy Easter egg treats inspired by a recipe I found on Pinterest:

Homemade Rice Krispy Easter Egg Treats: yep, these were awesome.

Afterwards we polished up and headed over to my Gramma’s to hang out with my awesome family and eat copious amounts (that is an understatement) of good food. What is it about holidays that causes so much overeating to take place? The amount of food I ate just for dinner yesterday is comparable to how much food I might consume over the course of 24 hours on a normal day. Oy.

This morning as I reluctantly scribbled down a meal plan I wanted to think of anything but food, as I now have a foodbaby AND a food hangover.

From now on I will refer to Easter as “Feaster”, a term my mom’s friend Beth threw out there as I complained of my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad too-much-food-blahs this morning on Facebook. Thank goodness there are months of recuperating time between large food holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, (F)Easter and the 4th of July. Otherwise my stomach would be curled up crying in a corner somewhere right now. Time to eat a lot of salad, dig out the 30 Day Shred dvd and hop on that wagon again. Gah!

More food: adorable cookies made by my cousins!

How do you recover from holiday overeating? Share with us in the comments section below!

Breakfasts: quick oats, eggs & toast, fresh fruit

Lunches: Easter leftovers, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, egg salad or curried chickpea salad sandwiches, fresh fruit and veggies

Snacks: fresh fruit and veggies, veggie straws, goldfish crackers, spinach & fruit smoothies

Dinner:

Monday

• roasted chicken thighs
• baked brown rice (Click the link. Seriously, my fave mush-free way to cook brown rice.)
• sauteed green beans

Tuesday

• scrambled eggs
• toast
• raw pepper strips and broccoli spears

Wednesday

• Eating out in NYC (Emma’s birthday trip)

Thursday

• baked ground turkey taquitos
• corn salad

Friday

• pasta with broccoli and chickpeas
• french bread

Saturday

• homemade pizza
• spinach side salad

Sunday 

• baked eggplant parmesan
• quinoa
• spinach side salad

What’s on your menu plan this week? Share in the comments section below! If you blog your own menu plan, leave a link so we can check it out. And if you want information on how to plan a weekly menu, click HERE.

Monday Menu Plan (The Really Late Edition): 4/2-4/8

Oh hi there. I knew there was something I forgot to do this week. DERP.

Anyways, this week has been uber-busy with apartment hunting (found a place!), lice-checking the kids, pre-move decluttering, catching up with besties and getting ready for my little lady’s big 0-4 birthday. I’m not sure how I managed to get this far without a menu plan, but I guess every once in awhile even the awesomest (not a word) of homemakers fudge things up. This is my week. With all the chaos I’m pretty sure we’ve eaten greasy, gross road food more times than I realize. Whoops.

(FYI: This is NOT what I originally had planned for meals this week. The following is what happens when I wing it and fly by the seat of my pants. Proof that menu planning is effective when properly executed!)

Breakfasts: pancakes, quick oats, eggs & toast, fresh fruit

Lunches: greasy, gross road food (aka hot dogs, McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts, more hot dogs, more Dunkin Donuts), whatever else we can grab on the run.

Snacks: fresh fruit and veggies, veggie straws, goldfish crackers, gingerbread cookies, spinach smoothies

Dinner:

Monday

• scrambled eggs
• toast
• raw red pepper strips

Tuesday

• takeout – Chinese (guilty pleasure: loooooove.)

Wednesday

• pasta with butter and parmesan
• raw pepper strips and carrot sticks
• experimental cauliflower crust veggie pizza (not sure where we went wrong, but this was a big ol’ soggy crusted FAIL)

Thursday

• turkey-oat meatball subs
• salad

Friday

• pasta with butter and parmesan
• green beans

Saturday (Emma’s Birthday!!)

• homemade pizza
• salad

Sunday (Easter!!)

• Dinner at my Gramma’s

What’s on your menu plan this week? Share in the comments section below! If you blog your own menu plan, leave a link so we can check it out. And if you want information on how to plan a weekly menu, click HERE.

Monday Menu Plan: 3/26-4/1

My son has been on a pizza kick lately. And by “lately”, I mean for the past year. I ask my kids what they’d like for dinner when I’m writing our menu plan for the week, and I can bet my bottom dollar that “pepperoni pizza” will be Christopher’s answer. Every. Single. Time. It doesn’t surprise me. He is, after all, a 5 year old with the palette of a goldfish (aka he forever prefers to subsist on just one thing: pizza).

I usually make our pizza at home to be frugal and save a few bucks, since I’d otherwise have to sell my second born child to support Christopher’s pizza habit.  For awhile I got sick of our homemade-on-a-cookie-sheet pie and tried to boycott pizza consumption altogether. In the meantime, my dad went out and picked me up a pizza stone, and now I’m back to embracing our weekly adventures in homemade pizza-making.

Let me just say, if you don’t own a pizza stone, go get one. Now. Last week alone, we made pizza TWICE for dinner. Yeah. It’s that good. You don’t even need a fancy schmancy one, ours was $12 (after 20% coupon discount) at Bed Bath and Beyond and it rocks our world. It also stores conveniently on the bottom shelf of our oven, so it doesn’t take up any precious cabinet space. Fo’ realsies, you have zero excuse.

Go out. Get one. Now. Thank me later.

When it comes to pizza, are you Team Homemade or Team Takeout? Let us know in the comments section below!

This pizza deserves love letters, it's so darn good.

Breakfasts: baked oatmeal, quick oats, eggs & toast, fresh fruit

Lunches: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pasta, leftovers, fresh fruit and veggies

Snacks: fresh fruit and veggies, popcorn, jello, veggie straws, goldfish crackers, spinach & fruit smoothies

Dinner:

Monday

• creamy curried chickpeas (rollover from Sunday, I got sick and put it off for a day)
• baked brown rice
• flatbread

Tuesday

• roasted chicken
• oven roasted asparagus
• rice pilaf

Wednesday

• roasted beets, quinoa and oranges over spinach
• homemade dinner rolls

Thursday

• baked tofu sticks
• raw cut veggies
• honey mustard dipping sauce

Friday

• pasta with no-cook tomato sauce
• salad

Saturday

• homemade pizza
• salad

Sunday

• baked black bean and sweet potato taquitos
• guacamole
• salad

What’s on your menu plan this week? Share in the comments section below! If you blog your own menu plan, leave a link so we can check it out. And if you want information on how to plan a weekly menu, click HERE.

Help Me Choose a New Pair of Eyeglasses!

I need a new pair of prescription eyeglasses. I have only one pair, and with two rambunctious young kids the reality is it’s only a matter of time before they Hulk-smash that baby into bits and pieces (yes, it’s happened before… twice).

I picked my friends’ brains over Facebook one day for an affordable source of secondary spectacles, and my brother offered up the socially responsible warbyparker.com. He said he’d seen them featured on a news report and learned that for every pair purchased they donated a pair to the less fortunate. I was intrigued by this, and checked them out. Here’s a summary of what they do (from their Facebook page):

Warby Parker sells boutique-quality prescription eyewear for $95 exclusively through our website, www.warbyparker.com, and donates a pair of glasses to someone in need for every pair sold. Polycarbonate prescription lenses with anti-reflective and anti-scratch coatings are included in the price and we offer free shipping, free returns and free home try-ons every day.

We believe that everyone has the right to see. Unfortunately, millions of people around the world today don’t have access to proper vision care. To help address this problem, we partner with renowned non-profits, such as Restoring Vision, to deliver one pair of glasses to someone in need for every pair that we sell. In doing so, we enable you to share the gift of vision with someone who can’t see today and give them the opportunity to read, to work and to live a fuller life.

If you want to check out the whole shebang, you can click HERE and head over to their website for all the deets.

I have a diamond shaped face, which is notoriously difficult to find appropriate frames for. I sort of need to try on frames before I buy them, but I didn’t want to go to a brick and mortar shop and pay up the wazoo for new glasses (since my insurance doesn’t cover another pair for about 15 more months).  You might be thinking “Whoa! $95 isn’t exactly cheap when you could get a pair for $10 bucks”… I knew I could get a pair cheaper online, but I didn’t want to gamble my money on glasses that may or may not look good on me. And considering my last pair of glasses was over $200 after insurance, $95 doesn’t seem so bad. AND considering that someone less fortunate is gaining a needed pair of eyeglasses at my minor expense is totally worth the slightly “higher” cost.

One of my favorite things about Warby Parker that sets it apart from other online prescription eyeglass retailers is their Home Try-On program. You can order 5 pairs of frames that you’d like to try on at home (you get five days to decide, with no obligation to buy!) and it includes free shipping both ways. So that’s what I did.

Now I need your help, as I’m redonkulously indecisive about these kinds of things and it’s kind of a big deal for me to pick the right ones since they’ll be on my face every. single. day. Below are the four frames I’m stuck on – one pair was definitely a no-go, so I didn’t bother including it. Check them out, and help me decide which nerd goggles I should order! And before you say anything, I know I look kind of, um, dweeby. I’m no good at taking pictures of myself, especially in poorly lit bathrooms (or anywhere else for that matter). But I can take comfort in knowing that no matter how lame I look at least there’s no duckface action going on in my photos.

Frame #1: "Winston"

Frame #2: "Bensen"

Frame #3: "Sinclair"

Frame #4: "Preston"

Which pair of frames do you think I should choose? Let me know what gets your vote in the comments section below.

(ps- I’m not being compensated in any way for gushing about the awesomeness of Warby Parker. I just think they’re that awesome.)