Week 1 Menu for 2 by Stacci Slayton Hamilton on Scribd
Sunday, March 17, 2019
Sunday, March 3, 2019
In the Kitchen
It's a bit blustery here today in Central Texas - - of course, nothing like what's happening up North, but I was truly looking forward to some time in the yard. Since I'm chillin' in the house, I thought I'd do some bulk cooking for this week so that I'd have food for lunch.
2 things I'm making with leftovers: chicken spaghetti and chili.
For both of these recipes, the only "new" items I needed were pinto beans, Alfredo sauce, canned tomatoes and pasta. All other items were things leftover from other recipes.
Leftover items: frozen celery and onion leftover from the holidays; rotisserie chicken; baked beans and hamburger patties from dinner last week; ground sausage from breakfast bowls.
Chicken Alfredo** I just added this recipe to a weekly meal planner.
Add 1 cup rotisserie chicken, 1/2 cup chopped onions and 1/2 cup chopped celery to a saucepan. Cover slightly with water and bring to a boil. Once the chicken, onions and celery have softened, use a slotted spoon to remove from the pan.
Add extra water, if needed, and bring to a boil. This will be the water to boil your pasta.
I often make homemade pasta sauce or use a mix. In these instances, I make the sauce while the pasta is cooking.
Drain the pasta and add to a casserole dish. Add the chicken mixture and pour the Alfredo sauce over the ingredients. Stir.
Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
Chili
In a crock pot, add all the ingredients. The thing I love about this recipe is that it always differs in what I add.
1 can pinto beans with liquid
1 can chopped tomatoes
Chili powder and cumin
Leftovers: 1/2 pound ground sausage; 1/2 can baked beans; 1/2 pound cooked hamburger; 1/2 cup chopped onions; 1/2 cup chopped celery.
Add water to cover. I cook my chili on low for over 6 hours, so I want enough water to keep the chili from sticking to the bottom or becoming too thick. I often don't add extra salt or pepper because the leftover food already has those, but you can add once the chili has cooked for a while and you have tasted.
What I love about making this chili is all the ways you can use it: juevos rancheros, chili pie, baked potatoes, soup. With all the ways you can eat the chili, you can use whatever you have on hand. This week, I have some corn chips for chili pie and fresh baking potatoes.
2 things I'm making with leftovers: chicken spaghetti and chili.
For both of these recipes, the only "new" items I needed were pinto beans, Alfredo sauce, canned tomatoes and pasta. All other items were things leftover from other recipes.
Leftover items: frozen celery and onion leftover from the holidays; rotisserie chicken; baked beans and hamburger patties from dinner last week; ground sausage from breakfast bowls.
Chicken Alfredo** I just added this recipe to a weekly meal planner.
Add 1 cup rotisserie chicken, 1/2 cup chopped onions and 1/2 cup chopped celery to a saucepan. Cover slightly with water and bring to a boil. Once the chicken, onions and celery have softened, use a slotted spoon to remove from the pan.
Add extra water, if needed, and bring to a boil. This will be the water to boil your pasta.
I often make homemade pasta sauce or use a mix. In these instances, I make the sauce while the pasta is cooking.
Drain the pasta and add to a casserole dish. Add the chicken mixture and pour the Alfredo sauce over the ingredients. Stir.
Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
Chili
In a crock pot, add all the ingredients. The thing I love about this recipe is that it always differs in what I add.
1 can pinto beans with liquid
1 can chopped tomatoes
Chili powder and cumin
Leftovers: 1/2 pound ground sausage; 1/2 can baked beans; 1/2 pound cooked hamburger; 1/2 cup chopped onions; 1/2 cup chopped celery.
Add water to cover. I cook my chili on low for over 6 hours, so I want enough water to keep the chili from sticking to the bottom or becoming too thick. I often don't add extra salt or pepper because the leftover food already has those, but you can add once the chili has cooked for a while and you have tasted.
What I love about making this chili is all the ways you can use it: juevos rancheros, chili pie, baked potatoes, soup. With all the ways you can eat the chili, you can use whatever you have on hand. This week, I have some corn chips for chili pie and fresh baking potatoes.
Wednesday, January 2, 2019
Journals
I was looking for my planning sketchbook so that I could make some notes about fashion projects as my vaca winds down and I pulled out my 2006 "pay it forward" journal instead. I had forgotten about it.
There are so many things I want to say about it in an attempt to encourage anyone struggling in her life to provide a way to focus on others for a whole year. There was no pinterest.com in 2006, and I didn't find an inspiration for this project anywhere on the net. The idea for it comes from a collection of ideas I'd encountered, and I took my love of journaling / scrapbooking to create this unique journal.
The only guideline I gave myself was that it had to be positive and focused on others. There are entries that sometimes became a bit negative or focused on me, but for the most part, I tried to channel positive energy into others. I chose 12 people in my life that I felt had provided me support and encouragement, people who I felt I had somehow over used, people I felt I had dismissed or people who I felt a great sense of anger toward. As I just now made my list and tried to see where each person fell, I was amused to see that I had an even list of people meaning that of the 4 categories I outlined, 3 people fell into each category. I had not created the categories beforehand. As I was creating this post, I labeled them. Each person on my list was randomly assigned a month. For those whose birthday I knew, I did not assign that person to their birth month.
Recap - I grabbed an empty journal, one of those you can get from a dollar store. I eyeballed it and divided it into 12 sections, leaving about 4 pages for the introduction.
Let's get started - On the first page for each month, I added a divider with the month on it. For my first journal, I used reinforcements because I had them. Use what you have. On the first page for each month, add a box: friend, address, phone number, social media, etc. I made each of these boxes about 7 full lines so that I could also write down special notes for that person (favorite food, favorite beverage, etc., fondest memory). On that front page I also wrote any info about birthdays, upcoming celebrations, etc. I used this journal for my own emotional recovery, so planning ways to pray for others was essential.
As I read back through January's entries, it took me a bit of time to actually stop dwelling in self-pity. For the proactive / pay it forward idea of this journal - reach out to the person of the month. Plan at least 2 contacts for the month. I didn't tell the people what I was doing; I just reached out. For February, I sent each of my 12 a Valentine's Day card picked for him / her.
As I read through February's entries, my tears began to fall - I was so in love in Feb. 2006, so hopeful, and so prepared for a sweet life. And each entry transitioned to the next, I could see how old patterns of denial and disillusion cycled through, day after day. Finally, on 3/9, I shift to the original intent of the journal - others. "my proactive journal has been more successful than i had imagined; it gives me a focus - something other than my own self-depression and abysmal self-pity." I pasted in any notes, cards, etc sent back to me from my person of the month. I made notes in the journal of any special contacts made, notes, etc.
I often reached out to more than the 12 people I'd planned, and I can see those notes tucked in here / there. As April crept in and my self-esteem seemed to bottom out, I aggressively "payed it forward" to others. I made notes about numerous Easter cards and notes sent to others. I also added several magazine clippings. I began the month taking Whitney and Kaitlyn to the park in Early, spending time watching them play.
Then, in May, I began Co-Dependents Anonymous and began working through the steps for recovery. As I read this 12 year journal now, I can hear more of my recovered voice in the struggling of May's entries. It took a while for this journal to get me where I had hoped it would get me; but honestly working on the recovery process helped get me started. I encourage anyone needing to work through burn out, depression or grief to try a "proactive" or "pay it forward" journal and to approach it honestly. The other amazing thing that came about from this process, for me, was reaching out to a CoDA group and putting my recovery first. So many things fell into place for me in 2006 that would be necessary for me to survive the next 12 years. And I can say that I am super excited about 2019 and where I am.
There are so many things I want to say about it in an attempt to encourage anyone struggling in her life to provide a way to focus on others for a whole year. There was no pinterest.com in 2006, and I didn't find an inspiration for this project anywhere on the net. The idea for it comes from a collection of ideas I'd encountered, and I took my love of journaling / scrapbooking to create this unique journal.
The only guideline I gave myself was that it had to be positive and focused on others. There are entries that sometimes became a bit negative or focused on me, but for the most part, I tried to channel positive energy into others. I chose 12 people in my life that I felt had provided me support and encouragement, people who I felt I had somehow over used, people I felt I had dismissed or people who I felt a great sense of anger toward. As I just now made my list and tried to see where each person fell, I was amused to see that I had an even list of people meaning that of the 4 categories I outlined, 3 people fell into each category. I had not created the categories beforehand. As I was creating this post, I labeled them. Each person on my list was randomly assigned a month. For those whose birthday I knew, I did not assign that person to their birth month.
Recap - I grabbed an empty journal, one of those you can get from a dollar store. I eyeballed it and divided it into 12 sections, leaving about 4 pages for the introduction.
Let's get started - On the first page for each month, I added a divider with the month on it. For my first journal, I used reinforcements because I had them. Use what you have. On the first page for each month, add a box: friend, address, phone number, social media, etc. I made each of these boxes about 7 full lines so that I could also write down special notes for that person (favorite food, favorite beverage, etc., fondest memory). On that front page I also wrote any info about birthdays, upcoming celebrations, etc. I used this journal for my own emotional recovery, so planning ways to pray for others was essential.
As I read back through January's entries, it took me a bit of time to actually stop dwelling in self-pity. For the proactive / pay it forward idea of this journal - reach out to the person of the month. Plan at least 2 contacts for the month. I didn't tell the people what I was doing; I just reached out. For February, I sent each of my 12 a Valentine's Day card picked for him / her.
As I read through February's entries, my tears began to fall - I was so in love in Feb. 2006, so hopeful, and so prepared for a sweet life. And each entry transitioned to the next, I could see how old patterns of denial and disillusion cycled through, day after day. Finally, on 3/9, I shift to the original intent of the journal - others. "my proactive journal has been more successful than i had imagined; it gives me a focus - something other than my own self-depression and abysmal self-pity." I pasted in any notes, cards, etc sent back to me from my person of the month. I made notes in the journal of any special contacts made, notes, etc.
I often reached out to more than the 12 people I'd planned, and I can see those notes tucked in here / there. As April crept in and my self-esteem seemed to bottom out, I aggressively "payed it forward" to others. I made notes about numerous Easter cards and notes sent to others. I also added several magazine clippings. I began the month taking Whitney and Kaitlyn to the park in Early, spending time watching them play.
Then, in May, I began Co-Dependents Anonymous and began working through the steps for recovery. As I read this 12 year journal now, I can hear more of my recovered voice in the struggling of May's entries. It took a while for this journal to get me where I had hoped it would get me; but honestly working on the recovery process helped get me started. I encourage anyone needing to work through burn out, depression or grief to try a "proactive" or "pay it forward" journal and to approach it honestly. The other amazing thing that came about from this process, for me, was reaching out to a CoDA group and putting my recovery first. So many things fell into place for me in 2006 that would be necessary for me to survive the next 12 years. And I can say that I am super excited about 2019 and where I am.
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