LGBT familes, teen advice to parents: Be prepared

Today I read badgerbag’s live blog about the COLAGE panel about growing up in LGBT families. I found this quite amusing. I wasn’t too suprised about the differences in each kid and their family. And yeah I could relate to a few of them. Overall, I just found this an interesting read. It’s funny because all these families supposedly "talk".  I can’t remember a time really when I talked to my mom about gay issues. Maybe I’m just lazy. I just don’t feel the need to get into all of it. I mean I have the basic opinion that g&l should be given the same rights but I don’t feel so troubled by this that I have to talk to my mom about it. I dont feel like I have to be a part of some society either. I do my part on my own, just like everything else in my life. lol

Technorati Tags: glbt, families, gayfamilies, kidswithgayparents, gayparents

Meal Planning

Today we had to go shopping at the grocery store. This time we payed $120 dollars for food. I had guessed $110. The past week or two I’ve been slacking and not planing breakfast or lunch and just making sure I have vegie burgers, bread, eggs and all the other stuff I usually use. This time I planned every meal. I’ve noticed that there’s a pattern with every other week where we spend more money and when I don’t plan out breakfast or lunch there is less money spent.

Meal Planning Week 2

This past week meal planning has had me grumpy. At first I was excited. I planned out some books from the FLB cookbook at this fan site for Francesca Lia Block. Then we went grocery shopping. I guessed that we were going to spend $95.00.  I guessed correctly too. It came out to be like 95.08 or something. And we even got extra things. Later in the week however, the little kids were here and the menu got really screwed up. I had to skip a lot of the meals because they ate all of the freaking food. And if I didn’t skip a meal I skipped ahead to a different meal. I hope this week I plan a little better.

Meal Planning Redux

We made it through week one with just a few bumps in the road.  $30 over budget.  Tons of food in the fridge and cabinets because we over-estimated our food needs.  And of course we didn’t properly plan for weekend "Michelle excursions" when she wasn’t home to cook or eat (which means her moms did not eat according to the pre-planned menu). 

For the week ahead, we have to plan differently taking care to plan for the following issues: Wednesday Michelle starts a sewing class, 6-8pm and we don’t get TW home from work til 5.  So something quick and easy is called for.  Friday – Sunday we have little kids to plan for.  Three meals plus snacks and believe me they won’t skip a meal because they didn’t have breakfast til 12:30!.

Here’s the menu we attempted to stick to last week:

Tuesday
B – Eggs, Toast, Juice
L – Cheese quesadillas, chips, salsa
D – Leftovers that were already in the fridge
S – Cheese nips and apples

Wednesday
B – Oatmeal and banana
L – grilled cheese w/tomatos and carrot sticks
D – Spaghetti, salad, garlic bread
S – cookies (baked from school band sale cookie dough), oranges

Thursday
B – Banana rolled in peanut butter and cereal
L – Leftover spaghetti
D – Veggie Burgers & fries
S – BLT dip and crackers

Friday
B – Cinnamon Rolls, banana
L – Taco salad
D – pizza (Boboli crusts)
S – Deviled Eggs, oranges

Saturday
B – Apple Fluff Pancakes
L – Grilled cheese w/tomatoes and apples
D – Veggie Lasagna, salad
S – Banana Bread

Sunday
B – Banana bread, oatmeal
L – Leftover lasagna
D –   Chicken w/dumplings, green beans
S – veggies, dip, oranges

Monday
B – French toast, oranges
L – leftover chicken & dumplings
D – Veggie stirfry w/rice
S – chips & Salsa

Due to the weekend excursion, we never made it to the stirfry so I am expecting this will be tomorrow’s meal, though Michelle seems inclined to choose recipes from Francesca Lia Block’s books (which is scaring the little kids – apparently pink mac & cheese does not sound good to them).  She used recipes from her Teens Cook book that TW bought her for Christmas a couple of years ago.  She was pleased with the bacon dip, but it needed more bacon.  The veggie lasagna had no red sauce and was surprisingly good.  The chicken & dumplings (moved to tonight) were a hit with the little kids but not with Michelle (TW and I did not eat those – vegetarians that we are).   The apple pancakes were a hit with everyone and should stay on our regular recipe list.

Technorati Tags: mealplanning, cooking, homeschool

Meal Planning

My most recent assignment, Meal Planning, has turned out to be kind of fun.

Monday night we sat down and planned our meals. After we were done
I was looking at the menu and knowing that we were going to go over. Tuesday my mother and I went shopping for our meals.  After we were done shopping we did go over by 30 dollars. We had to get three different bags of cheese each at 8 dollars and 3 red bell peppers were 5 dollars.

Other than going over, the meal planning has been a pretty good success. I don’t snack as much and I actually eat meals. And since I’m one of two people in the house that actually eats three meals a day I’ve been doing a lot of the cooking and cleaning. I like meal planning a lot though.

Technorati Tags: mealplanning, budget, groceryshopping

Food Budget and Meal Planning

We are finally beginning the long promised and long planned (at least on my part) month of homeschool meal planning and food budgeting.  Michelle seems less than enthused.  I’m hoping tomorrow when we begin doing, rather than reading and thinking and researching, she’ll show a bit more interest.

Here’s where we started: Shave $150 a Week….  From there, we explored the Hillybilly Housewife, focusing on the areas: Beginner Shortcuts and Shopping Strategies.

I am pondering the idea of playing The Grocery Game with her for a month, just for fun.  We shall see how it goes.

So tomorrow – planning one week’s worth of meals, for four people (the little kids will not be with us).  $75.  Can she do it?  With our "food needs"?  I think she can, maybe.  It will be fun though to see what she thinks we can give up and what we cannot give up. (As an aside, when we went to the grocery store yesterday we spent $140 on food that was just for the weekend – plus the 4 cases of soda and box of laundry detergent.  About $100 was just for the weekend food – for five of us – the 1/2 child and Michelle were gone all day Saturday and most of the day today). 

Stay tuned, Michelle will begin blogging about the topic tomorrow (or Tuesday since she’s a wee bit behind with chemistry).

Technorati Tags: homeschool, mealplanning, foodbudget, menus

Banana Bread Recipe 1

Bisquick Banana Bread – Recipe 1

2 1/3 cup Bisquick

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

3 large very ripe bananas

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup chopped nuts (we omit these)

Mix together Bisquick, sugar, oil and eggs.  Beat well.  Stir in bananas.  Add vanilla (and nuts).  Bake at 350 for 55-60 minutes in a loaf pan.

This recipe was pretty good. I do really well at baking and I’m convinced it’s because I’m so sweet that it wears off into my sweets. lol. This Banana Bread was exceptionaly good. It looked really pretty and it tasted really good. TW’s wasn’t as good as mine. Tehehe

banana bread, recipe

In the beginning….

In the beginning, Michelle went to school just like the majority of American children and that went just fine for awhile.  A couple of years ago it wasn’t going just fine so home she came.  It hasn’t been easy homeschooling a teenager but it has been interesting and sometimes even fun!

Look for blog entries from me, from Michelle and from TW aka Michelle’s other mom.  It should be interesting to see what we all have to say about various areas of our lives and Michelle’s education.

homeschool