Moo Shu Veggies

I haven't been feeling very inspired lately to cook. Luckily, my husband has been very inspired by some Jamie Oliver recipes and he's been making fantastic roasted chicken, with the most amazing roasted parsnips with a honey glaze. I did do some cooking/baking over the weekend, but wasn't terribly excited with the results. I made 2 loaves of bread that came out so-so. I really need to find a good sandwich bread to make. Mine were too "fluffy", as jim said. Whatever else I made was so unexciting that I can't even remember it!

Anyway, I'm thinking that the next meal I should try will be Moo Shu Veggies. It's about the only Chinese food I really like to eat and boy do I like it! And the real push to make it is that I know it's something that Stella loves as well.

I found the following 2 recipes that look good.
@Eating Well
From Cooking Light

Seems easy enough. I'll probably get some egg rolls from Trader Joe's to go with. Stella loves to dip. I probably won't get around to making this until over the weekend. Tonight I was planning on making a Lentil and Chorizo soup and I was also planning on making Eggplant Parmesean this week. I've really been trying to plan ahead, but I can never seem to think further than maybe 4 days.

Anyway, I'll keep you posted with the Moo Shu results.

Giveaway on Coupon Geek

My friend Jaycie is giving away a great Food Storage Kit on her blog Coupon Geek. Even if you're not interested in the giveaway you should check out her blog for great listings on deals and she's doing a much needed series of posting on 31 Ways To Save On Your Grocery Budget.
I need all of the help I can get with that!

Frozen Food

Here is an excellent little article by Mark Bittman about how to use your freezer. As with most things in my life, I need to get better at this. I really wish there was a class just on how to best use the freezer, maybe there is and I just need to get better at finding that class. I never feel sure about what to freeze, how to freeze it or how long it can last in the freezer. I have freezer fear! This article helps ease that fear a bit.

Also, check out Bittman's blog: Bitten--all on nytimes.com

For the Frugal Family

I just found out about the npr contest to make meals for a family of 4 for under $10. There are over 300 entries, which means tons of ideas to feed your family for $10!

While scanning the comments I came across a link for Healthy Entrees Under $3 Per Serving.

Breadfast Ideas

I know my blog is called "Dinner Ideas 101", but the main focus for me is to try to find food for any time of the day that is healthy and simple. Ideally, I want slow (whole) food that is not stressful or overly fancy. I want it to be a normal part of my life, not a special occasion.

With that in mind, whenever I find something that I think helps me to achieve that I will post it here. This article, 27 Ideas for a Healthier Breakfast, seems to fit perfectly. I really love the idea of sweetened brown rice with fruit for breakfast, seems like a great change from my usual oatmeal or granola. I do feel that if I start off with a healthy breakfast I'm much more capable of making it through the day feeling energetic and staying sharp, which, as a full-time working mother is pretty amazing.