Menu Plan Monday: Bike to Work Edition

I did it! I biked to work this morning. It helped that we had a fog delay. I have to admit though that when I was getting ready to leave our subdivision I almost turned around. I felt a bit silly in my work clothes on my white/purple bike, yet I pressed on and after I rode a bit the weirdness of the situation slowly wore off.



Some of the best things about it was that my ride has what I would call four parts which makes it interesting. On one part I am on a very busy road and so that is my sprint.  I go as fast as I can (remember I'm on a kid's cruiser, so even at my fastest I'm not going super fast) so that I can get to a side road.  Another part takes me beside a local lake (very pretty!).  The third part takes me through town which is pretty much flat and somewhat interesting.  The last part that is closest to the school has a hill with a really really steep incline.  I have seven speeds and I move it down to 1 and I am pumping it.  It is just the perfect length hill because I feel it in my legs, but I can do it.  Also, I know that at the top of the hill is my school, so I don't have far to go.

I liked how the ride got my blood pumping a bit and kind of woke me up.  On the way home it was a nice way to stretch out my legs after just shuffling around my classroom all day.  I'm not sure how often I will bike to work- I'm no Mr. Money Mustache, but it was fun enough that I will do it again on fair weather days.

Funny update on last week's menu plan.  Last week I listed that I would make Cajun Chicken Pasta.  Well, my husband got home before I did, so I called and asked him to pull out a bag of chicken to defrost.  When I got home I looked at the thawed out bag and laughed.  The meat had a large bone in it.  It was a very very old bag of pork chops that was from before I learned the importance of labeling and dating your meat.

Rather than waiting for the bag of chicken to thaw I just used the pork chops and it wasn't too bad considering it was meant for chicken and the pork was old.  Here's a pic (warning- I'm a terrible food photographer because I just feel weird when I'm doing it- should I tell it to say cheese- oh wait it is cheese:)).

Here's my plan for this week (I'm linking up with Organizing Junkie):

Dinner #1:  Easy Beef Stroganoff (made this yesterday and ate the leftovers tonight with cottage cheese on top- yum!)- modified by using tomato sauce instead of paste and cream of mushroom instead of fresh mushrooms- had noodles cook in the sauce

Dinner #2:  Use up your leftovers Italian Bake:  I have a significant amount of leftover meaty tomato sauce that we froze the last few weeks.  I'm going to thaw that out, halfway cook up some rotini noodles that I have, add some cottage cheese, a tiny bit of water (to finish cooking the noodles),top with a bit of mozzarella and bake it.  If I really go crazy I'll saute up some green peppers (I chopped and froze them and they're not bad sauteed).  Salad.

Dinner #3:  Chicken Thighs (Salt/Pepper) roasted in the oven, mashed potatoes/gravy, peas