My Newbery Project

One of the things on my 101 list is to read every book that has won a Newbery Medal. The first Newbery Medal was awarded in 1922 so if you do the math this gives me a rather lengthy list of books to get through. I have read several on the list through the years of growing up but it's been long enough that I felt like I should just start with a clean slate and re-read those that I had read in the past.

I first thought I'd start with the 1922 winner and go in chronological order but after several weeks of trying to make it through The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon, I abandoned that idea and decided to just read them in whatever order I felt like. If you're wondering, I'm still slogging through The Story of Mankind. It's approximately ninety-million-billion pages long... and it hasn't grabbed my attention enough to sit down and just get through it!

I will confess that I do count the books that I've listened to as books that I've read. Some may think I'm a cheater, I just think it's a safer way to "read" and ride my bike... hah!

I'm going to put a Newbery Project tab on my nav menu in case you start to feel curious about my progress.

How many Newbery books have you read?

Menu Plan Monday- January 9, 2012

This past week's menu had mixed reviews.

We both really liked the Tuna Patties but weren't really sold on the Grilled Portobello Mushrooms.

The Shepherd's Pie with Cauliflower Mash was not bad. We did make a couple of small changes though and we decided that it probably needed a couple more to make it just right. We added some cream cheese to the mash and a lot of garlic and onion powder. Also, we tossed in about a cup of lightly steamed diced celery root into the beef mixture just to stretch it out a bit more. I think it could use a rather big slosh more of Worcestershire sauce but it still needed something else to perk it up a bit.

The smoked salmon BLT salad was tasty with a bit of avocado thrown in and was basically just the breadless version of the BLT itself!

I didn't make the Mexican Baked Eggs and didn't get to the Meatloaf with White Beans and Mushrooms. I still have most of what's needed to make those so they'll carry over.

This week:

Mexican Baked Eggs

Meatloaf with White Beans and Mushrooms

Chicken Tandoori- Totally cheating on this one and using a boxed mix.

Roasted Tomato, Halloumi & Quinoa Salad

Are you eating anything new and exciting this week?

Menu Plan Monday- January 2, 2012

Part of getting back on track involves getting my menus up again.

On the agenda for this week:

Meatloaf with White Beans and Mushrooms
Shepherd's Pie with Cauliflower Mash
Smoked Salmon BLT Salad
Tuna Patties on Grilled Portobello Mushrooms
Mexican Baked Eggs