Mommy TG’s 4-Week Cycle Menu Plan for Lent

Today marks the start of the Lent season as we celebrate Ash Wednesday. I will not attempt to explain Lent here in this post. But for those who would like better understand it, here is a video shared by some of my friends in Facebook that tries to explain what Lent is in a few minutes. My objective for writing this post today is to give Catholics some ideas or options on what to serve during the Fridays of the Lent. I have revised my original Four-Week Menu Plan to help other homemakers out there in their menu planning this season of Lent. You may want to follow it day by day. You may just pick out a week plan or two. Or you can just get ideas for simple meatless dishes you can serve during days of abstinence.

Some of the reasons that I chose these dishes are: 1) I’m breastfeeding my newborn baby; 2) these are easy to prepare dishes that I can teach my maids to prepare; 3) I have a toddler who is a picky and slow eater; and last but not least, they are easy on the pocket.

So here is my revised menu plan for Lent. Today, being Ash Wednesday, we are having Ginisang Mongo with Alugbati. Since today is a day of abstinence, we are not putting pork in our mongo like we usually do. You may opt to put fried fish flakes or use a different leafy vegetable instead of alugbati if you prefer.

Week 1

Monday – Ginataang Sitaw at Kalabasa with Pork and Malunggay
Tuesday – Chop Suey with quail eggs (My eldest son loves quail eggs!)
Wednesday – Ginisang Mongo with Pork and Alugbati
Thursday – Chicken Pochero
Friday – Sweet and Sour Tilapia
Saturday – Pork Adobo and itlog na maalat with tomatoes
Sunday – Chicken and Macaroni Soup

 

 

Week 2

Monday – Picadillo
Tuesday – Tinolang Manok with Malunggay
Wednesday – Pinakbet (We cook this minus the bagoong or shrimp paste because I don’t eat bagoong while breastfeeding.)
Thursday – Almondigas
Friday – Sinigang na Bangus or Salmon Heads
Saturday – Beef Stir-fry with Veggies (Broccoli, Bell Pepper, Corn and Green Peas)
Sunday – Chicken Sotanghon Soup

 

 

Week 3

Monday – Nilagang Baboy
Tuesday – Fried Chicken and Coleslaw
Wednesday – Beef Steak and Togue Gisado
Thursday – Chicken Curry
Friday – Daing na Bangus and Enseladang Talong
Saturday – Ginisang Ampalaya
Sunday – Sausage and Shell Pasta Soup

Week 4

Monday – Sinigang na Baboy
Tuesday – Relyenong Bangus and Pumpkin and Carrot Soup
Wednesday – Chicken Liver and Gizzards with Pineapple
Thursday – Lumpiang Shanghai and Chunky Potato and Bacon Soup
Friday – Crusted Tilapia Fillet and Mango or Pineapple Salsa
Saturday – Pasta Dish (I cook a pasta dish at least once a month because my son, Yanthy, loves pasta and to celebrate my newborn’s birth day every month during his first year of life.)
Sunday – Nilagang Baka

Here are some breakfast ideas for the Fridays of Lent.

 Tortang Talong and steamed rice
 Fried Danggit and Spanish omelette with Garlic Rice
 Champorado
 Ginisang Tuna Flakes with Tomatoes
 Paksiw na Dilis
 Oatmeal
 Cereals and Low Fat Milk
 Potato and Chesse Omelette
 Cheese and Spinach Quesadilla
 Spanish Sardines with toasted bread or rice

There goes my revised four-week cycle menu plan for Lent! Hope it helps you and your families make sure that you observe days of abstinence during the entire season. God bless!
 

Affordable Art Activities for Kids

I love doing art projects with my son. Since art is among my personal interests, it was natural for me to expose him to it. I’m glad that he enjoys it as much as I do. In fact, he always looks forward to our next art activity.


Engaging in an art activity is therapeutic for both of us. It not only helps my son develop his artistic skills and creativity. It also helps improve his concentration and focus. It helps lengthen his attention span as well. When I want him to slow down, and reading is not as interesting to him as it usually is, I tell him that we are going to have an art activity. It always works! He instantly lights up and becomes more obedient. We can spend around an hour or more engaging in this kind of activity. As for me, it enables me to take my mind off the things that give me stress and express my thoughts and feelings creatively through art. Like what Pablo Picasso said, "Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." Creating something beautiful from your imagination gives joy in itself. Creating something beautiful with someone you love makes the experience even more wonderful. That’s why it is one of my favorite bonding activities with my son.

"I love you from the tip of my hands to the tip of my toes."

 

Another benefit of doing art projects with my son is that it helps develop his fine motor skills regardless of the kind of medium or material that we use in our activity. These kinds of activities help prepare toddlers to write minus the stress on both parent and child.

But you might say that you are not an artistic person and that you are not skilled in painting or drawing. Does that mean that you need to enroll your child and yourself in an art program? What if I don’t have the budget for that? You can choose to join an art program if you want to but I suggest that you start small, at home, and see how you and your child would respond to it. Skill is not a problem at all; because there are many kinds of art activities for you and your child. And as an old saying goes, "Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder."
 

Yanthy/Gian used glue and sand to "write" his name.
 

Let me share with you simple art activities that my son and I love to do.
 Finger, hand or foot painting.
 Doodling, drawing or sketching.
 Cut and paste art projects.
 Coloring activities using crayons, water color, poster paint or colored pencils or pens.
 Creating things with clay.
 Sand art.

Below is one example of an art activity we had today since we are still in the month of hearts and tomorrow we will be entering the season of Lent. I got the inspiration while navigating this

site. I just modified it a bit. Here’s how we did it step by step:

1. We first traced a circle in a bond paper using a pencil and one of our cups.
2. My son used his fingers (his thumbs to be specific) to paint blue and green on the circle to make it look like the globe.


3. While letting the globe painting dry, we traced a heart on a red colored board and cut it.
4. My son cut the globe painting from the bond paper when it was already dry.


5. He glued the globe into the center of the heart cut out.
6. He glued the heart with the globe into the bond paper.
7. I wrote the Bible verse from John 3:16 with a pencil using dots so my toddler son can trace it and practice his handwriting.


8. My son used crayons to trace the verse.


9. We put masking tape at the back of the bond paper and posted his latest artwork on the wall.
10. We took a picture of him and his artwork.

I chose to include Steps 9 & 10 because I believe that these are crucial in building confidence and pride in your child. When we let the child showcase his artworks, we communicate the message that we are proud of what he does and that his artwork is important to us. Taking a picture of him and his artwork or his artwork only lets us document and keep his art projects digitally in case we choose not to keep them in a scrapbook. It helps us see his growth and development as an artist.

If you need ideas and inspirations, you can always search the net and choose some which you find interesting and appropriate for the age of your child. Here are some sites and articles I discovered as I searched for art ideas that my son and I can do. I got some of my ideas for our art activities from some of these sites. Sometimes, I do exactly the same art activity suggested. A lot of times, I adapt the main idea but customize it to better fit our abilities, needs and available resources.

100 Excellent Art Therapy Exercises for Your Mind, Body and Soul
Art Therapy Instructions
Christian Preschool Printables
Catholic Icing Blog

Let me end with another quote from Pablo Picasso. "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up."
 

Chronicle Baby’s Many Firsts

Many say that time flies so fast when you’re having fun. I say, time flies so fast when you’re taking care of a child. My first born son is now three years and four months old; yet, I feel that it was not too long ago when I gave birth to him. I have stopped working since I was pregnant with my first child. Still, I wasn’t able to record all of his milestones. One reason is that I was too busy taking care of him and I didn’t notice that he was growing very quickly. Other times, it simply didn’t enter my mind or I didn’t think then that it would be nice to record that milestone.

One thing I realized though as I looked back in the past three years is that it has been an amazing experience to witness the growth of a child. And we parents, mothers especially, are truly blessed to be given that opportunity.

So, now that I have just given birth to my second baby – Mateo -- I commit to pay more attention to his development day by day and to the many firsts in his life. I promise to do my best in documenting as many milestones as possible and put them together in a baby book, scrapbook and blog. If I can document them with a photograph or video, much better.

To other moms out there who are either pregnant or who recently gave birth just like me, here’s a list of the many firsts you might want to take note of in your baby’s life. It would be good even for pregnant moms to read up on these things so that they can plan and prepare for these events even before they happen. I was not able to record some of these things for my first baby because I didn’t have a baby book then that had prompts to watch out for all these milestones. Now, that I know better, I hope to chronicle most if not all of them.

FIRST TIME TO…

- take a bath.
- move head from side to side; lift head.
- sleep through the night.
- roll (side to side, tummy to back and back to tummy).
- follow people around the room with his eyes.
- smile; laugh.
- have his nail trimmed.
- turn his head when his name is called.
- coo or babble.
- recognize Mom or Dad.
- go to church or attend Mass.
- visit another place outside of the home or his pedia’s clinic.
- feed from a bottle (for breastfed babies).
- hold a toy or an object.
- sit with support and without support.
- crawl.
- get sick.
- have a haircut.
- have a tooth.
- clap.
- wave.
- open and close hands when prompted.
- hold his own bottle without help.
- use a spoon to feed himself.
- hum or sing a song.
- stand with or without support.
- brush his teeth with help.
- use a sippy cup.
- hold a cup on his own.
- shake head to say No
- nod head to say Yes.
- kiss someone.
- dance to music.
- swim.
- run.
- climb out of his crib.
- climb stairs on his own.
- doodle.
- write numbers or letters.
- write his name.
- tiptoe.
- undress himself.
- pick up objects.
- say “mama”, “dada” or “mommy” and “daddy”.
- say his name.
- say “please” or “thank you”.
- say “I love you.”
- fall or have a scratch.
- read a book.
- join a playgroup.

You can even take it a step farther by collecting and keeping some of the things he used as a baby and make a time capsule with all those things. You can keep his first toy, book, milk bottle, together with his lock of hair during his first haircut, his nail trimmings when you first cut his nails, photograph, bib, mitten, booty, cap, pillow, toothbrush, etc. I’m confident that looking at these records and items in the future would be heartwarming both to you and your child.