Meal Planning

Who actually does weekly meal planning? . . .

I actually do, but only in recent years. I know all the reasons not to. So why do it?

1. It saves money. Instead of buying everything needed for a fully stocked cupboard, you buy what you need for only 6 or 7 meals.  Also, you can plan your meals around the local sale items. If roast is half-off, then roast can be worked into your meal plan.
2. It saves time. Knowing what you're going to cook tomorrow means that you can utilize time saving things like crock-pots, rice cookers and bread machines. It also means you don't waste time on that ever present question, "What are we having for dinner?"
3. It saves cooking. Since you can plan for one meal to lead into the next, last night's chicken parmesan can be tomorrow's chicken alfredo. Meaning you cook chicken once instead of twice.
4. You use up what you already have. You can plan your meals around what's already in the pantry and freezer and only buy the few extra ingredients to make that chicken that's been in the freezer for months into a meal.
5. Buy in bulk. If chicken is on sale, you can buy the larger, cheaper package and plan 2 or 3 meals around it. 

At first, meal planning can be intimidating, but if you have a couple of tools, it's much simpler.

First, it's handy to make a list of your families favorite meals, the ones you do over and over every week.  Don't try this all at once, but keep a piece of paper on the fridge. When you think of a meal that you have at least once a month, jot it down. Within a week, your list will be done.

My list started as one index card. As you can see, it's grown

You don't have to stick to this list. Every week, I plan one or two totally new meals and then pick the rest from my list. Even if you never deviate from the list, that's fine too. My husband grew up knowing what he would have for dinner every night, since his grandmother made the same 7 meals every week.

The second tool is a master grocery list with everything I could possibly need from the shop. It's full of every item I buy on a regular basis. No, it's not my grocery list - that would be insane. When I make my grocery list, after listing ingredients I need for my weekly meals, I review this master list to see if there is anything I left out. Then I can check the pantry to see how much of our staples we have, such as cheerios, coffee, whole wheat rotini, toilet paper, dish soap, etc. There is always something you run out of that you (or in my case, my kids & husband) to write on your fridge's dry erase board. Lord knows you don't want your weekend ruined by a lack of sour cream!

When I recently lost my master grocery list, I actually made a new one from looking at the previous month's grocery receipts. It was a pretty good way to show me what I actually buy.

Both of these lists get reviewed, edited and rewritten about once a year to reflect our families changing needs. For example, my current master grocery list has more basic food ingredients and less boxed mixes than it did 3 years ago had. Sounds a bit anal, I know. Actually in the long run, the lists get redone all year long as I scratch out one thing and add others. It's just that once a year I rewrite it so that I can read my own chicken scratch.

My meal list has evolved to have categories. One column for meals that can be vegetarian since I like to feed the family a few veg meals a week. One column for things that need to be baked since I try to bake mostly in the cooler months. I started a column for bean dishes this year since I'm working on that. Then a column for anything else.

Still overwhelmed? Let's go step by step in the process. It may take a while the first time you do it, but once you've had some practice, it takes less than an hour a week. 

Making a Weekly Meal Plan
Step One:
Check to see what you have in your pantry, freezer & fridge that can be part of a meal or a meal itself.

In my freezer I have pre-cooked ground beef and chicken breast (pre-cooked myself, but I'll cover that in another post). I also have some stew meat and a large bag of stir-fry veggies.

Step Two:
Check the sale ads for really good deals.

I generally make one trip to Albertsons each week, mostly for their sale meat. This week chicken leg quarters are .59/lb, roast is $1.99/lb and ground beef is $1.99/lb.

Step Three:
Take a look at your up-coming week to see if there are any really busy nights. On those nights, plan for an easy to make meal.

Our week isn't too bad, but there are some trouble days. Saturday is my errand day, plus I have to make jams for my church auction and 125 petit fours for another group. Saturday I need a no fuss meal. Sunday night Girl Scouts runs late, so it's leftovers, something simple or a crock-pot meal. Monday, I'm having oral surgery, so I need something hubby can cook. Tuesday I'm making cheesecakes both for my church auction and the feast for 125. Wednesday night we're running to the library, and therefore shouldn't plan anything complex. Friday night we have friends coming over, and so I need to make something in bulk.

I also consider the seasons. In winter, I bake more since the oven heats the house. In summer, I cook more stove meals and use the grill.

Step Four:
Actually plan each night's meal day by day keeping in mind all of the above.

Saturday: Something simple that uses up the bag of veggies and the pre-cooked chicken breasts.

• Asian Vegetable Stir-fry. 
• Basmati rice. 
• Pre-cooked chicken on the side to give this meal a vegetarian option.

Sunday:

• Leftovers, if there are any.
• If not, quesadillas. Even my 12 year old can make these. So if I'm running too late, everyone will get fed.

Monday: Since I'll be totally out of it:

• Pasta
• Sauce & Meatballs

Tuesday: Something that uses up the cooked ground beef but can also be a veg option. Plus, it's simple to make and the kids assemble their own.

• Tacos
• Burritos

Wednesday: Using up the stew meat, plus making something that I can cook, leave and eat later.

• Simple Beef Stew
• Bread from the bread machine

Thursday: The only night next week where I can take my time, so one of my favorites:

• Breakfast
• Pancakes
• Polenta w/ cheese & butter
• Breakfast sausage (I can even get the vegetarian type)
• Scrambled eggs or omelets to order

Friday: Need to feed 7 adults & 4 children and I want to use up the last of the cooked ground beef.

• Red Bean Chili
• Rice
• Cornbread, but only if it's cool enough to bake. Or, maybe I can use the bread machine.

There you have it. From here, I figure out what ingredients I need to by and what we have. Along with my master grocery list, I make my list for the week. It doesn't take nearly as long you would think. From start to heading out to the grocery, about an hour. I figure it's time well spent since my meals are planned out, I won't need to make extra trips to the grocery and I won't spend money on food we won't eat.

Lazy Blogger

When life gets busy, I tend to push my needs to the background. I admit blogging brings me great pleasure, but since it's not a necessity in life, I neglect it.  Like exercise, I know I would function better, get more done, feel better and have more to give if I just gave a little to myself first.

You may see a change in the types of posts. Oh, it'll still be on food, cooking, environmental consciousness and living frugally, but Mama Bear's gotten fat! A year of stress eating has taken its toll, and I now weigh more than I've ever weighed except when I was pregnant or postpartum. Even my family is telling me to stop working on the sweeter side of cooking and start working on the healthier side.

Unless I want fat to be my future and fat to be my fate, I need to realign the paradigm of my cooking universe. In the last 2 years I have become really good at desserts. My pastries, cakes, brownies, cheesecakes, etc have all gotten to the divine level of yumminess, but my hips can attest that I have no willpower. If it's in the house, I will eat it until it's gone. 

Let's see how far I can push my creativity and learn to cook a large diversity of healthy main dishes.

Homemade Dog Food Recipe

I've been working on this method/recipe since September, but before I posted anything experimental, I wanted some proof that it was good. Now I really wish I had taken a picture of my 15 year old, 50 lb mutt back in September. We would have sworn that Sara had maybe a few weeks to live. Her hair had nearly all fallen out, her bones were starting to show through her skin, she wasn't eating much, she slept most of the time, and she was fairly disoriented when she was awake.

A little over three months later, her fur is fuller and softer than it's been in 5 years. She's filled out and gained weight. Sara's eating plenty of both my dog-food and the kibble. She still sleeps a good deal, but much less than before, and she's alert when she is awake. Every now and then she even wrestles and tumbles with the other dogs. She acts and looks like a dog of 10 rather than 15.

I understand that it sounds like I'm exaggerating, but, if anything, I can't state enough how changed she is. My friends, who have come over weekly for the last year, are just as shocked.  I never thought I would see such a change in Sara, and we all thought, back in September, that she wasn't going to live much longer.

As for our other three dogs, saying they love the food is, again, an understatement. Their fur is soft. Fleas don't seem to be a problem. The ones we got from the pound in September have filled out and look more muscular.

I'm not saying I made the end-all be-all of dog food recipes. It isn't hard to make something better than dry kibble. Look at the ingredients in even the more expensive kibble, and you'll see what I mean. The top 3 ingredients most often found in even the pricey brands are:

• Corn
• Chicken by-products (beaks, feet, organs not eaten by people)
• Ground bone (though it's rarely called that)

I did a little research on what the current theories about what dogs can and cannot eat, and here's a few guidelines:


NO:
    * soy - allergy
    * wheat - allergy
    * corn - allergy
    * garlic - toxic
    * onions - toxic
    * Grapes/Raisens: toxic
    * chocolate - toxic
    * Coffee: toxic
    * Tea: toxic
    * Raw Eggs: contain an enzyme called avidin, which decreases the absorption of biotin (a B vitamin). This can lead to skin and hair coat problems.
    * Raw meat: is potential source of parasites and bacteria. (I know many people feed their dogs raw meat, but I have too much meat-germ phobia to do it.)

CAUTION:
    * Brewers Yeast: full of b vitamins and other nutrients, but if given too much it can cause digestive bloating and death. Most pet stores sell it, and I give about 1/2 of what the bottle recommends.

YES:
Protien:
    *Meat: turkey, chicken, beef or pork (I buy whatever is on sale) Remove the bones.
    *Peanut butter
    *Eggs, cooked

Quick cooking grains:
    * Rolled oats
    * Bulgur
    * Quinoa

Whole grains:
    * Brown rice
    * Barley
    * Millet

Vegetables:
    * Green beans
    * Carrots
    * zucchini
    * Yams/sweet potatoes
    * Baking potatoes
    * Broccoli florets and stems
    * Pumpkin, canned, fresh or frozen
    * Beets, canned or fresh
    * Spinach, fresh or frozen
    * Apples
    * Pears

Legumes (beans):
    * Lima beans
    * lentils, green or orange
    * Peas or split peas, green, yellow or orange

Fats:
    * Vegetable oils
    * Animal fats, like lard, tallow or fish oil

Once I had a good idea of what not to feed my dogs, I needed to know how much. It took a good deal of my google-fu to find out the daily recommendations for dogs.  Basically what I found is that dogs need about:
    * Carbohydrates = 53%
    * Protein = 22% (more for a puppy or really active dog)
    * Fat = 25%

My Basic Method (pictures and details will come later, but here it is for now)
- Yields enough for 4 medium sized dogs for 1 week. Supplement with kibble. Refer to the above YES list for specifics.

• 2 lbs meat
• 1 1/2 cups grain #1, dry
• 1 1/2 cups grain #2, dry
• 1 - 2 cups green fruit or vegetable
• 1 - 2 cups orange fruit or vegetable
• 1 - 2 cups red or purple fruit or vegetable
• 1/2 cup green legume (bean), dry
• 1/2 cup yellow or orange legume (bean), dry
• 1 1/2 cups lard or other animal fat
• 2 TBSP iodized salt
• water, enough to cover contents

 I can go on and on in detail explaining why, but I've been trying to post this for 3 days, so it's going out in it's bare-bones and corrections-needed for now.

• Place all contents in a large stock pot or large crock pot. Add enough water to cover contents.
• Stock pot method: turn heat to high, bring to simmer, turn heat to low. Simmer 4 hours.
• Crock pot (haven't tried this yet, but it should work in theory). Cover and put crock pot on high until simmering. Reduce to low, keep covered and simmer for 8 hours.
• Use stick blender to puree contents, or a conventional blender using multiple batches. Make sure it's well blended.
• Let cool. Store in  a large container in fridge.

Fixing it in the Morning:

• For each dog, use 1 egg (large dogs use more). Whisk and microwave for ~40 seconds. Whisk again, microwave for another 40 second. Egg must reach a temperature of 160 degrees.
• Brewers Yeast: 1/2 the recommended amount
• Chewable kids' vitamin, dosage should be on bottle based on pounds.
• Omega 3 rich oil (like cod liver or salmon): 1/2 tsp per 25 pounds of dog
• 1 TBSP olive oil or canola oil
• Wheat germ oil for horses (found in feed stores) ~1 tsp per 25 pounds of dog, but there should be dosage on the bottle.
• 1 cup dog food (recipe above) per 25 pounds of dog.

Mix all together. I powder the vitamins and brewers yeast with a mortar and pestle (found at a health food store) for easier digestion.

Making it Affordable
I sold this to my husband by saying it will save money. I wasn't lying, but it does take forethought.

• Buy what's on sale. If ground turkey is on sale this week, get that. If you have freezer space, when something is at a really good price, stock up for future weeks.
• Save those parts of the vegetables that we don't eat. Limp carrots, broccoli stems, apple that's a little too soft. You can freeze then before they go really bad.
• Look through your leftovers. Most of the time, 2 or 3 things from the recipe is from my leftovers. Week old rice, out-of-date broccoli and cheese, or hamburgers no one wanted. Before throwing something out, as long as it doesn't have a large amount of the NO stuff in it, use it for the dog food.
• Buy in bulk rather than week to week. I have a gallon of wheat germ oil that's made for horses. It should last about 6 months or more. You can store things like that in the fridge to prevent them from going rancid.

As I said before, this isn't THE definitive dog food recipe, but I'm happy with it, my dogs are happy with it and so I use it. I did a bit of research and I'm pretty secure in thinking that their breakfast is better for them than kibble alone. Comments are welcome, and if I have something wrong or left something out, let me know.

DIY Superhero Birthday Party Part 1: Planning

Do It Yourself Superhero Birthday Party

Part One: Planning

Before anyone thinks I'm really nuts, which I'm not discounting, for going all out on my soon to be 6 yo's birthday party, let me give you some of his birthday history.

My little dude turned the big one a few days after Hurricane Katrina hit, and we lived slightly north of New Orleans right where the eye sat for hours. So there we were, evacuated and living as refugees at the house of some wonderful friends, not knowing if we had a house, if my husband had a job, or if many others in our extended family were even alive. Not the most festive of environments.

Fast forward a year, and my little dude turns 2 when we're living across the country in New England, again in the home of another magnanimous person. We have no friends near us, he has no family at his birthday other than his siblings and parents, we're uncertain day by day as to where we're going to be living and pretty broke. Again, not festive.

He turns 3 in style with a nice party with many of our awesome friends, but not really any kids.  For 4 and 5, we've moved again, and most of our friends live too far to come down for an ordinary birthday. Throughout all, he has not once complained. He's a very kind hearted and generous little dude. But at 6, he should finally get the birthday party to make up for all the rest.

I let him make out the invitation list. We want it to be his friends and people he knows there, but he does ask his little bro who his friends are to make sure that they're invited too. (Told you he is sweet!) Then we spend an afternoon thinking up a theme, planning activities and designing the fun - all with his help and final approval (though I do tell him that once he makes up his mind and we start planning, he can't change it - and yes, he has tried).

Step One: The Theme
The first thing we did was figure out an overriding theme. Even if you want Superheroes or Scooby Doo, you still need a focus, an idea which all activities, decor, food, etc revolves around. If one were to have a Scooby party, for example, the theme could be the Case of the Disappearing Presents.

After hashing around several ideas that included mainly Batman, the Teen Titans, Robin, and other DC guys, we decided upon . . .

Superhero Training Camp
Sponsored by Batman

Step Two: The Invitations
Yes, even these are a DIY. We found the perfect jpg for the front of the card. Then I came up with our own text.

Calling all heroes . . .
Please come to my 6th birthday party / Superhero Training Workshop
To train to be the world’s best Superheroes!!

Birthday Superhero: child's name
Training Date: 01/01/2020
Training Starts: 1200 hours
Training Center:
123 Main Street,
Any Town, AB 12345
RSVP: 123-456-7890 or
youremail@something.com

Superhero costumes optional for both adults and children.

With a little messing around with MS Word, my printer, card stock and my paper cutter, I made some cute little cards. In the end, using Print Shop would have been simpler.

Step Three: Planning the Activities
Don't fret - I'll go over these one by one in individual entries. But all those brainstorming lessons learned in basic writing courses finally paid off. We spent about 3 hours throwing out ideas, looking up what others did on websites, and just going creatively crazy. After all that, we had about 40 ideas of activities we could do. So I set up some categories to lump them into.

Throughout this whole planning stage, every time I was overwhelmed or distracted, I would come back to the theme. How does this idea fit into a "Superhero Training Session?" It helped me narrow down our choices. No matter how cool the activity was, if it didn't fit with the theme, than we moved on.

What we ended up planning was, a basic itinerary for a training session:

•  Warming Up (games to play while the kids arrive)
• "Bat, Bat, joker" (duck, duck, goose). New kids can join the circle as they come.
• Bat-Tag, like freeze tag

• Gearing Up (creating the tools you'll need to be a Superhero)
• Recruiting a side-kick (making superhero felt puppets - these are really cool! Pic on right.)
• Cape decoration: picking your superhero symbol and painting it on your cape
• Mask: making what you need to keep your secret identity a secret
• Bat-a-rang deco: using colored sharpies and stickers to decorate boomerangs (made from blue cell foam and duct tape - see pic below)

• Physical Training
• Obstacle course

• Bat-a-rang toss: tossing your decorated boomerangs into a cardboard villain
• Capturing Catwoman with water (cats hate water!): Catwoman is painted on a piece of paneling board with little tacks on her fingernails, then tossing water-balloons at her (and possibly each other).
• Mr. Freeze Game: Red Light / Green Light, but instead of "it," Mr. Freeze uses his freeze gun to freeze those moving.
• Superhero Hippity Hop Race: a relay race with teams using Hippity Hops.
• Aquious Blaster Practice: using water guns

• Defeating the Villain
• Joker Pinata: I don't think heroes should be the pinatas. If you're going to beat on something with a baseball bat, it should be a bad-guy

• Fueling-Up
• Food & Presents

• Graduation from Training Camp
• Graduation Medallion: Cookie Bouquet type cookies, but instead of sticks, wrapping them in plastic wrap and hot-gluing wide ribbons to the back to make them into "Medal Cookies." The cookies can be large round ones with Superhero symbols on it.
• Certificate of Achievement
• Party Favors: I'm figuring, between the puppets, masks, capes, boomerangs, medal cookies and certificates, a simple bag in which to carry everything home will be fine.

One Last Thing: Sources
Before I detail out how to do most of this step by step, let me give credit to the many sites where we found inspiration:
http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/batman_party.html
http://www.executivehomemaker.com/batman-birthday-party/
http://learningcontinually.blogspot.com/2009/02/cheap-batman-birthday-ideas.html
http://www.birthday-party-ideas-101.com/batman-birthday-party.html

Now I've got to go. I have still so much to do. And wait until you see the cake!!!

Pink Lemonade - All natural, no dyes!

This recipe came about because my oldest daughter loved pink lemonade growing up, but she's allergic to red food dye.  It was a hot summer, maybe 4 years ago, and my kids really wanted pink lemonade. So this was the result.

All Natural Pink Lemonade Recipe
Yields 1/2 gallon (2 quarts)
Ingredients

• 1 cup lemon juice
• 3/4 to 1 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you want it)
• 1 pint strawberries, fresh or frozen - and they can even be too soft and wilty to eat
• 1/2 cup blackberries, fresh or frozen
• water

Directions

This is a great way to use up those strawberries that haven't gone bad, but are too soft to eat raw.

In a blender, add the lemon juice, sugar, strawberries and a bit of water. Blend until it's pureed. Pour it into a 1/2 gallon container.

In the same blender, place the blackberries and some more water. I usually keep a bag of frozen blackberries in the freezer just for this recipe. Puree the blackberries to a fairly smooth consistency. Add them to the container, and then add enough water to fill the remainder. Stir and drink.

It may get foamy, but the foam will go away. The strawberries add that pink lemonade flavor, but the blackberries really give it the color. And my kids don't miss that powdered pink stuff.

Very Simple, but very yummy, Potato Soup Recipe

For some reason I felt a little weird today, conscious of the act of dressing up my food and making it pose. Look, here it is in a bowl I never use for soup, like that dress I have in the back of the closet I never wear just to stay home.  I don't why, but it felt weird.

I'm always looking for foods that most of my family will eat. If 4 out of 5 of my kids will eat it, plus myself and my husband, then we have a winner. One of those is my very simple to make, potato soup. From nothing in the pot or on the counter to finish is less than an hour. Closer to 45 minutes.

And even my three year old eats it. Although tonight he protested the need for a spoon and simply ate it using the bread as a scoop.

Potato Soup Recipe
Ingredients

• medium yellow onion
• 3 pounds organic potatoes (I'll tell you why they should be organic later)
• 1 to 2 TBSP olive oil
• 1 to 2 tsp salt or bullion of your choice
• 8 to 12 oz Colby Jack cheese
• Corn starch (optional)

Directions

There will be lots of pictures with the directions, probably more than words. But hey, I've written two blogs in as many days. I'm happy with me!!

Slice up your onion into smallish pieces.

In a large pot, place 1 to 2 TBSP olive oil on medium/low heat. Put the onions in the pot and cover. You're pretty much going to sauté / steam them until they are pretty clear. It'll take about 10 minutes. Keep the lid on, but give them a stir every minute or two. You don't want them to burn, which is why you're using a lower heat, but you want them fully cooked before you start the soup. That way, you get the onion flavor, but the onions will pretty much dissipate in the soup itself. So you won't have that onion texture.

They are not done here. Still too white, not clear enough.

Now they're done. Can you see the difference?

While the onions are cooking, peel and wash the potatoes.  Now cut them into chunks like this:

Slice them in 1/2" slices in one direction. Put the rounded ends to the side to cut separately.

Stack the slices up, and cut those into three or four sections.

Now turn them in the other directions and slice into 1/2" cubes.

You may not be finished with the potatoes when the onions are done, but go ahead and put an inch or so of water in the pot with the onions and turn the heat up to medium / high. Add the potatoes as you finish chopping each one.

When all of the potatoes are chopped and in the pot, make sure the water just barely covers the chopped potatoes.  Add the bullion or salt (you're choice), and bring the mix to a boil, which it may already be doing. Once boiling, lower to heat to med/low and put the lid on the pot.  It'll take about 20 minutes for the potatoes to cook.

Meanwhile, grate the cheese.  Grate more or less cheese depending upon your preference. I usually use the whole 12 ounces.

You'll know when the potatoes are done when the water gets really starchy and the potatoes start to "melt."  Remove the pot from the heat, and add the cheese and stir until melted.

At this point, it's done.

If you like a thicker soup, you can add a little corn starch to thicken it up. The corn starch will lump up if you pour it in. I used a wire mesh, but a sifter will work fine too. One to two tablespoons will thicken it up fine. Just sprinkle a bit on top, and then stir.  It takes a minute or two after you add it for it to take effect.

Now, why I use organic potatoes. I was going to explain the whole thing, but just google "potatoes non-organic" and you'll find out.

Banana-Bread Bread Pudding

I'll get a better picture tomorrow.

No, there's not a mistake in the title. It's Bread Pudding with chunks of Banana Bread! My latest creation, and it turned out so yummy, we had it for dinner. (okay, we also had other things for dinner, but it really was good)

The unwanted heels of banana bread.

The idea of this dessert came from the problem of dealing with the heels of bread. I make a batch of banana bread or pumpkin bread, and no one wants the heels. They're dry and sometimes a little overcooked. So I started saving the heels and storing them in zippy bags in the freezer. The idea is that once I save up enough, the weather cools down from this intense heat, and I find bread on the discount rack at the grocery, I'll use it to make bread pudding. So happens, that these three events occurred this week.

I've reduced the size of the recipe I actually cooked, because chances are that you are not cooking for the small hoard I live with. I don't think you really need 15 lbs of pudding!

Banana-Bread Bread Pudding Recipe with Grand Marnier and Rum Sauce

Bread Pudding Ingredients

• 3/4 pound stale bread
• 1/4 pound banana bread heels (that's the heels from about 1 loaf)
• 4 eggs
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/2 butter (1 stick), melted
• 3 1/2 cups whole milk
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 TBSP cinnamon
• 1 cup walnuts, chopped

Bread Pudding Instructions

Slice both the stale bread and the banana bread heels into small 1/2" by 1/2" chunks.  Remember, the banana bread is more dense than regular bread. It will look like you have much more normal bread than banana bread. (Of course, you'll have much less than this. I'm working with 2 1/2 pounds of bread here.) Once sliced, set the bread aside.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.  Make sure that an oven rack is in the middle. Grease a 9" by 13" baking pan. I also lay a piece of baking parchment on the bottom for easier removal. Put a little grease on that too.

Break the eggs into a very large mixing bowl and whisk a bit in order to break the yolks. Add the bananas, butter, milk, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. (I'm assuming that they are already melted, mashed and otherwise prepared.)

Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, mix on medium until well blended. It should look like the picture on the left.

Now you're going to add the breads and nuts. Think of this process as a layering, like when you make a trifle or 7 layer dip, only here you're repeating.  On top of the liquidy stuff add a layer of bread (a few handfuls), a layer of banana bread and a sprinkling of nuts. 

Then using the whisk, dunk it into the gelatinous goo. Keep repeating until you run out of bread and nuts, trying to pace yourself so that each layer will have some of each. Then swish it around the goo and let it sit a minute to absorb some.

For this next part, I use gloves since I hate scrubbing raw egg out from under my nails. Using your hands really is the easiest way to do it. With gloved hands, grab handfuls of the gooey bread and place it in your prepared pan. It will puff up a little while baking, but not much.

The top one has been used, the bottom one has not. It's about done.

Cook on the middle rack for an hour to an hour plus 15 minutes. You'll know it's done when you insert a toothpick and it comes out without gooey chunks sticking to it (see right).

Meanwhile, while the pudding is in the oven, let's start on the sauce.

Grand Marnier and Rum Sauce Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 TBSP vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup Grand Marnier (or other liqueur)
• 1/4 cup dark rum
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

 Grand Marnier and Rum Sauce Directions

In a medium sauce pan, put all of the ingredients but the butter. Simmer on low for about 45 minutes, until you can no longer taste the alcohol. Of course, if kids aren't eating it, you can stop simmering whenever you want. It will be a lovely amber color. DO NOT let it boil. You don't want your sauce reaching any kind of ball stage.

Remove it from the heat and add the butter, giving it a stir until it melts. Let it cool.

Bread pudding, like cheesecake, is best if given time to sit, like overnight. But I admit, this stuff was pretty darn good right out of the oven.  I'm hoping there is some left for Friday when we're having friends over for dinner.