Menu Plan: week of 9.25

Its been a crazy busy week!! The week ahead looks to be just as crazy busy. This week after school I have PT 3 days, an acupuncture appointment, a work meeting, and I am sure something else I am forgetting. Big Man’s works now until 4:30-5:00 most days.
I have spent quite a bit of time searching crockpot recipes. I pinned them. I even came across information about freeze/make-ahead meals. I am working on making meal time as easy as possible without sacrificing flavor or nutrition.

Sunday: Big Man’s meat sauce over pasta
Monday: Whole Chicken with stuffing, green veg and gravy
Tuesday: Ginger Chicken (recipe from shrinkingjeans.net) with snow peas over rice

Wednesday: London Broil with crockpot baked (white & sweet) potatoes

Thursday: Spicy Pork & Chili Pepper Goulash (jamie oliver)
Friday: Big Man’s Chili with leftover baked potatoes

What’s your favorite trick to stay organized in the kitchen? What’s your favorite crockpot (or slowcooker) recipe?

Stay tuned: I am trying to work blogging into this crazy week!! – have to tell you about my sister’s wedding and I should tell you about my bum knee. I even have a giveaway up my sleeve!

menu plan: 9/18–9/23

 

It is Sunday and time for another menu plan! I apologize for not posting my menu last week…I actually posted my menu at the Sisterhood page. Next time I post over there I will link here.

 

Menu planning keeps me sane! This week I have PT (physical therapy) Monday, Wednesday and Friday right after school. On Tuesday, it is Back to School night at my school AND my daughter’s school AND Big Man works until 5 – so its an easy crockpot sort of recipe!

Sun 9/18

Pork Roast, Roasted Veg (potatoes, carrots, butternut squash)

Mon 9/19

Italian Stuffed Sweet Peppers with pasta

Tue 9/20

Chicken & Black Bean Burritos, spanish rice – I am using this recipe as a base then when I come home from work I will shred chicken add black beans in for 2 hours – then make the burritos and slide them in the oven while I make rice.

Wed 9/21

Spinach Stuffed Pork Chops, Roasted Cauliflower, & sweet potatoes

Thu 9/22

Teriyaki Chicken Cordon Bleu with buttered noodles & green beans

Fri 9/23

Steak, potatoes & salad  (Big Man’s favorite night of the week)

 

Food to prepare for week ahead:

Eggy Muffs

Broccoli Soup

Leek & Potato Soup (Big Man’s signature soup – sorry, not real recipe – he combined a few)

Rice Krispie Treats – making them has to be better than buying packaged ones, right?!?

 

A few Notes:

*Last week, Christy M. of SJ mentioned saymmm.com and I had to check it out! I am going to use that site for meal planning – I checked into and I definitely will be using saymmm.com to log my menus.  I think it will be cool to have a calendar-style log of the meals I plan.  How do you menu plan?

*You may notice, I don’t plan a Saturday dinner. I feel like one day a week can be spontaneous!!

 

What’s on your menu??

menu plan: 9/4–9/10

I have been menu planning for the last year or so. I started planning after seeing a ton of bloggers linking up their menus. I loved seeing what others were feeding  their families. I was inspired and found tons of ideas from all different types of menus: vegetarians and meat-atarians alike! I stopped blogging my menu, not really sure why, but I have been menu planning still!! My family survives on a pretty tight budget and menu planning is the best way to ensure we shop the sales and don’t waste anything we do buy. I keep the freezer and pantry stocked as much as possible. I take a quick inventory then check the sales ads and then put together a menu.

I don’t know why I haven’t blogged my menu but I am going to start doing that again. Today, I stumbled to the Shrinking Jeans site and they are hosting a new menu plan link up! I LOVE menu plan link ups! AND next week, I will be writing my menu plan for the SJ site!

Sunday 9/4: Barbecued Chicken Breasts. Salad and Grilled Veg

Monday 9/5: Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup & a BIG salad & cornbread

Tuesday 9/6: Sausage, spinach & tomato over angel hair pasta & salad

Wednesday 9/7: Sloppy Joes, oven fries & a salad

Thursday 9/8: Slow Cooker Chicken Paprikash over mashed potatoes & green beans

Friday 9/9: Homemade Quesadillas with Rice & Beans

Saturday 9/10: Burgers & Oven Fries and Beer (after first week of school, we will be ready for this)

 

School Lunches: leftovers from dinner, salads, and sandwiches

Snacks: fruit, carrots dipped in peanut butter, hardboiled egg & cheese stick, yogurt (I like yoplait in the blue cup with desserty flavors like red velvet cake)

Desserts: yoplait yogurts & fruit, banana soft-serve –often with extra fruit added in. AND now I may have to make Peanut Butter Cup Blondies

WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING THIS WEEK???

busy week; quick menu

This week ahead is crazy busy. I leave for work after we finish a super fast dinner Thursday night. There is much to do before I leave for a long weekend. Dinners need to be on the quicker side or allow me time to work on other stuff while dinner stuff is working.

sunday:  steak, baked potatoes with cheddar and broccoli

monday: pork chop with spaghetti squash side (spaghetti squash tossed with sauteed diced zucchini & tomatoes & yellow peppers and onion & garlic)

tuesday: sweet and sour turkey loaf with rice and veg

wednesday: grilled chicken sandwiches with oven fries

thurday: veggie lasagne (already made and in the freezer) friday: the kid & husband are on their own

to do list:

oil change

car wash

vacuum store (new bag & belt)

produce junction run

laundry, laundry, laundry

pack

don’t forget about snacks!

pick music for the drive!

totally veggie super soup

First, you chop a bunch of vegetable!  I went with:

the knife just shows you how big that bowl of veg is.

1/2 head of cabbage

1/2 head of cauliflower

1 cup carrot slices

1 cup zucchini, peeled and diced

1 cup green beans, small pieces

Then, I diced up half an onion and minced about 4 cloves of garlic.

Into a heavy bottomed pot with about 2 tablespoons olive oil.

When the onions are translucent, add italian seasonings (italian seasoning, basil and crushed red pepper flakes) and I eyeball  this but at least a tbs of the basil but use your own discretion with the pepper flakes.

Stir seasonings into the onion.

Then add your cut up vegetables. I cut all my veg to be bite size or spoon friendly.

Then pour in 10 cups of vegetable stock (or whatever kind you keep on hand – I make my own vegetable stock  using veggie butts.

You can more or less liquid depending on how brothy you want your soup.

Mine looked like this:

add salt and pepper to taste.

Bring to a boil and boil for about 5 minutes.

Then,simmer for a few hours – it depends on how you crunchy you like your veg.

And this was my lunch.

So easy to make!

So yummy to eat!

So LOADED with veggies!

Super Soup!!!

Menu Monday

Menu planning is hugely important!

Menu planning serves a few different purposes:

1. I never stare at an open freezer wondering what the heck we are having for dinner.
2. My budget stays on point – no needless ordering out or wasted food.
3. I plan meals around our schedules – I build in lazy dinner nights (breakfast, tacos, freezer meals, etc)
4. Everyone gets a say – I ask for everyone’s input (most of the time) and the husband and the daughter each get one night each week. The kid picks breakfast or tacos every time and the husband is easy – steak!
5. It has made grocery shopping so much easier and less stressful!

On the menu:

Dinners: 

Monday: Stuffed Zucchinis with Spaghetti Squash

Tuesday: Turkey Sausage, Peppers & Onion subs with potato and sweet potato wedges and a salad*

Wednesday: Chicken Thigh Fajitas

Thursday: Turkey Sausage & Veggies over pasta *

Friday: Steak with Fried onion, potatoes and a green veg

Lunches:

turkey, raw baby spinach and hummus on whole wheat wrap

SUPER veg soup (recipe to follow)

leftover stuffed zukes

tuna & veg on whole wheat wrap

 *I have a package of Hot Italian Turkey Sausage and Sweet Italian Turkey Sausage (bought on sale for less than $3 each package) – I will grill up both packages on Tuesday and use half of each for both meals.

Do you menu plan? What’s your favorite reason for menu planning?