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???

Introducing "Cooking in Real Life" & a menu

I am finally going to start blogging about food. NO, I will not be turning this blog into a food journal. I do not have it in me to take pictures of absolutely everything I eat. I am just too lazy. However, certain foods just must have their pictures taken. I have been making quite a few creations and when I try something I think is gonna be awesome I take pictures of the process and of course the final product. Sometimes I get winners and sometimes I even trash pictures.

I love food.  My food evolution has been quite remarkable. Seven years ago, when I met Big Man I did not cook anything. I was almost useless in the kitchen. Now, I am trying crazy recipes or making it up as I go along.  Most of my creations don’t have real recipes and I will probably tell you a story instead of just a recipe but it is a story I need to tell so enter “Cooking in Real Life” ~ this will be a new category where I will blog my creations, food finds, family-approved recipe links and weekly menus. All such posts will be tagged Cooking in Real Life. I have gone from cooking out of a box to from scratch, healthy, yummy recipes.  I hope you all enjoy.  Oh, and since I am always sporadic I am not going to tie myself in knots to make sure I have a food related post on certain day each week I will warn you that posts (as always) will be sporadic…it’s how I roll!

Today is Sunday and I usually post a weekly menu on Sunday (the only post you can almost always get on a set day) this will be my first Cooking in Real Life post.

As always, I will be linking my menu up at Chive Talkin‘  – If you are a menu planner or you want to start menu planning I suggest you check out Jenna’s weekly menu linkage. Jenna started me with menu planning and it is the best thing I have done for my family. We eat healthy, including tons of fresh vegetables, and we do it on a budget.

This week’s menu is all about using what we have with a minimal shopping trip.

Monday: The kid emailed me a recipe she wants to try so tonight she will be helping me make Chicken Fingers with side of pesto pasta and veg.

Tuesday: Red Beans & Rice with Andouille & shrimp. I have been craving the taste on New Orleans!

Wednesday: Chicken Burgers with oven fries & salad.

Thursday: Pancakes and a Veg Omelette

Friday: I may try my hand at making my own pizza dough. I OR there is Stuffed Zucchini in the freezer made last month with fresh from the garden zucchini.

Sidenotes #1: How cool is it that the kid is looking at healthy, yummy new recipes and emailing them to me and dad (we both got emails)?!?!

Sidenote #2: I have pictures of the Stuffed Zucchini creation and I will blog them soon.

Sidenote #3: The following picture will be the first creation to be posted sometime this week. Any guesses?!?

minful menu plan – week of 6.6.10

Sunday: Cheeseburgers with potato salad and a hearty slaw (the no mayo kind)

Monday: Turkey Chops ~ I am not  exactly sure what this is but I found them the other day at the butcher shop and I am going to grill them up. A side of simple  Green beans and potatoes will complete the meal.

Tuesday:  Spaghetti and a Salad. Tuesday is late dinner night. The kid has karate from 6-7 and while she is in class I am going to the gym for elliptical mileage.

Wednesday:  Chicken Fajitas topped with awesome tomatillo salsa verde. Served with spanish rice loaded with black beans and corn.  Big Man will take the kid to karate from 5-6 and I will make dinner so we can eat as soon as they are back home. I need to leave about 40 minutes after t hey get home so I can go to a 7:45 kickboxing class.

Thursday: Steak Night.  My personal training sessions are on Thursdays at 6pm so Big Man feeds the kid, usually leftovers because she hates steak. We have Steak and something green and potatoes (last week I discovered yams and I may be replacing most of my potatoes with yams from now on). It is quick enough meal to have later and it is still healthy. We have eat the same thing every Thursday but we like it.

Friday:  Pizza and a Salad. I am going to pick up dough and make our own pizza and the salad will be from our garden.

Do you menu plan?

A friend asked me today how I got started with menu planning.  I have been menu planning for a while now and I still owe a huge THANK YOU to my girl Jenna over at ChiveTalkin.  For me, I have to first look at what is on the weekly schedule. Then, I have take a quick inventory of the freezer and pantry. I also check the sales ads and ask the family what they request.  Big Man likes steak night and the kid loves breakfast or tacos or pizza usually.  Sunday night dinners are usually a big deal: we try new recipes or we make the recipes that take longer.  Week nights have to be fast but still healthy. I am a lucky woman because Big Man helps me with planning, shopping and preparing meals. For the most part we all eat the same meal. The kid prefers most of her veggies raw and she dislikes potatoes and steak (not all beef but steak) so we work around that but for the most part it is one meal. We also try to eat dinner together every night and menu planning really has helped a lot.

If you menu plan, hit me up in comments….why? how? share some stories for my friend!