Monthly Menu (October 2013)

Hey friends!  So meal planning seems to be coming up in a lot of conversations I've been having lately with folks (perhaps because in our crazy busy world we all have to be strategic about thinking through meals in order to make them happen!).  Several of you saw my random instagram picture with my cookbooks out and asked me if I'd share what I came up with and how I go about putting together a monthly menu, so I thought I'd share on here what I'm cooking this month, but also a bit about how and why I do put time into meal planning for our family.  Feel free to try any recipes--if you click on each recipe name it will take you to the recipe itself--either at another website or it will take you to my personal recipe blog, a blog I started awhile ago in attempts to organize and keep recipes in one spot.  I don't tend to use it as much any more (thanks to Pinterest) but I added several of these to that page for this month so you can find them if you'd like to try some of these.  Happy cooking!

The "Why?"
One of the questions I get is "why do you take the time to menu plan?  Don't you just buy a standard list of ingredients and then just cook what sounds good each day?"  I know that method works for some folks, but it really does not work for me.  Quite honestly, I menu plan because without a plan in place at the start of a week I get a little stressed.   We have a lot of evening commitments with my husband's job and various things I do at the church, and we have a little boy who likes to be entertained as much as possible, so if I waited until 4 every afternoon to see what inspired me or sounded good we would end up eating quesadillas every night of the week because they are simple and I know my child loves them :)  I love waking up in the morning knowing what is for dinner so if it's something that will be more labor intensive I can start prepping during nap time, or I know what kind of meat to pull out of the freezer to start thawing.  I also menu plan because if I'm inspired to make something like a soup, chances are there are going to be a few things on the recipe list I don't have.  I have tried substituting things and sometimes that works great, and others it's a bit of a train wreck, so I've learned sticking relatively close to the recipe works well for me!  To make multiple trips to the grocery store each week for random items I don't have takes a lot of extra time and usually results in way too many impulse buys that I don't need.  So for me, I need a plan in place by Sunday evening of what meals I'm going to prepare that week and what items I'll need from the store for one shopping trip I usually do on Monday morning.  We are not big "lunch meat" sandwich folks in our house, so most of our lunches are made up of leftovers from the night before (I LOVE leftovers!), so some families may only need to cook 3 times a week and eat left overs the other dinners, but our left overs usually go to lunches.  That means I do need to cook dinners most nights, but if the meals are simple I don't mind.

The "How?"
Everyone has a different menu planning method.  Some do theirs by the week, others by the month.  Everyone has different ways of narrowing down recipes and choosing what meals they'd like to make as well.  I have gone through cycles over the years of how I go about this, but what has been working really well for me this past year is to sit down during the last week of the previous month and come up with a menu for the whole month.  Why?  Mostly because I like to drag all the cookbooks, pinterest pages etc out once instead of every week.  It takes a bit longer to do 4 weeks of menus at once, but once you get a system in place it doesn't have to be super time consuming, and I love having it done and out of the way.  I can usually finish it all during one of my kiddo's naps (and he NEVER naps longer than an hour and a half on a GOOD day!)  I don't make 4 weeks of grocery lists at once.  I tried that for awhile and it took WAY too much time for me, so I have my meals chosen a month at a time, and Sunday evenings I'll look at the next 5-6 recipes and make my list for that next week.  

It can be overwhelming looking at the sheer numbers of recipes out there while trying to decide which ones to make.  Thanks to the internet the possibilities are endless!  I love cookbooks but sometimes I get so focused on yummy looking pinterest recipes I never open my cookbooks, and that makes me a bit sad :)  So the way I choose recipes (and have for about a year now) is to have each night of the week be focused on one type of food all the way through the month.  So for instance, some months every Monday is Mexican food at our house and Thursdays might be a night focused on various kinds of chicken dishes.  This particular season finds me in Pasadena working with a Fuller class every Monday & I don't get home til almost 7.  I needed to have dinner ready for my husband and little one much earlier than that, so for the next two months, every Monday night in our house will be a crock pot meal that Charles can serve to himself and Aidan when Aidan needs to eat.  My "themes" for each night change throughout the seasons as our schedules change and as the type of foods we like to eat throughout the year change.  I don't usually assign a night to "soup" in July, and December isn't usually when I have "a summer salad" night of the week.  Some of you are thinking I put WAY too much time into thinking about this but to me it's really fun coming up with new categories, and then it makes my recipe choosing SO much easier because I've narrowed it down a bit (instead of looking at all my food pins on pinterest I may only go to my "soup" board or the "sandwich" section of my latest cookbook).

For this month, here are my "categories:" 

Sundays are always leftover night where we clean out whatever needs to be finished before the next week starts. 
Monday: Crock Pot Meals
Tuesday: Family Favorites (I love trying new recipes but I realized with all the new recipes I try I forget to make some standby favorites like teriyaki burgers, meat loaf and roasted sweet potatoes, the lettuce wraps we love etc. So this month I dedicated one night a week to pulling out a favorite I know all 3 of us love that I know how to make easily). 
Wednesday: Soup & Bread
Thursday: Mexican food
Friday: Italian inspired foods
Saturday: Fancy sandwiches (we only have 2 Saturdays we're home this month).

Does that mean I always cook my soup recipe for the week on Wednesday?  No, things shift around.  Life gets busy and maybe my meatloaf that needs to cook for an hour needs to wait for another night that week while my pasta dish from Friday could be made in 20 minutes.  So we eat the pasta on Tuesday and the meatloaf on Friday and it's great.  I already have al the ingredients for both dishes so it doesn't matter what night they are consumed.  But it helps immensely in selecting recipes and then in having a bit of a structure to our week so I know we're eating a variety of things.  

Okay, without further ado here are the recipes we're trying this month.  I should say our family doesn't have any particular food sensitivities.  We're not gluten free or vegetarian or have any other specific dietary needs or allergies.  We try to eat balanced meals and round out each meal with salads or roasted veggies, but some nights we eat a super cheesy, creamy comfort-food enchilada recipe and I don't worry about it knowing the next night we might have a meal that is more heavily based on vegetables or a ground turkey chili.  Just wanted to throw that disclaimer out there since in our food-sensitive society we all have various preferences and needs!

October 1-6

Tuesday's Family Favorite Meal: Thai Turkey Lettuce Wraps 
Wednesday's Soup Supper: Colorado White Chicken Chili 
Thursday's Mexican Food: Chicken Chimichangas
Friday's Italian Dinner:  One Skillet Lasagna
Saturday: Dinner out with friends!
Sunday: Leftovers

October 7-13

Monday's Crock Pot Meal: Crock Pot Kid Friendly Turkey Chili  

Tuesday's Family Favorite: Mom's Meat Loaf and Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Wednesday's Soup Supper: Italian Wedding Soup from Cooking With all Things Trader Joe's

Thursday's Mexican Food: Annette's Enchiladas from Bread and Wine by Shauna Niequist

Friday's Italian Inspired Meal:  BBQ Chicken Pizza from Don't Panic, Dinner's in the Freezer

Saturday's Sandwiches:  French Onion Grilled Cheese

Sunday: Leftovers

October 14-20

Monday's Crock Pot Meal: Crock Pot Honey Garlic Chicken 
Tuesday's Family Favorite:  Bacon Apple Raspberry Vinaigrette Salad
Wednesday's Soup Supper: Taco Soup
Thursday's Mexican Food:  Butternut Squash Quesadillas (one of my very favorite fall food recipes!)
Friday's Italian Dinner: so I'm at the women's retreat Friday & Saturday nights--I'll have to leave Charles and Aidan with something yummy so they don't starve!

October 21-27

Monday's Crock Pot Meal: Not So Sloppy Joes

Tuesday's Family Favorite: Teriyaki Burgers (SO SO delicious)

Wednesday's Soup Supper: Hearty Red Lentil Soup 

Thursday's Mexican Food: Classic Taco Salad (use whatever meats, beans, toppings you have in the house!)

Friday's Italian Dinner: Penne with Chicken, Broccoli and Gorgonzola

Saturday's Sandwiches:  The Pioneer Woman's Veggie and Cheese Bagel Sandwiches

October 28-31

Monday's Crock Pot Meal: Real Pork and Beans

Tuesday's Family Favorite: Chicken Gyros 

Wednesday's Soup Supper: 3 Bean Minnestrone

Thursday's Mexican Food: Baked Tacos (one of my favorite Pinterest finds this year!)

Menu Planning Monday!

Okay I know, it's Tuesday, not Monday...

We were talking in my MOPS group this morning about dinner time and cooking and meal planning, and I mentioned I really enjoy menu planning and making grocery lists and organizing those kinds of things (yes, I'm a nerd).  So I offered to put together a weekly menu with recipes and a grocery list and share that with my table mates.  Clicking on each meal title will take you to that recipe on my recipe blog and clicking here will take you to a Google doc with the grocery list of everything you will need to make these 5 meals (we use leftovers for lunch a lot so I tend to not have a ton of left overs for dinners, so I cook about 5 nights a week, but most of these meals should make plenty so you would not have to actually make all 5 in one week!)

So, here's a menu for a week--feel free to try any or all of these dishes, these are some of our family's favorites & I tried to include a variety--a pasta dish, a soup, a chicken dish, a Mexican food dish, etc.  Happy eating!

Monday:  Chili Cheese Cornbread & salad
Tuesday:  Wendy's Crock Pot Chicken Tacos
Wednesday:  Leftovers
Thursday: Pesto Chicken Pasta and Salad
Friday: Megan's Easy Corn Chowder, dinner rolls, salad
Saturday: Leftovers
Sunday: Ranch chicken and Jean's twice baked potatoes

Parents Need to Eat Too!

If you have known me for awhile, you know that cooking is one of my loves. I love menu planning for the week, grocery shopping, and setting a fresh meal on the table. As you can imagine, since our little one was born I have not done much cooking and that has been frustrating. It's not the fact that I have not been able to cook that has bothered me, it's the fact that when I don't have a menu and plan set I am so much more likely to succumb to fast food, frozen pizza, and other unbalanced meals just to fill our bellies even if it is completely unhealthy. This drives me crazy and goes against everything I was raised to value about food and meal times! A few weeks ago my friend Karen, also a relatively new mom, told me about a cookbook she found and loved. It's called Parents Need to Eat Too by Debbie Koenig and is full of easy meals that are designed for tired new parents. Some are crock pot recipes, some are "one handed meals" that you can eat while holding a little one, some create larger amounts of food so that you can freeze a portion for later, some are "nap friendly" recipes so that she has them broken into stages that you can put together during your kid's various naps throughout the day, and some are designed to help increase milk supply for nursing mothers. I ordered a copy of the book and while I've been here at my parents house I actually read through the entire book cover to cover. It has great tips, and the recipes look SO yummy and balanced and healthy. I decided to take advantage of the extra help I have here and created my monthly menu for April, and then went through all the recipes and made my grocery lists for each week of the month. Debbie has a website that goes along with the book (www.debbiekoenig.com) with links to a ton of recipes not in her book. In order to get you to purchase the book she doesn't link to those recipes. So in case you need some inspiration, new ideas, or are just plain tired of your normal menu, feel free to try some of these along with us this month! To make things easier for planning I assigned a different food category to a different night of the week. So in our house this month Mondays are Mexican food night, Tuesdays are pasta nights, Wednesdays are left overs, Thursdays are some type of meat and/or potato night, Fridays are free nights--so something out of our freezer, or left overs, or going out, Saturdays are slow cooker days, and Sundays are soup and salad nights. So many bloggers I read use a system similar to this to help their planning out, so feel free to borrow the idea as well!

Here's what we're going to be testing out this month--all these are from this new cookbook.

Quick Black Beans & Rice

Beef Ravioli Lasagna

French Onion Chicken (you caramelize the onions overnight in a crock pot and then add chicken in the morning to let it cook all day--so easy and it looks amazing!)

Balsamic Beef Stew

Quesadillas with cheddar and mango chutney

Pasta with roasted cherry tomatoes and shrimp

Chipotle Sloppy Joes

Moroccan Red Lentil Stew

Butternut and Gruyere Stuffed Baked Potatoes

Roasted Vegetable Beef Barley Soup

Blue Cheese & Bacon Stuffed Baked Potatoes

Curried Lentil Soup

My mouth is watering! Anyone else ready to get cooking!? I'll let you know later how these things turn out and if I'd still really recommend the book after cooking from it, but for now I'm just super excited to have a month of meals planned out and the shopping lists to go with them!

Menu Planning Monday!

Well it is definitely fall here in the northwest! It has rained a ton today--it was so dark and dreary this morning that we just kept sleeping and sleeping and finally I woke up, realized it was 9 AM and we both leapt out of bed--how lazy can you get?? Then of course we realized we're unemployed and had nowhere to be going...but still!

Since we are both home all day every day now I've been doing a lot more menu planning these past couple weeks because no longer does it work to cook one meal a week and call it good (supplementing with sandwiches, take out, frozen burritos and anything else we were eating while working so many hours). We both really prefer leftovers for lunch, especially with me being pregnant and not allowed to eat lunch meat, which means pretty much double the cooking of "real" meals to have enough for both dinners and lunches. But I've been reminded once again that with menu planning this is not a big deal and totally doable. Here's what's on deck for this week--happy cooking everyone! And feel free to check out OrgJunkie's website for hundreds of menu plans for the week if you need inspiration!

Monday

Lunch: Leftover Sweet Potato and Vegetable Burritos (I made these in the crock pot yesterday--hearty and filling and perfect for fall!)

Dinner: Minnestrone Soup (my friend, Courtney, posted this on her blog last week & I've been craving it since then...) with thick crusty garlic bread

Tuesday

Lunch: Stuffed baked potatoes (this has been one of my new pregnancy cravings for some reason--I can't get enough of a good spud topped with vegetarian chili, steamed broccoli, chopped tomatoes, green onions and a bit of cheddar!)

Dinner: Leftover Minnestrone and bread

Wednesday

Lunch: Grilled cheese or baked potatoes

Dinner: dinner with friends

Thursday

Lunch: Pesto Chicken Pasta

Dinner: Leftovers from lunch

We'll be out of town this next weekend, Friday through Tuesday so no menu plan for the weekend :)

The Maiden Voyage into Freezer Cooking!

We've been struggling lately to figure out what meals will look like now that we have this new work schedule which is VERY different than a student schedule! I've been reading a lot about the concept of Once a Month Cooking, or Freezer Cooking, and know there are a ton of families that swear by this method, but I hadn't ever ventured into this world. But I figured since planning on cooking nightly just isn't realistic any longer (neither is sitting down and eating together at least 4 nights of the week), I needed to try something new. We need food that is still healthy, but easy to grab and go, can be reheated at the church for the nights we end up eating on the floor of my husband's office etc. So I began researching. There are a ton of methods to this process, and everyone seems to have something that works well for them. If you're interested, here's what I learned and what I made. If you're not, well you can stop reading now :)

I learned that just about anything can be made for the freezer, you don't have to eat just casseroles or stews. So I decided to try some variety since really, who wants to eat the same dish all month? I chose 4 dinner recipes to start with (there are only 2 of us, and really, this won't last all month, this was just a first step) and a batch of cookie dough. Here's what I made (click on each recipe for the link to where I found it).

"The Best" Lasagna (I haven't tried it to confirm that it is the best, but it looks good!) I made two smaller ones instead of one big one.
Jamie's Minestrone Soup (I don't know Jamie, but my friend Sara makes this for her freezer and loves it)
Sara's Hidden Vegetable Marinara Sauce (this made a TON--2 crockpots full!) Part of the sauce is going to be in the lasagna, the rest will be frozen for spaghetti, pizza sauce etc)
Sloppy Joe mixture (I can't seem to find the recipe)
A big batch of Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate chip cookie dough (Sara has a great post here about how simple it is to freeze cookie dough ahead of time so you're always ready to bring a treat to an event. As a youth director's wife I am already realizing how often this happens in the church!)

Next, I went through all the recipes and made one big grocery list. It actually wasn't that huge, I had a lot of things on hand already and headed to the store.

Then I did what everyone online suggested...I went through all the recipes to figure out exactly what needed to be done before you can assemble the meal. So how many cups of onions total were going to need to be chopped? How many carrots (which were in two different recipes) would I need to peel and slice? I wrote everything down on one list to I could simply look at that instead of flipping through all 5 recipes constantly.

Yes it was a LOT of chopping, but I just stuck an episode of Glee on my computer and chopped veggies for an hour while rocking out to the Glee cast!

Once all the prep work is done you can start assembling each recipe, I was able to do 2 at a time, but I wouldn't try more than that at once! It was a few things to keep straight! I did the sloppy joe mixture and the minestrone soup first, then let those cool in the fridge before transferring them to freezer containers (apparently this cuts way down on freezer burn).

Then I put together the ingredients for the marinara sauce in the crock pots and cooked those on low over night. I'll assemble the lasagnas and cookie dough this morning (I didn't start cooking day til 5 yesterday, there was no way I was going to get everything done in just a couple hours, so I'll finish up this morning--besides I needed the marinara to cook so I had sauce for my lasagna!)

Do any of you do freezer cooking? I'd love some tried and true recipes if you have any favorites!

Menu Planning Monday

Happy Monday everyone! Can you believe that March is almost upon us? I can't! It seems like yesterday we were making our way north up I-5--that was almost 6 weeks ago! So I've kind of given up on planning what we're eating on various days of the week. A youth director's schedule isn't very conducive to eating regular meals together, so I've decide what is actually easier is to pick a few things to cook at the beginning of each week to have on hand. Then, when he is in need of a meal, there is something in the fridge, or I can take him food before an evening event, or feed him after an evening event. So it's not a "scheduled" menu plan, but here's what is cookin this week in the Kennedy Kitchen! (Click on each link to see the actual recipe if you so desire).

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers with Pesto Sauce
Crock Pot Peanut Butter Chicken
Ground Turkey & Spanish Style Quinoa Burritos and Holy Guacamole (no "official" recipe, we just make burritos but use turkey instead of beef and the Quinoa recipe for filling along with normal burrito toppings)

Happy cooking everyone!

Menu Planning Monday

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I am particularly grateful that Valentines Day falls on a Monday this year, since Monday is my husband's main day off each week. Which means we slept in (I think he's still asleep, which he needed so badly!), we get to go out to a fancy Valentines lunch (we have class tonight), and then he's going to come with me to Chap's class tonight. So I'm not cooking today (we have left overs from this weekend to eat tonight), but here's what is on schedule for the rest of the week!

Tuesday: a family from church is having us over--another night of not having to cook!
Wednesday: Crock Pot Bean and Vegetable Burritos (we had these last week and they were delicious, and I have more tortillas to use up, so we're going to have them again. If anyone is looking for a vegetarian meal that is hearty enough to trick a meat-loving man, this would work!)
Thursday: Stuffed Pasta Shells
Friday: Left overs
Saturday: Baked Salmon made with a salmon rub we were given by a family from church
Sunday: Left Overs

Getting Back on Track

It's been quite awhile since I've done any menu planning...probably November? December ran away with our trip to Japan, and January was a disaster as far as attempting to follow any type of food plan, so here we are, in February. I'll be honest, my body is ridiculously unhappy with me this week because of all the crap I've been eating lately. I normally eat pretty healthy, but this week...well it's been day after day of carb-heavy, restaurant portions of...well, not healthy food. Cheesecake Factory last Monday (complete with a slice of cheesecake), Boboli pizzas for lunch twice, a cheeseburger for lunch one day, Red Robin (complete with milkshake and fries), pizza again last night and Superbowl food today. Yup, I've had a stomachache every night this week. So, this week, now that we are finally setting into a more normal routine around here, I'm hoping to be more intentional about what I put into my body. I've also discovered that with my husband's new job at as youth pastor, our weekly schedule is now on a Tuesday through Monday pattern--Monday is his day off (Sundays are not days off when you work in a church, as is evidenced by the fact that we were there for ELEVEN hours straight today). So Monday is like our Saturday. Tuesday is my grocery shopping/week begins day. Anyways, all that to say, here's what is on our menu this week:

Monday: Leftovers
Tuesday: Red & Green Winter Stoup and Spinach Salad (Kale and Spinach in one meal, I should get a gold star for "super food" usage!)
Wednesday: Garlic Chicken and Quinoa Stirfry
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Middle School lock in (which I am sure will involve junk food...so we'll attempt to eat healthy leftovers beforehand!)
Weekend: Pesto Chicken Pasta
Monday: Crock Pot Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burritos

Visit Org Junkie here for more links to other weekly menu plans.

What's Cookin This Month!

It's been awhile since I've done a month of menu planning at a time, but with us moving in 2 months, traveling, house hunting etc I was feeling the need to do something organized! Here is what the Kennedy's will be eating throughout November, feel free to try any of these as well!

My crock pot is getting a major work out these days, as I started cooking all my own beans and then freezing them. It's cheaper than buying cans of beans, and I know that I'm not adding any sodium or anything to the beans when I make them myself. I had tried once before with a stovetop method that didn't work very well. Thanks to Sara over at Thriving Mama I have reconquered my fear of cooking beans, and might never go back to cans :) Each day this week my crock pot will be cooking up a batch of dried beans--black, garbanzo, and kidney, and at the end of the day I place 1.5 cups of cooked beans in ziplock baggies to go in the freezer (each can of beans is approximately 1.5 cups, so 1 baggie now equals 1 can of beans). When I cook something I don't even really defrost, I just toss the frozen black beans in the crock pot or soup or whatever I'm making and they heat up and defrost. Besides beans, here's what is on our menu for the month...(click on each item to go to the recipe)

Crock Pot Cranberry Chicken
Crock Pot Throw it in the Pot Chili
Homemade Cornbread
Crock Pot Chicken Azteca

Black Bean Taco Salad with Lime-Cilantro Dressing (one of our favorites!)
Go Go Mango Chicken
Broccoli with carmelized onions and pine nuts
Spaghetti with Speedy Red Sauce (vegetarian)
Crock Pot Bean and Vegetable Burritos
Mustard Crusted Salmon
Autumn Vegetable Soup
Stuffed Shells

Menu Plan Monday!

It feels great to be back in the swing of Menu Planning! For more people's weekly menus and recipe ideas, click on the photo below!

Monday: Baked Halibut with Feta, spinach salad
Tuesday: Slow Cooker Enchiladas
Wednesday: Youth Group
Thursday: Sarah's small group, Chuck gets leftovers!
Friday: Quinoa and Corn Salad with Pumpkin Seeds (we have been eating a lot of Quinoa lately and both really enjoy it!)
Saturday & Sunday: Left overs or dinner out

Snacks on hand this week:
Berry Muffins
Granola
Hummus
and because we've been eating really healthy around here lately, I think I'm going to be baking these...because they look amazing:
Peanut Butter Brownies

This week in my kitchen...

We're heading into our third week of Lent, and for the most part, we're really enjoying trying a bunch of new things! Last week we enjoyed the Red & Green Winter Stoup (Charles' comment was, "wow, that doesn't look like something I'd like, but it tasted way better than I expected!). I enjoyed the Pasta Primavera but my hubby wasn't such a fan. Which is okay, it wasn't phenomenal, so I'm okay with not making it again. The Black Bean soup was pretty good also. This week here's what we're trying:

Monday: Red Lentil Curry (I am SO excited for this, I've tasted it, I know it's yummy!)

Tuesday: Leftovers

Wednesday: Pesto tortellini with red pepper & veggie marinara

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: date night

Saturday: Bean burritos with brown spanish rice

Adventures in Vegetarianism--week 2!

I am loving this new way of eating! Granted, I've completely forgotten a few times that I'm not supposed to be eating meat and will randomly find myself with a meatball on my plate at a party, but for the most part we've both done really well and have enjoyed trying some new things. Here's what's for dinner this week:

Sunday: Salmon Burgers and Spinach Salad
Monday: Red & Green Winter Stoup, Asiago Cheese Bread, Salad
Tuesday: Black Bean Soup (I'm making this for my small group)
Wednesday: Left overs
Thursday: Pasta Primavera, Salad
Friday: Date night
Saturday: Left overs

Menu Plan Monday!

Hi friends!

So the monthly menu plan is currently on hold for the moment, not because I didn't love it, but because we're currently discussing some potential changes to our diets for the season of Lent (which begins Feb. 17) so I didn't want to plan out an entire month and have it all change. So for the next couple weeks I'll share my menu in weekly installments, and will have more to share mid-month. Happy cooking!

Monday: Baked Halibut Steaks with veggies and feta
Brown Rice Pilaf
Steamed Broccoli
Tuesday: Vegetarian Spaghetti with speedy red sauce
Garlic Bread
Salad
Wednesday: Youth group
Thursday: Two-Bean Enchiladas (also vegetarian)
Brown Spanish Rice
Friday & Saturday: dinners to celebrate Becca's ordination!

January's Monthly Menu Plan

I know January is almost half over (can you believe it??) and I still haven't posted The Plan for this month. And I realize many of you could care less, but because I find it a good discipline to think through what we'll be eating, how our money is being spent etc, the info is below. Sticking to this monthly menu plan in December worked wonderfully--I loved knowing exactly what was for dinner, what I needed to buy each week etc. It made things SO easy! So here's January's plan. Once again, I chose a few main meals that I'll make every other week (so eating each twice this month) and bought the ingredients in one costco/Albertson's shopping trip. Enjoy the recipes! And if any of you come up with a menu plan, I'd love to see what you're making!

Click on each line for the recipe

Club Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing
Cheesecake Factory Chopped Salad
BBQ Chicken and Black Bean Burritos
Pesto Shrimp Pasta
Meatloaf
Twice Baked Potatoes (a side dish)
Ranch Potato Crips (a side dish)
Honey Mustard Chicken Pasta

Menu Planning Monday!

Monday: Dinner with friends to celebrate Jenn's new job!

Tuesday: Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Wednesday: Dinner with the youth--parent meeting & pizza party, so free dinner :)

Thursday: Crock Pot Lasagna

Friday: I'm flying off to Providence! Chuck's on his own...he's requested ingredients to make his signature chicken, pasta, veggie, pesto dish while I'm gone so between that and the left over lasagna, he will be fed :)

Be back late Monday night!

Menu Plan Monday!

I spent part of the weekend going through my mom's old recipes--she made me a cookbook after I graduated from college and moved out on my own, and I realized I haven't made several of my favorites from childhood in a long time! This week I'm remedying that! Thanks for cooking for us so faithfully and caring about how we took care of ourselves, Mom!

Monday: (has to be a crock pot day because of class schedules) Chicken Azteca
Tuesday: Broccoli Cheddar Noodle Soup (a delicious fall favorite!)
Wednesday: Dinner with youth
Thursday: Left overs
Friday: Overnight camping with the young adults group at church
Saturday: Teriyaki Chicken Drummettes
Sunday: Left overs

Happy cooking everyone!

Menu Plan Monday!

So last Monday I tried the crock pot lasagna, and Chuck said "I didn't know you could make lasagna in a crock pot!" I didn't either but both of us declared it awesome!

Here is this week's menu:

Hummus of the week: California Pizza Kitchen's Tuscan Hummus
Monday: Crock Pot Cranberry Chicken
Tuesday: Sweet Potato Bake (ended up not making this last week, so it's on the menu for this week!) and Ranch Chicken
Wednesday: Dinner with Youth
Thursday: Salad on the go--only an hour to eat between class and a lecture on the war in Afghanistan, so we'll take dinner to campus to eat as a picnic!
Friday: Garlic Chicken Pizza
Saturday: Left Overs
Sunday: U2 Concert!

Menu Planning Monday!

Happy rainy Monday! We are SO excited here in LA that we might see something fall from the sky other than ashes! So this past week we tried the White Chicken Chili with Black Beans and Chuck declared this his new favorite chili and said "I think I'm over red meat." So in short--it's fabulous, you should try it. Here's what we're trying this week:

This week's snacks: Curried Hummus

Monday: left over spaghetti from the weekend

Tuesday: Megan's Corn Chowder and Cheese Biscuits

Wednesday: dinner with youth group

Crock Pot Thursday: Crock Pot Lasagna and salad

Friday: Left over lasagna

Saturday: Sesame Ginger Chicken and Aunt Renata's Sweet Potato Bake

Sunday: Left overs

visit I'm an Organizing Junkie for more weekly menus and recipes!

Menu Plan Mondays!

Well we survived the first week back at school (well my husband is back at school, I'm back working at the school) and have started figuring out what our weekly routine might be this quarter. I learned that both Monday and Thursday need to be crock pot nights--we're both on campus til 6 those nights and we're hungry, tired, and not in the mood to cook a full meal when we get home. So those nights dinner will be started in the morning and simply enjoyed when we arrive home :) Enjoy the recipes!Snacks this week:
Lemony Garlic Hummus (this was AWESOME and needs to be made again!)
Homemade granola bars

Monday Crock Pot Night: White Chili with Black Beans

Salad, Rolls

Tuesday: Left Overs

Wednesday: dinner with youth group

Thursday Crock Pot Night: Crock Pot Spaghetti

Friday: Leftovers

Saturday: plans with friends

Sunday: Baked Chicken Teriyaki, rice, Apple Feta Salad

Head on over to I'm an Organizing Junkie for links to more great recipes!

Menu Planning Monday!

Happy first week of school for all those who go to quarter system schools like Fuller! School starts tomorrow for Chuck (and for me, I'll be a TA for a couple classes) so--happy first week of school and fall! I've been seeing some delicious fall soups cropping up on everyone's menu plans lately because apparently in other parts of the country it is cool enough to eat stews and bread for dinner, but well, not here yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for next week!

Last week's winner was definitely the Baked Chicken Teriyaki, it was delicious! I don't think I'd do the Pesto Pita Pizzas again. Charles (he's attempting to switch his name from Chuck, so I'm at least going to do my best in writing!) loved the apple salad, I don't think I did, but I am going to try a different one this week.

Here's the menu for this coming week--happy first week of school friends!

Snacks:
Pumpkin Bread (even though it isn't cold enough to be fall, I couldn't resist, this recipe is one of my very favorite fall flavors!)
Lemony Hummus--I've been playing with hummus recipes lately and this one hands down wins, it is awesome!

Monday: Loaded Tostadas

Tuesday: leftover tostadas

Wednesday: dinner out with youth group

Thursday: Apple-Feta Tossed Salad (I do love apple in salads, but I wasn't a fan of the dressing on last week's) with Turkey Pesto Panini sandwiches

Friday: Chicken Parmesan Fingers over Garlic Spaghetti with salad

Saturday: This week's Date Night! This week's date drawn out of our date night bowl was a picnic on the beach watching the sunset (hence not doing it Friday night, horrible traffic heading to beaches on Friday night!) I'm in charge this week, so we'll see what picnic food I come up with :)

Sunday: Leftovers

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