Dinner is Served

  This week my meal plans were not complicated. I try to leave the complicated meals to the professionals or a holiday. 

  This week I pulled out the slow cooker, used leftovers and followed the meal plan for the week.

  I find my recipes in a variety of places but this week everything came from the internet.  My biggest goal was to use leftovers items I bought last week.  I succeed. So yeah no waste for me!

Chicken and spinach enchiladas!

Potato soup!

Zucchini Italiano casserole!

Each week I try to make new recipes and not just stick with old tried and true ones.  I have made this soup before but the other two recipes were new.  Two days of leftovers from last week was nice too.  

All of the recipes were easy and everyone liked all the meals.  No complaints means these recipes can go in the rotation to be made again.

  Now the weekend is here and the kitchen is closed.  It's everyone for themselves! Have a great weekend everyone.

Monday Motivation (Dinner Mealplans)

   Since my week was off a little bit and I skipped Fridays meal and made it Saturday I have leftovers and will eat them tonight and plan the rest of the week after that.

  I also have some leftover veggies bought for last week that I will use this week to avoid  wasting anything.  You will see meat this week as I am not a vegetarian but, do enjoy eating meatless meals sometimes.

Monday: leftovers

Tuesday: meatless
http://www.wildernesswife.com/slow-cooker-zucchini-italiano-casserole-recipe/

Wednesday: Soup
https://thehappyhousewife.com/cooking/cheddar-potato-soup/

Thursday: chicken
http://www.5dollardinners.com/chicken-and-spinach-enchiladas-5-dinner-challenge/

Friday: leftovers

  There's my week!  Some chicken, a crockpot meal, soup and leftovers!  Have a good week everyone. Take time off from the kitchen at least one day.  What's your favorite quick and easy meal?

Feeling Productive

 So this week my meal plan was meatless all week.  I actually made it through the week following the menu minus yesterday but finished it off today.

  I had the ingredients on hand Monday but had to go to the store and pick up the rest of the weeks ingredients.  Spent $85 on the weeks dinners!

  All the meals were delicious and worthy of being kept in the recipe files.  Some  definitely need to be doubled or have a side added to it but most of them were filling!  If you see any meals of interest you can find the recipes here.

Monday

Bean burritos.  This was a nice easy and fast Monday meal.  

 Tuesday

This pizza was our favorite for the week.  I had never had Naan bread and adding just a few toppings over a pesto sauce was so easy.  This may become a lunch on the weekends AND my picky son even liked it.

 Wednesday

I like to use my spiralizer but I don't use it enough.  I also like shrimp and need to find more recipes to use them in.

 Thursday

Spinach filled lasagna.  I used to think making lasagna was a chore but, the filling was easy enough to assemble while the pasta cooked; so no complaints there!

 Saturday

Finally to end the week was a quinoa dish.  I have made quinoa in place of meat in a taco dish before and really like the flavors.  This dish had pinto beans in it too and all the flavors were great.

I surprisingly didn't hear any complaints at meatless day after day this week.  That was nice.  It could be that a complaint really wasn't worth it.  Dinner hot and ready on the table is worth it no matter what, right?

Well I hope you had a healthy and filling week and I haven't thought about my menuplan yet but, am excited for whatever it is.  What are your plans for next week?

Monday Motivation (meatless dinner mealplan)

  For the last few weeks I have been sharing breakfast mealplans and this week I'm still sharing a mealplan but, a dinner one this time.

   This week I'm going to make my family all meatless meals.  Some of these recipes I have tried and obviously if they made this list they were tasty and successful the first go around.

  I am not going to label my days because I do have to go to the store and pick up some ingredients so depending on what ingredients I have on hand and when I go to the store will vary this mealplan.

Black bean quesadilla:
https://www.budgetbytes.com/2012/02/hearty-black-bean-quesadillas/

Pizza:
https://savorandsavvy.com/2016/08/15-minute-personal-pesto-pizzas.html

Shrimp:
https://damndelicious.net/2015/01/24/zucchini-shrimp-scampi/

Pasta:
https://savorandsavvy.com/2013/11/spinach-lasagna-rolls-recipe.html

Tacos:
https://wendypolisi.com/quinoa-taco-salad-bowl/

  I would love to hear what your dinner plans are this week or today.  I hope you have a happy, healthy and full week!

Monday Motivation (breakfast mealplan)

  Let's do another week of breakfast.  Breakfast meal plans are super easy for me.  I usually have all the ingredients for multiple meals, it's one meal that is appreciated by everyone in the house and I like the start of a new day.


Monday: pancakes
https://pocketchangegourmet.com/old-fashioned-homemade-pancakes/

Tuesday: eggs and toast
No recipe necessary! Just keeping it simple. I would even make an omelet but, the little people won't eat that.

Wednesday: muffins
https://www.craftsy.com/cake-decorating/article/carrot-cake-muffins/

Thursday: coffee cake 
This recipe is from my recipe box and doesn't use the Bisquick mix I have seen posted.  It used flour.

Friday: donuts
https://www.lovefromtheoven.com/valentines-day-donuts/


 There you go! That's what will be starting our mornings with! What is your morning plan?

Monday Motivation (Breakfast Mealplan)

  Breakfast is my motivation again this week.

Monday: We had donuts.  Not homemade. The store bought kind.  Of course there were no complaints only fights over how many each of them could eat.

Tuesday: Oatmeal
https://www.marthastewart.com/315903/strawberry-oatmeal-breakfast

Wednesday: Muffins
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/6865/to-die-for-blueberry-muffins/

Thursday: Crepes
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/16383/basic-crepes/

Friday:  Fruit Smoothie and breakfast cookie
https://www.shelikesfood.com/healthy-baked-oatmeal-breakfast-cups-6-ways

  There we have it breakfast is the most important meal of the day!   I will have some happy people this week!

  Have a great week and don't forget to eat your breakfast!  What's your favorite breakfast?

Monday Motivation (Breakfast menu)

  They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day!  Who am I to question that?  So I will just eat it and go on with my day.

  I have found that we can stretch milk by adding hot meals to our week.  The kids don't complain about cereal everyday but a little variety is nice. Thankfully most breakfast items are eagerly accepted.

  This is our breakfast meal plan for the week!

Monday: Waffles
https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/waffles/f4760054-72a9-4316-9377-f636dd58bc8e

Tuesday:
Egg and cheese quesadilla

Wednesday:
French Toast

Thursday: Muffins
https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/basic-banana-muffins

Friday:Yogurt

  Planning breakfast doesn't have to be hard.  I think it's way easier then dinner plans but, that's not the point.  The point is planning makes life so much easier, offers variety and challenges me with new recipes sometimes.

  A lot of people have a busy morning.  On a slow, easy going morning what do you make for breakfast?  What's your favorite breakfast?

Motivation Monday (Meal plan)

  When your a parent a family has to eat.  Gone are the days of a bowl of cereal or pizza every night.  I do plan meals because it makes the busy nights easier.  My recipes are a combination of recipes new and old as well as simple meals.

Last night we picked up a Rotisserie Chicken marked down for $3.  Mashed potatoes were whipped up as well as a side of corn!

2/12 Monday
Spaghetti and meatballs. I gave some leftover frozen meatballs that I will be using and combine tomato sauce, paste and diced tomatoes for the spaghetti sauce with a side of garlic bread.

2/13 Tuesday
Bajio Chicken from the crockpot.  This recipe is my favorite from
sixsistersstuff.

2/14 Wednesday
Sausage and more pasta. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/245920/smoked-sausage-and-tortellini-skillet/?internalSource=hub%20recipe&referringContentType=search%20results&clickId=cardslot%2018


2/15 Thursday
Salmon is always appreciated here!
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/21176/baked-dijon-salmon/with side of quinoa and some veggie.

2/16 Friday
The kitchen is closed. Every man women and child for themselves. Leftovers are served.

  What are you having for the rest of the week?  Do you meal plan?

Week 5 Recap

  Week 5 done!  My goals this past week were:
1. Fitness
2. Book
3. Snack
4. Meal prep
5. Oven

Let's check out what/how I did!

1. Fitness was better this week. I did hit 50 cardio miles with a combination of walking the indoor track, cycling indoors and the elliptical. 

one day of cycling!

  I also took 5 classes this week.  TRX, kickboxing, Ride 30, power aqua and Mixxedfit.

kickboxing!

2. Book number 3 was finally finished and I started on The Girl on the Train for my book club.

3. Snacks!  I hit this mark on Monday.  I made brownies and healthy cookie dough balls.

Chickpea-Cookie-Dough-balls

Double-Fudge-Brownies-No-Beans

4. Meal prep!  This week my salad was utilizing spinach along with some carrots, mushroom, chicken and some dressing.

5. Cleaning! The oven is cleaner then what it started out as.  So the process has started but it's a work in progress.  Before and after pictures are not necessary. We all know what an oven looks like that needs to be cleaned.

  Thanks for reading!  I hope your week was as productive as you wanted or needed it to be.

Monday Motivation (all about food)

  I like to cook.  I like to bake. I am not a professional but, since we have to eat and sometimes it's an enjoyable experience we do it.

  Today I was super motivated and made 3 things! Now as I stated I'm not a professional so I will also share the recipes of the items!

  I think the one thing I have on my side at least is that 2 of the 3 are healthy.  The bonus is that everything is kid approved.  As a mom of picky eaters that just makes me so happy!

I started my morning with a cup of hot mint chocolate.  This was a fun recipe with its green color and I even choose to make one red in honor of the upcoming Valentines Day! Easy recipe with minimal ingredients and tasty!

Find the cocoa recipe here.

Next up was a healthy spin on cookie dough bites.  I would never try to make cookie dough healthy but, I would try to make my kids eat healthier.  Guess what 1 out of 2 kids fell for it. That's OK thats a start!  This cookie dough balls although made with chickpeas are actually quite good.  I guess there's enough sweet stuff in them to kind of coat the taste.  I thought they were a little dry but, that just means we need a class of milk with our cookies!

Find the cookie dough recipe here.

Lastly we not only needed some chocolate but we needed a dessert.  Enter the chocolate brownies!  Since I was on a healthy role I decided to stick with it.  This recipe makes a nice moist cake like chocolate brownie.  2 kid approved on this one!

Find the brownie recipe here.

  Now I'm not saying get our of hand and make everything on Monday but, I am saying if your going to make something, make it a little healthy and a lot of good!

Weekly menu 8/29-9/1

  This was last week's Fiesta Ranch Chicken Pasta meal.  It is well liked in my house but this time I changed a few things and it wasn't as appreciated.

  This week I'm so excited for my meals not because they are all new and offer a variety of different flavors but because I get Monday off and dinner out!

  I did receive some vegetable special pasta that I will be incorporating into my meals if not this week next week for sure! We shall see how the family reacts to that!

Tuesday
Meatless
https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/creamy-caprese-quinoa-bake/

Wednesday
Sausage
https://www.macheesmo.com/easy-pesto-pasta-with-sausage/

Thursday
Chicken
http://chefsavvy.com/one-pan-italian-chicken-skillet/

Friday
Sloppy Joes
http://homecookingmemories.com/meatless-sloppy-joes/


  Well there you go! That's what's on my plate this week! Look forward to hearing what's being served in your home. Have a great week but don't go hungry!

Weekly Menu 8/14-8/18

  Last week I made all my planned meals except for the vegetarian chili on Thursday.  I would normally carry over the meal into the next week but I'm missing a few important ingredients too so I'll put that back into the pile.

  This week I'm only making 3 meals because there are enough leftovers in the house to feed us for a couple days.

Monday 8/14
1 pot chili mac
http://damndelicious.net/2014/03/15/one-pot-chili-mac-cheese/

Tuesday 8/15
Meatless
http://www.marthastewart.com/313967/shrimp-with-couscous

Wednesday 8/16
Meatless
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/9401/salmon-patties-i/

Thursday 8/17
Leftovers

Friday 8/18
Leftovers

  I'm looking forward to my short week.  Plus as long as we eat up the leftovers the weekly plan was a success.  If meals get thrown away because it's old or under appreciated it's definitely a sad waste.

  Any meal plans this week for you?  Any dinner out plans?

Meal plan 8/7-8/11

  It's that time again to organize what's for dinner!  I don't create recipes for me it's just easier to research recipes and raid the pantry.  Each week I try to make a meatless meal sometimes it turns into 2 days and that just a coincidence.  I might not even he 100% of the ingredients but I make the meal anyways.  A crockpot meal once a week is a nice break and of course so are leftovers!   Sliding in a new recipe is always fun to spice up the palette too!

8/7 Soup and leftover salad:
chicken-and-rice-soup.

8/8 Pasta:
tortellini-and-kielbasa.

8/9 Chicken:
Baked chicken with brown-sugar-barbecue-sauce.

8/10 Crockpot:
vegetarian-chili-with-sweet-potatoes.

8/11 Leftovers

There it is everyone! 2 days this week with chicken, 1 meatless and all new recipes! The slow cooker thrown in for convenience and soup also for an easy night! Happy eating! What's your dinner plans?

It's time to eat! Meal plan 7/31- 8/4

  A girls got to eat and a mom has to feed her family.  I know it's easy to fly through the week when you have a plan but, it's not easy to make the plan!  Plus it's soo frustrating when you have picky eaters that veto everything but I just push through.

  Tonight's meal was a winner because you can never eat enough breakfast.

Breakfast is the one meal I hear the least amount of complaints about so if we ate breakfast twice a day everyone would officially eat in my house.

Here's the rest of my line up for the week!

7/31 Pasta

Chicken-broccoli-pasta-skillet-casserole

8/1 Meatless 

Falafel

8/2 Crockpot

Baked-potato-soup

8/3 Salmon

Grilled-salmon-with-honey-soy-marinade

8/4 Leftovers 

  What are your dinner plans for the week? I'm always looking for something new.  This week 3 of these recipes are new!

Meal plans 4/17-4/20

  This is a short week with a holiday being today.  I have tried to make my meals easy and less stressful.

  It so much easier to have a plan in place even if I don't label the days.  So this week my four meals will be randomly selected for the rest of the week.  Although it may only be 3 days as we still have leftovers from the weekend.

Chili this week will be my meatless meal:
https://www.budgetbytes.com/2013/10/chili-cornbread-skillet/

My chicken meal:
http://www.whatscookingintheburbs.com/2013/05/chicken-enchilada-skillet.html?m=1

Cheddar Bratwurst with homemade fries and veggies

Another meatless meal:
http://damndelicious.net/2016/05/23/garlic-butter-salmon-foil/

Happy eating everyone! What are you planning on eating this week?

Meal plan 11/21-11/24

  Thanksgiving is almost here.  All I have to do is just get to that day.  Then I am home free with leftovers for a few days; well depending on how much I make.  When you have a large family sometimes leftovers are hard to come by.

11/21 Breakfast in bed (mommas got a migraine)
Eggs and toast

11/22 chili and cornbread

Chili:http://wholesomemommy.com/meal-solution-6-chili-night/

Cornbread: http://wholesomemommy.com/beyond-beans-cornbread/

11/23 Chicken
https://www.campbells.com/kitchen/recipes/easy-chicken-and-pasta/

11/24 Thanksgiving Feast
Turkey dinner with all the fixings!

11/25 leftovers

#nablopomo

Weekly recap

This week was pretty laid back in a few areas more so then others.

Little man didn't have preschool this week as the public school was out 3 of the 5 days so there was too much activity going on to ever get his focus.

I actually only cooked two meals this week.
DeconstructedChicken Potpie and Chicken Fried Rice.

I cashed in one receipt for free lunch at Chick Fil A and will use my remaining one this weekend.

Different times of year they offer a promotion to buy food one day and bring the receipt back the next month for the same meal free!

  We spent a family night bouncing around at our local trampoline park.  Pay one price and your whole family jumps which is better then the per person rate.

I finally finished one book.

Then started another.

Even found time to hit the gym regularly this week which was a great accomplishment and overall gave me a better feeling!  

Cardio and weights does a body good!

The rest of my weekend is going to amount  to low key activities and random fun.  How was your week?  What will you be doing this weekend?

#NaBloPoMo

5 Tips of how to meal plan

1.  Make a plan of how many meals you want to make.  I organize all my dinners.  Lunches are usually the same routine of sandwiches.  Breakfast varies from cereal, oatmeal to hot meals.  For dinner will there be the same weekly theme.

Monday: meatless
Tuesday: tacos
Wednesday: spaghetti
Thursday: breakfast
Friday: Take out, pizza or leftovers
Saturday: leftovers
Sunday: Sunday Dinner

Skip even labeling the days if that's too stressful and just organize 5 days of meals.

  2.  Stick with what you know.  You don't need to look up recipes.  Make hotdogs and a couple sides, pancakes or soup and sandwiches.

3.  Before you go shopping look in your fridge and pantry.  You don't need to clean it out but utilize what's in there.  How long has that can of ______ been in there?  Confession:  I have some old Hamburger Helpers in mine.

4. Grocery shop with a dollar limit.  Set the limit to $xxx for the month.  This amount is strictly for food only, not pet products or household.

5.  Don't wait for the day before the week begins.  You feel stressed out.  Whenever an idea pops into your head write it down for the following week.  1 day down and keep building on it.

  I find it easy to build around the main item.  I will say chicken is once a week, meatless once a week, salmon one day and soup.  I might not even assign a specific day for the meals.  With this concept then you can focus on a recipe or meal around the chicken.  For example bbq chicken or baked chicken. Soup would be cheeseburger or potato.

  I hope some of these tips alleviate some of the presumed stress when it comes to meal planning.

  I skipped this week but I'm not stressing as we will be ok and once and awhile it's nice to take a break.

#nablopomo

Mealplan 10/31-11/3

It's a new week and time to eat!  Last week our favorite meal was

 Fiesta Ranch Chicken Pasta.

I have two days this week that I would like to specifically plan around.  Halloween I want something quick and easy to get our dinner done so we can get out and about and Wednesday as well.

I did miss last week's Thursday meal as Chinese take out replaced that meal so that will be carried over as well. 

10/31  Sausage 

Spaghetti 

11/1 Chicken

http://bowl-me-over.com/chicken-fried-rice/

11/2 Breakfast

http://goldilockskitchen.com/2016/08/corned-beef-hash-huevos-rancheros.html?pp=0

11/3  Crockpot 

http://eatathomecooks.com/2012/03/slow-cooked-brown-sugar-chicken-and-sweet-potatoes-4-ingredients/?m

Two new recipes, and 1 crockpot meal.  You can never go wrong with a crockpot meal!  What at your dinner plans for the week?

5 Reasons to Meal Plan

  There are multiple reasons to meal plan.  It does require some organization but your in charge of that.  Whether you want to have a specific theme every Tuesday (Taco Tuesday) or every week you will have a meatless meal.

  Your plan is catered to your needs.  First look at the week ahead.  Do you have any late appointments and if so planning for something quick those nights will help. Frozen pizza or breakfast for dinner work just fine.

1.  It will save you money.  If you have that willpower to drive past that fast food restaurant at 530.

2.  It's healthier for you.   I can agree with this partially because it depends on what you make.  To me a Chipotle salad rates pretty high in the healthy department. Brown Sugar Pork Chops not so much.

3.  You have time.  It doesn't take hours if you don't want it too.  You can cook what you know and what you always do.  I like to torture myself with new recipes.

4.  You feel lifted as the stress of "What's for dinner?", is taken care of. When you get up to start your day you already have a plan for dinner time in the evening.  All day you can relax because you already know what dinner is going to be.  You have the food organized, defrosting or cooking in the crockpot.  You are as good as done with dinner.

5.  Learning is fun!  The more cooking you do; the more home cooking you do you learn different recipes, styles and techniques.  I have learned new chopping features on my food processor.  Tried Gnocchi (and love it)!  I have even almost perfected my roux skills!

  These are only a few reasons.  I am sure there are more reasons of why to meal plan but let's stick with the basics.  What intimidates you about meal plans?