Dinner Collage

  This week is going to showcase my dinners from the last week or two!  I didn't use to make "real" food for my family.  I cooked what I knew and repeatedly cooked only that such as spaghetti or baked pork chop and potatoes and boxed food.  I never tried new recipes and everything was meat.

  I have come along way between using my food processor, spiralizer recently and the slow cooker.

  I now cook from my pantry and grocery shop every few weeks.  I incorporate meatless meals into each week and serve salads and soups as a meal!    My family likes the variety and my skills just improve along with my confidence daily!

                       Meatless Sloppy Joes

Pesto Pasta with Sausage 

Caprese Quinoa Bake

Shrimp Fried Rice

Fiesta Ranch Chicken Pasta

Garlic Zucchini Pasta

Shrimp with Couscous

Recipes for the above dishes can be found under my weekly menus.  Do you enjoy cooking?  What's the one dish your proud of making? 

Menu plan 10/12-10/16

  Last week worked out great with some feedback on the the overall concept of being organized and of how having a plan makes for a better week.  I am utilizing the crockpot again this week but the meals this week hold true to easy and quick.

10/12: Monday lasagna
http://www.myrecipes.com/m/recipe/extra-easy-lasagna

10/13: Tuesday chicken lazone
http://www.plainchicken.com/2013/05/chicken-lazone.html?m=1

10/14: Wednesday copycat Zuppa Tuscana soup need sausage!!! I do have plans to eat out this day (with a food reviewers group) so this may be a leftover day.
http://wholesomemommy.com/real-food-copy-cat-zuppa-tuscana-olive-garden-copy-cat/

10/15: Thursday corned beef and potatoes
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/slow-cooker-old-world-corned-beef-and-vegetables/073fd3e5-e549-4ad4-b416-7333ba2c2095

10/16: Friday hmm, let's just plan something again to see what happens.  This will help in case all food is consumed during the week that I already made.


  So I guess I may have two leftover days this week.  Thinking about it now in advance that doesn't sound like a bad deal at all.  We will see how that works out.

P.S. In keeping up with my bucketlist the lasagna would be a new recipe for me! (Cabbage in the crockpot will be too but I didn't know if that counted.  I would count it because I will follow the Recipe otherwise my meal would be considerably bland.)

Feeding the family equals a happy family!

Weekly Summary

  As we finish the week off I reflect on the good bad and ugly.  I'm going to keep it real.  I don't live in a bubble there is always a little bit of all.  I wish there was all good and no bad or ugly but that is not reality.  I do appreciate when there is more good then bad but there's rarely a all good week!

  So we finished great with our meal plans.

 We had our vegetarian meal on Monday.

Crockpot meal number one on Tuesday.

 Crockpot meal number two on Wednesday.

 We did eat out for my daughters birthday.

Then indulged in cake she made from start to finish.

  Tonight due to my diligence in cooking meals every night has provided me with a day off as there are plenty of leftovers to be eaten.  So the salmon will be moved to a later date but the egg plant needs to be eaten.  Operation no waste in full effect.

 Next week's menu is being finished up.

Have a great weekend!