Meal Planning Week 3

Life has become back to normal.  Work has resumed and the kids are all home.  Before I really get creative with my meal planning, I will need to spend some time going through recipes and food storage areas to take stock of what is going on in my home.  Once some things are cleared out, I can start being creative and adventurous in the fridge again!

I want to try to clean out the cabinets, fridge, and freezer so this plan will be a bit boring!

Week 3

The 3 New Recipe Meals This Week taken from:

None this week.  I am cleaning out the fridge.

Monday: Ribs on the grill, salad, and corn pudding

Tuesday: Chicken Pot Pie Buscuits (found on Facebook)

Wednesday:  Crockpot Freezer Meal

Thursday: Soft Tacos and Tortilla Chips

Friday: Pizza Rollers and Fruit Salad

Saturday: Fish, Veggie, and Rice

Sunday: Lucky Left Overs

Meal Planning Week 2

This is going to be a great week of meal planning, since I have others doing the meals on Monday, Tuesday, and Sunday!!

Since it is summer, you may notice more grilling than normal!  I love the summer time and the cookouts!  Getting together with friends and family is the best.  I think this week, I will try to take some pics of the delicious looking food for a reminder of why I love to make meals!

Week 2

The 3 New Recipe Meals This Week taken from:

None this week.  I am cleaning out the fridge.

Monday: Ribs on the grill, salad, and corn pudding

Tuesday: Pizza, Salad, and Friendly's Wattamellon Roll

Wednesday:  EATING OUT!!!!

Thursday: Crockpot Freezer Meal

Friday: Chicken Pot Pie Biscuits (found on Facebook)

Saturday: Wedding Feast!

Sunday: Johnsonville bacon Cheddar Brat Burgers, Tator Tots, California Veggie Medley

Week 1 Feedback and Recipe

As with any great plan, one must be ready to make changes and edit recipes for future use.

Here is what has happened to Week 1.

Week 1

The 3 New Recipe Meals This Week taken from:

SUNDAY NIGHT SUPPERS by Barbara C. Jones in 2006

Monday: Pizza and bread sticks

Tuesday: Tyson Dinosaur Chicken Nuggets, Mac N' Cheese, Carrot Sticks

Wednesday:  Tuna Noodle Casserole, Emergency CheeseCake (p. 192)

Thursday: Swai, Strawberry & Blueberry Salad, and Rice 

Friday: Loaded Baked Potatoes & Merry Berry Salad (p. 250)

Saturday: Johnsonville bacon cheddar Brat Burgers, Tator Tots, California Veggie Medley

Sunday: Chicken Squares and Corn Pudding (p. 142)

Wednesday:  Tuna Noodle Casserole, Emergency CheeseCake (p. 192)

So, this really tasted like Mac N' Cheese (which is just fine by me).  Here are the changes I made and will make in the future.

More noodles, add peas, put small can of french fried onions on the top

Do not make the Emergency Cheese Cake.  Instead have ice cream or milk shakes!

Thursday: Swai, Strawberry & Blueberry Salad, and Rice 

Instead of strawberry & blueberry salad and rice, I made the Merry Berry Salad (p. 250) which was excellent as written.  This meal is a keeper!

Friday: Loaded Baked Potatoes & Merry Berry Salad (p. 250)

This was the 4th of July!  So, we did not have dinner at home but went to an impromptu 4th of July family picnic!  For lunch we had the Chicken Squares (p. 142), Strawberry & Blueberry Salad, and chips!

This was a delicious dish.  The only changes made were to use minced onion in place of the diced onion (this is for the hubby)!  I will make these again - but for a lunch or light dinner!  And I may need to double this recipe because three wanted more than one square!

I know the rest of the meals will be great!  So I am posting today.

Meal Planning - Week 1

One day I was sitting at home and hoping to find ways to simplify my life when I learned about meal planning.  What a great idea!  Why hadn't I thought of this?

So, I began meal planning about a year ago.  I Google searched Meal Plan Template and found one I liked.  There were a ton of images and you really just need to find one you like or create your own.  I then laminated the form and I write on it using a wet-erase marker.  It hangs on the kitchen door so I see it every day before I leave for work.  (This reminds me if I need to thaw anything! )  

I use the meal planning to figure out my shopping list so even more time is saved.  It takes me about an hour on Saturday or Sunday to get this done.  Before I meal planned, I spent hours trying to figure out what I wanted to make for dinner and I never had the ingredients I needed because my shopping list did not align with the improvised menu.  

I also have several cookbooks that I like to use.  I try to find about 3 "new" meals a week for my family.  The rest of the meals are family favorites or freezer crockpot meals.  In the plan, I write out what cookbook I am using and the page numbers so I can find the recipes easily

There are tons of places where posts about meal-planning exist.  All of them different!  But none of them are exactly aligned to my family (mainly because I did not write out the meal plans).  

So, in another effort to save even more time and use the internet blog-world to organize my thoughts, I am going to post my weekly meal plans here.  Then, after a few months, I can come back and revise old meal plans (taking out meals we did not like and keeping in meals we did)!  

This is just an experiment but I really hope it works! I would love to have my meals organized where I can find them easily!

So, without further ado…

Week 1

The 3 New Recipe Meals This Week taken from:

SUNDAY NIGHT SUPPERS by Barbara C. Jones in 2006

Monday: Pizza and bread sticks

Tuesday: Tyson Dinosaur Chicken Nuggets, Mac N' Cheese, Carrot Sticks

Wednesday:  Tuna Noodle Casserole, Emergency CheeseCake (p. 192)

Thursday: Swai, Strawberry & Blueberry Salad, and Rice 

Friday: Loaded Baked Potatoes & Merry Berry Salad (p. 250)

Saturday: Johnsonville bacon cheddar Brat Burgers, Tator Tots, California Veggie Medley

Sunday: Chicken Squares and Corn Pudding (p. 142)