Meal Planning Monday: Sept. 11 - Sept. 18, 2011

Another weekend gone, another Monday has arrived. And with it, Monday has brought a new meal plan for the week. As far as this menu goes, I'm really excited to try the Crunchy Baked Pork Chops - they look and sound delicious!

Vegetarian
To Die For Fettuccine Alfredo  with a big salad tossed with my Grandma's dressing

Beef
Grilled Beef and Mushroom Burger with a marinated vegetable salad
Grilled Beef and Mushroom Burger

Photo Credit

Vegetarian
Lentil Shepherd's Pie with Sweet Potato Mash with garden fresh green beans

Chicken
Cowboy Quesadillas

Vegetarian
Grilled Vegetable Pizza

Pork
Crunchy Baked Pork Chops with roasted potatoes and asparagus

Photo Credit: Smitten Kitchen

Have a great week everyone!  :)

How 'Bout Them (Organic) Apples

We love apples. Our kids love apples. My son (he's 5) could easily eat 5 or 6 apples day, if I let him. I don't, because I buy organic apples and they are expensive. This morning I bought a bag of 9 apples for $5 - and the crushing part, is 3 of them are quite bruised, which means none of us will eat them like that.

Photo Credit

In my opinion, the imperfections of the fruit and veggies are more difficult to get used to than the price of paying for organic produce. We have become so accustomed to perfect, LARGE fruit - if it's bruised in the store, I won't buy it - I mean, why would I pay for flawed fruit when there is unbruised fruit for the same price? It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure that out. Unfortunately, much of the organic produce I buy is prepackaged in a bag, so I have to make my choice. I still choose the bag of 9 organic apples, though a third of them are too bruised for us to eat. I'm certainly not throwing them away.

So what's a girl to do? When life hands you lemons, make lemonade. Or rather, when life gives you blemished fruit, make a dessert!

Caramel Apple Bread Pudding
 (Recipe and Photo by Our Best Bites)

Quick and Easy Apple Tart
(Recipe and Photo by Pioneer Woman)

 

Vanilla Apple Crisp with Caramel Sauce
 (Recipe and Photo by Closet Cooking)

If you haven't made the switch to organic apples, you should try it.  The flavor beats all, there is no waxy film to scrape off the skins, and you have at least 3 reason (listed above) to go organic today.

I have two hours without kids - I'm headed to my kitchen now!

 

The Word on Gifts for Teachers

The end of the school year is drawing near - the school our kids attend has 21 more days of classes - and I think the teachers might be more excited about that than the kids are!

The teachers at our kids's school are fantastic - they each have a teacher and a teacher's aide in the classroom, all of whom the kids completely adore.

We would like to do something for each of them, but as in the past, I'm struggling with what to get for them. You see, I'm not friends with any of them, so I don't know their tastes. Plus, I am practical beyond reason, so I don't want to get them something that they won't use.  So I think we'll leave the bubble bath and pencil holders for someone else and we'll go more along the lines of the ideas below:

Photo Credit

A spring bouquet.  Light, bright, and lovely.  Something your favorite teacher can take home with them to brighten any room.

Photo Credit:  Scholar's Choice

Supplies for the classroom was a suggestion that came directly from a teacher-friend.  She said (and I quote):

We frequent educational teacher's stores often, and spend a lot of money in them....borders, displays, stamps, anything like that would be nice gifts as I would use them the following year. Also craft supplies such as glitter, which the students love but are not usually part of the stock closet, would be great.

And finally, check out these adorable cans filled with the candies of your choosing (by Our Best Bites).  You can find the tutorial here.

Photo by Our Best Bites

If you have any other ideas or tutorials to share, we would love to see them!

 

Meal Planning Monday: Apr 18-24, 2011

I love planning meals.  Honest.  Sure, it's a bit time consuming, but let me tell you, it's worth it!   It goes without saying that it eases the pressure of it being 4:30 on a weeknight when the kids are starving and hubby will be home in 45 minutes.  It eases the grocery bill, and I think most importantly for our family, it saves on wasted food.  On grocery day, our fridge is e.m.p.t.y.  And I mean empty - I'm going grocery shopping today, and we have 3 eggs, condiments, half a head of lettuce, and 4 brown bananas.  Because I've planned our meals and snacks for the week, I'm not at all worried about breakfast today.  It drives me completely up the wall to throw away food when so many kids around the world don't eat every day - but meal planning ensures that we throw away very little - which saves me stress, time, and money.

Monday (Vegetarian)
Breakfast - Fruit Smoothie with protein powder, almond milk, fruit, and oatmeal thrown in.
Dinner - Cheesy Crock Cauliflower Soup (Saving Dinner the Low-Carb Way)

Tuesday (Beef)
Breakfast - Steel Cut Oats with the trimmings
Dinner - Beef Stew with Mushrooms

Wednesday (Vegetarian)
Breakfast - Cereal, Milk, Fruit
Dinner - Eggplant Parmesan with salad and garlic breadsticks (and please don't be disillussioned - I will not be serving it up to look like the photo below!!)   :P


Photo Credit

Thursday (Chicken)
Breakfast - Cheesy Egg Breakfast Sandwich, fruit
Dinner - Turkey Picadillo, mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts, carrots (Saving Dinner the Low-Carb Way)

Friday (Vegetarian)
Breakfast - Steel Cut Oats with berries and maple syrup
Dinner - Vegan Cabbage Rolls - this is a big stray from our normal, so we'll see how it goes over!

Saturday (Pork)
Breakfast - Cinnamon Baked French Toast
Dinner - Pizza on homemade crust

Snacks this week will include:

• cottage cheese and berries
• apple and nuts
• veggies with hummus
• Simple Shake with almond milk, protein powder and cocoa powder
• orange and protein bar 

Photo Credit

I'll be baking Jacked-Up Banana Bread.

Meal Planning Monday: Apr 4 - 10

It's Monday morning and I have my meals planned and groceries almost done!  This week I'm giving a lot of my love to The Pioneer Woman Cooks! - her recipes are very, very tasty, and they consist of real food - fresh ingredients with just a few packaged foods like tomato sauce and peppers - the kind of stuff I don't have time to make from scratch.

We're having some type of wrap 3 times this week.  Normally I wouldn't do that, but I think that they are all different enough that it shouldn't be a bother. 

Monday (Vegetarian)
Breakfast - Steel Cut Oats with the works
Dinner - Fettuccini Alfredo and a big tossed salad with tomatoes and cucumbers from the greenhouse

Tuesday (Beef)
Breakfast - SuperSonic Breakfast Burrito with fruit
Dinner -Lasagna, Salad, Garlic Breadsticks

Photo Credit

Wednesday (Vegetarian)
Breakfast - Cereal, milk, fruit
Dinner - Vegetable Stir Fry, rice, tempura eggplant and sweet potato


Thursday (Chicken)
Breakfast - Make Ahead Muffin Melts, fruit, yogurt
Dinner -Grilled Chicken and Pineapple Quesadillas

Friday (Vegetarian)
Breakfast - Whatever we feel like!  :)
Dinner - Veggie Fajita Pizza on homemade crust

Saturday (Pork)
Breakfast - Smoothies
Dinner - Chipotle Pork Tacos - IF I can find a can of chipotle peppers!

Snacks this week will include:

• apple and almonds
• protein bar and orange
• yogurt and berries
• cottage cheese and berries
• apple and peanut butter

I'll be baking protein bars this week.

How about you?  If you need recipes for anything that doesn't have a link, let me know!  :)

Meal Planning Monday: March 27 - April 2

Monday (Vegetarian)
Breakfast - Oatmeal Protein Smoothie
Dinner - Orzo Primavera, grilled zucchini, tossed salad

Tuesday (Beef)
Breakfast - Cheesy Eggs, toast, strawberries
Dinner - Beef and Bean Burritos, carrot sticks, tossed salad

Wednesday (Vegetarian)
Breakfast - Cereal, milk, apples
Dinner - Veggie Wraps (lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, sprouts, hummus, avocado, shredded carrots, onions, etc - as long as you have enough variety to make a big, bulky wrap, it will be hearty enough for a meal - and I have a 6'6", 300+ lb husband who says so!)



Photo Credit



Thursday (Chicken)
Breakfast - Steel Cut Oats (with coconut, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, and maple syrup), fruit
Dinner - Grilled Chicken and Veggie Skewers, rice, fruit salad

Friday (Vegetarian)
Breakfast - English Muffin Breakfast Pizzas, orange segments
Dinner - Chili-Lime Potato Nachos, veggies with dip - I think this will be perfect movie night fare!

Saturday (Pork)
Breakfast - Cottage cheese pancakes with whipped cream and strawberries, turkey sausage
Dinner - Hawaiian and Vegetarian Pizza with the most divine home made crust on.the.planet. I load up the veggie pizza, so I don't usually worry about adding a vegetable side dish.

Snacks this week will include:

• Cheese and crackers
• Banana bread
• Ants on a log (celery, peanut butter, raisins)
• Fruit
• Yogurt parfait (yogurt, fruit, granola)

I'll be baking banana bread this week.

What is on your menu for the week?