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!  :)

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?

Meal Planning Monday: March 14-20, 2011

This week I'm trying a couple of new recipes, as well as some of our favorites.

Monday
Breakfast - Power Breakfast (from The Eat-Clean Diet for Men
Dinner - Mexican Pinto Beans with brown rice, broccoli (from The Eat-Clean Diet Recharged

Tuesday
Breakfast - Cereal, milk, fruit
Dinner - Pork Roast, roasted root vegetables, green salad

Wednesday
Breakfast - Mixed Berry Bars
Dinner - Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce with spinach salad

Thursday
Breakfast - Cereal, milk, fruit
Dinner - Chicken with Quinoa and Asparagus
** note: quinoa is pronounced keen-wah and it is not as scary as you think it might be!**

Photo Credit

Friday
Breakfast - Berry & Spinach Smoothie (and trust me - the kids don't even know about the spinach!)
Dinner - Beef & Bean Casserole, Rice or Fresh Buns, Carrots (even though the casserole is so good that the veggies never get eaten!)
**note: Beef & Bean Casserole must be eaten on a Friday - that leaves 2 days for ah... ya know... Oh, I'll just say it. The beans need time to leave your system...cough. Ya. And you don't want to take leftovers to work on Monday either. :D

Happy eating!

Free Rice and the Honda Portable Rider

Welcome to Friday! I know I'm glad the weekend is here - how about you?

The finds for this week are very different, but fun!

Ever heard of Pioneer Woman? Well, who hasn't, really? Anyway, on January 7, she posted an Annual Reminder. About rice. Free rice. To help end world hunger.

Photo Credit
Take a look at the Free Rice site. It's a cool site that asks you trivia questions. For each question you get right, they donate 10 grains of rice to help end hunger. It's easy, but be careful - it's rather addicting!

Honda has a new invention- a Portable Rider. Watch the very short video here and try to imagine a bunch of women racing on these to the nearest discount rack - and try not to giggle too loudly!


What interesting finds have you come across this week? We'd love to see them! :)