Weekly Meal Plans

Menu 7/15/2012

1. Buttermilk Roast Chicken w/ Creamy Lemon Pasta with Spinach and Tomatoes
2. Parmesan Baked Eggs w/ maple sausage w/ Roasted Potatoes
3. Slow Cooker Lamb Arm Roast w/ Tomatoes Roasted with Pesto
4. Italian Ziti Bake
5-7. L&G: Out, A: Fends for himself
Lunch: Gazpacho
Test Sweet: Chocolate Covered Bacon

This is another short week in food because Lance and I will be in Columbus for the upcoming weekend.  Travel throws everything out of whack!  While home, I’ve got the farmers market bounty to cook through so it should be a tasty, if short, week. 

All of these meals will use some sort of goodie from the market.  I still need to pick a meat from the freezer for meal 3, so I’ll update this post once a meat and recipe is selected.  Art requested that I make a large casserole so he’d have something to tide him over for the weekend, and I decided Ziti Bake would work perfectly since it will also use up some zucchini from the market.

Menu 7/8/2012

1. Fish Tacos (w/ chicken for Art) w/ Crema
2. burgers
3. Pork Chile Verde w/ Salsa Verde w/ doctored rice
4. Grilled Skirt Steak w/ Chimichurri w/ Roasted Potatoes w/ Garlic Scape Pesto
5. Buttermilk Roast Chicken Asian Marinated Grilled Flank Steak w/ Zucchini Fritters with Ginger Soy Dip
6. taco salad
7. Balsamic Chicken with Pine Nuts w/ Tomato Pie
Lunch: Gazpacho Postponed another week due to lack of fridge space
Dessert: Peach Crisp

Somehow I completely forgot to post this week’s meal plan after finishing it!  How did that happen?  Here it is – it’s mainly built around using up veggies from the market.  Thos are in every meal of the week!

Menu 7/1/2012

1. L&G: Out, A: Fends for himself
2-3. Out while recovering from travel
4. Baked Angel Hair with Eggplant
5. Fish Tacos (w/ chicken for Art) Out
6. grilled chicken breasts w/ Creamy Potato Salad w/ grilled pattypan w/ Barbecue Sauce
7. Simple Roasted Prime Rib w/ Pasta Caprese w/ Horseradish Butter

Lance and I are home safely from our weekend trip to Atlanta so it’s time for the weekly meal plan!  There isn’t much to it since we’re eating out three of the seven nights, but I’m okay with that and it uses up all of the veg Art bought at the market while I was out of town. 

Meals 4-7 include market vegetables.  Meal 6 will be our 4th of July meal since Art thinks we should grill to celebrate, and I agree!  I hope it will be a tasty week and I hope I’ll be able to do some catching up on recipe posting before the end of it.

Menu 6/24/2012

1. grilled steaks w/ Herbed New Potatoes w/ salad
2. burgers w/ grilled pattypan
3. Leftover Night (voice/choir)
4. roast of some sort w/ Toasted Wheat Berry (or Barley) Salad with Tomato and Zucchini
5-7. L&G: Out, A: Fends for himself
Breakfast with company: Sassy Sausage and Hash Brown Breakfast Bake

Last week was a ridiculous week.  Between my choir concert and medical stuff, I didn’t end up cooking all the meals I had planned to cook.  This week is pretty ridiculous too because Lance and I will be out of town for a long working weekend.  As a result, meal planning was swift with only one meal to actually plan.  Meals 1 and 2 are holdovers from last week.  Hopefully this will be a nice, easy, and painless week.

Menu 6/17/2012

1. grilled steaks w/ Herbed New Potatoes I have no idea why I didn’t make this.
2. Leftover Night (voice/choir)
3. Poached Salmon with Dill and Sour Cream Sauce w/ chicken for Art w/ Salt Potatoes with Butter and Herbs
4. Pasta with Fast Sausage Ragu w/ Baked Zucchini Fries
5. Roast Pork Loin with Tarragon Cream Sauce w/ Chard Gratin
6. burgers w/ grilled pattypan w/ lettuce, tomato, onion, buns, etc. Out
7. Out due to choir concert
Lunches: Gazpacho
Drinks: Lemonade Syrup

This week’s meal plan actually came together rather quickly but it’s full of cheats!  Meal 1 is a holdover from last week, since we ordered pizza.  Meals 2 and 7 didn’t need to be planned due to choir commitments.  (If you’re in the area, please come out to the concert on Saturday or Sunday!

Meal 6 is a fast meal since I’ve got my dress rehearsal for the concert that night.  I liked the Chard Gratin I made last week so much that I’m repeating it this week – quite a rarity.  I have yet to plan the protein to serve with it because I need to pick a cut of meat from the freezer. 

Produce from the farmers market features in every meal I’m cooking this week including the Gazpacho which I’ll make with the tomato seconds I picked up.  I can’t wait! 

I’m also going to be attempting to make a simple syrup with lemon to replace the Crystal Light lemonade that I drink constantly.  I’ve been bouncing around the idea of removing that aspartame from my diet, so we’ll see how it turns out. 

In other news, I’m still playing catch up from being in Norway.  Sadly, this week is ridiculously busy for me, so I doubt I’ll make much progress.

Menu 6/10/2012

1. Greek Chicken Salad w/ pita
2. Leftover Night (choir)
3. Mustard Crusted Tilapia (and Chicken) w/ Chard Gratin
4. Tangy Barbecue Chicken w/ Roasted Broccoli salad with Tangy Feta Dressing
5. grilled steaks w/ Salt Potatoes with Butter and Herbs out
6. Pork Tenderloin with Mustard Sauce w/ Zucchini with Basil, Pine Nuts, and Parmesan
7. Eggs à l’Oignon w/ maple sausage w/ bread of some sort
Snack: Radish and Beet Chips

I’m still working on The Norway Posts for the blog.  So far I have organized all of the pictures and written about a quarter of the content.  It’s coming along slowly, but surely. 

In the meantime, meals must still be planned.  This meal plan revolves quite a bit around the vegetables we picked up at the farmers market (yes, I have those posts to make as well) today.  Meals 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and the snack of chips all include beautiful local produce – cucumbers, tomatoes, Swiss chard, broccoli, potatoes, basil, zucchini, radishes and beets.  I love this time of year! 

The meals also include meats from the freezer – steaks, pork tenderloin, and maple sausages. 

I also used print cookbook to help with meal planning this week, instead of just turning to the internet.  I picked out Local Flavors by Deborah Madison after I spent some time bonding with my cookbook collection.  You see, I started out with a bookcase in Art’s office dedicated to my cookbook collection but, over time, this collection has grown to take over three additional shelves on the other bookcase in the room as well as an unruly stack on the futon.  After much deliberation, we decided to move the collection and one of the bookcases into a bedroom and add another bookcase to the house for the overflow.  Thanks to Art and Lance’s help, this transfer was completed in a single day and I had the “pleasure” of getting to organize my collection.  Again.

Cookbooks

But back to the cookbook - meals 3, 5, and 6 involve (recipes from Local Flavors.

Menu 6/3/2012

1. Hamburger Helper
2. Leftover Night (voice/choir)
3. Mustard Crusted Tilapia baked pre-crusted tilapia w/ Roasted Beet Risotto
4. Parmesan Crusted Chicken w/ Less Than Salad
5. Mom’s Chicken w/ Pasta Carbonara
6. Grilled Leg of Lamb w/ Risotto with Cabbage, Lemon, and Parsley
7. grilled steaks w/ grilled pattyan squash w/ Swiss Chard Cheater Greens
Lunch: Caprese Salad

I have returned from the land of the midnight sun!  The trip was really fantastic and we had a wonderful time. I’ll be posting a recap post with lots of pictures and a restaurant review of Maaemo once I get the time.  Right now I’m working on getting back into the swing of everyday life. 

I went to the farmers market yesterday and picked up lots of veggies, those are being used in most of the side dishes throughout the week – meals 3, 4, 6, 7, and the lunch salad.  Meals 1, 6, and 7 will be using meats from the freezer. 

I’ve got a ton of stuff on my current to do list.  Thankfully I’m not traveling again until the end of the month when I head to Atlanta for a working weekend.

Menu 5/27/2012

1-5. L&G: Out, A: Fends for himself 6. Chipotle
7. Wawa

The meal plan for the last week of the Norway trip!  Lance and I have reservations at Maaemo during this week and that’s super exciting.  (It has two brand new Michelin stars!)  We’ll be arriving back home for meal 6 and I assume Lance will be craving Chipotle at that point and that his crave will win over mine.  We’ll satisfy mine, for Wawa hoagies, the following night.  Then I’ll get back to meal planning and cooking the next week!  (I hope.)

Menu 5/20/2012

1-7. L&G: Out, A: Fends for himself

The meal plan for the first complete week of the Norway trip!  Lance and I have a Viking Feast scheduled for this week.  I shall practice throwing my mug on the ground like Thor.

Menu 5/13/2012

1. spaghetti w/ garlic bread
2-7. L&G: Out, A: Fends for himself

Super exciting meal plan, but I feel the need to post them all for the sake of completion.  I wanted something tasty, yet easy, for the last meal before we leave, so spaghetti fit the bill.  I’ll be making it meaty with ground beef and bacon!