Weekly Meal Plans

1. Baked Eggs with Crispy Hash Brown Crust
2. Leftover Night (voice/choir)
3. Makhani Dal (Whole Black Lentils with Ginger, Garlic, and Butter) w/ Naan Out
4. Pan-Seared Steaks w/ pan sauce w/ Panera’s Mac and Cheese w/ broccoli w/ broccoli risotto
5. Eye Round Roast w/ Horseradish Cream Sauce w/ Sautéed Mushrooms Out
6. Chicken Chimichangas
7. Potato-Crusted Halibut with Tartar Sauce w/ Panera’s Mac and Cheese

This week is a pretty straightforward week for meal planning.  No commitments that I need to plan around, aside from the usual voice/choir night when we’ll have leftovers.  There is a chance we’ll have to have a second leftover night, but that depends on what the status of the fridge is.  I’m also hoping to put away a few servings of meals in the freezer so that Art will have some variety when he’s home alone for a week in March. 

I used two cookbooks for meal planning this week.  The Dal recipe comes from 660 Curries and meals 6, 7, and the mushrooms in meal 5 come from the 2011 Cook’s Country Annual.  I’m hoping that this signals the start of a trend of getting back into using my cookbooks for meal planning.  The other new (recipes come from my google bookmarks. 

I hope to serve some sort of veg side with meals 6 and 7, but I haven’t been inspired by anything yet.  I might end up just serving them with salads nothing better comes to mind.  I feel like we’ve been eating a lot of salads this winter – I can’t wait for market season to start up again. 

Meal 1 is a holdover from last week since we ordered pizza due to my moping about Art being gone. 

As far as meat goes, I picked New York Strip Steaks (meal 4) and an Eye Round Roast (meal 5) from the freezer for use in meals this week.  Don’t tell Lance, but meal 3 is meatless.  Shhhh.

1. Tilapia with Cream Caper Sauce w/ rice
2. Leftover Night (voice/choir)
3. Baked Eggs with Crispy Hashbrown Crust Out due to being mopey
4. Carnitas Tacos
5. Slow Cooker Rump Roast w/ Roasted Potatoes and Carrots
6. Easy Cheesy Chicken Noodles w/ salad
7. Creamy Taco Mac w/ salad
Snack: Beer Bread

Last week was a busy one with Art being home in between two England trips.  We ate lots of delicious food, but I didn’t make time to post any new (recipes.  I hope to do a bit of catch up once I’m no longer trying to catch up on three weeks of being apart! 

This week has a lot of comfort-type foods.  Pot Roast, two meat/pasta dishes, eggs for dinner… I’m feeling Winter’s chill today so, even though the week will have temperatures in the 50s, I’m cold while meal planning.  I’m sure this effects my decisions! 

Meals 4, 5, and 7 all use meat from the freezer.  Meal 1 is a holdover from last week since I forgot when Sunday was.  Everything should be yummy. 

And all that work last week cataloging my cookbooks?  Yeah, that didn’t mean anything this week as all of these (recipes are from the internet.  Oops.

1. Out to celebrate Art’s birthday!
2. Leftover Night (voice/choir)
3. Basil Chicken in Coconut Curry Sauce w/ rice
4. Grilled Marinated Leg of Lamb w/ Wheat Berry Salad
5. Grilled Tandoori Chicken w/ Naan w/ Basic Chicken Curry (Har-Roz ki Murgh Kari) w/ rice
6. Sausage, Tomato, and Arugula Fettuccine
7. Tilapia with Cream Caper Sauce w/ rice hamburgers w/ Molten Chocolate Cakes w/ vanilla ice cream (Somehow I got confused and thought meal 7 was Sunday when Art is gone, but it’s Saturday when Art is home which means no fish!  We’ll do burgers instead.)
Lunch: Red Lentil Coconut Soup

Art is home this week before heading back to England for another three weeks so the meals I have planned are based around the things he wants to eat and cook.  He requested grilling tandoori chicken and a leg of lamb which I planned meals 4 and 5 around. 

I’m trying to integrate more whole grains and beans into our diet and, to that end, I’ve been subscribing to beans and grains through Amazon.  (Sadly, I don’t have access to the “weirder” things locally.)  I’ll be using my newly acquired red lentils and wheat berries in our lunch soup and meal 4. 

Meals 4 and 6 use meats from the freezer.  I think I’m doing okay staying on track with using meat from the freezer two to three nights each week. 

I also spent quite a bit of time this week cataloging my cookbook collection.  The old spreadsheet wasn’t cutting it as I wasn’t keeping on top of updating it.  I decided to switch it over to Goodreads, which I already use to track all the other books I’ve read and want to read.  I’m hoping this will be easier to maintain.  (As of writing this, I still have one shelf left to enter into Goodreads.  I’m not tall enough to reach it myself and I keep forgetting to ask one of the guys to do it!) 

In conjunction with putting my cookbook collection into Goodreads, I decided to give Eat Your Books another try.  I really do want to start meal planning from cookbooks more often than I do now.  Internet (recipes are certainly easy, but I’ve got this awesome cookbook library and should do more with it.  I’m hoping that EYB will make that easier.  The site seems quite a bit more robust now than it was when I initially checked it out and I think it has quite a bit of potential for usefulness.

1. We ended up getting hoagies for a late lunch and then never got around to eating dinner
2. Leftover Night (voice/choir)
3. Roast Beef Sirloin with Red Wine Sauce w/ Sundried Tomato and Bacon Dressing w/ salad
4. Slow Cooker Balsamic Pulled Pork Sandwiches w/ Green Goddess Dressing w/ salad
5. Salmon en Croute
6. Chicken Stroganoff w/ egg noodles
7. Basil Chicken in Coconut Curry Sauce w/ rice Out

This meal plan is a little late in coming since I was out of town for the weekend.  Better late than never!  Thankfully tonight is a leftover night so I had a little extra time to get my act together before shopping on Tuesday. 

I picked two cuts of meat from the freezer that I’ll be using in meals 3 and 4.  The other (recipes are all from my google bookmarks.  I spent some time last week poking around Pinterst since I’d like my bookmarked (recipes to be public, but I’m not sure that it’s a robust enough solution for me, even if it is super cool. 

Art arrives home on Friday from his business trip (yay!) so meal 5 will be made sometime before that happens.

1. Salmon with Basil Aioli and Quinoa w/ broccoli (Oops, I totally forgot to get broccoli.)
2. Leftover Night (voice/choir)
3. Slow Cooker Pork Chile Verde w/ Zataran’s rice
4. Roasted Lamb Shoulder w/ Heavenly Mashed Potatoes w/ salad
5. Leftover Night (or eggs, bacon, hashbrowns)
6-7. Out

Meal planning when Art is gone is always strange.  I feel like I avoid using meat in the freezer since I don’t want to make something that he’ll be sad about missing out on.  Not to mention most of our cuts are in roast form which can make them a bit too much when it’s just Lance and me eating.  This is pretty foolish though since what’s the point in having all of this glorious meat if I’m not actually using it? 

On the other hand: FISH!  Yummy, delicious fish. 

In the past, I’ve tried to pick (recipes and then go fish out the meat from the freezer to meet the (recipes’ needs.  After narrowly avoiding crushing my foot when a roast fell from the freezer this evening, I’ve decided that I’m doing it backwards.  In the future I should pick a few cuts and then find (recipes to match.  This will keep my feet safer than trying to paw through the freezer to find a cut that’s buried under pounds of frozen stuff.  This week I picked out a small lamb arm roast and a huge pork loin roast.  Those will go in meals 3 and 4.  I admit, I feel a little bit guilty using this high quality pork in a slow cooker recipe but oh well! 

Lance and I are going out of town for meals 6 and 7 so I’ve tentatively planned a second night of leftovers since I feel we’ll have a lot of food leftover at the end of the week.  I don’t want to go away and leave a fridge full of food with no one home to eat it. 

New (recipes are from the internet – no cookbook this week.

1. Garlic Stuffed Petite Tender w/ Salad
2. leftover Tetrazzini
3. Out
4. leftover Bolognese w/ garlic bread
5. Philly Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes w/ salad w/ rolls
6. Filet Mignon with Fresh Herbs and Garlic Rub w/ Disappearing Zucchini Orzo
7. Baked Egg Boats
Lox Rangoons

This is a sad week in Gwenland.  Lance and I were both sick last week, then Art got sick, and then Art had to leave for a few weeks of business in England.  Not super inspiring circumstances to meal plan under, but meals must still be planned so they can be cooked and eaten.  It’s not the most exciting meal plan with two nights of leftovers and one night of eating out, but it will do! 

Meal 1 is a holdover from last week, meal 6 is (recipes that I need better pictures for, and everything else is from my Google bookmarks.

1. L&G: Out, A: fends for self
2. leftover Tetrazzini
3. smoked pork shoulder w/ Pineapple Barbecue Sauce w/ side salad
4. Garlic Stuffed Petite Tender w/ Salad Out due to illness
5. Pasta Bolognese w/ garlic bread
6. Chicken Congee w/ side salad w/ Ginger Dressing
7. Greek Chicken Salad w/ pita

It’s so strange to be writing an actual meal plan after the last two weeks.  But I am home again and meals must be planned so that they can be consumed. 

This week is planned around the meats in the freezer and meals 3, 4, and 5 will use some of those.  I thought about planning lamb one night, but we really like lamb best when it’s grilled and this week’s weather is not grill friendly regardless of what Art thinks.  In the meantime, he’ll be smoking up a pork shoulder for meal 3 and everything else will be cooked inside. 

Thankfully I had gotten all caught up with blogging before last week’s vacation, because I now have 13 restaurant reviews to post…

1-5. A&G: Out, L: fends for self
6-7. L&G: Out, A: fends for self

Last week I warned you that this week’s meals would make you laugh.  And here is the grand meal plan!  Nice, eh? 

Art and I are going to Williamsburg, VA for an awesome vacation that will span meals 1 through 5.  I have about 20 restaurants bookmarked but we haven’t made a single plan or reservation.  It’s pretty awesome!  I can’t wait. 

Then, within 12 hours of getting home, Lance and I are hoping on a plane to Orlando, FL to work at an event.  I do have reservations at Emeril’s Tchoup Chop that I hope we’ll be able to make for meal 6.  (Lance and I ate there with friends during a very cold Florida winter in 2008 and we’re looking forward to revisiting!)

I’m sure that, after a week of eating out, I will be greatly looking forward to cooking again when I get home!

1. Appetizer Day – Sausage Balls w/ Bacon Horseradish Cheddar Cheese Ball w/ Pepperoni Pizza Puffs w/ Beef Nachos w/ Black Bean Hummus w/ Crispy Polenta Triangles with Herbed Goat Cheese w/ crackers and pita chips
2. Brian Over – Chicken Shawarma w/ Tomato Relish w/ Tahini Sauce w/ Tabbouleh w/ pita
3. Tetrazzini
4. Chicken Tikka Masala w/ rice
5. Red Stroganoff Sauce w/ ground beef w/ rice
6-7. A&G: Out, L: fends for self

I have the week planned early this time!  I’ve got next week “planned” too, in fact.  You’ll laugh when you see my amazing planning skills. 

This week is sort of a weird one.  My take on my family’s traditional Junk Food Day for New Year’s Day is Appetizer Day.  We each picked a few appetizers and then I made the final selection of six.  We’ll be grazing on those appetizers as the day progresses.  Lots of yumminess. 

For meal 2, our good friend Brian will be coming over and I’m going to attempt to recreate the Lebanese feast we had with my parents on the 23rd.  I’m looking forward to getting these (recipes made at home so I can share the (recipes with all of you and get some pictures taken.  I just hope I can find the bulgar called for in the Tabbouleh recipe! 

The rest of the week, all three meals of it, are for stocking the fridge and freezer with Lance’s favorites since Art and I will be gone for an ENTIRE week of vacation to Williamsburg, VA.  This is very exciting, but I need to ensure that Lance won’t resort to delivery too often while I’m gone. 

Lots of cooking this week and all of it good.  Here’s hoping 2012 is grand for all of us.

1-3. Christmas and Out! 4. Mom’s Chicken w/ Amatriciana
5. Salmon in Spicy Garlic Tomato Sauce w/ Less Than Salad
6. White Chicken Chili w/ rice
7. Cilantro Crusted Roast Beef Sandwiches with Cilantro-Horseradish Pesto

This week is very late due to our holiday travel and it’s also not complete due to my laziness – I need to check what meat is in the freezer for planning meal 7 but I can’t be bothered to do it right now.  I’ll plan that meal later in the week and add it once I do!  This will be a week of many grocery trips. 

Meal 4 is my go to meal – the meal I know all the ingredients for off the top of my head and can throw together on my first day home from a trip before meals are planned.  Meals 5 and 6 are from my Google bookmarks and meal 7 will involve some sort of cow from the freezer. 

I’ve already started thinking about next week even though this week isn’t even complete.  New Years Day will involve many appetizers, since that’s my take on Junk Food Day.  The following day we’ve got company coming so I plan to do the Lebanese feast (recipes that my mom and I made over the Christmas holiday together so that I can share them with you.  Then I’ll be doing a lot of cooking to stock the larders for Lance because Art and I will be on vacation just the two of us for the following week! 

I’ve still got quite a backlog of new (recipes to post, but life in 2012 should be significantly calmer than life in 2011.  (Knock on wood.)

Fun times!