Weekly Meal Plans

Menu 10/23/2011

1. Bacon Burgers with Bacon Onion Balsamic Jam w/ Cheater Mustard Greens w/ Spicy Potato Wedges
2. Leftover Night
3. taco salad
4. Salmon and Quinoa with Toasted Seeds
5. scrambled eggs w/ Potato Bacon Casserole
6. Greek Grilled Chicken Salad Sandwiches
7. Smoked Pork Ribs w/ Slow Cooker Baked Beans Postponed due to weather: burgers w/ roasted potatoes

This is an exciting week to plan food because I’ve got this new freezer full of meat with which to plan!  Expect to see lots of ground beef in the weeks to come, since I’ve got 120 pounds of it to use in the next year.  That averages out to over two pounds a week!  This week I’ll be using it in meals 1 and 3.  Meal 7 will also be using meat from the freezer. 

Meals 1, 3, and 6 will be using produce from our most recent trip to the farmers market, and the rest of the meals are just (recipes that I’ve been wanting to cook. 

It should be a tasty week in food.  And next week will bring experiments in bacon!

Menu 10/16/2011

1. Carbonnade w/ BBQ Potatoes
2. Leftover Night
3. Chicken Tetrazzini w/ Cheater Greens (mustard greens)
4. Weird Al! – breakfast for dinner (hashbrowns, eggs, bacon, etc.)
5. L: Out, G&A: burritos w/ Thai Peanut Sauce
6. L: Out, G&A: Peanut Noodles with Chicken and Vegetables
7. L: Out, G&A: Out to Vermilion some place local
Lunch: Caprese Panzanella

This was a very easy meal plan to throw together.  Meals 1 and 3 are holdovers from previous weeks.  Meal 4 is super simple easy on the stomach pre-concert fare.  Then it was a matter of “(recipes that involve peanut butter” and date night with Art in Alexandria for the meals when Lance will be out of town. 

Super easy and all delicious.

Menu 10/9/2011

1. Carbonnade w/ BBQ Potatoes Out
2. Leftover Night Baked Cavatappi with Chicken in a Pesto Cream Sauce
3. Chicken and Green Chile Mac and Cheese
4. Les Miserables! - breakfast for dinner
5. Chicken Tetrazzini Out at Zekiah! We took Brisket, Coleslaw, and Cheesy Garlic Biscuits 6. Nacho Beef Skillet
7. Spaghetti Pie

This is not a super exciting meal plan.  I’ve got bronchitis.  Meal 1 is a holdover from last week because we ended up getting take out since I wasn’t feeling up to cooking.  I’m hopeful that all the meals I have planned will end up getting cooked this week, but it’ll be a lot of playing things by ear, I’m sure.  I’ve got a lot of large/easily doubled casserole type things so, in theory, when I do cook, I’ll be able to generate lots of food for other meals as well.

Menu 10/2/2011

1. G&L: Out, A: Fends for himself
2. Leftover Night
3. Turkey Club Casserole w/ green salad
4. grilled burgers w/ Sweet Potato Fries w/ Aioli 5. Rabbit Ragout
6. Baked Cavatappi with Chicken in a Pesto Cream Sauce Postponed until next week
7. Carbonnade w/ BBQ Potatoes Postponed until next week
Lunch: Caprese White Bean Salad

This is probably the speediest meal plan I’ve ever thrown together.  All due to the arrival of a great new cookbook last week!  Meals 3, 5, and 6 all come from Emeril Lagasse’s new cookbook: Sizzling Skillets and Other One-Pot Wonders.  While I am not a fan of his shows filled with all of his catch phrases, I have never cooked an Emeril recipe which I haven’t enjoyed.  My dishwasher is also a fan of one-pot meals.  I’m excited to be planning meals from cookbooks again now that the market season is wrapping up and I’m thrilled to have such an inspiring cookbook to get started with! 

The other meals for the week are planned around Art’s market haul (meals 4, 7, and the lunch recipe) and I’m also hoping to put a dent into our freezer stores with meals 3 and 7. 

It should be a great week in food here and a busy week of playing catch up with blogging.  I’ve got a Recipe Roundup post to make for the month, quite a few new (recipes, and at least five Restaurant Review posts to make, including a write up of the amazing meal Lance and I had at Morimoto while in Philadelphia!  Busy, busy.  Welcome October!

Menu 9/25/2011

1. Chicken Breasts with Tomato-Herb Pan Sauce w/ Cheesy Baked Gnocchi
2. Leftover Night
3. Skillet Stroganoff
4. smoked turkey w/ Cheesy Potato and Broccoli Bake
5. random steaks w/ Butternut Squash Orzotto w/ Sundried Tomato Butter
6. G&L: Morimoto!!!!!, A: Fends for himself
7. G&L: Out, A: Fends for himself

This is a busy, busy week for me. Meal 2 is a choir night, hence the leftovers, meal 3 I’ve got an alto sectional for choir, and meal 4 I’ve got Zumba class.  Then I’ll be out of town for meals 6, 7, and 1 of next week!  Meals 3 and 4 are easy meals that I can do quickly or, in the case of the Smoked Turkey, which Art will be handling. 

Meals 1 and 4 are designed to use up the tomatoes and potatoes that I picked up at the market this week. 

The big excitement in food for this week is due to a weekend event in Philadelphia that Lance and I will be working at.  I remembered a few days ago that Morimoto was in Philly and I’ve wanted to go there for years.  I’m thrilled to be getting the chance!

Menu 9/18/2011

1. Balsamic Sirloin Tip Roast w/ Balsamic Roasted Brussels Sprouts
2. Leftover Night
3. Green Chicken Enchilada Casserole
4. Baked Salmon with White Wine Dill Sauce w/ Pea and Lemon Risotto
5. random steaks w/ Butternut Squash Orzotto w/ Sundried Tomato Butter Out
6. Chicken Tikka Masala w/ rice w/ Samosa Cups w/ peach chutney
7. Baked Ham with Brown Sugar Mustard Glaze w/ Pineapple Stuffing w/ Salad
Snacks: Kale Chips, Sweet Pork Jerky

Aside from missing an ingredient for the Sweet Pork Jerky and therefore skipping it, last week’s meal plan went as planned!  Yay!  It seems like the first time in a while that we’ve adhered to a meal plan! 

This week’s plan revolves around meats in the freezer (meals 1, 5, and 7) plus the vegetables we picked up at the farmers market (meals 5, 6, and the Kale Chips).  It’s a fairly straightforward week and I’m looking forward to it.  Maybe next week I’ll be ready to pull out a cookbook.  Wouldn’t that be something?

Menu 9/11/2011

1. random grilled steaks w/ Slow Cooker Creamed Corn
2. Pigs in Blankets w/ Easier French Fries w/ Belgian-Style Dipping Sauce
3. Leftover Night
4. Sausage Stars w/ More Than Salad, revisited
5. Pineapple Teriyaki Glazed Salmon w/ rice w/ sautéed broccoli
6. Slow Cooker Creamy Tacos w/ taco fixings 7. Grilled Pesto Butter Chicken w/ tomatoes and mozzarella w/ Basil Vinaigrette
Snack: Sweet Pork Jerky

This week has a few holdovers from last week.  Meal 1 is from last week because I remembered we needed a leftover night, meal 6 is from last week because Art convinced us to order out, and the chicken from meal 7 is a holdover because there was too much rain to grill a chicken and I had to bake chicken in the oven instead for that meal last week. 

This menu is pretty straight forward.  It’s got a good mixture of old (recipes and new (recipes.  I’ll be using up local produce in meals 2 and 7.  I’ll be using meat from the freezer in meals 1, 2, 4, and 7.  In addition, Art will be able to get his grill on twice, much to his delight.  Lots of great food to look forward to this week, I’m glad I’m getting back into the swing of cooking.

Menu 9/4/2011

1. Smoked Brisket w/ Creamy Horseradish Potato Salad 2. Butter Poached Tilapia w/ rice
3. random grilled steaks w/ Slow Cooker Creamed Corn I forgot we needed a leftover night!
4. Moroccan Chicken w/ Quinoa with Squash, Garbanzo Beans, and Cumin 5. Slow Cooker Creamy Chicken Tacos w/ taco fixings Out - after dragging Art to Lowes for wood, in the rain, he felt he deserved stromboli :)
6. Grilled Pesto Butter Chicken w/ Pomodoro Fresco Pasta Salad w/ Baked Pesto Chicken (Changed due to immense amounts of rain.)
7. Pork and Broccoli Stir-Fry with Ginger and Hoisin Sauce w/ rice
Lunch: Mediterranean Chickpea Salad

Last week mostly went as planned.  Meal 2 this week is a holdover from last week due to various things, but the rest of last week went well enough.  I’m hoping that I can continue the trend during this week since I’ve got quite a few new and exciting (recipes planned for us. 

Art is home and, as always, he wants to grill as often as I’ll let him.  The weather report doesn’t look like it will be too compliant with his wishes, but meals 1, 3, and 6 all involve Art grilling. 

I’m slowly working on decreasing the amount of meats we’ve got in the freezers and this week only two meals use meat from the grocery store.  Not too bad for my goal!  Before too long I hope to get the turkey smoked because it’s a weird shape that takes up quite a bit of space.  Meal 3 is planned to use up a few of the “one of” steaks we’ve gotten from the meat CSA the past many weeks. 

I’m trying not to think too hard about the ridiculous backlog of blog posts I have right now.  I need to start plugging away at them – restaurant reviews, (recipes, and local food posts galore!

Menu 8/28/2011

1. G&L: Out, A: Fends for himself
2. Out
3. Leftovers
4. Oven-Fried Coconut Chicken and Rice w/ sautéed broccoli
5. Butter Poached Tilapia w/ rice Moved to next week.  Changed to Out instead. 
6. eggs to order w/ hashbrowns
7. Southwestern Spaghetti

This meal plan is super late due to travel and health issues.  Thankfully I’m done with travel until December and working to resolve the health issues.  There isn’t a lot of excitement in this week’s meal plan as a result, but hopefully we’ll have some tasty meals.

Menu 8/21/2011

1. grilled burgers or hotdogs w/ Lumpe or rolls w/ Sweet Potato Fries w/ Aioli
2. Mom’s Chicken w/ Amatriciana
3. Four Meat Pizza Casserole
4. Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken w/ rolls w/ something green like a salad
5-7. G&L: Out! A: fend for himself

This summer has truly been the summer of suck for me in terms of health.  Last week’s meal plan was largely ignored in favor of take away and this week’s plan revolves around “really easy.”  My ever-awesome SIL answered my plea for easy food to cook with her recipe for BBQ Chicken and the rest of the meals are easy things from my collection. 

We skipped the market today, first time all season, I hope our farmer friends don’t worry.  Meal 1 uses produce from last week and is dependent on whether or not the potatoes are still good.  If they are still good, it will be hot dogs and Lumpe.  If they’re not, it will be burgers with buns. 

I have a huge backlog of posts to make, since I have been neglecting my blog quite a bit due to my health.  I’m hopeful that I’ll be right as rain after this weekend’s trip so I can get back to regular posting.  Of course, I’d also like to get back to regular cooking at some point… I have so many cookbooks calling to me!