Weekly Meal Plans

1. Seriously Seasoned Rice
2. Taco Pasta Casserole
3. Sloppy Joes Moved to next week due to scheduling issues.
4. Chicken Parmesan
5-7. G&L-Out, A-Leftovers

This will be a short cooking week for me because Lance and I are going to be in Atlanta for a long weekend.  Sadly, we’ll be working, but we are hoping to fit in a trip to Woodfire Grill.  I’m a huge Kevin Gillespie fan, so this is very exciting! 

My only real plan for this week was “make big meals” so that we’ll have enough for lunches and to stock the larder for Art while Lance and I are out of town.  I’ll be at least doubling all of the (recipes I’m making and maybe tripling the recipe for Chicken Parmesan just because Art loves it so much. 

The following week is when life will get back to normal.  Or the new normal.  Whatever that is…

1. Herb Rubbed Sirloin Tip Roast, Garlic Butter Roasted Mushrooms, French Onion Casserole
2. Gwen&Lance-Crispy Oven-Fried Cod w/ Lemon Wine Butter Sauce w/ Parmesan Garlic Roasted Potatoes, Art-leftovers
3. Cheeseburger Pie
4. Spice-Crusted Grilled Pork Tenderloin w/ Chantilly Potatoes
5. Gwen-out, Art&Lance-leftovers
6. BLT Pasta
7. Deviled Chicken w/ Tomato Mac and Cheese

Yet again, it feels entirely too early to be planning meals.  I blame this on the fact that this week has felt largely like a week of vacation.  Lance’s classes don’t start for another week and Art has been working from home.  Time doesn’t move in quite the same way when we’re all home all day. 

Last week’s meal plan went mostly as planned until the end of the week, and then I realized we had a huge amount of leftovers so meal 7 from last week got bumped forward to be meal 1 of this week.  I blame this on the existence of lunch meat which meant a few lunch meals, which normally consist of leftovers, ended up being sandwiches instead. 

I turned to the newest Cook’s Country Annual for meal planning this week.  Meals 4, 6, and 7 all use (recipes from that tome.  Meals 2 and 3 are from my delicious bookmarks.  All new (recipes this week, what fun!

1. ham, Pineapple Stuffing, Green Bean Casserole #3
2. Creamy Chicken Picasso w/ pasta
3. smoked pig w/ Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes
4. Salmon with Balsamic Rosemary Onions w/ rice
5. Strip Steaks with Balsamic Cream Sauce w/ Rice Pilaf with Vermicelli and Mushrooms
6. Slow Cooker Corned Beef w/ Frizzled Cabbage w/ rye bread
7. Herb Rubbed Sirloin Tip Roast, Garlic Butter Roasted Mushrooms, French Onion Casserole Changed to leftovers due to having too many leftovers!

It feels entirely too early to work on next week’s menu even though it’s already Saturday.  What a short week this has been due to out of town travel for Christmas.  But Saturday it is and I must plan for the week to come. 

The coming week is a grand one.  Art is local all week!  How exciting!  I’m also going to need to get the hang of cooking enough food for all three of us, not just for dinners but for leftover-based lunches as well.  My tentative idea is that I should make a casserole type meal that is easily doubled early in the week to ensure good lunches for the rest of the week, but we’ll see how it goes. 

Meal 1 is our annual Ham Feast.  While I do like ham, I’m happy to have it just once or twice a year.  We’ll be having company over to share it and I’ll be attempting a semi-new recipe for Green Bean Casserole. 

Meal 7 is my excuse to make the delicious side dishes we had with my parents over Christmas.  I’m not sure what I’ve got in the way of roasts in the freezer, but I’m sure something will suffice. 

Meal 3 is due to Art’s request to grill something.  I don’t know what he’ll pick, but I’m sure it will be tasty. 

I’m going to attempt to do fish night for meal 4 – Art is hoping to do Aikido which means Lance and I can enjoy fish while he’s gone. 

The new (recipes from this week’s plan come from my delicious bookmarks and the newest Cook’s Country Annual.  I’m looking forward to trying out some new taste sensations! 

Happy New Year Everyone :)

1-3. Out
4. Quesadillas w/ Pico de Gallo
5. Pork Sausage Pasta
6. Chicken Enchiladas
7. Junk Food Day 2011! (Deviled Eggs, Black Bean Hummus, Cheddar Bacon Horseradish Cheese Ball, Sesame Chicken Nuggets, Beef Nachos)

After a long and relaxing holiday, I’m back home and feeling completely unmotivated to plan meals.  Sadly, it must be done.  Thankfully it’s a relatively short week.  Everything in meals 4-6 was selected for ease of preparation. 

Meal 7, New Year’s Day, is Junk Food Day, a tradition we seem to have skipped last year.  When I was a kid, Junk Food Day was the one day of the year my brother and I could pick whatever horribly unhealthy foods we wanted to eat.  This has evolved into me making a bunch of munchy foods that we can graze upon all day.  I haven’t figured out the entire menu to ring in the new year, but I’m sure the rest will be tasty.  I might pick up some lunchmeat and bread so we can supplement the appetizers with sandwiches. 

Christmas was lovely as far as food went (and as far as everything else went as well)!  We had our traditional Christmas dinner of grilled filet mignon, French onion casserole, roasted mushrooms, and other delicious things.  Once my brother arrived we enjoyed a black bean lasagna that was fantastic.  Lots of good food and good times with family!  (I must do some sort of cow roast in the near future so I have an excuse to cook and post some of these (recipes.)

And this concludes my last meal plan of 2010.

1. Chicken and Mushroom Fricassee w/ egg noodles
2. Meatballs w/ spaghetti and sauce
3. Baked Italian Chicken w/ Lemon Broccoli Risotto
4-7. Out
Extra: Pumpkin Bread

I’m not home very much this week due to the holidays so I haven’t got a lot of room for planning.  Meal 1 is a holdover from last week, since we had to eat emergency pizza due to inability to get to the store.  (I keep a few frozen Freschetta pizzas in the freezer for just this reason.)  Meals 2 and 3 are tried and true (recipes that won’t take too much brain power when I’m preoccupied with everything else going on. 

At some point I’ll be baking Pumpkin Bread for the holidays.  I might bake a few other things but inspiration has yet to strike. 

Happy holidays to all!  I should be back to semi-regular posting in a week or so.

1. Manicotti w/ Garlic Toast
2. Chicken and Mushroom Fricassee w/ egg noodles changed to emergency pizza
3. Pan Seared Cod with Herb Butter Sauce w/ Garlicky Oven Fries
4. Creamy Skillet Penne with Sausage and Broccoli
5. Out - Choir Party
6. Tacos!
7. Creamy Chicken Taquitos w/ Pico de Gallo

A week where I get to cook almost every night!  How wonderful and something I need to take advantage of since I won’t have another such week until January.  I can’t believe that it’s almost January… I’m super excited about Christmas vacation even though I feel like I’ve got a million and one things that need to be accomplished between now and then. 

Meal planning this week was enjoyable.  Meal 1 is a holdover from back in November so it will be nice to finally get the chance to clear that one out of my files.  It’s from the 2009 Cook’s Country Annual.  Meals 2, 3, and 4 are all from the 2008 Cook’s Country Annual.  I enjoy these annuals so much and they’re just so easy to turn to for meal planning.  Most of the (recipes fall squarely within my comfort zone.  This is probably a habit I should work on breaking in the new year in order to challenge myself a bit more. Meal 7 is from my delicious bookmarks. 

Meals 1, 4, and 6 will help make a dent in the freezers full of meat. 

Later on this week I’m going to attempt to figure out what baking, if any, I want to do to take to my parents’ for Christmas.  Pumpkin Bread has been suggested, but Pumpkin Bread is always suggested so it’s sort of a no brainer.

1. Out of Town
2. Enchiladas
3. Leftovers/Out for choir
4. Teriyaki Glazed Salmon with Cucumber-Green Onion Relish
5. Leftovers/Out for choir
6. Out due to choir concert
7. Breakfast: eggs to order, Bread, jams. Dinner: Lamb Burgers, Cucumber Yogurt Sauce, Falafel

This is not a very exciting meal plan I’m afraid.  This is the week of my choir concert so we’ll be doing leftovers or eating out for three of the seven evenings.  Hopefully the excitement of the meals I am cooking will make up for all the meals I won’t be cooking!

1. Turkey Tetrazzini
2. Bacon Swiss Quiche
3. Salmon with Couscous, Tomatoes, and Lemon Oregano Oil
4. Pork Sausage Pasta
5. Leftovers for Choir
6-7. Out of Town
Extra: Chicken Enchiladas

The next few weeks are unusual weeks for me due to some travel, my choir concert, and then Christmas vacation.  I’ll be trying to cook dinner whenever possible, but some days it will just not be possible. 

Meal 1 for this week is our standard post-Thanksgiving dinner.  Delicious, delicious Tetrazzini.  I like the chicken variety just fine, but there’s something awesome about making it with leftover Thanksgiving turkey. 

The rest of the meals are pretty straightforward – meal 2 was chosen so I could update the picture and I’ll make two so that Art will be able to pull the second one from the freezer while I’m gone over the weekend to come.  Meals 3 and 4 are from delicious bookmarks. 

I’ll also be cooking up a batch of Chicken Enchiladas during the week so that Art can have those to tide him through the weekend as well! I’m not sure when I’ll have the time to make said enchiladas, but where there’s a will there’s a way.  I hope.

1. Smoked Pork Shoulder w/ Pineapple BBQ Sauce w/ Onion Rings
2. TBD, possibly leftover smoked pork w/ Turnip Potato Gratin
3. Mom’s Chicken w/ Green Tomato Pasta 4. Out
5. THANKSGIVING 6. Breakfast: Coffee Cake, scrambled eggs, grapefruit.  Dinner: Out
7. Breakfast: eggs to order, Almost No Knead Bread, various jams.  Dinner: Leftovers

I’m still filling out my meal plan for the week, but it’s almost complete so I figured I’d go ahead and post it now.  My goal this week is, apparently, to see how many grocery trips I can squeeze into the week.  I’ve already gone once for most of the Thanksgiving supplies, but I predict at least 2 more trips to follow. 

Meal 1 is so that Art can redeem himself from last week’s brisket.  Not that anyone other than Art thinks he needs redemption, but that’s okay, I’m not going to turned down delicious smoked meat!  Meals 2 and 3 are to use up some produce.  Meal 4 is out because I’ll be doing Thanksgiving prep all week and looking forward to the Thanksgiving Eve reprieve. 

And, of course, meal 5 is Thanksgiving.  The tastiest day of the year!

Almost No Knead Bread
Bread Machine White Bread High-Heat Roasted Turkey Apple-Raisin Bread Stuffing Green Bean Casserole Cream Cheese and Chive Mashed Potatoes Sweet Potato Casserole Pumpkin Bread Vanilla Ice Cream Pecan Pie Brownies

Yet again I feel like Thanksgiving has blindsided me!  Thankfully I tend to do the same thing each year so it’s never too scary.  I have made a few changes to the menu this year.  Dinner bread will be No Knead Bread this time and Lance made a request for brownies so Art offered up his Pumpkin Cheesecake in trade so that Lance could have brownies.  How generous! 

On Tuesday I’ll be doing the white bread in the machine because that bread will be used for the stuffing.  I’ll also bake the pumpkin bread, pecan pie, and brownies.  I’ll start the ice cream too.  I think I need to get the dough working for the no knead bread too, but I need to look at the recipe and think about timing for that.  I believe I’ll need to bake it Wednesday night since I won’t be able to bake it on Thursday morning.  I’m not entirely sure, though!

On Wednesday I’ll do the casserole prep.  Both the green bean casserole and sweet potato casseroles will be assembled and go into the fridge so they’ll be ready to go into the oven on Thursday. 

On Thursday morning the turkey goes in the oven, Art will help me prepare stuffing and mashed potatoes, and I’ll bake the casseroles once the turkey comes out of the oven. 

We have so many things to be thankful for this year!