Weekly Meal Plans

1. grilled burgers w/ Fries w/ Ketchup Aioli (prepare as usual then stir in ¹⁄₄ cup ketchup) w/ Zucchini Sticks
2. grilled flank steak w/ Chimichurri w/ Balsamic Potato and Zucchini Casserole
3. Slow Cooker Corned Beef w/ Frizzled Cabbage
4. Enchiladas
5. Chicken Quesadillas
6. Out
7. Out

The meal planning challenges for this week are all scheduling challenges.  Art is home all week, yay!  Lance and I are out of town at the end of the week.  College and choir both start this week.  Our great friend Brian was over for meal 1 which meant I also got to plan an appetizer to have as a midday munchie. 

Meals 1 and 2 take advantage of Art’s desire to grill Every Single Day.  Both of those meals also use up a fair amount of produce from the market. 

Choir night is going to become the week’s leftover night from here on out, but this week, due to being gone at the end of the week, I didn’t want to deplete leftovers and leave Art with nothing.  Not only am I making a big batch of Chicken Enchiladas to sate him while I’m gone, but I’ll also be making Quesadillas as an easy before choir meal on choir night.  I guess the tradition of choir night as leftover night will just have to wait for next week. 

I guess the other big goal at the moment is “do not buy meat.”  Aside from the half cow, there is quite a bit of meat in the freezers and I’m trying hard to deplete it in order to make room for the forthcoming half pig.  If I’m diligent in planning, this should only take a few weeks.  The only meat I had to buy this week was a package of chicken for the Enchiladas. 

I feel like I’ve been pretty spastic and unfocused with meal planning this summer.  I’m hoping that the scheduled life school requires will help me to get back on track.

1. Out
2. Out
3. Mom’s Chicken w/ Pasta Caprese 4. White Cheddar Chicken Pasta
5. turkey w/ Stuffing
6. Out Taco Salad!
7. Chicken Vesuvio I slept through dinner, therefore it did not get cooked.

I really do not even want to think about how far behind I am at this point with blogging efforts.  I have two restaurant reviews left from Indianapolis and a whole slew of (recipes that need to be posted.  Will I ever catch up? 

In the meantime, this week was sort of cobbled together without much rhyme or reason.  A dear friend of ours lost her battle with cancer over the weekend so most of my planning skills have gone out the window while I wait for information around which to plan.  I’m trying to keep things on the menu that don’t heavily rely on fresh ingredients, so if plans change suddenly and I have to travel, nothing will spoil due to not being cooked. 

Meal 4 is a holdover from last week’s menu.  Meal 3 exists solely to use the gorgeous tomatoes I picked up at Pete’s Produce in West Chester, PA. Meal 5 is to begin the process of reducing what’s in the chest freezer to make way for the upcoming half pig, and meal 7 is because Chicken Vesuvio is one of the most popular (recipes on mangeratrois.net and I’d like to make it again to be able to update the picture.

One of these days I will get back on track with cooking all 7 dinners in a week, but that day is not today.

1. Chicken Parmesan
2. Slow Cooker BBQ Shredded Beef Sandwiches w/ Sweet Potato Fries w/ Aioli
3. White Cheddar Chicken Pasta (We had way too many leftovers, so we had leftovers instead.)
4. Four Meat Pizza Casserole
5. Out
6. Out
7. Out

This week is unusually short due to a night of celebration and a trip to visit my parents.  But Art is home all week so I’m sure the week will fly entirely too fast.  I don’t really have any goals this week because, well, I’m feeling goalless in general.  My main goal for the week is just working on getting back into the swing of real life.  Meals 2 and 4 will use some of the awesome meat from our half cow.  I’ve also started talking with a local farmer about the possibility of getting a half pig in the future. 

Life is good.

1. grilled burgers w/ Sweet Potato Fries w/ Aioli
2. Baked Angel Hair with Eggplant
3. Ham and Cheese Macaroni Bake with Peas
4. Asian Salmon w/ Ginger Green Rice
5. Slow Cooker Coconut Beef w/ rice Changed to leftovers which was then changed to Chipotle
6. Grilled Chicken w/ Creamy Potato Salad
7. Chicken Parmesan Moved to next week due to company.  Changed to Eye Round Roast w/ Horseradish Cream Sauce w/ Parmesan Zucchini w/ Garlic and Olive Oil Mashed Potatoes

I am so happy to be home and cooking again.  No matter how delicious food is at fantastic Indianapolis restaurants, there’s nothing like home cooked food. 

I had a few goals with meal planning this week.  The first was indulging in Art’s desire to grill so we’re doing burgers for meal 1 and chicken for meal 6.  Another goal was to use vegetables.  Those are mainly in meals 1, 2, and 6.  The rest of the meals are a combination of (recipes from my delicious bookmarks and (recipes that need new pictures. 

It should be a fantastic week.  I’ve also got a lot of cow, but that will be in a forthcoming article.  Once I get the SD card out of my camera.  It’s like ten whole feet away from me.  Entirely too far.

1. Out
2. Out
3. Leftover Tetrazzini
4. Oven-Fried Coconut Chicken and Rice w/ broccoli
5. Out
6. Out
7. Grilled things - steak, corn, and veggies w/ Rice Cooker Jasmine Bell Pepper Rice

This is a super exciting meal plan, eh?  Lance and I got home late Monday night after entirely too long on the road.  I’ll be posting a number of restaurant review posts in the days to come.  On Tuesday night we enjoyed some tetrazzini from the freezer and Wednesday night is a meal that I had planned for the week before we left. 

I’d be happy to continue the week with home cooked foods, but I’ve got dinner out with some friends on Thursday and then the three of us will be satisfying my craving for Chinese food on Friday’s dinner.  Hopefully inspiration for Saturday’s dinner will hit at some point between now and Saturday…

And then, finally, it will be back to normal with eating at home every day!  The trip was good, but being home is always better. 

The big excitement that this week holds is Cow Day on Friday.  We’ll be picking up our half cow and I can’t wait!

1. Nacho Beef Skillet
2. Chicken Sancoche
3. Skillet Carbonara Casserole
4. Oven-Fried Coconut Chicken and Rice w/ broccoli We ate out instead due to the upcoming trip.

A four-day week? What is this madness? Well, you see, I’m going away for TWELVE DAYS. I still haven’t really wrapped my brain around this fact but it’s true and I leave, with Lance, for points west on Thursday. Hopefully I’ll have some good restaurant articles for Indianapolis, IN and Columbus, OH to post when I return!

I’ve stocked the freezer with delicious leftovers for Art, so I hope he won’t have to resort to ordering pizza while I’m gone. He’s got tetrazzini, lasagna, and quiche to sate his appetite.

Since I’m going to be pretty busy between now and Thursday I’ve opted for some tried and true (recipes that I haven’t made in a while to keep things easy. I’m also planning on baking some cookies, making some fudge, and baking some zucchini bread, so I’ll be busy in the kitchen.

I’m also going to do my best to catch up on all the blogging I still need to do so that I don’t have a backlog waiting for me when I get back home.

Happy eating :)

1. Slow Cooker Char Siu w/ Green Onion Pancakes
2. Chicken and Dumplings
3. Chicken with Tarragon Sauce Mom’s Chicken w/ Au Gratin Potatoes 4. Sloppy Joes
5. Chicken Tetrazzini
6. Leftovers
7. Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken

Also made last week:
Peach Crisp

I have a very large backlog of articles to post and I apologize for that.  During the past week I’ve learned that cooking, eating, and even thinking about food when I’m sick is a pretty big drag.  It’s a bummer to cook something new and exciting only to be unable to taste it because of unhappy tastebuds! 

My goal for this week is simple: Feel Better.  To achieve this goal I’ve selected tried, true, and easy favorites for our meals.  The two exceptions are meal 1, which is from another blogger’s recent post, and meal 3, which is a holdover from last week. 

Here’s hoping I’ll be feeling right as rain again in no time!

1. Leftovers
2. Broiled Salmon with Fresh Tomato Salsa w/ Golden Summer Squash with Dill and Chèvre
3. Marjoram Chicken w/ Heirloom Tomato and Bacon Salad
4. Out: Wow Café and Wingery
5. Chicken with Tarragon Sauce w/ Au Gratin Potatoes Out, again, sigh. 
6. Chicken with Goat Cheese Sauce w/ Penne with Roasted Grape Tomatoes and Fresh Basil
7. Chicken Fajita Casserole

I’m still not reaching my goal of using a cookbook each week in planning.  In my defense, I was sick last week.  Then Art and Lance also got sick.  My creativity is pretty much non-existent.  I did achieve a few other goals with meal planning – use up all the veggies and NO COW.  I am so cowed out right now! 

Since I didn’t want to deal with a cookbook this week I turned to delicious instead.  Most of the meals include a recipe from my bookmarks.  It should be a tasty, and hopefully easy, week of cooking here.

1. Italian Ziti Bake
2. Grilled Fajitas w/ Spanish rice
3. Out: Smith and Wollensky 4. Coq au Vin w/ egg noodles
5. Southwest Asian Grilled Flank Steak w/ Tempura Squash w/ Tempura Dipping Sauce
6. Smoked Brisket w/ Loaded Smashed Potatoes w/ Caprese Pie 7. Hearty Meat Lasagna w/ salad w/ garlic bread
Tomato and Cucumber Salad (with chickpeas?)
Super Omega 3 Granola Bars
Zucchini Bread

Art is home this week!  All week!  Wooo!  He requested that we smoke the brisket we picked up a few weeks ago at the farmers market, so that’s what meal 6 is planned around.  We’ve got a friend coming over for the Monday holiday and meal 2.  We’ll also be grilling for meal 5 which is a holdover from last week due to me forgetting to turn the fridge back on after cleaning it.  Oops. 

The rest of the week is planned to update pictures for previously posted (recipes and to use up all of the market veggies.  Not a lot of new (recipes this week I’m afraid.  We’ll also be going out for dinner this week to celebrate life, so look forward to a restaurant review article!

1. Bacon Swiss Quiche
2. Marinated Pan-Seared Eye Round Steaks w/ Roasted Beet Risotto
3. Pasta with Sicilian Green Tomato Sauce w/ Baked Italian Chicken
4. Spicy Teriyaki Glazed Salmon with Cucumber-Green Onion Relish w/ rice
5. Gnocchi with Mushroom-Bacon Sauce
6. Szechwan Eggplant and Pork Stir-Fry w/ rice
7. Southwest Asian Grilled Flank Steak w/ Tempura Squash w/ Tempura Dipping Sauce We ordered pizza because I forgot to turn the fridge back on after cleaning it and then didn’t want to risk eating the flank steak.  Sigh.
Super Omega 3 Granola Bars Art is home next week, so I’ll be making them while he’s home for tasting. 
Zucchini Bread I didn’t have enough squash for bread after the aforementioned fridge incident. 

Last week didn’t go quite as planned. Lance and I ended up running around all day on Wednesday and then decided to eat out instead of cooking due to being out so late.  I still feel like I got back on track with cooking, 6 days out of 7 is acceptable and this week, hopefully, I’ll get 7 days out of 7. 

I’m still working on using up the bounty of vegetables from the market.  I have a ton of squash at the moment and I haven’t been very good at keeping on top of it yet.  I hope to rectify that a bit with some zucchini bread baking.  I’m also going to tempura fry a bunch of squash for meal 7.  Hopefully this will get me back to manageable levels of summer squash.  Market vegetables feature in every meal this week. 

I didn’t do a great job of using new cookbooks this week, but meal 3 features a recipe from Fresh from the Farmers’ Market.  I’ll also be updating pictures for (recipes in meals 1, 2, 6, and 7.