Weekly Meal Plans

1. Grilled Flank Steak with Bacon Balsamic Glaze w/ Oven Fried Potatoes
2. Smoked Salmon Risotto
3. Slow Cooker Dijon Chicken with Artichoke Sauce w/ egg noodles
4. Lemon Chicken w/ rice w/ veggie
5. Leftovers
6. Beef Wellington w/salad Caesar Salad, Grilled Rib-Eye with Béarnaise Butter w/ Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Balsamic Candied Pecans
7. Chicken Piccata w/ Carbonara

Meals 2 and 3 are holdovers from last week’s menu.  Meals 1 and 4 are from my delicious bookmarks.  Meal 7 consists of things I love and haven’t had for entirely too long.  And meal 6 is from The New Basics Cookbook. 

Thursday is the day that I end up running around all over the county due to Lance’s classes and my choir.  Planning on having the time to cook is usually a recipe for failure (see last week), so this week I’m planning leftovers for choir night.  We should have plenty of them by then. 

I’ve also started to think ahead to next Sunday which will be a Game Day.  So far I’ve decided that I want to make Spinach Artichoke Dip but I haven’t had any inspiration yet for dinner that day. 

Have a scrumptious week!

Edit: Meal #6 was changed due to company coming over for dinner!  The originally planned Beef Wellington will be made next week.

1. tacos, Mexican rice from a box
2. Smoked Salmon Risotto Due to poor time management, we had Chipotle.
3. sautéed steak w/ Mustard Cream Pan Sauce w/ Nutty Barley Bake
4. Garlic Ginger Chicken w/ rice w/ veg
5. Slow Cooker Dijon Chicken with Artichoke Sauce w/ egg noodles After realizing we have way too much food in the fridge, this has been changed to leftovers. 
6. spaghetti w/ Meatballs w/ Crispy Garlic Bread
7. Chicken Breasts with Balsamic Vinegar and Garlic w/ rice w/ green salad

This week I planned my meals using my files, delicious, and the 2009 Cook’s Country Annual.  The week is fairly straightforward.  I’ve got two nights of choir which necessitate less time-consuming meals.  Those meals are 2 and 5.  The steak in meal 3 is dependent upon what I happen to have in the freezer.

I’m also going to be doing some experimentation with bread baking without the bread machine, so watch out for those (recipes. 

Have a delicious week!

1. Out
2. Mom’s Chicken w/ Cheesy Broccoli and Rice 3. Salmon with Lemon, Capers, and Rosemary w/ Farfalle with Broccoli
4. sautéed chicken w/ Pasta with Tomato and Almond Pesto
5. Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff
6. burgers w/ Bacon-Cheddar Potato Skins
7. Out

I was extremely distracted while trying to plan meals for this week.  First, I was tired.  Second, there was C-SPAN to watch.  So this week’s menu is rather “boring” – it’s lacking my usual slew of new (recipes to try. 

Since Art is gone during the week, I’m trying out another fish dish.  I’ve also got a slow cooker meal planned for the night I have choir, which will help free up some time on an otherwise busy evening.  In hopes of nice weather, I’ve got burgers planned for Friday.  I’d love to fire up the grill after a cold winter!

And, of course, meal 2 is a holdover from last week when I was unable to cook. 

I used the 2009 Cook’s Country Annual, the 2009 Cook’s Illustrated Annual, and delicious to help with my planning.

1. Herbed Roast Beef w/ Bacon and Egg Risotto 2. Tuna Stir-Fry with Cilantro and Lime w/ rice 3. Crispy Honey Chicken w/ rice w/ veggies of some sort 4. Spicy Spaghetti Pie
5. Mom’s Chicken w/ Cheesy Broccoli and Rice Casserole Changed to pizza due to non-functional wrists.
6. Out of Town
7. Out of Town
Pepparkakor (Made to share with friends over the weekend.) Chicken Piccata with added artichoke hearts Not made due to non-functional wrists.

In recent weeks I’ve been planning my meals with two cookbooks on hand but, this week, I opted to make a dent in the (recipes I’ve been bookmarking online.  I recently switched over to using delicious for bookmarking (recipes and it’s fantastic.  It makes everything so simple; I’m really not sure why I didn’t do this years ago!  Along with delicious, I found (recipes in the 2009 Cook’s Country Annual. 

Art will be gone for meals 2 through 5 this week, which will be standard for many weeks to come.  I’ll be gone for meals 6 and 7, but I’ll probably be cooking on Thursday to help stock the fridge with food for Art to eat – he just hadn’t picked what he wanted me to make at the time of posting.  Edit He has chosen Chicken Piccata!

Last week was a pretty rice-heavy week and this week looks like it will be as well.  I never intend for things to be this way, but it seems like it happens.  I’ll get all my meals together and then realize 5 out of 7 have pasta or some such.  This week it’s rice. 

Have a tasty week!

1. (Game Day) Orange Chicken w/ rice, Chocolate Wontons w/ Ginger Ice Cream
2. Fish Baked in Foil with Leeks and Carrots w/ Lemon Potatoes
3. Slow Cooker Coconut Beef w/ rice
4. Out
5. Leftovers (I ended up going out with friends to celebrate my birthday!  Much fun was had by all.)
6. Teriyaki Flank Steak with Green Onions w/ rice
7. Batter-Fried Chicken w/ Mediterranean Chopped Salad

I think I’m going to try to break the habit of declaring weeks “normal” since it seems like normality varies with the phase of the moon.  Normal or not, this week is a pretty straightforward one.  Art will be gone for meals 2, 3, 4, and 5 due to business travel.  Meals 3 and 5 are designed to be easy to accommodate choir practices. 

The fish used in meal 2 is dependent upon what my store has in stock. 

Meal 4 is the rare dinner out, since it’s the day I file taxes and eating out afterward is something of a tradition.  We have plans to try out a new Japanese place in town. 

We’ve also got a Game Day this week and a few of our gamers are bringing egg rolls and I’m doing other Chinese food to go along with that.

I used the 2009 Cook’s Country Annual and the 2009 Cook’s Illustrated Annual for the new recipes of the week.

1. French Pork and White Bean Casserole 2. Maple-Glazed Pork Tenderloin w/ Sour Cream and Onion Smashed Potatoes 3. Roast Lemon Chicken w/ Pasta alla Norma 4. Slow Cooker Red Beans and Rice
5. Beef Enchilada Casserole 6. Leftovers
7. Steak and Bacon Tournedos and Béarnaise Sauce w/ Easier French Fries and Belgian-Style Dipping Sauce Baked Potato Soup I’ve given up on this happening for a while since we keep ending up with plenty of food without the addition of soup!

This is an exciting week!  Art is home all week for the first time in at least a month.  How fantastic!  I asked him if he had any special requests, but he just wants “good home-cooked food.”  That, I can do. 

I turned to the 2009 Cook’s Illustrated Annual and the 2009 Cook’s Country Annual for inspiration.  And, since our butcher is finally stocking flank steak again, I’ll finally be able to make the Steak and Bacon Tournedos I’ve wanted to make since November! 

I’m also planning to finally get this Baked Potato Soup made, since it will be great to have for lunches with all of us home.  This will be a fantastic week.

1. (Game Day) Arancini, spaghetti w/ Meatballs w/ garlic bread, Black-Bottom Cupcakes
2. Swedish Meatballs w/ egg noodles w/ salad
3. Leftovers
4. Broiled Salmon with Potato Crust w/ sautéed broccoli
5. Leftovers
6. Marinated London Broil w/ Crisp Roasted Potatoes w/ salad
7. Mom’s Chicken w/ Baked Gnocchi with Tomato and Basil
Baked Potato Soup

Recently meals seem to be a combination of leftovers and recipes I’ve made before, so I haven’t had that many new recipes to share.  This week’s meal plan, however, has five new recipes!  Life is slowly getting back to normal for us, Art is able to be home again for weekends now that the snow is (knock on wood) gone.  I do have two nights of leftovers planned this week because a) we have a lot of leftovers and b) it’s easier on choir nights to skip the meal prep parts of dinner. 

I turned to the 2008 Cook’s Country Annual and the 2009 Cook’s Illustrated Annual for meal planning inspiration.  Those recipes feature in meals 2, 4, 6, and 7. 

Since we’re all going to be home this weekend and all of next week, I’m also planning to get around to making the Baked Potato Soup I had hoped to make last week.  We’re slowly making a dent in the food supplies – here’s hoping we don’t get more snow as soon as the fridge is manageable again.

1. Chicken Vesuvio
2. Creamy Tomato Chicken Penne
3. Leftovers
4. Tourtiere w/ Roasted Cabbage
5. Leftovers
6. Baked Chicken Chimichangas w/ refried beans and cheese
7. BLT Steak!
Chocolate Ice Cream
Baked Potato Soup

Sadly the snow is still keeping Art away from home, so I’ve got a couple days of leftovers planned in order to prevent us from building up an even more ridiculous amount of food in the house! 

Chicken Vesuvio is carried over from last week due to a very kind neighbor who brought us a nice casserole of beef stew.  I used the 2009 Cook’s Country Annual to help me with my planning this week. 

Assuming Art is finally able to make it home for next weekend, we’ve got plans to celebrate our birthdays all in one fell swoop at BLT Steak. 

I’m also planning on making some Baked Potato Soup to make a dent in my half and half supply and then Chocolate Ice Cream since I ran across an interesting recipe that doesn’t require an ice cream machine and I’m curious to try it out!

I’m looking forward to life getting back to normal.  Whatever normal is.  Or, at the least, something that doesn’t involve three feet of snow on the ground.

1. Szechuan Green Beans with Pork w/ rice
2. Leftovers
3. Mom’s Chicken w/ Pasta Amatriciana
4. Chicken Vesuvio
5. Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli Bake w/ rice
6. French Onion Soup
7. Leftovers

This is a pretty exciting meal plan, eh?  We’re sort of having this Snowpocalypse thing at the moment so this is muddling my meal planning.  Due to the weather, Art didn’t manage to make it home for the weekend so it’s just Lance and me until Friday’s dinner.  Due to the lack of Art, we also have a ridiculous amount of leftovers in the fridge.  Also due to weather, we have all the ingredients needed for our Game Day feast that was supposed to happen on Sunday.  And, last but not least, I have no idea when I’ll be able to get out to the store this week. 

Tonight for dinner, which is meal 7 of last week’s meal plan, we made a dent in the leftovers instead of preparing more food.  Tomorrow I’ll be making meal 1 because I have all of the ingredients.  Then we’ll have more leftovers for Monday’s dinner.  Game day food will be meal 3 on Tuesday and then we’ll just see how far all the leftovers will take us.  If I do end up having to go to the store for more food, I’ll update this meal plan as necessary!

Update: More meals have been planned.  It seems like we’re in for even more snow on Tuesday and Wednesday, so that means I couldn’t really put off meal planning until later, just in case we get snowed in again.  Meals 4 and 5 are from the 2008 Cook’s Country Annual and the French Onion Soup is from the 2008 Cook’s Illustrated Annual.

1. Baked Ziti with Zucchini
2. Pasta with Smoked Salmon
3. Salisbury Steak w/ French Mashed Potatoes with Cheese and Garlic (Aligot)
4. Tandoori Chicken w/ Indian Potatoes with Peas w/ basmati rice
5. Maple-Ginger Glazed Chicken w/ Brussels Sprout and Bacon Pasta
6. Roast Beef Tenderloin w/ Pasta with Butternut Squash and Sage
7. Szechuan Green Beans with Pork w/ rice We ate leftovers instead, since there were entirely too many in the fridge. 

It is only Sunday and this week is already proving to be an interesting one since I’m currently snowed in.  This makes grocery shopping a bit difficult.  Tonight’s dinner might end up being whatever I can cobble together from a rather bare pantry, fridge and freezer.  We shall see how the day progresses.  Update: I was able to make it to the store and cook dinner as planned.  Yay!

Art is traveling for business this week so he’ll be missing meals 1 through 5.  Meal 6 should be a nice way to welcome him back home!  Otherwise the week is pretty normal, meals 1 and 2 should be speedy enough to accommodate choir and aikido.  

I used two cookbooks for meal planning – the 2009 Cook’s Illustrated Annual and the 2007 Cook’s Country Annual.  I think I’ve almost exhausted the recipes I want to try from the 2007 Cook’s Country Annual.