Weekly Meal Plans

Menu 7/27/2014

  1. spaghetti squash sausage lasagna boats
  2. mexican stuffed bell peppers w/ yellow rice postponed to next week due to having too much food, leftover night instead
  3. lazy layered eggplant w/ pasta
  4. roast beef hash postponed to next week due to extreme foot pain, Panera instead
  5. top round roast beef w/ oven-roasted tomato caprese salad
  6. roast pork with dijon glaze w/ oven roasted garlic cabbage
  7. fajitas

lunches – spicy tuna cakes

I got a ton of delicious produce at the market this week!  Zucchini, eggplant, spaghetti squash, tomatoes, potatoes, bell peppers, onions, and cabbage!  Every meal this week will use some delicious veggie.  

Art also picked a fresh pork roast and a top round roast to use in this week’s cooking, and a number of the recipes use various ground meats.  I need to actually check to make sure I’ve still got a supply of the meats I’ll need!  I know we’ve still got ground cow, but I’m not sure about the others. 

Hopefully this will be a super tasty week in food.   I’m super excited about the spicy tuna cakes!

Menu 7/20/2014

  1. A&G out, L fends for himself – twice baked small potatoes
  2. halupki stirfry
  3. philly cheeseteak stuffed bell peppers
  4. pesto chicken w/ zucchini with tomatoes and red bell pepper
  5. carne asada w/ skillet mexican zucchini
  6. spicy cumin lamb skewers w/ citrus rice salad
  7. out with mom and dad

I’m excited about this week of food already and I haven’t even finished cooking the last meal from last week’s plan!  I think I might just be really hungry right now.  

This meal plan is based mainly around the produce we got at the farmers market - small bell peppers, zucchini, a large bell pepper, tomatoes, cabbage, and potatoes.  It also involves a few cuts of meat from the freezer - ground stuff, flank steak, and a leg of lab.  Hopefully it will all be delicious.  

For meal 1, Art and I will be going over to a friend’s house for dinner and we’ll be taking along a potato side dish.  I tried to pick one that would reheat well upon arrival!  Hopefully I have succeeded.  

On a side note, can you all believe that we’re 2⁄3 of the way through July already?!  Yikes.  How did that happen.

Menu 7/13/2014

  1. meaty eggplant/zucchini parmesan (from Joy of Cooking)
  2. slow cooker corned beef w/ frizzled cabbage
  3. slow cooker red wine braised short ribs w/ roasted tomato, zucchini and smoked cheese casserole
  4. ground beef coconut curry w/ rice
  5. leftover night
  6. yogurt parmesan baked chicken w/ oregano roasted beets with garlic scapes
  7. baltimore pit beef w/ rolls, tiger sauce, sweet onions

This week involves a lot of beef.  I think it’s because we just happen to have a heck of a lot of beef in the freezer at the moment and it’s all in front of the other meats we have in there.  This week also involves a lot of veg.  I have all the veg from this week to use up (eggplant, zucchini, cabbage, and tomato) plus veg from last week that still needs to get used up as well (beets and scapes).  Lots of veggies.  They’re my weakness.  

Hopefully I’ll be able to cook all of these things with no trouble, I feel like some of the meals might be a little over-zealous on my part.  But I’ll do my best!  I need to remember to do meal #3 on Tuesday since that’s a slow morning for me.

Menu 7/6/2014

  1. szechuan green beans with pork w/ rice
  2. amazing baked mustard chicken w/ cabbage and potato gratin with sage
  3. szechwan eggplant and pork stir-fry w/ rice
  4. slow cooker chicken - G: out of town, A&L: fend for themselves
  5. G: out of town, A&L: fend for themselves
  6. out
  7. grilled steaks w/ sauteed zucchini w/ roasted potatoes tossed with garlic scape pesto

This isn’t a finished meal plan yet since I can’t think beyond Wednesday right now.  I’ll be out of town at the end of the week to help my parents out and, before I go, I’m trying to cook up some double batches of good stuff so that the guys will have sufficient food to tide themselves over.  For some strange reason two of the three meals I planned involve ground pork in stir-fry form.  I’ll also be putting a chicken into the slow cooker before I leave on Wednesday so that the guys will have an easy meal that night for dinner along with whatever sides they can find in the fridge.  

Hopefully things will work out well.  

This meal plan uses up a bunch of veggies from the market - green onions, green beans, cabbage, potato, and japanese eggplant. I’ll also be making a lunch-type salad to use up cucumbers and tomatoes.

Menu 6/29/2014

  1. G: out of town, A&L: fend for themselves
  2. G: out of town, A&L: fend for themselves
  3. G: out of town, A&L: fend for themselves
  4. out (sushi!)
  5. mom’s chicken w/ amatriciana
  6. spaghetti sauce w/ pasta
  7. grilled burgers w/ chicken kebabs w/ potato salad w/ balsamic zucchini

I was unexpectedly out of town at the beginning of this week (and the end of last week) due to my dad having some health issues and my parents needing my help.  I did cook while there but those meals don’t go on my meal plan.  Sorry!  There is a ham recipe that my dad has requested I revisit, so I should make that at home at some point so I can finally post the recipe!  And then I won’t need to google it every time my dad requests it.  

We’re having company over for meal 7, which is when we’ll do out celebratory grilling.  I thought it would be fun to make the chicken bacon paste kebabs again and that the kebabs would be better than whole chicken breasts since it would be easier for people to have just a few pieces of chicken instead of an entire breast.  The veg will probably be something easy with zucchini like grilled zucchini or some roasted parmesan zukes.  Whatever, it’ll be tasty.  I’ll make the potato salad without egg since one of our friends is anti-egg.

Menu 6/22/2014

  1. out
  2. Italian chicken, mushroom, and zucchini skillet
  3. coconut milkchicken curry w/ rice
  4. slow cooker sesame pork w/ rice
  5. bacon-ranch meatloaf w/ roasted potatoes
  6. oslo kebabs
  7. out with parents! G: out of town, L&A: fend for themselves

This week got off to a bad start, and last week ended poorly as well, due to some health things I’m dealing with at the moment.  I’m hopeful that things will be taken care of by the end of the week and, in the meantime, the guys still need to eat.  I just hope I’ll be able to eat some of the delicious things I plan on cooking!

Menu 6/15/2014

  1. hamburger and cabbage stir-fry w/ rice
  2. eggs to order w/ parmesan hash brown cups w/ dill
  3. awesome broccoli beef w/ rice
  4. Italian chicken, mushroom, and zucchini skillet
  5. leftover night
  6. top round roast beef philly cheese steaks (rolls, provo, mushrooms, bell peppers, onions)
  7. Baltimore pit beef w/ tiger sauce w/ sweet onion w/ rolls

This week is planned around delicious veg from the farmers market (cabbage, dill, potatoes, broccoli, zucchini, and green onions) as well as the two cuts of meat that Art picked out of the freezer (top round roast and eye round roast).  It should be a very tasty week with a few new recipes and a few old favorites.

Menu 6/8/2014

  1. dijon roasted rack of lamb w/ penne with roasted asparagus and balsamic butter
  2. cold pork roast w/ balsamic baked onions and potatoes
  3. greek chicken salad w/ pita
  4. red wine marinated, roasted beef tenderloin with herb-horseradish cream w/ sautéed radishes with bacon and rosemary
  5. mustard crusted salmon with roasted asparagus
  6. L&G out, A fends for himself
  7. teriyaki flank steak with green onions w/ rice w/ zucchini

This week starts off with the two holdovers from last week.  I had some health issues that precluded me from cooking a few nights.  I’m hoping this week will be significantly better.  

Meals are planned around the bounty of the farmers market.  I got tomatoes, cucumber, parsley, radishes, asparagus, green onions, and zucchini.  Lots of delicious vegetables for lots of delicious meals!  

Art won’t be home for dinner for meal #5, so L and I will get to enjoy a new salmon recipe.  I’m considering meal #4 for Saturday’s dinner so that I can make a recipe with the other half of the filet mignon for Sunday.  But I might end up buying a filet mignon roast from the butcher just because it’ll be easier to deal with right now and I need to go there any way to get the flank steak.  Decisions, decisions.

Menu 6/1/2014

  1. grilled stuffed flank steak with green onions, ginger, and teriyaki glaze w/ rice
  2. teriyaki glazed salmon/chicken with cucumber-green onion relish w/ rice
  3. lemon and dill chicken w/ balsamic zucchini
  4. grilled chicken with lemon and oregano w/ greek potatoes
  5. korean beef w/ rice
  6. cold pork roast w/ balsamic baked onions and potatoes Moved to next week due to an unexpected night in the emergency room
  7. dijon roasted rack of lamb w/ penne with roasted asparagus and balsamic butter[](recipes/pasta/1134-penne-with-roasted-asparagus-and-balsamic-butter) postponed to next week

I sense a trend here.  Rice and balsamic vinegar.  I’m not sure how these trends happen, but they always do.  

I picked up green onions, asparagus, cucumber, zucchini, oregano, parsley, dill, and garlic from the market this week.  Most every meal uses at least one thing in it.  Art picked out a pork roast and a rack of lamb to be used in meals this week.  

I’ve been making a lot of rice recently because my foodstyle doesn’t involve a lot of carbs and it’s just so easy to put rice in the rice cooker for Art and Lance to have with their meals.  I’m sure they’ll be thrilled with this week’s plan which includes pasta (!!) and potatoes.  I can’t actually remember the last time I made pasta!

Menu 5/25/2014

  1. omelets with asparagus, dill, and gruyere w/ hash browns w/ maple sausage
  2. roasted shoulder of lamb w/ asparagus
  3. leftover night/trivia
  4. slow cooker chicken-andouille stew w/ rice
  5. grilled stuffed flank steak with green onions, ginger, and teriyaki glaze w/ rice out to new Peruvian chicken place due to main line blockage
  6. grill roasted sirloin tip roast w/ leeks with lemon dijon vinaigrette
  7. out/voice recital

I hope this will be a tasty, tasty week of food.  Meal 1 will be a quick and easy meal to make after I get home from spending a day with a friend.  Meal 6 will actually be made on Memorial Day so we can be good Americans and fire up the grill.  Meal 4 is a slow cooker one since I’ll be out of the house until late due to a last minute pre-recital voice lesson.  Most of the meals use veg from the farmers market - dill, asparagus, green onions, and leeks.  I also got broccoli but it was used in the last meal of last week.  Lots of new recipes this week that should all be delicious!