Menu Plan Monday – 9/13/2010

 

Menu planning helps our week go better, even if we don’t completely stick with it.  Just having a plan makes me feel like I’ve got control of the week.

1. Roast with cornbread and shredded & sauteed carrots and kohlrabi – Rosie Girl’s night

2. Meatloaf with fried potatoes

3. Chicken divan

4. Homemade pizza – Wild Man’s night

5. Jambalaya (Zatarain’s mix)

6. Homemade Mac and Cheese

We’ve got salad makings that we can have with any of the meals.  I’m also planning on trying to make a butternut/acorn squash soup sometime later in the week.

Check out what others are planning this week!

Menu Plan Monday – 9/6/2010

 

I didn’t get around to planning menus last week and I really felt it later in the week!  I’ve got a migraine right now, but I know that getting the planning done now will help with how our week goes later.  Here’s what I’m planning for this week.

1. Spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic bread – Wild Man’s cooking night

2. Cheese soup with salad and bread – Rosie Girl’s cooking night

3. Roast beef, rice and gravy, spaghetti squash

4. Chicken Divan

5. Chicken Divan 2

6. Sandwiches

7. Leftovers

Not terribly exciting, but it will help me plan a grocery list!!

Check out Menu Plan Monday to see what others are up to!

Menu Plan Monday – August 23, 2010

We’ve been flying by the seat of our pants when it comes to meals around here lately, but I’d like to be a little more organized than just saying, “Get food if you’re hungry!”  Hence my restarting some menu planning.  I’ve also told the kids that they are each responsible for one meal a week.  Wild Man still requires a good bit of help from me in the kitchen, but Rosie Girl is now independent enough that it’s useful for me when she cooks. 

As always, I’m just going to list the meals since the order in which we eat them depends on my migraines as well as whatever else is going on.  I’m also assuming some veggie side dish and/or salad, but I’m not planning them right now because we haven’t gotten our CSA bag yet.

1. Spaghetti with garlic bread

2. Homemade macaroni and cheese (Wild Man)

3. Zuppa Toscana (Rosie Girl) with some kind of bread

4. Homemade pizza night (I want to try making pizza dough with my food processor.  My Kitchen Aid yells at me when I ask it to knead the pizza dough for me and I end up doing it by hand!)

5. Spinach pie (perhaps made with some other greens, depending on what’s in the CSA bag)

6. Leftovers

7. Sandwich night – probably tonight since I have a meeting and PWM hasn’t shopped yet!

Check out Menu Plan Monday to see what others are up to this week!  (And I’m like number 206 because I’m not terribly organized first thing on Monday morning!)

Menu Plan Monday – August 10, 2009

I’m back to planning meals for the week again.  During the last couple of weeks, I’ve been able to make some food to put into the freezer so we’ll have some yummy meals during the school year, even when I have headaches.

Our family has also started having our main meal at lunchtime instead of supper.  This has been working well because Mr. Math Tutor works online until lunch and then generally has his face-to-face clients after school is out.  It was hard for us last year to have dinner all together, so we decided to try having lunch together.  We’ve been doing it for about a week and really enjoying it.  I kind of feel like my main task for the day (cooking the main meal) is done nice and early so the rest of the day is free (for exciting stuff like laundry – so maybe it’s not really so free!).

Here’s what I have planned for this week:

1. Hoisin Chicken with green beans and sweet corn (from the garden)

2. Spaghetti

3. Spinach pie (and I’ll probably make an extra one to put in the freezer)

4. Garlic Roast Chicken with Vegetables

5. Leftovers

6. Leftovers

7. Lunch at Rock the City

Check out what others are planning at Menu Plan Monday!

Menu Plan Monday – June 1, 2009

So we're back home and it’s time to get back in to the swing of things.  Of course, I’m pretty tired from driving to the Deep South and back as well as going to two funerals in the course of a week.  I’m not going to do a lot of cooking since I still have some casseroles in the freezer.  Here’s my plan:

1. Lasagna (from freezer) with broccoli and/or salad

2. Lasagna (leftovers) with broccoli and/or salad

3. Grilled chicken with corn on the cob and grilled asparagus

4. Chicken and dumplings

5. Chicken and dumplings

6. Chicken divan (from freezer)

7. Chicken divan (leftovers)

Not exciting, but doable.  Whole chickens are on sale this week so I’ll get one for the freezer and maybe cook it next week.

Check out Menu Plan Monday to see what others are doing this week!

Menu Plan Monday – May 18, 2009

I’m really enjoying cooking for a week at a time.  I’m going to do my cooking on Wednesday this week.  We still have some chicken that Mr. Math Tutor is going to grill for lunch today since Friday’s migraine messed up our menu schedule last week.  Here’s what I’m planning:

1. BBQ chicken – I suspect we’ll be having this a lot now that the weather is warming up and we love it.  We’ll probably have raw veggies with it.

2. Lasagna with salad

3. Chicken broccoli stir-fry

4. Lasagna left-overs

5. Hamburgers on the grill

6. Leftovers

Check out I’m An Organizing Junkie to see what others are planning this week!

 

Menu Plan Monday – May 11, 2009

Last week, I didn’t plan menus or go grocery shopping.  We pretty much ate what we had in the pantry or freezer.  The exceptions were that we did buy milk and bread.  We are now completely out of fresh produce, though, so it’s time for real menus and a real grocery trip.  Mondays are always sandwiches for everyone because of activities, so I have six other days of menus planned:

1. Barbequed chicken – out on the grill (Yippee!) – with roasted asparagus and corn.

2. Baked chicken with broccoli and corn

3. Leftover chicken

4. Roast beef, rice, and gravy with broccoli

5. Roast beef leftovers.

6. Mac and cheese and broccoli

Yeah, lots of broccoli this week.  I’m not feeling real imaginative.  I’m going to buy salad stuff, so we can have salad if we don’t feel like broccoli.

Check out Menu Plan Monday to see what others are doing this week!

Menu Plan Monday – April 27, 2009

So, I’ve had this migraine now for more than three days.  I think I might just lose my mind.  One thing, though, that has been really good is that I cooked almost all of last week’s meals on Tuesday so that we have not resorted to frozen pizza, even when my headache was the worst. 

My plan this week is to shop tomorrow (pending some headache improvement, although Mr. Math Tutor might have a few extra minutes to shop for me) and to cook on Wednesday of this week.  Ideally, I’d like to shop on Monday or Tuesday and cook on Wednesday or Thursday.  Doing a week’s worth of cooking on one day isn’t really all that hard, and it’s so nice to have all the food in the fridge and ready to heat up!  And the kitchen stays a lot more clean.  So, here’s the menus:

1. 40 Cloves and a Chicken with French bread – I found a gluten-free French bread mix, but I figure I should make it when we’re having something really yummy to go on top since most reviews I’ve read say that gluten-free bread tends to have little flavor.

2. Chicken gumbo with salad – whole chickens are on sale

3. Beef and broccoli stir-fry – yes, I found some gluten-free soy sauce.

4. Baked chicken thighs with corn and salad.

5. Leftover chicken gumbo

6. Clean out the fridge night.

That should get us through the week.  Check out Menu Plan Monday to see what others are planning for their week!

Menu Plan Monday – April 20, 2009

It’s going to be a pretty boring week here as far as food goes, I think.  I’m getting over a really long migraine, so it’s kind of hard to come up with meals that are economical, gluten-free, yummy, and liked by the entire family.  I already have a chicken and roast in the fridge ready to be cooked, so that makes planning a little easier.  Here’s the plan:

1. Deconstructed Chicken Divan – I’ll serve the chicken, sauce, broccoli, rice pasta, and regular noodles separately so that everyone can mix and match what they want.

2. Roast with mashed potatoes and green beans

3. Roast with mashed potatoes and salad or green beans

4. Oven fried chicken thighs with roasted potatoes and raw veggies.

5. Frozen pizza for the rest of the family with chicken salad and rice cakes or something equally exciting for me.

6. Leftovers.

Head on over to I’m An Organizing Junkie for more great menu planning ideas!

Menu Plan Monday – April 6, 2009

First things first – go to this post to read the review of Clutter-Free Christianity.  Leave a comment and you will automatically be entered in the drawing for a free book to be held on Thursday, April 9.  So, go check it out!!

Menu planning is going to be a little interesting for the next few weeks.  I’m doing a two month gluten-free diet to try to help my migraines (but my blood test for celiac disease was negative).  So, I am going to be planning dinner menus that are gluten-free, which means no wheat, barley, rye, or a myriad of other ingredients often found in processed foods.  Most of our starches now will be potatoes, rice, and corn.  It will be an interesting few months.

1. Chicken Kiev (with gluten-free bread-crumb coating), asparagus

2.Tacos with corn tortillas (or flour tortillas for the rest of the family) with salad.

3. Tilapia, rice, salad

4. Ham, tortillas, broccoli

5. Ham, arepas (Venezuelan corn bread) broccoli

6. Pasta with parmesan and garlic, ham, tortillas, asparagus

7. Easter lunch – Either a fancy lunch with duck of some kind (if I’m feeling ambitious) or (more likely) scrambled eggs, bacon, grits, tortillas, fruit, milk.

It’s not very exciting, but it meets the gluten-free requirement.  I welcome any and all gluten-free recommendations (although I’m such a picky eater that who knows how many I’ll actually use!!).

Check out what others are doing this week at Menu Plan Monday.

Menu Plan Monday – March 30, 2009

Mr. Math Tutor is getting more clients these days, so I get to drive Wild Man to drum lessons and dance class on Monday afternoon.  This means that I didn’t go grocery shopping today, so I’m not completely sure what I’m going to have to work with this week.  However, I am planning based on the grocery ad in the newspaper, so hopefully my plans will all work and these will be the menus for the week!

1. Chicken-broccoli stir-fry with rice

2. Sirloin roast with mashed potatoes and gravy

3. Oven fried chicken with salad and corn

4. Macaroni with cheese sauce and broccoli

5. Tilapia with rice and some kind of veggie

6. Leftovers

7. Sandwiches (Monday night)

Not terribly exciting, perhaps, but reasonably healthy.  Check out Menu Plan Monday to see what others will be cooking this week.

Menu Plan Monday – March 23, 2009

It is rainy and chilly here today.  Not exactly a great day for grocery shopping to my mind.  But, I had to go out anyway, because I slammed my hand in a car door last week and it still hurts, so I went to see one of the NPs at the doctor’s office.  So, I don’t have a broken 5th metacarpal (thankfully), but I did have a very chilly outing.  I also got to chat for a while with the NP with whom I shared an office when I was working – that was cool.  In the grocery store, I saw the interpreter for Spanish-speaking patients that I used to work with as well as the ICU nurse who took care of me after my little near-death experience a few years ago (and, of course, I used to work with her, too).  I find myself seriously wishing the headaches would go away so I could work a little bit – I really miss all those people.

But, I digress.  On to the menus for this week.  Last week, I actually cooked all but one meal, which meant no frozen pizza!  I’m not sure what this week holds, so I made sure we’ve got pizza in the freezer downstairs.  Here’s what I’ve got planned (and I only spent $110 at the grocery store today):

1. Oven fried chicken (yes, again – everyone loved it last night and it was really quick) with fried potatoes and asparagus.

2. Roast beef with mashed potatoes.

3. Tilapia with a light parmesan sauce with pasta (with some cajun spices) and veggies.

4. 40 cloves and a chicken with salad

5. Homemade macaroni and cheese with brocolli

6. Soup night – potato and cheese soup, peanut soup (nope, still haven’t made it yet)

7. Leftovers!!!

Check out Menu Plan Monday to see what others are doing.  And, don’t forget to leave a comment to let me know you stopped by.

Menu Plan Monday – March 16, 2009

Monday morning – time to plan for the week.  So, I sat down with my coupons and the ad for the grocery store and made the list.  I have a moderate headache today and Mr. Math Tutor has some free time since Wild Man doesn’t have dance because of Spring Break, so he’s going to do the shopping for me.  I gave him a detailed list with notes about which things are on special and which need coupons.  I’ll pray for him.  Anyway, here’s this week’s set of menus.

Oven Fried Chicken with broccoli

Roast Beef, Rice, and Gravy with salad

Peanut Soup with bread and salad – new recipe – If I like it, I’ll post it on a Tempt My Tummy Tuesday!

Spinach Pie with rolls

Grilled cheese sandwiches with salad

Meatloaf patties with roasted potatoes with broccoli

How is your menu plan for the week looking?  Check out what others are planning this week on Menu Plan Monday at $5 Dinners (this week only).

Menu Plan Monday – March 9, 2009

The discipline of menu making is truly helpful for me.  I don’t actually expect my readers to be terribly interested in my menus, but the very act of making them is good for me.  For the few of you who do read these posts, I note a couple of things about my Menu Plan Monday posts.  I don’t plan out what I’m going to cook for each day because my headaches are unpredictable and mess up our weeks.  Instead, I plan out six dinner menus for the week.  Also, I don’t plan anything for Monday since Mr. Math Tutor and Wild Man leave for drum lesson, dance class, and AWANA at about 2:30 on Monday afternoon.  Wild Man makes sandwiches for them while Ga’hoole Girl and I eat leftovers.  I usually plan another sandwich or leftover day for later in the week to allow for a migraine.  So, without further adieu, here are this week’s dinner plans:

1. Roast beef with over fries and roasted asparagus – roast was on sale at the local grocery store and the asparagus is one sale at the Pick’N’Save.

2. Chicken and Dumplings – It’s going to get cold(er) again this week, and whole chickens are on sale at Pick’N’Save.

3. Meatloaf patties, home fries, frozen brocolli

4. Something with duck – I bought duck on sale about a month ago and put it in the freezer.  Ga’hoole Girl and I need to get inventive later this week.  I’m sure I’ll do a post if it turns out good.

5. Stir-fry with broccoli

6. Sandwiches or frozen pizza – probably Friday night since the kids have to set up their Science Fair projects that evening.

I think one of the good things about setting up menus is that it makes me look at our week and evaluate when I have time to really cook a big meal and when we need to do something quick and easy.  Check out Menu Plan Monday for more great ideas.

Menu Plan Monday – March 2, 2009

I think the migraine from h*ll has finally broken – yippee!!  Now I can actually think.  So, of course, I’ll plan something.  Actually, I did plan out the kids’ schoolwork for the week yesterday.  I’ve got that down to a pretty “automated” process.  I made a trip today to the small grocery store here in town so I have most of what I need for cooking this week.  Here’s the plan right now – in no particular order:

1. French Dip (at the particular request of the family)

2. Stew meat, barley, green beans cooked in the pressure cooker (stew meat was on sale).

3. Stew (I bought a lot of stew meat – it was a good sale)

4. Forty cloves and a chicken

5. Grilled cheese sandwiches

6. Leftovers

7. Leftovers/clean out the fridge

No, it doesn’t look terribly exciting on the food front this week.  I only spent $75 at the grocery store and the only thing I still need to buy is barley and potatoes, so I’m doing really well with the budget this week (although we are almost out of milk).

Check out Menu Plan Monday for more great ideas for what to fix for your family this week.

Menu Plan Monday – February 2, 2009

February, already??  That’s pretty hard to believe.  This week’s menus are based on the sales at the local grocery stores.  I’m trying to save some money on groceries – we’ll see how it goes.

1. Chicken and broccoli stir-fry with brown rice

2. Pork roast with mashed potatoes and gravy

3. Pasta and spaghetti squash with cheese sauce – I serve the pasta, squash, and sauce separately.  Everyone can then serve themselves the proportions of each that they like.

4. Spaghetti with meat sauce, broccoli

5. Pizza – migraine meal

6. Grilled cheese sandwiches – migraine meal

Check out Menu Plan Monday for more great menu plan ideas!

Menu Plan Monday – January 19, 20090

Even with my changing my eating habits, our weekly menu planning really doesn’t change much.  I always try to have a protein, a grain or starch, and 1 or more veggies.  The only thing I really need to change is how much I eat.  I’ve already done this week’s grocery shopping (instead of my usually Tuesday shopping trip).  Here’s what I’ve got planned for this week.

• Spinach pie probably with some pasta on the side which will make Wild Man happy since he doesn’t like spinach pie.
• Potato Soup – I got an idea off another blog (I don’t remember which one, so if it was yours, let me know and I’ll give you credit!) for doing potato soup with frozen hash browned potatoes in the crock pot with cream of chicken soup.  I do it a little differently since I make a soup base (like a thinned down white sauce) with milk and chicken broth then put that with the potatoes in the crock pot.  I’ll add cheese this time since we thought it was a little bland last time.
• Tortellini with parmesan cheese and salad.
• Chicken and broccoli stir-fry
• Spaghetti with salad.

Trying to shop economically is a challenge for me.  I don’t clip coupons because I rarely find coupons for things that I’ll use, and the stores don’t do “double coupon days” to make it worth the trouble for such a few coupons.  I shop at Sam’s Club every few months for bulk items.  This usually pays for the cost of the card with the first trip of the year, and really saves money otherwise.  I use the grocery store here in our small town for emergency needs since it’s a small store without much selection.  In the larger town close by (6 miles), there are a Pick’N’Save, Piggly Wiggly, and Aldi’s.  I don’t like Aldi’s because I’m something of a brand “snob” – I just rarely like off-brand foods.  The Piggly Wiggly isn’t too bad, but they don’t carry some of my favorite things.  I like Pick’N’Save, but it is pricey.  The ideal place for shopping is Woodman’s in Appleton.  I don’t shop there, though, unless we’re already in town, which is usually Tuesday.  This week, Ga’hoole Girl’s piano lesson is at 7pm, so I don’t want to leave her at the Academy while I shop in case I don’t get finished shopping in time.

So, it was Pick’N’Save today.  And, far more expensive than I would like.  Part of the problem is that I bought some 100 calorie snacks from Nabisco and some 100 calorie pudding packs.  I don’t want to rely on this kind of food, and I want to get away from processed foods, but I’m using these 100 calorie foods right now as a way to not obsess over food.  Veggies are expensive in winter up here.  Asparagus is $4 per pound right now – we have about one month when asparagus is dirt cheap.  This is quite a change from my growing up in South Florida with it’s three growing seasons!  I also bought a duck because it was on sale.  I’ve never had duck, but Alton Brown says that we should eat more duck just because it’s yummy.  I’ll try a duck recipe next week, I think.

My goal is to get to more homemade food, including snack food, so I can purchase the ingredients in bulk.  I need to start doing as much cooking as I can on the days when I feel well so that we have the food on hand when I don’t feel well.  I guess we’ll see how it goes.

Check out I’m An Organizing Junkie to see what others are doing for meals this week!

 

Menu Plan Monday - 1/5/2009

  The first full week of the New Year!  What to do for meals??  I made some beef and barley soup tonight, so that will be on the menu for three nights.  Otherwise, I'll be keeping it simple while we spend the week putting away the Christmas stuff and finishing rearranging our house (kind of a New Year's tradition around here).

1. Beef and Barley Soup with french bread

2. Beef and Barley Soup with focaccia

3. Beef and Barley Soup with salad (maybe - depends on how the salad greens look at the grocery store)

4. Macaroni, broccoli, and cheese sauce

5. Tacos

6. Chicken gumbo or chicken and dumplings

Check out I'm an Organizing Junkie to see what's on the menu at other folks' homes this week!

Menu Plan Monday - 12/15/2008

It's 11:38 pm, so it's technically still Monday, so my Menu Plan Monday is up on time! Now, what to have this week? Is it legal to have Christmas cookies for all of our meals this week? We've got lots of Christmas baking ahead of us this week. Perhaps not. Well, here is a list of what I think I can come up with from the freezer this week.

1. Ravioli with tomato sauce
2. Smoky bacon and cheese soup
3. Spaghetti (never got around to making it last week)
4. Grilled cheese sandwiches
5. Ground beef and rice in the pressure cooker
6. Leftovers

Check out "I'm an Organizing Junkie" to see what others are cooking up this week. Meanwhile, our family will subsist on Christmas cookies for the week!

Menu Plan Monday - December 5, 2008

This week's menus are designed to be nice and easy to make.  We're going to be working on Christmas gifts and, hopefully, a gingerbread house.  I didn't do very well with menu planning or grocery shopping last week because of the headache, and I felt it all week.  I hope this week is better with some planning.

• Leftover turkey, gravy, and rice
• Ravioli with parmesan cheese
• Cheddar cheese soup (I'm still working on a good recipe for this)
• BBQ pork on bread
• Spaghetti
• Leftovers
• Sandwiches

Check out "I'm an Organizing Junkie" to see what others are doing for meals this week!