Menu Plan Monday - Week 4

I know I should be menu planning, I know I should be menu planning.  If I keep saying it over and over again, I’m going to get to it, right?  The last few weeks have worked unbelievably well.  I know we’ve saved money on our grocery shopping and we’ve been eating more wholesome and delicious food.  This is not to say that my family has exactly followed the plan that I set forth at the beginning of the week.  Life has crept in and mixed things up a bit causing a couple of meals to get dropped.  But we had 5 of 7 meals planned last week.  As always, fresh ingredient dinners get preference over pantry ones that way they can be shelved for another week.  Alright  I think I’ve motivated myself now!  So here’s what I’ve come up with for this week:

Monday - Girls scout meeting - Left-overs - Sweet Potato Risotto from Friday night.

Tuesday - Stuffed Shells with green salad.  I’m sure you all figured out I made sauce on Sunday from hubby’s guest post!

Wednesday - Crab Cakes (Frozen from Trader Joe’s.  YAY!  They are finally open in my area!) More salad or something green.

Thursday - Orange Chicken, Broccoli, brown rice

Friday - Pizza night 

Saturday - dinner out, nephew’s birthday!

Sunday - Pasta Fagiole (since it got bumped last week!)

What’s on your menu??  Make sure to visit OrgJunkie for great menu planning ideas!  Remember to tell her how much you liked the new button!

Menu Plan Monday - Week 3

Again, menu planning made a world of difference for us last week. We made 5 out of 6 dinners, the only one that was a bust was the Clam Sauce on Friday night due to the fact that I forgot I had a dinner meeting. Fortunately, my fantabulous sister was on hand and invited my husband and children to her house for dinner and a little after dinner Rock Band extravaganza. I can’t wait to see the pictures of my 8- and 5-year olds rocking out to music written well before they were born! As one of my wonderful readers pointed out - clam sauce is one of my pantry staples, so back on the shelf it goes until next time. Below are this week’s offerings and as always for more menu planning ideas, please visit OrgJunkie. She’s the best!

Monday - Grilled Chicken Teriyaki, Green beans, French bread

Tuesday - Sweet Potato Risotto, side salad

Wednesday - Taco night!

Thursday - Grilled Mango Chicken Sausage over salad

Friday - Pasta night -Homemade Tomato Sauce and Meatballs over Spaghetti, garlic bread

Saturday - Braised Short Ribs in slow cooker, Polenta

Sunday - Souper Sunday - Pasta Fagiole

Menu Plan Monday - Week 2

Last week went so well that we are trying it again! We actually had almost all the meals with the exception of the Turkey Burgers (this was a back-up meal anyway). I'm a little late in posting this but we did enjoy the meat loaves before running out for Girl Scouts. Dividing the mixture into 5 mini-loaves cut the cooking time in half! Plus my dear husband was very excited to make left-over sandwiches to take with him to the office today! I hope everyone has a great week! Head on over to orgjunkie for more menu planning ideas!

Monday - Mini Meat Loaves, Green Beans, Whole wheat bread

Tuesday - Grilled Chicken Breasts, Broccoli

Wednesday - Eggplant, tomato and chickpea curry, brown rice

Thursday - Dinner out (nephew’s birthday)

Friday - Pasta night - Linguini with Clam Sauce (recipe below), garlic bread

Saturday - Grilled Flank Steak w/ lemon + coriander (from the RelishRelish site, membership required) salad

Sunday - Souper Sunday - Sausage Soup (recipe posted on Sunday)

Clam Sauce

1/4 c. olive oil

1/2 c. butter

1/4 c. parsley flakes

1 T sweet basil

3 T Parmesan Cheese

1 can tomato paste

6 cloves of garlic

1-2 cans minced clams

Warm together olive oil and butter until melted and combined. Add garlic, parsley, basil, parmesan cheese, red and black pepper to taste bring to boil. Add clams with liquid and stir in tomato paste until well combined. Bring to boil. Serve over hot linguini.

My First Menu Plan Monday

I’m so excited to be posting my very first “Menu Plan Monday.” Big kudos to OrgJunkie for hosting this on her site! Cooking has somewhat taken a back seat for me this summer as my dear husband has taken a new job which requires him to work late most evenings. So between swim meets and summer evenings at the pool, I have been more focused on preparing “kid food” and have found myself merely grazing through the evenings. Now that school has started again, its the perfect time to begin menu planning. My focus is on nutritious meals where an extra portion or two could be packed for a lunch the following day.

Monday - Homemade Pizza (Wegman’s pre-made whole wheat pizza dough from the bakery makes this extra easy) pepperoni and vegetable toppings, everyone creates their own!

Tuesday - Curried Brown Rice Salad (I use a variation of the recipe posted here, but substitute chick peas for the tempeh)

Wednesday - Pasta night (pesto, peas & proscuitto)

Thursday - Zucchini Pie, side salad

Friday - Turkey Burgers with horseradish mayo, bacon, lettuce and tomato; sweet potato fries

Saturday - Date night ;) - the kiddies are MeMom’s dilemma!

Sunday - Souper Sunday! - Black Bean Soup with great bread (See next Sunday’s post for the recipe)

One benefit I noticed immediately is that this greatly simplified my grocery shopping and again capitalized on the local farmer’s market yield (zucchini). I added only a few supplemental items for kid lunches to the list - turkey breast, yogurt, cucumbers and baby carrots). I can’t wait to see how this week works out!