My Meal Plan

It's been awhile since I've posted a meal plan, mostly because we've changed the way we are eating since watching Food, Inc. So, now I am nailing meal plans down a bit more easily and here's my current one:

Dinners
Taco Soup/cornbread
Roast chicken/veggies (from farmer's market)
Minestrone soup/bread
Bean/rice burritos (using homemade refried beans)
Spaghetti/salad
Potato Bar (with bacon bits, sauteed spinach/onion and sour cream)
Lentil Soup/bread

Lunches

Quesadillas/peas
grilled cheese/tomato soup
salads
Beans/quinoa/chips
Sandwiches

Breakfasts/Treats

Black bean brownies
Crispy waffles
Granola bars
Cherry oatmeal muffins
Peanut butter/chocolate/banana kefir shake
Pumpkin pancakes
Whole wheat banana muffins

I've been trying to double recipes and freeze half so I'm not spending my entire existence in the kitchen.

Food. And My Meal Plans.

Here are a couple of breakfast dishes that I have tried recently. This is overnight french toast from the Food Network website (specifically Paula Deen). Paula Deen doesn't know how to exclude half and half from her recipes. This included two cups of it!! My brain begins to short-circuit when I start counting the fat grams in two cups of half and half. Here's what my casserole looked like: I thought it was pretty tasty, but the family didn't devour it as I expected. So, there is an entire half casserole sitting in my freezer for when I'm feeling particularly lazy one morning...

And this, my dear friends, is Sunday Oatmeal from Barefoot Contessa's cookbook. I make a batch every week for Juliet - she eats it by the fist fulls and sometimes Colin and I comment about how she will founder if she is left to her own devices. Meaning: she eats a boatload of the food she likes. Here's what it looks like:

A bowl full of mush for sure, but healthy baby food as well.

I just discovered this website called The Joy of Baking and I feel like maybe I have been in a virtual cave, because I bet everyone else has been here already. I've drooled, I've stolen recipes and now I'm off to Winco, Trader Joe's and Costco (well, not all in one day - I do have three children!) to purchase the ingredients for the following meals/treats:

Spaghetti w/arugula, roasted peppers, prosciutto/bread

Potato Bar (broccoli/bacon bits/chives/sour cream/butter)

Tacos (including refried beans, salsa, sour cream, cheese)

Lasagna, spinach salad, bread

Calzones (from my bread maker)

Pasta and peas

Tortilla chip pie (from Kiwi magazine)

Breakfast bars

Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Chai tea pancakes

Banana Muffins

Tecate Bread (from bread maker)

Blueberry Muffins

Have I mentioned how much I am loving my Bread Machine Lover's Cookbook? It makes my calzone dough and all my most recent bread doughs. I do a second rising on the counter and bake the breads in the oven for more authentic taste, but it really does all the hands on work for me.

Also, I have discovered that if I let my kids be involved in their meal, they tend to actually eat it. Imagine that. So I let them pick their toppings for calzones, pizzas and tacos.

And now we are set for a week of food!

My Meal Plan

I love having my meals planned for the next week. It takes me forever to write out a week's worth of meals, but here it is:

Slow cooker chicken/rolls (from bread maker cookbook)/salad
Chicken tacos (from previous chicken)/slow cooker refried beans/rice
Tortilla chip pie - from current Kiwi magazine
Black bean and rice burritos
Pizzas - from current Sunset magazine

Also: Spiced applesauce cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting - from Gourmet.com

Food. And More Food.

Sometimes I just gush with my excitement over food. I'm chewing on mostly raw garlic right now (I baked broccoli with garlic, bread crumbs, freshly grated parm, olive oil and salt and pepper). I can't stop thinking about the smell of my house when blueberry scones are baking in the oven. Meat shredded to perfection gives me a bit of a high. These kind of posts are more for encouraging someone out of a cooking rut than to brag about what my family is eating. I really don't like bragging. So, here's my meal plan currently:

Spicy shredded pork - as as seen in my picture below, before it was shredded. I love the recipe. I didn't have the white wine vinegar, so I substituted Mirin, a sweet rice cooking wine. It added a wonderful depth of flavor. I pair this with brown rice, lime wedges and tortillas. Hands on time is minutes. P.S. I love my Le Crueset dutch oven. The world is a better place with these bad boys in it. We also tried a new meatloaf recipe from Real Simple - paired it with yellow potatoes (I actually purchase them at WinCo in the bag and love them - so buttery).

Pasta/parm/veggies. A good standby - no recipe needed and it's quick.

Bean chicken and sausage stew - known as "hot dog soup" around these parts. I purchase the chicken sausage at Trader Joe's and the soup involves kale, so I don't feel so bad.

This morning I made these blueberry scones. It's the perfect recipe and they remind me almost exactly of the ones I get at Starbucks when I'm starving (which is almost always).


I have a confession. Up until this point in my life, I wouldn't touch an entire raw chicken with a ten foot pole. Well, I briefly saw the Neeley's on the Food Network get all up in a chicken (including under the skin with butter and herbs). I realized I was missing out on this entire corner of the culinary world that involved beautiful golden birds filled with garlic and lemon slices and I could resist no longer. I put my bacteria neuroses on the back burner and cooked a bird. What a success! The meat was fragrant and moist (but no where near as salty as those delicious rotisserie chickens you get at Costco - what do they put in those?!) and I will definitely do it again.

My last recipe is one found in the Mother's cookbook. I am attempting the carrot cake recipe, although I don't really have the crowd to cook it for.

My Meal Plan

As much as I loathe every other Thursday (which happens to be today) when I prepare a new budget and figure out a meal plan, I love knowing when I wake up in the morning what we are having that evening for dinner. Now, I'm not always this organized and sometimes dinner is whatever meat and veggies we have in the freezer. But for today, I have a complete meal plan for the week ahead (one week meal planning instead of two works best for me because I am a compulsive cook and eater at heart, so I can't stick to a two week plan). Here it is:

Dinners:

Minestrone/bread
Roasted pork tenderloin/brussel sprouts
Lasagna/bread
Baked chicken breast and roasted red potatoes/veggies from freezer

Breakfasts:

Usually fried eggs and toast, but sometimes I mix it up:
Overnight french toast
Breakfast bars

Christmas baking:

Peanut butter blossoms
Chocolate chip pecan blondies
Sugar cookies

And that's it! I wish I could have loads of different cookies to bake, but the boys are helping me and let's be realistic. Three different recipes is really the max.