Menu Plan Monday ~ June 21st

Posted by Laura on June 21, 2010 · 84 Comments

Welcome to another planned week and thank goodness for a plan because I’ve got a crazy hectic week ahead of me. School is winding up for us here (our last day of school is on June 29th) and with that comes many activities including my daughter’s grade 7 commencement. I know many of you finished up school quite some time ago but here in Canada our school calendar year is a little bit different.

Two recipe highlights this week. Homemade Macaroni and Cheese is so easy to make and so much healthier as well. I use whole wheat pasta and light cheddar cheese. I made mine slightly different from the recipe above in that I melted all the cheese into the white sauce and then added some cornflakes crumbs to the top. I also halved the recipe and it fit perfectly in my Foldtuk dish. Delicious!

The other recipe I really enjoyed (even though I had a little panic attack while making them) was the Pepperoni Pizza Wheels. I’m the type of gal that needs very detailed instructions so when it came time to roll the pizza dough up I didn’t know if I was suppose to roll up the long end or the short end. So I finally decided on the long end and then proceeded to make a huge mess trying to roll it. I had flashbacks to my Pizza Braid disaster. Sauce and pepperonis were falling out all over the place. The good news is though that this recipe is very forgiving and by the time they were cooked you couldn’t even tell my goof ups. These made for a terrific potluck dish because I made them up ahead of time and served them cold and they were still good! They went so fast I didn’t even get a picture :)

Okay so before I jump into my menu plan, I just want to take a moment to welcome you if you are new to menu planning and offer you a great resource for getting started. It’s a post written by Annie of Annie’s Eat called Menu Planning – Tips & Tricks and it has a lot of helpful information in it.

Here’s what we’ll be eating this week:

Monday: Black Bean Quesadillas

Tuesday: Fresh Broccoli & Chicken Pasta Toss

Wednesday: Picking up hubby from the airport ~ dinner out!

Thursday: My birthday! Teriyaki Sirloin Steak served with baked potatoes and grilled peppers

Friday: Dinner at friends

Saturday: Garlic Pork Tenderloin with BBQ Sauce served with baby potatoes and corn on the cob

Sunday: Church Potluck ~ Tater Tot Casserole

WHAT’S ON YOUR MENU THIS WEEK?

Menu Plan Monday guidelines and banner selections are here.

Need more recipe ideas? Check out my Family Favorites Recipe Index.

Filed under Menu Plan Monday · Tagged with menu plan

MPM ~ Nov 16th + Thanksgiving Table Decor

Posted by Laura on November 15, 2009 · 30 Comments

Hello everyone! I’ve got a fabulous new banner to bring in this Thanksgiving holiday season with for those living in the US. As you know here in Canada we celebrated Thanksgiving last month but I wanted to honor all my friends on the other side of the border. How this banner came to be has such a great story of giving behind it that I just have to share it with you. A couple of weeks ago I was cruising around blogland and stumbled across a lovely blog called Good, True and Beautiful and this post titled 30 Days of Giving. I discovered that Sharon is participating in Keeping the Kingdom First’s 30 Day Giving Challenge by giving away 30 blog buttons. I quickly left a comment and waited to see if I had made the list and was thrilled when I did. The result is the beautiful button above. I absolutely love it and a big thanks goes out to Sharon for donating of her time so generously to bless others like that.

So now on to last week’s recipe highlight. I just can’t recommend the Bake Chicken and Acorn Squash enough. It has been a Family Favorite for awhile now and it is SO good! I used all chicken thighs for mine.

The best part of any holiday meal for me is decorating the table. I really enjoy doing it and I love that it totally distracts from the meal (in my case that can often be a good thing :) ) I get most of my supplies from the dollar store and just get creative with it. My Thanksgiving napkin rings this year were simply cardboard leaves (from the dollar store) hole punched with a pipe cleaner put through to secure around the napkin. So easy but boy did they pop on the table.

For more inspiration, here are some other great ideas for table decor:

Candy Cups for the Thanksgiving table ~ @ Makes and Takes

Free Thanksgiving placecard printable ~ @ WM[squared] Designs

More Thanksgiving free printables ~ @ Living Locurto

DIY Beautiful Napkin Rings and Ornaments ~ @ Ribbonwood Cottage

I can’t wait to try a few of those myself!

Here is our menu for the week:

Monday: Two-Meat Spaghetti Sauce (new)

Tuesday: Crockpot Chicken Thighs (new) with rice and broccoli

Wednesday: Teriyaki Tenderloin (new) served with french fries and carrots

Thursday: Leftover buffet

Friday: Homemade Pizza

Saturday: Potato Carrot Soup with Goldfish Croutons (new) served with fresh homemade bread (bread machine)

Simple Supper Sunday

WHAT’S ON YOUR MENU THIS WEEK?

Menu Plan Monday guidelines and banner selections are here.

Filed under Menu Plan Monday · Tagged with menu, menu plan, Menu Plan Monday

Menu Plan Monday ~ Nov 9th

Posted by Laura on November 8, 2009 · 47 Comments

Hi everyone! Hope you are all doing well and ready to get menu planning for an organized week!

So my recipe highlight of last week definitely goes to the slow cooked Rotisserie-Style Chicken. This recipe was so easy to prepare in the slow cooker and my hubbie gave it a 9 out of 10 for taste! I say wow to that because he’s a tough critic. The Makeover Creamy Italian Sausage Pasta recipe was also very good and easy to prepare. I’ll definitely be adding both recipes to our Family Favorite Recipe Index.

Unfortunately I wasn’t a huge fan of the Oven Chicken Fingers though, they just weren’t crispy enough for me. I’m going to keep experimenting with recipes on this one.

On my baking list this week is Kristi’s Famous Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins. How about you? Baking anything special this week? Feel free to share your recipe link in the comments.

So here is what’s on our dinner menu:

Monday: Chicken Tortellini Soup (using homemade broth from last week’s chicken)

Tuesday: Slow Cooker French Dip (new)

Wednesday: Baked Chicken and Acorn Squash (family favorite)

Thursday: Leftover buffet

Friday: Baked Ziti with Spinach and Sausage (new)

Saturday: I’m hosting a ladies fondue party! (will post pictures next week)

Simple Supper Sunday

WHAT’S ON YOUR MENU THIS WEEK?

Menu Plan Monday guidelines and banner selections are here.

Filed under Menu Plan Monday · Tagged with menu, menu plan, Menu Planning

Menu Plan Monday ~ Oct 19th

Posted by Laura on October 18, 2009 · 39 Comments

Hello! Thanks for joining me here! I’m so happy to see so many of you taking the time to plan your meals and have an organized week. Woohoo! We had quite a few newbies to Menu Plan Monday last week and I just want to say a big welcome to all of you. I hope you found your week ran so much smoother with a few minutes of advance preparation.

I’m actually going to keep this pretty short today as I’m not feeling so good. I’m thankful that I have you guys to hold me accountable with my own meal plan because it would be so easy to put it off. If I did though I’d be paying for it all during the rest of the week so it’s so much better that I just push through and get er done :)

Oh and if you are a fan of Taste of Home like I am, be sure to come on back tomorrow for a little contest I’m going to have. Should be fun!!

Here’s what we’ll be eating this week:

Monday: Enchilada Casserole (a family favorite)

Tuesday: Ham-Noodle Bake

Wednesday: Pork Chops and Apples with Maple Sauce served with rice and broccoli

Thursday: Leftover Buffet

Friday: Chicken Caesar Wraps

Saturday: Quick Homemade Pizza

Simple Supper Sunday

If you are still stuck for recipe ideas please check out my Family Favorites Recipe Index.

WHAT’S ON YOUR MENU THIS WEEK?

Menu Plan Monday guidelines and banner selections are here.

Filed under Menu Plan Monday · Tagged with menu plan, menus

Menu Plan Monday ~ April 14th

Posted by Laura on April 13, 2008 · 81 Comments

Hi de ho neighbors! I’ve been getting some emails lately asking about recipe sites that allow you to enter in a list of ingredients you have on hand in order to get a list of corresponding recipes. I know of a few sites but I’m hoping you will also be able to help out by adding to my list. Please share in the comments any recipe sites that you know of that allow you to enter in various ingredients and I will continue to add to this list. Thanks bunches :)

Kraft Canada
Taste of Home
SuperCook
All Recipes
RecipeLand
FoodieView
Bigoven
Cooks.com
FamilyFun
Recipezaar
MarthaStewart
CanadianLiving
Lovefoodhatewaste
Foodnetwork
Grouprecipes