Menu Plan Monday ~ July 27th
Please Note:
I’ll be taking a bit of a blogging break next week and so Menu Plan Monday for August 3rd will be hosted by Toni from The Happy Housewife!
Hey gang, how is everyone? I’m so glad you’re here, thanks for joining me and sharing your menu with everyone.
We just got home from a beautiful sunny weekend of camping which of course is the only way I’ll go because this princess girl doesn’t like to sleep in a soggy tent if it’s raining out. Ahh the joys of tenting! :) Nothing beats hot dogs cooked over an open fire though. Mmmmm.
So I don’t know if you remember but last week I pleaded asked for suggestions on casserole dishes that I could prepare for a friend. Be sure to visit the comments on this post for so many great recipe ideas. Thank you for helping me out. The recipe I decided to use is called Chicken Macaroni Bake and it came from the fabulous site Once a Month Mom. Gosh if you are looking for a great selection of freezer meal recipes be sure to check them out. I doubled the recipe to make two nice size round take out dishes full which they could decide to have one or both at a time depending on how many people they were feeding on a particular night.
Okay so most of you must know by now how passionate I am about menu planning and how I’m on a mission to really encourage everyone to give it a try at least once. I say at least once because I’m convinced it will only take that long for you to realize the many benefits to it. Anytime someone wants to talk to me about menu planning I jump at the opportunity. This week I did a podcast with the lovely Cara from The Household Helper blog. We had such fun chatting away about menu planning. If you’d like to have a listen you can do so here.
Last week’s recipe highlight definitely goes to the Enchilada Casserole. Oh wow was this ever delicious and definitely a new family favorite for sure due to how simple and easy it was to make!
Here’s what’s on our menu for this week:
Monday: Mexican-Style Ravioli (missed from last week)
Tuesday: Grilled sausages served with Hawaiian Salad
Wednesday: Slow Cooker Maui Chicken (I might be missing my girlfriend from Hawaii what do you think? lol)
Thursday: Leftover buffet
Friday: Teriyaki Sirloin Steak served with baked potatoes and grilled veggies
Saturday: Grilled Portobello and Sun-Dried Tomato Sandwich with Garlic Herb Mayonnaise
Simple Supper Sunday
WHAT’S ON YOUR MENU THIS WEEK?
Menu Plan Monday guidelines and banner selections can be found here.
Kitchen Organization for Healthy Eating
I’m so excited about Guest Post Thursday going on here this summer. Today I am thrilled to have Laura from Heavenly Homemakers visiting. I love Laura’s blog because when I’m reading her posts it always feels like I’m sitting right there in her kitchen with her chatting away with a cup of tea. Her post here today is no exception. I’ve learned so much about homemaking from reading Laura’s blog and her inspiration is a huge factor in why I’ve been able to step out of my fearful box and try some new things in the kitchen lately, like pie crust from scratch and canning. Thanks Laura!
Oh, and if I do say so myself…our homemade-from-scratch food tastes really, really delicious. (Judging by the incredible amount my husband and four boys can put away…I think they like my cooking.)
Here are some questions I often get from my blog readers:
Are you in the kitchen ALL the time? How do you get all of this done? How do you keep up with all the dishes?
I am in the kitchen a lot…but I don’t live in there. (See, like right now I’m on the computer in the living room instead. :) ) Cooking from scratch does take time…but here are some things I do to make my work simpler:
I plan our menus!!! I can not be efficient in the kitchen without a plan for the week. Menu plans are a must for me. Yay for Org Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday!
I cook simple meals…simple foods. I rarely cook anything that requires complicated steps or hard-to-work-with ingredients. Meat, potatoes, rice, beans, veggies, fruits, grains, eggs, milk…it’s all just basic food put together into different yummy meals.
I wash dishes as I go. I really do dirty up a lot of dishes in a day…but I try (try) to keep up with them by washing them as I cook. I have a dishwasher. I have boys old enough to help. I have ten minutes here and there to knock more out of the pile. I love having clean countertops.
I think ahead, plan ahead, cook ahead. This is one of my biggest cooking helps. I look at my menu plan and know what I’ll need for the upcoming week. If I can, I spend time on Friday night and Saturday cooking and baking for the week ahead. I’ll make up a double batch of tortillas, cook chicken for broth, bake four loaves of bread, brown several pounds of hamburger meat, cook rice, put together burritoes for the freezer, or any other foods that will make the week ahead run more smoothly. THEN, during the week…it’s like having convenience foods in the fridge or freezer!
and here’s one of my favorite ways to stay organized and ahead in the kitchen:
I make tomorrow’s breakfast while I’m cooking tonight’s dinner. This doesn’t always work (like, I’m not going to scramble tomorrow’s eggs at 6:00 tonight…yuck), but if we’re having muffins for breakfast, I’ll mix them up and bake them while I’m in the kitchen cooking dinner. In the morning, I’ll re-warm them in the oven for a few minutes, or just serve them as is. Or, if I’m making biscuits tomorrow morning, I’ll mix the flour and buttermilk so they can soak overnight…and then just finish them up the next morning. I often make a double batch of waffles, let them cool, then freeze them. Then we have convenient, toaster waffles whenever we need them. LOVE it.
Those are some of the things I do to keep myself organized and sane during the busy weeks of school work, computer work, laundry, and you know…Chutes and Ladders.
What are some of your best ways of staying organized while you’re cooking? Do you feel like you spend hours in your kitchen?
Menu Plan Monday ~ July 20th
Welcome to another week! Have you heard the exciting news yet? The famous Pioneer Woman has started a new recipe/community site called Tasty Kitchen! I’ve been hanging out there for the past couple of days drooling over all the delicious recipes and trying to decide which ones I wanted to add to my menu plan. So great, be sure to check it out!
This week I’d like to make a freezer meal for a friend that is just getting out of the hospital and would love your help figuring out what to make. I have a number of recipes that are your standard spaghetti sauce/mozza cheese pasta type dish but I’d prefer to do something a little different. Do you have a favorite go to freezer meal recipe that you make for a family in need? Please share the link in the comments if you can. Thanks!
Our recipe highlight of last week was the Tortellini Marinara recipe. Such a quick and simple meal to throw together and it was yummy. Next time I’d probably throw in some peppers as well just to add some veggies. Did you have a favorite recipe from last week?
Here’s what we’ll be eating this coming week:
Monday: Enchilada Casserole
Tuesday: Heather’s Chicken Bruschetta Pasta
Wednesday: Teriyaki Tenderloin served with perogies and broccoli
Thursday: Leftover buffet
Friday: Mexican-Style Ravioli
Saturday: Company’s coming over ~ Steak and Vegetable Kabobs served with Sundried Tomato Pasta Salad and Ooey Gooey Peanut Butter Fudge Brownies for dessert (the last two are new recipes for me)
Simple Supper Sunday
Need some more dinner ideas?
Check out my Family Favorite Recipe Index.
WHAT’S ON YOUR MENU THIS WEEK?
Menu Plan Monday guidelines and banner selections are here.
Menu Plan Monday ~ July 13th
Hi all, how are you this week? Thanks for joining me here!
For me last week was a two cake week and I’m happy to say at least one of them turned out..lol. The Double Musky Cake took me almost TWO hours to make but was so absolutely delicious it was totally worth it. I am highly recommending that one for sure. The Starbucks Coffee Cake, however, was a bit of a bust for me in that the topping, which you put on mid way through cooking the cake, wouldn’t all fit into the pan so I had to try to push it down causing the cake underneath to bubble up over the topping in some places. Let’s just say it didn’t look too appetizing when it was done. So with a little help from my twitter friends, I served it all ready cut up so no one would notice and sprinkled powdered sugar all over the top to hide the imperfections. I still felt there was a little too much topping for this cake though (as you can see in the picture it was almost more topping than cake) which made it really really sweet. I also should have warmed it as well as the topping was a tad on the hard side.
Oh and just as a bit of a side note, a couple of weeks ago I posted about the Strawberry Rhubarb Preserves I had made and a couple of people asked me what rhubarb was. I’ve found a great explanation for you here.
Okay so this week I’m trying to keep things pretty simple (and no cake baking!):
Monday: Shepherd’s Pie courtesy of M&M’s (do you have this store in the US?)
Tuesday: Easy Teriyaki Chicken Burgers served with tossed salad
Wednesday: Chicken Caesar Wraps using up leftover chicken
Thursday: Tortellini Marinara
Friday: Pesto Hamburgers served with french fries and grilled veggies
Saturday: Leftover buffet
Simple Supper Sunday
Don’t forget to join me on Blog Talk Radio on Monday night at 8:30 pm EST! More info here.
WHAT’S ON YOUR MENU THIS WEEK?
Menu Plan Monday guidelines and banner selections are here.
Menu Plan Monday ~ June 29th
Welcome! Thank you all for the birthday wishes last week, I really appreciated it! Please forgive me if I didn’t get a chance to personally thank you.
The winner of last week’s Heavenly Homemaker’s Guide to Gardening and Preserving ebook was Kristen of Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker. Kristen’s Menu Plan Monday post last week included instructions on how to make homemade bagels. That’s something else on my list of things to try one of these days, they looked delicious!
So how’s everyone doing today? I just got home from a bit of a mini road trip with my girlfriend and we had such a glorious time. Well except for the part where she made me stand on a bridge far far above the land for a photo opp. I so wasn’t impressed with that. Have I told you I’m afraid of heights?
Aside for that small moment where I feared for my life, the rest of the trip was great! :) It’s always nice to get away if only for a little while. I mean I love my kids but boy is it nice to carry on a conversation without being interrupted. We went to an amazing Mexican restaurant. I had a yummy tostada with yam fries and for dessert some coconut lime meringue pie. Yep, I had to be rolled out of there.
Now I’m sitting here trying to come up with a menu for this week. Nothing is jumping out at me. Strange how some weeks it’s so easy to select recipes for the week and other times it can be so difficult. Maybe the trick is to do up my menu when I’m really really hungry because that way everything will be sure to appeal to me :) Right now though I’m still full from the weekend!
MPM Tip: I know many of you already do this but if you are featuring a recipe or recipe links in your MPM post be sure to include that in your Mr. Linky info to encourage people to visit your site.
So here’s what we’ll be eating this week:
Monday: Fajitas
Tuesday: Pasta and Zucchini
Wednesday: Wienie and Smore Roast as part of our July 1st celebrations!
Thursday: Crockpot Brown Sugar Chicken (I’ll be using a whole chicken) served with perogies and salad
Saturday: Grilled Honey Garlic Pork Tenderloin served with baked potatoes and veggies
Simple Supper Sunday
WHAT’S ON YOUR MENU THIS WEEK?
Menu Plan Monday guidelines and banner selections are here.
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