, , ,

Monday Meal Plan Jan 6th

Welcome to the first meal plan of 2014! Are you trying to get more organized this year and make meal planning a part of your routine? Each week I share our plans for family friendly, healthy recipes for dinner my hope it that it inspires some easy dinners for your family.

As we start the month of January, we have been trying to declutter everywhere. Including the kitchen and pantry. After the busyness of the holidays, it’s time to take stock of what we have to use up, and make room to refresh our real foods pantry. The deep freezer is also helping us save money this month as we use up some of our summer stash of tomato sauce , squash and our 1/4 of a cow.

Meal plan jan 6~ celebrate the new year and start meal planning

This week’s menu…

Sunday~ Soy ginger scallops, steamed green beans and jasmine rice. {Madison got more scallops than anyone as she kept poaching them off of her parents plate.}

Monday~ Chickpea Stew with Apricots. Awesome slow-cooker dinner for Meatless Monday. I swap out the turnip for carrots which I usually have on hand.  Serve over israeli couscous. I’ll also get to use up some of our tomato sauce for this recipe.

Tuesday~ Spaghetti and meat sauce. Peas on the side…the kids LOVE them frozen, but will not eat them cooked. Anyone else’s kids do this?

Wednesday~ Whole chicken in the slow cooker with carrots and potatoes. I love this meal as I get great stock out of making the dinner, then I save the carcass and make another batch of chicken broth overnight in the crock pot.

Wednesday Lunch we are making Pizza quesadillas from the Weelicious Lunch cookbook. It’s the one day we are all home for lunch so I’m trying to plan ahead a hot lunch.

Thursday~ Clean Out Refrigerator Night. Maybe use the chicken leftovers for chicken quesadillas.

Friday~ Family pizza night! Still enjoying our homemade pizza dough in the bread machine.

Lovely meatless meal in the slow cooker: Chickpea Apricot Stew from SimpleBites.net

Lovely meatless meal in the slow cooker: Chickpea Apricot Stew from SimpleBites.net

 

For more inspiration, see my past menus here, or the Pinterest board here, or OrgJunkie for a link-up of meal plans. Weelicious is an affiliate link on amazon, if you buy it through my link, thanks!

Follow Me
/by
, ,

Monday Meal Plan December 30th

As the pace of the month calms after the holidays, let this be a time to regroup and get organized in the New Year. Meal planning can be easy step towards a more organized week for many families. We had a lovely Christmas holiday and now enjoying some quality family time at home this week. The kids are playing with toys, Daddy is enjoying vacation time and I’m reading lots of the articles I find on Pinterest, instead of just pinning them! I love that so many planners are now available with meal planning space and I may be tweaking how I plan my weekly meals.

Without further ado, here is our last meal plan of 2013. Enjoy!

Meal Plan December

Sunday~ Chicken Tortilla Soup

Monday~ Meatballs and Spaghetti (Madison’s choice) and sautéed green beans with grape seed oil.

Tuesday~ Beef Tenderloin for New Year’s Eve with a red wine marinade. Roasted carrots and potatoes on the side.

Wednesday~ Basque Fish Soup for New Year’s Day and Popovers

Thursday~ Clean Out Refrigerator Night

Friday~ Pizza night with our bread maker pizza dough.

Do you make a meal plan each week? What tips would you share with people just starting out?

 chicken tortilla soup

For more inspiration, see my past menus here, or the Pinterest board here, or OrgJunkie for a link-up of meal plans. 

Follow Me
/2 Comments/by
,

Monday Meal Plan Dec 16th

Hello! I’m back quickly to share this week’s meal plan. Last week it was a little unstructured and I think this week we need a plan since it’s crunch time getting ready for Christmas. Luckily I unearthed a couple freezer meals from my last Wildtree workshop that need to be used up. Hooray for having dinner nearly made already.

Dec 16 menu plan

Sunday~ Chili and cornbread. Chili came out awesome even without the usual kidney beans. I increased the amount of peppers and also added in chopped carrots.

Monday~ Baked haddock, broccoli and Annie’s shells

Tuesday~ Chicken in Wine sauce with vegetables (freezer meal that goes right into the crockpot.)

Wednesday~ Chicken in Zesty Tomato Sauce (another freezer meal to crockpot), side of linguine and peas.

Thursday~ Clean.Out.Refrigerator.Night

Friday~ Pizza night…or maybe date night.

If you need some inspiration for freezer meals, this book from Jennifer Fisher is easy to follow along.

The other site I like for healthy freezer meal to slow cooker diner is written by Stephanie of Mama and Baby Love. She has a bunch of ebooks and paperbooks to choose from, depending on what you need. Click here to visit Mama And Baby Love.

We are still enjoying our time making a Christmas craft a day…follow along on Instagram or Twitter with #xmascraftaday.

For more inspiration, see my past menus here, or the Pinterest board here, or OrgJunkie for a link-up of meal plans. Some links are affiliate links in this post, which means if you purchase something from say Amazon, you will help support this site. Thanks!

Follow Me
/1 Comment/by
,

Monday Meal Plan Dec 2

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Here is what’s on the menu this week.

Meal Plan Dec2

Sunday~ Turkey Soup, Popovers and Apple Pie

Monday~ Chicken Parmesan (slow cooker) and Green Beans

Tuesday~ Turkey Soup

Wednesday~ C.O.R.N.

Thursday~ Steak, Corn, Polenta

Friday~ Pizza night

Saturday~ Christmas Party with Dad. Bringing dip, veggies, cheese and crackers.

For more inspiration, see my past menus here, or the Pinterest board here, or OrgJunkie for a link-up of meal plans.

Follow Me
/by
, , , ,

Thanksgiving Week Meal Plan

Happy Thanksgiving week! And Hanukkah! I don’t envy my friends trying to coordinate both celebrations this week. Planning the Thanksgiving Day menu is enough for me. I will be hosting for the first time {ever} and very excited for the big event. The past few years, I’ve made a full Thanksgiving feast at home after the big day. There is something about having your own special recipes and of course, the leftovers.

Giving Quote

Here is our Thanksgiving Day menu plans

  • Turkey (17 lbs) from our local poultry farm
  • Gravy
  • Stuffing (one with sausage and one without)
  • Cranberry Sauce
  • Mashed Potatoes
  • Glazed Carrots
  • Corn Pudding
  • Fresh Rolls
  • Pumpkin Pie
  • Apple Pie
  • Brownies

I’m most excited for my sister and her family to join us on Thanksgiving. After spending five long years away on a military base in Hawaii, they are finally done and moving home the day before the holiday. I am so thankful to watch the cousins play together on the holiday.

Are you hosting Thanksgiving this year? If you need some tips or ideas, you can find a bunch on the Ultimate Thanksgiving Guide on Pinterest. I also loved this blog post on how to host Thanksgiving, and enjoy it. Tons of great ideas for organizing the days before Thursday, recipes and decorating ideas. I’ve printed out this Give Thanks banner and will be setting it up tomorrow. Did you know you can recycle tons of your Thanksgiving day cooking props? Even the aluminum foil that tents the turkey can by recycled.

For the balance of the week, we are keeping things simple on our meal plan.

AutumnChoppedSalad

Autumn Chopped Salad from Iowa Girl Eats

Sunday~ Chopped Autumn Salad with Chicken. A new favorite in the family. The kids version made it onto my Instagram Sunday night.

Monday~ Spaghetti and meatballs, green beans.

Tuesday~ Chicken nuggets, sweet potato fries and annie’s shell.

Wednesday~ Omelets/C.O.R.N. to make room for the big turkey!

Thanksgiving~ yummy goodness all day

Friday~ Turkey sandwiches. It’s the only time of the year I eat country white bread.

What are you doing for the Thanksgiving holiday? Excited to host or excited to visit?

For more inspiration, see my past menus here, or the Pinterest board here, or OrgJunkie for a link-up of meal plans.

Follow Me
/5 Comments/by
,

Monday Meal Plan November 18

Wait. How did it get to be mid-November so fast? I’m happy Thanksgiving isn’t till next week as I’m just not quite ready for the holiday season to descend upon us full force. I love fall and I don’t want to let it go. Till then, this week’s menu features some family favorites (the kids LOVE taco bar nights) and one of my old favorites I haven’t made in a long time.

Monday Meal Plan Nov 18

Sunday~ Steak, roasted butternut squash and pasta

Monday~ Chicken provencal, rice and spinach salad (kids love raw spinach salads, but won’t touch steamed spinach. Anyone else’s kids do the same?)

Tuesday ~ Taco night with hamburger from our cow delivery.

Wednesday~ Easy ribs in slow cooker, corn and coleslaw {Here is 10 perfect side dishes with ribs}

coleslaw wtih caraway raisins

Thursday~ Omelets

Friday~ Pizza night with homemade dough

 

What are some of your family’s favorite meals? I find a lot of my inspiration for dinners come from hearing what other parents are making for their family. Please share in the comments any favorites!

If you missed last week’s meal plan, you must try out the Lemon Chicken Stew. It was AMAZING.

For more inspiration, see my past menus here, or the Pinterest board here, or OrgJunkie for a link-up of meal plans.

Follow Me
/1 Comment/by
, ,

Monday Meal Plan November 11th

This is the first meal plan that will use some of the cow we got delivered this weekend! More to come on that story, but it’s a quarter cow and all grass-fed. It’s amazing to see all the different cuts of meat we got…all ready to go in our deep freezer!

Monday Meal Plan Nov 11

Sunday~ Chicken and Artichokes in slow cooker, egg noodles. This was a Wildtree Freezer meal and it was yummy!

Monday~ Spaghetti and meat sauce, steamed spinach for adults, raw spinach for kids.

Tuesday~ Lemon Chicken Stew. {New recipe} Doesn’t it look delicious??

Lemon Chicken Stew

Gorgeous Lemon Chicken Stew from FoodieCrush.com

Wednesday~ Chicken nuggets, corn and Annie’s shells

Thursday ~ Clean Out Refrigerator Night

Friday~ Pizza night!

For more inspiration, see my past menus here, or the Pinterest board here, or OrgJunkie for a link-up of meal plans.

Follow Me
/by
,

Monday Meal Plan Nov 4th

A slightly delayed menu for the week as I spent a weekend away and needed last night for lots of snuggle time with the kids. Here is this week’s menu plan.

Meal Plan Nov 4th

 

M~ Whole Chicken in the pressure cooker with carrots and egg noodles

T~ Italian Pesto Pasta with leftover chicken

W~ Meatballs in slow cooker, spaghetti and green beans.

T~ Clean Out Refrigerator Night

F~ Pizza Night with red peppers and mushrooms

S~ Steak Fajitas, rice and salad

For more inspiration, see my past menus here, or the Pinterest board here, or OrgJunkie for a link-up of meal plans.<

Follow Me
/by
,

Monday Meal Plan Oct 28th

It’s October and I feel like I’ve written every meal plan this month watching a baseball game. Guess it’s a good thing the Sox are holding on till the end. In addition to baseball, we are excited for Halloween this week and plan to host our neighborhood gathering of princesses, pirates, ghosts and more. We will be serving hot apple cider (possibly wrapped in the WonderBag to keep it warm) and some delicious pumpkin treat. (Did you catch my post on how to make your own pumpkin puree?)

Meal plan Oct 28 with autumn salads, freezer meals and halloween!

Here is what is on the menu this week…

Sunday~ Absolutely Onion Pot Roast (Wildtree freezer meal), egg noodles and roasted red potatoes.

Monday~ Hot Dogs (yes, we eat hot dogs, preferably those from Applegate.) Plus leftovers from Sunday dinner.

Tuesday~ Ribs in the crock pot, corn and maybe some cornbread

Wednesday~ Chicken and Artichokes (Wildtree freezer meal for slow cooker) rice and snow

Thursday~ Autumn chopped salad and grilled cheese. (Easy make ahead meal for Halloween night!)

Friday~ Pizza night with homemade pizza dough in the bread machine

Saturday~ Mom’s night away so there are homemade chicken nuggets frozen and ready to go, plus some chopped raw veggies with dip.

For more inspiration, see my past menus here, or the Pinterest board here, or OrgJunkie for a link-up of meal plans.

Follow Me
/4 Comments/by
,

Monday Meal Plan October 21st

Awesome weekend with friends…volunteering at the Parent Talk Sale and then a pumpkin carving party. Totally wiped on Sunday so we had a low key day cleaning out the raised beds, making tomato sauce and visiting the second to last farmers market. Now we are ready for the week ahead and the WORLD SERIES! Go Boston!!

Monday Meal Plan Oct

 S~ Roasted Plum Tomato Sauce with browned beef, linguine and steamed broccoli.

M~ Grilled Coho Salmon, baked sweet potatoes and salad.

T~ Omelets and toast

W~ Southwestern Flair Burritos (freezer meal for slow cooker), rice and salad

T~ Chicken Nuggets (already made and frozen…testing it out to see if we like them as much!), peas and leftover rice.

F~ Pizza with homemade dough

S~ Hamburgers on the grill while it’s still nice out!

For more inspiration, see my past menus here, or the Pinterest board here, or OrgJunkie for a link-up of meal plans.

Follow Me
/2 Comments/by