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The Meal Plan Returns

Welcome meal plan readers! I have missed you and I’m excited to return to the weekly meal planning process after a great break. There’s lots of new recipes to try from my Pinterest boards and the magazines I devoured at the beach this month. This week is a transition from vacation life to real life so it’s pretty simple. Which is probably what everyone else  needs as we move from July into August in the week ahead.

July Week 4 menu plan

Monday~ Meatless Monday! Using up some pantry staples along with some delicious local corn. {Marshall’s in Gloucester corn isn’t to be missed.}

Tuesday~ C.O.R.N {Clean Out Refrigerator Night ~ complete clean out in this case!}

Wednesday~ moving home and hoping to have an omelet for dinner with herbs from our garden, which I have missed.

Thursday~ Campanelle Tuna Salad. A great pantry ready meal.

Friday~ Pizza night with our homemade pizza dough.

Saturday~ Regroup with an easy take out night.

Quick deal to mention—From Your Freezer To Your Family, Slow Cooker Freezer Recipes is now half off! Buy your copy here for just $4.99. I am a new fan of freezer meals and plan to make more of them before back to school business starts.  It will be half off till August 14th, in honor of Mama and Baby Love’s newest cookbook that comes out on August 8th. {This is an affiliate link which gives me a little kickback if you make a purchase. I own the book and think many of you would enjoy it as the slow cooker can make dinner time prep so much easier.}

Slow Cooker freezer cooking book

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

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Monday Meal Plan May 27th

Happy Memorial Day! I hope everyone is enjoying a long weekend. We are excited to finally get a day of sun and be able to play outside with the kids all day. The menu this week could be tricky…baby still hasn’t arrived so there may be some swings in the next week or two (or month or two!). I have freezer meals tucked away but I’ll wait until the baby arrives and I’m home to break those out.

Today we (almost) could have put the heat on as it was a little chilly when we woke up. By Thursday, it’s supposed to be 90 degrees. If it gets too hot, we may just have to make smoothies for dinner!

Monday Meal Plan May 27

Sunday~ BBQ day with sausages and hot dogs, corn on the cob and coleslaw.

Monday~ Salmon burgers, pesto pasta and salad

Tuesday~ Meatballs (Madison’s request), pasta and green beans

Wednesday~ C.O.R.N. {Clean Out Refrigerator Night}

Thursday~ Eggs

Friday~ Pizza

Saturday~ Chicken Salad Sandwiches

Did you notice how clear the chalkboard menu plan is this week? No, I did not master some new photo editing tool. I was sent the new Lullaby chalkboard paint to test out and it works beautifully!  Lullaby Paints has 16 fun colors of chalkboard paints and they’re totally non-toxic, zero-VOC, and safe for my kitchen. I love how smooth the paint went on and the colors on the kid’s section of the menu board seem much more vibrant now too.

Chalkboard Paint Menu Board

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

 

Disclosure: I did receive the Lullaby Paints to test out. All opinions shared here are my own. Just wait till we show you what we did with the chalkboard paint in our basement!

 

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Monday May 20 Meal Plan

As I prepared my meal plan this week, I thought about how many places I buy my food. There is the local grocery store (which also does our home deliveries), Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Costco and the farmer’s market in our town opens up June 2nd. I got into this new habit of shopping after I became a stay-at-home-mom and wanted to get the best food at the best price. I don’t hit every store every week, but at least two a week. We spend a lot of our monthly budget on food, even with me traveling to all these different stores. As I think about life with three little ones four and under, I think I’ll have to make some adjustments.

I wonder what other moms are prioritizing when it comes to shopping locations. Is it price? Is it selection? Is it how fast you can get there and get home? Meal planning has helped me stay on top of what is actually in our freezer/refrigerator to decrease the amount of food wasted. Now I’m going to make sure my meal planning allows me to visit one big store each week, plus one local stop for additional produce for the weekend. When we started making smoothies our produce stash started diminishing awfully quick! If you have suggestions of how to streamline the grocery store process, I would love to read them in the comment section. 

On the menu this week…

Monday Meal Plan May 20

Sunday~ Homemade Waldorf Chicken Salad for Daddy, Hot Dogs for the Kids. Mom’s off duty and heading to Rice Barn for a spicy dinner and a meet-up with local bloggers for some pre-summer catch-up.

Monday~ Burgers, Sweet Potato Fries

Tuesday~ Date night after the Magic Beans Drool Baby Expo in Boston

Wednesday~ Homemade Chicken Nuggets, steamed green beans and a side of pasta

Thursday~ Pasta Fagioli (meatless meal) and a side salad

Friday~ Mixing it up with Pulled Pork Cemita, Veggie Rice and Guacamole

Saturday~ Pizza night is bumped to Saturday in case we get together with friends and need to make a bigger dinner. Did you catch my recipe post last week for our homemade pizza dough? I tried it with some whole wheat bread flour, but wouldn’t do it again. A little whole wheat is fine but it’s much better with mostly white bread flour.

Homemade Waldorf Chicken Salad

Homemade Waldorf Chicken Salad for Sunday night

What’s on your menu this week? Any great grocery shopping tips to share?

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

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Homemade Pizza Dough With A Bread Machine

How many of you eat pizza at home at least once a week? Do you tend to make it yourself or buy it? If you are a regular reader here, you know we have pizza every Friday night on our weekly meal plan. For a long time, we made our pizzas at home using the dough from Trader Joe’s. It’s cheap and fairly easy to roll out ourselves. When I got my bread machine this year, I decided to come up with a pizza dough recipe that will make two pizzas. It’s a great way to save some money and the kids like to help out with this easy project.

Pizza Dough Bread Machine Recipe

Homemade Pizza Dough With A Bread Machine

Easy pizza dough recipe using a bread machine.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Cuisine: Italian
Servings: 6 -8
Author: Emily

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 3 3/4 bread flour I also sub in some white whole wheat
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons active yeast

Instructions

  • Add all ingredients into a bread machine in the order listed above.
  • Set machine to pizza dough. (Mine takes about 50 minutes.)
  • Dough will be ready to use when the machine cycle is complete.
  • Makes two pizza pies.
Tried this recipe?Mention @emilyroachwellness or tag #erwellness!

Do you have a pizza night in your family?

I’m sharing this over at The 36th Avenue.

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Monday Meal Plan May 13th

Happy Spring

I hope all of my mom readers had a lovely weekend. We spent half of it in Gloucester with family and the other half relaxing at home. It was the perfect weekend, despite some rainy weather. As the weather shifts towards warmer nights, I find myself trying to recall what we usually cook in the summer. Grilling, salads and easy recipes generally top our list. This week’s meal plan starts to hit on this trend. I should also put away a couple more freezer meals to get ready for baby’s arrival. The countdown is on!

On the menu this week…

Chalkboard Menu Plan

Sunday~ Grilled Steak Tips, Corn on the Cob, Sourdough Bread (thanks Melissa!) and Pesto.

Monday~ C.O.R.N. {Clean Out Refrigerator Night, we have chicken, steak and leftover fish dinner to clear through)

Tuesday~ Cheesy Skillet Pasta and broccoli

Wednesday~ Grilled Salmon, grilled asparagus and Annie’s Pasta on the side

Thursday~ Swiss Steak Slow Cooker Freezer Meal. Time to use up the “wintry” slow cooker meals.

Friday~ Pizza Night with our homemade dough in the bread machine!

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

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Monday Meal Plan May 6

Happy Cinco de Mayo on this Sunday night. We enjoyed not one, but two, Mexican themed dinners with friends this weekend. Both were delicious and it was wonderful to relax with great company. This week’s meal plan is pretty streamlined as we try to clear through what we have and I start making freezer meals for when the baby arrives.

Mama and Baby Love Freezer Meal ebook

I’m testing out some recipes from the Mama and Baby Love From Your Freezer to Your Family: Slow Cooker Freezer Recipes eCookbook. I met Stephanie the author at Blissdom and she was kind enough to send me a copy to review. She recognizes how handy it is for moms to have some freezer meals packed away for those days when you are not up for making a big dinner. When the new baby arrives I know I’ll be happy I have a few of these recipes tucked away so we can still eat healthy, even when I’m too tired to cook. The recipes use real food ingredients so it totally works for our family.

 Chalkboard Menu Board

On the menu this week…

Sunday~ Cinco de Mayo dinner

Monday~ Chicken Soup using leftovers from last week’s chicken.

Tuesday~ Burgers, Salad

Wednesday~ CORN (Clean Out Refrigerator Night)

Thursday~ Eggs for dinner

Friday~ Pizza night

Saturday~ Weekend away

Sunday is Mother’s Day…hoping to be up at the beach for the day. May need to plan for a BBQ early dinner.

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

BundleoftheWeek.com, 5 eBooks for $7.40!

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Monday Meal Plan April 29th

Hello spring! It’s finally warmer and everything outside is growing and turning green. As I planned this week’s menu, I started looking forward to those days when we can pick everything we need to make a salad from our garden. On Sunday I planted two different lettuce varieties, baby spinach, green beans and basil. We use raised beds so I’m hopeful the weather will stay warm enough to let my little seeds thrive.

This week is a little nutty with the semi-annual Parent Talk Used Clothing, Toys and Gear sale happening on Saturday May 4th in Needham. I’ll be helping out Thursday, Friday and Saturday so I’m trying to keep the cooking to a minimum!

Monday Meal Plan Board

On the menu this week…

Sunday~ Burgers and hot dogs, sweet potato fries and potato salad

Monday~ Spicy Green Chicken Burritos (Wildtree freezer meal) and rice

Tuesday~ Super easy Whole Chicken in either the slow cooker or pressure cooker, salad and Annie’s Bunny Pasta. Leftover chicken will be used for chicken salad sandwiches.

Wednesday~ Soy Ginger Scallops with snow peas and leftover rice

Thursday ~ CORN (Clean Out Refrigerator Night)

Friday~ Pizza!

Saturday~ Date night

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

Ultimate Homemaking ebook bundle Sale

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Monday April 22 Meal Plan

Time to think spring and in honor of Earth Day I’m trying to add in some seasonal recipes for this week’s meal plan. I’m planning to visit our local farm stand to get some fresh salad greens and maybe some rhubarb for a Strawberry-Rhubarb galette. After the stressful events in Boston last week, I feel like we could use some yummy baked goods in the house.

 Monday Meal Plan from www.RandomRecycling.com

Sunday~ Spinach Quiche. Love breakfast for dinner, especially after spending the day traveling. This meatless dinner was a success!

Monday~ Grilled Chicken Salad with Honey and Chipotle Vinaigrette 

Tuesday~  Wildtree freezer meal Italian Pork Chops, Roasted Asparagus

Wednesday~ Meatballs and Pasta (per Madison’s request)

Thursday~ Wildtree freezer meal Bangkok Chicken Satay (grilled) over rice and green beans

Friday~ Pizza night

Saturday~ Away to Gloucester, date night!

What’s on your menu this week?

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

Plan It Don't Panic Menu Planning

Meal Plan Sponsor (affiliate)

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Monday Meal Plan April 15th

Since it’s still a bit chilly, you will see some cozy, comfort food on the meal plan this week. I’m testing out another Wildtree slow cooker freezer meal and trying to use up what’s already in the house before I head out to Type A Conference in Philly this weekend. One last weekend away before the new baby arrives.

I’m reading through the new book Slow Cooker Freezer Recipes from my friend Stephanie of Mama and Baby Love. The recipes use real ingredients and I think they will help get me through the early months of having a newborn in the house again. Once I test out a few recipes I’ll share a little more about the cookbook.

Meal Plan April RandomRecycling.com

Sunday~ Italian spaghetti and corn

Monday~ Hungarian Beef Goulash (Wildtree Slow Cooker) with egg noodles and green beans

Tuesday~ Zesty Citrus Chicken over a garden salad

Wednesday~ Shrimp Scampi, pasta and asparagus

Thursday~ CORN (Clean Out Refrigerator Night)

Friday~ Pizza while Mom’s away

Saturday~ Hot Dogs or breakfast for dinner

What’s on your menu this week?

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

 

If you are an ebook reader like me, you may enjoy this week’s Simple Living bundle. Clutterfree sounds perfect as we work on Project Simplify this month!
BundleoftheWeek.com, 5 eBooks for $7.40!

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Monday Meal Plan April 8

RandomRecycling Monday Meal Plan

 

This week’s menu features some new meals from my Wildtree Freezer Meal workshop last week. I did the “Around the World” package so I get a great mix of meals to pick from. My plan is to test them out in the next couple of weeks, then remake my favorites so I have them in the freezer when the new baby arrives.

On our menu this week…

Sunday~ Thai Sesame Sun Butter Chicken, Rice Noodles, Matchstick Carrots (Wildtree~ winner!)

Monday~ Fajita Pulled Pork (Wildtree slow cooker meal), serve with rice and fajita toppings

Tuesday~ Asian Salmon (Wildtree meal), Broccoli and leftover rice on the side

Wednesday~ Omelets for dinner

Thursday~ Teriyaki Steak Tips and Zucchini on the grill if the weather holds out

Friday~ Pizza night!

Saturday~ Kids get hot dogs while we get a date night.

What’s on your menu this week?

 

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

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