It’s not just another Monday in our house. A little someone is turning 4 today! How did she get so grown up already?
This week is happily filled with birthday parties, class cupcakes and her choice of pizza for dinner. Can’t argue with the birthday girl. For her class cupcakes, I made mini pumpkin muffins (nut-free) with cream cheese frosting. The birthday girl requested pink frosting so I used a recipe from Weelicious that colors the frosting with some beet puree. You can hardly taste the sneaky addition of a veggie in the fun frosting.
On our menu plan this week…
Sunday: Italian spaghetti, sautéed zucchini in garlic grape seed oil
Monday: Birthday pizza along with cake and ice cream
Tuesday: Sandwich and Soup night, this mommy is going out with friends.
Wednesday: Beef Stew (if timing is tight, I’ll make it in the pressure cooker)
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The cold is coming! Our menu plan calls for crock pot dinners, comfort food and yummy cookies. That’s what I like to eat when the temperature drops outside. I still have a bunch of freezer meals too that I’m trying to test out each week. Last week’s menu plan featured Honey Balsamic Drumsticks…they were so good my husband said I should write about it. That doesn’t often happen so I’ll share the recipe soon.
We are excited for the big Pats game tonight and looking forward to relaxing with friends while we watch the game. Have a great week!
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This week’s meal plan was a little more challenging than usual for me. My husband is doing the South Beach diet so it means a little more protein and veggies added to our usual mix. It’s hard to break the mold of protein-veggie-starch that I’ve come accustomed to. And no Friday night pizza! That was the hardest thing to adjust since it was the one day of the week I didn’t have to come up with something. Thankfully I went to a Wildtree freezer meal workshop and made 10 meals that are now ready to go for the next month. The “Best Burgers” will replace pizza for Friday night this week.
Sunday~ Leftover smoked mozzarella and tomato meatloaf. Another Wildtree dinner and it was yummy.
Monday~ Honey Balsamic Drumsticks. Wildtree again…I’m not typically a fan of cooking drumsticks but I thought the kids might like the novelty of them, and the variety. Served with steamed broccoli and tangy balsamic couscous (for some of us carb eaters).
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This week’s menu features more meatless meals than we typically make. My husband won’t join us for dinner part of the week so I get to try out some vegetarian meals to see if they make the cut.
Sunday~ Both lunch and dinner are covered at birthday parties. Thank you for a day with less dishes. Instead, I made some honey whole wheat bread in my new Bread Maker
Monday~ Treating us to a dinner out at a local Indian sandwich shop. Curious to see what the kids will like.
Friday~ Garlicky Shrimp and noodles. I’m doing a Freezer Meal Class with Wildtree this week and the shrimp is one of the creations we will prepare. I get to hang out with friends and make 10 meals worth of dinners at this workshop. Sounds pretty good doesn’t it?
What are you making this week? Any vegetarian dishes you would recommend?
For more meal planning ideas, check out OrgJunkie.
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Last meal plan of 2012! I can proudly say we stuck with menu planning for the whole year. The chalkboard menu plan in the the kitchen turned out to be just the right system for us. You have to decide what works for your family. It may be on paper, a note in your iPhone, a wipe board on your fridge. The options are endless, you just need to play around and see what works with your family’s routine.
If you need a little inspiration for your meal planning, here are some additional resources.
The ebook by Stephanie Langford, Plan It Don’t Panic, helped me strategize how to make meal planning more effective. My favorite take away was to write down a list of family favorites for dinner. This can be a work in progress for you, but it’s helpful to have one go-to list when I just can’t think of something to make.
I created a Pinterest board collecting all of my meal plans. You can search back either here, or in the blog, to get a few new ideas for your own meal plan.
Organizing Junkie hosts a link up of meal plans weekly. Lots of people use this weekly post (comes out on Monday) to get inspired with new ideas from more than 200 other bloggers. If you share a meal plan on your blog, you can also share it there. (Or here in the comments too!)
After all the indulgences of the past month, it’s time to clean up our eating. We will be doing less carbs and more veggies and protein. Hopefully I can sneak some meatless meals in too sometime soon.
Sunday- Chicken Stir Fry with veggies and brown rice
Monday- Happy New Year’s Eve. Heading to a party and then a friend’s house. Last day of indulgences…
Tuesday- Jan 1st 2013! Beef Tenderloin, baked potatoes (need to use them up) and roasted asparagus.
Wednesday-Swordfish Kabobs, salad
Thursday-Spinach and cheese frittata
Friday- Salsa Chicken, salad.
What are you making this week? Any new food resolutions you want to make for 2013?
p.s. There a new “ebook bundle of the week I’ll be sharing with you. The simplify ebook has been on my radar for awhile so I think I may pick up the bundle myself. Enjoy!
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Let the countdown begin! The kids are excited that it’s nearly Christmas Eve and the big day is almost here. They are exhausted from staying up too late at a holiday party but it was so much fun seeing them party like a rock star till well past their bedtime.
The meal plan for the week is focused on the next two days. One more party to attend and then we are hosting 11 adults and 6 kids on Christmas Day. I’m sharing our Christmas menu today if you need a little last minute inspiration. We have never hosted Christmas Day so the menu is a mix of family favorites. The rest of our week will be filled with leftovers, using up pantry staples and a night out for mom and dad.
Christmas Day Menu
Appetizers: Cheese and Crackers, Shrimp Cocktail
Main Course: Glazed Ham, Green Bean Casserole, Corn Pudding, Cranberry Sauce
Dessert: Buckeye Balls, Congo Bars, French Meringues, Gingerbread Cookies and Chewy Molasses Cookies.
What are you making for Christmas Day? Is it a tradition or do you mix it up every year?
For more menu planning ideas, visit the Monday Meal Plan at Org Junkie every week!
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Writing my meal plan this weekend was a normal task. We enjoyed a wonderful weekend of holiday events with friends. That too, was normal. Yet, nothing feels that normal right now. My heart aches for those families that lost loved ones last week. I know how hard this is for families, having gone through a tragedy like this seven years ago. Time does help, but it’s really the support of family and friends that keeps people afloat. Love everyone a little more this week.
On the menu this week….
Dec wk 3 Menu Plan
Sunday~ Chicken Picatta, Lemon Spaghetti, Snow Peas. Recipes from the Giada DeLaurentis cookbook, Everyday Italian
Monday~ Chickpea Curry and Brown Rice (Meatless Monday)
Wednesday~ Steak with Parsley Sauce, Steamed Broccoli and Oven Baked Polenta. (select recipes from the Everyday Food: Great Food Fast cookbook) Everyday Food: Great Food Fast Cookbook
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The holiday clock is ticking…what do you have left to do? Is your shopping done? I did most of mine online this year and at our local shops during the post-Thanksgiving holiday so I feel like I’m in good shape. (Here is my post noting my favorite eco-friendly shopping sites.) The biggest project left are some of our homemade food gifts which will go out to lots of friends and family and also some teachers this year.
The coming week is filled with lots of evening events so no new recipes to test out. I am keeping it simple with some family favorites and trying to make some room in our freezer to store up some cookie dough. We do need to bake some cookies and check it off our Christmas Bucket List.
Week 2 December Meal Plan
Sunday~ Baked Ziti (Lasagna style), Salad and Garlic Bread
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Happy December everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend. On Sunday I went to our local Holiday House Tour that showcased six houses that decked their halls, kitchens, mudrooms and more. It always gets me in the holiday decorating mood. We have our tree up and I’m surrounded by boxes of Christmas goodies left to unwrapped. The next few weeks are busy with holiday parties to attend so our meal plans have to be flexible. We have a few freezer meals ready to go in case our weekly plan goes awry.
In addition to having some freezer meals prepped, we have a few fallbacks when we are not up for cooking.
-Eggs (Frittata with extra veggies in the fridge is a favorite)
-Sandwich night (Grilled cheese, Tuna melts, etc)
-Pasta and sauce with olives or capers. Simple yet comforting.
-Oatmeal with a little peanut butter mixed in, or walnuts and some berry jam.
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We just wrapped up our annual “second Thanksgiving.” We don’t have the space to host my extended family, so we typically travel for Thanksgiving. For the past few years, we always cook our own Thanksgiving on the following Sunday. This allows us to blend my family food traditions with my husbands. Our stuffing recipes is a blend of my Grammy’s recipe and my mother-in-laws additions of sausage and cranberry sauce. It’s delicious and a favorite at the table. The highlight of this year’s second Thanksgiving~the made-from-scratch green bean casserole. This traditional favorite made with some questionable ingredients made me switch to this amazing recipe from Williams and Sonoma. Easy to make and totally worth it.
Needless to say, we have a lot of turkey leftovers after cooking a 20 pound bird…
Monday~ Leftovers Tuesday~ Turkey shepherd’s pie Wednesday~ Cheesy Meatloaf (got bumped from last week’s meal plan) Thursday~ Chicken Pad Thai (the kids LOVED the asian flavors in the soy-citrus ginger scallops last week so we are going to try adding in more asian inspired meals to mix it up) Friday~ Pizza Saturday~ Steak, Asparagus
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. We also made 
