I don't have a plan for the whole week yet, but am planning a complete meal for tonight. It's a big step, I've been out of the cooking mood and relying way too much on carry out! Tonight I'm planning to go to the gym and then to a book study at my church. We are reading"Greater Health God's Way" by Stormie Omartian. Having such a busy night planned means getting dinner together early and eating at 5. By planning ahead, we won't rush out for pizza before I run out the door. A little bit of time put into getting a game plan, and I'm going to be all over it tonight!

Tonight we'll have boneless hot wings (I'll be making some without the hot sauce and crazy spices for the kids), fresh corn salad (a big hit from last summer), and Yummy Peaches. Simple, fresh, and delicious. Not to mention healthy!

I'm back to "trying" on the healthy diet/exercise habits. The goal being that it be a total lifestyle change and not a diet. This summer has been a junk food bonanza, a popsicle haze, and it's time to detox!

Menu Plan for June

When we got back from Florida, my mind raced and raced. I honestly thought I was losing it, I couldn't slow down the barrage of things going through it. To help, I started to get myself organized. It calmed me down a lot.

One of my tasks as to make a supper menu for June. It was so easy, to think of what to make each night, for the entire month. Last week's meals were super-simple, because we had VBS each night. This weekend, I went all out, with Father's Day to celebrate. I picked three new recipes to try in the month of June from my Casual Cooking Pampered Chef cookbook. It's something I've had for five or so years, and never used. I also picked a recipe from my Betty Crocker cookbook, a new entree we've never tried before.

As far as the menu plan goes, the week that we had VBS, I put on my menu plan that we would have mac n' cheese one night. Tortillas w/ cheese and fresh salsa another. Fast and simple. Something that has stopped me from planning during weeks like that in the past is that it seems too easy. That if you're making a menu plan, it all has to be four course meals with new recipes. Not so. I've simplified and it made all the difference.

This weekend, we had a new recipe, Citrus Shrimp Skewers. So good (we had it for supper tonight). That will be simple to make again with no recipe. The juice of two limes and two lemons , 1/2 C orange marmalade, a little garlic, parsley, a dash of ground red pepper. A tablespoon of veggie oil. I marinated the shrimp on the skewers and then grilled them. You reserve a little of the marinade to baste them with on the grill. They were sooooo good.

So we are good to go for June. This week, we are having Broccoli and Chicken w/ noodles stir fry. I'm making Uncle Ben's fried rice from a box to go with it. We are also having pulled pork sandwiches. I'm making the pork for folks from church that I'm making meals for and am going to save some back for us. Super easy and so good!

I also left Fridays for pizza or take-out and left Saturdays blank for us to be flexible. I wanted to keep it easy.

The best part about the plan is that now we've shopped ahead one week at a time and even if I switch the nights around a little (I always do), I've got the plan in place to help me with a jumping off point.

We're eating lots of fresh fruits and veggies now, so that makes great snacks and side dishes. I even cut the fruit up in different ways and call it dessert. The kids love it. Oh and popsicles, they love popsicles!

Some stand-by favorites for meals are BLT sandwiches. Grilled anything. My new shrimp recipe, for us grown ups anyway. For whatever reason, my kids love hot dogs. So we've usually got a pack of those in the fridge. Right now, we're eating 99% fat free ones from Hebrew National. They're actually tasty and my kids like 'em.

My main goal is to keep it all stress free. I've been trying to keep up with the dishes as we go. Some days that works better than others. One thing I have found out is that I like to plan suppers for a whole month. I'm going to try it again for July. It takes the weekly crunch of planning out of the equation. Hopefully it will also work when we're back to school. Hope nice it would be for it to be this easy!

Dinner Tonight

It will be a late dinner this evening. We didn't make it to the store until 4 and then came home to fix up a delicious meal. I'm making the ultimate comfort food, thanks to my cousin, Nikki. So I'm going to post the meatballs recipe - I hope it's not a family secret!

BBQ Meatballs

Balls
3 lbs ground beef (I'm sure you could use ground anything)
1 C milk
1 onion
3 C oatmeal
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp salt
2 eggs

Sauce
2 C ketchup
1 C brown sugar
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 C onion
3 T liquid smoke

Make balls ingredients into meatballs. Make sauce ingredients into sauce. Brown balls in skillet then put in pan to bake. Pour sauce over. Bake at 350 for one hour, or use crock pot (high for 2-3 hrs, low for 4-6 hrs).

You can obviously modify this recipe to your heart's delight. You could make them spicy, sweet, whatever. Also, you could use ground turkey or chicken. The possiblities are all there. The great part is that this basic recipe is fantastic. It's baking in my oven as I type. They are so good! Oh - and of course, every time I typed balls, I turned into a giggling jr. high girl. Balls. Tee hee.

Then, the potatoes. The good, company potatoes. Also a basic recipe from a hometown (my hometown) church cookbook, ready to be modified to your own tastes.

Potato Casserole
2-lb pkg frozen hash browns
1/2 C melted butter
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp mustard
2 T minced onion
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 pt sour cream
2 C grated American cheese

Thaw potatoes. Mix ingredients and put in 9 X 13-inch pan. Top with 1/4 C melted butter, mix with 2 C crushed cornflakes. Bake at 350 for 45 min to 1 hr.

In about 40 minutes, we will be sitting down to a warm, delicious meal. And obviously low-fat (ha, ha).

Also on my menu this week?
Some soup recommended by Beck (check in comments on my previous post), both recipes.
A few new recipes: broccoli soup, cheeseburger and fries casserole
Some old stand-bys: spaghetti and meat sauce (I use ground turkey) with breadsticks and green beans, hamburger helper with a side of biscuits (a super easy meal for later in the week when we are all weary)

I'll take some left overs for lunch. I also bought pitas, hummus, turkey, and some veggies to make some turkey pitas for lunches when I don't have left overs. I'm still trying to eat smarter. Small portions, less junk, eat at home. The basics.

I'll let you know how my new recipes all turn out!

Needing a Meal Muse

40 mph winds are making today a blustery winter day.
I've got menu plans and grocery shopping on the brain. I'm even going out later to shop on this frigid day. So I'm wondering, what's on your menu lately? Got any good suggestions?

I'm in a cooking rut and am actually going to make supper for the next two nights. Lately we've been doing really quick meals consisting of very little actual preparation. Since I'm home today and tomorrow, I'm going to feed my family.

I go in spurts. Sometimes cooking genius, delicious meals. Right now, it's been lots of pb&j. Which happens to be what my kids are eating for lunch right now.

So I'm planning to post my menu plan when it's done. If anyone's got a great idea in the mean time, please share!

Also, I keep reading about people making lentil soup all over the place. Seriously? I've got some bad preconceived notions about lentil soup, so if you've got a recipe to change my mind, tell me about it!

I want to kick it up a notch this week and am looking for some winter comfort food.

Menu Plan Monday

For me, menu planning works best on the weekends. So today I'm getting together recipes and a grocery list. Some time tomorrow I'll go to the store. It's Menu Plan Monday on Saturday.

Last week I realized that I'll probably never stick to the plan 100%. Having the groceries I need and a plan allow me to be more flexible though. I can push things back a night if I need to take a night off from cooking. Sometimes we just do a frozen pizza or get take-out. Sometimes the kids will eat cheese and fruit for supper and hubs and I scavange for ourselves.

The menu plan has definitely upped the number of nights that we eat a healthy dinner together, so I'm going to keep doing it!

Beck has inspired me to make dessert, so I'm even going to do that tomorrow night.

Sunday: BBQ Pork Chops (the chops got put in the freezer last week when the wheels fell off), Corn on the Cob, Peach Cobbler III

Monday: BLT sandwiches. This is a selfish meal, because it's one of my favorites. The kids will probably eat cheese sandwiches and fruit.

Tuesday: Chicken Parmesan, Green Beans, Garlic Bread

Wednesday: Runza Casserole, mixed veggies

Thursday: re-runs

Friday: pizza

Saturday and Sunday: take out and meals OYO (on your own)

Hope that you have a great weekend and a terrific week!

Menu Time

Since it's the first week back to full-time work, I've planned a very simple menu of recipes on my regular rotation. Nothing that requires a recipe or even measuring. I rely on store-bought ingredients for a lot of these. They are my stand-by, tried and true meals.

Monday: spaghetti and meat sauce, corn, bruschetta

I'm using Vodka Sauce from Emeril and Thin Spaghetti, Barilla Plus. The bruschetta I make with a French Baguette from the bakery. I mix oil, margarine (or butter, whatever I've got), and Italian seasoning. I brush that on the 1 inch slices of bread then top with Parmesan cheese and tomatoes. Usually I would use Roma tomato slices, but this week I've got fresh tomatoes to use up so will top with chopped tomatoes. I bake at 350 for about 10 minutes and just keep an eye on it until it looks how I want it to. Sometimes I'll put on the broiler for a quick minute, just to crisp it up. I keep a few with no tomatoes for the kiddos.

Tuesday: baked BBQ pork chops, mixed veggies

I season the chops, brush them with BBQ sauce (this time it's Famous Dave's), cover with foil, and bake them at 300 degrees for an hour or so.

Wednesday: chicken & rice, peas

My 15 minute chicken and rice recipe from last week, I didn't use it then. Chicken breasts are in the freezer, I use Minute Rice (brown rice) and canned cream of chicken soup

Thursday: "homemade" pizza, salad

I use a store-bought Boboli crust, canned pizza sauce, turkey pepperoni, and bagged shredded mozzarella cheese. Brenna loves to help with this one and it's super easy to do.

Friday: take-out, TBA

After a long week, I plan to reward myself on Friday by letting someone else cook! The meals I've planned are made with food I know my kids will eat and that are easy to make. By starting with store-bought ingredients, I save myself a lot of time. I'd like to be the mom who starts everything from scratch and love to when I have the time. When it's back to school time, I'm all about ease! After this week I will be planning one new recipe per week, usually for the weekend.

Have a great week!

Menu Plan Monday

I've meant to do this for a long time, post my menu plan. But that would mean that I would have had to have planned a menu! I usually make a list of meals and buy the groceries for them. I do not plan when to have them, when to have left overs, etc. Since I'm going back to work part-time this week and full-time next, it's time to get back to routine! So I'm going to post my menu plans once a week and we'll see if it helps with our diet and nutrition as well.

For my menu plan, I'm only doing suppers. We're at work for lunches and breakfasts are grab and run. My kids eat a well-balanced planned menu at daycare. I use my own cookbooks and go online for meal ideas. I'm going to try at least one new recipe per week. We usually eat a fruit as a side at each meal as well, but I just grab and slice whatever is in the fridge. Right now strawberries are a frequent feature.

Without further ado,

Monday: Orange Roast Pork, Fresh Corn Salad (both are new recipes)

Tuesday: 15 Minute Chicken & Rice Dinner

Wednesday: Left Overs

Thursday: Hot Barbecue Biscuits, green salad

This is a new recipe out of the newspaper and looks so easy.

[copied directly from the Omaha World Herald] Dinner can't get much easier than Hot Barbecue Biscuits. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with nonstick foil. Remove biscuits from an 8-count can refrigerated buttermilk flaky biscuits. Separate into halves and line the baking sheet with 8 halves. Top each with 2-3 tablespoons store-bought barbecued chicken or beef. Place other halves on top and press gently. Bake 13 minutes or until biscuits are browned. Remove from over and serve. (Adapted from "51 Fast and Fun Packaged Dough Recipes," Delores Kostelni;Collectors Press, $7.95.) Serve these little gems with deli coleslaw. Kiwi is dessert.

They sound good to me. I'll report back how they turn out.

Friday: Grilled Brats, Grilled Potatoes w/ Onions

Happy eating!