Meal Plan #3

When trying to put a meal plan together I try and stick to the following but by no means is this our holy grail. Some nights I just want to try something new or I want Mexican more than once a week, etc.

Sunday: Traditional Sunday dinner

Monday: Pasta

Tuesday: Mexican

Wednesday: Left Overs

Thursday: Salads/Sandwiches

Friday: Crockpot meal/International

Saturday: Eat Out/Left Overs

The key to meal planning is to plan ahead. When I have a meal plan that calls for shredded chicken I will make my chicken ahead of time on the weekend. Throw chicken breast in the crock pot(however much I need for the week) with chicken broth(enough to cover the bottom of the crockpot and half of the chicken) and cook for 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low. After shredding and cooler transferring the chicken to a ziploc bag and saving the broth for Karl. This will save so much time during the week. 

Sunday // Meatloaf with Green Beans & Potatoes

This recipe is by far the best Meatloaf recipe I have ever tried, you will want to save this one:

1 egg, lightly beaten
2/3 cup milk
3 slices bread, crumbled
1 cup (4 oz) shredded cheese
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup finely shredded carrots
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1-1/2 lb ground beef

Sauce:
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup Ketchup
2 T. prepared mustard

In a large bowl, combine the first 8 ingredients. Crumble beef over mixture and mix well. Shape into a loaf and place in a greased 9X5 loaf pan

In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, ketchup and mustard; spread half of the mixture over loaf. Bake at 350 for 60-75 minutes or until no pink remains and a thermometer reads 160. Drain. Let stand for 10 minutes before slicing. use remaining sauce for dipping

Monday // Pizza with Chicken Sausage (used naan bread for the crust and baked the chicken sausage over a skillet before putting it on the pizza with pepperoni, mozzarella cheese and marinara sauce baked at 375 until the cheese melted)

Tuesday // Dorito Casserole

2 cups shredded chicken (from the weekend)
1 1/2- 2 cups shredded cheese (Mexican 4 blend)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1 can Rotel (mild)
1/2 packet of taco seasoning
1 bag of Doritos (Nacho Cheese)

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients EXCEPT Doritos. In a 9X13 baking dish spread the mixture on the bottom of the dish. Cover the top with crushed Dorito's (I only cover half the dish with Dorito's. We will always have left overs and to avoid having soggy chips I will use fresh chips on my left over portions) cover with foil. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until bubbly.

Wednesday // Left overs

Thursday // Caesar Sliders with Sweet potato fries (recipe here, I actually didn't follow this recipe just got the idea from it. I used the shredded chicken that I cooked over the weekend and mixed it with Brianna's Home Style Asiago Caesar salad dressing and served it on a hawaiin roll with lettuce)

Friday // Sweet & Sour Chicken with Fried Rice (recipe here)

Saturday // Tortellini Soup (recipe here)

Breakfast // Quiche (recipe here, instead of tomatoes I will do green peppers)

Meal Plan #2

When trying to put a meal plan together I try and stick to the following but by no means is this our holy grail. Some nights I just want to try something new or I want Mexican more than once a week, etc.

Sunday: Traditional Sunday dinner

Monday: Pasta

Tuesday: Mexican

Wednesday: Left Overs

Thursday: Salads/Sandwiches

Friday: Crockpot meal/International

Saturday: Eat Out/Left Overs

Sunday:White lasagna with Green Beans and Garlic bread.

Ingredients:
5-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup butter
1 lb. mushrooms (sliced)
2-3 zucchini (cut into chunks)
several carrots (julienne style)
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 t. tarragon leaves
2-3 jars Ragu Roasted Garlic Parmesan (depending on size of pan)
9-12 Lasagna noodles (cooked and drained)
Swiss of Gruyere cheese (I use mozzarella)

Directions:
 Place Chicken in a 4t. pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until chicken is tender, about 20-25 minutes. Cut chicken into chunks. Melt butter in a wide frying pan over medium high heat. Add mushrooms, zucchini and carrots and cook. Add wine and tarragon; reduce heat to medium and cook until most of the pan juices are evaporated. Cook vegetables slightly and then stir into Ragu sauce. Butter a 9x13 inch baking dish. Spread a thin layer of sauce on bottom. Arrange noodles evenly over sauce, next layer chicken, then sauce and finally cheese. Repeat this layering at least one more time, ending with cheese layer. If made ahead, cover and refrigerate. Bake uncovered in a 350 degree oven until hot and bubbly (40-50) minutes). Cut into squares and serve.   

Monday: Sausage Mac & Cheese, this is an adult version of mac and cheese and oh so good plus Grady will eat it as well which is an added plus.

Tuesday: Burrito Bowls, Chad is probably sick and tired of this recipe. It has been on rotation a few times but it is so so good. Plus I finally learned how to make the perfect rice from this recipe

Wednesday: Fave night of the week LEFT OVERS!

Thursday: Steak Salad. We bought some sirloin steak from the grocery store I also tried the Aldi brand of their house dressing and boy do you have to try this stuff. By far the best salad dressing to date!

Friday: Pizza, I have been hooked on making pizza with Naan bread lately. I will buy naan bread from the store and just use marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese, and pepperoni's. Of course you can make your pizza's however you like

Saturday: Eating out night!

Meal Plan #1

I am by no means an organized put together person. One thing is for sure though, I love a good meal plan. I seriously do not know how people do it without one. Even though there are days or weeks where we don’t have a plan and I can tell you that the struggle is a real challenge trying to decide what to make for dinner. On most occasions, I try and have a meal plan laid out for 2 weeks at a time. It makes it easier when it comes to grocery shopping but without fail we go to the grocery store more than every other week. We have lived off a meal plan for years now and it works well for our family.

When trying to put a meal plan together I try and stick to the following but by no means is this our holy grail. Some nights I just want to try something new or I want Mexican more than once a week, etc.

Sunday: Traditional Sunday dinner

Monday: Pasta

Tuesday: Mexican

Wednesday: Left Overs

Thursday: Salads/Sandwiches

Friday: Crockpot meal/International

Saturday: Eat Out/Left Overs

So here we go this is what was on our meal plan last week

Sunday: We had my parents over for dinner, both of their birthdays are in the month of February so we had steak, baked potatoes, green beans, and bread. The grocery store Chad and I shop at sell bacon wrapped filets 2 in a pack. You can easily pan sear the steaks in butter (or coconut oil) with just a little salt and butter. Chad has been on a ‘fresh’ green bean kick so I will purchase the green beans from the produce section recruit Grady to help trim the ends off the green beans boil them until soft, drain. And then drizzle with butter and salt.

Monday: Sausage with peppers. One of my favorite food blogs of all time is the “Girl who ate everything” I have gotten a lot of great recipes from her including this one

Tuesday: Chimichangas with Mexican rice. I have to be honest here, 8 times out of 10 I always forget about the sides so normally we will just have Chimichangas and no rice!

Wednesday: My favorite night of the week! This night is normally when we try and do a load of laundry and tidy up the house a bit plus get some extra play time in with our babies. When I was little my parents nominated Tuesday to be our take-out night with was great and I always looked forward to it. So Wednesday I have nominated as our night off of cooking.

Thursday: Caesar Salad sandwiches with chips. Did I mention I love the Girl who ate everything blog. Yea, I wasn’t kidding. So confusion, I do not like having the crockpot on all day at the house while we are not at home so if there is a recipe that calls from shredded chicken I will normally make it in the crockpot on the weekend and either freeze it or store it in the refrigerator. I will put chicken breast in the crockpot with chicken broth and cook on low for 4-6 hours

Friday: Pita pizzas, I bought whole wheat pita bread at the store and simply added marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese, and pepperonis. Chad put some of the Caesar chicken on his. I love making anything that Grady can help me with so these are perfect!

Saturday: We went out and got Rib Crib. One of my favorite salads of all time is from Rib Crib. The smoked chicken salad. It is yum yum good. But of course, you can always do any other salad of your choice.

We also try and cook breakfast for the week on Sunday but ever since Audrey was born our breakfast as more times than not been a bag of oatmeal. This week we had eggs and toast for breakfast!

There you go a simply meal plan for us busy individuals.

Homemade Baby Food

I have gotten a lot of questions regarding how I made homemade baby food so I thought I would just write a blog post with all my resources. Baby food is so so easy to make and super cheap as well. Anything to save a penny I’m on it!

I used this website for looking up how to puree any type of foods. Sweet potatoes, green beans, peas, peaches, you name it. I would reference this website for how long and at what temperature you bake your sweet potatoes before pureeing or what foods Grady could eat at what age.

For the foods that do not need to be baked before pureeing I would steam them in this handy piece of equipment. For example I would put Green beans or peas in here and cover it with water until they felt soft enough to puree.

Next I used this small food processor that I had around the house. Any blender or food processor will work and there is no need to go out and buy one!

For storage I used these trays and then would store them in freezer bags in the freezer. When I laid them out I used these containers (they also come in 4 oz containers). 

I also made my own baby food pouches and used these and made my own baby cereal with red quinoa and used this coffee grinder.

Just a side note and things that I learned while introducing baby foods. Always keep prunes around- this was the only store bought baby food that I bought. Grady would get and still gets constipated and prunes help amazingly. At one time we were giving him prunes once a day. Also, with new food could cause allergies, stock up on some children’s benedryl and call your doctor before use for dosage information just to be on the safe side. Also, have fun with it I would make enough during nap time to last us a good month. It was rewarding and satisfying knowing how much I was saving. I would browse the baby food aisle when we went grocery shopping, to do research on what to combine and I couldn’t believe how much fun you could save just by making your own.

Freezer Meals

Before Grady arrived, I had my mom and sister over to whip up a couple of freezer meals. Between people offering to bring food over and our stocked freezer, it has been a life saver with a newborn baby. People were so generous the first few weeks of us being at home. We are very appreciative with all of the delicious food they brought over.

I plan on doing another batch of freezer meals before I go back to work. Below is a list of the freezer meals we have tried and approved!

Supplies needed - 5 freezer ziploc bags
1 good size Tupperware for the chili
2 9x9 foil pans
mason jars for canning
Sharpie to write contents, date, and cooking instructions

Shredded Chicken - I have mentioned this before but this is my new favorite thing. I'll put 8 pieces of chicken in the crock pot with one box of chicken stock and cook on high for 6 hours.

Lemon Garlic Pork Chops - Little olive oil, lemon zest, garlic, salt and pepper. Put the chops in a bag and freeze. You can either cook these on the grill with grilled veggies or cook them in a skillet with skillet potatoes. (My mouth is seriously watering as I type, YUM)

Chili - This probably wasn't the best choice for breastfeeding but if you're not breastfeeding it's a great option.

Baked Ziti - This is my favorite freezer meal. I'll split it up between 2 9x9 foil pans to make it last even longer. Just have to remember to lay it out to thaw 24 hours before you bake or it'll be cooking for a LONG time.

Chicken Fajitas - Another favorite freezer meal and super easy. I'll throw everything in a ziploc bag and then when I'm ready to cook I'll let it thaw and then put it in a 9x13 to cook. Left overs are good to make quesadillas too!

Breakfast Quesadillas -
 1 can black beans
 1 can corn
 1/2 chopped onion
 1 diced bell pepper
 1/2 pack of taco seasoning
 2/3 cups shredded cheese
 6 eggs
 8-10 tortillas (we use whole grain)

Mix all your ingredients into a large mixing bowl except the eggs, green peppers and tortillas. Set aside.
 Scramble your eggs in a skillet along with you green peppers. Mix in your cooked eggs with the rest  of your ingredients.
  Build your tortillas how you like and cook until golden brown on both sides. You can either use a       Panini maker or regular skillet to cook with  
   If saving for later, put on a baking sheet and place in freezer for 1 hour, then you can individually        wrap or place into freezer bag and throw in freezer.    

Strawberry Jam - Ok not a freezer meal but this was the first time I canned and it was a blast. Mine turned out a little runny but it was still really good.

Cookie Dough - Well because it's always good to have ready to bake cookie dough in the freezer. We put white chocolate chips and cranberries in ours. (I think I'll go and put some in the oven as I type as a matter of fact)

Strawberry Jam

Weekly meal plan #2

Breakfast: Breakfast sandwiches

Sunday – Roast beef w/mashed potatoes

Monday – Quesadillas, my new favorite thing is to cook chicken in the crockpot over the weekend and then throw it in the refrigerator for easier meals during the week. I’ll do about 3 lbs of chicken(8 chicken breasts roughly) with a box of chicken broth in the crockpot for 6 hours. Saves so much more time than boiling it the night of and shredded it for certain recipes

Tuesday – Lemon Salmon

                Salmon

                Lemon

                Butter

                Season Salt

With a square of foil, cut up your lemon and place 3-4 slices on the foil and then place the Salmon ontop of the lemon slices with a good helping of butter and season salt. Fold the foil up like a boat and bake at 350 for 20 minutes

Wednesday – Pizza, either homemade or frozen

Thursday – Ritz Casserole (use the shredded chicken that was made during the weekend)

                2 cups cooked rice

                1 can cream of celery soup

                1 can cream of chicken soup

                8 oz. sour cream

                1 t. poppy seed

                1 lb chicken

                ½ cup chicken broth

                Ritz crackers

                ½ stick melted butter

Spread the rice on the bottom of a 9X13” pan. Cover the rice with your cooked shredded chicken. In a mixing bowl, mix together the soups, sour cream, poppy seed, and broth. Spread mixture over the chicken. Crush crackers over top and drizzle butter the crackers. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes uncovered.

**If you are only cooking this for 2 people, I normally only crush crackers on half the casserole so they won’t get soggy. I’ll put fresh crackers on the casserole when we have it for left overs.

Friday – Date night

Saturday – Left Overs

Dessert – Trail mix

            1 box of frosted cheerios

            1 box of rice chex

1 jar of roasted peanuts

1 pkg of M&Ms (I try to use seasonal M&Ms depending on the time of year you are doing the trail mix)

1 brick of almond bark

Mix cheerios, rice chex and peanuts together.  Soften the almond bark and pour over the mix.  Then throw in the M&Ms and mix well. 

Weekly Meal Plan #1

Weekly meal plans are something we have been really trying to stick with lately, but eating out and living dangerously close to a convenience store, make this hard to do. Below was our last week’s meal plan.  

Breakfast – Breakfast Burritos (this is one of our favorites for breakfast)

                1 lb cooked sausage

                Eggs (I do 12 eggs for 5 days for 2 people)

                Cheese

                Tortillas

                Tator Tots (fried or baked) 

                Veggies (optional)

                *** This makes 10 burritos

Sunday – Meatloaf with steamed broccoli (We'll use ground turkey instead of beef)

Monday – Sausage Alfredo

                1 cup heavy cream

                ½ cup butter

                ½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese

                1 box of noodles (I’m not a big fan of fettuccini noodles my favorite is Penne with Alfredo)

                Kielbasa

Heat butter in heavy saucepan over medium heat; slowly add cream, stirring constantly. Continue stirring until sauce has begun to thicken slightly. Slowly add shredded Parmesan. Continue stirring until parmesan has melted and sauce has thickened to desired consistency. Add Kielbasa to sauce.

Tuesday – Pizza (I always buy a frozen pizza or a bag of viola when I go grocery shopping for those “don’t feel like cooking nights or when you have to go run an errand when you get home nights”)

Wednesday – Left overs

Thursday – Ranch Chicken

Friday – Left Overs

Saturday – Chicken Fried Rice

Dessert – Ice Cream (I have a weakness for sweets so we normally always have some sort of dessert in the house)

(Yes that is a fry daddy, prefect for Chicken Wraps, etc.)