Meal Plan Monday 8/22

by Briana Carter on September 21, 2008

Meal Plan Monday is BACK! I haven’t been cooking as much lately because of back to school events and sports but I’m going to try to do better this week!!!

The Theme for Meal Plan includes a Family Favorite and one I cooked recently is an adapted recipe from Kraft Food & Family – A1 Meatloaf. We also like my Mother in Law’s breakfast casserole.

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday: Individual Chicken Pot Pies I was at the grocery and the deli chicken looked good! So I “made” that and some Ore Ida Steam Mashed Potatoes. Son “P” asked me if I cooked the chicken or got it at KFC. Apparently he liked it.

Wednesday: Spaghetti sauce w/rotini So many meal plan changes! I have Chicken/Bacon/Cheese in the crockpot thanks to A year of Crockpotting. Check it out. It looks soooo yummy!!!!

Thursday: Beef Stroganoff

Friday: ???

Saturday: ???

Sunday: ???

For more family favorites or other recipe ideas, check out Organizing Junkie’s Meal Plan Monday!

Meal Plan Monday 8/11

by Briana Carter on August 11, 2008

This is my fourth week for Meal Plan Monday. Last week (see pictures & reviews HERE), I stuck a little more to my meal plan. Life happens, though, and sometimes things don’t go according to the schedule.My whole goal is to start cooking more at home and that is still working!!! I did create kind of my own recipe – check it out – my little brother LOVED (btw, he is 8). We were busy canning/freezing for most of the weekend – I’m a rookie so I didn’t get much time to think about this week’s meals yet!!!

I am participating in the Organizing Junkie’s Meal Plan Monday! To join in on Meal Plan Monday click HERE. I just love Laura’s site! So many great organizing tips – visit her Meal Plan Monday link and then browse around!

Will be updated when I decide what I want to cook this week!

Monday – Simple Spaghetti from a can/jar/pouch

Tuesday- Chicken Kabobs Ground Chicken Burgers with 3 Tablespoon of Ranch – Cooked on grill & Leftover Eggplant Dish from Monday. (Will post recipe later!)

Wednesday: LEFTOVERS GALORE!!!

Thursday: Roast Pork with Maple & Mustard Glaze

Meal Plan Monday 8/4

by Briana Carter on August 4, 2008

This is my third week for Meal Plan Monday. Last week (see pictures & reviews HERE), I stuck a little more to my meal plan. Life happens, though, and sometimes things don’t go according to the schedule. My whole goal is to start cooking more at home and using the items I have on hand. Since we only dined out once last week (Saturday night), I feel like this is a success!

I am participating in the Organizing Junkie’s Meal Plan Monday! To join in on Meal Plan Monday click HERE. I just love Laura’s site! So many great organizing tips – visit her Meal Plan Monday link and then browse around!

Monday: Baked Spaghetti I added some fresh tomatoes and used some meatballs I had in the freezer. Of course, the kiddos just wanted to eat the meatballs. I need to buy/make those more often, they were fighting over them…there was plenty for everyone!

Tuesday: Ribeye Sandwiches (ribeyes thinly sliced cooked on the grill) & Broiled Parmesan Tomatoes

I marinated the ribeyes in a baja mix marinade I had. It was just enough spice! I used garden fresh tomatoes for the side dish instead of canned. Of course, my pictures are of real dishes and not photoshopped like the magazines! I liked them! I need to work on my food presentation.

Wednesday: CrockPot Indonesian Chicken I can’t remember what we ate this night. I couldn’t find sesame oil in town so I didn’t want to make this recipe. I know I cooked something but I can’t remember what it was??? Maybe pork chops?

Thursday: Cowboy Packets We ended up with a Pizza because I had a meeting and I had to pick the kids up at my parents…so I didn’t get in time to cook anything!

Friday: Crockpot Swiss Steak (using a Seasoning Packet I have) Cookout at Friend’s House

Saturday: I made my own recipe with ground beef, brown rice, garlic powder, chili powder, corn, diced toms, and tom sauce. It was not a hit. A couple kids liked it but thought it looked disgusting. HE ate it but didn’t want it ever again. We also had corn on the cob. Of course, they loved that. I won’t disgust anyone with pictures or a recipe to torture your family with. (I thought it tasted good.)

Sunday: Crockpot Swiss Steak (using a Seasoning Packet I have), I made Freakin Awesome Zucchini, and served wonderful boxed potatoes (hey, I was tired from all the canning & freezing!!!)

Meal Plan Monday 7/28

by Briana Carter on July 27, 2008

This is my second week for Meal Plan Monday, Though, last week, I only cooked ONE of the recipes I posted. Oh well, it was a weird/short week last week so it made it difficult to stay organized.

I am participating in the Organizing Junkie’s Meal Plan Monday! To join in on Meal Plan Monday click HERE. I just love Laura’s site! So many great organizing tips – visit her Meal Plan Monday link and then browse around!

Monday: Crockpot Pot Roast & Veggies (I’m going to cheat and use McCormick’s packet for the seasoning!) I need something easy since I’m still trying to get the house caught up from our mini-vacay. I’m also using the meat we bought from our a neighbor who is a farmer! This is the BEST beef, I’ve had. Good, locally grown (less than 1 mile from my house), hormone free, BEEF! We split the cow with 3 other families and it ended up working out to around $2.00/lb for all the meat. Our portion should last us a good 6 months, I’m estimating! & Green Beans with Cherry Toms.Tried by Chick in the Kitchen.

Here it is! I even threw in a package of frozen potatoes/onions/celery/carrot mix. The Green Beans w/Cherry Toms were very yummy! Had just a hint of sweetness to them. Something I will want to cook again with a bigger batch!

Tuesday (new recipe to me!): Fiesta Chicken Bake (I premade this on Tuesday night to make cooking easier on Tuesday.) The recipe didn’t specify which type of cheese, I used Sharp Cheddar. I would have preferred to use a Mexican Blend but I’m sure it will still taste fine. I also added some banana peppers to a little area of this and I will add some fresh tomatoes tomorrow night before I put it in the oven!

See my tiny little corner of peppers! They were super yummy! Good recipe, I probably could have put more chips in it but I ran out. (Trying to just use what I’ve got in the cabinet.) For those worried about the spiciness, I didn’t find it overly spicy.

I’m also baking THIS (gotta love Pioneer Woman with her step by steps with pictures!!!) right now – except with blueberries, cuz that is what I have!

Wednesday: Grilled Brown Sugar Pork Chops from All Recipes Oops! We had a sick kiddo on Wednesday so we had to do a “Free for All” night! So Pork chops will be moved to Thursday night!

Thursday: Ribeye Sandwiches & Grilled Zucchini and any other garden veggies we have! We were at my parents house swimming and ended up eating hamburgers on their grill! :)

Friday: Chicken Alfredo Pizza recipe by Homespun Heart. I’m going to add toms, onion, spinach to part of this! Looks easy to make and sounds yummy! I ended up only having fresh tomatoes to use so I made this. It was NOT a hit. I liked it (not as good as Pizza Shack’s chicken alfredo pizza) but my husband wasn’t too thrilled. I also made some more of the Green Beans with Cherry Toms from Monday & cut up zucchini and steamed it in a steam bag.

Saturday: Grilled Tilapia & Artichoke Pasta from Perry’s Plate We ate leftovers for lunch and ordered a Pizza for dinner.

Sunday: I made the porkchops I had thawed out for Wednesday. I dumped some Lawry’s Hawaiian marinade on the chops and toped with a sliced pineapple. These were yummy and very simple!!!

Meal Plan Monday

by Briana Carter on July 20, 2008

For the first time, I am participating in the Organizing Junkie’s Meal Plan Monday! To join in on Meal Plan Monday click HERE. I just love Laura’s site! So many great organizing tips – visit her Meal Plan Monday link and then browse around! She also has a great link to a Southwestern Salad that looks YUMMY!!!

(Last week I had my own cooking at home record…7 days in a row.) This week, I want to be a little more organized and plan ahead using items I already have in my stockpile.

I do have a short cooking week this week and I will only be cooking Monday – Wednesday.

Monday: Deep Dish Taco Squares from Perry’s Plate

This is a hit with the kids! I realized after I made it, we didn’t have any tomatoes so I omitted those and of course, no onions are allowed in our recipes. BOOOOOOOO (I LOVE onions)! I also thought 1/4 c. of water didn’t seem right so I increased that to 1/2 c. and the Bisquick layer seemed good! You could always substitute some type of Pillsbury rolls for the bottom layer! One more note, if you have a large family, you might want to double this recipe!

The kids got their veggies by drinking V8 Fusion, which has a whole serving of veggies in one serving! Shhhh…don’t tell them that, they won’t drink it if they know its healthy for them. So, as soon as I served this taco meal, Fi Fi (2), says no don’t like it because big brother “E” (4) said I don’t like it. I convinced him to try it and of course, he liked it so of course, she would eat it – she even requested seconds! Here are some pictures and reviews….notice the “video” bomber in the first one…if you haven’t heard of photo bombing, google it. It is basically when a perfectly good picture is ruined by one person in the background – whether intentional or unintentional. See the List of the day for funny photobombing pictures! There are some pretty funny stuff…the first video has our own VIDEO bomber! Long story SHORT – there will be no leftovers with this dish!!!

Video ONE

Video TWO

Tuesday: Stuffed Zucchini Boats from Taste of Home (We have zucchini coming out of our ears!) Everyone ate something different. I decided to so some shopping tonight so I didn’t have time to cook. We did eat at home and out of our stockpile, though! :)

Wednesday: Boneless Chicken Tenders (Something with ground beef – since I have a 1 lb already cooked) baked w/Rice a Roni Cheesy Rice OR leftovers (depending on how much we have leftover from Monday & Tuesday).