Menu Plan Monday

One thing that I try to consistently do is menu planning. I HATE hearing "what should we have for supper?" so if we menu plan once a week, I only have to hear it once! Menu planning helps keeps grocery costs down and helps a busy household stay organized. It also helps me survey what we have on hand that needs to be used. Needless to say, I'm a big fan of menu planning.

My friend Jessica once told me that my menus, pre-Lucan, were pretty ambitious. I will agree with her. Much of my cooking now is for things that can be prepped during naptime and then assembled with one hand later on. I also try and take into account what Lucan likes and can manage to eat. Spaghetti is hard. Too many beans, too many days in a row leads to some horrid diapers. Lu hates green peppers. I don't think that he's a fan of lettuce either. Or meatloaf. Obviously I'm glad that Lucan isn't too bad of an eater all in all. Because if I had a truly picky eater, I'd probably cry at every meal.

Game plan for this week. Eat out of the freezer. Which goes against my stockpiler/hoarder nature. True confession: there are still a few things in my freezer I made before Lucan was born when I thought that I would never be able to cook again. I know. Those things should be tossed. But we are eating out of the freezer because we got notification that a side of beef would be ready. Cue panic as to how we are going to be able to fit a side of beef in our freezer. Pan camera to Lance who's brain is frantically calculating the average size of a side of beef and what things are the biggest that we need to eat. Bring focus back on me whose solution is to make three loaves of banana bread and freeze them :) I know, not exactly helping. But our goal is to keep eating out of the freezer to make way for a side of beef.

Monday: Navy bean soup
Tuesday: Eat out for delayed Valentine's Day celebration - Sam & Gabes!
Wednesday: Campanelle with Mushrooms and Kale
Thursday: Small group nite - freezer food - old crusty lasagna?
Friday: brunch food (waffles, eggs and hasbrowns)
Saturday lunch: Hickory park (L & K), freezer casserole (parents and Lu) - we have ISU basketball tickets and my parents will be taking care of Lucan.
Saturday supper: cashew chicken stir fry and pot stickers
Sunday lunch: flour tacos (ambitious, but since my parents are in town, I'll have an extra set of hands)
Sunday supper: pizza and popcorn

What's for Dinner?

I have the day off. The house is a mess. We got back last night from a weekend in the Twin Citites with a baseball game, shopping, and more shopping at IKEA and ... the Container Store. My heart goes pitter patter for the Container Store, but that's a story for another day. Lance and I canned 5 lbs of apples into applesauce last night. We have roughly 35 lbs of apples left to can. I've never canned before. Yep, that's a story for another day too. I'm planning on making homemade Larabars later today - recipe for another day. I'm also planning on grinding some round steak into hamburger - another tale for another day (BTW: isn't a meat grinder a completely normal impulse purchase?) The best you are going to get from me is my Monday Menu Plan.

Monday: Chicken Corn Tortilla soup (my latest obsession is the same soup from the Gateway Market. Hopefully this recipe is a close duplicate)
Tuesday: Dinner at Felix & Oscars (I've got photography class at 7 pm, so it's supper on-the-go)
Wednesday: BLATS, sweet corn, and sweet potato fries
Thursday: Grilled chicken breasts with a tequila lime marinade and couscous and some broccoli
Friday: Butterfly pork chops, sweet corn, fried apples and mashed potatoes
Saturday lunch: Asian chicken salads
Saturday supper: :ISU versus UNI game!
Sunday lunch: Cheese stuffed beer burgers
Sunday supper: Chicken pot pie

Menu Plan Monday!

Here's what we're eating this week (because I'm sure everyone is dying to know):
Monday: Taco Salads
Tuesday: Chicken Cacciatore
Wednesday: Cowboy Beef & Black Bean Chili (new recipe!)
Thursday: Leftover Meat Pasties
Friday: Steak Fajitas
Saturday Lunch: Field trip lunch- turkey sandwiches and chips
Saturday Supper:Chicken Marsala (also a new recipe!)
Sunday Lunch: Veggie Lasagna
Sunday Supper: Homemade Pizza

Let the fun new recipes I've been stockpiling for months begin!

What's for Dinner?

I haven't been posting my weekly menu plans lately. Frankly, because I didn't think what I ate for supper was all that fascinating. In fact, some of the food we have isn't all that appealing. But I've gotten a couple of comments from friends that they think it's fun to know what I'm eating. So back by popular demand, K&L menus!

Monday: Ham & Bean soup (did you know we have 30+ lbs of ham in my freezer. That was result of miscommunication as to who was supposed to purchase the Easter ham. Sadly, I'm not a huge ham person either)
Tuesday: BLATs - Bacon, Lettuce, Avocado, Tomato Sandwiches (crap I forgot to buy a tomato last Saturday)
Wednesday: Chicken Stir-fry
Thursday: Santa Fe Chicken and Rice
Friday: Burger bar + cheesy potatoes
Saturday lunch: Oriental Chicken Salads
Saturday supper: Eat out for Lance's birthday!
Sunday lunch: White Chicken Chili
Sunday supper: Homemade Pizza (or leftovers - depending on energy levels)

Menus!

Here's what the AA household is eating for the week (short week, we are headed home to NW Iowa on Friday night)

Monday: Potato soup
Tuesday: Asian dumpling soup
Wednesday: Baked ziti
Thursday: Slow cooker barbecue beef sandwiches
Friday: French onion soup in a crockpot

We're having a lot of soup this week. I'm a little surprised at Lance for not vetoing ... The Asian Dumpling Soup and French Onion Soup are the only new things on the repertoire. We just finished the Asian Dumpling Soup - look for the recipe later!

Oct 19 - Oct 25 Menus

Monday: Chicken pot pie and cinnamon sugar apples

Tuesday: Supper at my cousin, Eric's. I'm bringing homemade cheesecake and raspberry sauce (trust me, it's fabulous)

Wednesday: Meatloaf with butternut squash

Thursday: Turkey wraps

Friday: Campfire

Saturday: Lunch out

Saturday: Enchilada pasta

Sunday: Roasted chicken

Sunday: Leftovers!

Comfort Food - Tator Tot Casserole

Tator tot casserole just oozes of fall comfort food. And even though sometimes I might be a food snob, I love this. Lance has problems making this because I don't really work off of a recipe - the ingredient list just resides in my head.

1 lb. hamburger, browned with onions
Frozen green beans
Frozen mixed vegetables
1 can cream of mushroom soup + 1/2 can of milk
Tator tots
Season salt
Shredded cheese

I start by mixing the hamburger, vegetables, mushroom soup + milk together in a Pyrex dish. Then I layer on tator tots, sprinkle with season salt for a little kick and pop it into the oven for 25 minutes at 375 degrees. Then I sprinkle with cheese and bake for another 10 minutes. Volia! Comfort food.

Menu Planning

Lance and I menu plan. We've done this for about two years, pretty consistently. As our schedules have changed, so have our menus (Lance used to work early on Mon/Tues and then for awhile worked from home. Now I get home before Lance - usually almost an hour and a half before him, so I will put everything together and do the actual cooking. Lance is a huge help by prepping any vegetables or meat the night before.) Lance and I try and do our menus on Sat. and do our grocery lists and shopping on Sat. too. If we're gone over the weekend then we'll try and do menus Sun. night and go shopping on Mon. after work. We try and keep in mind evening activities and plans that way we don't plan an elaborate meal on a night that we have to run to our small group Bible study. We write all of our menus, with main dishes and sides, on a simple tablet of paper and stick it on the fridge. Sometimes it can be stressful and annoying to try and plan out all of our menus, but it's something really good for our marriage. We spend less time thinking about what we're hungry for and more time cooking to fill that hunger. We stick to our menus pretty well, but often times we'll make adjustments for last minute changes - like a meal that suddenly sounds good on Saturday afternoon or the desire to go out to eat. Nothing is ever set in stone, we'll simply just move that meal to the next week.



Here's what we're eating this week:

Monday: Chicken kabobs (Asian marinated chicken, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, onions, green peppers) and garlic bread

Tuesday: Tator tot casserole & salads

Wednesday: T-bone steaks, tomato & mozzarella salad

Thursday: Tuna melts & (well a side is TBD)

Friday: Vegetable beef stew in the crockpot

Saturday lunch: Minestrone soup & honey wheat bread

Saturday supper: Night out

Sunday lunch: Meatloaf & roasted butternut squash

Sunday supper: Popcorn, apples, cheese