Menu Plan Monday

I'm not sure how things are in your part of the country, but around here, it has been a cold, snowy winter. I enjoy winter, but I think I am about done with it at this point. The kids have enjoyed their snow and cold days away from school, but as with most children, they have reached the point where being cooped up in the house is too much. I was so thankful for a day with reasonable temperatures on Sunday, so that my daughter could go out and play in the snow. She was able to stay out too long, but at least she got outside and got fresh air, sunshine and a chance to run around. A nice welcome break from movie, tv and game marathons over the past few weeks.

Spring isn't yet here, but with the different sports practices, sports banquets, and meetings that we have this week, the schedule feels more typical of a spring/summer week than a winter one. I have decided to try out a few new recipes this week on the nights that there is time to make dinner before or after events and stick with tried and true on nights where dinner has to be quick to table.

Sunday
cereal
lunch out
Wafflewiches

Monday
Swim Banquet

Tuesday
Qrunch Burgers and Chicken Patty Sandwiches

Wednesday
Lime Cilantro Chicken

Thursday
Ranch Cheddar Chicken

Friday
Brazilian Shrimp Stew

Saturday
cereal
sandwiches/leftovers
Pizza


For the kids, breakfast will be cereal, oatmeal or toast most mornings and lunch will be a mix of the hot plate lunch at school or a packed lunch from home. My husband and I will stick with our standard routines.

This post shared at Menu Plan Monday.

Menu Plan Monday

We had a wonderful weekend here in snowy Ohio. We made the wise decision to do our grocery shopping on Friday evening this week, and my husband volunteered to take my list and go. With the Super Bowl on Sunday and the snow storm that was being predicted (8-12") for Sunday into Monday, the grocery stores were crazy, busy when we drove by on Saturday and even though the snow didn't really start until Sunday afternoon it was nice not to have to include a run to the grocery in mix. I learned that I had bad timing for buying home goods (mattress pads and pillows), when I got the current Kohl's ad and the $15/$50 coupon for home items. In fact, for those items that we had not yet opened - 2 pillows and 2 mattress pads - I went back and did a return/rebuy and saved $50 plus earned $10 Kohl's cash in the process. I even had a 30% off when we bought them, which actually was why we bought when we did. The main difference was that when we bought the sale was Buy One Get One Half off and this week they are 50% off.

We are still working through some stuff that we moved from the deep freeze to the refrigerator freezers, so the menu plan is built around that.

Sunday
cereal
sandwiches
Super Bowl Food - Pizza, Boneless Wings, Crackers, Cheese, Pepperoni, Tortilla Chips and dips

Monday
Chicken Patty Sandwiches and Qrunch Burgers

Tuesday
Chip Encrusted Tilapia

Wednesday
Mexican

Thursday
Chicken and Waffles

Friday
Caprese Chicken Pasta Shells

Saturday
TBD

With the kids in school (aside from snow days - which today is), breakfast will be cereal, oatmeal or toast most mornings and lunch will be a mix of the hot plate lunch at school or a packed lunch from home. My husband and I will stick with our standard routines. I do hope to get back to packing more. I seem to eat better when I pack, plus I am hopeful that it leaves me some time to walk at lunch(if the weather allows).

This post shared at Menu Plan Monday.

Back to Routine

It is so hard for me to believe that the holiday break is over. Starting tomorrow, it is back to our normal routines. As part of the normal routine, I actually sat down and did the week's menu plan. Recently, I had been only planning a few days out, which was fine, but I did find us running to the store more frequently during the week. I was able to successfully empty my deep freeze to defrost it over the holidays, unfortunately, I moved some of it to my refrigerator freezer...so, now my goal is to use all of that up...it helps ensure rotation.

This week we are trying a few new recipes and enjoying a few family favorites. Winter sports and winter workouts for spring sports are starting up, so we are starting to have a few night time activities and a few weekend events entering our schedule.

Sunday
cereal
leftovers
Cincinnati Style Chili

Monday
Chicken Patty Sandwiches and Qrunch Burgers

Tuesday
Crockpot Lemon Chicken

Wednesday
Personal Pot Pies

Thursday
Chipotle Glazed Meatloaf

Friday
Spaghetti Gratin

Saturday
TBD

Now that the kids are back to school, breakfast will be cereal, oatmeal or toast most mornings and lunch will be a mix of the hot plate lunch at school or a packed lunch from home. My husband and I will stick with our standard routines. I do hope to get back to packing more. I seem to eat better when I pack, plus I am hopeful that it leaves me some time to walk at lunch(if the weather allows).

This post shared at Menu Plan Monday.

Menu Plan Monday

As much as I love the fall and the associated smells and flavors, it still is a little disappointing to have to turn on the heat the first full week of October. The temperature in the house hit 64 this weekend, so I decided it was time to at least take the chill out of the air.

Friday night we enjoyed dinner at our friend's restaurant. It was a nice time out with the kids and we all enjoyed some new foods. Saturday was supposed to be in part filled with sports, but some rain on Saturday morning washed out both soccer and baseball. A cool, wet fall morning unexpectedly at home led to much baking on my part. I started with a recipe I found on Pinterest for Pumpkin Dinner Rolls with Cinnamon Butter. The rolls are okay, but did not turn out as I would have expected based on the picture on the post. The cinnamon butter is yummy and we are enjoying it on regular toast now. Next I made a batch of Pumpkin Chip Cookies and Biscotti. I started making cookies and decided that the dough was too sticky and would be better as a batch of biscotti, so a pan in I switched gears. Then, I made some soft pretzels with some bread mix that I had on hand. My husband, who had been taking care of service for the car, enjoys the food I made but has decided that leaving me home alone with the kids on a cold, wet fall Saturday is not a good thing for his waist. We had a quiet night in and watched the movie Chef.

Sunday, it was cold, but we resumed sports and did our best to keep warm at baseball and soccer - both were wins. Sunday evening, we tried something new - Chicken and Waffles - and to mix it up a bit more, we made the waffles with the chicken inside. It was a hit with the family.

We have a reasonably quiet week ahead and have some familiar favorites filling our menu this week.

Sunday
cereal
sandwiches
Chicken and Waffles

Monday
Tacos

Tuesday
Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

Wednesday
Skyline Chili

Thursday
Pork Chops with Provolone, Prosciutto and Peppers

Friday
Pizza

Saturday
TBD

Now that the kids are back to school, breakfast will be cereal, oatmeal or toast most mornings and lunch will be a mix of the hot plate lunch at school or a packed lunch from home. My husband and I will stick with our standard routines. I do hope to get back to packing more. I seem to eat better when I pack, plus I am hopeful that it leaves me some time to walk at lunch.

This post shared on Menu Plan Monday.

Menu Plan Monday

This past weekend was a nice one. Again, there wasn't anything of note that was planned or completed, it just was a nice weekend. We had two soccer games and that was about it. My husband joined some friends at a concert on Saturday night (sitter wasn't available to allow me to go), so I had the chance to hang out with the kids and watch Mighty Ducks and Mighty Ducks 2 (we completed the trilogy on Sunday) and then after they went to bed, I watched Ever After.

This week is a minimally busy week which gave me a nice flexibility to the schedule. This weekend we are joining some friends for dinner, as all four of us have September birthdays and decided we should celebrate them.

Sunday
cereal and toast
sandwiches
Cincinnati (Skyline) Chili

Monday
cereal
leftover chili

Tuesday
Homemade Pizza

Wednesday
Pierogie and Eggs

Thursday
Chicken Fried Steak

Friday
Chicken Cheese Steak

Saturday
cereal
sandwiches
Mexican with friends

Now that the kids are back to school, breakfast will be cereal, oatmeal or toast most mornings and lunch will be a mix of the hot plate lunch at school or a packed lunch from home. My husband and I will stick with our standard routines. I do hope to get back to packing more. I seem to eat better when I pack, plus I am hopeful that it leaves me some time to walk at lunch.

This post shared on Menu Plan Monday.

Menu Plan Monday

Hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend. For us, it was quieter than normal. We didn't do any cookouts and we didn't have our typical soccer tournament. But, in many ways, this made for a really nice and relaxing weekend. We joined friends for a homemade pizza dinner on Friday night, so that the boys could do their online fantasy football draft together. It was a nice relaxed evening with pizza, wine and cheesecake - what a great combo! Saturday was filled with some walking, baseball practice, swimming and a family movie night of Muppets Most Wanted. Sunday was filled with some errands and a family game night/movie night rolled into one - we played Ticket to Ride and watched Ratatouille. Monday was a relaxed day with a quick lunch out, fort building and game play - both inside and out. It was refreshing to get the kids to bed before 9 for a change.

This week we are back into the busy life. It is a short week, but we still will have three soccer practices, one soccer game, a meet the teacher night, another fantasy football draft (the husband this time), a concert and likely a baseball game or practice to round out the week.

We are trying out a few new recipes this week and revisiting a few that we have had before.


Sunday
cereal and toast
sandwiches
Chinese

Monday
cereal
CiCi's pizza buffet
leftovers

Tuesday
Corn Dog Muffins

Wednesday
Grilled Mahi Mahi with pineapple salsa

Thursday
Chicken Mango Curry

Friday
Pizza

Saturday
TBD

Now that the kids are back to school, breakfast will be cereal, oatmeal or toast most mornings and lunch will be a mix of the hot plate lunch at school or a packed lunch from home. My husband and I will stick with our standard routines. I do hope to get back to packing more. I seem to eat better when I pack, plus I am hopeful that it leaves me some time to walk at lunch.

This post shared on Menu Plan Monday.

Menu Plan Monday

It is super hard to believe that this week marks the return to school for my kids. It feels like summer just started. They have been acting so dramatic this week about the start of school. My son has decided that they need longer for summer break and when I asked him how long he thought my summer break was, he replied 1 month? I wish. I suppose I could string together my vacation and a holiday and maybe get about a month off, but that would be awful, having no other vacation all year.

This week we are doing a mix of familiar favorites and a few new recipes. I am determined to clean up that stack of clipped recipes on my counter...and then move on to all those 'clipped' recipes on Pinterest. I hope to post the recipes and will link up after I do.

Our garden is booming right now, so there will be a lot of tomatoes served on salads or sliced on the side this week. I love being able to use garden fresh peppers, tomatoes and onions when I make dinner.

Sunday
cereal and toast
Cracker Barrel with the family
Leftovers

Monday
Baked Nuggets with Creamy Dill Dip and Mashed Potato Balls

Tuesday
Siracha Oatmeal-Crusted Tilapia

Wednesday
Turkey Roast

Thursday
Chicken Mango Curry

Friday
Pizza

Saturday
TBD

Now that the kids are back to school, breakfast will be cereal, oatmeal or toast most mornings and lunch will be a mix of the hot plate lunch at school or a packed lunch from home. My husband and I will stick with our standard routines. I do hope to get back to packing more. I seem to eat better when I pack, plus I am hopeful that it leaves me some time to walk at lunch.

This post shared on Menu Plan Monday.

Menu Plan Monday

We have had a few busy weekends in a row, so it was nice this past weekend when we discovered that we had an entire weekend with absolutely nothing planned. We tried to plan a spontaneous road trip to Columbus on Friday, but learned that the Ohio State Fair was going on and that there was a Thirty-One convention that was wrapping up in Columbus. The issue, most of the hotels that we would normally select actually had no rooms available. So, we ditched that and instead, took the kids to the Melting Pot for dinner and did some shopping at the outdoor mall. It made for a nice evening out as a family.

Saturday was a great day to get a lot done. I did some cleaning, lots of laundry, some baking, some sorting through and listing of the clothes my kids had outgrown and my husband had shrunk out of. We made a quick bike ride as a family to a nearby convenience store and got the kids each a milkshake. My husband did the grocery shopping, allowing me to wrap up a few things and sneak in some time for reading.

Sunday was a nice relaxing family day. We went to the pool, before the rain came and then came home and played Monopoly, while I made dinner. After dinner, the rain was gone, so we went out and played catch and found some time to weed the garden.

This week's menu plan is brought to us by my son. While at the library, he picked up Guy Fieri's Guy On Fire cookbook and spent some time reviewing the cookbook and marking several recipes. I took four of the recipes that he marked and included them on our menu for this week. I actually feel like I could make and eat most of the dishes that my son marked. I can tell you already though that I will have to make some slight tweaks, like reduce the amount of cheese in the Philly Cheesesteak Egg Rolls - but as my son said, "this is definitely a keeper".

Saturday
cereal
sandwiches
Philly Cheesesteak Egg Rolls (from Guy on Fire)

Sunday
cereal
leftovers (the egg rolls reheated nicely)
homemade pizza - Pepperoni-Cheese, Prosciutto and Mozzarella, Cheese/Kalamata Olives-Cheese/Jalapenos/Onions-Cheese

Monday
Mac n Cheese with Roasted Chicken and Bacon (from Guy on Fire)

Tuesday
Danger Dogs (from Guy on Fire)

Wednesday
Creamy Chicken Florentine

Thursday
Grilled Chicken Wings Two Ways (from Guy on Fire)

Friday
TBD

Saturday
Pizza

Now that it is summer, the kids are in camp and are packing lunches. Breakfast is generally a bowl of cereal or oatmeal before they head out. For my husband and I, lunch is a quick sandwich, microwave meal, leftovers or something on the go. Breakfast is a banana and a protein shake or bar.

This post shared at Menu Plan Monday on I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Menu Plan Monday

Wow! What a wonderful long weekend. We were able to do so much over the long weekend that it really felt like it was several weekends in one. That is something that i really like.

I am fortunate enough to have two holidays for the 4th of July, so my weekend started on Wednesday night. Wednesday night, we had a chance to enjoy dinner at our friend's new restaurant. It started out a little frustrating because my son was tired or otherwise out of sorts and didn't want anything and was nearly brought to tears. It probably didn't help that their children's menu is not written out, but rather is a handful of options or a modification of an item from the main menu. I pulled him aside and told him that he didn't have to eat, but he did need to relax so that we could enjoy our dinner. He wound up sharing some of our food and eventually decided that he would have enjoyed the Lobster Mac N Cheese that I was eating. By then though, it really didn't make sense to order him more food, as he had eaten part of our wedge salad, a few slices of the homemade bread and butter, some of the fries from my daughter's dinner and a 1/3 of my dish. But, at least now, I know that we can go back with less stress or, perhaps we will just try to go there on date nights in the future.

Thursday was a busy day. I started out with my normal workout class, my husband went to the gym to work out, my daughter and I made butterfly cupcakes, my son had a friend over, we ran some errands, went to see Earth to Echo, grilled out and attempted to watch the fireworks from home...which we learned was not a good idea - we could see bits of it but really needed to head some place different to see the full show.

Friday we enjoyed a full day with all of my immediate family. My brother, sister-in-law and nephew were up to visit from North Carolina. We did lunch out, spent the afternoon jumping and playing laser tag, mom made dinner for all of us, we played a family game of soccer and some Corn Hole and then watched the fireworks as a family. We all stayed at Mom and Dad's house and spent Saturday morning together as well. The kids love spending the night at Grandma and Grandpa's, especially when all of their cousins are there.

Saturday the family headed out to lunch at the Mellow Mushroom and then we came home and went swimming and enjoyed a relaxed evening at home.

Sunday I fit in all of my errands, including picking up the penny deals at Office Max and getting my groceries. In addition, I fit in several loads of laundry, made dinner and enjoyed a 3 mile walk around the neighborhood with the family.

How was your weekend?

I have a bad habit of never finding time to read all of my magazines, so this weekend I spent a good amount of time reading through the stacks that had accumulated. I think I still have about 10 to go, but I easily read through about 40 magazines. In the process, I pulled out a number of recipes. Knowing that I have a bad habit of accumulating clipped recipes too, I decided that I would start to make those recipes this week and determine which to keep and which to toss. So, despite a pretty busy week of make-up sports, I am trying a number of new recipes. Sunday night dinner was a hit and I am hoping the rest of the week continues to be strong. I will come back and link up recipes for those that are keepers.

Sunday
cereal
leftovers
Grilled Chicken and Peaches with a Curried Tomato and Shallot Vinaigrette with brown rice

for dessert, I made Chilled Plum Oatmeal Pudding

Monday
Chicken Pot Pie Pockets

Tuesday
Chicken Patty Sandwiches

Wednesday
Hot Dogs on the grill

Thursday
Ginger Soy Tilapia

Friday
Prosciutto Mozzarella Pizza

Saturday
cereal
sandwiches
Cheesy Grits with Shrimp

Now that it is summer, the kids are in camp and are packing lunches. Breakfast is generally a bowl of cereal or oatmeal before they head out. For my husband and I, lunch is a quick sandwich, microwave meal, leftovers or something on the go. Breakfast is a banana and a protein shake or bar.

This post shared at Menu Plan Monday on I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Menu Plan Monday

What a great weekend!

First, let me say how much I am enjoying the return of Summer Hours at work. This Friday afternoon, I was able to sneak in a date with my husband while the kids were still at the sports day camp that they attended last week. It wasn't a fancy date, but we were able to catch a movie without having the added costs of a babysitter. We went and saw Jersey Boys. We really like the music and have seen the show twice on stage. The movie stayed fairly consistent with the stage show, obviously with the added luxury of having actual scene changes. Then, Friday evening - after fitting a quick cleaning of the first floor, we went out to a local Japanese Steak House for dinner with friends. After dinner, we returned to our house and visited for a while, while the kids played together.

Saturday was a complete change of pace from weekends of late, we had no sports until mid-afternoon and we only had 1 game. It was great to fit in a trip to the library to check in for the summer reading program and our grocery shopping before we had to head to the field for my daughter's softball game. After the game, we made a quick trip to Kohl's to take advantage of our 30% discount and redeem our $10 Kohl's Cash that was set to expire. Then, it was an early evening of bumper boats, mini golf and go karts. Aside from my daughter swinging her golf club too far, one time hitting my son in the forehead, it was a good evening. We had dinner at the activity center and then headed to our friend's new restaurant to enjoy dessert - Salted Caramel Cheesecake and Flourless Chocolate Cake.

Sunday was another relaxed day. I found time to get caught up on some laundry, get my hair cut, fill a prescription and do some baking. I made Carrot Cake Cookies, French Bread, Rye Bread, and two batches of Caramel Macchiato Biscotti. I had hoped to make some homemade cinnamon rolls too, but ran out of flour. In fact, I used a gluten free flour mix to make the second batch of biscotti and learned that you really need to use a little more fat with gluten free flours to get the right texture and since I hadn't, they were very crumbly - still very tasty, just more breakage than normal. I also discovered as I finished up my jar of yeast, that I should have been refrigerating the jar once I opened it. I clearly haven't done as much baking lately, because I hadn't had the issue before, but my French bread did not rise quite like it should have. Again, still tasty, just not as fluffy as we were used to. The rye bread seemed fine, but it is naturally a denser bread. Regardless, I was glad to have found the time to bake, I have been considering it every morning for the past week and usually find that I can't quite make the recipe and still get to work on time, so I had been reluctantly deciding not to bake each morning.

We have a somewhat busy sports week, but with only one sport in the mix, it is a lot slower than we have been having. Still, the plans mid-week are definitely quick prep options.

Sunday
Sonora Chicken Pasta

Monday
Tacos

Tuesday
Buffalo Chicken Cheesesteak

Wednesday
Leftovers

Thursday
Hamburgers

Friday
Homemade Pizza

Saturday
TBD

Now that it is summer, the kids are in camp and are packing lunches. Breakfast is generally a bowl of cereal or oatmeal before they head out. For my husband and I, lunch is a quick sandwich, microwave meal, leftovers or something on the go. Breakfast is a banana and a protein shake or bar.

This post shared at Menu Plan Monday on I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Menu Plan Monday

What a good weekend. Friday evening, we went to the movies as a family. We went two separate ways at the theater with my son and husband checking out Million Dollar Arm and my daughter and I watching Legends of Oz. Saturday was rainy and we wound up only playing soccer in the morning and the other sports wound up cancelled. It was sort of nice just to be around the house with unexpected time. I finished a book, did laundry and relaxed. Then we watched a movie at home as a family in the evening. Sunday we had one game and one practice for the kids. The balance of the time was spent outside. The kids playing with friends, my husband mowing and I was able to put in my garden and flowers (so glad it wasn't June like last year).

It is officially another crazy week around here. Kid's sports are in full swing. I don't think that we have a night this week where we only have one activity. Most nights it is that each kid has an activity, but there are a few nights where we will have to make a choice between activities for the kids. Fortunately, the school year is winding down and things will relax a little in a few weeks. I get to start summer hours in a few weeks and get to enjoy extended weekends as a result, of course, it will make the rest of my schedule a little tighter as I put those hours in earlier in the week.

The menu plan this week has a theme of quick to table. Now, some of them require some prep time, it is either that my husband can put it in the oven and forget about it until dinner time or that I can cut and prep in advance, so we simply have to serve.

Sunday
cereal
Pull Apart Pepperoni Bread (family loved, will share)
Chicken Piccata

Monday
Chicken Patty Sandwiches

Tuesday
Lasagne Rolls

Wednesday
Turkey Roast

Thursday
Tacos

Friday
Pizza

Saturday
cereal
sandwiches
TBD - with sports and family visiting, we haven't decided yet

For breakfast, most days the family enjoys cereal or toast, with the occasional oatmeal or breakfast sandwich entering the mix. Lunch is either the school hot lunch or a packed sandwich for the kids and leftovers or microwave meals for my husband and I. This menu plan shared at Menu Plan Monday.

Menu Plan Monday

It is May. The thermometer may not be a good indicator of the month, but the schedule sure is. We are full swing into baseball, softball and soccer - some are lagging a little, but the schedule is full. So, we are back on the cook once eat twice (or more) approach and the quick prep meal approach for menu planning. Fortunately, we are usually still able to make eating as a family (or at least 3 of us) work for us most nights. I like that, it is a chance to reconnect and catch up on our days.

Sunday
Grilled Moroccan Chicken (I will share this recipe - it is flavorful and moise, come back for the link) and Cheesy Quinoa (will also share this one)

Monday
Chicken Tacos (using extra grilled chicken from Sunday)

Tuesday
Sonoran Chicken Pasta (the rest of the chicken)

Wednesday
Chicken Cheesesteaks

Thursday
Pork chops

Friday
Chicken Rollatini (will have to share this recipe too, it is a favorite)

Saturday
dinner out with friends

Breakfasts and lunches are pretty straight forward at our house. During the week, cereal is the poplular favorite, but sometimes we have bagels or English Muffins or a sandwich from the freezer. Weekends, we will sometimes make cinnamon rolls or traditional hot breakfast foods. Lunch on the weekends is usually leftovers or sandwiches. During busy sports days, we pack a lunch to take to the fields with us to keep us nourished throughout the day. During the week kids have hot lunches from the school or the occasional packed lunch. My husband and I continue to rely on leftovers, frozen meals and sandwiches for lunch.

This post shared at Menu Plan Monday.

Menu Plan Monday

In a strange and rare case, I was able to do my grocery shopping on Saturday this weekend. I went in the evening and the store was quiet. I had actually only planned to grab milk, but decided that I could assemble my meal plan on the fly and did my shopping for the week - no coupons, no list. I did pretty good completely unplanned, but then my son decided that he wanted to make dinner one night, so I headed back on Sunday to buy his ingredients for him. He made Sunday night's dinner - I helped with chopping the cabbage for the slaw and draining the meat after it cooked, but he did most of it himself - sometimes after I showed him technique. It was a good meal - not the best for a diet, but still a tasty treat.

Sunday
cereal
leftovers
Bacon Cheeseburger Roll-ups, Fruited Slaw and fries and Caramel Apple Slushies for dessert

Monday
Fish in Coconut Curry (it was okay, but I want to tweak the spice blend next time - if that works, then I will share the recipe)

Tuesday
English Muffin Pizzas

Wednesday
Pasta Primavera

Thursday
Prosciutto Asparagus Parmesan Spaghetti (new recipe)

Friday
Fish Tacos or Parmesan Encrusted Tilapia

Saturday
TBD

The kids have hot lunches from the school or the occasional packed lunch. My husband and I continue to rely on leftovers, frozen meals and sandwiches for lunch.

This post shared at Menu Plan Monday.

Menu Plan Monday

Spring is less than a week away. The sun is shining trying to make you believe that it really could be spring, but the temperature is still all over the board. I am certain that when I went into the store on Sunday, the temperature dropped by 20 while I was shopping. I know it didn't really, but the wind picked up and when I walked back to my car, I was freezing. We are supposed to have a brief stint near 50 and then back to the lower 40s we go. Next week, snow in the forecast. I like the cuddle factor of winter (sort of like a rainy day) but I think I might be close to cuddled out.

The menu this week is a reasonably simple one and not really anything new that we are trying. I did though, on Sunday make up a batch of Crispy Parmesan Wonton Chips and they are tasty. We ate through them in no time flat.


Sunday
cereal
Chipotle
leftovers

Monday
English Muffin Pizzas

Tuesday
Buffalo Chicken Cheesesteak

Wednesday
Chicken Tacos

Thursday
Chicken Rollatini and Roasted Red Pepper Cauliflower Soup

Friday
Parmesan Encrusted Tilapia and homemade slaw

Saturday
cereal
sandwiches
pizza or Thai

The kids have hot lunches from the school or the occasional packed lunch. My husband and I continue to rely on leftovers, frozen meals and sandwiches for lunch.

This post shared at Menu Plan Monday.

Menu Plan Monday

What a fun weekend. We planned for a snow storm that thankfully was nothing more than a snow shower. My daughter and I got in some time visiting with family - we hung out on Friday night with my cousin, her husband, children, mom and other relatives including my parents. Then, Saturday we went to my nieces birthday party. Sunday, which was mostly unplanned because of the expected weather, we spent rollerskating with friends and then went out to dinner with them. What was strange is that we went to the open skate and ran into some other friends who were there for a family birthday party.

It's another week where we are trying several new recipes. Sometimes, it feels like things are a little blah, so we like to mix it up with new recipes. Sometimes, when I think, I should insert one new recipe, I find five that I can't choose between, so I insert them all! I expect that some of the dishes will be more popular with the family than others, and that will drive how frequently we see it on future menus. Wednesday I am making two soups, because I know my husband won't do the cauliflower soup.


Sunday
cereal
sandwiches
Panera

Monday
Buffalo Chicken Cupcakes

Tuesday
Creamy Bacon Carbonara

Wednesday
Chicken Corn Chowder and Red Pepper Cauliflower Soup

Thursday
Best Chicken

Friday
Parmesan Encrusted Tilapia

Saturday
cereal
leftovers
Hoagies

The kids have hot lunches from the school or the occasional packed lunch. My husband and I continue to rely on leftovers, frozen meals and sandwiches for lunch.

This post shared at Menu Plan Monday.

Menu Plan Monday

It was a good weekend. We did a lot of baking - lemon white chocolate biscotti, butterfinger cupcakes, rice krispie treats and cherry rice krispie treats. The cats destroyed the biscotti, which was a bummer because the piece that I did eat was delicious.

On Sunday, my husband told me as I was leaving for a friend's baby shower, that he would make dinner. He made chicken piccata and it turned out wonderful (even more so, because I didn't cook!). It was supposed to be part of the plan last week, as was the tilapia we are having Thursday, but we had some schedule changes and didn't get to those meals last week. I will have to post his recipe and link it up.

Sunday
cereal
sandwiches
Chicken Piccata

Monday
English Muffin Pizzas

Tuesday
Turkey Roast with mashed potatoes

Wednesday
Tacos

Thursday
Parmesean Crusted Tilapia

Friday
TBD

Saturday
TBD


As we are now back in school, the kids either pack or buy the hot lunch at school. My husband and I rely on leftovers, frozen meals and lunch meetings for lunch.

This post shared at Menu Plan Monday.

Menu Plan Monday

Can we be done with this snow already? We are supposed to be getting 3-5" tonight. There was no school today, because of the holiday, and depending on how the timing works out for the snowfall tonight, it seems likely that there could be a delay or closure tomorrow. Despite the weather, we seem to have a rather busy schedule the first half of the week with swim lessons, baseball practice (indoor, obviously), work out classes, church youth groups and meetings filling our evenings. As such, there are a lot of quick to table meals on the menu the first half of the week, with the longer prep meals coming at the end of the week.

My son has taken a lot of interest in cooking, he is a big fan of the cooking competition shows. So, a few weeks back, when I was traveling, he made English Muffin Pizzas (not sure where he saw this, but it was his idea). They are included on this week's menu, as was a Chopped Kids Edition where they decided to get creative with the prosciutto and cheese that we had left from dinner earlier in the week. My son went with what he called hash - chopped prosciutto warmed and topped with cheese and crushed crackers and an over medium egg on top. My daughter (who I did most of the cooking for - she stirred the prosciutto while it was cooking) went with prosciutto and cheese wrapped in a flour tortilla with scrambled eggs on the side.

Sunday
cereal
Chopped Kids Edition
Spaghetti and Meat Sauce

Monday
Leftovers

Tuesday
Buffalo Chicken Soup and Salad

Wednesday
English Muffin Pizzas

Thursday
Pork Chops

Friday
Chicken Piccata

Saturday
cereal
sandwiches
Parmesean Crusted Tilapia


As we are now back in school, the kids either pack or buy the hot lunch at school. My husband and I rely on leftovers, frozen meals and lunch meetings for lunch.

This post shared at Menu Plan Monday.

Menu Plan Monday

I'm not sure how the weather is where you are, but we are gearing up for another very cold couple of days. Lows tonight around -10 and then highs in the single digits tomorrow. Part of me loves the coziness associated with a cold winter day - blankets, tea, movies; but part of me hates going out in the cold to get to work, run errands, and such. The kids have tomorrow off - I like that they at least let us know earlier today so that they can go to bed knowing that they can sleep in.

There are still a few new dishes in this week's plan, some of which we simply didn't get to last week. The winners from last week include the Buffalo Chicken soup and the creamy tomato shrimp pasta. I hope to share those recipes soon.

Sunday
cereal
grilled cheese with ham (used my homemade rye - yum!)
Parmesan Breaded Chicken and Asparagus

Monday
Pizza

Tuesday
Pasta with Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo

Wednesday
Tacos

Thursday
Buffalo Quinoa Salad

Friday
Leftovers

Saturday
cereal
sandwiches
Hot Dogs and other game food

As we are now back in school, the kids either pack or buy the hot lunch at school. My husband and I rely on leftovers, frozen meals and lunch meetings for lunch.

This post shared at Menu Plan Monday.

Menu Plan Monday

It is really hard to believe that we are more than half way through January already. Weren't we just on winter break? Life is starting to get busy again as we enter the new year. The kids are in swim lessons, my son plays soccer and is having baseball practice, and my son has been going to youth group with a couple of friends. All but soccer occur during the evening and so we have to be a little creative in timing for meals to allow everyone to get to their activities.

Trying new recipes last week was so much fun and a real taste treat that I decided to do it again this week. There are a few familiar favorites mixed in, but also some new to us recipes. I will post my favorite recipes, the real keepers over on my cooking blog: A Busy Mom of Two in the Kitchen - I just can't promise how quickly they will go up.

It's shaping up to be a cold week here. Glad I put chili and soup on the menu plan this week!

Sunday
cereal
sandwiches
Shrimp in a Creamy Tomato Sauce, with spaghetti

Monday
Leftovers

Tuesday
Chili - Skyline chili knock-off recipe

Wednesday
Buffalo Chicken Soup

Thursday
Breakfast for dinner - Homemade Hash browns and eggs

Friday
Parmesan Encrusted Chicken

Saturday
TBD


As we are now back in school, the kids either pack or buy the hot lunch at school. My husband and I rely on leftovers, frozen meals and lunch meetings for lunch.

This post shared at Menu Plan Monday.

Menu Plan Monday

The week is starting out much warmer this week. For my son, it's the first full week back to school, but my daughter doesn't have school on Friday. Still, it will be nice to be back into a routine. I still am trying to kick this cold, a visit to the doctor this weekend hopefully has me on the road to recovery.

I decided to mix it up and we are trying a lot of new recipes this week. The new recipes come from Pins I found on Pinterest. There are a two soups, one stew and two chicken dishes. I am excited to try out some new recipes and expand our menu options. The kids aren't always fans of trying new things, but it is in so doing that we truly expand their horizons. I find that sometimes, they might be hesitant the first time I serve a new meal but will generally enjoy it the second time. It always amuses me that I put together a group of ingredients in a recipe that they like on their own, but they seem to question having them in a new way.

Sunday
cereal
Grilled Cheese and Chicken Noodle Soup (yup that is a link to a grilled cheese 'recipe')
Chicken Paprikash with Dumplings

Monday
Pizza

Tuesday
Stuffed Pepper Soup

Wednesday
Chicken in Basil Cream Sauce

Thursday
Italian Chicken Tomato Soup

Friday
Chicken Rollatini with Prosciutto and Cheese

Saturday
TBD

It is quite possible that we will accumulate enough leftovers that we will insert a leftover night mid-week and push everything out a day. We already have leftovers from Sunday's dinner, which I intend to pack later this week, and with new recipes, I never know what to anticipate. As such, I left a flex day in there.

As we are now back in school, the kids either pack or buy the hot lunch at school. My husband and I rely on leftovers, frozen meals and lunch meetings for lunch.

This post shared at Menu Plan Monday.