Meals: 21-23 May

I've only planned this week through Thursday since we start our CSA pickup that day (two weeks early!!).  My thought is that I'll look at our CSA box and plan Friday through the following Thursday so that I can be sure to incorporate all of our fresh-from-the-farm produce.  The farm is doing home deliveries today and they posted some pictures - beautiful, lush produce in beautiful, hand-crafted cedar crates.  I noticed kale, turnips, strawberries, salad mix; I'm so excited!

Tuesday
Sun-dried Tomato and Pork with Balsamic Reduction Sauce from I Dream of Protein - I already made the macadamia pesto to go with it and it's delicious.  Sophie and I had it on eggs for lunch.  I think I'll serve it on a bed of lettuce and maybe saute some zuchinni rounds to go with it.

Wednesday
3lbs ground beef taco meat, 2 bags romaine lettuce - Community Group night.  Taco bar!

Thursday
spring mix with chicken sausage links - easy to have on the table quickly while I revel in our fresh farm bounty!

Meals: 29 April-5 May

I can tell that I've been having too much sugar lately, because I am craving it ALL the time.  I wake up and my first thought is, "What can I munch?"  I think some of this might come from the leftover cake pops from baby Sophie's first birthday.  They were the best cake I've ever had in my whole life!!  We are down to just a couple remaining leftovers and I will be sad to see them go, but I put together a solid meal plan for next week to help distract me.  It has just enough sugar in it to let me down easily.

Sunday
Mongolian Grill - we were planning to do this last week and it's been stuck in my brain ever since.  We have a lot of work planned for Sunday, so I'm sure I'll want a break by dinner time.

Monday
chicken caesar salad - love the standbys

Tuesday
Gussied up Viking Hash from Best Paleo Recipes.  Aunt Steph is making it too.  We'll see if I can stick to the meal plan and actually co-cook this week!  I'm planning to cut up some apples and steam some zucchini spears to go with the hash.  I might pick up rice pudding for dessert.  Just a tiny bit of sugar :)

Wednesday
Community Group - I'm not sure yet what the theme will be, but I'm looking forward to seeing our group.  It's been a long time!

Thursday
hamburger patty, stuffed zucchini boats

Friday
Crock Pot Chicken Curry with Peppers and Cabbage from PaleoPot.

Saturday
lemon rosemary chicken on a salad (bell peppers, cucumbers, carrots, probably romaine lettuce) and probably some of the crispy onion salad topping.  I am crazy for that stuff right now.

At this point I've planned to make a caramelized onion tart with apples for a snack/lunch on Saturday.  We'll see if I talk my self out of it before then since I'm pretty sure puff pastry is not the best idea.  But if the weather is the pleasant, gray, chilly battle of Winter hoping to hold Spring off forever that today is - I am making an apple onion tart!  End of story!!

Meals: 23-28 April

Monday
tilapia, steamed carrots, salad

Tuesday
hamburger patty, pickles, apples, mozzarella

Wednesday
Burgerville

Thursday
chicken caesar salad

Friday
apple and pork stir-fry with ginger

Saturday
taco salad

Meals: 9-15 April

Meal planning lately has been very last minute, which has kind of a fun, go with the moment feeling - but I'm ready for more stability.  Normally I prefer to plan the Wednesday before, but today will work.  We're finishing the plan and then Sophie and I are headed to the grocery store!

Monday
I was planning to do hamburger patties, but Tim called and suggested we go out for Indian food.  I'm all for that!!

Tuesday
Paleo Chilaquiles - new recipe!  I pulled this down from Paleo Effect and we are going to pair it with their Paleo Tostones.  Aunt Steph and I are still cooking "together" on Tuesdays (we make the same meal the same night - even though she is in MN and I am in OR) so I'm looking forward to comparing notes with her on how this comes out.

Wednesday
Our hockey team is in the playoffs and Community Group meets on Wednesdays, so we are either doing something quick and easy while we watch the game, or quick and easy to take to Community Group.

Thursday
Rosemary Chicken on Salad - we had this for dinner last night and I might even have it for lunch today.  It's super simple: romaine lettuce, dried cranberries, maybe some feta, bell pepper, Annie's Shitake Sesame dressing - all topped with chicken cooked in lemon juice and rosemary.  So good.

Friday
Crock Peppered Beef - new recipe! I got this from one of the people sharing recipes through Plan to Eat.  I think I'll do steamed sweet potatoes with butter and cinnamon on the side.  And maybe some broccoli too.

Saturday
Bacon-Feta stuffed Chicken, side of Stuffed Zucchini Boats - we have a busy morning/afternoon on Saturday, but I'm hoping to make it back in time to put all of this together.

Sunday
Chicken Sausage with Onions, Peppers, paired with Spiced Butternut Squash and Apple Soup - new recipe!) - this is SUCH a fall recipe, but I'm going to hope the weather holds for one last comfort-food fall meal.

Meals: 13-18 February

Meals for this week are intentionally simple, mostly stuff I've done before, using what we have on hand where possible.

Monday

Hamburger Patties, Cottage Cheese, Pickles, Steamed Apples with Cinnamon

Tuesday

Chicken Lettuce Wraps - I've never made them before, but I think it will go well.  I have a filling recipe that looks good and I've been buying little artisan romaine bunches which I think will work for the wraps.  As far as I'm concerned, it's hard to go wrong with chicken and water chestnuts.

Wednesday

Chicken Caesar Salad, dried mangoes and cherries

Thursday

Slow-cooker Chipotle Beef with Cabbage Radish Slaw, Darling Clementines, Celery with dabs of Almond Butter

Friday

Chicken, Zucchini, Prosciutto - new recipe!

Lemon and lime jello parfaits (if this turns out as awesome as I think it will, I will definitely post a picture).

Saturday

Tilapia, Turkey Bacon, Steamed Broccoli

Meals: 29 December-14 January

We are still in the odd scheduling of the holidays, so I'm doing a bunch of meal planning all at once.  I haven't been great about sticking to the plans, but I still find it helpful to chart something out so that I have a plan in case we end up staying in.  I've been shopping every few days so that I don't have a produce overstock issue.

Tonight
Tim has a band practice and I'm out with my grandparents in the afternoon... it might be a pizza night.  We'll see if I come up with anything before then.

Friday
Burgerville :)

Saturday
Chicken Caesar Salad

Sunday
Scramble - We are going to a wedding!!  I'm planning a light, easy dinner, since it's an early evening wedding and we'll be having CAKE before dinner.  :)

2-14 January 2012
2012.  Gulp.  :)  I want to get this planned out so that I can get some shopping done, but our schedules are busy enough that I'm not going map it out to the day.  I'm just making a list of some meal thoughts and I'll shop as necessary.

- Slow-Cooker Vegetable Stew (new recipe!)

- Taco Salad

- Ham, Cottage Cheese, Pickles, Bell Peppers

- Salmon, Tomato Salad, Cranberry Sauce

- Steak Quesadillas

- Tilapia, Steamed Asparagus, Cheddar Cheese

There are definitely some holes in there, but it feels good to have a frame set up for the majority of the meals.  My Sam the Cooking Guy books are overdue to the library, so I'll be copying some of those recipes down and hopefully getting some of those into rotation soon.

How do you approach the post-holiday food planning?  Do you just naturally fall back into a great rhythm, or does it take a while to break that food cravings?  Leave me a comment with any suggestions you have for making this go smoothly.

Happy Holidays!

Meals: 18-25 December

Holiday food!  I'm already starting to feel like I might need to eat something other than cookies to give my body a break.  I am inclined to make meals that are very simple to counteract the richness of holiday foods.  Here's what I have sketched out for next week:

Sunday
Peanut chicken with sprouts and veggies - it's kind of like a Thai stir-fry that I like to throw together.  It's very simple.

Monday
Tilapia, bell pepper slices, string cheese

Tuesday
Advent devotions - we'll have dinner with my grandparents

Wednesday
Community Group - I don't know yet what is on the menu.  Last week we had an amazing spread of stir-fry dishes, sushi, and fried rice.

Thursday
Winter Fritatta (new recipe!) and I'm going to try making Pumpkin Parfaits ... we'll see!

Friday
Pizza quesadilla

Saturday - Christmas Eve
Tim and Sophie and I will be going with my grandpa to serve a meal at a homeless shelter.  We'll probably make a big batch of stew and we'll eat dinner with my grandparents before we take the stew downtown.

Sunday - Christmas Day
I don't know precisely what is on the menu, but no one goes hungry at Grandma's!  My guess is we'll have a bit meal around 2:00P and dinner will be something light (like sandwiches).

I'm thinking of making breakfast burritos on Christmas morning.  I would love to make cinnamon rolls or something festive like that, but I'm thinking by that point in our week we might need a break from the sugar.  Maybe I'll do cinnamon rolls to celebrate the first day of Tim's Christmas break.

What holiday food traditions do you have?  Do you have a classic turkey dinner on Christmas?  Is there a special breakfast that you prepare, or a special cookie that you know you will make every year?  Leave me a comment with your food celebrations.

Merry Christmas!!!

Meals: 13-17 December

I'm sitting down again to plan a week of meals and realizing that this will be fairly easy for a few reasons:

1. The week is almost half over already!

2. We are again so busy that there aren't really that many at-home meals to plan.

3. We just went to Trader Joe's and explored the frozen foods section together, so I always have Palak Paneer as a great backup plan.

So it's quick, simple, and no real pressure.  Love it.  Here are the meals:

Tuesday
Advent!  Dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's (I heard a rumor of soup and sandwiches).

Wednesday
Community Group - I signed up to bring steamed rice, iced tea, and ginger-pork-apple stir-fry.

Thursday
Tim's busy and Sophie and I are headed to a bridal shower.  Sophie and I will probably have something in the late afternoon - something like pinto beans and green beans and jelly beans!  (just kidding about the jelly beans.)

Friday
Christmas party

Saturday
Chicken Chili - a new recipe I'm trying from "Sam the Cooking Guy"  We'll see how it goes.  I bought some chicken thighs at Costco because they were cheaper, and I'm missing my all-white meat tenders.  I'm planning soups and quesadillas and such to use up the thighs and then go back to my favorite (albeit expensive) tenders.

Stay tuned for next weeks meals.  That post is due tomorrow.  I should probably start working now to get a running start.

Meals: 29 November-3 December

The most wonderful, busy, crazy, fun time of the year is here!  We had company the week of Thanksgiving and it was lovely.  I decided to brave a week without a plan and it went smoothly.  I had stocked up on salad ingredients and chicken sausages and peppers and that plus the classic turkey dinner on Thursday got us through the week with no problems.

Reality is setting back in and I spent way too much time yesterday trying to come up with a dinner.  I don't like that!  This week is also really busy so I have a few (lots) of meals out planned.  It feels good just to get it down in a plan though, no matter what we are having.

Tuesday
Minestrone with Turkey Kielbasa - it's definitely soup weather and this is one of Tim's favorites.  It's also quick and easy, which is important since I have a training appointment at the gym.

Wednesday
Subway Sandwiches - with all this fancy holiday food to overindulge in I think we are both ready for something more simple.  We've been avoiding sandwiches lately because of all the bread, but I think this is the perfect time to splurge on some subs.  I might try to swing Big Town Hero instead of Subway because I completely adore their bread.

Thursday
We will almost certainly be eating out and I'm hoping for McMenamins.  We'll see what I can work into the schedule.

Friday
Caesar Salad Wraps

Saturday
Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese - more soup for this delightfully chilly weather we've been having.  I'm going to see if I can pick up some Grand Central Ciabatta and make some extra special grilled cheese sandwiches.  We'll see what I can do!

Feel free to leave me a comment with your meal plan.  I hope yours is looking a little more put together than mine is this week.  How do you build your menu post-holiday decadence?  Do you go cold turkey on the junk food? (tee hee) Or do you favor a gradual transition back to the balanced life?  Did you manage to enjoy the holidays without going completely crazy on food?  If so, high-five - and maybe next year I'll join you!  (Notice I didn't even attempt to say that I would join you for Christmas - ha!)  It really wasn't all that bad.  I'm mostly just overly busy this week and I needed to get something simple in place so that we would at least have a plan.

Meals: 13-19 November

I completed this plan around Thursday of last week, but have been slow to post it.  I think it will be a good - I've already had two of the dinners and enjoyed them.  I intentionally simplified the plan a bit this week and I don't have any new recipes to try.  My parents will be here visiting all of next week and I want to be able to focus on getting ready for their visit!

Sunday
(leftover) Bean and Kielbasa soup (which was excellent - both times!!) - Tim's parents came over for lunch and I made garlic and rosemary chicken tenders with steamed carrots, steamed broccoli, and cottage cheese on the side.  Mom and Dad brought garlic bread to complete our nice, colorful, tasty lunch.  With such a fabulous lunch, I decided dinner could be simple.

Monday
Tilapia, (leftover) steamed broccoli and carrots, canned green beans, cottage cheese

Tuesday
Chicken Tricolore, salad

Wednesday
Tamales, chips, mango salsa - I'll be bringing these to our community group shared dinner.  I buy the prepped - not frozen - bag of tamales at Costco and I'll steam them up.  Their mango salsa is great, so I'll get that, and I'll look for some sort of whole grain tortilla chip.

Thursday
Low-Carb Zucchini Lasagna

Friday
Spinach Feta Salad, bell pepper slices

Saturday
Tomato Basil Soup, Grilled Cheese

Meals: 6-12 November

The schedule piled up on me and I didn't make the meal-planning a priority on Wednesday.  I am reminded of why I started planning ahead - things run more smoothly in my kitchen when I have a menu, shopping, and prep plans all set.  Here's the menu for the upcoming week.

Sunday

scramble - I have some breakfast sausage leftover from Wednesday's lasagna triumph

Monday

slow-cooker chipotle beef tacos with cabbage and radish slaw (new recipe!)

Tuesday

tilapia, green beans, apple slices

Wednesday

Community group is having baked potatoes!  I signed up to bring some of the potatoes, cheddar cheese and sour cream (I am going to watch and see and if no one signs up to bring bacon, I will bring that too.  Bacon is awesome!!)

Thursday

white-bean and kielbasa stew (new recipe!)

Friday

chicken caesar salad wraps

Saturday

Burgerville.  yum.

Questions?  Comments?  Let me know if you want any recipes.  Stay tuned for reviews as I cook my way through the week.

Meals: 29 October - 5 November

Meal plan!  I am growing to love this time to sit down and review what we ate recently and figure out what we want to have in the next few days.  Plan to Eat has a great queue feature, so if I add a recipe and I know that it's something I want to try soon I can queue it and then when I open that week to plan it out, the queue reminds me of what I've been wanting to make lately.

Saturday
We went to Hawai'i on vacation this time last year and I think we are all wishing we'd booked another trip.   Instead, we are going to have a little luau at our house and it will be a mid-afternoon meal, so for dinner we will either have leftovers or for those of us who already had enough of the kalua pig, I'm making Caramelized Onion Tarts with Apples (new recipe!)

Sunday
Scramble - nice and simple, which is often what we need during this last evening of family weekend time before we head back into our work week.  This meal will often get subbed for a pizza delivery or a special dinner out, so I'm purposely planning something flexible.

Monday
Apple and Pork Stir-Fry - this is one of my favorite fall meals.  We used to serve it over rice, but now I just use a LOT of bell pepper so that it fills the bowl.  I bought some fresh ginger in a tube (I've always used powdered before) and I'm curious to see if we can taste a difference.

Tuesday
Chicken Caesar Salad

Wednesday
community group - I'm not sure yet what is on the menu

Thursday
Low-Carb Zucchini Lasagna - This uses zucchini slices (lengthwise) instead of lasagna noodles.  We had it once before, and liked it, but I have a couple of tweaks in mind that I think will make it even better.

Friday
Chicken Tricolore (new recipe!)

Saturday
Spinach Feta Salad

I'm happy to answer any questions about the meals or the recipes.  This last week was great and we mostly stuck to the plan and I've enjoyed posting pictures of the dinners as I finish them.  The meals are still coming to mind easily, like I have genius inspiration, but I'm sure the idea wheel will slow down at any time.  Feel free to leave meal ideas in the comments.

Meals: 21-28 October

Normally I like to plan my menu on Wednesday and then do grocery shopping on Thursday. This week is a little off though, so I'm playing catch-up and planning today. I have some meals on hand that I think will get us through and hopefully I can just do a little grocery shopping to fill in where needed.

Friday
taco salads - I am taking lettuce and taco toppings up to a friend who just had a baby.  I'll make double the ingredients and when Sophie and I get home from our errand of love we will have the same meal we just delivered.

Saturday
pizza quesadillas

Sunday
chicken sausage with bell peppers and onions (in a bowl - no bun), cheese cubes on the side

Monday
turkey bacon, steamed broccoli, cottage cheese

Tuesday
chicken caesar salad - I have been cooking up chicken tenders with lemon juice and rosemary for our salads. It just adds a nice little zip.

Wednesday
chili night with our new community group through church (we are trying it out for the first time - excited/whoa - new thing)

Thursday
basil pesto tilapia (from Costco), steamed edamame, string cheese

Friday
peanut chicken with sprouts - I put together this collection of Thai-ish veggies with chicken and it's one of my favorites.  It's usually chicken, carrots, cabbage, bean sprouts, purple onion, and then a peanut sauce.  I like the one from Trader Joe's - better than I liked the one from Pampered Chef.  I found a couple of recipes, so I'll try making my own soon.

Feel free to ask any questions about the meals.  Most of them are really as simple as they look - like Monday is really turkey bacon in the oven, broccoli in the steamer and 1/4 C cottage cheese.  Simple, but filling and tasty.  I'd love to see your meal plan for the week in the comments.