Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Pizza Casserole (New Recipe from Taste of Home), Caesar Salad
Tuesday: Baked Chicken, Roasted Red Potatoes, Green Beans
Wednesday: Crock-Pot Mexican Chili, Veggie Quesadillas
Thursday: Leftover Buffet
Friday: Parish Fish Fry
Saturday: Easy meal for the boys. (Dan has steady gigs every Saturday afternoon and evening.)
Sunday: Weather-willing, GRILLING!

Here's a great tip I read on another Mommy blog: Put out cut-up veggies and dip for an appetizer as another source of veggies/way-of-getting-children-out-from-under-your-feet-while-cooking. My boys love anything they can 'dip' so this has really worked well.

Check out I'm an Organizing Junkie for more Menu Plans. Also surf over to my favorite new cooking blog, The Pioneer Woman Cooks. It's full of recipes with step-by-step pictures for those of us who took Wood Shop instead of Home Ec. and need a little help with our kitchen skills. (But hey, I can make one cool soda-can lamp!)

Menu Plan Monday

I'm an Organizing Junkie

I'm still menu planning, I just haven't been blogging my plans - until I saw this week's theme, "Family Favorites Edition".

I post many of my family favorites on my recipe blog, Diva Mom's Meals.

This Week's Meals:
Saucy Cheeseburger Sandwiches, fruit salad, chips *Family Favorite*
Beer Brats, baked beans, corn *Family Favorite*
Alton Brown's Grilled Cheese, fresh & easy's tomato 'n basil soup *Family Favorite*
No Fuss Taco Salad

Dan has gigs 3 nights in the next 7 so it's an easy cooking week for me. The Little Heroes are always happy with quick and easy meals like Quesadillas, Annie's Pasta Meals, and probably one trip to the Golden Arches.

Have a delicious week!

Menu Plan Monday

This week's recipes:
Hawaiian Chicken Bake
Nacho Mac 'n' Cheese
Black Bean Quesadillas
Pizza Sandwiches
Meatless Friday: Fish Taco Salad
Grilling Sunday: Beer Brats, Red, White & Bleu Slaw

More menus at I'm an Organizing Junkie. Thanks for stopping by and have a delicious week!

Menu Plan Monday

You know the rules. I plan four meals and insert them as the spirit moves me. Wednesday nights I have choir and Thursday nights Dan teaches piano - those are leftover (or pizza) nights.

This week's meals:

Spinach Pasta Casserole, Salad
Chicken Parmesan, Green Beans, Garlic Bread
Soup & Basil-Tomato Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Meatless Friday: Black Bean Quesadillas, Cheese Nachos

And next weekend, since the forecast is for sunshine and highs in the 70's, we'll be firing up the grill! Bring on the burgers and brats!

Thanks to Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie for hosting.

Menu Plan Monday

My blog averages 40 unique visitors per day. (Double that in page loads, thanks to Grandmai refreshing hourly.) So imagine my surprise when I logged into my Statcounter summary last Wednesday and learned that several hundred people had checked out my last Menu Plan Monday!

Turns out my post was linked by several bigger parenting blogs:
Strollerderby
Quick Serve Kids

Now the pressure's on for a pithy post! Sorry to disappoint, but this week will be an easy menu planning week. Daddy, in addition to his regular daytime gig, will be performing nightly this week. Then Friday at o'dark hundred he heads out of town for a weekend jazz festival so it's just me and the Little Heroes chowing down at dinner time.

My menu is all about Bittyman's favorite meals (that don't come with a toy):

Tater Beef Bake
Veggie Quesadillas
English Muffin Pizzas
French Toast & Sausages

(Ittyboy will eat anything that's put in front of him. Seriously. Just call the kid 'Hoover'. He did not inherit his big brother's picky eating habits. His taste du jour? Homemade guacamole!)

And of course what Daddy's-out-of-town weekend would not be complete without a trip to our favorite take-out restaurant, Pei Wei. (Daddy loathes Asian food. When he's gone we feast on crab wontons and honey seared crispy chicken.)

Check out I'm an Organizing Junkie for a multitude of Menu Planning Moms.

Menu Plan Monday

One of my resolutions for 2008 is to simplify my life. And while meal planning does simplify my life, the attach-a-meal-to-a-specific-day part doesn't.

"Let's see. I'm sure that at 6:45pm on Tuesday Itty will happily sit in his high chair so I can chop green peppers and mince garlic for that evening's pasta recipe."

NOT.

And although most of the meal-planning Moms at I'm an Organizing Junkie don't cook on the weekends, I like to take advantage of Daddy's ability to entertain our heros and make more complex recipes then. (Especially now that Itty's favorite pastime is opening the broiler drawer.)

So my solution is to plan four specific meals a week so I won't run into the dreaded staring into the pantry hoping to be inspired with a dinner idea at 6:30pm panic attack. But which meal gets made will depend on our schedule, the boy's temperaments and the Mommy fatigue factor. The other three nights will consist of one leftover night, one pizza/take-out night and Thursdays are something simple for the boys because Daddy works late night.

Dan and I also resolved in 2008 to return to meatless Fridays. As Sister Mary Martha so entertainingly explains, Ask Sister Mary Martha: Meat or No Meat, the 'no meat on Fridays' rule was lifted with the understanding that we do another penance in it's place. And since I'm not ready to give up the computer or coffee on Fridays I'm doing the no meat thing. (And Lent is a mere 3 weeks away so might as well get back into the habit now!)


This Week's Meals:
Hawaiian Chicken Bake
Spaghetti Pie
Italian Sausage Subs
Alton Brown's Grilled Cheese & Soup

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Chicken & Cheese Quesadillas
Tuesday: Italian Sausage Subs, Caprese Salad
Wednesday: Pizza
Thursday: Bruschetta Chicken Bake
Friday: Pasta and Bean Skillet

It was a crazy busy weekend for me and I only had menus planned through Wednesday. A big thanks to Sharon at The Bird's Nest - I'm borrowing two of your recipes to round out my week!

If you're looking for menu ideas there are at last count 157 other Menu Plan Monday participants at I'm an Organizing Junkie!

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Crock Pot Saucy Cheeseburger Sandwiches, Green Beans
Tuesday: Broccoli Fettuccine Chicken
Wednesday: Leftover Buffet
Thursday (St. Nicholas Day): Pancakes, Sausages, Home Fries
Friday: Pizza, Veggies & Dip

Last week's Italian Sausage Egg Bake was a huge hit... with the adults. Not so much with Bittyman. I'll just stick with pancakes for Christmas morning! Speaking of pancakes, this Thursday is the Feast of St. Nicholas and by coincidence Daddy is off. So after opening our stockings, we'll enjoy a hearty leisurely breakfast. That evening we'll be touring an outdoor festival of lights so dinner will probably be of the drive-thru variety afterwards!

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Cheesy Pizza Meatloaf, Green Bean Casserole
Tuesday: Italian Sausage Egg Bake. (Test run for Christmas morning)
Wednesday: Alton Brown's Grilled Cheese, Soup
Thursday: Pizza for the Packers Game
Friday: Veggie Quesadillas, 7-Layer Dip

A common theme to this week's menu? BelGioioso cheese. Two of Dan's brothers are cheese makers so we were blessed to return from the Frozen Tundra with 10 pounds of award-winning cheese!

Mama was not so blessed to return with one heck of a cold. So forgive me for light blogging for a few days.

Menu Plan Monday

We're heading over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house next weekend to spend Thanksgiving in the frozen tundra. So the goal of this week is a zero grocery bill and to clean out the fridge/freezer. (Helps that Daddy has gigs three nights - Guess which meals are geared towards Bittyman?)

Monday: Brats & Baked Beans
Tuesday: Veggie Burgers
Wednesday: Pancakes & Eggs
Thursday: Chicken Nuggets
Friday: Pizza

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Crock-Pot Chicken Cacciatore
Tuesday: Tacos
Wednesday: Miniature Milky Ways, M&M's, Twix, etc.
Thursday (All Saints' Day): Pizza
Friday: Chinese at Pei Wei

Easy week for Mom. Between Halloween trick-or-treating, All Saints' Day Mass Thursday evening and Daddy going out of town Friday morning for the weekend, it's all about quick, easy, and next weekend more dining out than usual as I'll be doing the solo parenting thing for 3 days.

Thanks to Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie for hosting. (Go check out Laura's new and improved site!)

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Tater Beef Bake
Tuesday: Breakfast for Dinner (Scrambled eggs with cheese & veggies and homefries)
Wednesday: Italian Sausage Subs
Thursday: Leftover Buffet
Friday: Fish & Chips

The weather has FINALLY cooled off enough where I can plan on using my oven each night. (From May through September it's just so darn hot in our part of the country that I only do meals that can be grilled outside, cooked in the Crockpot, or made on the stove top.) So for the next few months I'll be doing casseroles on Monday instead of slow cooker recipes. The Tater Beef Bake is a new recipe from simple & delicious magazine. I'll report next week on its success or failure!

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Crock Pot Chicken Fajitas
Tuesday: English Muffin Pizzas
Wednesday: Baked Ziti
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Grilled Basil, Tomato & Cheese Sandwiches and Soup

It's a gorgeous fall day so I'm off to the park with the boys. I'll link to the Chicken Fajitas recipe during nap-time.

Thanks, as always, to Laura at Organizing Junkie for hosting!

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Taco Soup
Tuesday: Caesar Rotini
Wednesday: Veggie Burgers
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Picnic Dinner w/Friends (Probably fried chicken meal from Albertsons!)

Last week's Saucy Cheeseburger Sandwiches was a new crockpot recipe and a huge hit. (Huge hit defined as a meal where Bittyman asked for seconds!) No new-to-me recipes this week but two family favorites with links included.

Side dishes are a starch and vegetable/salad - whatever I have on hand. So unless it's some fantastic recipe worth blogging about I won't be posting sides on my Menu Planner.

Good eats to all!

Menu Plan Monday

Menu planning is the only New Year's resolution for 2007 that I've actually kept. I was tired of walking into my pantry at 6:00pm every night and trying to figure out what to make. Not only was it stressful but I fell back on the same dishes - so I also resolved to try at least one new recipe a week. Now I'm less stressed, have a greater variety of meals and as a bonus, our grocery bill has decreased at least 20%.

I've gotten delicious ideas from Menu Planning Monday, hosted by Organizing Junkie. I've decided start participating in hopes of organizing my menus and recipes. So with that said, I introduce:











Monday: Saucy Cheeseburger Sandwiches, Corn, Coleslaw
Tuesday: Vegetable Quesadillas (Thanks, Bird's Nest!)
Wednesday: Italian Sausage & Pasta, Spinach Salad
Thursday: Leftover Buffet
Friday: Fish & Chips
Saturday: Steaks on the Grill, Baked Potatoes, Fruit Salad
Sunday: Pizza

I plan and do my grocery shopping on Friday so we're stocked for the weekend (and thus less likely to eat out because the cupboard is bare). Monday is my Crockpot night and Thursday is always leftovers because Daddy works late. Sunday during football season is pizza and other finger food that we can eat while watching the Redskins and Packers play.

So what's on your menu this week?