Meal Plan #8
A full week family meal plan from the archive.
I need to rework my schedule for ski season. Normally I work on our meal plan on Saturday and/or Sunday and have it all figured out by Sunday evening. But for the next 8 weeks we will be spending all day Saturday up at the mountains with kids in ski lessons, and spending much of the day Sunday reorganizing and recovering. I'm behind with this week's meal plan because I just couldn't muster the brain power to finish it last night, so I'm updating my calendar and this week I'm going to try to get the plan done for next week by Thursday or Friday. We'll see how that works. But I finally got this week done and I think it's pretty good.
I've got a couple of nights where I've got an idea in my head that I'm just going to cook without a recipe. And that's something I've been wanting to post more about anyway. You don't always need a recipe, and once you can break yourself free from feeling like you have to have a recipe, you will enjoy cooking so much more. You just need some basic techniques, like how to cook chicken, and then the possibilities are endless. Once you know the basic techniques, then you just add whatever flavors you think sound good and just go with it. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't, and that's totally ok. Even if it doesn't turn out exactly like you had hoped, it's almost always at least edible, and you learned something about what works and what doesn't. And if you really screw it up and it's not edible, don't stress about that either - pull out a box of mac & cheese, or order a pizza, and try again next week. It's how you learn - just roll up your sleeves and go for it.
So, for our meal plan this week (click the image to view a larger size)...
Breakfasts are pretty standard fare these days, a rotation of oatmeal, eggs, yogurt, muffins, etc. The difference during ski season is that I'm not doing big breakfasts on the weekends. Saturday mornings we're having something that's already made and/or fast - cereal, instant oatmeal, muffins, boiled eggs. And on Sunday mornings the kids usually won't be home, as they have sleepover at grandparents after ski days, so I'm not planning anything for Sundays. Lunches are also our usual stuff, but I at least try to mix up the sides, or use a little cutter or fun toothpicks to make it look more interesting. But there's no reinventing the wheel here, I go with what I know works.
click to view larger
For dinner Monday night I'm going to roast some chicken pieces. I actually have a couple of whole chickens but I'm going to cut them up before cooking, season generously with salt, pepper, dijon mustard, olive oil, and then put in a roasting pan with a bunch of garlic cloves and lemon slices. I think this will cook at about 375 for about 45-60 minutes. No recipe needed.
Tuesday night I'm also winging it - I will make broth from Monday's chicken, and season it up to give a little Asian flavor, with some ginger, garlic, and miso paste, and then add in some noodles, veggies, and either leftover chicken or some cooked shrimp. I think it will be easy and delicious.
Thursday will be basic burgers, as requested by a child, with a variety of choices for toppings. But I'm going to get some little slider buns and make the burgers kid sizes. I've done homemade buns before using my basic bread recipe, but this week I'm just going to buy some good local ones because I already know that I will not have time for making bread. I will cook the burgers in the oven, like in this post - I've done this many times now and it works great for making a bunch at a time.
Saturday night I need something that I can make ahead and will be warm and comforting after a day in the mountains, so I'm going to make this green enchilada soup again. I will try to cook it on Thursday or Friday and just reheat, and I will use the already cooked chicken from the Monday dinner.
Sunday will be some kind of slow roasted pork shoulder. I usually do this in my slow cooker with just salt, pepper, cumin, onions, and sometimes I cut up an orange for a little sweetness, and cook on low for 6-8 hours. I always cook lots extra and then this will figure into the meal plan for next week as well.
That's it for now! Have a great week.
Family Meal Plan #5
A bit of an abbreviated meal plan for a vacation week.
What's on our meal plan this week? Well, not much actually.
Thursday evening we are heading to San Diego to stay with my mom for almost two weeks! We are quite excited, and there are some little children who are going to be having a hard time sleeping later this week. We've got all kinds of big plans, my 7 year old daughter has even made her own list of everything she wants to do.
I think even the cats and my adult stepson who lives with us are looking forward to us leaving, and to having the whole place to themselves for a little while.
I am looking forward to some warmer weather, since we're already seeing temps in the 20's here. And I am very much looking forward to having my mom cook some meals for me! I love cooking for my family, but it does get a little exhausting sometimes, so I am very excited for a break from being the one who does it all, 3-4 meals a day, 7 days a week. I'm sure I'll be doing some cooking at my mom's house, I always do, but not every meal, every day.
Since I'll be spending most of my week working hard to get things packed for 6 people to be gone for 2 weeks, the meals will be pretty simple. First order of business though is a night out for me with a friend, so our kid food night will be Monday. I'll get them all started with some soup and toast before I head out.
This evening for dinner I made a couple of big pork shoulder roasts, with a bunch of veggies and mashed potatoes and gravy - so you know that all of those things will make another appearance. I will use some of the mashed potatoes to make potato pancakes for breakfast one morning. And I will shred up some of the meat and maybe season it up a bit more and we will have pork tacos on Tuesday.
I'm keeping the lunches very simple - leftover pizza, quesadillas, some muffins from the freezer, and PB&J's on the last day - which will probably be packed in something disposable, so I don't have to wash lunch boxes right before we leave for the airport.
And that's it. Not much of a meal plan, but sometimes that's what you do, right?
Have a great week!
meal plan #2
One week menu for the archives - with plans for breakfast and school lunch packing included.
7 day family meal plan:
I can hardly believe that the last week of October is already upon is. I just never know where the time goes. 'Tis the season for slow cooker casseroles and warm soups, so we've got more of those kinds of things on the menu this week, and a few old favorites.
I always try to plan ahead when I'm making something, to think about what other meal(s) I can also use it in.
Some comments and recipe links at the end, but first I'll get you right to the menu.
A bit more detail about this menu:
We had pancakes for breakfast on Sunday, so they will show up again in the kids breakfast and lunches this week. I always make extra and freeze them, so I can just pull out and reheat for a quick meal. Here is my pancake recipe.
We had burgers on Saturday night, so I made a bunch of extra mini burgers for the kids lunches. I made homemade buns, using my basic bread recipe (and put a bunch in the freezer for another meal), and I cooked the burgers in the oven (genius! I'll write a post about that soon!)
Monday night I'm going to try my hand at an enchilada casserole in the slow cooker. I've been wanting to try one of these for a while. I haven't settled on the exact recipe yet, I'll probably just read a few and make up my own. But I am thinking about making my own enchilada sauce, because it seems like the store bought ones are just too spicy for my kids, no matter how "mild" they claim to be. I think I'll use something like this recipe.
For Tuesday night I'm trying a new noodle soup recipe - A Burmese Noodle Bowl. I came across this one last week and it sounds so good. Chicken, asian flavors, broth, noodles - it sounds right up my alley.
For breakfast one day I'm going to make some Muesli. The real kind. Have you ever had it? This is not the granola like cereal stuff that people put in boxes and pour in a bowl with milk. Real Swiss muesli is raw oats soaked overnight in milk and yogurt, and flavored with honey and grated apples. You can also add any other kinds of dried or fresh fruits, or nuts. It's so delicious. I haven't made it in a long time, so I'm curious to see if my kids like it. I'll share a recipe after I make it.
I'm thinking some kind of fish sounds good for Saturday night, I"ll probably do a simple coating and cook in the oven - something like this. I'm not sure yet what kind of fish I'll use, I'll go to the store later in the week and see what they've got for a good price. I'll probably cook some spaghetti squash to go with it - this is my favorite spaghetti squash recipe.
Sunday I'm going for a comfort food family favorite - spaghetti and meatballs. I have a great one-pot spaghetti recipe that everybody loves, and I'll cook a big batch of meatballs to go with it. I don't usually follow a recipe for meatballs, but I'll try to write down what I do. I like to do a combination of meats for extra flavor - beef, turkey, and some lamb or pork. And when I make meatballs I always make lots extra - they are so great to have in the freezer.
meal plan #1
One week meal plan.
7 day family meal plan, including breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
I'm still working on that big blog post about how I approach menu planning - it's taking longer than I thought. I promise I'll get it to you soon! And it will include my templates that I use for my menu planning and shopping list, and lots of detail about the method to my madness. But I thought I'd at least go ahead and share what I've got planned for the meals for the coming week. My plan is to start sharing my meal plan every week, so please keep me honest and ask me for it if you haven't seen it posted!
(click for a biggger view)
Whenever I cook something that involves a bit of work, I ALWAYS cook extra. Why go to all that trouble and only get one meal out of it? So as I'm making one meal, I'm already thinking about what the next meal will be using the same food - sometimes that's just reheating the leftovers and eating as-is, and sometimes it will be re-purposing the leftover into a completely different meal.
This morning for breakfast I made some blueberry muffins. I'll write up exactly what I did and try to post it later, but it was essentially my basic pancake recipe, with all whole wheat flour and I added oat brand and oats, and a couple extra eggs, and frozen blueberries. I made big batch and put a bunch in the freezer. The kids will have those for breakfast one day this week, and lunch one day.
We had pot roast for dinner Sunday, so I will take the leftover meat, mushrooms and potatoes and make that into a stew - I'll thicken the leftover juices to make a gravy, add some carrots and maybe a few other veggies, and it will be a super easy dinner.
Saturday night I cooked a bunch of chicken thighs, with a creamy mushroom gravy. I'll take all the chicken off and dice it, and that will become a creamy chicken & mushroom stew for dinner Tuesday, and I will make some biscuits to go with it, and a simple coleslaw.
For Thursday's kid food dinner I've been wanting to try a corn dog muffin for a while. I've looked at a few recipes, and basically they use a corn bread recipe and put a piece of hot dog in it. So I will use my favorite corn bread recipe for this one, with Applegate hot dogs. If there's any leftover they might get it for lunch friday, or maybe I'll see how well they freeze.
Saturday night I'm going to make burgers, and I"m thinking about making some extra mini burger sized ones, to use for a lunch one day next week.
Sunday dinner will be whole chickens in coconut milk. I loosely follow this recipe, and it is so good. I always cook 2 chickens so there is plenty of leftover meat, and enough bones to make a really good broth. So then I'll have chicken and stock for a dinner the following week. We will have some rice with it, which I cook in my slow cooker. When I'm making some kind of Asian flavored dish like this, I like to put a can of coconut milk in with the water for the rice. It's a super simple way to make a really delicious rice.