Menu Plan Monday

After one week of getting things back to normal, I think we are there. The house is clean. The clothes are clean. Madeline is back to school. Jon had a full week of work. We have caught up with everything that could not get done in the week that we were without power. We even had a showing on our house and went to look at two possible houses for us to purchase. Life is back to normal.

I know I use my stove and oven a lot, but not having them for a week was a HUGE wake up call on how much I depend on them. This week I enjoyed every minute I was able to cook and bake (for once!)

This week's menu:

Monday- kielbasa for Jon and the kids with vegetables, leftover soup for me at work.

Tuesday- Chicken nuggets for the kids, leftovers for Jon and I (we have quite a few in the fridge right now)

Wednesday- Pasta and meatballs with green beans. I am making 3 pounds of meatballs since it is easier to make a bunch at one time and then freeze them for dinners on other nights.

Thursday- Buffalo chicken tenders, apple sauce and baby carrots

Friday- Nachos- loaded with chicken, cheese and veggies (beans too if I can sneak them past Jon)

Saturday- Homemade pizza

Sunday- dinner at my mom and dad's. We are celebrating an early Thanksgiving (Jon and I are taking the kids to visit his family for Thanksgiving this year) as well as my niece's first birthday. I am making something, not sure what until my mom lets me know!

For more menu ideas visit I'm An Organizing Junkie

Menu Plan Monday

To say that last week did not go as planned is putting it mildly. We lost power on October 29th and it is still out as I am writing this on November 4. We had a snowstorm that in the middle of winter would have been normal and expected. But when you put a foot of snow on top of trees that still have most of their leaves, the results are less than pleasant.





We have a generator (love my husband for that purchase!) but it won't power our stove. My fridge stayed cold and my house and water stayed warm so we dealt with the lack of stove issue. We got creative (crockpot, grill and toaster meals) and we only ate out one time. I will post more about that later this week. But suffice it to say my menu plan was not followed. At all.





I am hopeful that our power will be restored by the time this posts but I am not sure. We were supposed to have power back by Friday at noon. On Friday at 10 am they changed that prediction to Sunday at noon. I am hopeful but I am being realistic, it may be several more days without power. My menu is planned as if we have power, but I have backup meals in mind if we continue to cook on the grill, crockpot and George Foreman grill.





This week's planned menu:





Monday- chicken nuggets and baby carrots





Tuesday- kielbasa and vegetables for Jon and the kids. Soup for me.





Wednesday- spaghetti and meatballs, homemade bread.





Thursday- cheeseburger soup (from last week's plan)





Friday- quesadillas





Saturday- chicken, broccoli and rice





Sunday- homemade pizza





For more menu ideas visit I'm An Organizing Junkie

Menu Plan Monday- Halloween Edition

Happy Halloween everyone! We are going trick or treating tonight and my older two are beyond excited. I have a Tinkerbell, a Buzz Lightyear and a monkey. I am excited to sneak bites of their candy. Shhh, don't tell them!

Here is this week's menu plan:

Monday- Dinner at a friends. We are heading over to a friend's house for trick or treating in her neighborhood and doing a potluck dinner. She is keeping it WAY simple and I was assigned chips and soda. Easy for me and I am not complaining!

Tuesday- hot dogs for the kids, soup for Jon and I.

Wednesday- Spaghetti and meatballs with baby carrots

Thursday- Crockpot cheesburger soup. This is a winter staple in my house. I am trying a different version this year (no Velveeta) and I am going to modify the new recipe to be used in my crockpot for my crockpot Thursdays.

Friday- Nachos. Jon has been asking for them lately, a lot.

Saturday- Breakfast for dinner- waffles, sausage, canned peaches and scrambled eggs with cheese

Sunday- Sausage and peppers with Rotini

For more menu ideas visit I'm An Organizing Junkie

Menu Plan Monday

Last week I learned a lesson: always double check to make sure your crockpot is turned on when you want to cook with it. A chicken doesn't cook well without heat! I was doing really well, dinner was ready in the crockpot on time and I was eating my lunch while the boys napped. I caught on to the fact that the crockpot was cool about an hour after I put dinner in it. Luckily I was home or I would have had a nasty surprise at dinner time! I turned the crockpot on and cooked the chicken in there until 4:30 (about 2 hours) and had to finish cooking the chicken in the oven. Sometimes you need to be flexible! The crisis was averted but dinner time was a little more hectic than I wanted it to be.

This is a(nother) busy week. On top of the usual daily rush I am hosting a small kids Halloween party here on Friday morning, we are going to a Halloween pumpkin carving and painting party on Saturday and we are celebrating my niece's first birthday on Sunday. I took all of that into consideration when planning dinners for the week.

I want to try making my own donuts this week. Does anyone have a good and easy recipe that I could try?

This week's menu:

Monday- leftovers for all

Tuesday- chicken nuggets for the kids, homemade Olive Garden Tuscana Soup for Jon and I

Wednesday- chicken, cheese and vegetable quesadillas

Thursday- Slow cooker enchiladas and corn

Friday- Baked ziti, squash and green beans. I am also making apple muffins (possibly donuts too!) to have at the party in the morning.

Saturday- Halloween party, I am bringing cupcakes.

Sunday- Homemade calzone


For more menu ideas visit I'm An Organizing Junkie

Menu Plan Monday

This weekend was over very quickly. We traveled to see Jon's family and we all had a great time. But the 2 hour car ride never fails to throw my day off and I am left scrambling when we return on Sunday night to get ready for the week. It is a hectic way to end the weekend!
My cake pops were a hit at the picnic and we did well with sticking to our meal plan last week. Hopefully this will be another successful planning week!

Here is this week's menu plan:

Monday- chicken nuggets and french fries for the kids, leftovers for Jon and I.

Tuesday- Noodles with butter and cheese for the kids, sandwiches for Jon and I.

Wednesday- Brinner

Thursday- Crockpot whole chicken. Madeline now has dance class on Thursday night, and I have a sneaking suspicion that this will be a regular crockpot night.

Friday- homemade chicken pot pie using leftover chicken from Thursday.

Saturday- dinner at my aunts to celebrate my grandparent's anniversary

Sunday- Polynesian shrimp tacos

For more meal ideas visit I'm An Organizing Junkie and have a great week!

Menu Plan Monday

I love three day weekends. And I actually get to enjoy a day off of work because one of the nights I work is Monday and the college is closed on Monday holidays. Jon is also home since schools are closed. We are going pumpkin picking and out to lunch with some friends to enjoy the day off and the beautiful weather.

On the menu for the rest of the week:

Monday- chicken and rice with roasted kohlrabi

Tuesday- macaroni and cheese

Wednesday- fish sticks and french fries with carrots (from the garden)

Thursday- pasta and shrimp with green beans (I use chicken broth instead of white wine). I don't know if the kids will eat the shrimp but I know they will eat the pasta.

Friday- tacos or nachos (not sure yet)

Saturday- We are visiting Jon's family for (more) pumpkin picking and a picnic. I am making Halloween themed cake pops to share with everyone.

Sunday-Breakfast for dinner



Shrimp isn't something we eat very often due to the cost. It is expensive! But our grocery store is having a buy 1 bag, get 2 bags free sale this week. I am making room in our weekly budget to buy the shrimp and save it in the freezer for the occasional treat.

For more menu ideas visit I'm An Organizing Junkie

Menu Plan Monday

How is it already October? September was an extremely busy month that seemed to fly by and October is already looking to be a busy month as well.

This week is busy as usual. We have an open house, a PTO meeting, I work two nights, Jon has class one night and then Jon is helping his dad out this coming weekend. I took this all into consideration when making my meal plan. Hopefully we will be able to stay with it!

Monday-Chicken tortilla soup
Tuesday- leftovers for all
Wednesday- make you own homemade pizza (I can make the dough and bake it in the afternoon which makes dinner time much easier)
Thursday- tacos
Friday- breakfast for dinner
Saturday- grilled cheese and tomato soup
Sunday- pasta and meat sauce and vegetables

For more menu ideas visit I’m an Organizing Junkie

Menu Plan Monday

I am getting the menu plan done on time this week! I actually plan my menu on Thursdays when we get our newspaper with the weekly grocery sales in it. I should just write this post then but I never think of it at that time.

This week's plan:

Monday- macaroni and cheese for the kids, steak for Jon (his mom left some steaks for him when they were visiting on Friday) and leftovers for me

Tuesday- fish sticks and french fries for the kids, leftovers for Jon and I

Wednesday- Grilled cheese and soup. We have a girl scout information meeting at 6 so dinner will be early.

Thursday- Quesadillas with chicken, veggies and cheese

Friday- Breakfast for dinner for the kids, date night at the Big E for Jon and I

Saturday- Mini meatloaves and veggies

Sunday- hot dogs, hamburgers and salad.

For more ideas visit I'm An Organizing Junkie

Menu Plan Tuesday

I am a day late but I still have my menu plan for the week! We had a busy weekend (which included an apple picking trip) that left very little time for the computer and no time for blogging. On top of that this is my second week back and work and I am still adapting to the new schedule.
Here is the plan for this week:

Monday (yesterday)- chicken nuggets for the kids, leftovers for Jon and I (I ate mine at work)

Tuesday- pasta for Jon and the kids, tortellini soup (the frozen kind) for me at work

Wednesday- make your own pizza night with apple crisp for dessert.

Thursday- Loaded nachos with vegetables and ground turkey at Jon's request. I use this recipe when I cook the ground turkey.

Friday- crockpot rotisserie chicken. I LOVE this recipe and it is very easy. We will be having veggies from our CSA share to go along with it.

Saturday- Big E. Did you say you don't know what the Big E is? You must not be from New England! Go here for more information. We go every year and we eat dinner while we are there. Jon and I have gone every year since we started dating so it is a tradition for us. The kids love it as well.

Sunday- Leftovers. My niece is being Baptized and we are going to my parents afterwards for cake. That will be around 3:30. So I don't think we will eat much for dinner and we need at least one leftover night per week.

Have a great week!

Menu Plan Monday

These past few weeks I have not done a good job following my menu plan. We deviate from it quite a bit. The good news is that I have not added any additional trips to the grocery store, but the bad news is that I have not used the vegetables from our share as much as I should have and we have thrown out a few items when they went bad. I am trying again this week to make a meal plan and stick with it. This is my first week back at work since July so we will only have family dinners four of the seven nights. Jon doesn't like to cook much when it is just him and the kids so I scheduled a leftover night and a pasta night for them while I am at work. Jon has class on Wednesday so I am making a light dinner that he can heat up when he gets home. Hopefully I will be able to stick to the plan this time!

Breakfasts:
waffles (the frozen kind)
bagels and cream cheese
cereal
scrambled eggs
fruit

Lunches:
peanut butter and jelly
lunchables
ham and cheese
bologna and cheese
macaroni and cheese
bagel pizzas

Dinners:
Monday- leftovers for Jon and the kids, a sandwich for me at work

Tuesday- pasta

Wednesday- grilled cheese for the kids, Olive Garden Tuscana Soup for Jon and I with homemade French Bread

Thursday- tacos with homemade salsa (I need to use up those CSA and garden tomatoes!)

Friday- grilled honey lime chicken thighs and grilled vegetables

Saturday- brinner- french toast, scrambled eggs, canned peaches and sausage

Sunday- meatball grinders and garden vegetables

For more menu ideas visit I'm An Organizing Junkie

Menu Plan Monday

This is an easy week, at least when it comes to planning our meals. The rest of our life is a whirlwind right now (see this post for the background) as we work towards making an offer on the house went want and finding renters (possibly my brother) for the house we currently own.

On the menu for this week:

Breakfasts:
waffles and fruit
cereal and fruit
English muffins and yogurt

Lunches:
peanut butter and jelly (almost every day for Owen if he gets his choice!)
macaroni and cheese
grilled cheese
ham and cheese sandwiches
English muffin pizzas

Dinners:
Monday- dinner at our neighbors. We are bringing a side dish. I am planning on bringing a salad from my garden and some baby carrots for the kids

Tuesday- dinner out. A fundraiser for our local children's museum

Wednesday- chicken and summer veggies on the grill

Thursday- meatball grinders

Friday- frozen pizza and summer pasta salad (from $5 Mom)

Saturday- BBQ at Jon's sisters house. I am planning to bring some veggies to grill up

Sunday- pasta or leftovers, we are coming home from visiting Jon's family and I don't know what time we will get in.

For more meal ideas visit I'm An Organizing Junkie

Menu Plan Monday

The menu didn't go as planned last week. We didn't have enough food for leftovers any night because Jon has been eating them for lunch. I changed a few meals based on forgetting items at the grocery store (I promise I made a list!). Hopefully this week will go much more smoothly.

For dinners I plan to make:

Monday-mini meatloaves with corn

Tuesday- homemade pizza

Wednesday- grilled chicken with a summer salad (all from our garden)

Thursday- chicken and vegetable nachos

Friday- leftovers (if Jon doesn't eat them all again!)

Saturday- pasta and salad

Sunday- homemade macaroni and cheese with broccoli

For more menu ideas visit I'm an Organizing Junkie

Menu Plan Monday

It has been awhile since I have shared my weekly menu. We were away for ten days and then this past week has been one where I just pull something out of the freezer each morning and go with it. It is times like these where I am very grateful that I have a stockpile in my pantry and in my freezer!
This week we are settling back into a routine. I am planning to start working with Owen on preschool and review things with Madeline to get her ready for school in the fall during the day. Next on my list of things to do is actually to plan out the activities for this week (about 45 minutes of mom-directed activities each day).
This week's meal plan is:

Breakfasts
cereal
toast
waffles
hard boiled eggs
yogurt
mini bagels
fruit

Lunches
peanut butter and jelly
chicken nuggets
grilled cheese
macaroni and cheese
ham and cheese

Dinners
pasta and meatballs
hamburgers and hot dogs
chicken and vegetable stir fry
nachos
leftovers
breakfast for dinner
grilled cheese (not on a day where we have grilled cheese for lunch!)

I did not plan which day's we will eat the dinners. I am not back to being that organized yet! By next week I should be able to plan out the meals by the day, or maybe this new method will work better. I will let you know!

For more meal ideas visit I'm An Organizing Junkie and have a great Monday!

Menu Plan Monday

There is nothing exciting going on here this week which made it easy to plan the meals. I have jury duty on Wednesday which makes Jon in charge of cooking. It is going to be a slightly painful day since Ben is still nursing twice a day and I highly doubt they will let me pump, but I may bring it and see what happens. I really think there should be a clause for breast feeding moms, or at least a rule that states they must provide adequate breaks for pumping, the same that most employers are required to do I believe (correct me if I am wrong, I haven't worked full time since Madeline was born). Anyway, they also don't seem to care that as a stay at home mom I need to find childcare and pay for it. There is no way out, I must go. The only blessing was that I could postpone for when Jon was home during the summer to ease the burden of finding someone to watch all three kids all day.

Wow, talk about getting off topic. Okay, back to the real reason I am writing- this week's menu. It is simple but we are trying a new meal from my $5 Mom cookbook. So far we have liked everything I have made from her cookbook and I expect this to be another success. I haven't planned the vegetables out past Monday as I don't know what we will get from our CSA share until Monday evening.

On this week's menu:

Monday- pasta and meatsauce with broccoli

Tuesday-Mexican chicken skillet (from $5 Mom)

Wednesday- hot dogs and hamburgers (weekly staple during the summer)

Thursday- meatball grinders (using hot dog rolls!)

Friday- leftovers

Saturday- homemade calzones

Sunday- grilled chicken thighs

For more menu ideas visit I'm An Organizing Junkie

Meal Plan Monday

Happy 4th of July!

I am planning easy meals this week. It is HOT around here in July and I don't like cooking in my non-air conditioned house in the heat. I tried to plan some cooler meals, or things that can be cooked on the grill at least 5 of the 7 nights and this week I was successful. My freezer is almost empty of chicken and ground turkey (two of our dinner staples) so a run to the meat store is in order for next week. I will spend at least half of my weekly budget there, but I will also be stocked up for at least 2 months.

On the meal for this week:

Monday- grilled chicken thighs and kohlrabi (from the farmer's market)

Tuesday- hot dogs and hamburgers (we are having our new neighbors over for dinner to get to know them) with salad

Wednesday- pasta with sausage and fresh veggies

Thursday- breakfast for dinner- homemade waffles (if it isn't super hot), scrambled eggs,
sausage and peaches

Friday- homemade pepperoni pizza

Saturday- leftovers

Sunday- salmon burgers and fresh veggies (not sure what we will get at the farmer's market this week)

For more menu ideas visit I'm An Organizing Junkie

Weekly Meal Plan

On Friday I sat down to pay the bills, something I do each payday. I both love and hate payday. I love seeing that we have earned paychecks. I HATE paying out the money and watching the number slowly decrease in the checking account. And this week I hated it more because I had to borrow from savings and I hate taking money from savings.

After paying our bills I resolved again to cut down our spending. We do not live above our means but at the same time we are not saving nearly as much as we can. In an effort to cut down on our bills I am going to try and make as many of my meals as possible this week from our pantry.

I have tried to do this before, and I failed miserably. But this time I have an added incentive to stick with the plan- my paychecks from my winter tutoring job have ended. I am tutoring a few hours a week for the next month but the paychecks are much smaller. Because I plan our yearly budget around my total income I make sure to put money into savings in the winter to cover the summer months, but I still HATE to take money from savings. In addition, Jon is not working summer school this year. So again, while we planned for it and put more into savings, my mission is to take as little from savings as possible. This means spending less.

A simple way to do that is to cut down on our groceries. Our csa started last week which means fresh veggies, and since they are already payed for I don't need to take the money from my grocery budget. That means less spent at the grocery store. I have a very stocked freezer and pantry, and there is no reason not to use the items I have. Lastly, there are no great sales this week and so another reason not to spend a lot of money at the store.

After looking through my freezer and cabinets I came up with the following meals:

Monday- grilled honey lime chicken thighs, salad

Tuesday- pasta and meat sauce, homemade french bread (only if it isn't super hot outside) and mixed vegetables

Wednesday- hot dogs and hamburgers, salad

Thursday- leftovers. Madeline has her dance dress rehearsal so dinner will be short and early

Friday- chicken Parmesan (Jon's birthday dinner a day late), cheese-stuffed garlic bread sticks and corn

Saturday- chicken and vegetable quesadillas on homemade tortillas

Sunday- breakfast for dinner- scrambled eggs, sausage, strawberries (part of our csa includes pick your own strawberries) and pancakes

Lunches:
chicken nuggets
peanut butter and jelly
grilled cheese
ham and cheese
macaroni and cheese
*all served with fruit and vegetables

Breakfasts:
cereal
toast
English muffins
blueberry muffins

For more menu ideas visit Ask Ms Recipe and I'm An Organizing Junkie

Menu Plan Monday

My menu last week did not go as planned. Monday and Tuesday we ate what was planned. Wednesday our area was struck by a tornado. Thankfully we are all okay and the house was undamaged, but we lost power for two days. We are about a mile away from some of the destruction.

Wednesday night we ate kielbasa from the grill and Thursday night we went out for dinner. By Friday we had our power back but after the crazy week following my meal plan was the last thing on my mind so I made a quick macaroni and cheese dinner with hot dogs and brocolli. Saturday night Jon was away and my parents decided to bring pizza to my house for us to eat. And Sunday we ate what was planned for Saturday night.

We have our power back and we have very little clean up to do so this week we are trying again to follow our meal plan.

Monday- ziti with meatballs and green beans

Tuesday- chicken, cheese and vegetable quesadillas

Wednesday- hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill and corn on the cob

Thursday- salsa chicken and black bean soup

Friday- brinner (scrambled eggs, pancakes, peach slices and sausages)

Saturday- pizza or calzones

Sunday- leftovers

For more menu ideas visit Ask Ms Recipe and I'm An Organzing Junkie

Meun Plan Monday

It is a shortened work week! Jon and I both have today off. We were planning on having a picnic lunch with the kids but the weather has other plans. Ah well, if you have three kids flexibility is a must! I'm not sure what plan B is, but we will thing of something.

I love my meal plan. It makes life so much easier. I don't sit and wonder each day what to make for dinner or hope I have the ingredients I need for dinner that night. we do drift from the plan sometimes (like last night) but that is where my stockpile comes in. However, I do know that my meal plan helps to keep me on a budget for the groceries and it keeps me from going back to the store several times a week!

We did a good job with sticking to our meal plans up until last night. It was too hot for me to deal with cooking so we had an extra night of hot dogs and hamburgers. We ate outside on the deck, enjoyed the beautiful weather and no one complained!

Here is this week's plan:

Monday- chicken and vegetable nachos

Tuesday- Pizza dinner at my parents. We are celebrating my grandmother's 81st birthday. I am in charge of dessert and I am making a cheesecake with a graham cracker crust.

Wednesday- leftovers. I work until 5 and we have Madeline's kindergarten open house (my baby girl is going to kindergarten in the fall!) so it needs to be quick and easy!

Thursday- honey lime chicken and green beans

Friday- hot dogs and hamburgers with corn on the cob

Saturday- breakfast for dinner with fruit cocktail

Sunday- pasta and meatballs with mixed vegetables

For more meal ideas visit I'm An Organizing Junkie and Marvelous Menu Meme Linky

Menu Plan Monday

Life is busy! I ended my college tutoring job for the summer, thinking everything would slow down. However late last week my other boss contacted me and offered me another student to tutor for the next month. They offered me two afternoons a week. Jon and I discussed it and decided that, even though we like the extra time together, the extra money will be helpful. The upside, besides the fact that I like working with the younger kids, is that I am only working 90 minutes each afternoon, instead of the 5 hour nights I work at the college. This means I am home for dinner every night! The commute is much shorter as well.

I had my week's menu all planned out before I got the call from work, so I had to tweak my meal plan. Here is what I ended up with:

Monday- hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill (this is a weekly staple over the summer) with corn on the cob

Tuesday- Slow cooker chicken fajitas from my $5 Mom cookbook

Wednesday- pasta with broccoli and chicken (another $5 mom recipe)

Thursday- leftovers (this worked out REALLY well last week!)

Friday- breakfast for dinner

Saturday- cookout at a friend's house. I am making cupcakes

Sunday- homemade calzones

For more menu ideas visit I'm An Organizing Junkie

Menu Plan Monday

This is my first week of vacation. And my vacation will last until September! Okay, it won't really last that long. I am applying for summer jobs, and hopefully I will get some tutoring jobs that are part time or a job that is full time for one or two weeks. I am still tutoring one afternoon a week until the end of June. But I don't have to drive 40 minutes to work twice a week and that is vacation for me!

Planning the menu has changed a little. Now that I am home, and Jon's class is over, I am back to cooking family meals every night. For the past several months I have been cooking 4 nights a week, and I got accustomed to that. This weekend I had to take out my cookbook to think of some different meal ideas to fill the extra three nights!

Here is the plan for this week:

Monday- baked ziti served with broccoli

Tuesday- chicken thighs on the grill served with steamed carrots

Wednesday- hot dogs and hamburgers for Jon and the kids. Moms night out for me!

Thursday- leftover night

Friday- Breakfast for dinner- pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage and fruit cocktail

Saturday- Sloppy joes

Sunday- homemade pizza

For more meal ideas visit I'm an Organizing Junkie