Catching Up and Meal Plans

Thank you all so much for your positive feedback from Friday's survey. (I never could get the poll to work so in any future polls, I will have to use a different poll service!) I will take all your comments into consideration as I plan for what is to come...

Also, I plan to undertake a reorganization of my labels so that tips, recipes and other health information archives are more easily retrieved. I'll do this in my "free time" this week. (Yes, that was sarcasm.)

It has been a very crazy past two weeks! We have had multiple evening activities in addition to our normal goings-on. Our schedules have been flipped and flopped; we have been in a rush to finish supper to get somewhere; and I have had limited cooking time.

Somehow we have managed to stay afloat and eat healthy, if not well-planned, food. (Having a freezer stocked with bread, muffins, and already cooked chicken and stock was really helpful. So was cooking double meals for leftovers. I made double "Quick Chicken Curry" for two nights, "Salmon Fried Rice" for two nights, and "Crock Pot Beef Stew" for two nights. I made Calzones, Taco Salad, Greek Chicken Salad and Creamy Chicken Pasta Toss... all easy meals.) But I sure am glad that the week ahead is not so full!

Here's what I have planned for our meals this week:

Monday:

Use meat pulled from a whole cooked chicken in Chicken Burrito Skillet. I cooked two chickens last Thursday so that I would have extra meat for a while. I learned how helpful this was over the last weeks!

This skillet meal is an all-time favorite with my children, and one that I often pair with a side dish that is less-desirable to them. In my last produce box (YES -- I am so pleased the co-op is operational again!), I got yellow squash. My children eat most veggies, but I have yet to find a way that they like yellow squash. I will saute it with Onions, Garlic and Red Swiss Chard. They will eat a moderate portion of it and then will be rewarded with seconds of the skillet meal.

Tuesday:

I am going to have a Baking Day on Tuesday to get caught up on things. Hopefully, I will post the details and some recipes on Tuesday and Wednesday, but here is my plan:

Make two quarts of yogurt in the morning so it can culture all day. Also in the morning, soak dough for flatbreads, soak grains for granola and bake sweet potatoes for muffins.

Afternoon - bake Sweet Potato Muffins, Love Muffins (which are grain-free), Granola and make flatbreads. If things go well, I also need to make Power Bars.

Supper - I will use half of the fresh flatbreads for a twist on Gyro sandwiches. I have used the Gyro Meat recipe from this cookbook and love it. But this time, I will just use leftover grilled cube steaks. I will make a salad of cucumbers, tomatoes, parsley, and onion with a feta cheese dressing and will put this and shredded romaine lettuce on our meat sandwiches. I anticipate having leftovers of the veggies from Monday, so I will lightly steam them to warm them up. The children will probably want sweet potato muffins as an incentive, which is just fine with me.

Wednesday:

Chili Beans and Cornbread for our Frugal Family Night.

Thursday:

Salmon Cakes with Garden Salad and Sweet Potato Fries... yes, I got a lot of sweet potatoes in my produce box and the only two ways my children like them are in muffins and as "fries".

Friday:

Homemade Pizza with another big Garden Salad and/or Spinach Balls.