Meal Plans for the Week

What have you got cooking this week? Are you trying anything new? I suggest trying a new vegetable this week. Serve it along with a tried and true vegetable that you know your children already enjoy... but don't be afraid to pick out something you have not tried before!


How about Collards? My children like these greens since they don't wilt as much as spinach. Or how about Bok Choy? This is one of my favorite greens. Have you ever served your children fresh (not canned) beets? Or how about some of the wonderful fall squashes that are filling up our grocery stores?


Try something new with the aim to increase the color, quantity and variety of produce in your family's fare.


Here is what I have planned for this week --


Monday:
Mushroom, Spinach and Chicken Creamy Pasta with a Garden Salad. I don't have a good name for this meal, but it is one my children look forward to! It seems that when you make a simple cream sauce and include pasta (we use whole wheat or another whole grain blend), the children don't really mind the mushrooms.


Tuesday:
Make Yogurt in the Morning
Leek and Potato Soup with Garlic Cheese Biscuits and a Garden Salad. The children recently read the book Twenty and Ten, in which the fifth graders speak about LOVING Leek and Potato Soup... so, naturally, they convinced me to make it for them. The Garlic Cheese Biscuits are a family fave... hopefully I'll post the recipe with pictures next week... and for the Cherry Chocolate Granola Bars I am making!


Wednesday:
Remember that Wednesday is our Family Frugal Night. Click here to read why I reserve one night a week for some combination of beans and rice.


Thursday:
I plan on making the Crock Pot Roast (from Grass-Fed Beef) that I didn't make the other week. We have plenty of potatoes to oven-roast and I also have a wealth of other greens that will need to be used up. I'll probably cook the whole mess and freeze what we don't eat for future soups. I think I will have chard, cabbage, carrots, onions and garlic left in the fridge.


I will also have to catch up on Baking... my plan is six loaves of bread, Love Muffins, and Banana Nut Muffins for next week's breakfasts. If I have the time, I may make some cookies to take on our Fall Break trip too.


Friday starts our Fall Break! YAY!!! I am so looking forward to our little family vacation... and I will have to clean out my fridge on Friday, so we will put together all the leftovers for a smorgasbord meal. I anticipate still having salad veggies too, so we can have that on the side... again... who ever heard of too much salad?!?

Pregnancy Update and Meal Plans

I am at the end of my second trimester! Things are going very well with this pregnancy... EXCEPT that I have been really tired lately. My doctor has evaluated my bloodwork, and I have talked at length with my midwife. Their final analysis: my fatigue is simply due to overloading my schedule and not getting enough rest.

Hmmm. I am glad it is nothing serious, but I don't know how to thin out my schedule... and napping doesn't really come easily in a house full of active children. We'll just have to see how I can fit in more rest... yeah, right.

But in the meantime, I know that my body (and my baby) would not appreciate me cutting corners and letting unhealthy convenience foods into my daily diet. These foods actually deprive us of energy because of the additional strain they put on our digestive and detoxification systems. In times like these, our bodies really need the right fuel to keep them operating at peak performance. (Which reminds me of a post I wrote a while ago about the proper fuel for our bodies.) The "right fuel" is real food... So I will keep pressing on with my "whole foods" meal plans and preparations.

Here's what I have planned for this week:

Monday: This quiche with Parsley Mashed Potatoes and a Garden Salad.

Tuesday: Make Yogurt in the morning.
Cabbage Rolls (from this cookbook) plus a Garden Salad. I have so much cabbage from my last produce box! I will make a double or triple batch of these and freeze them for future meals when I simply don't have time to cook.

Wednesday: This is our full-to-bursting day. So I will make Crock Pot Black Bean Soup (follow this link) and some fresh soaked flatbreads to dip into the soup. If I have time in the morning when I start to soak the flatbreads, I will also bake some Banana Nut Muffins.

Thursday: Crock Pot Roast, Oven Roasted Potatoes, Steamed Vegetables.

Friday: Chicken and Spinach Calzones with another fresh, crisp salad... full of all the wonderful raw food benefits we need to frequently take advantage of!


Press on dear readers... we all get tired, don't we? But what we eat really matters! Make a reasonable plan, then stick with it... you'll be glad you did!

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.

Meals for the Week

Well, I started to plan for this week's meals in the midst of planning for Tickle's birthday party and getting ready for company. Then, I dropped my list somewhere in the grocery store... I write my meals on one side of the paper and my grocery list on the back, so losing it means losing the whole plan.

I didn't have time to reconstruct the meal plan until today, which is too late to thaw meat for tonight. So, I'm switching it all around. Here goes:

Monday:

Bean Burrito Casserole with fresh guacamole (thanks to my mom who brings avocados almost every time she visits) and a BIG salad. We'll also have leftover Very Hungry Caterpillar Cake with Ice Cream. (Post about Tickle's birthday coming next.)

Tuesday:

Make yogurt in the morning so it can culture all day.

Bake a triple batch of Banana Nut Muffins. I happen to really love muffins these days... call it a pregnancy craving, if you'd like.

Supper -- Cook a Crock Pot Chicken to serve with oven roasted potatoes and green beans.

Wednesday:

I think I can skip my baking day since I've still got a stash in the freezer, although I may make cookies for my husband's Bible Study that night.

Supper -- Use the leftover chicken for Chicken in Garlic Parsley Sauce over Brown Rice again. It was a hit! I'll do a big salad again as half of the meal.

Thursday:

Crock Pot Roast (our Grass-Fed Beef) with potatoes and lots of greens with carrots. I really miss my produce box because it is so hard to find good, organic greens at my Kroger.

Friday:

Taco Salad made with the leftover beef, beans and all the veggies. It's too bad my avocados won't last until the end of the week!

This Week's Menu

To make an extremely long story short, I have been experiencing technical difficulties. What a way to get back into blogging after my back-to-school-break, huh?!? My laptop crashed. It left me with a very slow PC to work on. It left me without all my shortcuts, pictures and files. The good news is that I am now blogging on a lightning fast laptop (maybe just compared to the dinosaur I've been using). I only have to get my files back in order and I'll be good to go.

In the meantime, I did plan for our meals this week. I don't have much extra baking to do since I've baked double, triple and quadruple recipes of everything the past two weeks. Here's what I've got cooking:

Saturday:
Lunch -- Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Non-GMO Corn Chips, Grapes and Strawberries
Supper -- Leftover Pakistani Kima (see last week's menu for cookbook link)

Sunday:
Pot Luck Sandwich lunch at church -- take Turkey Roll Ups (with preservative-free meat) and Garden Salad
Supper -- popcorn and smoothie

Monday:
Use meat pulled from a whole cooked chicken in Chicken, Mushroom and Spinach Lasagna. I take a shortcut and skip precooking the whole wheat noodles. If you add about two cups of extra water to the sauce, the noodles will cook in the hour that the lasagna bakes covered in foil. I will also be making a tomato and cucumber salad on the side.

Tuesday:
Make yogurt in the morning so it can culture all day.
Supper -- It is Tickle's birthday today! So, I will be grilling hamburgers and making oven fries and steaming vegetables. This is celebratory food for us. Her actual birthday party will be on Saturday, so that's when we will have her special chosen meal, cake and ice cream. What will this two-year-old pick???

Wednesday:
Make Power Bars and bake some breakfast muffins... I'm looking for something new to try!
Supper -- Some version of Beans and Rice

Thursday:
Salmon Broccoli Pasta, a favorite of all my littles

Friday:
Leftover Lasagna with all the vegetables I have left over too (since I'll be grocery shopping on Saturday morning).

On Meal Planning...

With this new year of school, I am shuffling up some of my routines in order to find what works for us in this season of life. I love planning and I love order, but I do hold onto my plans with somewhat of a loose grip. I do know that life with young children frequently changes, and it only makes sense that routines would have to change as well.


I have been doing my meal planning and grocery shopping on Tuesday afternoons. I got my produce box on Mondays, so I really couldn't make a meal plan until I saw what was in my box. However, it now seems that I will not be getting the box for a while (sigh). The co-op may start up again, but for now, I am buying my produce along with my groceries. And, after school activities that we used to have on other days are now all on Tuesdays.


All that said, it looks like Saturday morning is becoming my time to plan and shop. Some things will stay the same... like making yogurt on Tuesday mornings... that still fits. And baking on Wednesday afternoons... that still fits. My meal prep time in the mornings will stay the same... and our lunches will be pretty consistently similar as well.


So, here's what I'm planning for this week:


Saturday:
Lunch -- Quesidillas, Grapes and lots of raw veggies
Make Granola and Banana Nut Muffins.
Supper -- Use leftover homemade Gyro meat in a salad with cucumbers, tomatoes and a feta cheese dressing. Garlic Smashed Potatoes on the side. Limeade Popsicles for dessert. (I picked up a bottle of organic limeade at Kroger for 50 cents!)


Sunday:
Pot Luck lunch at church -- take Black Bean Chili and Corn Muffins
Supper -- popcorn and smoothie


Monday:
Use meat pulled from a whole cooked chicken in Chicken Burrito Skillet. Serve with a whopping side salad with homegrown tomatoes (thanks to dear friends!!!). Our side salads are often bigger than the main dish!


Tuesday:
Make yogurt in the morning so it can culture all day.
Supper -- Homemade Pizza made with preservative-free ham I picked up on sale with a coupon for almost nothing! We don't usually eat ham, but this was a terrific opportunity. I make a whole wheat crust and my own version of pizza sauce. I'll prepare Green Beans, just because my kids love them... and I am going to be trying Spinach Balls on the side too, a recipe from my new fave cookbook. I hope they're a hit because they look so simple!


Wednesday:
Bake bread and another breakfast item, maybe Morning Glory Muffins from the same fave cookbook.
Supper -- Beans and Rice


Thursday:
Supper -- Beef Stir Fry over rice. I have lots of grass-fed beef in the freezer, which is really nice because I have so many different cuts for a major cheap price. I see stir fry as a good excuse to cook A LOT of veggies. I will use onions, garlic, carrots, cabbage, kale and whatever else I have on hand... maybe squash or zucchini too.


Friday:
Supper -- Pakistani Kima, which is a curried beef, peas and potato dish from this cookbook. We will have another mega side salad and another portion of Green Beans with this skillet meal.

What's Cooking -- July

Whew... July has been a crazy month so far... I guess it is obvious by the haphazard record of our meals. Summer is fun, but I do look forward to normalcy again! I am going ahead and posting this month's archive... maybe there is an idea worth coming back to.

July 13th:
Today I am toilet training little Tickle. I find that the whole process works so much better if the first day is really focused. So today, I am totally absorbed in watching my bare-bottomed little girl play on the linoleum.That being said, dinner will be simple tonight. Huge green salad. Leftover Super-Veggie-Spaghetti. And watermelon for those kids who have a hollow leg to fill with food.

July 9th:
The last two nights, we have had a Spinach Parmesan Quiche and White Chicken Chili from the freezer for supper.

I heard from a friend that you can grill cube steak. Really, I don't even know what cube steak is, but some of it came with my portion of our grass-fed cow. So, since I am trying to work more meat into my pregnancy diet, I am going to grill some cube steak tonight.

On the side, I'll steam some broccoli, slice some cucumbers and mash some potatoes.

July 6th:
After a holiday weekend full of extra cooking, I am very pleased that tonight is covered! I made an extra Chicken Nacho Casserole when I made one for a church pot luck yesterday. So tonight, all I have to do is toss a salad and I'm done. What amazing things will I get done instead of preparing supper tonight? I think I'll read to my kids ;-)

July 3rd:
Tonight I am roasting three chickens again. It was so nice to have the extra chicken ready and waiting for me in the freezer last time around. I found it worth the time in deboning three at once, so I am doing it again.

I will roast oven potatoes and make a garden salad to go with tonight's portion of the chicken.

July 1st:
Tonight I am preparing beans and rice. I have small red beans soaking and I cooked a double portion of brown rice last night. I recently saw an interesting recipe for a beans and rice salad. Since it is HOT here in GA, I might just give it a try.

What's Cooking -- June

I've been keeping a running list of our family's weekday meals, and I archive the list under this "What's Cooking" topic. It may help to give you healthy menu ideas... and it may help to jumpstart my creativity when it seems we are stuck in a supper rut. Have you been there before?

It's the first of the month and so I'm starting a new post for June meals. If you don't read the "What's Cooking" Corner on my blog each day, you can check this post for our June supper menus. Or, you can read the archives from past months here.

June 30th:
So last night's grilling didn't work out. There was a very deliberate wasp. Need I say more.

I'm trying again tonight with some Ribeye Steaks that came with our part of the cow. I have never done this type of meat due to budgetary constraints, but I'm hoping for the best.

I will also stir fry what is left of my produce box and serve it with rice.

June 29th:
YAY! I'm back in the swing of things :-) I found some healthy chicken for a really good price, so tonight I am going to attempt to grill it. I am not a grill master. We'll see.

I'll also be tossing a huge dark green salad and serving garlic bread on the side. Real food! I'm so excited!

Tomorrow, I'll have to catch up on yogurt, bread and granola -- three of our family staples.

Break:
Like last week, this summer week is going to be another break from routine. Because of traveling and other events, we will not be eating our regular family meal every night.

Instead, I will be pulling together items left from my produce box and pantry ingredients for some quick meals and some travel-able meals. Who knows what I will come up with -- or if it will taste good!

Next week, I will return to my normal cooking habits. And, I will post my supper plans too. In the interim, check out my "What's Cooking?" archives.

June 12th:
It has just been the kids and I for supper the past few nights. So, instead of cooking something new, we have been having leftovers. They thought the Mega Stir Fry would never end!But tonight, he will be here with us again! So we are going to have Taco Salad, one of his all-time-favs.

June 9th:
Tonight I am going to make a mega stir fry. I will use onions, garlic, colored peppers, daikon, carrots, and purplish kale. That should make for a rainbow presentation! I'll serve it with rice and some baked white fish.

I bought an abundance of colored peppers in bulk the other day. I also have way too many onions from the last few produce boxes. So today I am going to dice these all up and freeze them for future stir frys.

I also intend on baking 6 loaves of bread and making Power Bars this morning... interruptions allowing.

June 8th:
Tonight it's my turn to pick up our produce boxes. I trade off with some other great moms in my neighborhood. So, I'll either pick up some fresh burritos from a moderately healthy restaurant in town... or I'll serve leftovers.

I took a Broccoli Almond Salad and a Cilantro Lime Pasta Salad with tri-colored peppers to a church pot-luck yesterday... so we have both of those plus some leftovers from last week to finish off. Exciting, huh?

June 5th:
Catching Up:On Wednesday, I had to make a very rushed supper. We used whole wheat pasta from the pantry to make a pasta and meat sauce meal.

On Thursday, I used the last third of our roast to make a saucy meat with rice dish... inventing as I went, but it turned out very tasty. We were totally out of anything green from our produce box - for some reason we went through it remarkably quick this time around - so we had peas.

Tonight, I know that we do not want meat! We normally space our meat meals out, but after four nights in a row, we are ready for something lighter. I have everything I need to make a Red Bean and Rice Salad with Lime Dressing. Sounds fitting... and I'll double it so that I can take it to a Sunday Pot Luck too.

June 2nd:
The roast we ate last night was delicious. It was so full of flavor! I am going to make the leftovers into two meals this week. Tonight, I am going to make a main-dish cold beef salad with greens, ripe tomaotes, peas and a feta cheese dressing.

We have leftover potatoes from last night, a side dish that will make my littles very happy (and full!).

June 1st:
I have had a Roast in the crock pot all day. We love roast beef. And this time, we are especially excited since this roast is from our Grass-Fed cow. It smells so good! I had some fresh herbs from our organic produce box, and they seem to be adding a lot of aroma (and hopefully flavor too).

For sides, we are going to do potatoes and kale and some sliced raw veggies and tomatoes as well.

What's Cooking -- May

May 29th;
Since the kids have finished an awesome school year, we are having a Family Fun Night to celebrate. They have chosen to have my version of "Hamburger Helper," steamed broccoli, and "Jello" for dessert.

For the Hamburger Helper, I make my own cheese sauce using a basic white sauce recipe. Then, I add the browned beef, noodles and seasonings. It really is quite easy... and the kids love it for a special treat.

May 28th:
We have not had Quiche in quite a while, so that is on our menu for tonight. I will be adding some spinach, onions and mushrooms to the normal egg and cheese mixture.

We will also have Oven Roasted Potatoes (again). My kids just can't get enough of them, and we always seem to get potatoes in our organic produce box.

For dessert we are having White Grape With Peach popscicles... I can't wait!

May 27th:
Tonight would be our normal Frugal Meal Night, consisting of some version of beans or rice. However, I have so much lettuce from my produce box on Monday that will not last much longer! It needs to be eaten ASAP... so tonight I am serving another main dish salad. I will be making a Salmon Salad, which my children really enjoy, believe it or not.

May 26th:
Later today we will be picking up our Pastured Chickens and so I will have to make a quick supper. I will use the pulled chicken I have in the freezer and some already prepared refried beans to make a Chicken and Bean Burrito Casserole. This is one of my children's favorite meals. Rainbow will make a salad to go with it... she has become a salad expert!

Catching Up:
Friday I made a Chicken "Ceasar" Salad for supper. It was very delicious. It was not technically a Ceasar salad since I used a healthier version of the dressing, but we still used lots of dark leafy greens, chicken, parmesan cheese... and sunflower and pumpkin seeds instead of croutons. We thought it was worth making again.

Memorial Day we grilled hamburgers. Yum-O! And I served kale, carrots and potatoes on the side.

May 21st:
Back to the plan today... I am cooking Sally Fallon's Lamb Meatballs with Oven Roasted Potatoes and Green Beans for supper. My children usually ask for seconds on Green Beans, so I am glad we got so many in our last produce box!

I also hope to make six loaves of bread this afternoon... if I can squeeze it in between blogging, ironing and ordering books for next school year.

May 20th:
Consider the ball dropped. I have no plan for supper tonight... which I'll blog about today. I think I'll have to fall back on leftover mock lasagna, which will mean an extra night of cooking this weekend when I would normally serve leftovers. Life is not always predictable ;)

May 18th:
Tonight I am going to be daring. I have chicken, red bell peppers and ricotta cheese. I am going to try something altogether new... a roasted red pepper mock lasagna.

Too bad I can't really find a good recipe for a starting point. I'll just have to wing it all! I have a few other ingredients I can throw in too. I'm thinking about zucchini and garlic...

...And a salad on the side.

May 14th:
Cooking a whole chicken every week has gotten a little tedious. I am going to try something different today. I plan on roasting three chickens this afternoon, pulling the meat off the bone all at once, then making several quarts of chicken stock in my extra large stock pot. It may be tedious for the afternoon, but I think I'll be glad to have meal sized chicken and stock portions ready in the freezer.

We will have some of the chicken for supper tonight. I will also make some oven roasted potatoes... my kids are ever-asking for them... and a vegetable stir fry with Bok Choy, another dark green Chinese cabbage, onions, carrots, mushrooms and garlic.

May 13th:
Tonight is our Frugal Dinner Night... I have black beans and rice in the crockpot.

I also have two quarts of yogurt culturing and a large pitcher of iced peppermint green tea chilling.

May 12th:
We are having pizza for supper tonight. Along with it, I will make a green garden salad and a beet and carrot salad that my children love. It is basically grated carrots and julienned beets with orange juice. Go figure... they really like it.

May 11th:
Tonight I will be serving my version of White Chicken Chili, a recipe that I will post tomorrow.

We will also get our produce box this afternoon, so I am expecting to have an abundance of salad vegetables to throw together for a side dish.

Besides that... I've really got to get my act together this week and get caught up on bread, yogurt and some other baking. I've been doing extra springtime yardwork and have had less time in the kitchen.

May 8th:
Last night we had Salmon Broccoli Pasta, a family favorite.

Tonight, we are going to have baked fish, sweet potato fries and asparagus. It is okay to have fish two nights in a row, isn't it?

This morning I baked some yummy muffins. I just got the muffin itch... I started with a slightly sweet recipe from a Southern Living Cookbook. Since I was making whole foods substitutions, I used some unrefined date sugar, raspberry All-Fruit and orange juice for sweetening them. They turned out super delicious... Especially the half I added chocolate chips to!

May 6th:
Tonight would be our Beans and Rice night, but I forgot to start soaking the beans since I was out at my discussion group last night.

We will have our spaghetti casserole leftovers... Rainbow will have a longer ballet class today... only two more practices until her recital!

May 5th:
I am leaving for a Health and Wellness Discussion Group this evening, so I will need to prepare a quick supper before I go.

Last week I found Kashi Brand frozen pizzas on sale at Kroger. They were $3.99 instead of $6.99. I had $3.00 off coupons as well... so I bought three 99c pizzas!

We will have the pizzas for supper tonight with some salad on the side.

May 4th:
Tonight I have some venison that I must use. I am clearing out the freezer for grass-fed beef and pastured poultry... 'tis the season!

Since I really don't like the taste of venison by itself, I will be making this portion into a spaghetti casserole. I will use swiss chard instead of spinach... and whole wheat fusilli by BioNature.

May 1st:
We came home from strawberry picking with nine gallons this morning! I am facing a long day of washing and freezing. (I will post about this as soon as I am able.)

We have some restaurant gift cards... I think today would be a good time to use them!

What's Cooking -- April

Here are the "What's Cooking" archives for the month of April. I'll keep adding to the list as I update the column.

April 30th:
Tonight I am making the Chicken Pot Pie recipe from my new cookbook. It looks totally wonderful. It has a whole grain biscuit topping that looks pretty good too. The only thing I will have to change is the vegetables. Since I have lots of greens, I plan on adding some along with onions, carrots, beans and corn.

Side dish? That is the question. Salad again? I think so. Good thing we like salad!

April 29th:
After a long afternoon in the kitchen yesterday (power bars, Love Muffins, dinner, pulling meat off the chicken, then CLEAN UP), I am thankful for a simple night tonight.

We are having Black Bean Soup with a Garden Salad. How simple is that?

April 28th:
This morning I put a chicken in the crock pot. Tonight I will prepare some potatoes for a side dish... my kids love potatoes and they seem to fill the children's bottomless hunger. Then, I have an abundance of vegetables to choose from. I think with the weather being so warm, I would just like a salad... with my chicken on top.

This afternoon I also have to make power bars. If I get totally ambitious, I will try to make some Love Muffins too. If I do, I'll take pictures and post about this wheat-free muffin recipe.

April 27th:
I have got 1/2 a gallon of yogurt culturing... that is, I have warmed the milk and added the culture and the milk is now curdling.

Tonight I am picking up a produce box for me and four neighbors, so I will be serving leftovers once again. (Good thing I cook extra!)

Saturday night, I made a chicken and vegetable dish. Then, for my in-laws last night, I made a tortellini salad with asparagus. We will have both of those for supper tonight.

April 24th:
It is just me and the girls tonight so I am serving the leftovers from Witzy's birthday... right down to the leftover Raspberry Tart!

April 23rd:
I am making a recipe from my new cookbook tonight! We will be having Pecan and Coconut Encrusted Chicken with Kale, Carrots and Oven Roasted Potatoes.

April 22nd:
Today is Witzy's birthday. She has chosen to have homemade Macaroni and Cheese with steamed broccoli and a Raspberry Tart for dessert.

April 21st:
I will have a very busy afternoon today. I'm sure you've been there too. Days like today offer very little time for cooking. I try to plan ahead for these days.

This time around, I have something stored in the freezer for just such a day as this. I found some organic sprouted grain crust frozen pizzas for 70% off at Kroger the other day. They were marked down for closeout. I guess not that many people want a sprouted grain crust. One is chicken and feta, the other is tomato and basil. YAY... for affordable yet healthy freezer food!

We will have a large garden salad on the side too.

April 20th:
Do I dare??? My mother gave me a wonderful cookbook yesterday (more on this in my post), and I simply can't wait to try out some of the recipes! I'm not going to make the usual Monday Crock-Pot Chicken... the very Monday after I posted my cooking routines! I am itching to try something new.

I am thinking of making Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burritos. The "Do I Dare" question arises because my children dislike sweet potatoes every way except Sweet Potato Fries or Sweet Potato Muffins. Would they like these burritos? Do I dare try this recipe out? It sounds good to me... but.

I have all the ingredients, so I'll give it a go... and I'll make a side dish that they just love.

I will also go ahead and cook all the sweet potatoes I have at the same time. On Baking Day, I will make Sweet Potato Muffins.

April 17th:
Tonight is our 10th Wedding Anniversary! I am making the not-so-frugal, but greatly-loved Chicken Parmesan. Most of the chicken we eat is meat from a whole chicken, but I found some Organic Chicken Breasts on BIG SALE at the grocery store. We will have a garden salad as well.

For dessert, which we have on special occasions such as today, the kids and I have made a Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cheesecake! YUM-O. The good thing about peanut butter cheesecakes is that they are already brown, so using a natural sweetener doesn't change the appearance.

April 16th:
Unfortunately, we are down to the very last selections of meat from our freezer. I am still looking for a good source for grass-fed beef.

Since I can't waste good food, even if I don't prefer it, we will be having venison tonight. I am going to use it in Black Bean and Vegetable Chili. Hopefully, all the flavors will mask the gamey taste. Tonight I will add mushrooms, onions, zucchini and chard to the chili. Yes, my children will eat greens in their chili. I chop everything very small.

I still have lots of salad vegetables from my produce box, so Rainbow will make a salad for us to have on the side.

April 15th:
As it is Wednesday, we will be having beans and rice tonight. I know... it doesn't seem too exciting, but the children gladly eat it... and we save a lot of money on this Frugal Night!

April 14th:
I am baking Salmon tonight. Since the green beens looked the neediest in my produce box, we will have them tonight too. I also will be serving Carrot and Beet Salad and more oven-roasted potatoes. The kids can't get enough of them!

April 13th:
For yesterday's Easter Luncheon, we had Roast Lamb with Oven Roasted Potatoes, Carrot and Beet Salad and Sugar Snap Peas.

Tonight I will be turning the leftover lamb into a skillet stew to serve with steamed brown rice. It is such a rainy day here, so stew seems like the comfort food we will all appreciate.

April 4-12:
Since this is our Spring Break week, I won't be cooking according to my normal routine. We even get to go out a few times! The meals I will prepare here at home will be as simple as possible, yet still made with whole foods. Here are some of my ideas for next week:

• Preservative-Free Hot Dogs with Homemade French Fries (my kids LOVE this treat!)
• Layered Dip (Taco-seasoned Beef, Beans, Guacamole, Lettuce, Tomatoes, Bell Peppers, Olives, Cheese) with Non-GMO corn chips
• Spaghetti with Meat Sauce and Salad
• Breakfast Burritos
• Salmon Broccoli Pasta

April 3rd:
Today is my husband's birthday! He is truly an amazing man. My children are privileged to have such a loving father. And I am beyond blessed to have such an understanding husband.


We are baking a Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Pound Cake for this celebratory occasion. I will make some healthier alterations to the recipe, but it will be a special treat for us... with Breyer's Chocolate Chip ice cream on the side.


And, tonight --- we are going out for supper! YAY! I don't know whether going out is more special for my husband or for me... looking forward to a no cleanup evening.


April 2nd:
Tonight we are having "Taco Skillet" from a recipe I saw in an ad for Campbell's Tomato Soup. I don't use a can of soup. I've tweaked it so that I can make it without any processed foods. It is a family favorite... and really simple on nights when I've got late afternoon engagements.


We will have a large garden salad on the side too.


April 1st:
The challenge tonight is coming up with supper using only produce and pantry items. I have the goods from my box on Monday, but I haven't been to the grocery store for quite a while. I may be able to fit it in tonight, but not before supper.


So, I think we will be using some homemade chicken stock to make a vegetable and rice soup. If I get my act together before Ballet this afternoon, we should have "5 Minute Artisan Rolls" for dipping.

What's Cooking -- March

I am creating this post in order to archive the content from my "What's Cooking?" Sidebar. The sidebar has been a successful element of this humble blog, yet I haven't figured out a way for Blogger to keep/update the content. So far I've lost nearly two months of information! So, I've decided to paste each day's entry into a monthly archive. Maybe these monthly archives of our family's meal plans will be helpful to someone. They will be a good reminder for me on those days when I seem stumped as to what we haven't had in a while.

March 31st:
Tonight I plan on preparing Baked Salmon with Mashed Potatoes and a Garden Salad for supper.

We received beets in our produce box again. I have heard of a salad with grated beets and carrots. I plan on looking this one up. It might be worth a try...

Also, we just finished the last of our "5 Minute Artisan Bread." I am very sorry to see it gone... it has such an addictive flavor! And, it is moist enough to be eaten plain. Love it! I hope to get another master batch soaking tonight. This time, I'll take pictures to post :)

March 30:
I've got to spend this afternoon in the car... picking up our produce box and running other errands. I am so thankful for leftovers on days like today!

A leftover note: I try to cook something new each day of the week. We keep leftovers for the weekend, or we freeze them. When I follow this plan, I get a break from cooking over the weekend and I also have a few things in the freezer for days like today when we need a meal in a hurry. If you want to stay away from Fast Food, a plan like this is so helpful!

March 27th:
Family Fun Night = Homemade Pizza and Salad.

I'm especially excited about the salad tonight because I have two perfectly ripe avocados. MMMMM... all six of us love a good avocado tossed into our salad!

On another note: last night's Cabbage Rolls were awesome! The kids separated the cabbage and filling, but the flavors were so delish that even they enjoyed it all... separate.

March 26th:
Tonight we are having Sally Fallon's Spicy Cabbage Rolls. (You can get her excellent cookbook here.) We haven't had these in several years, but I still have more cabbage from my produce box to use up.

Sadly, I will be using my very last package of ground beef tonight. I have gotten grass-fed beef from a handful of sources in the past, but am still looking for a better price. Do you have a good source for grass-fed beef? If so, please comment or email me! Thanks.

March 25th:
Things are happenin' in the kitchen again today! This week I'm trying to prepare a couple of batches of the foods we eat often. Today, I've got two batches of granola soaking. I will also be making Power Bars this evening.

Since it is Wednesday, we are having Beans and Rice... surprise, surprise!

March 24th:
There's a lot going on in this kitchen today! I've got a half gallon of yogurt culturing. Later this afternoon, I am going to be making all six loaves of bread from my "5 Minute Artisan" master recipe. I'll post on that later this week...

For supper, I will be making my version of Chicken Fried Rice. It's not fried. And there's not a lot of rice. I guess it is just my way of using A LOT of vegetables in one meal. We have tons of cabbage, carrots, onions and other greens to use.

March 23rd:
I have a chicken in the crockpot! We will eat a portion of it this evening and save the rest with the stock for meals later this week.

I will be preparing butternut squash, swiss chard and mashed potatoes on the side. The kids love for me to thicken some of the stock into gravy for their potatoes and chicken too.

However, they do NOT love butternut squash. It is a texture thing. I can't waste what came in our produce box, so I am going to dice it and steam it lightly. If I can time it right, the squash won't be mushy...

March 19th:
I'll be doing a Health Fair this evening. Rainbow will be reheating the extra Parmesan, Kale and Portabello Quiche and making a Garden Salad on the side. I am so thankful for her... she is such a bright, cheerful help to me! Thank you, Rainbow! And, thank you Witzy, for helping set the table too!

March 18th:
We will be having Beans and Rice for supper tonight. Those of you who read this sidebar regularly will recognize our normal Wednesday evening meal :)

Since I need leftovers for Rainbow to heat up on Saturday, I will be making a quick Bean Burrito Casserole with the extra beans and rice tonight. She will be able to heat up the casserole and make a salad while I am away.

March 17th:
We just received our produce box, and the choices for tonight are endless! I need to make something with easily reheated leftovers... so I think I'm going to make a Crustless Veggie Quiche with Salad.

I also baked the last of my "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" master recipe this morning. I got creative and made it into a cinnamon swirl bread. And it really only took 5 Minutes! We tasted a bit of it when it came out of the oven and are really looking forward to more with our supper!

March 16th:
We have not had fish in quite a while. I can't even remember the last time. So tonight, we are breaking from our normal chicken night for Baked Fish with Salad and Cowboy Potatoes.

Cowboy Potatoes... now there's a story! When Spiderman was only twoish, I roasted whole potatoes coated with olive oil and rolled in salt. The hot oven made the skins crispy, but the white inside was perfectly soft. He made a comment like: "These potatoes are so good I bet cowboys eat 'em!" The name stuck. They do remind me of potatoes cooked over an open fire...

March 13th:
Tonight I am going to make Chicken and Rice Soup with our very first loaf of "5 Minute Artisan Bread" on the side. I'll be adding chard, onions, carrots, mushrooms and maybe some other veggies to the soup. This meal should provide leftovers for the weekend... YAY!

An update on the "5 Minute Artisan Bread": I did the preliminary work last night. It seemed really wet, which might be due to the freshly milled flour. I am a little doubtful the loaf will hold its shape so I will be putting it in a bread pan. I am a very curious about the results though.

March 12th:
I know it's sounds a bit disappointing, but we are having leftovers tonight. I have several items that need finishing up in the fridge. No wasting, right! So tonight, it's a no frills supper.

Since heating up leftovers and steaming broccoli will not take much time, I plan on starting my first batch of "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day." This bread is a "soaked grain" and it seems really simple. I'll let you know what we think!

March 11th:
Wednesday, as you know, is our $3 or less meal. Tonight, we are having black beans and rice.

I also have 1/2 a gallon of yogurt culturing and granola soaking. If "soaking" seems like an odd word choice, tune in tomorrow when I'll post my granola recipe with pictures!

March 10th:
I got the chicken cooking this morning, so we will be having part of that on a HUGE spring-salad for supper tonight. I have lots of vegetables to toss in too. With the weather as warm as it is here, we are all in the mood for a light and fresh meal.

March 9th:
ARG! In all of this past weekend's running around, I forgot to thaw out a chicken. I was not able to start my Monday Crock-Pot Chicken this morning. I like to cook a chicken so that I have meat for a few meals and stock for the week.

I guess I will have to pull something else together for supper tonight. I am thinking of making Macaroni and Cheese. I make this a few times a year -- and I think now just might be the right time again! I have taken a Southern Living recipe and made my usual aterations to make it "healthier." We have plenty of vegetables to steam for our side dishes.

March 6th:
Tonight I'm experimenting. We're going to have a rice and beef skillet dinner with asparagus. I have taken a Betty Crocker "Good and Easy" recipe and made several more healthful substitutions. Who knows, it could be worth making again!

March 5th:
Today is Rainbow's Birthday! This is the menu she has selected:

Breakfast: Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal, not the instant kind. Just good Old Fashioned oatmeal cooked with real apples.

Lunch: Cheese Sandwiches, Ants on a Log, Bar-B-Q Potato Chips (Kettle Brand), and Yogurt

Supper: Salmon Broccoli Pasta
Dessert: Cinnamon Roll Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream