Saturday, July 14, 2012

Meal Planning Round One

Inspired by Jennifer at Momma Made It Look Easy, I'm giving meal planning a whirl. When it was just the kids and me for the past months and months and months we ate very bare bones. It was cheaper and easier. They were more thrilled with a box of Kraft Mac than a crockpot roast.

Now that we are together again and Big Yankee is able to come home for dinner most nights we are trying to get back in the cooking habit. I started by listing the family favorites that everyone loves. If we go a week without tacos there would be a rebellion of epic proportion.

I am addicted to food porn so I scoured my Pinterst boards and various recipe sites like Allrecipes and Food Network to get some ideas. We have some picky eaters here so slowly introducing new foods works well for us. When we have grilled burgers the grown-ups might have pepper jack cheese, salsa and sliced avacados on theirs while the kids have a basic cheeseburger.

I only did two weeks at a time because I get bored easily and it works better for us.

July 6-tacos/taco salad, refried beans

July 7- grilled burgers, cucumber tomato salad, mashed taters, corn on the cob

July 8- tortellini with alfredo pesto and salad

July 9-  Frank's Hot baked meatballs, baked seasoned fries, applesauce

July 10- shrimp/chicken fried rice, frozen eggrolls

July 11- chocolate chip pancakes and bacon (Big Yankee cooks)




July 12- tacos/grilled shrimp tacos, corn and black bean salad

July 13-  bacon cheesebruger roll up, corn, baby carrots

July 14- French toast, sausage/bacon (Chef Big Yankee in da house!)

July 15- frozen pizza (didn't happen as we were locked out of garage and freezer so we ordered Papa Murphy's instead)

July 16- crockpot chili, cornbread

July 17- spicy grilled chicken, zuuchini, pasta salad, baby carrots



July 18- bday dinner out- Peanut's pick

July 19- French toast, sausage/bacon (Big Yankee cooks)


What are some of your favorite family meals? What are your go-to sites for recipes and inspiration?


10 comments:

Jennifer Hall said...

Someone getting into meal planning should also check out my friend's blog, Mom Rocks Mealtime at momrocksmealtime.com. She's my BFF and she's been meal planning for her family for over 3 years now. She makes recipes, snaps a pic and posts the recipe with a review. She's great!

Jennifer said...

Yay! I'm so glad you are giving it a try. I hope it works out for y'all.

Anonymous said...

I love how you incorporate breakfast food as a dinnertime meal. I frequently eat bacon and eggs in the evening, but I guess many single guys like me do. lol

For a go-to meal, I love this oven-roasted chicken breast from chow.com: http://bit.ly/dWl5It

I live in Phoenix, so my oven doesn't get turned on from April until October. I've made this in a cast iron skillet on the grill outside but I prefer the ease of control in an oven, even if it sometimes makes the kitchen a little smoky.

Anyway, nothing says "comfort food" like a roasted chicken breast the way mom would've made it.

Robbie K said...

Thanks! I will definitely check her out.

Robbie K said...

me too! Figure we'll get all the kinks worked out so when school starts & we have crazy schedules again at least one thing will be taken care of.

Robbie K said...

I'l check out that recipe. we eat lost of chicken around here. It's so hot in Phoenix I don't blame you for limiting the indoor cooking.

Unknown said...

Yay! It saves my sanity a lot of nights, knowing I don't have to scramble for ingredients to make dinner.

Anonymous said...

Please do check it out. By itself, it's a great meal in about half an hour, and it's also an excellent way to prepare chicken for other recipes, like tacos/rolled tacos, chicken a la king, chicken salad, or any recipe that calls for shredded or cubed chicken.

Robbie K said...

My only problem is when I do't "feel" like eating what is on the menu. I'll just have to suck it up I guess!

Unknown said...

This what I need to do. I'm one of those that thinks about dinner 2 minutes before we are supposed to eat and then runs around frantically putting something together. The hubs isn't home for dinner most nights so it makes it hard to want to do anything elaborate just for me and the two year old.