Tag Archives: cooking ahead

Dinner Menu for the week of January 19th

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Dave reminded me on Friday that we do not have to work on Monday due to the holiday.  I nearly cried.  I limped into the weekend.

My favorite meal of the week was the broccoli cheddar soup.  It was so easy, and came out really great.  Even the boys loved it!

I spent most of today doing prep for the freezer.  I shredded some blocks of cheese from costco, and made another batch of applesauce in the crock pot.

apples cheese

I plan to do some freezer stocking tomorrow, and also prep the veggies for our morning juice for the week.  Yay for productive days off!

Here is what is on the docket for the coming week:

Sunday:  Broccoli cheddar soup from last week out of the freezer

Monday:  Whole chicken in the crock pot with parmesan zucchini and wild rice

Tuesday:  Chicken and Broccoli pockets (using left over chicken from Monday)

Wednesday: Super easy bean, cheese and avocado roll ups.  Using these beans from the freezer.

Thursday: Quinoa Stuffed red peppers

Friday:  Sauteed scallops with quinoa and orange and avocado salsa  (I am a huge fan of making a large batch of something, and then making two meals.  Hence the second night of quinoa.  I use the amazing stock from our whole chicken carcass to make quinoa and wild rice.  The flavor is ridiculous.)

Saturday:  Roasted asparagus with a runny egg and bacon.  Inspired by this recipe.  We LOVE this meal.

Hope everyone has a very enjoyable week.

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Dinner Menu for the week of November 17th

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Last week’s recap.

We are STILL eating chili from earlier in the week.  We made a huge batch, so it fed us for several lunches, and also stocked the freezer.

The honey mustard chicken was amazing!  I doubled the recipe and brought it to a mama that welcomed a new tiny at the end of October.  She sent me an email raving about it, so it will be a keeper.

The pulled pork tacos turned into roasted pork tenderloin with blueberry sauce.  I did not have any limes, and I needed to improvise. It was really tasty, and the kids gobbled it up.

Tonight for desert I pulled together a yummy cobbler with strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and apple.  I squeezed a meyer lemon over the top of the fruit with a little zest, then drizzled honey on the top.  I used this recipe for the crumble, using 2tbs honey mixed with whole plain yogurt instead of cane sugar.  Yummo!

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Here is what is in the plan for this week:

Sunday:  Grilled scallop and avocado salad

Monday: Brinner…  Avocado, Bacon and egg wrap

Tuesday:  Whole chicken in the crock pot and bacon glazed carrots

Wednesday:  Chicken tostadas using the left over chicken

Thursday:  Cobb salad with egg, avocado, cheese, cucumbers and shredded carrots

Friday:  Parmigiana Meatballs with steamed broccoli

Saturday: Minestrone soup in the crock pot

Eat well friends!

Dinner Menu for the week of October 27th

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I am running on fumes.  Dave was out of town for most of the week.  My housekeeper came on Wednesday, and my house was a shit-show by Friday morning.  I stand in AWE of single parents.  You just plain rule.

Pity party is over, so moving on to the re-cap.

The soup rocked my world, and is now occupying much of the deep freezer space.

I forgot to go to the store/was too embarrassed to go in public unshowered, and in the same clothes from the day prior/could not bear to muscle two toddlers into the car, so I did not get to eat my yummy salmon on Tuesday.  Pretty sure I ate the remainder of the kids meal for my dinner.  Since I cannot recall what it was, it was clearly amazing.

By Wednesday, I had a bit of a second wind, and I made the kids chicken tenders for dinner.  They were SO awesome!  Really cool because they can be frozen and then just re-heated when needed.  I see this getting added to my next cookapalooza weekend.

I know that I keep telling you about this chicken in the crock pot, so I will not go on and on and on about its deliciousness. Moved it to tonight because the bird was not quite defrosted.  I decided to roast some veggies (sweet potatoes, carrots, and zucchini) to go with the chicken, and found a recipe that suggested tossing the veggies in some bacon grease prior to roasting.  I thought….well, I DO happen to have some saved bacon grease.  I mean, why am I saving it, if I was not planning to use it to cook something.  It was the most humongous hit ever.  Between the chicken and the veggies, I have never seen the boys eat so much.  (Lets hope full bellies means sleeping past 6 am!)

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Here is what we are planning to make this week:

Sunday: Tomato basil chicken stew using the left over crock pot chicken

Monday: Left over soup

Tuesday:  Ready to harvest more peppers from the garden!  Making southwestern stuffed peppers.

Wednesday:  Dave’s birthday, so we are going out to dinner!

Thursday: Chicken and avocado salad

Friday:  Pizza night!

Saturday: Sausage, egg, and biscuit casserole.  Adapted from this recipe, but plan to make my own biscuit dough.

This week I am also going to stock up on some muffins for the freezer.  We go through them SO fast.  I am planning to make cinnamony apple pie muffins, whole wheat carrot applesauce muffins and another round of pumpkin muffins.

Hope everyone has a safe and FUN Halloween!

Dinner Menu for the week of October 20th

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Getting right to it tonight with last week’s highlights.

The shrimp tacos were great, but the big winner was the meatballs!  I thought I would have enough to freeze, but only 3 ended up making it to the fridge.  Made a mental note to double the recipe next time.

meatballsImage

I finally got around to making the pumpkin muffins this afternoon.  On a whim, I used a different recipe.  What a great decision!  Now…I have had some really amazing pumpkin muffins, but these really are the very best I have EVER had.  Ever.  Trevor was sneaking them off the cooling rack.

In addition to what was on the menu, in keeping with my pumpkin obsession, I made pumpkin french toast on Sat morning.  I subbed in maple syrup for the brown sugar in the recipe.  Honestly, you could leave that out altogether, and it would still taste great.  Trevor and I loved it, but Lucas and Dave were not terribly impressed.

This week is going to be a bit wonky due to some commitments that will take one or both of us out of the house for dinner.  Here we go…

Sunday:  We skipped seafood tonight because I needed to re-stock the kitchen with my favorite soup.  This chicken enchilada soup is SO versatile, and freezes great.  I used a huge red pepper from our garden, two large sweet potatoes instead of russet, and tossed in a jalapeno.  I did not have any butternut squash, so I used the acorn squash that did not get used last week.  (Ahem)  Instead of transferring to a blender in batches, I used my immersion blender.  So much easier.  This will do a really good job stocking the freezer.  YAY!

Monday:  Soup made on Sunday.

Tuesday:  Moving seafood to Tuesday, and cooking up some baked lemon salmon with asparagus

Wednesday:  Cobb salad with hard boiled egg, bacon and avocado

Thursday:  Whole chicken in the crock pot, steamed broccoli and wild rice.  I get two whole pastured chickens a month, and this not only feeds us for several days, it also makes delicious stock!  If you have not yet tried to cook a whole chicken in a crock pot…it is time.  You will not believe that it took you this long.

Friday:  Open face chicken melts using the left over chicken

Saturday:  Avocado Bacon Breakfast wrap

Looking forward to more pumpkin recipe hunting on pinterest this week!  Enjoy your cooking adventures.

Dinner Menu for the week of September 29th

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Highlights from last week’s menu:

Quinoa stuffed peppers we really yummy and SO easy to make.  I had some extra filling, so I delivered this meal on Tuesday to a new mama in our mother’s club.  She also raved about its deliciousness.  (Picture does not do it justice.)

bell pepper

Thursday morning, Trevor helped make yummy banana pancakes for a birthday treat.  He is always so very eager to help.

birthdayboy

I thought the penne pasta we had for dinner Thursday night was amazing,  I kept refilling my bowl.  but Dave was not as much of a fan.  He still ate it though.  🙂

Sat evening, we had family over to celebrate our sweet three year old.  He was the center of attention, and loved every minute.  We decided to make a self serve burrito bar, and made this super easy crock pot salsa chicken.  We have a ton of left overs, so I will be putting some of the meat in the freezer for dinners in the future.

This week is another wonky one because I have trainings or commitments that will mean I am gone for dinner.  Boooo.  I plan to cook a bunch of things ahead to prepare.

Sunday:  Due to the excess chicken, we are going to rock some chicken burritos tonight.  Or some chicken nachos.  Will depend on the mood.

Monday:  Might be ambitious, but I am giving it a go.  Minestrone in the crock pot

Tuesday:  Spinach quinoa bake.  I am doing another new mama meal delivery this evening, and it looks like this recipe will make plenty for both families.  Hope it is yummy!

Wednesday:  I am heading out for the evening to a training dinner, so Dave will be heating up some soup from the freezer.  Either potato or chicken enchilada.

Thursday:  Spinach Strawberry and Avocado salad

Friday: Grilled steak, mashed potatoes and asparagus

Saturday:  Left over steak and potatoes

Have a great week everyone!

Dinner Menu for the week of September 1st

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Last week’s menu recap:

Whole foods was all out of scallops (grrrrrr) so I made the orzo with shrimp instead.  SO flippin’ glad I did, because it was amazing.

I ended up making Monday night a scrounge night, and moved the one pot wonder to weds.  It was just ok.  A bit slimy for my liking, and I put in too many red pepper flakes.  Spicy!!!

Back to Tuesday.  I have decided that recipes that require excessive “meat handling” are not my fave.  The chicken was really good, but who wants to wash their hands 75 times during meal prep?  It went something like:  Pull one chicken breast from package, and put into the ziplock, wash up, grab the mallet and pound said chicken, then remove to a plate, wash, rescue child from top of kitchen table, start on the next chicken breast, wash, mallet, plate, wash, stop child from emptying ziplock box contents…

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Anywho…you get the idea.  Just the prep alone seemed to last an hour due to the constant stop and start and hand washing.  Here is the finished work of art heading into the oven.  (Finally)

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The rest of the week did not go according to plan.  Our CSA was out of spinach, so the salad planned for Thurs ended up being Amy’s burritos.  Friday, Dave went to a baseball game with a buddy, and I think I made a PB and Honey sandwich for myself.  Yum.  Since we still have the pork chops and bacon, they are on the menu for Sunday.

Here is the full menu for the week:

Sunday: Apple and bacon stuffed pork chops.

Monday:  Chicken tostadas using chicken from the crock pot.

Tuesday:  I am going to give irish nachos a go using the remainder of our shredded chicken.  Should be interesting!  I am using this recipe for inspiration, but making a few changes.

Wednesday:  Quinoa summer salad

Thursday:  Grilled steak with wild rice and honey roasted carrots

Friday:   Left over steak will be used to make cheesesteak sandwiches.  Have I mentioned that everyone needs a toaster oven?

Saturday:  Filled pancakes.  I will have both strawberries and blueberries.

Hope everyone gets to enjoy a long weekend!

Dinner Menu for the week of August 18th

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Usually, I spend one of the two weekend days cooking.  Tomorrow, I am rocking out a bunch of things for snacks/freezer stock.  Some of which include…  Granola, Breakfast cupcakes, zucchini tots, and Banana pancakes!  Should be a fun day!

I really can ONLY survive without boxed cereal if I have granola.  I combine it with yogurt and honey, and then simply smile through every bite.

granola

This week, I am trying some new things.  I am already excited to see how Sunday, Friday and Saturday turn out.  Here is the plan.

Sunday:  Fish taco bowls

Monday:   Left over potato soup from the freezer, and cheddar biscuits.  Yes, making the biscuits again.

Tuesday: Cooking up a whole chicken in the crock pot, then making Balsamic and sun dried tomato chicken sandwiches.

Wednesday: Salad from the garden that will be tossed together with whatever yummy veggies we have on hand.

Thursday:   Chicken alfredo noodles to use up the rest of the chicken.

Friday:  Mexican Casserole  Planning to modify this slightly to use my own taco mix, and my crock pot refried beans.  I may or may not attempt fresh tortillas.  Will have to see how the day goes.

Saturday:  Peanut butter and banana french toast.  Apparently this exists!!!

Hope everyone has a great week!

Dinner Menu for the week of July 14th

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Getting right to the menu this week.  Sleep is calling.

Sunday: Grilled salmon salad with corn on the cob

Monday: Left over chili and cornbread from last week’s menu

Tuesday: Honey lemon pork tenderloin medallions with cheesy broccoli orzo.  Subbing in whole wheat orzo.

Wednesday: Grilled ham and cheese sandwich

Thursday:  Sweet potato gnocchi!!!

Friday: Stuffed zucchini boats with tomatoes, quinoa, green peppers and parm cheese

Saturday:  Strawberry waffles.  (I am really loving brinner on the weekends btw.)

Tomorrow is going to be another cookapalooza because Dave is traveling a few days next week.  I have to stock up on some snack items, and fill the freezer with a few meals.  Also, I rocked out some AMAZING muffins tonight.  I will post the recipe tomorrow.

Nighty night…

Dinner Menu for the week of July 7th

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It has been so very nice to have a few days off, and to have Dave home.  We went to the Bay Area Discovery Museum, enjoyed a Fourth of July parade, and took turns sleeping in.  SLEEPING IN!  Despite the few relaxing days, I have neglected food shopping and bulk cooking.  Oy!

While I put together a menu for dinner each week, there is so much more planning and cooking that we do every week.  Breakfast, lunch, snacks and all of the prep that is needed for each nightly meal.  In addition, we are still working on Trevor’s limited palate.  He does eat real food, but we cycle through the same 10 or so items that he will gladly swallow.  So…cooking for him adds to the to do list.  Thank goodness Lucas will eat anything.  Then when he is done, he will eat what is left on Trevor’s plate.

So, taking a few days off from food duties, leads to Dave standing in front of an open fridge/cabinet in search of something to eat for lunch or snacks.  It is time to get cracking.  Tomorrow is going to be a cook/prep/freeze ahead day.

For this week’s menu, I am doing a week of repeats.  These are all getting made again because they were a hit in a past menu.  Some of my very faves will not be highlighted simply because I will not have ingredients.  The items I picked can either help me stock my freezer (chili), or will be easily made with much of what I have on hand.  I am excited!

Sunday: Chili and cornbread.  For the chili, I leave out the sugar, bacon bits, hotsauce, and corn chips.  I use one whole beer.  Cornbread recipe is modified to use whole corn meal (that I will grind in my Vitamix from organic popcorn!!!), whole wheat flour (ground in the Vitamix from whole wheat berries!), olive oil instead of veg, no sugar, and a bit more honey.  This meal usually does a really good job of stocking the freezer.

Monday: Left over potato soup (on last week’s menu) and a small salad.

Tuesday: Chicken pot pie I plan to make this interesting by not using any crust, and instead covering the top of the filling with whole wheat biscuit dough that will be dropped on top prior to cooking. I tried this the last time, and it was AMAZING!!! I will post pics of the process.

Wednesday: Lemon Butter Salmon, and steamed broccoli. Plan to add some garlic to the salmon prior to baking.

Thursday: Spring quinoa salad.  Just plain delish!  Naturally there would have to be a quinoa dish right?!?!

Friday: Chicken Parmesan cutlets over whole wheat spaghetti with corn on the cobb.

Saturday: Spinach quiche

Last week I promised pictures of my sweet little garden project.  Oh how it has grown!  Today I added four types of lettuce and two types of kale.  I had to move the peppers to the front too because the monster zucchini and cucumber plants were trying to swallow them.

garden1 kale

lettuce zandc

Before I wrap up, I have a request.  If anyone out there has a favorite real food recipe, please post a link to it in a comment.  Or, even if it is not made with real food ingredients, but it is a favorite, I might be able to modify it by swapping a few things out.  PLEASE send me some inspiration!

Have a great week!

Dinner Menu for the week of June 23rd

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Last week I was on a quinoa kick.  The big winner from last week’s menu was the spring quinoa salad.  It was so easy to make, and tasted amazing.   The recipe made more than we could eat for dinner, so we had it for lunch the next day.

I love it when a recipe is easy to make, the result tastes great, and it is a bonus when it is visually appealing!

quinoasalad

I was low on energy last night, so I moved the fajitas to tonight, and rocked some home made corn tortillas.  Honestly any recipe that calls for a tortilla will move to the top of my list now.  These things just plain rule.  Get a tortilla press and a bust some out people.  Or…toss the dough in between some parchment paper and roll them on out.  Either way…get on it.

Here is the dinner plan for the next week.

Sunday:  Skipping the seafood night because we have left over fajitas.  (!!!)

Monday:  Salsa Chicken burritos.  Should have LOTS of left overs for quick burritos to take to work.

Tuesday:  Quinoa with Paprika Chicken and Asparagus  (Still kind of obsessed with quinoa.  And I have a restaurant-sized bag from Costco)

Wednesday:  BLTA sandwiches

Thursday: Taco mountain.  This happens when you have taco fixins, but you layer them all on top of chips instead of putting it all in a taco shell.

Friday: Left over taco mountain, and corn on the cob.

Saturday:  I am heading down to see my sister with the boys over the weekend, so Dave is on his own for dinner.  🙂

Also planning to make these cute little zucchini tots.  In place of bread crumbs, I will be subbing in….wait for it….quinoa, and then popping them into the freezer for snacks.  Not sure what day I will get to them, but I do have some zucchini that needs to be used soon.

Hope everyone has a great week!