meal plan 2/3-2/6 - better late than never?

Well, the last few weeks have been... well, let's just say they've been what I would describe as "hectic". I was going full speed into a winter retreat for the 20-somethings ministry at my church, which was this last weekend. It was two days full of running around in high altitude, winter wardrobe wearing, meetings, rehearsals, giggling... you name it. Fun, mixed with work, mixed with stress.

I hit the ground running when I got home, and have been sort of on "survival mode" for the last couple of days. I'm grateful to be able to say that I'm finally getting a breather today.

Monday we're starting a weight loss challenge with a bunch of family members. Each person can do what they want to lose weight - Adam and I are doing Weight Watchers, which I'm thrilled about. I'm hoping he doesn't notice a huge difference, in that our food will hopefully be delicious enough that he won't miss pizza, beer, and indulgence as much... I guess I hope the same thing for myself!

I thought I would try to create a menu plan for these next few days, and then focus on getting ready for our 12-week challenge. There's a $50 buy-in, and 7 of us participating. $350 is pretty motivating, don't you think?

Breakfasts:

English Muffins

Oatmeal

Fruit & Yogurt

Lunches:

Leftovers

Noodles & Butter

Dinners:

Thursday

Pot Roast

Friday

Wings & Veggies

Saturday

Chicken & Dumplings (Adam's Birthday Dinner!)

Sunday

Game Day! Party food.

this week

I'm cleaning out the pantry, freezer, and fridge. I've ignored the bloated contents of these areas for far too long. I've also spent more than my fair share this month. So, I'm using what I already have to make my meals this week. Well... almost everything. I still want to get a few things, like onions, milk, butter... stuff like that.

Isn't it amazing what happens when you actually take time to investigate the black hole of your pantry? I mean, I realized just how much I had in there that I just hadn't used yet. For example, I have plenty of beef broth, consumme, and french onion soup. That's just screaming for a good roast with some potatoes and carrots. I also have a bag of frozen tilapia filets. I think I should bread them and fry them up this week. We haven't had fish in a long time!

So, I've plopped these other ingredients into a recipe finder to come up with ideas for my other meals this week.

Monday

Carnitas

Tuesday

Pork Chops & Horseradish Sauce *NEW*

Wednesday

Chicken & Black Bean Taco Salad

Thursday

Meatloaf with Mashed Potatoes & Steamed Broccoli

Friday

Pot Roast with Homemade Rolls

Saturday

Out!!

Sunday

Fish & Chips

meal plan 12/12 - 12/18

Sunday - party!
Monday - party!
Tuesday - White Chicken Chili
Wednesday - Balsamic Chicken w/ Mushrooms
Thursday - Meatloaf
Friday - Carnitas
Saturday - Chicken Parmesan

meal plan 12/5 - 12/11

Sunday - late lunch, we ate brownies for dinner!

Monday - Meatloaf & Sauteed Spinach

Tuesday - Roasted Chicken & Veggies

Wednesday - Ham, Au Gratin Potatoes (for lifegroup)

Thursday - Chicken "Philly" Calzones

Friday - Fried Tilapia w/ Ratatouille

Saturday - Grilled Cheese Sandwiches & Soup

pesto chicken

Made this for dinner last night and paired it with noodles & cheesy garlic white sauce. It was... amazing. And so simple! So fast! My kind of recipe.


Pesto Chicken
Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts (I took two thick breasts and cut them in half - like butterflying, only all the way!)
2 tbsp pesto
4-8 slices prosciutto (I happened to have some, but you could use bacon as well, I'm sure)


Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a glass baking pan. Trim chicken breasts and pat completely dry. Spread pesto on both sides of each breast. Take 1 slice of prosciutto (or bacon!) and wrap chicken - use more if necessary.


Bake until juices from the chicken are clear and the prosciutto is crispy - about 25 minutes.


Enjoy!

meal plan 11/28-12/4

This turned out (unexpectedly, I might add) to be a no-shopping week. I use a coupon website to track sales, and this week was a "no list week" according to the site this morning. It wouldn't have been a huge problem, except that I threw out my ads on Wednesday, and the ad wasn't available online. So, I scrambled to see what I had in my pantry, freezer, and fridge and came up with the following menu. Hurray for no shopping!

Sunday - Sweet & Spicy Turkey Sandwiches (can't get enough of these!)
Monday - Turkey Pot Pie
Tuesday - fried chicken breasts with baked squash
Wednesday - pasta salad
Thursday - Meatballs & Rice
Friday - Chicken Pesto Skillet
Saturday - Dirty Rice

something different turkey sandwich

Looking for something a little different to do with your leftovers? I found the following recipe on allrecipes.com using the ingredient search - my ingredient being turkey. I wanted to find something different to do with my leftovers besides making a Thanksgiving replica plate and zapping it for 2 minutes in the microwave.

Sweet & Spicy Turkey Sandwich
Ingredients:
2 slices of bread - your choice
butter, softened
leftover turkey
1 slice pepper jack cheese
cranberry or other jelly


Directions:
Butter each slice of bread on one side. Place on slice, buttered side down, on a small skillet on medium heat. Arrange turkey evenly over the slice. Layer with pepper jack cheese. I spread the cranberry jelly on the other side of the next slice of bread and topped off the sandwich and grilled it on the skillet. Allow bread to toast, then flip and toast the other side, until the cheese melts. Enjoy!

The original recipe called for strawberry preserves and has you serving it on the side. I'm sure it would be tasty either way, but I happened to have quite a bit of cranberry jelly leftover from Thanksgiving, so I went ahead and used that instead and spread it right on the sandwich. Yum!!