Weekly Meal Plan [2 meals from one]

How is meal planning coming along for those of you trying to be more consistent with it? Anyone finding my weekly posted meal plans of any help? Any questions?

Monday: Crockpot French Onion Soup

Tuesday: Spaghetti & Meatballs

I like to make enough meatballs so that we have leftovers  to use the following night for Meatball Subs. *Meatball recipe   coming soon!

Wednesday: Meatball Subs

Thursday: Bone-in Chicken Breast on the grill with steam broccoli dressed in butter and parmesan cheese

If you are used to cooking  boneless breast, take note bone-in will take longer to cook, but in my opinion, so worth it! I usually try to remember to throw the breast into a marinade before we leave for work. Sometimes, for the grill, I do a simple one like a can of beer, some spices like smoked paprika, s&p and some cumin....whatever your taste buds like.

Friday: Scrambled Egg Burritos

This is an easy dinner that helps clear out the fridge too! We had mushrooms that needed used, a leek and then we threw in some cheese. Scrambled it all together and I personally like to dab on some hot sauce, then roll it up into a flour tortilla.

Weekly Meal Plan [plan for leftovers!]

This is a pretty easy meal plan for the week, depending on the size of household you plan to feed. We had leftovers available for lunches and for a dinner as well.

Monday: Crockpot Shredded Beef Tacos with Mexican Rice.

The Mexican rice is super easy! Melt 2 tbsp of butter in a dutch ove pot. Stir in a chopped onion, garlic and 1 cup of rice and sautee until it starts to lightly brown. Pour in 2 cups of chicken stock, or water, and one can of diced tomatos, 1 tsp of chili powder and 1 tsp of salt. Bring to a boil, then cover and take down to a simmer. Let it cook for about 15-18 minutes, until rice is tender. Once finished, remove from heat, stire in 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese and some cilantro & enjoy! The best part is, you can change this up to meet your tastes! When peppers are in season in the garden, we like to add those too! And note, you have to use 'regular' rice for this recipe -- quick cooking type rices won't work!

Tuesday: Steak on the grill with Baked Potatos

Wednesday: BBQ Crockpot Western Style Ribs

I am still working on this recipe, but this time around wasn't bad. I mix up my own 'bbq' sauce. Also, for this, I use bone-in western style ribs because, a) they have more meat than a spare rib and b) when cooking in the crock pot for 10-ish hours, bone-in works better with a long cooking time. They don't dry out as fast. If you turn on your crock before you leave for an 8 hour work day, you know you likely don't get to the food it is cooking for at least 10 hours :)

Thursday: Leftovers

We still had plenty of shredded beef left over for some quick soft tacos/burritos as well as some ribs from the night prior.

Friday: Homemade Pizza Night!

This is a handy, quick meal. Make up some of your favorite pizza dough or pick up a dough ball from your local pizza parlor on your way home! If you make your own, usually the recipes call for enough to make 2, so you can freeze one for next Friday :) Our favorite way to do pizza, which happens to be my husband speciality, is to simmer down a can of whole tomatos and a small can of tomato sauce, add our favorite seasonings and then we kick it up a tad with some crushed red pepper, load it with cheese and some mushrooms and cook!

So, what are you cooking for dinner this week?

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Stretching a Meal: Chili

In trying to adapt a 'real food' diet in our home, many challenges present themselves along the way. Lunch can be one of them with both my husband and I working outside the home.  When I make dinner, I try to make things that will leave leftovers for at least me to take to lunch. Here is one meal that will stretch you a few days with pantry staples!

Dinner: Make up your favorite batch of chili & cornbread. Cook a package of spaghetti noodles up too; these will be used with tomorrow's lunch.

Lunch next day: Chili on top of spaghetti noodles, topped with cheese and sour cream for some Cincinnati style chili! I use these small canning jars to carry condiments for my lunch if I don't want to mix them in when I pack it.

Lunch day 2: By now you may have had enough Chili , especially if you stretched it more than a day! Let's completely change things up and move on to something with an Asian flare! Use up the rest of your cooked noodles to make yourself an Asian Noodle Salad for lunch!