Menu Plan Monday ~ Week 6

This is going to be a shortened week for us, and then we are not going to be posting menu plans for the next two Mondays as we will be in Minnesota, and I will not be planning menus!

Last Week: I have still been plagued by the "I don't want to cook" blues. We managed to get through the week pretty okay though. Budget was pretty good. I am going to up our weekly budget for a little while, just to see if that helps, but other than that - no big issues.

This Week: Only 3 meals on our list this week, and then Kim is on her own. (which will be fine for her, as she has been doing well with my "I don't want to cook" blues) Still working on kicking the Diet Coke habit - man that stuff has it's grips in me pretty good!!

Meals:
Salad Night
BBQ Chicken with mixed veggies.
Turkey Taco Pie

Grocery List:
Surprisingly there isn't anything that springs to mind that we don't have other than tomatoes.
But, I am sure I will think of something...

Don't forget to swing by Organizing Junkie to link up, and check out some other fabulous menu plans!

Menu Plan Monday ~Week 5

Last week: While we stuck to our budget for food, we didn’t stick to the menu plan very well. Even with the days not picked out, I struggled with lack of energy this week. I found that come dinner time I was just not in the mood to cook anything…My other issue with getting dinner done was that I never can remember to pull the meat from the freezer. I am not a fan of defrosting in the microwave.

• Does anyone have some tips on how to overcome this hurdle?
  
• How do you insure you have dinner ready even on the days when you have no energy?
  
• Do you have any simple/easy go to dinner ideas you use when your energy level is zapped?
• What do you do to make yourself remember?

This week: My goal is just to continue to clean out our freezer. My hope is that when I do, I can start freezing some meals so that I don’t always have to be cooking. I am also hoping that as Squishy starts eating more of what we are eating that the not wanting to cook dinner feeling will go away.

Our 4 Meals:

Kim’s Pick

The Pasta Salad from last week’s menu

Balsamic Chicken with Roasted Organic Veggies

Boca “Meatless” Mexican Salad

Grocery List:

(This week I don’t need to buy soda!! Why? My Hubs got me a Soda Stream for my birthday!! – I love that thing!)

Veggies

Snacks

Parmesan Cheese

Fruit

THAT’S IT!!

Budget: $50 (I think we will be okay with that this week)

I look forward to hearing your advice! As always, head over to Organizing Junkie to link up your own meal plan.

Menu Plan Monday ~ Week 4

Last Week Review: Well, I would have stuck to my budget had my sweet tooth not gotten in the way… Yes, that means this past week was a diet fail, but I did manage to get a little bit of exercise in. We went over budget, but not in an awful way. I did decide to make some changes to our meal planning this week.

This week: I will not be planning meals according to days. There has just been too many times where for one reason or another, a meal won’t work for that particular day. This is starting to drive my OCD a little nuts. So we will be trying something new; which is not planning by day, but by week. 4 meals picked out, planned, shopped for, and hopefully 4 meals eaten. The goal of this will be to lose the stress of sticking to a schedule.

(Please excuse the generic “Kim’s Pick” this week, I forgot to sit down with my SIL and plan together which is what we usually do. If Rob was home, he would get a pick too, everything else is meals we both like and agree on)

Our 4 meals for this week:
Kim’s Pick
Italian Chicken Sausage sandwich, with roasted organic onions and peppers
Pasta Salad with organic spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, kalamata olives, pine nuts, chickpeas, and Parmesan cheese
Turkey Tacos

Grocery List:
Pine Nuts
Sun dried tomatoes
Cheese
Tomatoes
Kim’s Pick ingredients
Diet Coke
Applesauce
Cereal
Yogurt
Strawberries for my Strawberry Squishy

"What do you mean we are out of Strawberries?? Mom you should really be more prepared!!" ~The Strawberry Distroyer aka Squishy

Total week Budget - $50

To help me this week, thanks to Organizing Junkie, and Makes and Takes I will be doing my own Wipe-Off Menu Board. I think I will also make another to help me organize my blog posts! This is a super easy project! (Which is right up my craft challenged alley!)

To join in Meal Plan Mondays - head over to Organizing Junkie and link up!

Menu Plan Monday ~ Week 3

Menu Planning Monday (click to link up with Organizing Junkie)

Last Week: Huge fail!! DON’T go to the grocery store hungry!! I doubled my budget! (OUCH!)

Not to mention, we didn’t really stick to our plan, due to a Stomach Flu that hit the house.

This Week’s Goals: Stick to the Budget/List ~ Empty our freezer

Monday:

Leftovers (and soup for those of us who aren’t quite back to normal)

Tuesday:

Lemon Rosemary Chicken

Organic Broccoli

Wednesday:

Greek Quinoa and Avocado Salad (we didn’t get to this one last week…)

Thursday:

Sandwiches (clean out the meat drawer!)

Baked Chips

Crunchy Veggies

Friday:

Leftovers

Saturday:

Cuban Pork Wraps (substituting pork shoulder for the pork loin in my freezer)

Sunday:

Greek Salad with shredded chicken

Grocery List: Fresh Veggies, Fruit, Chips, Tortillas, Salsa, Sodas, Feta, Lettuce

Menu Planning Monday - Week Two

Wow! What a busy week already! I am super excited to announce that I will be participating in this year's Blogmania event!! If you are interested in sponsoring me, please email me and let me know. It is going to be an amazing event!! (Thanks Kim at Chubby Cheeks Thinks for encouraging me to join in! If you aren't already a follower of her blog, make sure you stop by and check it out!!)

In just a few minutes, (okay, well not until the little man goes down for a nap...) I will be posting a new and fabulous giveaway. Don't forget to enter in the EcoMom Giveaway! There are so many super easy ways to get your entries in!

Finally, if you haven't noticed, I have changed the way you comment on this blog, by installing Intense Debate. Please let me know what you think of it! I personally think this is an easier way to comment, and it will allow my to respond more personally to your comments.

Now on to Meal Planning Monday - Week Two

Review of Last week:

While we definitely strayed from the menu plan, I technically didn’t go over my budget for food… I say technically, because really I did, just not at the grocery store. I wasn’t feeling well this weekend and gave into the easiness of ordering pizza. In the future, I would like to have that option in our freezer already so that we don’t break the budget.

(This week’s meal plan consists of some repeat items that we skipped last week.)

Monday

Leftovers

Tuesday

Stir Fry with Veggies (Reserve ½ for Thursday’s meal)

Zucchini, Squash, Mushrooms, Tomatoes, Peppers, Onions, Water Chestnuts

Served with Organic Teriyaki Tofu and Organic Brown Rice

Wednesday

Leftovers

Thursday

Vegetable Primavera

Use ½ of Vegetables from Tuesday’s dinner

Organic Whole Wheat Pasta

Friday

BLTs

Turkey Bacon

Saturday

Greek Quinoa and Avocado Salad

Sunday

Leftovers

Grocery List:

Organic Veggies (see list above)

Organic Spinach/Romaine

Organice Brown Rice

Diet Coke

Organic Apples

Bananas

Avocado

Snacks

Yo Baby

This Weeks Budget: $50, but hopefully we will spend less…

If you love Menu Planning make sure you link up with I'm and Organizing Junkie to participate in your own Menu Planning Monday!

Menu Plan Monday

One of my major goals now that Kellan is starting to eat what we eat is to start meal planning on a regular basis. While my husband is out of the country, I am pretty lucky to have my sister-in-law Kim living with me and doubly lucky because we have very similar tastes in food.

When grocery shopping I have major issues with overspending, in that I don’t always check what I have in the house. I also tend to cook more than we need, and really am not a fan of leftovers.

So when I saw that Laura over at I'm an Organizing Junkie was hosting a menu plan Monday I decided I needed to link up. She offers wonderful tips, and I am hoping it will help me to meet my two main goals in meal planning:

1. Sticking to a list while in the grocery store.
2. Offer my family healthy meals organic meals that fit within our monthly food budget.

I plan on including both my meal plan for the week as well as my grocery list. Here goes nothing!

Meal Plans

Monday
Ranch Turkey Burgers on Sandwich Thins
Offered with tomatoes and cheese
Side(s)
Organic Frozen Mixed Veggies
Sweet Potato Fries

Tuesday
Chef’s Salad
Side(s)
Quinoa and Brown Rice w/seaweed

Wednesday
Leftovers/Fix Your Own Dinner Night

Thursday
Greek Chicken
Side
Lemon Broccoli

Friday
Make your Own Pizza night (using Flat Outs)
Possible toppings
Turkey Pepperoni
Red Peppers
Mozzarella Cheese
Tomato Paste
Olives
Leftover Chicken from Greek night
Feta Cheese

Saturday
Leftovers

Sunday
BLTs
Side(s)
Organic Green Beans (Frozen)
Fresh Fruit Salad


Grocery List
Bacon
Black Olives
Organic Spring Mix Lettuce
Ground Turkey
Tomatoes
Feta Cheese
Flat Outs
Organic Red Pepper
Organic Seasonal Fruit
Bread
Diet Coke/Caffeine Free Diet Coke (I know – it’s a bad habit…)
Soy Yogurt
Almond Milk
Yo Baby Yogurt
Total Weekly Allowance $50

**Everything else on my menu is already at my home.

Wish me luck! I hope we stick to this list!!