This Week's Meal Plan

An already crazy week, and a cold on top of it.

Ugh.....my peanut butter recipe post is put on hold. Again.

In the meantime, here's my hastily pulled together meal plan:

Thursday - Saturday: Visiting my parents, which mean's MOM'S COOKING!!!!

Sunday

• I really hope Rob will find the black bean soup I have hidden in the freezer. Because that sounds delightful. No worries, I'll make more and tell you all about it this time!

Monday

• New Recipe! Beef Stew. For real?! How have I not blogged regular beef stew??
• Bread

Tuesday

• Experiment! Slow Cooker Citrus Chicken
• Rice
• Salad

Wednesday Normally I'd put off leftovers for another day but I'm presenting at a workshop so I need something super easy for my boys.

• Leftovers

Happy planning!!

This Week's Meal Plan

My life is about to get exceptionally wacky in the next few weeks. See, one of the reasons I vanished for several months is I started a home-based business selling clothing. I was doing really well at it actually, but the Powers That Be made the decision to close. So I have until March 15 to wrap up my business and hopefully have enough change set aside to cover the rest of Kieran's preschool costs.

And while I might have quite a few parties and travel plans laid out ahead of me, I'm not going to let that intervene in my time here this time. Because I missed this! I missed my time with you guys! I love sharing my plans and recipes and having a space to indulge my food passions. So I'm sticking with it.

But I might be just a bit spacey in the next few posts. Just an FYI and please forgive me.

Thursday Gavin was sick the other night so I put this dish off. Since I have all the ingredients sitting in my fridge, it HAS to be made tonight.

• Drunken Chicken
• Mashed potatoes
• Salad

Friday Traveling with my boys!

Saturday Enjoying my Mommy-in-law's delicious cooking!

Sunday

• Freezer Find. I've been stocking up again.

Monday

• Teriyaki Meatball Bowls
• Rice

Tuesday

• Leftovers

Wednesday

• Shepherd's Pie. Yes, the potatoes will be dairy free. We're still doing that.
• Bread

Happy planning!!

This Week's Meal Plan

So my 3 year-old got sick last month. We thought it was just a 24-hour bug thing, but it lingered. And lingered. And lingered.

Basically, the poor kid had rotavirus and now cannot have any sort of dairy for several weeks.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to tell dairy-centric child that he cannot have any cheese, milk, or butter??

It's certainly making me think a little more creatively when it comes to meal planning. Please note that any dish you see below that seems to call for milk or butter, I will be using a dairy-free option.

Thursday

• Snack Night. This usually involves an assortment of snackable goodies like crackers or bread, cheese (PB or or some assorted nuts for Kieran), fresh fruit, veggies & hummus, etc. I like doing this sometimes in place of pizza for movie night.

Friday

• Pizza, cheese-less for Kieran. Thankfully, my preferred pizza crust is dairy free.
• Popcorn. I'll scoop some aside to put some kind of topping other than butter on it.

Saturday

• Ham and Lentil Soup
• Experiment! Beer Bread

Sunday

• Sandwiches. I have a thing starting around dinner time so I think I'll give Rob and break and make dinner really simple for him. Especially since he's working all weekend.
• Chips or fresh veggies

Monday

• Experiment! Pork Tenderloins with Orange Blossom Honey Mustard
• Rice. I might play with adding toasted pecans and raisins to it.
• Steamed veggies

Tuesday

• Drunken Chicken
• Mashed potatoes
• Tossed salad

Wednesday

• Leftovers

Happy planning!!

Happy 2015!

I'm BACK!

I know, I know...I've been gone a while. And I have reasons and apologies and explanations for it all. And I will explain myself, but not today. Today is about getting my feel for blogging again. For easing myself back into this.

And for me, it doesn't get much easier than a meal plan. ;)

Plus I got four food-related books for Christmas: one on home-preserving (oh just you WAIT until I get going on that one! EXCITED!!!), one on herbs & spices (eeeeee!!), and two cookbooks.

It's like my family knows me or something. ;)

Thursday. I think I've alluded to this before, or maybe I've outright said it, but I've been away so it's ok if I forget stuff. But let me make this abundantly clear now: Thursdays are always incredibly exhausting, draining days for me. Always. So my meals will almost always be in the realm of CRAZYSIMPLEEASY. And usually accompanied by alcohol.

• Soup. I have many cartons of soup in my freezer. One of them will be tonight's lucky winner!
• Bread. Because the dough is already made up.

Friday

• Pizza
• Buttered Popcorn. Psst! Want to know the secret to good, buttered popcorn? Melt your butter in a small pan and keep it going until the crackles and pops stop. Keep it going another minute or so to brown and then turn it off. Now you have brown butter to pour over your freshly popped corn and it won't make it soggy (because you just cooked the water out). Salt to taste. WARNING: once you start eating popcorn this way, there's no going back to microwave. It's too divine.

Saturday

• Lasagna. It's time for my annual Stock the Freezer with Lasagna Day! I've been out of this tasty dish for a couple months at least. Unacceptable.
• Fresh greens with a balsamic fig and blood orange vinaigrette.
• Some kind of bread. Garlic bread if my boys are nice to me.

Sunday

• Chicken Azteca. I have a busy afternoon and may not get home until just about dinner time. Slow cooker meals are ESSENTIAL for this kind of day.
• Rice

Monday

• Leftovers

Tuesday

• Experiment! Herb-Brined Pork Chops
• Experiment! Cheesy Orzo with Broccoli

Wednesday

• Experiment! Chicken Breasts with Lemon, Garlic, and Rosemary
• Baked potatoes
• Experiment! Glazed Baby Carrots

Happy planning!! I MISSED YOU GUYS!!!!!!!!!!