Menu Plan Monday: January 25 to February 1, 2015

Hi everyone and happy Monday! I have lots of reasons to be happy - one of which is because of my annual menu planning, I have absolutely no reason to not have a menu ready to go on Monday morning! I'm hoping to share them more frequently than I have been. Considering I started this a year ago, I sure haven't been writing about it!

Learn more about how menu planning saved me 30% off our annual food budget and how it got me two marriage proposals here.

Here is what will be eaten at our house this week! Enjoy and be sure to check out the Org Junkie for more menu planning ideas!

Monday: Gramma's Homemade Mac & Cheese

Tuesday: Taco Tuesday (o le!)

Wednesday: Beef Stroganoff with rice

Thursday: Hamburger Soup (FREEZER)

Friday: Mom's Ham & Scalloped Potatoes

Saturday: Freezer Left Overs (Easy Ravioli Lasagna & Provolone Penne)

Sunday: Chicken Cordon Bleu, rice  & green beans

Finally, being it's the end of the month, I thought I'd share that this month, I've managed to save 15% on my grocery budget & 28% on our dining out budget! Meal planning really does save!

MPM: A new week

It is Monday morning after a very busy and tiring weekend... TroubleMaker is sick - he`s got a fever and various other symptoms. He must be sick - he napped this morning and he`s eaten nothing yet today!

I am very pleased to announce that the prize Blue Door Interiors created for the Craft Fair was the DOOR PRIZE! I was absolutely stunned and amazed to see it at the door and being able to overhear all the wonderful comments it received during my two hours working the door. Sometimes it is so nice to hear honest and unprompted feedback on your work. No one knew it was my work, of course, and I only told a few of the playschool Mom`s later in the day that I had indeed created it myself. I think the event was a big success for the playschool.

Relieved is the word I'd use to describe my present mode. The "big" events are done and now I can focus on getting my house in order for the upcoming holiday season - and beyond! I have so many plans rolling around in my head, it will be awesome to transform them to reality!

This menu is easier too as I'm "recycling" a couple of dinners that didn't get prepared due to company and last minute menu changes.

November 14 - 20
Monday Gramma's Homemade Macaroni & Cheese
Tuesday Cream of Broccoli and Cauliflower Soup with sandwiches
Wednesday Taco Bake
Thursday Chicken bites with Sweet Chili Sauce, oven fries, sweet peppers & mushroom saute
Friday Waffles (?)
Saturday Ginger Fried Beef, Fried Rice, Stir fry veggies
SundayCrock Pot Sweet & Sour Chicken

Thanks for stopping by and I've linked up with the Org Junkie - check out the more than 250 people playing this week for awesome meal planning inspiration!

Menu Plan Monday - Short week, tasty treat!

The past few weeks have been a bit of a nightmare around house... I've been sick and meals have kind of been a last minute toss together (and yes, they were planned). I don't remember the last time we did a proper grocery shop and I haven't posted my menu (on our fridge) in months.

But with a new season comes renewed fervour to get my act together. This last go-round of being sick has reminded me why health is so important... That and my pants are too snug...

This coming week, however, is not the week I will be starting any diet. My wonderful husband and I are heading out of town for a FABULOUS four day, three night stay in Jasper National Park. We will be celebrating his birthday, our love (I tried to convince him to renew our vows but he wasn't as inspired)and a "kid free" weekend. Although as I type that, it makes me sad to think of spending all that time without my kids (furry or otherwise)! TroubleMaker will be having a fun time with his Memere and will get to spend a day with his Indiana Nana and Great Grampa Jack - his great grandparents have not seen him since he was 12 weeks old! Since Memere and TroubleMaker will be at our house, I want to ensure Memere gets the most of her time with her grandson and doesn't have to worry too much about preparing dinners so I'm taking the liberty of preplanning and preparing some 'ready made' meals for them to enjoy!

September 19 to 25
Monday Taco Casserole
Tuesday Spanish Chicken and Rice
Wednesday Crockpot Meatballs & gravy with Egg Noodles
Thursday Perogies

Friday Jasper Brewing Company
Friday YOYO (you are on your own)

Saturday Evil Dave's
Saturday Chicken Nuggets and French Fries with carrots and summer trees

Sunday North Face Pizza or The L&W Restaurant or Cassio's
Sunday Tortellini with meat sauce - FtF (From the Freezer)

We've got a kitchenette suite at the Best Western Jasper so some of our food will be staged there. Our plan is to do some photography, hiking, sightseeing and visit the Miette Hot Springs. So i will be taking along some basics for us - muffins, fruit, juice, coffee to have "in room". But I really wanted to try some of the other places in Jasper that I've seen 1000 times but never tried... I'm hoping to pick up coffee and pastries one morning at The Bear's Paw and maybe we'll grab a sandwich at Patricia Street Deli. While cruising around looking for places to try, I came across a Jasper based coffee roaster, Rocky Mountain Coffee Roasters! While I know I've purchased and had their coffee, I don't think I knew they were located in Jasper - my favourite place on Earth! So, back to Nutters I'll go and pick up some of their delish beans so I can bring a memory or two home with us!

It's going to be a good week and I'm looking forward to our trip and our time together! I also don't mind the ability to let my eyes do the cooking! Have a great week and thank you so much for stopping by! Take care and be sure to check out the Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday for more great meal ideas and menu planning resources!

MPM # 47

TroubleMaker's Dinosaur Cake - made with love by me, his Mom!

I’m having a difficult time recuperating from the Week of TroubleMaker’s birthday. I just can’t seem to get into my regular groove. It probably doesn’t help that spring has finally arrived in Alberta and the only place I want to be is not inside! We’ve been getting to +7 Celsius during the day and after a long and snowy winter; I’m ready to bare my arms to the sun! We were even discussing the possibility of trying to please the Sun Gods a couple of weeks ago as the sun had seemingly taken a permanent vacation from these parts.

In attempt to “Green” up my menu planning, I started looking for a digital solution that would allow me to plan a month at a time but still give me the flexibility to look at it in weekly sections. My general practice was to use this menu plan I custom created two years ago when I returned to work after my maternity leave. This allowed me to plan breakfast, lunches and dinners a week at a time and create a weekly shopping list that I could take with me to the store so that I could refer back to the menu before checking out and ensure I had everything required for the menu. It has worked great for us. When I do my month, I sit down with four or five copies and plan. This also allows me to bulk shop and hit sales and coordinate it all with our pay cheques.

The problem is that it isn’t very Earth friendly. Although I do write in pencil, I recycle the menu each week with the trash (I could erase and reuse but I need something time efficient too). This practice seems logical but I want a greener option that makes planning easier and still provides me with a menu I can stick up in the kitchen for quick and easy reference. Along with the planner is my spreadsheet of meals with needs updating often (as I try to include one to four new recipes monthly). So here is my needs assessment:

Green
Flexible
Easy
Hard copy-ready

I have looked at various ideas – chalk board, white board, magnetic board but I’ve found faults with each. Chalk dust is an issue for me (both mess and allergy wise), white boards invariable get TroubleMaker giddy with excitement and his hands black with felt and I have a very large repertoire of meals – too many to make a magnetic board with magnetic dinners feasible.

I’m not certain that one specific solution is the answer. I did find many great ‘online’ planners that I can download and use but then there is always the paper print out. Additionally, of the digital planners I tried, I felt they were not flexible enough and too difficult to edit or modify – even with my computer programme saaviness. The answer? Well, I haven’t figured that out yet but I did decide to try and custom create something that will work for me (and hopefully others) that incorporates ease of use with flexibility. No two people cook the same, nor do two people plan the same so I think it be a challenge but definitely worth the attempt!

This week, I muddled through while my husband played the 75th round of “Monster ‘gucks” with TroubleMaker. I rushed through and made a grocery list for them to take on their Shopping Adventure today.

And since I’m writing on Tuesday and not Monday (or Sunday), I can review the Monday night “new recipe” from Monday night. First, I continue to try the recipes from Kraft’s Canada as they are simple and easy. I don’t always like the fact they push their products but I do understand that’s the whole point, but my disappointment doesn’t come from that. It is actually because everything is so bland in taste and they seem to forget key points like adding a little sugar and some Worchester sauce to canned tomatoes in order to temper the acidity. So, as always, I made it as the recipe said and then add my own enhancements to make it palatable.

Just so you know I seasoned my chicken breasts with salt, pepper, basil and oregano (both sides). I also added about a ½ tsp of sugar, 1 tbsp of Worchester sauce and a good amount of the same seasonings I used to season the breasts. I ended up added about a ¼ cup of sour cream too in an attempt to control the heat of the red pepper flakes – I used red chili pepper flakes and it made it a bit too spicy for TroubleMaker. Oh, and added a diced red pepper. We also served it over spaghetti because I don’t care for rigatoni. I used fresh Parmesan, Asiago and Romano blend cheese and some marble cheese (as I was out of mozza).

April 5 to 11
Monday: Chicken Pomodoro
Tuesday: Boston Brutes
Wednesday: Bacon Cheeseburger Roll-upsThursday: Omelets
Friday: Nachos
Saturday: Enchilada Casserole
Sunday: Crock pot roast beef

How do you plan your menu - any tips, tricks or ideas? For more great ideas, check out the Org Junkie’s Menu plan Monday!

MPM #6

We've had a beautiful weekend to end an otherwise dreary week. Our menu this past week was reasonably uninspired but sometimes it's more about just getting us fed than it is an exploration of my culinary abilities! I think the hi-lites of our menu were the Farmer's breakfast and the baked tortellini. I added lots of yummy vegetables to the sauce (zucchini, mushrooms, onions, celery, red & green peppers). And the best is that we froze half of it for supper another night!

The weekend's wonderful weather meant a great coming together of family to celebrate my older brother's 40th birthday. They had a great spread of delicious hamburgers, turkey burgers and hot dogs. My mom made her famous No Bake Cheesecake (I'll get the recipe and post it soon) - I ate 2 and a half pieces! TroubleMaker had tons of fun tearing around my Dad and Step Mom's yard with his cousins - he slept very well last night!

Today was 'do it all' day! After a yummy Hubby cooked (not on the menu) breakfast, I made potato salad and tossed a frozen slab of beef into a marinade. I then baked Hubby's favourite chocolate cake (again, recipe will come soon, I promise). After a quick wash of some dishes and the floor (TroubleMaker has a way of making every surface in the house sticky) I was out to help pull weeds from the lawn Hubby is working to make soft and perfect for Barefoots! ;-)

TroubleMaker is down for a nap and I wanted to share this weeks' menu! As always, links where applicable are shared and underlined recipes are shared below!

Dinners at a Glance
Monday: Tuna Sandwiches and tossed salad
Tuesday: Chicken fingers & fries
Wednesday: Crock pot meatballs over egg noodles
Thursday: Spinach salad with French bread
Friday: Gramma's Baked Mac & Cheese (maybe - I may be going to a fundraiser for Dufashanye Canada! Check them out and support this very worthy cause!
Saturday: Chicken wings & veggies n dip from Barefoot Deliberations MPM 4th Edition
Sunday: Hamburgers & chips

Lunches include cereal bars, yogurt and smoothies and breakfasts are cheese toast, Banana Muffins, PB Toast and hard boiled eggs on English Muffins!

Recipes:

Crock pot Meatballs
Use your favourite meatball recipe (or use prepared meatballs) put in the crock pot RAW (that's right, you don't have to precook your meatballs for this recipe!)!

2 cans mushroom soup
3/4 cup water
1 can mushrooms (if desired)
1 package of Lipton's Onion Soup Mix

Add soups, water, mushrooms and soup mix to crock pot, stir well and then add your meatballs. Turn on low and cook all day. Delicious served over egg noodles!

Gramma's Baked Mac & Cheese
4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp flour
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1-1/2 cups milk
Lots and lots of shredded cheese

2 cups macaroni

1/8 to 1/4 cup butter
1/2 to 2/3 cup bread crumbs

Method:

Boil water for the macaroni. When boiling, add macaroni and cook until desired tenderness is achieved. Meanwhile...

Melt butter and flour in small pot. Allow to bubble for 2 to 3 minutes but do not let brown. Add salt slowly, stirring well. Add milk, small amount at a time stirring well with each addition. Once all added, add mustard and pepper. One may add additional seasonings (such as parsley, garlic, etc) if desired. As it slowly starts to boil, add lots of cheese - the sharper the better. At least 2 cups. I often mix a blend of whatever is in the fridge - cheddar, mozza, etc. Stir after each addition of cheese. Allow to almost boil but continue to stir so it does not stick or burn.

Get another small pot and add about 1/4 cup of butter to it and melt. Then add about 1/2 to 2/3 cup of bread crumbs. Stir until mixed.

Drain macaroni well. Pour cheese sauce over and stir to combine. Pour 1/2 of macaroni with cheese sauce into a casserole dish. Top with 1/2 the buttered crumbs and a small amount of shredded cheese. Top with remaining mac & cheese and add the remaining buttered crumbs and more shredded cheese. Sprinkle with paprika & bake 15 to 20 minutes at 375 F.

Need more inspiration? Check out Org Junkie's MPM!