Menu Planning Monday

Tons of new recipes this week! Wheee! 

Monday: Skinny Taste Aztec chicken, quinoa, and avocado soup. This is one of favorite soup recipes from the Skinny Taste cookbook. We've made it many times since I got the cookbook and even though the kids are weird about quinoa, I make it anyhow. Because it's delicious. 

Tuesday: Bangin' Good Chicken Salad. This is a newer Skinny Taste recipe from the blog that combines two of her previous recipes: baked chicken nuggets and bangin good shrimp. I plan to feed the kids (and probably Tim) the chicken nuggets and make the salad for myself. 

Wednesday: Lasagna Soup. Yay for another new Skinny Taste recipe. I just checked her blog for the first time in a while and found several recipes that looked good. This one looks really interesting. It's either going to be really awesome or just kind-of so-so. We'll see. 

Thursday: Picadillo quesadillas. I have made Skinny Taste's crock pot picadillo before and it's super easy. This recipe basically takes that and puts it inside a quesadilla. It seems like it will be really tasty and I'm fairly certain I can get the boys to eat it without too much fuss. 

Friday: Slow cooker French dip sandwiches. I am trying hard to use all of the beef we have in the freezer so I found this recipe from Skinny Taste. I have never made it before, but it seems easy and tasty. Tim is really excited about it. 

Saturday: Steak with garlic parmesan fries and roasted broccoli. Again, I'm trying to use up the beef in the freezer and we have a ton of steak in there. Tim is our resident griller so I planned for Saturday since I'm fairly certain he'll be home in time to grill it (not something I can plan for during the work week). These garlic parmesan fries are really yummy so we'll be having my take on steak frites and some broccoli too.

Sunday: I haven't planned anything for Sunday yet. It's the Super Bowl so I kind-of want to make something really unhealthy and fun, but we also have a class at our church in the afternoon so I don't know what time we'll get home from that so we can feed the kids before the game starts. Maybe something in the crock pot? Eating out? We'll see. 

What are you cooking this week?

Menu Planning Monday

     Sorry this is late, but better late than never. We have some yummy recipes to try this week and (big shocker), they're not all from the Skinny Taste cookbook. And making a rare appearance... a dessert recipe. And it's a good one! You gotta make it! If you like chocolate and peanut butter even a little bit. 

Monday: Sweet n' spicy Sriracha-glazed salmon. This recipe is from the Skinny Taste cookbook and not on her blog, but lucky for you, I found the recipe elsewhere on the Internet. We just had this tonight and it was really good and super easy. Just make sure to let the salmon marinate at least an hour before you want to cook it. I served it with stir-fried carrots, onion, broccoli, orange bell pepper, and red cabbage. Owen was a bit picky about it, but Graham scarfed the salmon like I hadn't fed him all day. 

Tuesday: Corny blueberry banana pancakes. This is a Skinny Taste cookbook-only recipe, but she has other pancake recipes on the blog if you're interested. We'll see how these go over since Owen has decided he suddenly does not like blueberries anymore.
Wednesday: Crock pot chicken enchilada soup (except with ground beef instead...because there is a quarter of a cow in my freezer). This is one of our favorite soups and I am interested to see how it will taste with ground beef. We have small group so I'm making this because it's easy. And for dessert.... hold onto your hats, folks... Chocolate and peanut butter lover's brownies. This recipe is from my new Seriously Delish cookbook from Jessica Merchant at How Sweet Eats. It's not on her blog, but I did find the recipe online elsewhere for you to check out. Tim and I made them last week for a work potluck and they.were.amazing. Like, thank goodness he took all but one to work so that I didn't eat the whole pan by myself while hiding in my closet from the children. 

Thursday: Thai chicken lettuce wraps. This is another recipe from my new cookbook that I made last week. It made a ton of extra sauce so I froze half so I could make it again this week. She doesn't have the exact recipe on the blog, but if you use the recipe above and basically substitute chicken for the butternut squash, you'll have what I'm making. It's super yummy. 
Friday: Coconut chicken salad with warm honey mustard vinaigrette. This is an older recipe that I've made several times. It's super quick and yummy. I plan on feeding the kids the chicken strips with baked sweet potato fries and salads for Tim and I. 

Saturday: Chicken fajitas with poblano peppers. Tim and I went to a Mexican restaurant last week for dinner and he had this stuffed poblano peppers dinner except it wasn't a stuffed pepper as much as a stir fry with cut up poblano peppers and it was so yummy. So I decided to try to make it at home. This is basically it, so we'll see. 

Menu Planning Monday

I am going a lot of cooking from the new cookbook that I mentioned last week. I am really excited to try some new recipes (3 out of six). My weeks are running only Monday through Saturday now because I tend to menu plan on Saturdays now so that we can go grocery shopping after church since it's located so close to Kroger and saves me time during the week. So in case you were wondering what we had last Sunday, it was tacos. And this coming Sunday's meal will be planned later this week. 
     Last week, Heather asked how I was able to cook all these meals with two little ones. Honestly, I don't do too much prep ahead of time and I am fortunate that my boys will play independently in Owen's room while I cook for most of the time. And when all else fails, I put on a thirty minute episode of The Wild Kratt's to occupy them while I get whatever prepped and in the oven or on the stove. Soups are good because you just chop everything up quickly and put it in the pot to simmer. I do make double of some recipes so that I can make meals quicker on week days. For instance, this week I am making the chicken parmesan with a doubled recipe of the marina sauce from my freezer and I will be doubling the meatballs for my meatball soup this weekend so that I will have a second set of meatballs ready for if I make that on a weeknight sometime. 

Monday: Thai chicken lettuce wraps. This is a new recipe from the Seriously Delish cookbook. It looks pretty quick and easy, which is important during the week when Tim doesn't get home until six and the kids are running around my feet crying and fighting.

Tuesday: BBQ chicken chili. This is also a recipe from the Seriously Delish cookbook. I first ran into it though on the Skinny Taste blog where the blogger there posted the recipe because she and the author are friends. Tim and I both really liked it and since the weather is so cold lately, it is the perfect time to make chili. 

Wednesday: Chicken parmesan with roasted vegetables. This is a Skinny Taste recipe that is the best chicken parmesan I have ever made at home. It's baked so it's healthier and I make my own marinara sauce as well to cut down on sugar and extra sodium from jarred sauce. We also don't serve it with pasta, but instead with roasted carrots, red onion, broccoli and cauliflower and then top with some shaved parmesan. It's delicious! The husband gives is two thumbs up and even the kiddos like it (though it helps that I told Owen is it actually called pizza chicken, but you do whatever works).

Thursday: Creamy slow cooker chicken noodle soup. This recipe had me at "slow cooker." I am so interested to see how this turns out. It is from the Seriously Delish cookbook and contains all the normal ingredients for chicken noodle soup. Again, it sounds great during all the cold weather we've been having. 

Friday: Lemon herb chicken romano. This is another new recipe from the Seriously Delish cookbook, but you can also find it on her blog How Sweet Eats. I looks really tasty and although not super healthy, we'll be having it with vegetables again and not pasta to save on calories. Plus, my kids won't eat noodles. They're weird like that. 

  

Saturday: Italian meatball soup. This is a Pioneer Woman recipe that I make all the time now because it is Owen's favorite recipe that I make and he asks for it a lot. It has lots of vegetables so how could I say no? If you want the recipe, you can check back on some of my past Menu Planning Monday posts to find it. Odds are you'll find it pretty quickly. 

And that's it for this week! What are you cooking?

Menu planning Monday

At the request of my mom (Hey Mom!), I am bringing back my menu planning post so people can see what I'm cooking for the week and maybe get some ideas for some new recipes to try. You will find links to the recipes and photos for each one. The photos are not mine, but shared from the original source. Enjoy!

Monday: 
On Monday we will be eating Chicken Enchilada Soup. This is one of my go-to recipes from the blog Skinny Taste (if you're new to the blog, you will soon notice that it is my favorite place to find new recipes). It's super delicious and is made in the crock pot. Crock pot meals are awesome for weeknights because Tim gets home from work pretty late because of his new position and the kids seem to always want to go insane at about 5 o'clock. It will be great to not have to try and occupy them while making dinner for one night of the week. 

Tuesday:
On Tuesday we will be having another Skinny Taste favorite - Autumn penne pasta. It is a ridiculously good recipe considering it contains brussels sprouts. The recipe is such a lovely beginning-of-fall meal and perfectly fitting for the first day of fall. Yay!

Wednesday:
On Wednesday we will be meeting at our friends' house for church small group. It is casserole night so I will be bringing Skinny Taste's Chicken and Broccoli Noodle Casserole. I made this for the first time last week and since I still have noodles and parmesan cheese leftover from making it then, I decided to make it again. Plus, it tastes really good. I don't typically make a lot of casseroles, but fall just sort-of seems like a good season for that type of food. I make the recipe basically as it is, except I substituted mozzarella cheese for the cheddar cheese. 

Thursday:
On Thursday we will be eating Italian meatball soup. This is a Pioneer Woman recipe that includes lots of vegetables and it really flavorful and delicious. I have made it a few times before and really like it. This time I bought pre-made meatballs to make life a little easier for me and because they weren't really that much more expensive than buying the ingredients to make them myself. 

Friday:
On Friday we will be eating Spanish Chicken and Rice. This is a Skinny Taste recipe that Tim really likes. It's very comforting and tasty and I really love the green olives in it (Tim refuses to eat those). I make it without beer and use chicken stock instead and I also just put olives on mine and not in the recipe as usual. 

Saturday:
We will be eating Publix's Italian pie for dinner on Saturday. I have been making this recipe for several years now after first having it while at dinner at my Mom's. It has been years since we lived near a Publix (insert sad face), but I still make this recipe. I don't have the bruschetta mix that the recipe calls for, so instead I make my own by combining crushed tomatoes, basil, and garlic in a food processor. I will also be using the leftover pork sausage from the autumn penne pasta earlier in the week with ground beef for the meat part of this meal. We'll eat it with salad. 

Sunday: 
We have a church picnic on Sunday so I am fairly certain we will have our fill there. I am not sure what I will bring, but will decide sometime later this week. Most likely a dessert.