Our family is growing in many ways... Growing in numbers, knowledge, parenting skills, growing in love, in our faith, growing our culinary skills (if you can call it that), growing without gluten (some of us), growing green...........

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Meal Planning...

So, one of my friends has started posting her weekly menu over on her blog, and I thought it was a great idea. For one, we also make a weekly menu. Secondly, maybe it will get me on the blog a bit more... I've had posts I want to write, but time is not easily found. So, maybe I could at least find time to post our menu. I mean, I already have to work out the menu and write it down, so shouldn't be that much more work. Might keep me motivated to come up with great meal ideas, too, right? Her posts are Meal Plan Monday, but we usually plan ours over the weekend, so my title won't flow as well, I'm sure. ;) I love hearing what others have and getting new ideas from friends, websites, complete strangers, so....feel free to do this, as well, or comment with some of your own meals for the week. Melissa got this idea from a friend of hers that is also posting menus each week...and I already stole a recipe from that person (who of course I do not know) to try soon. ;)

Here's what's on the menu over here this week... Lunches are really what I'm making for Aiden or whoever is home (Camden just tracked back in to school, so lunches have been for him for the past few weeks, too). Camden packs his school lunch (sometime what is planned, leftovers, leftover soups I've made and frozen for his lunches, or his favorite tomato soup and other faves), Ryan packs his work lunch, and I either eat what Aiden is having or have some parts of it and a green smoothie.

Breakfast is either homemade granola, crockpot steel cut oats (Aiden and I like it w/ banana, walnuts, and maple syrup; Camden likes raspberries and honey), or cereal. And fruit. Or smoothies. Fancy, right? Mornings are rushed here. If we want to sit down to eat together (well, Ryan's already at work by the time the rest of us eat), this is what we get...nothing that actually involves cooking this early in the morning. No, sirree...

Snacks for this week - main ones are Granola balls (these have become a staple in our house! Soooo good!) and the latest banana bread I'm trying to perfect. Sour cream banana bread. It is so delicious, but I still need to get the timing and oven temp right - the recipe is off a bit (and uses a loaf size that I do not have). Either way, it is so good. Way more than that, actually. I could just eat the batter, really. And clementines. And green smoothies. And walnuts. Aiden has discovered he loves walnuts! I love that kid.

Monday
Lunch: Blueberry soup, and I already can't remember what went with it...
Dinner: Grilled apple, bacon, and cheddar sandwich with roasted red onion mayo (if you have not tried this sandwich, you are REALLY missing out - please don't use that much bacon and cheese, though. Wow. We use about half of that. Or less.), Veggie chips (I had a green smoothie instead), & fruit.

Tuesday
Lunch: Waldorf Salad (Weelicious is great for finding meal ideas for kids, and this is supposed to be a healthier version of this salad. I've never had the regular version, and we all liked this!), pretzels, cheese. Ryan's been off work due to flooding in his office building from a burst water pipe, so he was home and had his on a wrap w/ spinach and cheese.
Dinner: Chicken parm on angelhair pasta, broccoli, and rolls. Mayo rolls. Oh yum. These things are the fastest things to whip up, with just three ingredients: mayonnaise (we use vegenaise due to the egg allergy), milk, and flour. And they are so yummy. My mom passed the recipe on to me a long time ago, and we make these babies quite often. The chicken parm is from a Once-a-Month cooking site. I didn't think it would be that special b/c the ingredients certainly weren't, but man this stuff is good! I've made chicken parm before, but this tops others I've made. Aiden isn't crazy about it, but he also isn't a huge spaghetti fan (what?!); the rest of us love it. And this past time, I actually did make up the entire recipe and made five meals out of it (plenty to freeze!).

Wednesday
Lunch: Leftover Waldorf salad, fruit, crackers
Dinner: Caramelized salmon with pineapple orange salsa (no link - this one is from a book, but it is yummy...enough so that I'll make it even though it only makes one meal!), sweet potatoes, salad...and corn to please the older child that doesn't like sweet potatoes (which he does still have to try).

Thursday
Lunch: I'll come up with something fabulous...
Dinner: Burgers, baked fries (spice these up w/ some Mrs. Dash or other seasoning, and they are fabulous...you'll have to double or triple the recipe. Trust me.), green smoothies, grapes.

Friday
Lunch: Leftovers from yesterday's fabulous lunch. Need leftovers since we get back from Bible study right in time for lunch.
Dinner: Root Vegetable soup (Mom's recipe - already made and in the freezer), rolls or cornbread (which one depends on how much time I have). We try to make it easy on Fridays because it's our "Family Fun Night," so we need extra time for the fun part..not for cooking and clean-up.

Saturday
Lunch: Any leftovers... Clean out the fridge.
Dinner: Tilapia w/ Thai Curry Almond Rub (oooh..just realized "almond" in that...we found out Ryan's allergic), served over Rice and Beans with pineapple mixed in (easy on the cilantro, if using any at all, brown basmati rice instead of white, and dried black beans previously cooked and frozen instead of canned) - the pineapple and rub on the tilapia really make it! They had that as one of the samples at Whole Foods one day - was one of those times I really wanted to make it right then!

Sunday
Lunch: Not sure yet...probably sandwiches. Exciting.
Dinner: Burritos and all the fixins

Clearly I'm slacking with the lunches this week. I have so many recipes I go to, but I get bored easily and wanted something new this week. Still haven't figured out what we're having a couple days. We'll see...

So, what's on your plate this week?

Next up....I'm hoping to post about night terrors and all the fun they bring. Maybe if I say so, I'll get it written. We'll see.

4 comments:

Becky said...

When I saw the title I thought this might be boring, but WOW I love all the new ideas you just gave me. Our meals are SUPER boring compared to yours. I would love the recipe for blueberry soup! Waldorf salad looks good but celery is not a favorite in our house. I also want to try the sandwiches but no bacon or apples or cheddar in the house right now!

Becky said...

oh and where do you get rice syrup I've been searching for it for a different granola bar recipe but I can't find any!

Daisy @ Our Growing Family said...

Oh, it's not always anything exciting! ;) We have plenty of boring recipes, too. Haha! We do a lot of repeats, but I get bored and try to add new stuff here and there. Ryan would be happy with the same stuff over and over. Not me. ;)

Blueberry soup...I winged it. I have a recipe for strawberry soup and based it on that. I saw some recipes online for blueberry soup, but they all called for extra sugar and cooking, and I wasn't about to do all that. What I did was way more simple and not too sweet.

Strawberry Soup
I don't really measure any of it - not much to it at all, so I just toss whatever in.

1 pint strawberries (we use frozen)
1 cup vanilla yogurt (ours is plain, so I just add in some vanilla)
1 tsp lemon juice
...Combine in blender!

If you're making it w/ strawberries, pair it w/ pb and raisins on either a bagel or bread. The vit C in the strawberries helps w/ the absorption of the iron in the pb/raisins.

For blueberry soup...I just used blueberries, yogurt, and I thikn I added a bit of agave syrup b/c it wasn't all that sweet. Honey would work, too. But I barely added any. It still wasn't all that sweet. My kids must be used to that, though... Aiden had it the other day, and Camden took the rest w/ lunch today and said he really liked it. Aiden drinks his from a cup, too. Makes it a bit less messy. :)

Rice syrup...I get from Whole Foods. I get brown rice syrup. It's not all that cheap, but we don't use it a ton - he loves those granola balls, though! We all do. :) You might be able to find it on amazon if you can't find it at any store there. Most likely just a health food store would have it.

You could probably make the waldorf salad w/out celery. We don't mind it as much in stuff, and Aiden's surprised me at how much he likes it. It goes in the chicken salad I make (took me a while to find a recipe I really like!), and he loves that stuff, so I guess he's gotten used to the celery.

Becky said...

I thought the soup might be that simple. Along the same lines I sometimes give colin strawberry ice cream for breakfast when he is cranky. Just frozen stawberries with enough milk to give it that ice cram feel in the food processor with a splash of agave if necessary. It was a big hit until he started getting brain freezes! I'll try the soup. Just posted something new myself..check it out!