to do

my task list for tomorrow:

menu plan

decorating plan

Menu Plan Monday...Aug 31

Monday - spiedies (grilled chicken) and acorn squash from my garden!! :-D They're little but still exciting!

Tuesday - French dip sandwiches au jus! These are so yummy! When I made this previously, with a 1 lb roast, I cut the juice in half and made a few tweaks: 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 Worcestershire sauce, 1 can beef broth (french onion flavored), 2 cups water. Spices: ~3 cloves garlic, almost 1.5 tsp dried rosemary, a couple dashes of dried thyme, approx 2 bay leaves. Added a few small sprigs of fresh thyme.

Wednesday - not sure yet

Thursday - not sure yet

Friday - not sure yet

Menu Plan Monday...Aug 24

Here are my ideas for the week, I just don't know yet when we're gonna need/use them. This week is feeling like it's gonna be crazy!

Monday - Chicken parmesean

Tues/Weds/Thurs/Fri - not sure what's needed yet, but probably only 2 out of these 4 days.

Grilled Beef Skewers

and Mexican crock-pot chicken that I didn't get to last week

Saturday & Sunday - leftovers? Maybe I'll make a pot of chili one day this weekend...

Menu Plan Monday...Aug 17...crockpot week

Cooking all four of these recipes in the crock pot this week!

Monday - Italian Meat Loaf with Fresh Basil and Provolone

Got this ready last night, lined my crock pot with aluminum foil, and it's gonna be baking in the crock pot all day today!

Tuesday - Slow-Cooker Orange Chicken with Potatoes

Wednesday - leftovers

Thursday - Yam Nuea Yang (Spicy Beef Salad)

For this, I'm just going to use a roast (top round) and throw everything in the crock pot together, and shred the roast when it's done.

Friday - Mexican Crock-Pot Chicken

Saturday - going to a cookout/party...taking burgers

Menu Plan Monday...Aug 10

I had this weeks menus ready last week! Yay for planning ahead!

I sorta cheated though (:-P), and used myrecipes.com's 1 list, 5 meals...they plan out 5 meals for you and give you a shopping list of everything you'll need for those 5 meals. I'm surprised I found one that my sorta-picky hubby and I would both enjoy all 5 of them, with only a few tweaks! So here's what I have for the week... actually starting Sunday this week...

Sunday - homemade chicken fingers with arugula and sun-dried tomato vinaigrette

Monday - Risotto with Italian Sausage, Caramelized Onions, and Bitter Greens

Tuesday - subs from Wawa

Wednesday - need it to be ready right when we get home so i'm making Orange-Apricot Pork Chops in the crockpot

Thursday - Italian Meat Loaf with Fresh Basil and Provolone

Friday - Herbed Chicken Parmesan

Saturday - leftovers

hooray! another week under my belt!

Menu Plan Monday... July 27th

I think I'm getting better at this menu planning thing. I definitely feel better during the week if I don't have to worry about what we're gonna eat!

And I'm just starting to feel like maybe a habit is forming! Which would be great :)

Monday - Irish Stew - I tweak it a little... I add approx 4 diced potatoes, 1/4 t celery salt, 6 oz tomato paste, 2-3 cloves garlic, 2 bay leaves, a couple dashes of paprika, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tablespoon worcestershire sauces, 3 cups beef broth, and a green pepper if I have it...just throw it all in the crock pot together. I don't cut up the meat, just let it cook all day and then shred it.

Tuesday - softball game...we'll throw in a frozen pizza to eat quick beforehand

Wednesday - dinner @ friends' house...I'll just need to do either salad or dessert to go along with dinner.

Thursday - Lime chicken tacos - this meat is really good...we'll probably use it for hard tacos this time, but we've also cooked it before and eaten it with soft tacos and quesadillas.

Friday - need a fairly quick idea for today too...maybe we'll have leftover meat from last night to make quesadillas with!

Saturday - my brother is moving to a new apartment so my family will be in town. We'll probably be able to talk them into taking us out to eat somewhere :)

Menu Plan Monday...

I've missed a couple weeks posting my menu plan...some of the weeks I've had a plan in my head, and some I didn't think about it at all. So I'm gonna try again this week.

My hubby is out of town most of the week, so that makes it a little trickier for me to eat right. I don't do too well cooking for just me! I may just see what leftovers are in the fridge, they need used up anyway!

Tonight - I want to make some quacamole cuz I never have, and hubby doesn't like it, so it's the perfect time to try it. That will probably end up being my dinner, guacamole and tortilla chips.

Tuesday - I'm going to our church softball game, so something fairly quick to eat... I do have some pasta sauce that needs eaten, so maybe I'll make some pasta and try to finish up the sauce.

Wednesday - taking dinner to a friend's house...I'll make Crock-pot cream cheese chicken with pasta... http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/05/crockpot-cream-cheese-chicken-recipe.html ... love this recipe!!

Thursday - leftovers from last night if there are any...

Friday - have the day off, and I think we might be having company come today...so I need to figure out something to make.

Maybe I'll borrow an idea from IAOJ (http://orgjunkie.com/) http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/main-courses/heathers-chicken-bruschetta-pasta/?print=1

or maybe this ? Upside-down deep dish pizza with spinach instead of broccoli... http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Ragu-Upside-Down-Deep-Dish-Pizza/Detail.aspx?ms=1&prop25=20755871&prop26=DailyDish&prop27=2009-07-20&prop28=RecipeOption&prop29=FullRecipe&me=1

Saturday - Company...maybe we'll just go out for dinner?

... I sure do eat a lot of pasta!