Fat Chick Fed Up

Menu plan, Week of April 30-May 5 

Good Monday morning everyone! I hope that your May is off to a great start. Mine sure has been…interesting. That might be putting it mildly. Last week was a very busy and exciting week around these parts and I’ll be writing more about it later in the week in a “life update” kind of post.

For now, though, things are pretty calm in our household. I got up early today and my boys are still sleeping making for a very quiet, relaxing morning. It’s a great atmosphere for menu planning! So let’s get to it, shall we?

Monday:

• Breakfast: Steel-cut oats
• Lunch: Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, ants-on-a-log, apples
• Dinner: Chicken pot pie (leftover from Sunday), roasted cauliflower, quinoa

Tuesday:

• Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, green smoothies
• Lunch: Grilled cheese, apples, kale chips
• Dinner:  Turkey burgers, roasted broccoli, seasoned baked potato wedges

Prep for Wednesday: Mix-up pancake batter

Wednesday:

• Breakfast: Healthy, Hearty, Whole Grain and Nut Pancakes
• Snack: almonds, green smoothies (we usually eat our pancakes a little later in the morning and then just have a snacky type of lunch since they are so filling, and then an earlier dinner)
• Dinner: Cilantro Thai chicken (I made this last week and the kids and I loved it so much and it was so quick and easy I decided it deserves a repeat on the menu-that and I still have some cilantro I need to use up), salad, cilantro lime cauliflower “rice” (look for this recipe later in the week-my knock-off version of Chipotle’s rice)  

Thursday:

• Breakfast: Homemade peanut butter granola with milk/yogurt
• Lunch: Egg “McMuffins”, fruit
• Dinner:   Broiled fish, salad, roasted brussel sprouts (I have perfected my technique on this new-to-me veggie and OH. MY. WORD. They are like crack. Who knew I could develop a healthy addiction in the place of an unhealthy one? Seriously, I find myself hoping the kids don’t ask for seconds so I can have them! I used to only reserve that behavior for brownies!)Prep for Friday: make up pizza dough, make sausage for pizza from ground turkey

Friday:

• Breakfast: Homemade granola with milk or yogurt
• Lunch: Smashed chickpea and avocado salad sandwiches, Zucchini boats, fruit
• Dinner: Pizza night! Homemade, of course.

Prep for Saturday: Make batter for Green Monster Muffins

Saturday:

• Breakfast: Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Squares (trying a new recipe this week!)
• Lunch: Jicama something-or-other (I love picking up random veggies and fruits I have never tried before when I am at the grocery and I got one of these last week and have no idea what to do with it-give me some suggestions!), roasted chickpeas, peanut butter and jelly
• Dinner: Leftover pizza

Sunday:

• Breakfast:  Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Squares
• Lunch:  Egg McMuffins (homemade), fruit
• Dinner: Whole-wheat spaghetti with home-canned tomato sauce, turkey meatballs, homemade garlic bread, salad (If I have to cook on Mother’s Day, I’m making it easy!)

What’s on your menu this week?

I am joining the Menu-Plan Monday link-up at Orgjunkie.com this week. Head on over to get some more great inspiration for your meal-time madness.

Have you ever tried jicama before? Do you have any great recipes using jicama?

And as always, I am happy to post recipes for anything I have not already linked to, just let me know in the comments!

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Menu plan, Week of April 30-May 5 

Wow, hello May! You just snuck right up on me. I sure hope you are bringing some sunshine and warmer weather with you!

We have a rather uneventful week planned this week. At least for us, compared to what life has been like of late, our schedule looks to be pretty mundane. Which I am totally cool with. We could use a little boring around here.

You know what’s not boring though? This week’s menu! I’m trying a couple of new recipes I found on Pinterest (Um, hello?!?! You should be following me over there!). I hope to be spending lots of time in my kitchen this week. We are trying really hard to pinch pennies wherever we can and that, for us, always means more time in the kitchen since our food budget is something that we can easily go overboard on. I don’t mind though because I love to cook. Hopefully, I’ll find a few keepers in this week’s recipes.

Monday:

• Breakfast: Steel-cut oats (eggs for me-trying to limit my carbs)
• Lunch: Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, ants-on-a-log, apples
• Dinner: BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, salad, roasted broccoli

Prep for Tuesday: thaw chicken breast

Tuesday:

• Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, green smoothies
• Lunch: Grilled cheese, apples, sliced veggies
• Dinner:  Cilantro Thai chicken, salad, roasted asparagus

Prep for Wednesday: Mix-up pancake batter

Wednesday:

• Breakfast: Healthy, Hearty, Whole Grain and Nut Pancakes
• Snack: almonds, green smoothies (we usually eat our pancakes a little later in the morning and then just have a snacky type of lunch since they are so filling, and then an earlier dinner)
• Dinner: Chicken pot pie (a holdover from last week-I didn’t make it because I totally forgot we had a wedding to attend), salad, roasted cauliflower

Prep for Thursday: Make granola

Thursday:

• Breakfast: Homemade peanut butter granola with milk/yogurt (3-egg omelet for me)
• Lunch: Egg salad sandwiches, fruit
• Dinner:   Leftovers

Prep for Friday: make up pizza dough, thaw ground turkey for pizza

Friday:

• Breakfast: Homemade granola with milk or yogurt
• Lunch: Zucchini boats, fruit, leftover pork BBQ
• Dinner: Pizza night! Homemade, of course.

Prep for Saturday: Make batter for Green Monster Muffins

Saturday:

• Breakfast: Green Monster Muffins
• Lunch: Out (we will be out of town for my kids’ Bible quiz meet)
• Dinner: Leftover pizza

Sunday:

• Breakfast:  Green monster muffins
• Lunch:  Egg McMuffins (homemade), fruit
• Dinner: Broiled fish, roasted broccoli, salad

What’s on your menu this week?

I am joining the Menu-Plan Monday link-up at Orgjunkie.com this week. Head on over to get some more great inspiration for your meal-time madness.

And as always, I am happy to post recipes for anything I have not already linked to, just let me know in the comments!

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Menu plan, Week of April 23-April 29

I feel like I just wrote a post saying how fast March went and here we are closing in on May. My goodness!

After the good news we received last week, The Chick Magnet and I needed to re-work our budget again to enable us to save every last penny possible now that our move seems like it will be happening sooner than we thought. Because of this you will see lots of leftovers on our menu as I try to stretch our grocery budget as far as possible.

I shared on Facebook the other day that I spent $112 on our groceries for the next two weeks (for our family of five-The Chick Magnet obviously has his own grocery budget, but if he were here I would have spent exactly the same for our family of 6). That included new sheets for my bed AND a trip to the Farmer’s Market (and not one coupon was used)!

I will be sharing tomorrow the details of our shopping trips, along with pictures of everything I got from the store this week and my best tips for saving on groceries! Be sure to come back tomorrow. I hope to prove to you that it IS possible to eat healthy on a tight budget!

Here’s what we’re eating this week!

Monday:

• Breakfast: Steel-cut oats (eggs for me-trying to limit my carbs)
• Lunch: Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, ants-on-a-log, fresh pineapple
• Dinner: Pork carnitas, cilantro lime rice (I’m going to attempt to make this with cauliflower instead of rice)

Tuesday:

• Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, green smoothies
• Lunch: Grown-Up Grilled Cheese , apples, sliced carrots
• Dinner:  Spaghetti with home-canned tomato sauce, homemade garlic bread, salad

Prep for Wednesday: Mix-up pancake batter

Wednesday:

• Breakfast: Healthy, Hearty, Whole Grain and Nut Pancakes
• Snack: almonds, green smoothies (we usually eat our pancakes a little later in the morning and then just have a snacky type of lunch since they are so filling, and then an earlier dinner)
• Dinner: Leftover spaghetti & salad

Prep for Thursday: Make granola

Thursday:

• Breakfast: Homemade peanut butter, chocolate chip granola with milk/yogurt (3-egg omelet for me)
• Lunch: Egg salad sandwiches (a request from my daughter), fruit
• Dinner:   Chicken pot pie, salad, quinoa

Prep for Friday: make up pizza dough, thaw ground turkey for pizza

Friday:

• Breakfast: Homemade granola with milk or yogurt
• Lunch: Zucchini boats, fruit, sliced avocado
• Dinner: Pizza night! Homemade, of course.

Prep for Saturday: Make batter for Green Monster Muffins

Saturday:

• Breakfast: Green Monster Muffins
• Lunch: Scrambled eggs, fruit
• Dinner: Leftover pizza

Sunday:

• Breakfast:  Whole Wheat Banana Nut Bread (made a couple of loaves last week so all I have to do is pull this out of the freezer-quick meal the kids can get for themselves during the pre-church rush)
• Lunch:  Egg McMuffins (homemade), fruit
• Dinner: Leftover chicken pot pie

What’s on your menu this week?

I am joining the Menu-Plan Monday link-up at Orgjunkie.com this week. Head on over to get some more great inspiration for your meal-time madness.

And as always, I am happy to post recipes for anything I have not already linked to, just let me know in the comments!

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Menu plan, Week of April 9-April 15

 Good Monday morning everyone! I hope that you all had a restful Easter weekend and were able to spend time with your families. The Chick Magnet flew in Saturday morning and he gets to stay until the 18th so we are happy people around here! We have lots of special events happening this week. Tonight I get to go to Mom’s Night Out with a few girlfriends, Wednesday I am getting my hair done, Thursday my son is having surgery (nothing major, but this mama still worries-prayers appreciated!), then we are having our family pictures done, Saturday my kids have their BIG district Bible quiz meet (so that means lots and lots of studying this week), and Sunday my 7 year old is being baptized and we are celebrating the baby’s second birthday (he turns two on the 16th). Good times! I hope that you all have a wonderful week!

Here’s what we’re eating this week!

Monday:

• Breakfast: Steel-cut oats (eggs for me-trying to limit my carbs)
• Lunch: peanut butter and banana roll-ups, ants-on-a-log, strawberries
• Dinner: Chicken and noodles (these are leftover from our Easter meal-of course I will be eating out with friends. I will eat as healthy as possible-PROMISE! )

Prep for Tuesday: Thaw bread

Tuesday:

• Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, green smoothies
• Lunch: Grown-Up Grilled Cheese , apples, sliced carrots
• Dinner:  Limehouse chicken, baked sweet potatoes, spinach casserole, salad (got some lettuce at the first Farmer’s Market on Saturday!)

Prep for Wednesday: Mix-up pancake batter, soak beans

Wednesday:

• Breakfast: Healthy, Hearty, Whole Grain and Nut Pancakes
• Snack: almonds, green smoothies (we usually eat our pancakes a little later in the morning and then just have a snacky type of lunch since they are so filling, and then an earlier dinner)
• Dinner: Ham and bean soup (my grandma gave me the ham hock from our Easter ham-I love making this soup because it is SO good and healthy and makes so much that we can eat on it a few days-but it usually only happens once a year, after Easter lol!), salad, corn bread

Prep for Thursday: Make granola

Thursday:

• Breakfast: Homemade peanut butter, chocolate chip granola with milk/yogurt (3-egg omelets for The Chick Magnet and me)
• Lunch: Egg salad sandwiches (a request from my daughter), fresh pineapple
• Dinner:   Leftover soup, salad and corn bread

Prep for Friday: make up pizza dough, thaw ground turkey for pizza

Friday:

• Breakfast: Homemade granola with milk or yogurt
• Lunch: Zucchini boats, cottage cheese, sliced avocado
• Dinner: Pizza night! Homemade, of course.

Prep for Saturday: Make batter for Green Monster Muffins

Saturday:

• Breakfast: Green Monster Muffins
• Lunch: Out (we will be out of town all afternoon for the kids’ Bible quiz meet)
• Dinner: Leftover pizza

Sunday:

• Breakfast:  Green Monster Muffins
• Lunch:  Baptism celebration at church
• Dinner: Out with family for the birthday boy

Snacks:

• Granola Energy Balls
• Five Ingredient Peanut Butter Granola Bars
• Baked Apple Rings (Slice apples, sprinkle with cinnamon, bake)
• Baked Zucchini Chips
• Healthy Oatmeal Chocolate Peanut Butter No-Bake Bars

What’s on your menu this week?

I am joining the Menu-Plan Monday link-up at Orgjunkie.com this week. Head on over to get some more great inspiration for your meal-time madness.

And as always, I am happy to post recipes for anything I have not already linked to, just let me know in the comments!

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Menu plan, Week of April 2-April 8

Happy April everyone! Did you fall for any April Fool’s jokes yesterday? A couple of years ago a sent everyone a picture of a positive pregnancy test and had everyone going that I was pregnant. Then I felt bad for tricking everyone lol! I’m a horrible liar which I suppose is a good thing. That was a good one though.

Here’s what we’re eating this week!

Monday:

• Breakfast: Steel-cut oats
• Lunch: peanut butter and banana roll-ups, ants-on-a-log, pears
• Dinner: Chicken salad sandwiches, lettuce salad, fruit

Tuesday:

• Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, green smoothies
• Lunch: Grown-Up Grilled Cheese (last week I added a thin slice of ham and a smear of french dressing, in addition to the spinach and avocado for a yummy melt), apples, sliced carrots
• Dinner:   Whole wheat pasta with veggies (spinach, tomatoes, zucchini, basil)

Prep for Wednesday: Mix-up pancake batter

Wednesday: 

• Breakfast: Healthy, Hearty, Whole Grain and Nut Pancakes (we’ve been adding overripe bananas, mini chocolate chips and peanut butter to the batter lately-SO good!)
• Snack: almonds, green smoothies
• Dinner: Dinner at friend’s (birthday party for a family friend)

Prep for Thursday: Make granola

Thursday:

• Breakfast: Homemade granola with milk/yogurt
• Lunch: Egg McMuffins, fruit 
• Dinner:   Leftover pasta with vegetables

Prep for Friday: make up pizza dough, thaw ground turkey for pizza

Friday:

• Breakfast: Homemade granola with milk or yogurt
• Lunch: Zucchini boats, cottage cheese, fruit
• Dinner: Pizza night! Homemade, of course.

Prep for Saturday: Make batter for Green Monster Muffins

Saturday:

• Breakfast: Green Monster Muffins
• Lunch: Out
• Dinner: Leftover pizza

Sunday:

• Breakfast:  Green Monster Muffins
• Lunch/Dinner:  Easter dinner with family

Snacks:

• Granola Energy Balls
• Five Ingredient Peanut Butter Granola Bars
• Baked Apple Rings (Slice apples, sprinkle with cinnamon, bake)
• Baked Zucchini Chips
• Healthy Oatmeal Chocolate Peanut Butter No-Bake Bars

What’s on your menu this week?

I am joining the Menu-Plan Monday link-up at Orgjunkie.com this week. Head on over to get some more great inspiration for your meal-time madness.

And as always, I am happy to post recipes for anything I have not already linked to, just let me know in the comments!

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Menu plan, Week of March 26-April 1

April 1, y’all!!! Did anyone else’s March just fly by? I think it must be this beautiful weather we’ve been having. We’ve been taking full advantage and spending as much time outside as possible. April looks to be just as adventurous for us as we have lots of things keeping us busy and lots of big decisions to make. Unfortunately, we are NOT going to busy with moving as we had originally thought.

You will notice that a lot of my meals are repeats from last week. That is due in part to 1) lack of quality planning on my part and 2) having more leftovers than anticipated.  The nice thing about repeating meals for me is that I already have most of the ingredients. Taking 4 kids with me to the grocery is always an adventure so I’m always thankful when I don’t have a ton of things to get.

You will notice that I have added notes to the end of each day’s menu to help me with the following day. I realized last week that as my daughter asked what we were having for lunch one day, and I had to consult my blog to figure it out, that maybe I need to be a bit more organized. I am hoping to do as much breakfast prep the night before as possible so that I have time to get in a morning workout before the breakfast madness starts. This way I can just direct the kids to what we are having and they can get it themselves for the most part if I am otherwise occupied on the treadmill. My 9 year-old is prettyself-sufficint in the kitchen so I am hoping to ease a bit of my stress this way. I’ll let you know next week how it went!

So, without further ado, this week’s menu plan:

Monday:

• Breakfast: Steel-cut oats
• Lunch: peanut butter and banana roll-ups, ants-on-a-log, pears
• Dinner: Ranch House Crock Pot pork chops (without the mashed potatoes, WITH homemade ranch seasoning), baked sweet potatoes, quinoa

Prep for Tuesday: make bread, make green smoothies and mix up scrambled eggs

Tuesday:

• Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, green smoothies
• Lunch: Grown-Up Grilled Cheese (I’m going to keep playing with this sandwich and trying different variations), apples, sliced carrots
• Dinner:   Crock Pot Potato Soup, salad, bread and butter

Prep for Wednesday: Mix-up pancake batter, make green smoothies

Wednesday: 

• Breakfast: Healthy, Hearty, Whole Grain and Nut Pancakes 
• Snack: almonds, green smoothies
• Dinner: Leftover soup and salad

Prep for Thursday: Make granola, thaw ground turkey

Thursday:

• Breakfast: Homemade granola with milk/yogurt
• Lunch: Egg McMuffins, fruit 
• Dinner:   Taco Salad (Shh! Don’t tell The Chick Magnet, this is one of his favorites! He’ll be so jealous!)

Prep for Friday: make up pizza dough (I hope to make up a few batches and freeze some), thaw chicken for pizza

Friday:

• Breakfast: Homemade granola with milk or yogurt
• Lunch: Zucchini boats, cottage cheese, fruit
• Dinner: Pizza night! Homemade, of course.

Prep for Saturday: Make batter for Green Monster Muffins

Saturday:

• Breakfast: Green Monster Muffins
• Lunch: Leftovers from the week’s meals (usually, by the end of the week we have enough leftovers to throw together a complete, albeit hodge-podge, meal)
• Dinner: Leftover pizza

Prep for Sunday: Thaw ground beef

Sunday:

• Breakfast:  Green Monster Muffins
• Lunch: Out 
• Dinner: Burgers, salad, seasoned baked potato wedges

Snacks:

I haven’t been doing very well at all at making up snacks like I want to. Generally if the kids are hungry in between meals I will send them in search of a piece of fruit. Which definitely works and is a healthy option. I just would like to give them other options. So I am hoping I can take some time this afternoon between music lessons, grocery shopping and walking on the treadmill to pre-make some of these snacks for the week and then they will just be on hand for the kids when they need them. What can I say? I’m ambitious! Or crazy. Take your pick!

• Granola Energy Balls
• Five Ingredient Peanut Butter Granola Bars
• Baked Apple Rings (Slice apples, sprinkle with cinnamon, bake)
• Baked Zucchini Chips
• Healthy Oatmeal Chocolate Peanut Butter No-Bake Bars

What’s on your menu this week?

I am joining the Menu-Plan Monday link-up at Orgjunkie.com this week. Head on over to get some more great inspiration for your meal-time madness.

And as always, I am happy to post recipes for anything I have not already linked to, just let me know in the comments!

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Menu plan, Week of March 19-March 25 

Happy Monday everyone! So sorry I haven’t posted a menu in a couple of weeks. Having my hubby home really threw all semblance of routine out the window. He’s such a bad influence!

Not really, it’s really all my fault. I am interested to see how all of this plays out once we get to Florida as our routines and schedule will be changing drastically.

Family meal time has always been really important to me. We have always eaten dinner together as a family every night, no matter what The Chick Magnet’s work schedule was. We got some criticism from family members a few times because there was a time when it meant we were eating late and our kids were staying up later than the average kid because he worked so late in the evening. But it was just that important to us.

Now, though, for the first time in our marriage he is working a second shift. He will not be home from work until about 11 pm most nights, so I am not sure how we are going to work our meal schedule. A big breakfast all together every day? Making lunch into our “dinner” and having more simple dinners while he is working? Keeping things as they are and re-heating a plate for Daddy when he gets home?

Anyway, lots of major changes coming up VERY soon for us. I can still hardly believe it. But at least for now, and the next few weeks, I can try to build some semblance of routine and order in our lives before it gets all shook up again. I’m a creature of habit so any sort of change is hard for me. A change like this? May as well cart me off to the looney bin right now!

Here is this week’s menu-hopefully it reflects that still a bit of my sanity remains!

Monday:

• Breakfast: Crockpot Apple Oatmeal
• Lunch: Crock pot potato soup (leftover from Sunday), fruit
• Dinner: Limehouse chicken (on request from my daughter), steamed broccoli, salad 

Tuesday:

• Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, green smoothies
• Lunch: grilled cheese, fruit, sliced carrots
• Dinner:  Roasted Salmon with Strawberry-Balsamic Reduction (are you drooling yet?), Super Salad (This salad was so simple and yummy when I made it a few weeks ago)

Wednesday: 

• Breakfast: Healthy, Hearty, Whole Grain and Nut Pancakes (last week I made these with banana, mini chocolate chips and natural peanut butter mixed in-the kids said they tasted like heaven!)
• Snack: almonds, green smoothies
• Dinner: Taco Salad (Shh! Don’t tell The Chick Magnet, this is one of his favorites! He’ll be so jealous!)

Thursday:

• Breakfast: Homemade granola with milk/yogurt
• Lunch: Egg McMuffins, fruit 
• Dinner:   Ranch House Crock Pot pork chops (without the mashed potatoes, WITH homemade ranch seasoning), baked sweet potatoes, quinoa

Friday:

• Breakfast: Homemade granola with milk or yogurt
• Lunch: Zucchini boats, cottage cheese, fruit
• Dinner: Pizza night! Homemade, of course.

Saturday:

• Breakfast: Green Monster Muffins
• Lunch: Out
• Dinner: Leftover pizza

Sunday:

• Breakfast:  Green Monster Muffins
• Lunch: Out (We traditionally go out after church on Sunday-lately Chipotle has been a favorite because they just opened up a new location close to our church and they have plenty of healthy options. I LOVE Chipotle!)
• Dinner: Burgers, salad, Italian risotto

Snacks:

This is a new feature I am wanting to add so I can have a better plan for easy grab-and-go snacks. I don’t buy processed snacks like chips, cookies, crackers or fruit snacks. But I have to admit, those things are nice for convenience sake when we are in a hurry or when the kids are hungry and I’m otherwise occupied. I also like to keep a few of these types of things on hand in my diaper bag in case of a hunger emergency.

• Granola Energy Balls
• Five Ingredient Peanut Butter Granola Bars
• Baked Apple Rings (Slice apples, sprinkle with cinnamon, bake)
• Kale Chips

What’s on your menu this week?

Do any of you work second shift or have a hubby who does? How do YOU handle mealtimes at your house?

I am joining the Menu-Plan Monday link-up at Orgjunkie.com this week. Head on over to get some more great inspiration for your meal-time madness.

And as always, I am happy to post recipes for anything I have not already linked to, just let me know in the comments!

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Menu plan, Week of February 27-March 4

 Woah! March already, y’all! Can you believe it? I am super excited because we’ve got lots going on in our home this week. Friday night we are celebrating my boy’s 7th birthday (birthday is actually next Wednesday) with a sleepover (yes, I AM crazy, thank you very much) and Saturday The Chick Magnet is coming home!!!!!!!! We haven’t seen him since Christmas and I can’t contain my excitement.

The best part about all of that, though, is that it is a surprise for the kids. I can NOT wait to see their faces. They are just going to be over the moon! To top it off we are having a surprise family birthday party for my son, which is where my hubby will be so it’s just going to be one big day of excitement around here.

The Chick Magnet will be here for 10 days, so it will be so nice to actually feel like we get some time with him, as opposed to just a weekend visit like we had in December. Of course, it also usually makes it that much harder to let go when we have to take him to the airport. But, that will be the last time we will have to do that because the next time we go to the airport we will be picking him up and moving back with him. Oh glory, hallelujah!!!! I can’t believe it’s only 2 months away.

This should be a fun and interesting week to say the least with some fun meals planned. And who can forget that Wednesday is Leap Day? I definitely think that’s a cause for celebration. I’m not sure what we’re going to do for it but I’m excited nonetheless.

Monday:

• Breakfast: steel-cut oatmeal
• Lunch: Out (Okay, confession time-there’s a local outdoor, drive-up type of restaurant that opens this day and they are having some sweet deals. No, they don’t serve one healthy thing but we always go opening day and it will be our LAST opening day, so we are going to enjoy it guilt-free)
• Dinner: Limehouse chicken, baked butternut squash, steamed asparagus

Tuesday:

• Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, green smoothies
• Lunch: grilled cheese, fruit, sliced carrots
• Dinner:  Cilantro Lime Tilapia Tacos (I’ll use Pollock instead of Tilapia since it’s what I have on hand), Super Salad (I had more leftovers than I anticipated last week so I just moved this meal to this week’s menu)

Wednesday: 

• Breakfast: Green Monster Muffins (These were such a hit this weekend! I’m switching things up this week-we typically have pancakes on Wednesday but the birthday boy requested them for breakfast on Saturday with his friends)
• Snack: almonds, green smoothies
• Dinner: Crock Pot Potato Soup, salad, French Bread

Thursday:

• Breakfast: homemade granola with milk/yogurt (I don’t eat the granola-while it is homemade and made with quality ingredients, it still has plenty of brown sugar and calories in it. I like to try to keep my breakfast calories to 300-400 calories total so I usually make up some eggs over medium or a quick omelet when the kids have this)
• Lunch: Slim bagels spread with goat cheese and homemade jam, green smoothies 
• Dinner:   Leftovers

Friday:

• Breakfast: Homemade granola with milk or yogurt
• Lunch: Zucchini boats, cottage cheese, fruit
• Dinner: Party time! We are having Make-Your-Own-Pizza, popcorn, salad, breadsticks and cupcakes

Saturday:

• Breakfast: Healthy, Hearty, Whole Grain and Nut Pancakes (with pureed pumpkin add-in)
• Lunch/Dinner: Party Time at my sister’s. We’re having burgers and dogs and I am bringing lettuce salad, fruit salad, and drinks

Sunday:

• Breakfast: Crockpot Apple Oatmeal 
• Lunch: Lunch out
• Dinner: Chicken pot pie (a family favorite for my hubby’s first real home-cooked meal in a while), salad, quinoa

Snacks:

This is a new feature I am wanting to add so I can have a better plan for easy grab-and-go snacks. I don’t buy processed snacks like chips, cookies, crackers or fruit snacks. But I have to admit, those things are nice for convenience sake when we are in a hurry or when the kids are hungry and I’m otherwise occupied. I also like to keep a few of these types of things on hand in my diaper bag in case of a hunger emergency.

• Granola Energy Balls
• Five Ingredient Peanut Butter Granola Bars
• Baked Apple Rings (Slice apples, sprinkle with cinnamon, bake)
• Strawberry Pretzel Salad (I admit, this is not the healthiest recipe. I will try and tweak it to cut down on the sugar content. My daughter saw the picture and really wanted to try it.)
• Kale Chips

What’s on your menu this week?

I am joining the Menu-Plan Monday link-up at Orgjunkie.com this week. Head on over to get some more great inspiration for your meal-time madness.

And as always, I am happy to post recipes for anything I have not already linked to, just let me know in the comments!

Read Full Post »

Menu plan, Week of February 20-February 26

Hey y’all!!! I’m not sure I’ll still be allowed to use that word in Florida, so I’m trying to make the most of it right now. Although, I guess Florida IS a southern state, so maybe “y’all” will help me to fit right in.

I am seriously nearing panic mode as we are getting ready for this ridiculously huge move. Do you know how crazy it is to move six people halfway across the country, to a place where you hardly know anyone? It’s CRAZY-crazy. There are so many details to tend to that I think they just might push me over the edge.

All right, hey now. No jokes about how I went over the edge a long time ago. That’s our little secret.

Anyway, you would think that all the stuff I have to do to get ready for the move in the next couple of months would mean that I would be trying some simple meals. But honestly, almost all of my meals this week, for dinners at least, are completely new-to-me recipes. I love it that way because cooking is my stress reliever and creative outlet. So rather than making my life more complicated, it’s actually very calming to me to be able to create a good, healthy meal from scratch and serve my family in that way. I LOVE it! Now, if I could just get someone to clean in the wake of mess I inevitably leave behind, I’d be golden.

So, I hope you enjoy my new recipes. They are mainly from recipes I have found through Pinterest (you are following me on there, right???), and I have linked to the original source when possible. Enjoy!

Monday:

• Breakfast: steel-cut oatmeal (I’ve been playing around with this. We normally sweeten it with brown sugar but I am trying to find ways to make it without sugar and it still be something I will eat. My kids like it pretty much any way I make it. It’s me who can’t stomach it unsweetened!)
• Lunch: Homemade egg McMuffins (on 100% whole wheat English muffins), fruit, greek yogurt
• Dinner: Maple and Brown Sugar Pork Tenderloin, baked sweet potatoes, salad

Tuesday:

• Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, green smoothies
• Lunch: grilled cheese, fruit, sliced carrots
• Dinner:  Stuffed Cabbage casserole, salad

Wednesday: 

• Breakfast: Healthy, Hearty, Whole Grain and Nut Pancakes (with pureed pumpkin add-in)
• Snack: almonds, green smoothies
• Dinner: Leftover from Monday’s dinner (My Wednesday evening Bible Study is back in session so I try to plan leftovers or crock pot meals that I can get ready early in the day so we can eat and get out the door in time for our evening activities)

Thursday:

• Breakfast: homemade granola with milk/yogurt (I don’t eat the granola-while it is homemade and made with quality ingredients, it still has plenty of brown sugar and calories in it. I like to try to keep my breakfast calories to 300-400 calories total so I usually make up some eggs over medium or a quick omelet when the kids have this)
• Lunch: Slim bagels spread with goat cheese and homemade jam, green smoothies 
• Dinner:   Cilantro Lime Tilapia Tacos (I’ll use Pollock instead of Tilapia since it’s what I have on hand), Super Salad

Friday:

• Breakfast: Homemade granola with milk or yogurt
• Lunch: Zucchini boats, cottage cheese, fruit
• Dinner: Pizza night! 

Saturday:

• Breakfast: Green Monster Muffins
• Lunch: Quesadillas, green smoothies, kale chips
• Dinner:  Limehouse chicken (not a new recipe, but SO good-seriously, you’ve gotta try it!), baked butternut squash, steamed asparagus

Sunday:

• Breakfast: Crockpot Apple Oatmeal (So excited to try this. I like to have breakfast ready to go on Sunday mornings to try to cut down on the Sunday-morning-rush-around-getting-four-kids-ready-for-church madness. I bet my house will smell divine when we wake up on Sunday too!)
• Lunch: Lunch out
• Dinner: Leftovers (I try to make Sunday a true day of rest, so leftovers are an easy option for dinner. We usually have enough from various meals throughout the week to piece together a hodge-podge of goodies that together make a complete meal.)

Snacks:

This is a new feature I am wanting to add so I can have a better plan for easy grab-and-go snacks. I don’t buy processed snacks like chips, cookies, crackers or fruit snacks. But I have to admit, those things are nice for convenience sake when we are in a hurry or when the kids are hungry and I’m otherwise occupied. I also like to keep a few of these types of things on hand in my diaper bag in case of a hunger emergency.

• Granola Energy Balls
• Five Ingredient Peanut Butter Granola Bars
• Baked Apple Rings (Slice apples, sprinkle with cinnamon, bake)
• Strawberry Pretzel Salad (I admit, this is not the healthiest recipe. I will try and tweak it to cut down on the sugar content. My daughter saw the picture and really wanted to try it.)
• Kale Chips

What’s on your menu this week?

I am joining the Menu-Plan Monday link-up at Orgjunkie.com this week. Head on over to get some more great inspiration for your meal-time madness.

And as always, I am happy to post recipes for anything I have not already linked to, just let me know in the comments!

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Menu plan, Week of February 13-February 19

Hey everyone! Sorry for the late hour that I am posting my menu plan. Since I don’t blog on Sunday, I like to write these posts on Saturdays but we had an Open House here this weekend so my weekend was crazy leaving me no time for blogging.

Mondays are a busy day in our household. It’s my errand day with both of my older kids having music lessons, and grocery shopping at several stores to do among other things. I’m just now getting a few spare minutes to post before we head out the door yet again! Whew!

You will also see that busyness reflected in my menu plan as several meals that I was planning on making last week are making a reappearance again as I didn’t do very well planning out my week last week-between getting our school work done and being sure the house was perfect for the open house, it was about all I could do to remember to dress myself and my children every most days.  Hopefully, this week will be a bit easier to stay on track.

Monday:

• Breakfast: steel-cut oatmeal
• Lunch: Homemade egg McMuffins (on 100% whole wheat English muffins), fruit, greek yogurt
• Dinner: Black Bean stew , corn bread, salad (a holdover from last week that I never got around to making. Have you noticed that happens a lot around here?)

Tuesday:

• Breakfast: Healthy, Hearty, Whole Grain and Nut Pancakes (We usually have these on Wednesdays but we are deviating this week because I always make heart-shaped strawberry pancakes for Valentine’s Day. This will be he first time in 12 years that I won’t be with my Valentine on Valentine’s Day. )
• Snack: almonds, green smoothies
• Dinner:  Stuffed Cabbage casserole 

Wednesday: 

• Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, green smoothies
• Lunch: grilled cheese, fruit, sliced carrots
• Dinner: Leftover from Monday’s dinner (My Wednesday evening Bible Study is back in session so I try to plan leftovers or crock pot meals that I can get ready early in the day so we can eat and get out the door in time for our evening activities)

Thursday:

• Breakfast: homemade granola with milk/yogurt (I don’t eat the granola-while it is homemade and made with quality ingredients, it still has plenty of brown sugar and calories in it. I like to try to keep my breakfast calories to 300-400 calories total so I usually make up some eggs over medium or a quick omelet when the kids have this)
• Lunch: Slim bagels spread with goat cheese and homemade jam, green smoothies 
• Dinner:   Crockpot chicken tacos (this is actually more of a stew, we don’t eat it on tortillas or anything-no idea why I call it tacos except that it would be great as a taco filling), sliced avocado

Friday:

• Breakfast: Homemade granola with milk or yogurt
• Lunch: Zucchini boats, cottage cheese, fruit
• Dinner: Pizza night! The flax seed crust was a hit last week!

Saturday:

• Breakfast: Quick cook coffee cake (This provides leftovers for Sunday’s getting everyone ready for church madness. This is another one I don’t eat because 1) my kids could finish the whole cake off themselves and 2) the sugar content is too much for me), 3-egg omelet (me)
• Lunch: Quesadillas, green smoothies, kale chips
• Dinner: Maple and Brown Sugar Pork Tenderloin, baked sweet potatoes, salad

Sunday:

• Breakfast: Leftover coffee cake (confession: I normally skip breakfast on Sundays because getting four kids up and ready for church and trying to make myself look halfway decent leaves little time for breakfast-making, unless I want to get up at 5 a.m. Which I don’t.)
• Lunch: Lunch out
• Dinner: Leftovers (I try to make Sunday a true day of rest, so leftovers are an easy option for dinner. We usually have enough from various meals throughout the week to piece together a hodge-podge of goodies that together make a complete meal.)

What’s on your menu this week?

I am joining the Menu-Plan Monday link-up at Orgjunkie.com this week. Head on over to get some more great inspiration for your meal-time madness.

And as always, I am happy to post recipes for anything I have not already linked to, just let me know in the comments!

Read Full Post »