Menu- 21 Feb

 

We had a lot of leftovers from Jambalaya (hope everyone had a great Fat Tuesday!) and Corned Beef so again I rolled some meals over from last week.  Here's what we have planned for this week.

• Random Appetizers for family fun night  The Commissary had a sale on different frozen appetizer stuff. I rarely buy it and the kiddos think this is a huge treat. We spent this evening eating appetizer sort of stuff and playing Disney Scene It!

• Moroccan Lentil Soup (from last week) 

• Crock-pot Sloppy Joes (from last week) 

• Dirty Rice I normally buy a mix for this. I'm trying to cut the boxed foods from our eating a little at a time. I figure this one isn't that hard to make from scratch.

• Orange-Honey Glazed Chicken This is a Cook's Illustrated recipe. Unfortunately there's a subscription service for their older recipes.  If you happen to have access to their older recipes, this one is awesome.

• Chicken Spaghetti Some how I've lost my chicken spaghetti recipe and I haven't made it in about a year and a half. It's one of those dishes I forget about, but it's great for a crowd. We have a Family Readiness Group (more on that later maybe) meeting this week and I thought this would be the perfect thing to make. I may also have to make a pan of brownies. I'm an over-achiever that way. It drives Nil crazy. But hey, I love to cook for people. Anyway I think this recipe is basically it.  Though I know my recipe had bell pepper in it.

• Leftovers/YOYO (You're On You're Own)

For many, many more menu ideas visit Laura at www.orgjunkie.com!

Menu- 14 Feb

So somehow I didn't get to all our meals last week. Part of it is the Commissary was out of several things and it was the middle of the week before I got over to the other one.  Anyway. So we have several hold-overs from last week.

• Corned beef I saved this since it's Nil's favourite. I'm going to make this Sunday (Valentine's). The plan is to make a favourite dish for each person. 

• Stroganoff I didn't have the wine to do this one last week. 

• Jambalaya In honour of Mardi Gras. My kiddos, especially Princess Little, are in love with the city of New Orleans, so I figure, "Laissez les bon temps roulez!" 

• Greek Chicken Nachos I'll have to write this one up.  It's sort of my take on the Macaroni Grill's Bella Napoli with greek flavours instead.

• Slow-cooker Sloppy Joes  From Southern Living. I can start this after lunch and it's ready in time for dinner.

• Baked Penne This is one of my go-to dishes when I'm tired of spaghetti (Nil and the kids would eat that every week). I found it as an ad in a magazine years ago. 

• Moroccan Lentil Soup I love this soup. It's from Stephanie O'dea's cookbook Make It Fast, Cook It Slow.  

For many more menu ideas visit I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Menu- 8 Feb

One of the first blogs I read regularly was Laura's Menu Plan Monday. Not only does she post her menu each Monday, but she provides a place for 300 plus other bloggers to link their menu posts.  I've decided, since I'm going to have a public blog anyway, it would be fun to participate.


Menu planning is something I've done basically since I started cooking.  (My mom made weekly menus when I was small.) I am constantly refining the way I do things. Recently I discovered the google calendar and have been using that as a meal-planning tool. One thing I love about the calendar is that I can set a dish to automatically repeat once a month. I picked about 15 dishes that our family likes and scattered them throughout the month. As I find dishes I want to try I make a note of those on the blank days. It is also really easy to move meals around if life gets in the way and something doesn't get made.

Here's what is on the menu for this week:

• Big Sandwich This is one of those recipes which resides in my head. My mom made these sandwiches when I was small. I think they came from Southern Living.  I think the real name is something like Muffuletta Po'Boy; they're not real Muffulettas (no olive salad), but they're good.

• Chicken Catch-a-tory Stew One of the responsibilities that the kiddos have the option of taking on each week is planning and cooking a meal. This is one of Princess Little's favourite things to cook. It is from Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Meals For Kids cookbook. 

• Tuna Pockets Another one from my head. I think this one originated in Southern Living as well, but I can't find a link to it anywhere.  I'll try to write it up later in the week.

• Stroganoff Love this recipe. I don't use 2 pounds of butter. I assumed that was a typo and just use a few tablespoons.

•  Lentil and Brown Rice Casserole Take two. We had this last week and really liked it. I was worried it wouldn't have enough flavour, but it was good. We decided to tweak it anyway. This time I plan to add a can of rotel and maybe some pepper jack cheese to spice it up a bit.

• Corned Beef Nil's favourite. I just follow the directions on the package. 

• Chili Using a box of spices. Some day I'm going to get my dad to teach me how to make real chili.

 If you need menu ideas or are looking for a new recipe check out this week's menus at I'm an Organizing Junkie.