Meal Plans

I need to go grocery shopping. Which means I need to make a list. I also need to plan two weeks worth of meals. Unfortunately all of the above falls to me. The boys in my family don't care and never have any input in what we eat until it is on the table or when I should be making dinner. I am looking for easy meals. I have two weeks left of Science and ten more weeks of my Literature class which means the next two weeks are filled. Twenty page power point on deforestation, two labs, a discussion board post on forest products, and a final covering science and a 1200 word essay on the Aeneid, read the Aeneid, a discussion board on Sakuntala, read Sakuntala. If you can't tell my next two weeks are full, very full. So what is for dinner?

Two weeks of meals:

1. Rosemary Chicken in the crock pot, with rice and a green vegetable
2. Chicken and Cheese Enchiladas
3. Tomato, Basil and Cheese Baked pasta
4. Baked Potato soup-slow cooker style
5. Huge pot of Chili that makes three meals
6. Not to worry I will freeze the leftovers to have later
7. in the two weeks. It will be vegetarian Chili
8. Another Roast Chicken with mashed cauliflower, and corn
9. Chicken noodle soup
10. Lentil soup
11. Vegetable soup
12. Curry Pumpkin soup
13. Butternut Squash Bake
14. Broccoli-Potato Soup with greens
15. Pork fried rice, with stir fried vegetables
16. Pumpkin, Barley, and sage soup

Lots of soup for the month, but soup is easy and mostly does not require a lot of meat. We are trying to lower our meat intake down to about 5%. Basically just enough so that my husband doesn't feel deprived. We watched a documentary called Forks Over Knives and it changed the way we eat. It recommends a whole food diet and we aim for that but I really like to cook. . .Most of the time anyway. It is in the works, just small changes that improve our over all health. As soon as I finish up my science class we will start family walks again. Which might help my waist line slim a little but then again it will be just in time for the holidays. I need to learn to tight rope walk, or juggle, or just plain multitasking. I will get there someday.

I hope your week is filled with crisp fall mornings, hot chocolate, Love and Laughter. Be well my friends.

Picture Perfect Meals

So here it is pictures of the meals last week. I borrowed the list from last week So I could post the photos in order. Turns out I may not have taken pictures every night and I changed a couple of menu items around. It is all relative I know and I think I have told you a time or two that the menu is more of a suggestion then a rule. For me most things tend to turn out as more of a suggestion instead of a rule. You know the old saying "Rules are meant to be broken"? Well I think if that rule should be broken it was a suggestion. Hard Rules, not hard, some rules are rules for a reason and shouldn't be broken. So here at my house the Rules are few but strict. I am off on a random road, mapped out by a sidetracked thought. I hope you don't mind to much. So here are the pictures and tomorrow you'll have a recipe. I promise.

  

Monday

Roast Chicken with Roasted Vegetables

Jamie Oliver

I didn't take a picture of this beautiful roasted chicken. I wish I had.

It was yummy, and was also the star of the chicken pot pie.

Tuesday

Chicken Pot Pie

Believe it or not I took a lot of pictures of this chicken pot pie. Part of the reason is I love, no adore pie crust all of the time regardless of filling. In this case it all worked out to a little bit of magic in my mouth.

 

Wednesday

Marlboro Man's Favorite Sandwich.

Pioneer Woman

This sandwich was wonderful and is part of the reason that I will buy any and all of the Pioneer Woman's cookbooks from now until the last one. I know she is working on a second one. If only she would put more vegetable sides in the book. I guess I could stalk her blog http://thepioneerwoman.com/ and like her on facebook and she has a cooking show on food network (I hope they'll put her full episodes online. I don't have cable! Yikes). The only thing that would make this sandwich better is a lovely soft cheese like mozzarella, mushrooms, and maybe bell peppers. Let me tell you it does not need any of those things.

Thursday

Meatballs

Pioneer Woman

 Oh, did I mention the new Bread Cookbook? No, well expect more bread pictures. Yes it is made with a bread maker. Trust me 5-10 minutes of prep in the morning is worth it. I enjoy making bread by hand but with homeschooling two boys, working on my degree, and house work 10 minutes is worth the trade off. The house smells like fresh bread almost every day.

 This is pumpkin bread. Oh, yes I will be making more of this as it goes well with peanut butter and meatballs.

Friday

Potato and leek pizza

Pioneer Woman

This Pizza is now my new favorite. I will torture my boys with it from time to time considering we usually eat pizza once a week. It makes it easier to eat some of my more crazy meals, if there is at least one day guaranteed to be kid friendly.

Saturday

Lamb Stew

Jamie Oliver

Oops, I made this today

Instead I made, oh my I don't remember. Not a winner

Sunday

Meatloaf

I decided upon finding out that we had company coming to make it a later date. So instead we had Jamie Oliver's Cauliflower and cheese bake (i.e. Macaroni and Cheese)

 

Believe me there were plenty I didn't post. So what looks good to you? I will pick on tomorrow and post the recipe for recipe Tuesday.

 

I hope you are having something truly mouth watering for dinner tonight with people who help fill your life with love and laughter.