Foodmomiac

Weekly Menu, Week of 2/8/09

This is a pretty easy week for us. We leave Wednesday to go visit my mom and step father in Massachusetts for some skiing and relaxation (no blackberry or cell phone service there - how awesome is that???). The short week means I only needed meals for last night, tonight, and tomorrow.

I never mentioned it, but last week was kind of a disaster in terms of meal planning. I was gone in NY for two nights, and on those nights the family was covered with pre-made meals. Unfortunately, once I got back, we were out of steam (and out of food). On Wednesday, we went out to dinner at a local restaurant (which came to WAY more than we had expected). On Thursday, we got home late from work. The kids had Amy's pizza rolls with some frozen peas. I ate leftovers from the restaurant. Michael walked down the block to the hot dog shop. Friday was a bit more practical. I ran to Costco for a pizza. We should probably do this one night a week. It's $10.98 for an 18 inch pizza with everything (pepperoni, sausage, green peppers, onions, mushrooms and olives).

Well, anyway, I knew I had to be more prepared this week, and the fact that I only needed to worry about three nights made it easy. I was incredibly motivated yesterday, so I made all of it and put it in the fridge.

Sunday: BBQ ribs (I made the sauce), potato salad, Greek salad with homemade creamy Greek dressing
(Note: I bought 5 pounds of yukon gold potatoes, and boiled them all at once. Half went into the salad, half went into Tuesday's mashed potatoes, which are sitting in the fridge.)

Monday: Sticky Chicky (a Relish! recipe that I won't make again. It was too sweet for me.), Roasted Broccoli with soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger and garlic, brown rice that I prepared in the crockpot on timer

Tuesday: Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, peas

Finding a meal planning system that works

I love the concept of meal planning. As I mentioned in my budgeting post a few weeks ago, I know for sure that meal planning helps us save money. The problem is that I have a hard time sitting down and actually doing it. Though I'm always bookmarking great recipes to my del.icio.us account, I can never recall them when it's time to plan the meals.

I don't think I've mentioned it here, but a few months ago I started writing for Cool Mom Picks (THE best mom shopping site out there, if I do say so myself). Mir, one of my fellow writers, wrote about the Relish! meal planning system a few weeks ago, and I promptly signed up for an account. I love this system, and, surprisingly, it's actually working for us. (I am surprised because I am never consistent with anything.)

Every Thursday, I get a link to the following week's dinner options. What I love about the site is that there is a lot of flexibility. I can choose any five meals I want from a list of 15, and they are very varied. Once my meals are selected, I choose the number of people eating each meal (I do six servings to cover the au pair and leftovers), and then a shopping list and recipes are generated as a PDF for easy printing.

Shopping is a BREEZE with this system. Everything is broken down by aisle, so I can easily write in any extra items I need (like Max's beloved apple juice or our never-ending supply of milk). I think it's really important to note that I don't follow the system exactly. Sometimes I use it just as a jumping off point. Like, last week I printed out a Mexican recipe, but because it was election week, and my emotions were making me tired (seriously), I kept it simple, and we did plain 'ol tacos instead of the Relish! option. All main dish recipes include a side dish recipe as well, but sometimes I'll adjust to make things easier on myself. For example, I'll use those organic Alexa French fries instead of making rice.

All of the recipes are coded with symbols that indicate the type of meal. For example, some are KF for kid-friendly, or C for crockpot. I have been choosing one crockpot meal each week, and for next week's menu, I made sure to also select one labeled with an M for morning prep.

We've only had one dud recipe (chicken in a crockpot with butternut squash), and I've been really impressed with the variety. I am making things that I would never usually make, and finding new favorites for the family. I also love the use of fresh herbs and nuts (an underused ingredient in dinner planning).

Next week our menu looks like this:

- Buttermilk unfried chicken, broccoli with herb butter (I'm guessing my family will want me to add potatoes as well, and I might swap out the broccoli since it's featured in another recipe as well)
- Apricot lemon chicken in the crockpot, butternut squash, couscous
- Bleu cheese burgers with sauteed onions, spicy french fries (kids will have regular cheese burgers, I'm sure)
- Creamy pasta with lemon and prosciutto, boston lettuce witih shaved parmesan
- Peanut rotini with broccoli, Asian spinach salad

Are you guys using systems that aren't your own? I know that Lauren played around with Six O' Clock Scramble for a while.

Weekly Menu - Week of 3/31/2008

Monday: Tonight, the kids and I are on our own for dinner. They are going to be treated to some roasted vegetable risotto, and they better eat it. ;-)
Tuesday: Pasta and Meatballs
Wednesday: Chicken Thighs (maybe in the crockpot?)
Thursday: Pizza Night
Friday: Out to dinner
Saturday: Date Night

What are you guys making? Post a link or post the menu in my comments if you don't have a blog (the horror!)

Weekly Menu, Week of 1/14/2008

Yesterday morning, while I nursed my headache (two Tripel Karmeliets at my local pub, instead of one), Michael and Dylan headed out to the supermarket. I gave them the lamest shopping list of all time, so they went nuts, buying all of the snack food that I never let in the house when I'm handling those things.

That said, between the boxes of Lucky Charms and Spongebob fruit snacks, they also managed to grab some great stuff for our dinners this week. Here's the plan:

Sunday (last night): Roasted organic chicken, roasted baby yukon golds, homemade stuffing made with lots of celery and onion to make up for the lack of a vegetable
Monday: Chuck roast chili (made yesterday)
Tuesday:  Chicken soup with stuffing dumplings
Wednesday: Spaghetti and Meatballs
Thursday: Pizza night
Friday: Out to eat
Saturday: Date night

Back on Track - a Meal Plan!

Wow, that was one heck of a weekend. Saturday morning was the commencement of "potty boot camp" at my house, and I spent most of the weekend sitting on the floor of the bathroom. Fun times. The good news is that Max is doing really well. Before Saturday, he had not once gone in the potty. He is now using it, and yesterday we had only 4 accidents all day. This sounds bad, but it's not. Really. :-) We are doing undies all day, and pull-ups just for napping and bedtime.

So, anyway, enough with the potty talk. Let's talk menus. I wrote up a weekly menu yesterday, but then Peapod had no delivery times available until tomorrow morning, so I had to change tonight's dinner to accommodate my existing pantry/freezer stash. A few of these meals are from the Nigella Express cookbook. My boss got a copy for Christmas and was pretty pleased with the recipes she tried, so I ordered a copy for myself. It seems very promising (just from my initial read-through).

Here's the plan:

Monday: Pan-fried burgers (no bun), French fries, peas
Tuesday: Pollo alla Cacciatora (from Nigella Express) over brown rice
Wednesday: Mustard Pork Chops (Nigella) with Mustard Potatoes (as seen on Finslippy) and salad (with no mustard, because that would just be crazy)
Thursday: Shrimp with Mango Red Curry (Nigella) and Sushi Rice

Also, Dylan is driving me bonkers with her lunch demands. She is sick of everything I give her, but won't make suggestions for alternatives. She wants me to "surprise her." (But when I do, she complains about it.)

Today she got five mini bagel dogs, a small container of mustard, water, a pear and 2 Hershey Kisses.

Pork Chop, Mache Salad, Roasted Red Skins

  Pork Chop, Mache Salad, Roasted Red Skins 
  Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac.

There is a lot of pressure inherent in ordering produce from a CSA, or having produce delivered from a business like Fresh Picks. I have no philosophical problem spending more money than usual on my produce. Because the offerings were (mostly) local and all organic, I am glad to pony up a few extra bucks. But, when you get a box of produce totaling $46 delivered to your kitchen, there is a lot of pressure to actually use it all.

It's also a little awkward that Fresh Picks will only deliver to my neighborhood on Thursdays. We don't cook on Fridays and Saturdays, so the produce just sits there, taunting me. I made myself feel better this morning by making up a menu that used nearly everything that was brought. And dinner tonight was a great start. We had grilled organic pork chops (from Peapod, not from Fresh Picks), roasted red skins (from Igl Farm), and a salad made with mache (from City Farm), French breakfast radish (from JenEhr) and cucumber. The kids and Michael also had some corn (from Nature Blessed).

It was a delicious way to start diving into our box of produce. The potatoes were especially fabulous. I was amazed by how sweet they were. To prepare, I scrubbed them and cut them into wedges. I then tossed them in a ziploc with a few glugs of extra virgin olive oil, some kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, smoked paprika and garlic powder. I put the bag in the fridge for about an hour to let the flavors meld. When I was ready to cook, I put them on a baking sheet and into a 400 degree oven until they were crispy and the skin had blistered. It was probably a good 45 minutes.

Tomorrow night (if I'm home in time from my one-day business trip) is eggplant casserole and brown rice.

Weekly Menu - Week of 4/9/07

This week is starting off on a chaotic note. I was at the vet's office with the dog and BOTH KIDS until 7:15 tonight. It's times like those that I wish I were a more relaxed person. I was so stressed out the entire time we were there. Max was opening and closing every drawer in the room, crawling around on the dirty floor on his stomach, taking off his shoes and socks, just being a nut. Dylan was whining most of the time. And Friday? She was crying almost non-stop. This awful, piercing whine. I really wish I could have handled it better, but honestly, by the time we left (after hearing that Friday needs a FIFTH ear surgery tomorrow), I was just a ball of nerves.

Hopefully the week will calm down a bit. Here's what's on tap, food-wise:

Monday: Dylan ate at her friend's house (she goes there every day after school, and will be doing so until June. She is insisting on eating there every day, which is kind of bothering me, but she is adamant.) By the time we got home, Max was exhausted (it was 1/2 hour past his bedtime), so he just had a couple of slices of bologna, some string cheese, and a cup of milk. I had a Marie Callendar's Pot Pie. It was a decidedly NON-gourmet night.

Tuesday: I'm thinking Stefania's spaghetti with salad and garlic bread.

Wednesday: I'm going to marinate some chicken thighs in an Asian-inspired marinade and put brown rice in the rice cooker. We'll eat with broccoli.

Thursday: Pizza night - definitely Homemade Pizza Co.

Friday: TBD

Saturday: Date night

Weekly Menu Wrap-Up

  Moroccan Tempeh, Roasted Carrots, Quinoa 
  Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac.

I did pretty well this week!

Here was the plan:
Sunday: Boneless ribeye, oven roasted potatoes, and roasted asparagus. (Success!)

Monday: Greek Salad with Greek grilled chicken breast  (Dylan ate at her friend's house. Max had some leftover stuff from the fridge and I made myself a Greek Salad. Close.)

Tuesday: Michael will be returning a bit late, and I'm out for dinner (as I mentioned). Probably a mac and cheese night. Michael can have some leftover grilled chicken if he's hungry. (Michael's flight didn't land until 1am. Dylan ate at her friend's house again and Max had chicken nuggets, with leftover potatoes and asparagus.)

Wednesday: Moroccan Tempeh with honey roasted carrots and couscous. (We were VERY close here! The only difference was that we did quinoa instead of couscous. I really liked the carrots, but Michael didn't. If you want to try them yourselves, the recipe is here.
I made them in the toaster oven, which worked pretty well.)

Thursday: Pizza Night (Right on target here. We did Homemade Pizza Co. again. Carmelized onion and sausage pizza and a spinach,  goat cheese and pine nut salad for the adults, cutie pie pizza with black olives for the kids.)

Tomorrow morning we leave for Toledo for the weekend. We're going to try to keep Max entertained during the drive with Dylan's old Wiggles movies. Wish us luck! (Dylan can play Webkinz the whole way using Michael's laptop with his wireless broadband - how cool is that??)

Back to Basics (and a weekly menu)

  Ribeye, potatoes and asparagus 
  Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac.

Enough with the drama, let's talk about food, shall we?

I had a Peapod order delivered yesterday, but it was a bit smaller than usual. Michael is out of the town tomorrow night, I have a work dinner Tuesday night, and we leave for Toledo on Friday for Easter weekend. On top of that, Dylan will be spending each day at her friend's house (spring break), and Max starts at daycare tomorrow, so we  just don't need as much food.

Here's what we'll be eating:

Sunday: Tonight we had boneless ribeye, oven roasted potatoes, and roasted asparagus.

Monday: It's just me and the kids. I'm planning on Greek Salad with Greek grilled chicken breast (lemon juice, dijon and dill)

Tuesday: Michael will be returning a bit late, and I'm out for dinner (as I mentioned). Probably a mac and cheese night. Michael can have some leftover grilled chicken if he's hungry.

Wednesday: Moroccan Tempeh with honey roasted carrots and couscous.

Thursday: Pizza Night

Weekly Menu - Week of 3/18

Sunday: Corned Beef and Cabbage (yum! If you have never done this, I'd highly recommend corning your own beef sometime. so easy and so delicious)
Monday: Teriyaki Chicken Breasts with Brown Rice and Salad (I have a new rice cooker with a timer. I set it to have the brown rice ready at 6:20. The chicken needs to marinate for just 30 minutes. When I get home, I will marinate the chicken and make the salad. The chicken will grill for a few minutes on each side and dinner will be ready.)
Tuesday: Some kind of baked penne dish - ideas anyone?
Wednesday: Michael is out of town. Leftover night!
Thursday: Pizza night
Friday: Out as a family
Saturday: date night, if I can find a sitter