Meal Plan 2/11-2/17

For lunches this week, I made Chicken Salad for sandwiches (at my 4yr old's request), and will be making a pot of turkey vegetable soup with barley added also.

{The Menu}

Monday - Balsamic Cherry Chicken w/fresh sauteed green beans and brown rice

Tuesday - Crockpot Turkey Chili and corn bread

Wednesday - Grilled Chicken w/pasta and veg

Thursday - Crockpot BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwiches on Whole Wheat Buns (3-4 chicken breasts with bottle of Archer Farms/Target Hawaiian-Style BBQ sauce and can of pineapple. Cook on low 8 hours. Shredding is effortless after cooking all day. Serve on whole wheat bun with lettuce and other toppings as desired.)

Friday - Taco Pockets (Brown 1lb ground turkey - or beef if you prefer - and mix in packet of taco seasonings according to directions. Using refrigerated biscuit dough, fold meat mixture and some shredded cheese into biscuit dough to make little sealed packets. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until dough is cooked. Top with tomatoes, lettuce, sour cream, salsa, taco sauce, etc.

Saturday - Out/Leftovers. We will be out and about at a couple of parties and not sure we will be starving for dinner so will leave this open for leftovers.

Sunday - Beef Stew. One of my favorites this time of year. Comfort food! (2lbs beef stew meat, 1 packet of stew seasoning, 1 can tomato soup, 1 soup can of water, bag of frozen mixed vegetables, 1 medium onion cut up, chopped red potatoes. Cook on low 8-10 hours in crockpot.)

Meal Plan 2/4-2/10

{The Menu}

This is one of those weeks that I am trying to NOT go to the grocery store, or at least a very small trip if needed. That being said, our menu is a little on the boring side, but here it is.

Monday - Pasta w/grilled chicken, sauteed zucchini, tomato, and salad. This may have already changed. Found out hubby has to work late tonight and dinners like this are just not fun to make for me and two kids who will pick at it. I can almost guarantee this will get bumped to another night this week and the kids and I will make something more "fun" (thinking pigs in a blanket or french toast?) to go with our Aladdin movie night.

Tuesday - Crockpot Chicken Tacos w/black beans and brown rice. Hands down, one of our favorite meals, pretty healthy, and soooo easy. This makes it on the menu a lot. Throw 3 or more frozen (or un-frozen) chicken breasts in the crockpot with a jar of salsa, and can of rinsed/drained black beans. Cook on low all day (or high if you forget and throw it in later) and then shred (it will practically shred itself). Corn or flour tortillas with brown rice, lettuce, tomato, cheese, sour cream, taco sauce or anything else you would want on a taco/burrito. 3 chicken breasts is perfect for us to get 2 meals out of. Adjust according to your family size/preference for leftovers. I usually make the kids quesadillas on these days because they usually won't eat these. Also this a swim lesson night at our house so it is always nice to not have to worry about making dinner on those.

Wednesday - leftovers

Thursday - Crockpot Turkey Goulash w/tri-color rotini.

Friday - leftovers

Saturday - out to dinner/date (this is up in the air depending on babysitting availability, but if it doesn't happen, I know where to put that meal from tonight that won't happen)

Sunday - Tator Tot Casserole w/ground turkey

Meal Plan 1/28-2/3

{The Menu}

Monday - Sweet 'n' Sour Chicken Stirfry with brown rice

Tuesday - Crockpot Chicken Taco Soup (I leave the beer out of this recipe - I don't like the flavor it gives and this recipe is AMAZING without it) Quesadillas for kids

Wednesday - Chicken, garlic, sundried tomato pasta with salad and my new favorite homemade dressing - for those of you watching weight, this dressing is the cipycat version of what was on the "skinny" menu at The Melting Pot. (This was on last week's menu but we had more leftovers than I thought we would so we bumped this meal over a week)

Thursday - Hubby's Birthday!!! We will probably go out to eat and celebrate :)

Friday - Spaghetti w/salad and french bread

Saturday - Hubby Cooks :)

Sunday - Superbowl. I am not planning a meal because we will be snacking all day. I may throw on a pot of chili and make some cornbread if we are hungry. 

Since the weather in the Pacific Northwest is grey and rainy this week, I am also making beef stew (in the crockpot right now) and a double batch of last week's turkey vegetable soup (It was AMAZING!!) for lunch options to have on hand. Will freeze any leftovers in serving size containers. I love having hot, hearty soups for lunch when it's cold out :)

What's on the menu this week at your house?

Organization: Recipe Binder

For far too long my recipe binder was nothing more than a huge stack of recipes in no particular order. This made it not only incredibly time consuming to find a recipe I was looking for, but the lack of organization also made it impossible to remember all the recipes I had. Meal planning was much more challenging as well. I should also mention I have a LOT of recipes, many tried and loved, and many that I want to try, but haven't yet.

It had been on my "to-do" list for at least a year to re-organize this mess. One thing about me (and it's not something I love) - I sometimes can get really caught up in over-thinking - trying to figure out exactly the perfect system, and instead, nothing ends up getting done. I have to very consciously make sure I don't get too stuck in that over-thinking process and just DO things sometimes, whether or not it is the perfect system. (Because an imperfect system is better than no system at all, right? This is what I tell myself!)

So I decided enough was enough and began tackling this project. It was an excellent decision.

1. First I decided I wanted a large 3 ring binder. I think it is a 3 inch - it was pretty much the biggest one they had. I picked lime green.
2. I picked a binder with the clear front covers because I knew I wanted to create a personalized cover and spine.
3. I created the cover and spine...didn't take me very long at all - I just used Publisher, nothing fancy here.
4. I figured out what sections I wanted  - again, I had to stop myself from over-thinking these and just decide :) My sections: Appetizers, Main Dishes, Crockpot, Sides/Salads, Snacks/Kid Food, Breakfast, Dessert/Drinks, and Miscellaneous (things like sweet and sour sauce, homemade pizza sauce, and jam recipes ended up here). I also purchased colored dividers with pockets on the front so that I could put recipes to try in the pocket for each section.

5. I went through my huge stack of recipes and threw out any that didn't sound great to me, or that I had tried and didn't love. Then I made two stacks for each of my sections: recipes tried to file, and recipes to try.
6. Only recipes I have tried and love make it into the clear plastic sleeves in the section. The recipes to try go in the divider pocket for that section as mentioned above.

7. in the back inside pocket of the binder I put some printouts I had for popular recipe substitutes, measurement equivalents, and other useful cooking related info I wanted to keep.
8. In the front inside pocket, I placed recipes I plan to try very soon and want up front for me to remember to add to my meal plan.

I had visions of designing pretty labels for the tabs, but it came down to completing the project or that whole over-thinking thing again, and I decided that for now, my handwriting would work just fine. This may not be my end all system, and I may re-tweak it over time, but for now it is light years better than what I had been dealing with and I love having everything organized and easy to locate.

What system do you use to organize your recipes? I'd love to hear about them!

Amazing chicken salad!

After G was born, some very great friends brought us dinner. It was spring and warm out, and this light meal was perfection. It is my go to chicken salad recipe and I make it quite a bit. Sorry no photos. I get too excited to eat it and forget about photos.

Adapted from Allrecipes.com: Holiday Chicken Salad

Amazing Chicken Salad

4 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
1 cup mayonnaise (I keep considering trying a healthier version of this with greek yogurt and nixing or cutting down on the mayo, but I love it so much as is, I just can't bear to mess with it. I once made it with vegennaise and that was a very sad fail. )
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp seasoning salt
black pepper to taste
1/2 cup craisins (this is plenty for me, and hubby picks them out - you can add more or leave out. The original recipe calls for three times this amount)
1 cup chopped celery
halved grapes - green or red. Add to taste - I probably use roughly 1 cup but don't measure. I like grapes in almost every bite.
Occasionally I will add some chopped apples and that is good too - completely optional - it is great without it

Mix everything together minus chicken. Once thoroughly combined, add chicken and refrigerate for at least one hour prior to serving. Serve on croissants and enjoy!

The BEST homemade granola bars ever!

I really like to make as many homemade items as I can. Especially convenience food. I like to know exactly what goes into what I am eating and feeding my family, and I really like being able to pronounce every ingredient and know where it came from.

I also really like Quaker chewy granola bars though. So, I started trying granola bar recipes to see if I could make something just as good at home. These are the best ones I have found and they are not just as good as quaker - they are WAY BETTER!! They are also incredibly easy and quick to make, and save for a few weeks in the pantry if individually wrapped (though they barely make it a week in our house). Depending on your level of chew or crunch desire, you can tweak this to fit perfectly. I like mine chewy with a little crunch and following the recipe time exactly yields those results for me. I have overcooked them before and ended up with crunchier ones (think Nature Valley style), and I would imagine if you under-cooked them a smidge they would be even chewier without much crunch at all.

I adapted this recipe {from the fabulous Weelicious} slightly - leaving out the coconut, and being a bit more generous with the chocolate chips (chocolate makes everything better!). Otherwise, I followed this recipe near perfect. If you have not checked out Weelicious before, you really should. Everything I have tried of hers has been amazing, and mostly health conscious without sacrificing taste.

Chocolate Chip Granola Bars (makes about 30 bars)

4 Cups Old Fashioned Oats
1/4 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/3 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Cup (generously overfilled!) Chocolate Chips
1/2 Tsp Salt
1/2 Cup Canola Oil
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 Cup Honey

Preheat oven to 325 F.
Combine the first 5 ingredients in a bowl.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients.
Pour the wet ingredients over the oat mixture and stir to combine.
Place granola mixture on a parchment lined baking sheet and shape into a rectangle, about 13 x 9 x 1 inch thick.
Bake for 40 minutes.
Allow to cool for 10 minutes then cut into 3 x 1 inch bars.

Wrap individually and they will keep up to a few weeks.

Freshly baked and cut into bars...

Individually wrapped (I used Glad Press 'n' Seal)

My kids love them, and hubby and I love them just as much, or maybe even more. I keep meaning to try a variation with dried fruit - maybe diced dried apples with cinnamon, or raisins, dark chocolate and dried cherry...the possibilities are endless, though every time I go to make them, the chocolate chips are winking at me in the cupboard. And for some reason, I feel less guilty eating chocolate when it is packaged in a fairly wholesome granola bar.

Enjoy and let me know what you think of these - I quit trying granola bar recipes once I found these ones - they are that good.