Tasty Tuesday

I sort of got off the bandwagon for a little while and I did NOT like it. Life is a little simpler when I have a plan and I don't need to worry about what's for dinner every night. So I'm back on the wagon! There's not really anything new on this weeks menu, though I will be making an Earthquake Cake this week so you'll see that on the blog sometime soon.

My little sister-in-law is celebrating her 10th birthday this week, so I won't be cooking Friday night (yay!!). Other than that, it's my basic, low-carb weekly menu =)

Sunday - Atkins Meatloaf

Monday - Almost "Bourbon" Chicken

Tuesday - Crustless Spinach Quiche

Wednesday - Baked Chicken Breast

Thursday - Asian Pork

Friday - Mikallie's birthday party (pizza!!) 

Saturday - Mexican Chicken

As always, my menu is subject to change, which it already has! Last night, even though I had planned on the "Bourbon" Chicken, I forgot that it had to marinate all day and was unprepared when dinnertime rolled around. So we had Parmesan Chicken instead. Tomorrow's Baked Chicken Breast will be replaced with pizza because I forgot we have a literacy event at the kids' school that night, so it's pizza twice this week for us!

I shared the original menu to show how sometimes our best laid plans go awry, but it's always easier to go with the flow if you have some sort of plan already in place =).

Have a yummy week!

Tasty Tuesday

I've been slacking off a little bit in the meal planning department this week. I haven't even looked at the Fred Meyer's or Safeway sales, but I did head over to Albertson's this morning since today is the last day of their sale cycle. If you need tuna, you can get some for $1, which isn't an amazing price, but if you buy 10, you get a $4 catalina which is pretty decent. Also, if you need dog food, you can pick up a back of Essential Everyday dog food, 32 lbs, for $19.99 but you get a $5 catalina on that, so it ends up being a really good deal. Also, pork picnic roasts are $1.49/lb. These end today though, so if you want to take advantage of these, you gotta act quick.

So what are we eating this week? Lots of yummy stuff! Instead of adding a new dinner recipe to our repertoire, I added a Saturday morning breakfast skillet and an old recipe that hadn't been added to our binder yet.


Sunday: Breakfast for dinner - Bacon and eggs with toast

Monday: Unbreaded Chicken Parmesan

Tuesday: Low Carb Pizza Casserole

Wednesday: Almost "Bourbon" Chicken

Thursday: Melissa's Slow Cooker Beef and Noodles

Friday: Low Carb Baked Chicken Breast

Saturday: Breakfast - Potato Skillet
                Dinner - Crustless Spinach Quiche


You might notice that a few of these recipes are the same as last week. That's because we ended up having pizza one night and bacon and eggs another night (I shifted my weekly planner from Mon-Sun to Sun-Sat so there was an overlapping day.) Instead of planning and shopping for brand new recipes, I carried these over to the next week since I already have the ingredients.

What's on the menu for you this week?

Tasty Tuesday

Do you meal plan? I've "dabbled" in meal planning for quite some time, but I rarely stuck with it (shocking, right?). I had a hard time sticking with the plan and it seemed just wasted energy. That is, until I moved in with my mother in law.

You see, my mother in law doesn't like to eat carbs or many calories. Neither does my husband for that matter. It became a juggling act to try and figure out what they would actually eat and it was nearly impossible to come up with dinner ideas on the fly. After struggling to please everyone while making dinner off the top of my head, I realized things needed to change. I definitely NEEDED a menu plan now that I was cooking for 6 picky eaters.

I started looking up low carb and low calorie recipes on Pinterest and writing out the ones that everyone liked on paper so I could stick them in our own Fox Family Recipe Binder. At first, we had something new every day so I could build up a reserve of "approved" meals to draw from each week. Now, we have one new recipe each week and the rest are tried and true.

I don't organize my recipes alphabetically, I organize them in the order they've been prepared. I pull out the first 6 recipes on Sunday and they go in the back after they've been used. In this way, all the recipes get used and rotated and we have a variety of healthy meals.

I also make it a habit on Sundays to look at what's on sale at my 3 favorite stores so that I can match up our meals with the deals. Chicken was dirt cheap at Fred Meyer this week, so we're having a lot of it ($1.79/lb for boneless/skinless chicken breast! Go get some!) I also do my shopping for the week on Sunday or Monday so by Monday night, I have all the recipes I need and all the ingredients I need for a weeks worth of meals. Making dinner is a snap and it's so easy to stick with the plan.

So what's on the menu this week? Glad you asked!


Monday: Slow Cooker Sesame-Garlic Chicken

Tuesday: Atkins Meatloaf

Wednesday: Asian Pork

Thursday: Baked Chicken Breast

Friday: Tater Tot Casserole

Saturday: Almost "Bourbon" Chicken

Sunday: Crustless Spinach Quiche.


Do you menu plan? What's your favorite meal to put in your plan?

Recipe - Beefy One-Pot Dinner

I collect a LOT of recipes. I get them in my email daily, I find them on Pinterest and I think that someday, I'll actually try them all. And perhaps I will, but it hasn't happened so far!

Well, last week, I gave this recipe I got from Kraft a try. It turned out better than I thought it would, though I think I would have chopped the onions a little smaller. If you like BBQ, give this a try.

Beefy One-Pot Dinner

Ingredients: 

1 lb lean ground beef

*2 carrots, thinly sliced

1 large onion, chopped

1 potato, finely chopped

1 cup water

1 can (14 oz) baked beans

1/2 cup barbecue sauce

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

*I only had baby carrots so I used about a dozen baby carrots.

Directions:

Start off by browning your beef. While it's browning, chop up the vegetables. Drain the beef and then add the vegetables to the beef.

Let it cook for about 5 minutes, then add the water and stir. Cover, and let simmer for about 10 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. 

Add the beans and the barbecue sauce.

Mix it all together really well, then cook for another 5 minutes or so, until it's heated all the way through. Top with cheese and serve. This makes about 4 servings, though I think next time I'm going to double it and see how well it freezes.

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