Menu Plan Monday

I usually write my menu plan for the week on a piece of paper, a hard copy, menu on one side, grocery list on the other. I don't have any kind of fancy plan for either side; if it's a good week, I'll write things down in the order they appear on the shelves at the supermarket as we follow our typical path through the aisles. On bad weeks, I lose the list, either before or after I've done the shopping. Losing it before the groceries have been bought is by far the worst, because then I have no clue what I'm supposed to be shopping for. I may have a vague memory of someone's telling me we need more dental floss. Unfortunately, dental floss is not an ingredient in any of the foods I make, although I suppose you could use it to truss up a chicken for roasting. But if I forget to buy the chicken, where are we then? I'll tell you where we are: We're going through the stack of take-out menus we keep on the side of the fridge, fastened there by a number of magnets. And we argue endlessly over what we want. Pizza? Chinese? Italian? Burgers? Nobody agrees with anyone else and my husband shoots me narrow-eyed looks and mumbles things about "grocery money" and "why bother."

So I try to enter the grocery list into the phone app called Catch, and that would probably work better if I didn't either have to keep expanding the text to make it big enough to read, or taking off and putting on my glasses. Annoying!

By the time I get around to posting my menu plan, I may or may not have a kitchen full of groceries, and if I do, I may or may not have any idea what dishes the various foods are supposed to be assembled into, if you see what I mean.

Happily, this was not one of those weeks, but for all I know, next week might be.
Menu Plan for the Week of October 10, 2011

Monday - Sloppy Joes and potato puffs, at my husband's request

Tuesday - Layered Mexican Casserole, courtesy of my friends Todd and Cecile. Cecile found this recipe on the Weight Watchers site and she and Todd made it and loved it. Todd, knowing that I like t0 try new recipes, sent it to me on Facebook. I made it tonight (because I am actually typing this on Tuesday, not Monday, because I'm a big cheater) and it was fabulous, one of those recipes that makes you say, "This is diet food?"

Wednesday - Italian Wedding Soup and homemade bread

Thursday - Jalapeno cheeseburgers and pan-roasted potatoes

Friday - Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, some kind of veg and cherry cobbler

Menu Plan Monday (on Tuesday, but it's already been a long week)

You know those Thursday mornings when you wake up and open your eyes and then realize that it's really only Tuesday? You know how you DON'T just leap out of bed with your arms in the air shouting, "Yippee!!! I thought this week was almost over, but I've actually still got more than half of it yet to go!"

Yeah.

So times like these make me really happy to be participating with a whole bunch of other mommy bloggers in Laura's Menu Plan Monday feature at her blog, I'm An Organizing Junkie.com. Because all that you see below was planned out last Thursday and purchased last Friday, back in the good old days when I still had my wits about me. Because if I were trying to plan menus, say, yesterday? We'd be out in the front yard eating the fallen leaves off the tree.

MENU PLAN FOR WEEK OF OCTOBER 3, 2011

Monday - I looked in the refrigerators -- both refrigerators, the one in the kitchen and the one in the utility room that is generally known as the Beer Fridge -- on Sunday afternoon and realized that we had enough leftovers from last week to create a perfectly respectable sort of buffet dinner. We had a bowl of brown rice left from the stir-fry, some spaghetti sauce from Friday's jaunt to New Castle, meatloaf from last Monday and lentil soup from whatever day we ate that. I made a baked spaghetti casserole with the rice, the spaghetti sauce and some mozzarella and turkey pepperoni I found in the fridge, heated up the meatloaf, sliced thin, topped it with a slice of cheddar and plunked it on squares of homemade bread, added a little cubed ham to the lentil soup and told everybody to jump right in.

They told me it was the best meal they'd had in weeks.

I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Tuesday - Aisling's dinner request for tonight was homemade biscuits and gravy with scrambled eggs, so I made that for her and my husband. Meelyn and I, however, have reached that point in life where we don't feel called upon to consume vast amounts of calories, fat and carbs that we really don't enjoy all that much, so we each had a Weight Watchers Smart Ones microwaveable meal, both of which were very good.

Wednesday - Roasted chicken breast with balsamic vinegar glaze, sweet potatoes and one of those yummy Green Giant Steamers veggies, although I can't quite remember which variety I chose.

Thursday - Meelyn and I are experimenting with a breakfast casserole, trying to see how much of the fat and cholesterol we can remove before all the taste goes along with it. I haven't decided if I'm going to go the route of my mother's Christmas Day Breakfast Casserole (although it really frosts her doughnuts when I make this out-of-season) or a crustless quiche. If the recipe I choose is successful, I'll post it. All I know right now is that it will include some nice lean ham instead of sausage, have some egg whites substituted for at least half the amount of whole egg called for, and also....

Also.

Fat-free cheese.

Heaven help me.

Friday - I think I'm going to have to go to a restaurant. I can just feel it. It may be Wendy's, for all I know, but I am deeply hoping for Chili's.

Menu Plan Monday

This week, I'm debuting a new fall soup. It sounds delicious and I hope I'm not wrong! To see more Monday menu plans from around the country, visit Laura at her blog, I'm an Organizing Junkie.com.

Menu Plan for the Week of September 26, 2011

Monday - Mom's Best Easy Meatloaf, garlic mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables (baby carrots, zucchini, butternut squash)

Tuesday - Chicken quesadillas (made with whole-wheat tortillas, chicken, refried beans and reduced-calorie cheddar-jack cheese, plus spicy seasonings galore) and Green Giant Steamers Buttery Rice and Vegetables

Wednesday - Chunky Split Pea Soup, homemade honey-whole wheat bread

Thursday - Thai Broccoli-Chicken Stir fry with brown rice

Friday - My husband and I are going to Beth and Jim's house to meet them and Jeff and Julie for dinner. Helen (Beth's mother-in-law, Jeff's mother-in-law and Jim and Julie's mother) will also be there, and various friends and family members will undoubtedly be in and out. To that end, Beth, Julie and I are collaborating on a spaghetti dinner, to which I am contributing a big pot of Ragù Americana to go with Beth's homemade meatballs and Julie's garlic bread, which she always butters lovingly on both sides.

Menu Plan Monday

Ah, a rainy Monday. Although I've always been very fond of Karen Carpenter (a secret I guarded close to me during my teenage years, when my friends had no idea that I was singing "Superstar" and "Close to You" into my hairbrush in front of my vanity mirror in my bedroom), I've always liked rainy days, although I am as meh about Mondays as she was. Since rainy days are okay but Mondays are less so, it's always nice to have the week's menu planned out ahead of time.

I have Laura over at her blog, I'm an Organizing Junkie, to thank for this weekly kick in the hiney. It makes everything so much easier when Wednesday rolls around and my wits are totally scattered because of a million things going on and the last thing I want to be thinking is, "Oh, noooo, I forgot about dinnerrrrrrrrrrrr!" Because believe me, I used to try that on my husband in a bid to get a mid-week Applebee's outing, but now that we're in this recession, it would be more like a mid-week fast food drive-thru run, and frankly, I'd just rather cook.

Menu Plan for the Week of September 18, 2011

Monday - This meal has come up more than several time in the past couple of months because we all love it: Jalapeno Cheeseburgers made with Morningstar Farms Grillers, grilled onions, sliced jalapeno peppers, pepper-jack cheese and that Onion Blossom Sauce you can find right here on InsomniMom. I like to pair it with skillet-roasted potatoes and a simple veg like seasoned green beans.

Tuesday - Broccoli-Chicken Thai Stir-Fry, which is actually a "diet" recipe, but so help me, if anyone eating this concoction can tell that it is low-calorie and low-fat, they've got more evolved taste buds than I do. I should put that recipe up on the site. It's so good and fresh and easy.

Wednesday - Gorton's Grilled Tilapia filets, baked sweet potatoes, Green Giant Healthy Colors veggie blend

Thursday - a good, old-fashioned taste of fall: Chicken Pot Pie, that delicious recipe from, I believe, the 1950s? With the Bisquick crust that just melts in your mouth? It is fabulous and easy, made these days with reduced-fat Bisquick and (don't look, Kayte) the same old cream of chicken soup it's always been made with. Comfort food supreme, crammed with vegetables and delicious chunks of chicken breast.

If you're interested, we had that Game Day Taco Dip (recipe here at the site under Recipes for Appetizers) on Sunday, which was a fun dinner, and on Saturday, my husband, who is a big poophead, ordered himself a pizza from a local pizza place, while I made a delicious homemade deep dish pizza with a yeasty whole wheat crust for me and the girls. It was absolutely loaded with turkey pepperoni, mozzarella, mushrooms, onions and green pepper and it was fabulous. His greasy pizza later gave him indigestion. Not that I thought it served him right or anything.

Menu Plan Monday

We've had some autumn-like weather in the past few days. Then we had some summery weather. Then it got all fall-y for a few days so that we couldn't go to the pool and missed those final moments, unreclaimable until next summer. Now it's hotter than hob of hell again and the central air is going full-tilt even when I get up in the middle of the night to get a drink of water. Whatever. I am cooking fall food and that's all there is to it: slow-cooker, bread machine, soups and stews, casseroles in the oven. Game on.

Menu Plan for the Week of September 12, 2011

Monday - Vegetable soup (simmering on the stove right now and smelling so delicious I just want to, like, eat the air) and homemade whole wheat bread

Tuesday - Roasted chicken (not a Julia chicken; just seasoned boneless, skinless breasts), rice pilaf, green beans

Wednesday - Parmesan-crusted tilapia (the recipe for which I got off the back of the box the tilapia filets came packaged in), sweet potato "fries" and green beans

Thursday - Poured-Crust Pizza, Hawaiian-style, which means topped with spicy barbecue sauce, Canadian bacon, onions and pineapple chunks.

Friday - Mom's Best Easy Meatloaf, oven-roasted potatoes and carrots, apple cobbler

Menu Plan Monday (on Tuesday)

Sometimes, like on Labor Day, life gets away from you and you spend that vacation Monday thinking it's Sunday and then you wake up the next morning and confusion reigns all day. I feel that today - TUESDAY, goshdangit! - is successful because 1) I remembered to take Aisling to piano lessons, and 2) I remembered about Menu Plan Tuesday. Uh, Monday. Whatever.

Anyway, here's the inaugural post of the new school year.To read other people's weekly menus (it may give you some ideas if you've announced "It's chili night!" for the fourth time this month and here it is, only September 6) go visit Laura at her blog I'm an Organizing Junkie by clicking this link.

Menu Plan for the Week of September 5, 2011

Monday - Ahhh, what's past is past, so let's not dwell on it. But on the slim chance that you're interested, we ate jalapeno cheeseburgers on grilled buns with pepper-jack cheese, jalapeno pepper slices and Blossom Sauce, an awesome dupe recipe from the Outback Steakhouse - I'll post the recipe here after I post this article because it is a keeper. Instead of actual ground beef, I grilled some MorningStar Farms® Grillers® Originals because they are just delicious, full of protein and very low in fat.

Tuesday - Err, it's chili night! Grade School Chili, to be exact, with both chili beans (which are red beans in chili sauce) and black beans, plus lean ground beef and about half a cup of chili powder because we like it spicy. If I'm feeling fancy, I cook some diced green pepper and onions to throw in the pot, and my husband always insists on spaghetti noodles, just the way they served it at Connersville Elementary School back in the early 1970s. I cheat and use whole-wheat pasta.

Wednesday - Gorton's Grilled Tilapia (if you're thinking that I'm relying heavily on some frozen convenience foods this week, you're absolutely right), oven-roasted potatoes, peas

Thursday - Patty melts, made with those MorningStar Farms® Grillers®  again, but this is a totally different type of sandwich. I think everybody in Indiana knows what a patty melt is - and hopefully, they've had a chance to eat one at Willow Springs Restaurant in Hagerstown because theirs are the best, no argument. I make a lower fat sissy version that doesn't even come close to the real deal, but they're still pretty good, smothered with grilled onions and served with good ol' American cheese on grilled bread. I use olive oil for the grilling instead of butter, which makes me want to just sit down and cry over my Paula Deen cookbook, but we all have to make some sacrifices, right? - plus corn on the cob and maybe a green salad on the side.

Friday - We're having company on Friday - a friend of Aisling's is spending the night - so it's going to be Poured Crust pizzas, I'm thinking a 12-inch with sausage, mushrooms and onions and a 10-inch made Hawaiian-style with barbecue sauce, Canadian bacon, pineapple chunks and onions. Yummer!

Some random thoughts of randomness

1. My dad bought a new bike recently. He's always been a big walker, and goes around the White Estates neighborhood where I grew up, picking up trash with his grabbin-claw or whatever that thing is called and a Wal-Mart sack. He enjoys biking around now too, although I don't think he can still pick up trash, because wouldn't that be kind of hard? You might have to pedal in circles around, say, a cast-off paper McDonald's bag, before you could actually pick it up. ANYWAY, my mom was talking about getting a bike for herself so that she could join him, and I brightly suggested, "Why don't you get a bicycle built for two?"

My dad, who was sitting in an armchair with his eyes fixed intently on SportsCenter, snorted. Mom cast him a brief glance and said, "The last time we rode on a two-person bike, on Mackinac Island? He said he had to do all the work."

"I did," my father said emphatically, his focus on the television unwavering.

"Well, maybe you could promise to pedal really hard," I said soothingly.

My mother sat thinking for a moment and then announced, "I think I'd rather just get a rickshaw. We've been married forty-nine years. Why bother with pretense?"

2. Our new school year starts this Thursday, September 1. Meelyn will be a senior and Aisling will be a junior. I AM STARING DOWN THE TWIGS OF AN EMPTY NEST, PEOPLE.

3. Since school is starting up, I think I'll start Menu Plan Monday next Monday, which is Labor Day, so maybe I'll start next Tuesday. Just keepin' it real.

4. Dobby was barking at the people across the street, who were doing nothing more threatening than sitting on their front porch, talking and drinking iced tea. I know, I can't believe the nerve of those trolls either. Dobby barked at them so violently, he fell off the back of the couch onto the floor. Epic fail.

5. I'm teaching a class in British literature this first semester, plus my usual Shakespeare class. The Shakespeare play for this semester is Julius Caesar, and by some amazing happenstance, because I promise I did not know about this earlier, the Indiana Repertory Theater is doing Julius Caesar this fall! I am very excited, because although I have the three extant copies of Julius Caesar on DVD (one starring Marlon Brando as Mark Antony and the other starring Charlton Heston as Marc Antony and the other one starring no one I've heard of before and ALL THREE OF THEM SUCK LIKE A SHOP VAC.

6. This morning in water aerobics class, the music of the day was the greatest hits of Elton John and I knew the lyrics to every single song. Did some great in-pool jumping jacks to "Philadelphia Freedom."

7. I've been accused by several people of shamefully neglecting my blog. It's been a very busy summer - that's the only excuse I have. I'll try to do better.

Menu Plan Monday

 

Laura over at I'm an Organizing Junkie.com is the originator of Menu Plan Monday, and many's the time I've been thankful for her splendid idea of posting a week's worth of menu plans here at InsomniMom. Not, you understand, because I think my vast readership (*ahem*) is sitting and wringing their hands in anxiety, wondering what I'm going to serve for dinner on Thursday, but more because posting the menu plans keeps me on the straight and narrow, budget-wise. When I post my menu plans, I tend to make a shopping list. When I make a shopping list - and bring it with me -  I tend to spend less money. And when I spend less money, my husband is very, very happy and doesn't get that little worried crease between his eyebrows.

So here goes!

Menu Plan for the Week of September 27, 2010

Monday - Pot roast, potatoes, carrots and onions in the slow-cooker, homemade 2-egg brioche

Tuesday - Baked pork chops and cabbage, pea and carrot medley (I love to call mixed vegetables a "medley." That's just what James Whitcomb Riley Elementary School used to call mixed veggies on their school cafeteria menu and that always brings back a wave of nostalgic happiness. Not that I ever ate them. Because, ick.)

Wednesday - Breakfast for Dinner! Scrambled eggs with sausage and oven-baked potato puffs. My husband requested biscuits along with this meal, but I vetoed that idea.

Thursday - Simple/Cheap! Corn dogs and potato puffs. Maybe some green beans.

Friday - Taketh me to a restaurant, if thou cravest thy lady's favor, my lord! (I'm reading a book about the Middle Ages and it seems to be working itself out in my speech.) Edited on Saturday to add: No money for a restaurant experience this week, not even Arby's. Have I mentioned how much I hate this recession? So we were back to Seafood/Meatless. I made bean and cheese tostadas and corn casserole and it was pretty darned good, even if no one served it to me with a margarita.

Saturday - Spaghetti Night! Spaghetti with meat sauce and garlicky-buttery breadsticks. The sauce is left over from two weeks ago - I froze a little less than half of it in a gallon-sized freezer bag, laid it flat on a baking sheet until frozen, marked with the date I put it in the freezer. To serve, I'll defrost it in the microwave, add a couple of cans of tomato sauce and some extra mushrooms, maybe a beef bouillon cube. Then all I have to do is heat it up, cook the pasta, bake the breadsticks and serve. (We really like the Pillsbury bread sticks that come in a tube - they're so easy and actually very delcious.)

Sunday - A roasted chicken, Julia Child-style, served with mashed potatoes, glazed baby carrots and mini croissant rolls.

Menu Plan Monday

It was a busy weekend around here, as weekends often are. Work, church (two different times), religious education classes, youth group....we buzzed around and now here we are on Monday already, which has become....a day of relaxation? That can't be right.

Thanks to Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie.com for jump-starting my week. Click the link to find out what she's serving her family. I kind of wish I could pile everyone into the van and go eat dinner at her house.

Anyway, we're on the third week of the month which means that the Meal Matrix has designated this week as Chicken, Beef, Soup, New Recipe, Seafood/Meatless (or Restaurant, if I'm lucky), Mexican and Pork. Although now that football season has started, the Sunday dinner will most likely become a thing of the past until after the Super Bowl's over, at which time we'll resume with tradition. So let's call Sunday "Football Snack" for the time being.

Here goes!

Menu Plan for the Week of September 20, 2010

Monday -- Crispy Oven Chicken, Cranberry-Walnut dressing and green beans

Tuesday -- Comforting Beef Pot Pie

Wednesday -- Grade-School Chili and peanut butter sandwiches

Thursday -- New Recipe: Apricot Chicken (in the slow-cooker instead of the oven), served with seasoned almond rice and peas.

Friday -- Restaurant? Please?

Saturday -- Tamale Casserole

Sunday -- Football Snack: Game Day Caramel Corn

Menu Plan Monday

Just about all my recipes this week are from Allrecipes.com, which is one of my favorite websites, like, ever. The recipes there have bailed me out time and time again: there was a point last winter where anarchy reared its ugly head in my home and I was informed by three people who shall go unnamed to protect other people's good opinion of them that if I made chili or tacos one more time, there was going to be BIG TROUBLE.

Menu Plan Mondays originated with Laura, whose blog, I'm an Organizing Junkie is so far beyond what I'm capable of in my daily life, it just makes me feel all nervous and inadequate to read it. Let's just say that Laura would never buy a new container of red pepper flakes every week for four consecutive weeks because she kept forgetting about the new one in her cupboard. Not that I'd do anything like that either. I'm just saying.

Menu Plan for the Week of September 13, 2010

Monday - Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff with egg noodles, served with some green beans on the side. I found this while researching slow-cooker recipes because I'm determined to use the crock-pot once or twice a week this school year. We are so busy and the slow-cooker and the bread machine are really excellent ways for busy mothers to serve home-cooked meals fast-ish-ly.

Tuesday - Lemon-Garlic Chicken with seasoned rice, served with croissant rolls from a tube. This is also a new recipe for the slow-cooker.

Wednesday - Amish Breakfast Casserole, a long time family favorite. I'm going to go all out and serve this one with a side of french toast bites.

Thursday - Nouilles à la sauce de quatre fromages which would actually be "Four-Cheese Macaroni Hotdish" in many places in our country. I'm planning on putting some chunks of ham and chopped onion in it to make it into a real casserole, although I'm sorry to say that it has no cream of mushroom soup in it, hahaha Kayte.

Friday - Someone please take me out for dinner!

This past Saturday, we were still on the road coming home from Canada, so we ate a bunch of crap like smokehouse almonds and Twizzlers for dinner, which may explain my mood on Sunday. Sunday, which was yesterday, I made homemade sloppy joes for dinner and they were pretty good, considering that I made them with only one eye open.

Menu Plan Monday (on Wednesday, but sometimes life is like that)

On Monday, when one would ordinarily post a piece titled "Menu Plan Monday," I had a fever. With a headache. And a bad attitude. On Tuesday, more of the same, only slightly less. Today, I am better but very stupidly stayed up far too late last night reading and laughing over a book recommended by my internet friend (and fellow Hoosier) Katie H. It is called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls. My bursts of snorting laughter kept disturbing my husband, who kept crossly saying, "Quit laughing. Turn off the light. Go to sleep," in a groggy voice that made him sound something like a zombie himself, so obviously I had to keep reading because I was afraid to turn out the light.

With a week like this one, I'm very glad to have my lovely slow-cooker, because it's obligingly made our dinner all three nights so far this week.

Menu Plan for the Week of August 30, 2010

Monday - Chicken Chow Mein served with rice, chow mein noodles and slivered almonds: This was a new recipe I plugged into the Meal Matrix from a 1970s-era cookbook my mom gave me. It was really delicious and made nice leftovers and reminded me of this place in Lewisville, Indiana where she and I used to go for dinner once or twice a month when I was in high school. It was a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant, but they had basic Hoosier cooking on the menu along with the yummiest Chicken Chow Mein ever. Memories!

Tuesday - Beef Stew with Parsley Dumplings

Wednesday - Roast Beef with Potatoes, Carrots and Onions

Thursday - Chicken Salad with Grapes and Walnuts on Croissants with potato chips - last time this season!

Friday - please o please let us be able to go out to eat because if we don't I think we may be having bean burritos and that just doesn't sound all that great right now.

I wish I could remember what I cooked for Saturday evening's dinner after church -- wait! I do remember! We ordered a pizza. And then there was Sunday? But....what did we eat? I don't know. I was starting to feel decidedly off by Sunday afternoon -- achey and lightheaded and very tired -- so I'm sure we ate something, but heaven help me if I can remember what it was.

Menu Plan Monday, on Tuesday but who's counting?

I am not totally certain what kind of brain cramp afflicted me yesterday, but it caused me to forget to post my menus for the week. I am so sorry about that because I know that some of you probably tossed and turned all night last night wondering what I was serving. I hope you've managed to toil thus far through Tuesday without chewing your fingernails down to the quick. Fear not, I have come to rescue you. Go on and heave your sighs of relief.

Menu Plan for the Week of August 23, 2010 -

The Last Week of Summer Break

Monday - Oven-baked Chicken Patty Sandwiches (picture a McChicken) and oven-baked potato puffs. And peas. Because we really needed something healthy. It's just that I worked all day and was really busy and didn't have time to cook something real. My husband ate two sandwiches and everyone was very complimentary and said it was the best dinner we'd had in a while so after dinner I locked myself in the upstairs bathroom and banged my head on the counter.

Tuesday - Whole wheat spaghetti with homemade Ragù Americana in the slow-cooker, served with toasted garlic bread. It's cooking right now (four hours on low, omit the water from the recipe) and the house smells like a homey trattoria.

Wednesday - Old-fashioned Hoosier bean soup with smoked sausage and corn bread baked in my iron skillet.

Thursday - I'm doing a mini-workshop on The Tempest, so there are a bunch of adults and students coming over for a pitch in. We're doing hamburger and hot dogs with all the buns and condiments and the like, plus potato chips and homemade dip. All the other families are bringing a dish and it should be a fun, fun time. Because, Shakespeare!

Friday - I wish to be taken out to eat on this night and I'm hoping for Ruby Tuesdays, but I'd settle for Bob Evans.

This past weekend, the girls and I made the last Taco Salad of the season for Saturday's dinner, and on Sunday, I made homemade noodles and plopped a gorgeous roast in the slow-cooker with some onions and carrots. The house smelled incredible all afternoon and dinner was delicious.

Menu Plan Monday

Oh, Menu Plan Monday! How sorely we've missed thee! I fell off the menu-planning bandwagon back in early June and never managed to climb back on and let me tell you -- we have spent a flippin' FORTUNE on food this summer, all due to the fact that my grocery shopping has been a hit-or-miss affair. Or maybe it could be better characterized as "miss-or-miss," since I haven't been writing anything down. And I find that when I don't write things down, like the fact that if I plan to make a broccoli casserole, I need to buy broccoli, I end up going to the grocery four thousand times, getting tetchier at each visit, and managing to throw a few extra impulse buys into the cart with the final result that my grocery budget exploded a couple of weeks ago and I'm still trying to get the stains off the ceiling.

I should have stuck with Laura over at I'm an Organizing Junkie.com because she is, as her blog title says, organized. And frankly, I'm just not sure what I have going on over here right now, but I beg you not to stop by if you're in the area because we'll all be sad. Mostly me.

ANYWAY....

Menu Plan for the Week of August 16, 2010

Monday - Spanish Dogs (really spicy chili dogs served on buns and topped with shredded cheese and minced onion) and oven-baked potato puffs seasoned with that Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning, which I would eat on ice cream if allowed by my family.

Tuesday - Seafood Enchiladas à la Chi-Chi's served with frijoles refritos and Mexican corn cake

Wednesday - Crispy Chicken (recipe following on InsomniMom: Facebook Edition later on) with broccoli and rice casserole -- I actually remembered the broccoli -- and croissant rolls

Thursday -- Mexican Chili garnished with corn chips, shredded Colby-Jack and green onion

Friday -- Out for dinner somewhere, maybe somewhere extra-delicious like one of those fast-food places with dollar menus. Or a pizza. Woo.

Last Saturday, which is actually the beginning of my Menu Plan Monday week, my husband and I went to Bob Evans and the girls took themselves off to Fazoli's. On Sunday, we went to Nanny and Poppy's house to celebrate Pat's forty-first birthday and had grilled T-bone steaks, barbecued ribs, cheesy potato casserole, green beans, corn on the cob and the Ultimate Chocolate Cake, which nearly killed all of us with the sugar overload, but boy, was it ever good.

Menu Plan Monday

I do have a plan for Menu Plan Monday this week -- I totally forgot to post my menus for last week, I'm not sure what planet I was living on -- but I won't be able to post it until later today. I'm substitute teaching today for a second grade teacher in one of the city schools and plan to have a fun day with the little kids; second graders are so extremely cute and helpful. It's also nice that the school is only a mile from my house. So! Until very late this afternoon, I'm signing off.

Checking back in after a lo-o-o-ng day to finally post those menus. My dedication has stunned even me. And probably my parents.

Menu Plan for the Week of May 17, 2010

Monday - Crunchy tacos garnished with leaf lettuce and grape tomatoes; corn casserole

Tuesday - Spanish Dogs and baked beans

Wednesday - Breakfast for Dinner! Pancakes and sausage....mmmm!

Thursday - Mixed grill - smoked sausage, strips of steak, pork chop and chicken breast; baked potatoes

Friday - I'm thinking we might have chicken salad on croissants on Friday. Everyone has fallen in love with the chicken salad recipe I cobbled together out of several I found online, so we might have those sandwiches with some potato chips.

Menu Plan Monday

This weekend was relatively quiet, with no teen festivities to attend, no sacraments being conferred and therefore no unexpected pizzas being ordered or celebratory dinners-out partaken of; to wit: I had a bunch of grocery money and spent it happily on some good stuff, despite the fact that gas prices keep going up and snatching away more of it every week.

Laura from I'm an Organizing Junkie is the originator of the Menu Plan Monday posts and you might want to go over to her blog and have a look around at all the interesting things there she has other than food. Do a little menu planning of your own - I've found it's a sure-fire way to avoid drinking an extra glass of wine as I frantically wonder if I can get away with serving peanut butter sandwiches and a bag of freezer-burned carrot coins for dinner. As it turns out, I can't, and even that second glass of liquid sunlight isn't enough to incoculate me from my family's displeasure.

Menu Plan for the Week of Monday, May 3, 2010

Monday - Homemade Chicken and Noodles with carrots and mashed potatoes

Tuesday - Beef Bourguignon from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I (With summer approaching, it'll be getting too warm outside to cook hearty, stick-to-your-ribs fare like beef bourguignon and chicken and noodles, so I thought I'd better get them out of my system)

Wednesday - Chicken salad sandwiches with grapes and walnuts (I may make my own puff pastry for luscious croissants tomorrow if I get the materials for my Shakespeare class on Wednesday organized in time)

Thursday - Grill night! Smoked sausage with baked potatoes

Friday - Spicy nachos (beef, shredded cheddar and pepper-jack, sliced grape tomatoes and green onions, sour cream and h-o-t salsa)

On Saturday, we ate that yummy traditional taco salad with the Catalina dressing and corn chips (some people use Western dressing or even Thousand Island and tortilla chips) and it was soo delicious. Sunday's fare was grilled chicken, baked sweet potatoes and green beans.

Menu Plan Monday

We just got back from the grocery store, on a lean week because of the weekend we've had. On Friday, we had Aisling's Confirmation Mass, so we "stole" some of the grocery money and went out to a late dinner after Mass. We went to Golden Corral, which I know is one of the tackiest restaurants ever, but the food is really good. I had a piece of steak and a piece of tilapia that were both extremely delicious, plus their fried chicken just can't be beat. And their salad bar has bleu cheese crumbles and green olives and dried cranberries, plus these wicked good croutons, so it was well worth it.

On Saturday, the girls attended a Spring Swing dance and my husband and I volunteered to chaperone. Okay, that's a lie: I volunteered my husband and myself as chaperones. I told him, "We don't have to worry about eating anything beforehand because at the Christmas dance, there was so much food that people had to carry home leftovers."

So guess how much food there was at this dance?

We ended up scarfing down pizza in our living room at midnight, approximately twelve hours after we ate lunch.

My husband grilled pork chops yesterday and we ate them with big baked potatoes and garlic bread, but I was suffering from an awful sinus headache (thanks, Mother Nature, for all that RAIN) and didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

So here's the rest of the menu for the week, minus a sizeable chunk of money that went out for a celebratory dinner (planned) and a midnight pizza (unplanned.)

Menu Plan for Week of April 24, 2010

Monday - beef tacos and leftover corn casserole

Tuesday - spaghetti with meat sauce

Wednesday - Spanish Dogs (like coney dogs, except spicy) and oven-baked potato puffs

Thursday - crunchy fish filets and baked beans

Friday - nachos and refried beans

Menu Plan Monday FAILURE TO LAUNCH

Okay, so it was a really busy weekend following a really busy week (Shakespeare class started and threweth me for ye olde loop) and so I didn't ever get my meals planned. In a hasty, slap-dash and completely unorganized manner, then, here is my menu plan. Such as it is. Pity my family.

Menu Plan for the Week of April 19, 2010

Monday - What did we eat last night? I remember that everyone liked it, but whatever it was has completely gone out of my head. But we did eat. Because they let me sleep in the house last night.

Tuesday - Beef and bean quesadillas and corn casserole. I had to send Meelyn to the grocery to pick up everything except the tortillas.

Wednesday - Chicken pot pie? With....mashed potatoes? I don't know.

Thursday - I have no clue. Just....no clue.

Friday - Aisling's Confirmation Mass is on Friday, so I assume we'll be eating somewhere cheap afterwards, which....gulp. We'll probably be eating at about 10:00, although I do remember from Meelyn's confirmation last year that they had cake and all kinds of hors d'oeuvres in the parish hall afterwards.

Menu Plan Monday

Skidding in here a bit tardily on a very late Monday afternoon to post my Menu Plan Monday menus; so late, in fact, that tonight's dinner is simmering away on the stove as I type. And boy, does it smell good! I'll tell you what it is in just a minute.

The theme for this week's meals is Cheap and Even Cheaper. Last week was our spring break, and we elected to use some of our grocery money to have some treats, like the Redbox movie rentals I mentioned, plus lunch at Panera one day and some ice cream cones interspersed throughout our week. Planned beforehand, we can still eat very yummily, if not fancily.

Menu Plan for the Week of April 12, 2010

Monday - 16 Bean Soup and Skillet-Baked Cornbread

Tuesday - Refried Bean Quesadillas and tortilla chips with queso sauce

Wednesday - Beanie-Weenies and Velveeta Shells-n-Cheese

Thursday - Baked Spaghetti (leftover from Saturday and dressed up with mozzarella and pepperoni)

Friday - A trip to some restaurant that features a dollar menu. (The girls are going to a teen gathering from 6:00 - 9:00 and we'll be driving.)

On Saturday evening we had spaghetti and my homemade meat sauce with breadsticks and on Sunday we had patty melts (a very guilty pleasure), homemade potato salad and chips.

Menu Plan Monday

Ahh, Easter Monday it is, and a fine one as well. This is our week for spring vacation and the weather is absolutely gorgeous. The girls spent last night with Nanny and Poppy being spoiled and are spending tonight there as well, so our schedule for the next few days is slightly different.

Many thanks to Laura, whose sensible Menu Plan Monday idea, posted at her blog, I'm an Organizing Junkie, have made a difference to hundreds of familes on the internet, with more added weekly.

Menu Plan for Easter Week, April 5, 2010

Monday - I have Moms' Night Out with some friends tonight and my husband is going to watch the Final Four game (go Bulldogs!) with his favorite cheapo nasty pizza that the rest of us won't eat, so I'm covered. A break from the kitchen, woooo-hooooo!!!

Tuesday - Taco salad, the first one of the season

Wednesday - Easter ham, green bean casserole, carrots and homemade biscuits

Thursday - Breakfast for Dinner! Amish Breakfast Casserole

Friday - Meatless! Refried bean quesadillas with tortilla chips and spicy queso sauce

On Saturday, we had Ragù Americana for dinner -- it was a leftover I took from the freezer and defrosted. Fortunately, the girls are very competent in heating up red sauce and cooking pasta, because I was far too sick to eat anything and couldn't even bring myself to sit at the table with them. I somehow managed to put a Cherry-Glazed Ham in the slow-cooker before we left for the church; it is our family custom to have a little spree when we get home from the Easter Vigil Mass, eating sandwiches made from the ham and the bread I baked for the Easter basket. And as much candy as we can throw down our throats, of course. On Sunday, we went to Mom and Dad's house for Easter dinner and it was delicious.

Menu Plan Monday (on Tuesday, but who's counting)

Maybe I should change the name of this little exercise to "Menu Plan Tuesday"? And then maybe I could get my own list of hundreds of followers who just can't get their acts together enough on Mondays to post their lists on their blogs. I'll just have to leave it to Laura, the MPM originator, to be all efficient at her fantastic blog, I'm an Organizing Junkie, while I dither around in confusion.



So anyway, we did actually eat dinner last night and everyone was very complimentary about it, although now that it's all digested and the dishes are washed and the leftovers covered and stowed away in the fridge, I don't know how I did it. Really, yesterday was such a whack day, my family is lucky they weren't required to dine upon a bowl of canned tomato soup and a handful of stale saltine crackers. But listen here, I'll tell you how I did it: I did it because of Menu Plan Monday. Yes, even though I'm not posting my plan until today, I still have it all written on on my clipboard. So when the time came to prepare dinner, I had every ingredient I needed, which is something that didn't always happen in my pre-MPM days.



So there you have it. Menu Plan Monday has changed my life, even on those weeks when it becomes Menu Plan Tuesday.



Menu Plan for the Week of March 29, 2010 (Holy Week)



Monday - Baked Steak with baked potatoes, green beans and croissants



Tuesday - Roasted Chicken with Dressing and Sweet Potatoes



Wednesday - Grade School Chili, served with peanut butter sandwich halves and lots of crispy saltine crackers



Holy Thursday (early dinner because of Mass at 7:00) - Royal Feast Poured Crust Pizza



Good Friday (fast day, with church services in the afternoon, so no interruption of the dinner schedule) - Fettucine Alfredo with crab



On Saturday (March 27) we had Queso Sauce with tortilla chips and on Sunday we had a new Chicken and Almond Casserole, a debut dish I was testing out on the fam, as I am hoping to serve it at Aisling's Confirmation party in early May. It looks like a winner!