Meal Planning: July 2016 Dinners

For this month’s meal plan I don’t think I put anything that was new to my family. I spent a lot of time just staring at a blank paper. I guess I’m just feeling some summer apathy.

1. fish, hush puppies, fries
2. spaghetti, salad, breadsticks
3. chicken thighs, corn salad
4. lentil soup, rolls
5. grilled pork chops, cabbage, baked beans
6. pancakes, fruit
7. taco salad
8. sesame chicken, vegetables, rice
9. ravioli, salad
10. chicken & biscuit casserole
11. black beans & rice
12. scalloped potatoes & ham, salad
13. batsaria
14. cheeseburgers, grilled potato, fruit
15. falafel
16. grilled sandwiches
17. tomato basil cream chicken
18. chili, corn bread
19. pork carnitas
20. scrambled eggs
21. grilled pizza, salad
22. chicken curry
23. Parmesan portabella orzo, salad
24. chicken fajitas
25. bean soup
26. bbq pork sandwiches
27. zucchini boats, garlic bread
28. Greek potato stew

Hope this gives you some ideas! Check the blog throughout the month for recipes and details.

Meal Planning: 28 dinners for June 2016

Planning for this month involved more input from Hagbard and Amethesto. I asked them each to suggest 4-6 things they wanted to have for dinner. Amethesto immediately requested falafel again. That was a big hit from May!

In June we are going back to eating meat for dinner although there will be some meatless meals. We eat soups year round you will notice because I like soup and it is economical.

My birthday and Father’s day are this month so Hagbard and I are getting a joint gift of a new grill. We’ll probably start grilling more foods after we get that. Our old grill was also a birthday gift to me about 9 years ago. I know some women who leave outdoor cooking exclusively to men but I think grilling is a lot of fun and I do most of it at our house. Something to look forward to!

There was a suggestion that I include recipe links in my meal plan posts. There are a couple of things that I am not sure which recipe I will use so I am not linking to anything or  just linking to my inspiration recipe.

1. eggs, fruit crisp
2. potatoes stuffed with sausage , salad
3. Thai chicken pizza
4. chili, sweet cornbread
5. burritos, Mexican street corn salad
6. chicken thighs, mushrooms, mac & cheese
7. fish, hush puppies, fruit salad
8. Greek potatoes, salad
9. stuffed bread with pastrami, muenster, caramelized onion
10. omelet rice, egg rolls
11. Mexican meatball soup
12. chicken legs, Make-You-Strong spinach, baked potato
13. battered chicken planks, cabbage salad, tator tots
14. Chicago dogs, pasta salad, buffalo cauliflower
15. spaghetti, breadsticks
16. pinwheel stuffed steak, baked potato, lemon pepper zucchini
17. General Tso’s chicken, stir fry vegetables, rice
18. Greek potato stew
19. tacos
20. chicken sandwich, spicy roasted cauliflower with tahini
21. Big salad
22. falafel, tzatziki sauce, fries
23. pigs in a blanket, cabbage salad, strawberry pineapple papaya smoothie
24. french toast, fruit
25. ham and bean soup, bread
26. quesadillas, salad, chips, salsa
27. ham, broccoli, mashed potatoes, baked beans
28. tomato basil cream chicken, pasta

Hope this gives you some ideas! Check the blog throughout the month for recipes and details.

 

Meal Planning: Meatless May

It is 2:42 AM. It has been pouring rain all night and I’m awake making sure my basement doesn’t flood. Since I am up I decided to tackle meal planning for next month. We decided as a family to have meatless dinners in May even though we are not vegetarians. Just an experiment to see what it does to our budget and also to show Amethesto that there are lots of meatless meal options that are not weird or boring.
I started by making a list of meatless dishes we already have had and adding a few new things. Amethesto is very anti-tofu and I’m not really a fan of it either so no tofu dishes. My next step was to decide a few categories or themes like breakfast for dinner, soup, pasta, rice. That helps to narrow down the choices as I can quickly find 4 dishes to fit those catergories. Then I just fill in the rest.

Here are my 28 dinners for May:

1. Eggs, hashbrowns, fruit
2. Black bean and rice soup
3. Stuffed shells, salad
4. Cheesy broccoli rice casserole
5. Mexican pizza
6. Batsaria
7. Vegetarian shepherd’s pie
8. Baked strawberry cheesecake oatmeal
9. Lentil soup, bread
10. Baked spaghetti olivetti
11. Black bean empanadas, salad
12. Falafel, Greek rice
13. Mac & cheese, green beans
14. Tator tot nachos
15. Pancakes, fruit
16. Tomato soup , grilled cheese sandwich
17. Broccoli bowtie pesto pasta, garlic bread
18. Beans and rice, cornbread
19. Lasagna zucchini boats
20. Greek potato, zucchini and bean stew
21. Coconut rice, veggie eggrolls
22. Coco wheats, fruit
23. Cheese soup, beer bread
24. Tortellini, salad
25. Veggie burgers, baked potato
26. Cheese ravioli, broccoli and mushrooms
27. Mujaddara, salad
28. Taco casserole

Some recipes originally had meat but I am leaving it out or replacing it with something like beans.

Recipes and details to be posted as we have things. Check back throughout the month!

April 2016- Dinner Plans

I’ve been working on my meal plans for April. This time Amethesto is supposed to cook a couple of our meals so I had her select some things she wanted to make. She chose grilled ham & cheese sandwiches, spaghetti and meatballs, and chili with homemade cheesy crackers. She isn’t very interested in cooking but I feel it is important for everyone to know how to cook something for themselves. She chose some very basic things that she has eaten many times before which I think is great for a beginner cook to do.

Some of these 28 meals will be completely new to us and some are old standards.

1. French bread pizza, salad
2. Fassolatha, bread
3. Sausage alfredo bake, salad
4. Chicken fajitas, seasoned rice
5. Veggie burgers, pasta salad, fruit
6. Stir fry, rice
7. Buffalo chicken penne pasta, broccoli
8. Mini calzones, salad
9. Potato soup, bread
10. Grilled ham & cheese sandwiches, roasted potato slices
11. Fish, hasselback potatoes, corn
12. Chicken & biscuit casserole
13. Ravioli, zucchini
14. Big salad, fruit crisp
15. Mexican pizza, fruit
16. Slow cooker chicken & dumplings, salad
17. Asian chicken wraps, rice
18. Pan roasted pork chops, potatoes and green beans
19. Eggs, sweet potato fritters, fruit
20. Potato and sausage goulash
21. Spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread
22. Pizza quesadillas, salad
23. Chili, cheese star crackers
24. Chicago dogs, French fries
25. Chicken tacos, Spanish rice
26. Scalloped potatoes and ham, green beans
27. Beans and rice, cherry hand pies
28. Stuffed bread, salad

A couple of themes are: soup, pizza in different forms, casseroles, wraps or sandwiches.  I wanted to use my slow cooker a few times. I’m trying to think of more interesting side dishes but feel that is a weak point for me. I just default to salad when I can’t think of anything!

Check the blog throughout the month for recipes and details.

Previous months meal plans: https://lounmoun.wordpress.com/2016/02/29/meal-plan-end-of-feb-end-of-march/