Category: Menu Plans

Week of January 16

Monday: Orange Chicken from Trader Joe’s! going out of town to shop with my mom and sister for the day, so this will be a fun easy dinner at home with Ben [he has to work :(].
Tuesday: Korean-Style Black Beans [didn’t make this last week…]
Wednesday: class for me/Ben fends for himself
Thursday: Spicy Sausage, Chicken, and Beans [didn’t make it last week… or the week before. whoops!]
Friday: chicken enchiladas
Saturday: leftovers
Sunday: breakfast for dinner… I have several new pancake recipes I want to try!

Week of January 9

Monday: Garlic Shrimp Pasta
Tuesday: Korean-Style Black Beans
Wednesday: class for me/Ben fends for himself <–boo school! at least it’s my last semester 🙂
Thursday: Chicken Noodle Soup
Friday: leftovers
Saturday: Spicy Sausage, Chicken, and Beans [didn’t make it last week]
Sunday: appetizers and desserts at church

for lunch, besides leftovers of course… Hunter Fieri’s Chicken Salad Sandwiches

Happy 2012! I’ve been taking a break from blogging to spend time over Christmas and New Years’ with Ben and my family, travel, and just relax. Now that the new year is here, I’m starting to get back into somewhat of a routine again–but will definitely be enjoying this last week of break before the new semester starts on January 9th. I’m looking forward to it as it is my last semester of graduate school. 🙂

One of my projects over this break has been to organize my recipe collection. I use a binder system to organize recipes not online or in cookbooks, i.e. those torn from magazines, print outs from friends/family, etc. In order to use these more [because let’s face it: the internet is sometimes more convenient], I’ve decided to only cook and bake from my cookbooks, binders, and recipes I’ve already made before in the month of January. We’ll see how it goes, but I’m sure it’ll be a delicious experiment! Hope your 2012 has been wonderful so far!

Week of January 2

Monday: Ellie Krieger’s Tuna Noodle Casserole [who am I?]

Tuesday: Asian Peanut Butter Pork

Wednesday: Lentil Soup with Spinach and Tomatoes

Thursday: leftovers

Friday: Sweet Potato Waffles

Saturday: Roasted Chicken

Sunday: Spicy Sausage, Chicken, and Beans

After last week, I thought my husband deserved some good meals this week. But the thing is… I’m leaving him here all alone with the kitty because I’m going to Michigan to visit my grandparents with my family for part of the week. Ben has to work, so I needed to make some good meals at the beginning of the week that he can have as leftovers the rest of the week. Including today’s lasagna, hopefully this will be good for him so he doesn’t exist on the delicacy also known as Hamburger Helper all week. 🙂

Week of December 19

Monday: Slow Cooked Smoky Chipotle Brown Sugar Chicken

Tuesday: Crock Pot Hot Potato Soup

Wednesday-Friday: I’ll be gone, Ben will have good leftovers, wings, and even Hamburger Helper as good options!

Saturday: not sure yet… something delicious I hope!

Sunday: Christmas with the family!

So, I realize it’s a little silly, doing a menu plan–typically done at the beginning of the week–at the end of the week. But hey–I have an excuse. It’s finals week. Over the weekend, I spent about a million hours working on a paper. Then Monday I worked on it from 8:00 am until 3:50 pm, a mere 10 minutes before it was due. However… it was turned in on time. Then, it was a mad rush to work on the next assignment for five hours that night, a website for a nonprofit. Tuesday had me staring at the same. stinking. computer screen in the library for 11 hours–yes, you read that right–until I was done. My sweet husband picked me up and took me to dinner to celebrate being done with my SECOND TO LAST semester of grad school!! Yay!

The rest of the week has been a blur of working a bit, watching tv, cooking, reading, and generally doing whatever sounds fun at the time. But now it’s time to get on track. I want to have fun this Christmas break, but I also need to be somewhat productive. For me… that starts with making a menu plan so I can get what we need at the grocery store and not buying everything that looks yummy. So… here we go. 🙂

Week of December 12

Monday: well let’s see, that was a tasty dinner of leftovers in the library. awesome.

Tuesday: gotta love some tilapia at Red Lobster

Wednesday: real cooking! Chipotle Sweet Potato Soup and Pomegranate Kale Orzo. amazing.

Thursday: Christmas group party! woohoo.

Friday: Asian Turkey Burgers and Thai Veggie Burgers. Burger overload. can’t wait. 🙂

Saturday: Chinese food feast with friends! bringing sweet & sour chicken.

Sunday: Mom’s lasagna. always the best!