July 28 - August 3

Th. 28 - Veggie Delight*, Garlic Bread
Fr. 29 - Ham Sandwiches, Tater Rounds
Sa. 30 - Spaghetti, Salad
Su. 31 - Beef Stew
Mo. 1 - Saucy Pork and Pepper, Rice
Tu. 2 - Mojo Chicken, Black Beans and Rice
We. 3 - Grilled Pork Chops, Roasted Potatoes, Broccoli


*Sauted Zucchini and Roma Tomatoes over Penne Pasta 

Zebra Cake - Cross Section

 To make a cake with zebra stripes on the inside, start with a white cake mix and split the batter in half.  Add cocoa and a little oil to one half.  I can't say how much, just taste a dab and see if you like it.  Alternate pools of white and chocolate batter on top of each other.  When you are done, shake the pan gently to get the batter to the edges of the pan.  In hindsight, I would have reserved more white than the chocolate because it seemed like the chocolate batter overwhelmed the cake.  They were also a little flatter than I'd hoped, but that didn't bother the birthday girl :)

July 14 - 20, 2016

14 - Pizza, Salad
15 - Spaghetti and Meatball Bake, Salad, Rolls
16 - Puptent Pie, Carrots
17 - leftovers
18 - Herbed Chicken and Broccoli, Tomatoes, Cottage Cheese
19 - Oriental Fish, Asian Roasted Carrots and Broccoli, Noodles
20 - Hodge Podge Soup, Crackers, Cheese

Everything pink in this photo is actually red.  We made jello poke cupcakes for our 4th of July patriotic dessert.  I followed the instructions on this website.  In hindsight, I was way too conservative with the jello and could have added a lot more.  But they were easy to make and liked by all.

Meal Plan Tips

I don't go around waving my meal plan at everyone, so I guess I just look like someone who knows what's for dinner!  Recently 2 people asked me if I could give them tips on how to make a meal plan.  The funny thing is the day one of them asked me, I had been anxiously scouring the internet for tips myself.  I was just  out of inspiration.  So it was quite rehearsed when I breezily told her to "just think back on the last 10 or so meals you cooked and make a list". 

And that is actually very good advice.

I like to try lots of recipes and I like to cook, but some people like to eat the same thing over and over and hate to cook.  We probably won't have the same meal plan!

My own meal plan is so involved that I just let her see it for a second.  I didn't want to build too big of a meal plan geek reputation!  But the thing is, I am very dependent of my meal plan.  I can't shop without a list, and can't make a list without a meal plan.  Making decisions is stressful, making lots of decisions many times a day is that much worse.  So I plan every meal, snack options, and a couple of dessert options. 

For breakfast - we eat the same things every week on the same days - it actually rotates every 3 days and on Sunday we have cereal.

(Disclaimer - on Sunday I would feed them cereal 3 times a day if I thought that would fly.)

For lunch - we eat the same things roughly every two weeks.  Cold lunches make me grumpy - unless it is hummus.

For dinner - I have these tips:

*If you are excited about meal planning, choose lots of interesting meals from cooking magazines.
*If you are totally stumped, poll everyone in the house for favorite meals.
*If you are very tired of shopping for, organizing, cooking, and serving meals - make the same things again and again.
*If you have been meal planning for years and years and have kept all your plans, use an old one!  Hooray!

June 23 - 29, 2016

23 - Pizza (Natalie's Birthday)
24 - Chicken Sausage and Pasta (Taken to a potluck)
25 - Grilled Pork Chops, Baked Potatoes, Baked Beans
26 - Tropical Island Shrimp, Quinoa, Broccoli
27 - Fried Fish, Hush Puppies, French Fries
28 - Bramble Beans, Corn Bread
29 - Grilled Chicken, Black Beans, Rice (and Yellow Curry Sauce)

Having a toddler is really taking a toll on my creativity.  Lately, when making a meal plan, the first thing I do is bring out my old meal planner and see what we ate last year on the same week! 

May 12-18, 2016

12 - Ham and Cheese Ziti Casserole, Salad
13 - Chicken Curry, Rice, Carrot Sticks
14 - Fried Fish (caught by Caleb), Slaw, Fries, Pickles (my family always included pickles with fried fish!)
15 - Roast Pork Loin, Green Beans, Dumplings, sauerkraut
16 - Beef Stroganoff, Egg Noodles, Peas
17 - Pizza, Salad
18 - Carnitas, Pinto Beans, Rice

He caught all of these!  The two nearest him are large mouth bass - the longer one is 17 inches.  The lesser 13.5 (if it had been 14 he would have had to throw it back).  The rest are Mayan Cichlids  - an invasive and very abundant fish in the Everglades.  There are no size or bag limits for the cichlids and they taste good.

April 21-27, 2016

21 - Parmesan Chicken, Broccoli, Carrots
22 - Sausage and Potatoes with Peppers
23 - Ultimate Grilled Pork Chops, Potatoes, Baked Beans
24 - Sloppy Joes, Onion Rings, Veggie Sticks
25 - Rustic Summer Pasta, Bread
26 - Beef and Barley Stew
27 - Likely Leftovers!

The Parmesan chicken is an old Taste of Home recipe that I cannot find on their website.  It is basically chicken breaded with Parmesan and bread crumbs and baked.  I used to make it a lot, but haven't in a long time.

April 7 - 13, 2016

7 - Mojo Grilled Chicken, Black Beans and Rice - all from scratch!
8 - Beef Stew
9 - Grilled Bratwurst, Tomatoes with cottage cheese, Carrot Coins
10 - Pork Loin, Green Beans, Dumplings, Sauerkraut
11 - Grilled Chicken on a green salad
12 - Spaghetti, Salad, Rolls
13 - Dinner at church

The 8th is debatable - we are getting a new air conditioner and it will be installed that day and I need to keep the kids out of the house most of the day, so do I see myself making a savory beef stew?  Probably not.

And a culinary highlight from last week:

Hamburger Cupcake

Sack race where hamburger cupcakes were consumed.