Monday - Easy Toscana Soup

Tuesday - Garlic Chicken, rice, butter beans  (This is the first time I’m making the garlic chicken.  I hope it’s good!)

Wednesday - Pizza (something quick before church)

Thursday - Cube steak with gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, biscuits

Friday - Spaghetti, salad, and garlic bread

Saturday - Out to dinner with the family.

Sunday - Fundraiser meal at church for Haiti.

I hope this post looks ok. Sometimes wordpress gets crazy and messes up the codes. I’ve corrected this post several times.

What are you cooking this week?

I have a confession.  This is the first time I have ever planned my meals out for the week.  I think about what I’m going to cook during the week, the day before, or the day of, but I have never done a menu. 

I just buy things on sale or dirt cheap (using The Grocery Game) and then I go from there.  This week I’m trying something new and we’ll see how it goes.  :)  Yay for organization!

Monday - Chicken taco salads

Tuesday - Fried pork chops, rice, broccoli

Wednesday - Homemade pizza

Thursday - Easy Chicken & Vegetable Bake

Friday - Taco soup (I’ve had this at church and I’m hunting for a good recipe.)

Go to Organizing Junkie to find out what everyone else is cooking this week.  What’s on your menu?

I remember the year we purchased our first home.  I decided that I should host Christmas dinner.  We had my parents and my husband’s parents over.  I didn’t realize all the work that would go into hosting the meal, opening presents, and family time.  Whew! 

I learned a lot that day and now I certainly don’t take it for granted when I visit someone else’s house.  When I go to someone else’s house for a Thanksgiving or Christmas meal, I try to offer to make something such as sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, or whatever they request.

If you are hosting this year’s dinner, here are some tips to help you not to stress.  Plan ahead so that you can enjoy being with your family.

Two weeks prior to Thanksgiving:

• Plan your menu. 
• Decide if anything can be made ahead and frozen.
• Get a final count of who’s coming.
• Assign menu items to those who want to help.  Never turn down help from anyone who offers.  If you don’t know right then what they can do then say, “I would love for you to help.  I don’t know right now exactly what I need help with.  Can I call you back in a couple of days and left you know?”
• Make your shopping list.
• Make your to-do list.  Prioritize your list, schedule, and delegate.

One week prior to Thanksgiving:

• Gather any recipes that you need.
• Go over your shopping list again and compare it with your recipes to insure that you don’t forget anything.
• Shop early for groceries and avoid the rush.
• Get your children to help with decorations.  They can even make place mats with turkeys or turkeys from pinecones.  You can insert place cards in the pine cones.
• Cook and freeze any menu items that you can.
• Clean bathrooms, living and dining rooms.  Clean house of clutter.

A few days before Thanksgiving:

• Put your turkey in the refrigerator to thaw.  Most birds usually take a few days to thaw.  Make sure you put a dish under it to catch any drippings.
• Buy any last minute perishables you might need.

Day before Thanksgiving:

• If possible, set the table.
• Make whatever dishes you can.  I like to make my sweet potato casserole the day before and refrigerate it.  The day of the dinner I heat up the casserole and add the marshmallows during the last 10 minutes of cooking. 
• Straighten up the house.

Thanksgiving Day:

• Finish any last minute cooking:  turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, etc.
• Enjoy yourself.
• Be thankful!

By Robyn Tippins

I’ve been thinking of writing an e-book of a month of meal plans (w/recipes with a shopping list) for a long time. I started today with these first 5 meals. They consist of:

• 1 American Dish - Salmon With Hollandaise Sauce (from scratch)
• 1 Mexican Dish - Enchiladas With Salsa (scratch), Gaucamole (scratch) and White Cheese Dip (scratch)
• 2 Asian Dishes - Fried Rice and Shrimp and Fried Rice and Steak With White Sauce (that dip you see in Japanese restaurants) and Sweet Teriyaki, both from scratch, although when you see how easy the white sauce is you’ll not be impressed with my ‘from scratch’ label
• 1 Italian Dish - Fettuccine Alfredo with homemade alfredo sauce and homemade french bread

Each of these dishes add either a salad or soup (recipe included) as a starter to each meal and all are whole grain (except the french bread), are loaded with veggies and use real fats (salmon, butter, olive oil) rather than manufactured oils (margarine, etc.). They are pretty darn healthy and are delicious, kid-approved even.

I’m going to (one day LOL) release the ebook of the whole month of dishes, with the meal plan, but until I do, enjoy these for free. Please give me feed back so I can make a great product when I finally find the time to do it.

5 Kid Approved International Recipes (free ebook)
Note: The ebook will be a pdf, but for time’s sake, I’m just uploading this one as a Word doc. If you can’t read Word docs, email me at robyn at sleepyblogger.com and I’ll get off my lazy butt and make a pdf just for you!

Finally, I’m clearing the dust off of the boxes in our home (just completed a cross-country move) and the dust off of this blog. I know I’m not linking to MPM correctly, but I have to take the time to post when I can and next week’s isn’t due until Sunday night. I’ll link to it, if I can remember, then. (UPDATE:  Here’s the link to this week’s Menu Plan Monday)
I’m leaving to go to SOBCon 07 on Friday morning, so the weekend meals will likely all be from the freezer or from McDonalds, since hubby is in charge of this and all 4 kids. Lately he’s been staying home with them while I work (new job here) so he can handle it, but he doesn’t take on too much. With 4 kids, that’s a wise choice. I’ll post the grocery list, if I can remember it. LOL
On the menu this week is:

Saturday Night - Steak with Stir-Fried Buttered Squash and Potato Salad
Sunday Night - Meatloaf with Creamed Spinach (literally butter, cream and frozen spinach in a saucepan for an hour) and Sweet Corn (frozen and buttered corn in a saucepan) and cornbread
Monday - BBQ Pork Sandwiches with Green Beans and Mac N Cheese
Monday Night - Rotisserie Chicken* with Mashed Potatoes (cream and boiled potatoes blended in a food processor) and Creamed Peas (cream, butter and frozen peas in a saucepan) and cornbread
Tuesday (leftovers)
Tuesday Night - Pot Roast with carrots and potatoes and cornbread
Weds (leftovers)
Wednesday Night - Spaghetti with French Bread* (will, at same time, prepare lasagna and place in refrigerator for hubby to cook next day)
Thursday - Lasagna with LO French Bread*
Thursday Night - Order in Chinese Food
Friday - Sandwiches and Cole Slaw and LO Potato Salad
Friday Night - Pizza*

*means already prepared from grocery store

Monday: Lamb Chops, Macaroni and Cheese and Biscuits
Tuesday: Stuffed Salmon and Asparagus Casserole
Wednesday: Pork Loin Chops and Homemade Mashed Potatoes
Thursday: Hot Dogs and Fries
Friday: Steaks and Baked Potatoes

Hope you all have a great Christmas!

Chicken/Turkey Enchiladas
Apple Pork Chops
Amy’s Pizza - find at health food stores and some grocery stores
Hamburgers and Fries on Whole Wheat Buns
Chicken and Dumplings - I’m from the Savannah, GA area and have eaten at Paula Deans many times. These are super yummy (not very healthy though)

I’m going to SF next week so I highly doubt I’ll be posting my meal plan then. However, since my hubby is going to be home with the kids while I’m gone, I’ll go ahead and tell you their menu will be McDonalds, Pizza Hut and PBJs. Ha ha. Just kidding honey.