Menu Mondays

Among many New Year Resolutions that Brandon and I have been discussing... eating at home has been a main one.  We're not huge NY Resolution people, usually.  But, there are some big habits that we would like to change and I hope we both can commit to them.  With our schedules, we are guaranteed to not be home before midnight two nights a week.  We are also guaranteed to not BOTH be home before 9 or 10pm another two nights a week.  This leads to us eating at the Family Biz or another restaurant TOO much and also eating too late at night.

So, I got an idea.  I know there are a ton of bloggers that do menus and post them and I've always 'ohhh ahhhh'd over them!  Now, I probably have mentioned before that I am an organized brain stuck in an disorganized body.  That means that while disorganized and cluttered stuff drives me batty, I'm not always ambitious enough to tackle the jobs!!! HA!  But, I figure if I can write a rough list of menu items down and hang it in our kitchen it will be easy for both of us to see what to expect that week.  The weeknights that I know we'll be home, we can schedule meals and then I will leave a few floating meals to make whenever we are home and have the time.

So, over here at WWW (ha!) I am going to try to post my menu for the week and I will call it Menu Mondays. I'm not looking for a huge following or anything, it's simply to keep me organized and hopefully will motivate me to plan a menu every Sunday!!!  I found this cool site that has some fancy menu plans... Mine won't be that fancy but maybe I will join her Linky thing on the weeks that she does them!

So, for this week... here goes nothin'!

Sunday - Pan grilled Pork Loins and Macaroni & Cheese with Brussel Sprouts
**Marinade pork in ziplock w/olive oil, salt & pepper, fresh rosemary & thyme for no less than one hour. Grill in grill pan and finish cooking in the oven.  Use PW's basic M&C recipe adding crisp bacon and caramelized onions.  Broil or steam brussel sprouts.
Monday - Chicken Pad Thai and Peanut Sauce with Broccoli
**Pad Thai for Two package (take the help!), bean sprouts and scallions for the Pad Thai, Homemade peanut sauce (curry paste, fish sauce, coconut milk & PB.)  Steamed broccoli. YUM!
Tuesday (float) - Chili & Cornbread
**Classic chili recipe with typical seasonings, mixture of beans and seasonings with ground turkey.  Start in crockpot in mid morning.  Packaged cornbread mix with an added can of corn. Yum and EASY!
Wednesday (float) - Teriyaki Chicken & Grilled Veggies with a side salad
**Marinade chicken tenders in teriyaki sauce and grated ginger root. Use grill pan for chicken and set aside, grill julienned carrots and zucchini and serve with a salad!
Friday - Lemon Chicken with Mashed Cauliflower and Broccoli/Brussel Sprouts
**Stuff a whole chicken with a lemon, rosemary, thyme and sage (whatever fresh herbs you have) and maybe an apple (I promise, it's good!) Make two or three balls of tin foil and put them in the bottom of your crock pot. Put the stuffed bird in the crock pot on top of the foil balls and lather the outside with olive oil and salt & pepper.  Cook on low all day. This chicken is SO good! The skin doesn't get brown, but we don't eat chicken skin anyway so it doesn't bother us. Plus, the cleanup is SO easy with this dish. You could roast it in a pan also but for a weekday meal I prefer the crockpot.  It literally falls off the bone and is SO good! I will be using a new recipe for the mashed cauliflower! I've had it before but never have made it myself. I'm excited to try! They're a great substitute for mashed potatoes.  We'll have steamed broccoli or brussel sprouts depending on what is left over.

Saturday & Thursday - Feed yourself days! There are likely to be left overs even after lunches are packed... and there are just some days that you want a sandwich or cereal for dinner, right?! :)

Whew! Now, that may not look so organized but I hope to get better as the weeks go on! I was really good today about going through our freezers and pantry to locate ingredients for all of these items.  I then only went to the store for the items that we needed for this week.  Thankfully, we mostly just needed fresh veggies and fruits as well as some dairy items.  The checker at Safeway said "You're making me look bad! You have so many fruits and veggies!" HA! That's a good thing, right? ;)

If you made it through this post, comment and let me know how you do your menu planning.  Do you follow a blog that does it? If you do, let me know so I can check it out!  Have a great Monday!!!

Back in the Saddle!

Alright, I'm here! Present and counted for! (Is that the right saying? or is it Present and ACCOUNTED for?)

I have spent the past six or so weeks freaking out over my school finals and such.  Honestly, I have been thinking about my blogging comeback (not that it is THAT big of a deal or anything) and I hadn't come up with anything funny to blog about from the past month or so, so I suppose that maybe if something pops into my head then I will blog about it! :)  However, I fully intend on blogging about our trip to Mexico!

Anyway, I am happy to be back and am SO excited to be done with school! But, I am still holding my breath because final grades have NOT been posted.  While I am a straight A student typically... I may (or may not) have chosen to not write a final essay that was worth a good chunk of change... The damned thing was due when we were in Mexico and Brandon and I counted up my points vs. points possible in the class and kept coming up with a B as a worst case scenario.  So, I figure even if I get a C it's no big deal because that's still passing! HA! But, I keep telling people "I'm not done YET... when grades are posted and I know I passed, that's when I will be DONE!!!!"  I plan on having a few drinks the night that grades are posted! I'll have one in celebration if I DID pass and about FIVE in disbelief if I DIDN'T pass!!! HA!

I have already caught up on Christmas posts... and tried to drop by and say hello to my usual blogs but if I didn't make it to yours tonight... HELLO!!!!

Have a great week everyone!!!