Category Archives: menu plan Monday

menu plan Monday

A menu plan for the last week of soccer practice

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We were scattered all over the countryside this weekend. Rockford and Poppy were hours away at a two-day soccer tournament, and Pete and I were home for a chess tournament. Poppy’s team made it to the semi-finals, and by all accounts she played some of the best soccer she’s played all season. This was Pete’s first chess tournament. His experience was light on victories but he had a great time anyway. I’m proud of both of them, and I was glad to have everyone under the same roof again last night.

This is the last week of soccer practice for awhile. Poppy is a little sad about not seeing her girls four days a week, but she’s also relieved to have a little downtime on the horizon. I am, too.

Here’s what we’ll be eating as soccer season comes to a close:

Monday: Potluck
We’ll be sharing a meal with families from our homeschool co-op.

Tuesday: Fish sticks and mac ‘n’ cheese
Poppy wasn’t around this weekend to tell me what she wanted for Poppy’s Choice night, but I figured she’d be just fine with good ol’ fish sticks and mac.

Wednesday: Ham & swiss sliders
This is one of Rockford’s favorite meals.

Thursday: Poppyseed chicken casserole
I was happy Pete picked this instead of cheeseburgers again this week.

Friday: Pizza

Hungry for more? Check out the Menu Plan Monday linkup at OrgJunkie.

menu plan Monday, National Blog Posting Month

Why I’ve been posting our weekly menu for almost a decade

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Welcome to the first Menu Plan Monday of NaBloPoMo 2016! I’ve been planning our menu a week at a time for almost 15 years, and I’ve posted 89 pages of Menu Plan Monday posts here since 2007, which may lead you to wonder why I sometimes struggle to figure out what to put on said menu plan when I sit down to put it together. That struggle to remember what meals we’ve enjoyed is one of the reasons I keep writing these posts. It’s great to have them to reference when I’m stuck for ideas.

Planning our meals 7 days at a time also helps with our budget, because having a grocery list keeps us from making too many impulse buys. I used to pore over local grocery store sales ads when I made the menu plan, which really maximized the budget. I haven’t taken the time to do that lately, but I do occasionally swap things out on the fly if there’s a good sale going on. I also try to take advantage of things such as the Buy Two, Get Three Free sales that Harris Teeter frequently offers (see: ““How Far Will $64 Go at Harris Teeter”) to stash meats and veggies away in the freezer for leaner days.

Our family is in a very busy season right now, so our meals are mostly things that are very simple and quick to put together these days. Here’s what we’re having this week:

Monday: Tacos
Pete wanted to go to his favorite taco spot for dinner tonight, and it’s his birthday so that’s what we’re gonna do.

Tuesday: Thai Chicken Curry Soup
This is the first dish that caught my eye from Freddie Prinze Jr.’s “Back to the Kitchen.” It was too hot here to make it last week, but it should be cool enough for soup this week. I love Thai curries, so I’m pretty excited about this one.

Wednesday: ???
Rockford and I are going out for the evening. My in-laws and He Who Would Be The Brother-in-Law will be at home dining with the children.

Thursday: Quesadillas
Like tacos, but flat.

Friday: Probably cheeseburgers

Hungry for more? Check out the Menu Plan Monday linkup at OrgJunkie.

menu plan Monday, National Blog Posting Month

A menu plan to ease us into NaBloPoMo

Happy Halloween! One of our Halloween traditions includes a big pot of chili waiting for us when we get home from trick-or-treating. It also includes our friends who moved very, very far away over the summer, which means it’s possibly going to be a sad Halloween for us.

At least we still have chili.

Monday: Chili
The aforementioned chili.

Tuesday: Spanish Chicken Cutlets
Poppy picked this one out of a Cook’s Illustrated magazine a few weeks ago. I’m thrilled that she’s willing to try something new! I hope it’s a good one.

Wednesday: Out?
My dad is visiting this week, and he, Pete and I all have birthdays over the next couple of days. He’s going home before any of them happen, though, so we’ll probably go out to celebrate on Wednesday. Unless we do it another day.

Thursday: Carne Asada Tacos
This one comes from Freddie Prinze Jr.’s cookbook, which I received this week from Freddie himself. Seriously. I’ll tell you more about that next week.

Friday: Popcorn?
I’m not sure we’ll have time to eat an actual meal between soccer practice and “Dr. Strange.” So it might be dinner at the movies for us.

Tomorrow is the first of November, which means it’s the first day of National Blog Posting Month. I’m going to give it a go again this year, so you should see a lot of posts around here over the next few weeks.

Still hungry? Check out the Menu Plan Monday linkup at OrgJunkie for more menu plans.