Tag Archives: menu plan Monday

Maybe next week I’ll make myself some DIY Lunchables

01/18/2016 Nichole

I’ve been tracking my meals again over the last few weeks, and it has become glaringly obvious that I have some very unhealthy eating habits. I always used to take my lunch with me back when I was working, and I tried to choose at least moderately healthy foods. Once I became a stay-at-home mom, though, I had the entire kitchen available for grazing. That made it really easy for me to slip into some bad habits. I don’t eat breakfast and I rarely eat lunch, so most days around 3:30pm I’m ravenous and subsequently eat everything in the kitchen.

I’m trying to mend my unhealthy ways a bit, so this week I didn’t stop at dinner when I made my meal plan. I have Cuties and blueberries on hand for breakfast, and I bought a rotisserie chicken and planned some simple lunches based on that. I spent some time yesterday preparing the ingredients so I can put my lunch together easily. I’ll be having a burrito bowl today — it’s already prepped and just needs to be drizzled with its chipotle sour cream sauce — and the rest of the week will be some combination of Thai chicken wraps, chicken salad and at least one more burrito bowl. Now I just have to recondition my brain to get used to eating an actual meal during the day.

Here’s my dinner plan for the week:

Monday: Coconut Curry Chicken: I moved things around a little last week, so we never had the Lavanya’s. Barring major mishaps, it’s happening today.

Tuesday: Breakfast for dinner: Last week’s BFD was such a tremendous success that we decided to do it again.

Wednesday: Leftovers or sandwiches: We’ll probably have leftover chicken curry. If not, we’ll have some kind of sandwiches. Basketball practice has made Wednesday nights a little chaotic on the dining front.

Thursday: Sloppy Joes: We’ll have frozen french fries, too.

Friday: Pizza: Last week I grilled cheese pizza, pepperoni pizza and BBQ chicken pizza while my brother and his family were visiting. I’m thinking I may try to do a barbacoa version this week.

What do you usually have for lunch?

More Monday Menus at OrgJunkie!

menu plan Monday

We may be back in the real world, but we have not stopped eating cheese for every meal

01/04/2016 Nichole 1 Comment

Hello, and welcome to the first Butterscotch Sundae dispatch of 2016! Not only is it my first post of the year, it’s the first menu plan! Excitement all around!

We had a very nice New Year’s Eve at Rockford’s sister’s house, and we come home on Friday evening to discover that our DVR had not recorded the new “Sherlock” special. So that was a bummer. But the kids helped Rockford take down all of the Christmas decorations — our Christmas tree awaits pickup at the curb at the moment — and they went to see “The Road Chip” while I spent a few hours at Target and Michaels and Kitchen & Co. and Pier One, and it was an altogether fine weekend despite the lack of Cumberbatch & Co.

(It airs again on the 10th, so all is not lost.)

Today we are all endeavoring to return to work and school, and it hasn’t been completely smooth sailing for any of us. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just ease back into things with a week of half-days after the holidays?

Monday: Macaroni and Cheese: I made the Homeroom
Once upon a time, Poppy was a toddler who dumped macaroni and cheese onto her head.
recipe on Christmas Day, but it didn’t come out as creamy and luxurious as it should have because I left it in the oven too long and it dried out. I blame the residual stress from Rockford’s Rockin’ ER Christmas Afternoon Special. (It was a kidney stone, and it is no longer with us.) I was terribly disappointed in the dry mac, so I’m making it again for dinner tonight. We’ll also be having salad to offset the cheese intake.

Tuesday: Chicken enchilada casserole: I found the layered chicken and black bean enchilada casserole recipe several years ago on AllRecipes.com when I wanted some enchiladas but didn’t want to wrap them all up. The corn tortillas tend to get a little mushy, but the flavor is acceptable.

Wednesday: Grilled cheese sandwiches: Rockford and Pete will probably stop for a cheeseburger after basketball practice, but Poppy and I will be at home enjoying grilled cheese.

Thursday: Appetizer night: I’m not sure exactly what’s in the freezer, but I know we have a few boxes of Trader Joe’s appetizers that I never used during our holiday entertaining. I’m also going to make Alton Brown’s Spinach-Artichoke Dip, which looks to be the simplest recipe he’s ever produced.

Friday: Pizza: One of my New Year’s Resolutions was to make homemade pizzas more often. I’m going with the tried-and-true Almost Famous Barbecue Chicken Pizza this week.

Happy New Year to you and yours, and I hope you all have relatively painless re-entries into the non-holiday world.

Still hungry? Check out Menu Plan Monday at OrgJunkie for more menu plans!

menu plan Monday

There really is a ‘Supernatural’ gif for every occassion.

12/07/2015 Nichole 3 Comments

Rockford left for Shanghai last Sunday. It’s always stressful when he’s out of town, but it ramps up the anxiety even more when he calls on Monday morning and says, “Well, I’m in Korea.” To which I said

You may have read that pollution in China hit dangerous levels again last week. Rockford takes a packages of air filter masks with him when he goes to Beijing, but Shanghai usually isn’t as smoggy. This time, though, the pollution and some heavy fog made it impossible to land in Shanghai. So Rockford’s plane was diverted to Korea instead.

They went from Korea to Toyko, where he spent the night, and he finally arrived in Shanghai the next day. The trip didn’t get much smoother from there. He had a terrifying car ride,

he found out that his flight from Shanghai to Qingdao had been rescheduled at a completely different airport than the airport in which he was standing,

and he had to listen to “Jingle Dogs” on repeat at dinner one evening.

Things were pretty smooth for most of the week on the home front. We did school, Poppy had a dentist appointment, Pete’s basketball season started, and my mom came over for a night so we could take her out for birthday burritos. But then the ear pain Poppy had first mentioned last weekend got a little bit worse.

And a little worse. And then it started to go away, and then she woke up Saturday morning with aching, stuffy ears and puffy, welded-shut eyes. So we spent an hour and a half at urgent care and then dropped some more bills at the drug store to treat what turned out to be two infected ears and conjunctivitis.

Instead of Pete and Poppy going to Kids Night Out at the tae kwon do place and myself going to the grocery store all by my lonesome, we ordered pizza and watched “Home” and Pete had a dance party to which I was not invited. So after a not-so-auspicious start, it ended up being a good day.

Finally, Rockford got home yesterday morning. And we were all like

Then I realized I never went to the grocery store on Saturday, so I whipped up a menu plan for the week and I went to the grocery store.

Thank you kindly for enduring all the “Supernatural” gifs. (Or, if you’re a right-minded person who loves the show: You’re welcome.) Here’s what we’ll be enjoying for dinner this week!

Monday: Cube steak: It’s one of the easiest ways to create gravy for the mashed potatoes.

Tuesday: Crispy garlic chicken: This is a great, simple dish. It’s basically just marinated Shake ‘n’ Bake chicken. But I do have to remember to put the chicken in the marinade today so it’s at peak flavor tomorrow.

Wednesday: Various and sundry: Pete and Rockford have basketball practice in the evening — Pete’s playing; Rockford’s the assistant coach — so they’ll probably be going out for a burger after practice. Poppy and I have a book club meeting.

Thursday: Breakfast burritos: I’m hoping this will be a dish everyone will eat. I know Rockford and Pete will eat them, but I’m not sure about Poppy. If nothing else, she can make a cheese quesadilla.

Friday: Pizza: I’m one pizza-order away from a free pizza at Papa John’s, so I might do that this week.

Looking for more mealtime inspiration? Check out Menu Plan Monday at OrgJunkie.com!