So I finally jumped on the bandwagon and joined Pinterest last week. If you want to follow me ~ please do! One of the things I’ve come to love more than anything else on Pinterest is RECIPES!! I love the pictures of the delicious looking food… it makes me really be able to “see” if we’ll like it or not! (for some reason I don’t know why because that doesn’t make a ton of sense, so just bear with me!)

Anyway… we missed our meal planning and shopping over the weekend so I decided to let Pinterest be my guide for meal planning this week. Here’s what I came up with… and I’m so excited I can’t even decide what we should have first!

You can find all these recipes in my food/drink board on Pinterest… so I’ll just link you directly to the pin.

Crockpot Parmesan Honey Pork Roast
with green beans
(we’ll have leftover pulled pork sandwiches for lunches as well)

Lentil Soup ~ this was left over from last week.

Monkey Bread Pizza ~ I’m so excited about this one I can’t see straight. I’ll have to dig out my bundt pan!

Curried Vegetable and Chickpea Stew (I’ll be adding chicken to this one… you know how my husband is)

Chicken and Spinach Pasta Bake
Salad

Steak Pinwheels ~ these were one of the first things I found on Pinterest and HAD to have them!!
Salad, homemade bread

Leftover Night…

So… who’s your favorite to follow on Pinterest for great recipes? Do share… I’m still new over there and need some great people to connect with.

Another great way to find meal plan ideas is to go to OrgJunkie.com for Meal Plan Mondays! We’re linked up.

We made it through the first week of school… 6:30am is still a little early for me though! However, I’ve found some ways to make getting things together smoothly in the morning a little easier. In fact, I had 20 minutes to read a book this morning we were so far ahead of schedule!!

1. Make things ahead of time.

Omelets can be frozen. Breakfast burritoes can be frozen. Fruit salad can be put together the night before. Even creating a menu for breakfast so you’re not flailing around trying to figure out what to feed the kiddos in the morning has been a huge help for me.

It really is worth taking the time over the weekend to make up some nutritious breakfast food and throw it in the freezer for a quick healthy breakfast during the week.

2. Have a plan for lunch.

This has been the KEY to my lunch box success thus far… yes I realize it’s been not even a week… but I can’t believe how well it’s going.  In addition to creating a dinner meal plan I have also been creating one for lunch. Knowing exactly what I’m supposed to be putting in her lunch box has helped me get things done quickly and efficiently in the mornings.

3. Leftovers!

I had big plans and big dreams for these gorgeous little person lunches… however, leftovers work really well! She picked out a cute thermos and loves having hot food in there for lunch. When I get up I microwave a cup or so of water and pour it in the thermos to get it good and hot (put the lid on too). Then when I head up her lunch I just dump the water out and put the food in. She says her lunch has still been plenty warm at lunch time. I’m still looking forward to the weather getting cooler so I can send her soup! (and so is she!!)

So there’s 3 tips a first time lunch packer has found to get lunch (and breakfast) done and get us out the door on time!

Here’s what we’re eating this week:

Sunday: Crockpost Lasagna (thank you so much Maryann! It was absolutely delicious and SO easy!)
Salad, homemade Rosemary Garlic bread

Monday: Beef and Bean Burritoes
Lettuce, Rice

Tuesday: Grilled BBQ Chicken
Mixed Veggies

Wed: Pork Roast
Sweet potatoes and Green Beans
(we didn’t get to this one last week)

Thursday: Teriyaki Chicken
Broccoli and Rice
Salad

Friday: Goulash

Saturday: Homemade Pizza
Salad

Hanna’s Lunches:

M: Lasagna
Salad, watermelon

T: Burrito
Beans and rice, Fruit

W: Pizza Pinwheels
fruit, veggies

Th: Egg Salad
Triscuits, tomatoes, fruit

Fr: PB Banana Roll Up
fresh veggies, fruit

As always, we’re linked up with OrgJunkie.com! Stop by and do some blog hopping for more great meal planning ideas.

Hanna’s set to start kindergarten Wednesday! I can’t believe how long the days are, and yet how short the years have been. My little baby is going to full day big girl school.

Which means she’s gonna need lunch. So this week I’ve been scouring the interwebs trying to find inspiration from lunch blogs. I’ve found a few that I really like, and I’m always on the hunt for more (it’s gonna be a long year folks!) If you have any recommendations for blogs that have healthy lunch ideas please leave them in the comments. Thanks!

In all my reading I realized I’m going to have to do a little planning. Breakfast and lunch around here have always been pretty laid back, but now we’re going to be in a time crunch, and she’ll be eating breakfast at home (unlike the last 2 years where she ate breakfast and lunch at preschool!) I’ll also be sending her lunch so I know she’s getting a healthy, real food meal.

I realized I was going to just have to add breakfast and lunch to my meal plan so I could make sure I had everything I needed for all those meals in the house, without having to make multiple stops to the grocery store during the week.

I’ve also been asking around and here are some great tip I got about getting a good breakfast in her before school.

Make something in batches and freeze it in single servings so I can just take it out, heat it up and let her eat it.

Over the weekend we made Baked Oatmeal. (It was delicious) and there was a lot left over, so I definitely froze that for later breakfast use.

I am also planning on doing a bunch of breakfast burritoes ~ with homemade whole wheat tortillas, veggies, eggs and cheese.

I’m hoping, since I’m NOT a morning person… these tricks will help me get a hot nutritious meal in her belly before she gets to school.

I also have been a little worried about the time limit she’ll have to eat at lunch. We’ve been preparing for school lunch here at home.  She’s actually gotten a bit better about eating and staying focused, so we’ll see how that goes at school.

Another great tip I found is to freeze soup in small canning jars. They are the perfect amount to go in a thermos. I picked up canning jars over the weekend (since it’s the season for them to be on sale!), and will start gathering soup recipes. She’s very excited about having soup in her thermos. I think having foods she excited about will help her eat as well.

So here’s what’s on our menu this week:

Breakfast:

Baked Oatmeal

Breakfast Burritoes

Cereal with fruit and a boiled egg

Lunch:

Sandwiches and fruit/veggies (m and t)

w: Summer in a Bowl (leftovers)
fruit/nuts

th: Coconut Shrimp
salad and quinoa

F: Apple Sandwiches (pb and raisins)
sliced veggies with tzatziki sauce

S and S ~ whatever’s in the house.

Dinner:

M: Ratatouille Polenta Bake (and I’ll be adding some chicken)
salad

Tues: Summer in a Bowl
Side Salad

Wed: Coconut Shrimp 
Quinoa and Salad

Thurs: Lentils and Rice with Sausage
Steamed Broccoli

Fri: Balsamic Pork Roast
mashed sweet potatoes and green beans

Sat: Homemade Pizza
Salad

Sun: Slow Cooker Lasagna (I’m adding hamburger)
Salad

There you have it. Wish me luck sending my little one off to school, and managing more structured meals all day. You might notice I’ve linked to 100 Days of Real Food quite a bit in this post. Her blog is a plethora of resources. I just love it, and her mission.

We’re also linked up over at I’m an Organizing Junkie. If you need more meal plan ideas you can browse hundreds of meal plans made by real women all over the country.

When it’s time to sit down and plan our weekly menu there are some weeks when I just don’t have a clue. It seems we’ve been eating the same meals over and over and I’m just sick of them.

When this happens I pull out a few of my tricks to come up with some new meals to fill in our meal plan.

Getting ideas for a weekly meal plan:

Blogs

Blogs are definitely my go to resource. I have an entire tab in my igoogle page that is just recipe blogs, and resources for dinner ideas. I can pull up that tab and just cruise the titles until I see something that sounds good. Click the site and if it’s something we’ll probably like, put it on the menu! I also like to go back to the blog after we’ve tried it and leave a comment about our experience with the recipe.

It’s a good idea if you’re using blogs to plan your menu to either print out the recipe, or at least write down the url to the post so you can easily find the recipe when it comes time to cook it.

Magazines 

My mom subscribes me to quite a few magazines. Rachel Ray Everyday is one of them. If I’m at a complete loss I will look through the magazine to see if I can find something worth putting on our menu. Same goes for Sandra Lee’s magazine as well.

Cookbooks

I have shelves and shelves of cookbooks ~ and quite a few file folders of digital cookbooks as well. I definitely have my favorites, so when I’m stumped for meal ideas I pull them out. Thumb through them, until I find something that sounds yummy.

Meal Plan Monday

You know I participate every week, but don’t forget all those archives! There are thousands of entire meal plans in the archives over at OrgJunkie.com. It can be a very easy way to find some meal plan ideas (and find more great blogs to add to your recipe Igoogle page!)

Hope that gives you a few ideas for when you’re feeling stuck in your menu planning. This was one of those weeks for me… here’s what I’ve come up with.

Chicken with Spinach Orzo (Rachel Ray)

Homemade Pizza
salad

Hamburgers
fresh sliced veggies

Pork Chops
mixed veggies
broccoli rice

Roasted Chicken (in the crock pot)
potatoes and carrots

Cous Cous Stuffed Peppers 
Salad

Pulled BBQ Sandwiches (leftover from crockpot chicken)
Baked Beans

When you start to change your diet, or choose to include new healthier choices in your diet it can be tough on your grocery bill. Those new things seem so foreign and strange. It can be tough to figure out exactly what you need and how to make it all work within your budget.

However, one day you’ll  sit down to do your meal plan and realize you’ve got a better handle on things and you’ll be able to incorporate these new changes and come in under budget.

So, if you’re trying something new don’t get discouraged and realize it will start to feel more normal and easy. It probably won’t even take all that long. I was getting overwhelmed and coming in way over budget when I started adding juicing and more fresh raw veggies to our diet. However, this week, only a couple weeks into it I created our menu for 9 days, including at least 1 juice a day under our $100 a week budget!! YAY!! There is hope, so stick with those healthy changes because you CAN make it work.

During the last couple weeks we got our menu off track, so I did plan for this weekend through next, but I’ll just give you this week’s menu.

Here’s what we’re eating this week:

Leftover Vegetable Lentil Curry (that recipe made a LOT!)
Naan

Grilled pork chops
corn, salad

Grilled Lemon Herb Fish
Steamed Broccoli
cucumber slices

Ham Avocado Melt
Southwest Salad

Homemade Pizza

Hamburgers
Sauteed Green Beans

Grilled Chicken
Salad and Corn

Our lunch ideas ~

Salads

Sandwhiches

Quesadillas

Tortellini Salad

Tuna Apple Salad

Breakfast Ideas:

Pure Veggie Juice

Fruit

Cereal

Oatmeal

Smoothies

I’ve been having a tough time coming up with lunch and breakfast ideas on the fly, so I decided to write down some ideas before lunch time happens. Now I know I have all the things I need in the house, and some ideas to run with.

So, that’s what’s on our plate this week… we’re linked up with OrgJunkie.com as always. If you need some menu ideas stop by and check out all the great menu plans people have cooked up this week.

You may or may not have heard they are getting rid of the “food pyramid” and replacing it with my plate. While I’m not sure I necessarily and completely agree with this new plate, I do know (especially after drinking nothing but juice for 5 days ~ yes, I only made it five days ~ but it was very eye opening), that the more and more vegetables and fruits in our diet the better.

I’m shooting these days for at least 1/2 my plate to be covered in veggies. I’m also trying to incorporate more raw veggies into our meal plans, so you’ll see a bunch of salad on this weeks menu. These are going to be salads filled with colorful and lovely veggies (mine will also include a variety of colorful lettuces ~ still working on the family in that regard) ~ we’re going past the carrots and cukes this week baby!

I’m also shooting for more whole grains ~ not necessarily wheat, but other grains like Quinoa or Millet.

One way I’m trying to introduce these new and unusual grains to my family is by combining them in a salad with other well known and loved foods ~ like cucumbers, or other veggies they already love.

I’m going to be making some salads for lunch this week using vegetables and these new grains, and then I’ll save some as a side for dinner as well. We shall see how it goes.

What about you? Are you trying to add more veggies to your plate? What about whole grains? I’d love to hear how you’re serving them ~ please tell me all about it or link up in the comments sections.

Here’s our Menu for the Week

Monday (meatless)

Quinoa Spinach Bake
Large salad

Tuesday

Chicken Quesadillas
Beans/rice 
salad

Wednesday

Burgers ~ got some nice grass fed patties at the Farmer’s Market this weekend
Mediterranean Chickpea Salad

Thursday

Grilled Fish
Salad
Quinoa Salad with Cucumbers

Friday

Balsamic Pork Roast
Quinoa Pilaf with Spring Veggies
Salad

Saturday

Vegetable Lentil Curry
Salad
Naan

Sunday

Grilled Chicken Quarters
Salad
grilled veggies

That’s what’s on our menu this week… as always we’re linked up with OrgJunkie.com for Meal Plan Monday. If you’re stuck for ideas stop by, hundreds of meal plans to peruse!

This week I’m trying to keep it very simple, yet delicious. We’ve got a couple cook once eat twice items.

I love it when I can cook double something to use later, or even plan on using the leftovers of one meal for something else. This is a great idea in the crock pot. It doesn’t take any longer to cook 2 roasts, than it does one. (or anything else for that matter) however, when you cook two at a time you save energy, and have food pre cooked for another day.

This is also a great way to have food left for lunches, cook one or two extra pieces of chicken, and your lunch for the next day is already made. I’m definitely going to start working this in when it comes time for Hanna to go back to school because I will be sending her lunch with her.

Here’s what’s on the menu this week:

Pork Roast
Carrots and Salad

BBQ Pork Sandwiches (left from the roast)
potato salad

Pizza
ham, pineapple, mushrooms, and black olives

Chicken Cacciatore
pasta, salad

Hamburgers
baked beans

Chicken Quesadillas
beans/rice

Roasted Herb Chicken Quarters
noodle Side dish/mixed veggies

This is what my family is having this week… however… this week I’m starting a 10 day Veggie Juice reboot. Yep, 10 days of freshly juiced fruits and veggies. We’ll see how it goes. Stop by Veggie Juice Reboot if you’re interested in what I’m eating drinking.

As always, we’re linked up with OrgJunkie.com for Meal Plan Mondays… I’m gonna look around and see if there are any other juicers out there.

Last weekend my kiddo spent a good part of her time worrying about having to go down the big slide at swim lessons Monday morning. Monday morning came around and she decided she just wasn’t going to go to swim lessons at all. Well, that’s not really how I roll, and while it was between her and her teacher whether she went down the slide or not… she was going to lessons.

When I picked her up she was so proud to tell me she’d not only gone down the slide once, but twice! That right there is reason enough for a celebration for me. Being really afraid and doing it anyway… yeah, that’s what I want to instill in my kiddo.

We went grocery shopping and picked up an angel food cake (my favorite) and some strawberries and blueberries. I thought a simple strawberry sauce would be really nice to go with it. Here’s what I did, and it was absolutely easy and delicious!

Simple Strawberry Sauce for Angel Food Cake

1 container of strawberries. (I got quart size so I could use some for the sauce and slice some raw)
1/3 c sugar
1 tsp  vanilla

Cut the strawberries in half or quarters, and put them in a pot. Turn on the heat, add the sugar and vanilla.

Smash the strawberries a bit to release the juices.

Heat through until they are really soft ~ they will smell amazing.

With a stick blender blend until smooth. (you could also use a regular blender ~ but no extra clean up with the stick blender).

Once smooth put into a container and refrigerate for a couple hours until cool.

That’s it. I poured a pool on the plate and then sat the cake down on top of it, and then diced more strawberries for the top and added blueberries as well. I wish I’d thought to take a picture ~ it smelled so good and I was so excited to eat it I completely forgot.

Weekly Menu Plan

We’re sticking to simple meals again this week… trying to keep it cool.

Homemade Pizza
ham, pineapple, mushrooms, black olives

Mexican Skillet
Rice/beans

Chicken Cacciatore ~ crock pot
pasta/salad

Sausage Tomato Skillet
pasta/salad

BBQ chicken ~ grill
potato salad

Pork Roast ~ crock pot
mixed veggies

Leftovers one night

It’s nothing fancy, but it will get us there.

If you had as hard a time as I did this week coming up with ideas for your menu you can download my Month of Meals “cheat sheet” where you can write down your family favorites which makes it a little easier to think of things to put on the menu.

You can also check out Meal Plan Monday at orgjunkie.com, hundreds of people have submitted their weekly meal plans ~ you’ll find tons of ideas to get you going.

Our weather has been insane… it’s been over 100 almost every day and we haven’t even gotten to the “hot” part of Summer yet. The best way I’ve found to make sure we still eat, and don’t overheat is to use the grill and the crockpot. Here’s a recipe I made last week, that I didn’t think was going to be very good. My sister in law raved about it, but it just seemed too easy!

Feel free to use the cheap packets… there’s no need to spend a lot ~ the flavor is the same.

Crock Pot Pork Roast

What you need:

1 packet dry ranch dressing mix

1 packet dry italian dressing mix

1 packet dry gravy mix

1/2 – 1 cup water

1 pork roast

Here’s what you do:

About 6 to 8 hours before you want to eat dump the 3 mix packets in the bottom of your crockpot.

Add the water and mix.

Add the roast ~ roll it around a couple times to coat.

Cook for 6 to 8 hours.

Bang. That’s it.

This roast turned out so delicious I couldn’t even believe it. The liquid turned into a delicious gravy and we were in heaven. I made some brocolli rice to go with it, but mashed potatoes would have been perfect ~ the gravy was quite good.

The crock pot didn’t heat up the house, and by the end of the day when I was exhausted I didn’t have to think about dinner. Win/win.

We’re going to be using the crock pot and the grill again quite a bit this week…

Here’s the Summer Dinners on our Menu this week:

Grilled Pork Chops
cheesy potatoes
green beans

Grilled BBQ Chicken
potato salad

Quesadillas (Hanna’s pick)
Rice and beans

Crock pot Chicken Cacciatore
over pasta with salad

Spaghetti
Salad and bread

Chef Salad (no cooking YAY)

Shish Kabobs

We’ll also be snacking on lots of fruits, and drinking lots of water to stay cool!

What about you? How do you get through the heat of Summer and still get dinner on the table? I’d love to hear your tips! We’re linked up with OrgJunkie.com for Meal Plan Monday.

photo credit

Over the last few weeks I’ve gotten a few comments on my meal plan posts. These comments ranged from this is a great idea, your meal plan looks great ~ and ~ I have no idea how to get started!

Gotcha.

It can be a little intimidating if you’ve never done meal planning before. I’ve always kind of planned out meals so I would know what to shop for ~ however, I haven’t always tried to save money with this endeavor.

6 Steps to Get Started Meal Planning and Saving Money on Your Groceries

1. Look at your store circular. I get mine online since we live so far out of town… but it’s the same.

2. Find meat that’s on sale that week. Build your plan around the sale.

3. Check for sides and veggies and other things you need to be on sale.

4. Create your menu. I write our meal plan on the right hand side of a piece of notebook paper.

5. Write out your shopping list. I write our shopping list on the left hand side of the same paper. That way if I feel like I’m forgetting something I can look at the meals and see what I might have forgotten or what an ingredients corresponds to.

6. Write down meals your family loves, so you can easily remember them when creating your future meal plans. I have a “month of meals” worksheet I use. (Click the link to grab it for yourself) That way I have 30 of our family’s favorite meals right in front of me to choose from when I’m creating the plan. I do add a couple new meals/food each week to keep the variety.

Some other meal planning tips:

1. Choose a specific day you’re going to do the shopping. It is easier if you know what day you have to do this and get it done.

2. Leave the kids (and husband) at home if you can. Consider it your “break” and you’ll leave the store with a lot less food ~ if you’re family is anything like mine.

3. Create a map of your store ~ know what things are in what aisles. Go ahead and make your list according to aisle. You won’t find yourself running back and forth across the store when you are in the bread aisle and realize you forgot something in the produce. It might seem like a bit of a pain, but you will be astounded how much easier shopping is.

If this whole idea completely freaks you out, but you’d like to try meal planning ~ let someone else do it for you. There are a few services that will do everything for you, from plan the meals to create the shopping list. Here’s a couple:

Menu in a Box

Meal Planning Central

The Fresh 20 (menu based around 20 “real” foods)

I hope that helps…

Here’s MY weekly meal plan for this week.

Monday (July 4th)

Picnic and fireworks at the park

Tuesday

Skillet Chicken and Broccoli 
with rice

Wed:

Spaghetti
Salad and bread

Thursday:

Grilled Chicken
corn on the cob and green beans

Friday:

Crockpot Pork Roast
Noodle side dish
mixed veggies

Saturday:

Grilled pork chops
mashed potatoes
green beans

There you have it. If you need help gathering some more recipes to fill in  your meal plan we’re linked up at OrgJunkie.com with hundreds of other meal planning moms.