Berry Nutty Oatmeal & Our menu plan

I struggle more with my menu now that I'm home and we are eating here so often. I think that's kind of silly, since I always packed my lunches...anyway, I'm trying to be more thoughtful about breakfast and lunch. This week I'm going to list a few things that we'll have on hand, and if that works I'll try and stick to it!

Breakfasts: berry nutty oatmeal (recipe below), tomato bread pudding, yogurt
Lunches: hearty turkey rice soup, turkey salad wraps, celery w/ dips (peanut butter, yogurt, cream cheese)

Dinners
Monday: Chicken and Noodles, biscuits
Tuesday: Hamburgers, sweet potato fries and green salad
Wednesday: Sweet & Sour Chicken and rice with roasted vegetables
Thursday: Leftover buffet
Friday: Tuna Salad wraps and caprese salad

Berry Nutty Oatmeal
One handful of almonds (or your favorite nuts)
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce (or pure pumpkin)
1 tsp vanilla
1 dash cinnamon
1 small squirt honey (optional)
Cook oatmeal as directed, and enjoy!

We use old fashioned oatmeal, and one of these days I want to try soaking my oatmeal, but so far I haven't taken the time. I will do it this week and report the results next Monday! :)

What's on your menu this week? What are your favorite lunch choices? (I could use some inspiration...)

For more menu fun, visit OrgJunkie's Menu Plan Monday

Smokin menu plan

We are using the smoker this week, so many of our meals will be planned around the use of delicious smoked meat! We will be smoking pork loin, italian sausages and a turkey. We have smoked whole chickens before but never a turkey, I hope it goes well!

Monday: spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread, salad
Tuesday: smoked pork, roasted potatoes and asparagus
Wednesday:smoked sausage, mac n cheese and green beans
Thursday: smoked turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy
Friday: jambalaya with smoked pork and green salad

One of the things I love about smoking (besides the amazing flavor) is that there is always extra to freeze for later. We buy meat when it goes on sale (for example, the turkey was $0.69/lb and the pork loin $1.49/lb) so it's frugal too!

What's on your menu this week?

Back to the {Menu} Plan

It's been a while since I've made a formal menu plan and 10 minutes in front of the computer to post it in the same week...mainly I've been working from notes scribbled in my planner. It's time to get back on track, things work much more smoothly when I'm organized. EmDee has two days off mid week this week, which will be nice! Here's what we're planning:

Monday: Beef Stroganoff over rice, buttered peas with almonds
Tuesday: Maple Mustard Chicken, onion and potato skillet
Wednesday: French toast, bacon and eggs
Thursday: Sweet & Sour chicken and fried rice
Friday: chicken nuggets (a variation of the sweet & sour chicken above) and home fries with green salad

What's on your menu this week? For more ideas and inspiration, visit Menu Plan Monday at OrgJunkie

Our last week of no spend month - what's on the menu?

So we're winding toward the end of no spend month, and I have to say there were very few times that I actually felt like I wanted to spend money on something and "couldn't" because of our budget challenge. I think we're going to come out almost exactly on target, as I've purchased our groceries for the week and we have just a little wiggle room left. Here's the menu plan for this week:

Monday: Steaks, mashed potatoes and green salads
Tuesday: BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, baked beans and potato chips
Wednesday: Grilled chicken salads and smoothies
Thursday: Pork chops, baked potatoes and peas
Friday: Pulled pork tetrazzini and corn bread
Saturday: Pizza and breadsticks
Sunday: Mexican casserole and corn cake

How are we affording such a yummy meat filled menu? As I mentioned last week, we shop the "reduced for quick sale" section at our local IGA - they have a terrific meat case and if you know when to shop you can get a super deal. All of the pork from this week's menu is from a pork loin I bought when it went on sale for $1.69/lb - I'll slice some meat off to pan fry and the rest will become pulled pork in the slow cooker to be used in several other meals this week. Normally when pork loin goes on sale I'll buy two. I freeze one for later and generally freeze half of the pulled pork after I make it.

In addition, we'll be having cake, brownies, baked oatmeal, and carrot cranberry muffins. In order to help make sure we don't feel deprived (and to help clean out the cupboard!) we've been making more desserts than we usually do. Thank goodness for those extra calories I'm allowed since I'm nursing so often! :)

If you're looking for more menu planning inspiration, visit OrgJunkie. Come back next week for a summary of no spend month!

Frugal cooking, even with meat!

Week one of no spend month found us with $246.52 remaining in our budget. With some creative menu planning I cut our grocery budget by 35% last week, but we ate very well - I found some great frugal recipes and pulled out some old favorites. We've cut back on convenience snacks and Sweetpea and I are cooking snacks from scratch instead. This coming week I know we're going to spend more overall because we're going to need diapers - when I chose $300 for our monthly budget it was with the fact that we have 2 in diapers in mind. I do have $6.50 in coupons to use for each big box of diapers but it's still going to be a large portion of the months budget.

This week's grocery bill was almost identical to last weeks - $46 for our family of 4 (though one of us only drinks mama's milk, so I'm not sure she should count when it comes to groceries?). Here's what's on our menu this week:

Monday: steak stirfry and baked potatoes
Tuesday: tuna noodle casserole with green salads
Wednesday: baked spaghetti and garlic bread
Thursday: chicken tetrazzini and buttered peas
Friday: breakfast casserole and pancakes
Saturday: leftover buffet
Sunday: creamy sausage and potato bake

Here are some of the strategies I've been using to keep our food budget low - even though we're eating quite a bit of meat throughout the week:

- shop the reduced meat section - one of our markets has great reduced meats, some of the others I definitely stay away from. Find a market in your area that has good meat and determine the markdown schedule! I purchased the steaks we're eating tonight that way.

- plan your menu so you use ingredients in multiple meals - that way you use up all your ingredients and you can possibly buy larger containers at a lower price per unit. Tuna noodle casserole and chicken tetrazzini use several of the same ingredients. The ground chuck in our spaghetti bake also went into sloppy joes for lunches (on sale for $1.67/lb) Sausage was on sale and will be featured in both the breakfast casserole and the sausage potato bake.

- speaking of potatoes - stretch your meals with non meat "fillers" that add flavor and texture to your dishes, like potatoes, rice, or beans. I added black beans to our spaghetti bake, which might sound unappealing to some, but my daughter loves it and it adds fiber to the meal. The original recipe for Sunday's sausage bake didn't include potatoes, but they add a nice flavor and texture and increase the overall portion size.

What tricks do you use to stretch a buck when planning your menus?

Budget Friendly Menu Planning

This is our first full week of menu planning during the No Spend Challenge, and just to make things more interesting, we have a leak in our well. Nothing like trying to do your normal day to day activities with limited or no water. Yesterday I cooked three of our meals, so I'm hoping we can stick to the menu and that everything is fixed by mid week.

Monday: Beef Stroganoff and mashed potatoes
Tuesday: Sweet and sour chicken over rice, buttered peas and carrots
Wednesday: Carribean chicken stirfry over rice, lettuce salad
Thursday: Pumpkin black bean soup over rice, corn bread
Friday: Pulled pork with mashed potatoes and rolls
Saturday: Leftover buffet
Sunday: BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, baked beans and lettuce salad

For more menu planning inspiration, visit Menu Plan Monday at OrgJunkie!

Simple summer suppers

Our tomatoes are (finally!) starting to really come on, we have a nice selection of local produce at the new farmer's market that I pass on my way home from work, and at 38wks pregnant I have very little energy...what do these three things spell out for our evening meals? Fresh, quick, and delicious!

Normally I will assign a meal to each night of the week and do a lot of prep on the weekend to ensure weeknight success. This week I made one large batch of pasta salad full of fresh veggies (corn, peas, cherry tomatoes and bell pepper) and bought some romaine lettuce, several containers of cottage cheese, 2lbs of bacon and a loaf of bread at the store.

Hubs will be cooking the bacon as needed to satisfy our BLT fix. Most nights I will likely be picking up a vegetable to compliment what is available in our garden - green beans or corn are our most frequent choices. We will either choose from pasta salad, BLTs or a large salad for our "main" course, with tomatoes and cottage cheese and fresh veggies as our sides.

When we make fresh corn on the cob, we most often just boil it - the most time consuming part is getting the water to a boil to begin with. We place the corn in water and by the time it gets to a rolling boil, the corn is ready. Is this how you make corn?

Lately EmDee has been making garlic green beans - simple and quite tasty! I got my camera out while he was making the last batch, and though he rolled his eyes, I think he's secretly pleased to have his cooking prowess documented. ;)

Start out with some butter and 2 cloves of garlic. Hubs likes butter - can you tell? If I were making it, there would likely be a much smaller quantity of butter added and some broth to compensate for the remaining liquid...just sayin' in case you're looking for a slightly healthier alternative. Let everything get well acquainted and then add your fresh green beans.

Stir occasionally until the beans are crisp tender, maybe 5 minutes or so.

Dig in! These are just as delicious, if not more so, the following day.

What's on your menu this week? For more menu planning inspiration, visit OrgJunkie.

Starting to menu plan from the garden

Sweetpea and I arrived home from BlogHer about 9 last night, leaving me to put the final touches on our menu plan this morning. I'd sketched out most of it mid last week based on what we had in the pantry or on our schedule. The rest of our meals are based on what looks like it will be available in our garden!

Monday: BLT's and cottage cheese, with milkshakes for dessert
Tuesday: homemade personal pizzas and fresh fruit salad
Wednesday: hot dogs, loaded potato salad and s'mores (at our backyard bonfire!)
Thursday: veggie loaded pasta salad and homemade blackberry ice cream
Friday: mix and match leftovers

I'm also planning to make carrot muffins with Sweetpea this week, thanks to Michelle from Honest and Truly. I found a simple and yummy sounding recipe for pumpkin apple butter from Juicy Juice that I think will go wonderfully with our muffins. I'll share the apple butter recipe later this week.

For more menu planning ideas, visit OrgJunkie. What's on your menu this week?

Menu planning and make ahead meals

This week I'm doing quite a bit of freezer cooking in preparation for baby, so I'm making double batches of several recipes with similar ingredients to make things simpler. I prepped most of the meat this weekend... Here's what's on the menu:

Monday: spaghetti and garlic bread with green salads

Tuesday: cheesy beef & rice casserole and corn cakes

Wednesday: spaghetti casserole and green beans

Thursday: leftovers - mix & match ground beef ;)

Friday: pumpkin berry pancakes and veggie scrambles

What's on your menu this week? I'd love any suggestions for good freezer meals - as I'm working to stock things up to simplify meals the first several weeks after baby is born! For more menu planning inspiration, visit OrgJunkie.

Menu Planning from the Freezer (and Pantry)

This week is mainly going to be an eating out of the freezer and pantry week, to clear things out before we go on vacation and make room for a stockpile for those first bleary new baby weeks. You might notice it seems a bit like a hodgepodge...that's because it pretty much is! Big T and I both have birthdays this week - with everyone's schedules we will be celebrating on Saturday. Here's what we have on the menu this week:

Monday: Turkey breast, mashed potatoes and biscuits
Tuesday: steak and veggie stirfry over rice
Wednesday: Brats with peppers and onions and oven fries
Thursday: Turkey hot shots
Friday: sweet potato banana pancakes and fruit smoothies

I'll also be making turkey and rice soup for the freezer this week, as well as a couple of key lime pies (in keeping with my need to bring a birthday offering to work...) and Sweetpea and I will be baking some oatmeal cranberry chip cookies to take on vacation with us!

What are your menu plans for the week? If you're looking for inspiration, check out OrgJunkie for lots of ideas!

Kid friendly cookies & this week's menu plan from one cookout

We had a cookout Saturday that will provide most of the meat for this week's menu plan. Not only do we really enjoy our cookouts, but they are a super efficient way to prepare food for a crowd! (or in this case a family for the week) Much of what we cooked had either been stockpiled from sales or the "reduced for quick sale" section of our local IGA. Do you shop the "reduced for quick sale" bin? We find some great selections there, though it's definitely hit or miss. This week's gem was a pair of porterhouse steaks, flavorful and tender, for $6 each! They were fairly sizable, though I didn't check the exact weight. Here's what is on the menu for this week (because I can tell you, the porterhouse steaks didn't make it past Saturday night!)

Monday: Grilled chicken and pasta salad
Tuesday: Steak salads, oven fries and milkshakes
Wednesday: Brats and corn on the cob
Thursday: ribs and corn cake
Friday: leftover potluck

I also wanted to share a tasty and kid friendly cookie recipe that my friend Julie found in Parents magazine. I'm not sure how I missed it, but I'm so glad she tried it! I'm including the recipe as I made it, which includes a few variations on the original that I think make it a bit quicker and more to my taste.

Oatmeal Cranberry Drops
1C all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1C butter, softened (2 sticks)
3/4C brown sugar
1/2 C granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3C quick oats
1C semi sweet chocolate chips (I've also used and loved the chocolate/peanut butter chip mix)
1C orange flavored craisins

Preheat oven to 350F. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.Beat butter and both sugars in a large bowl with electric mixer until creamy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Beat in flour mixture. Stir in oatmeal one cup at a time. Add chocolate chips and dried cranberries. Drop batter by heaping teaspoonfuls, 1 inch apart, onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10 minutes. Let cool.

Definitely try and keep these to about a tablespoon or they will get a bit crumbly and take several more minutes to cook. Sweetpea loved helping measure and mix ingredients and drop the cookies onto the cookie sheet. There is quite a bit of butter and sugar in there, but lots of healthy ingredients too!

What's on your menu this week? For more menu planning inspiration, visit OrgJunkie.

Simple and healthy menu planning - back to focusing on the side dishes!

Unfortunately EmDee went straight from his overtime marathon to a second shift week, so it will be just me and Sweetpea eating dinners together this week. Even though I'll be working to keep things simple, I have gotten back into the swing of searching out simple and interesting side dishes - especially with the start of some great vegetables coming to our stores from the south.


Monday: Jambalaya and corn souffle
Tuesday: open faced hamburgers and Parmesan vegetables
Wednesday: Vegetable pasta salad and fruit with yogurt
Thursday: Strawberry banana pancakes and fruit smoothies
Friday: Hamburgers and mixed vegetables kabobs on the grill

My Jambalaya is quick and super affordable, so I thought I'd share that recipe with you today. I'm looking for a seasoning recipe that I can make from scratch (so if you know of one, I'd love it if you'd email me or link up in the comments!) but for now I've been using Zattarans boxed mix. It takes roughly a half hour from start to finish, and if everything is full price at the store, a double batch (roughly 6-8 main dish sized servings) will cost just under $8.20. The boxed mixes go on sale somewhat regularly for $1/box, bringing the cost closer to $5.50 for a double batch.

2 boxes Zattarans Jambalaya mix
1 package smoked sausage, cubed
2 cans black beans, drained

Saute the cubed sausage in a large sauce pan with just a touch of oil to brown them up a bit. Then follow the box instructions, adding everything in on top of the sausage. When the rice is ready, stir in the beans and your Jambalaya is ready. To stretch this dish even further, add equal cups of rice and chicken broth when you add the box ingredients.

For more menu planning ideas, visit OrgJunkie. What's on your menu this week?

Keeping it healthy when time is short

Last week's menu went pretty much according to plan, except for our stir fry and rangoons - we should get to those this week instead. This is another week of EmDee working late nearly every night, so I'm trying to keep it simple again. Here's what we're planning:

Monday: Spaghetti and garlic bread
Tuesday: Leftover burritos from last week
Wednesday: crock pot chicken roasted asparagus and stuffed smashed potatoes
Thursday: Beef stir fry and baked rangoons
Friday: Chicken empanadas and rice

What's on your menu? This week on OrgJunkie, Laura shares her strategy for choosing new recipes. Her criteria ensures recipes are perfect for relaxed or hectic weeks, and I love that concept. I tend to revert to tried and true favorites or meals that I've at least partially prepped and frozen when we are busy. When choosing new meals to try I go for quick and/or simple recipes that come recommended from a site I've had success with before - allrecipes, foodnetwork, orgjunkie, or Sandra's recipe blog to name a few.


How do you prepare for hectic weeks? How do you decide which new recipes to try? How often do you include new recipes in with the tried and true?

Cooking ahead for long hours to come

Isn't it funny how when you've had a particularly sleep deprived stretch, and then you get that sweet taste of sleep again how wonderful you feel the next morning? I'm having one of those super well rested, feel like I'm glowing kind of days. Sweetpea and I had both been battling congestion that was wreaking havoc on our sleep schedules (not just hers, I was waking like a newborn too!) and last night was the first night where we seemed to make a lot of progress. Thank goodness for simple blessings! Especially on what will be a particularly hectic week for us, so glad to have this great start!

I did a major marathon cooking session this weekend, partly for this week's meal, but also to put back for when EmDee goes on 12 hour days for at least two weeks...so far I was able to put back just short of a week's worth of meals for him - whew! Here's what's on our menu for this week:

Monday: cheesy hamburger casserole, steamed asparagus, fruit salad
Tuesday: bbq pulled pork sandwiches and oven fries
Wednesday: beef stirfry on rice with baked rangoons (recipe to follow next week if all goes well)
Thursday: pork and vegetable pasta (pork from the freezer from an earlier marathon cooking session) and fruit smoothies
Friday: sweet potato burritos with mexican rice

For more menu planning inspiration, visit OrgJunkie. What's on your menu this week? I'm always looking for new ideas!

Crockpot and freezer menu planning

Last week's menu went according to plan except for the muffaletta salad, which was one of the dishes I was most looking forward to! I'm going to try and get to it this weekend instead. I'm planning another crock pot rotisserie style chicken that will provide the start to several of our dishes...I love how easy and delicious it is! The meatballs are the last of a huge batch I made several weeks ago from the freezer, also nice and easy. Asparagus is starting to come up in the garden, so there will be lots of that on the menu the next several weeks if all goes well.

Here's the plan this week:

Monday: meatball subs with oven fries
Tuesday: Chicken stir fry with rice
Wednesday: Omelet casserole with berry smoothies
Thursday: Chicken salad and roasted asparagus
Friday: leftover potluck

What's on your menu this week? For more inspiration, visit OrgJunkie.

Menu planning with the grill

Last week I was off work and we were out of town part of the time, so for the most part I didn't plan our menu ahead of time. This week it's back to the grindstone and menu planning! I'm still working on finding new and exciting side dishes. I've included a few new ideas I found around the web with links. We grilled out on Saturday afternoon, so there will be a lot of grilled meat on this week's menu!

One other thing I wanted to highlight related to food was the wonderful baked french toast we had for Easter brunch yesterday, thanks to Meg at Whatever. Simple and delicious, it was perfect. We have a few slices left over that I'm sure we'll fight over for the next day or two!

Back to what's on the menu for this week:

Monday: Brats with green salad and macaroni and ham bake
Tuesday: Grilled chicken salads and roasted asparagus
Wednesday: Hamburgers with muffaletta salad
Thursday: Grilled chicken breasts and brussel sprouts with bacon
Friday: leftovers

For more menu planning inspiration, visit OrgJunkie.

In other news, I'm excited to be guest posting today about organization at JessicaKnows, I hope you'll stop by and join me!

Spicing up my sidedishes

I spent a lot of time looking for some exciting but simple side dishes last week, and came across several! I'll be highlighting them as we try them out, with my plan being one or two highlights a week through the month of April.

As usual, my go to online recipe resource, Allrecipes was one source of inspiration. In addition, I hauled out several of my favorite cookbooks. Surprisingly, Betty Crocker isn't that big on side dishes. Luckily I thought to pull out one of my favorite, if not most oft-used cookbooks, Emeril's New New Orleans Cooking. It was my Dad's cookbook, one I'd purchased him for one holiday or another. Just like the raggedy bag of Creole spice from this same book that I treasure in my spice cabinet, it reminds me of how much Dad loved to cook and how he loved spicy food.

It seemed like Emeril was speaking right to me when he said in the intro to the side dish section, "Why go to the trouble of preparing a wonderful dinner if all you're going to do is throw some white rice, a plain baked potato, or some soggy vegetables on the plate next to the main attraction? The side dish is as important as the main dish if your goal is to create an exciting, satisfying meal." There are several side dishes from this cookbook that I've marked to try, starting with southern style black eyed peas.

Here's our menu for this week:

Monday: Crockpot rotisserie style chicken, "chicken soup" risotto
Tuesday: Spaghetti casserole, roasted asparagus, garlic bread
Wednesday: Chicken pockets, southern style black eyed peas
Thursday: leftover free for all
Friday: Breakfast hash with toast and juice

For more menu planning inspiration, visit OrgJunkie.

On mochas and menus

Before I get started talking about menus, did you realize that Mondays in March are Mocha Mondays at McDonald's? If you like mochas and your McDonalds has a McCafe, stop in today and next Monday for a free sample size hot or iced Mocha! No purchase necessary.

Last week we grilled out on Tuesday, so we munched for the most part on steaks, hamburgers and grilled chicken salads all week - mmm! :) This week chicken was on sale (both whole chickens for $0.69/lb and boneless skinless breasts for $1.88/lb) so we will be eating a lot of chicken. I also bought several packages for the freezer. I'll be talking a little bit more about lunches tomorrow, but for now here is what we're planning for dinners:

Monday: chicken and noodles with mashed potatoes
Tuesday: grilled chicken salads
Wednesday: creamy chicken soup and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches
Thursday: meatball sandwiches and oven fries
Friday: leftover buffet

Amy at Momadvice said something the other day that struck a chord with me - she mentioned she was a champ at main dishes but felt she often overlooked side dishes. Reading this I realized I often do the same thing. I'm going to be taking this week to review my cookbooks and online recipe links for ideas, and next week I hope to have some side dishes at are as interesting as our main course!

For more menu planning inspiration, visit OrgJunkie.

Random Monday - yummy cupcakes, menus and the Winner!

Today's post is probably a good representation of how scatterbrained I've been feeling lately. {{blushing}} If you're interested to hear who won the fabulous Medela Swing pump and bottle set giveaway, be sure to read all the way to the bottom of this slightly rambling post!

First, a big thanks to Megan from Whatever for sharing her frosting recipes a week or so ago - one of them was just a slight varitaion of the recipe I use for frosting cookies, and I never considered using it for cupcakes - yum!! Sweetpea was taking cupcakes to daycare today to celebrate her birthday, so I used the bottom recipe from this post and it was delish. As an added bonus, frosting with a ziploc was totally easy = one happy mama!

Besides cupcakes, here is what we're planning for dinners this week:

Monday: pork chops with blue cheese gravy and roasted potatoes

Tuesday: chicken empanadas

Wednesday: pulled pork with mashed potatoes and green beans

Thursday: pork and pasta with vegetables

Friday: sweet potato burritos

I used a pork loin from the freezer that I'd purchased when it was on sale for most of this week's meals. I sliced the package in half, and put half directly in the crockpot to make my fabulously easy and delicious slow cooker pulled pork. The other half was sliced into "chops" and fried in the skillet. Half of those were saved for Monday's dinner, the other half were sliced for the pasta dish we'll be having later this week.

I'm not supposed to have soft, unpasturized cheeses since I'm pregnant, but they are such a weakness of mine that I've been finding ways to add them to cooked dishes. The blue cheese gravy is so yummy and simple. I made a quick pan gravy after frying up the "chops" by adding some beef broth to get up the pan drippings, a few pats of butter, and about a teaspoon of flour. I added more broth (about a half cup) and let it simmer until it was bubbly and getting thick, then I dumped in about a half cup or so of blue cheese and stirred until it was mixed. Then I tasted it to make sure the proportions were right... {{swoon}} For more menu ideas, be sure to visit OrgJunkie's menu plan monday!

Finally, the Medela pump and bottle set winner - I have I mentioned lately that I wish I'd been eligible to enter this giveaway? ;) To make things easier for my addled brain, I deleted any non-entry comments and/or duplicate or previously "deleted by author" comments - that left me with 80 eligible entries. Then I pulled up random.org and learned our winner was entry #51 - Congratulations Lisa P from Is it Monday Already!

Menu planning for a busy week

This is another one of those weeks where EmDee is working late and Sweetpea and I will be doing the solo thing. I did two big batch cooking sessions over the weekend to get most of the cooking out of the way. Thanks to everyone's suggestions last week, I think part of my problem was waiting and trying to cook right before dinner - if I wasn't already queasy, the smell of cooking would get me that way by the time I was done. Hopefully this advanced planning will also help!

I'm planning to make some overnight crockpot oatmeal by midweek...(read - didn't happen this weekend, sigh) I've been drooling over the sound of it for some time now, and finally have all the ingredients. Last week I was miserable at planning breakfast and snacks, this week I have several baggies of cut carrots and celery along with yogurt and fiber bars ready for those mid morning and mid afternoon munchies.

Here's what's on the menu for dinner this week -

Monday: spaghetti casserole and garlic bread
Tuesday: chicken with pasta and vegetables
Wednesday: three cheese tortellini with cheesy vegetables
Thursday: leftovers
Friday: family dinner out to celebrate Sweetpea's birthday

What's on your menu this week? To join in or find more menu planning inspiration, visit OrgJunkie