LIVE from NEW YORK - It's MENU PLAN MONDAY!!!!

Yep - we're going to do my menu planning live right now.  :)  I have no clue yet what I'm going to do. 

First let me think of what's going on this week.  Tonight is my 17 year old's senior concert so I know we'll need to eat a little early and since I'm horseback riding too, I need something quick.  I think tonight will be our "good salad" which is greens, grilled chicken, craisins, mandarin oranges, walnuts, blue cheese and a homemade dressing made from one part honey to two parts balsamic vinegar.

OK - Tomorrow I think is pretty normal.  I'll be home and I think it's supposed to be cooler and kind of lousy weather so I'll make something that takes a bit longer to make and includes the oven.  I think that will be meatloaf with mashed potatoes and .... green beans?  Since I'm home, I'm also going to be sure I have the ingredients to make up 2 batches of lasagna sauce so I can make lasagnas for our homeschool presentation night.  I won't be able to be there but I will make the lasagnas and someone else can cook them up for me.

Wednesday we have ballet until 6 and then we need to be at church at 7 so again I need something fast.  Hmmmm - we haven't done pizza in a very long time and there's a great pizza place near church that has a deal where you get a large pizza, meatball parmesan hero, large ziti and a dozen garlic knots for $20 which is an amazing deal so we'll do that.  I can have hubby bring it home with him so I will just have a salad ready to go earlier in the day and we're set.

Thursday looks to be a nicer day and since I'll be riding again, I need something quick to prepare.  I think I have a steak in the freezer and think I'll use that to do grilled stead and then I'll pick up the ingredients to make potato salad and we'll have that with frozen corn.

Friday is a very busy day for me.  I'm still not sure how I'm going to work it all out because we have field day, I need to get my work at church done and that evening is our new church's first event.  So I think I'll be sure there is leftovers for the children to eat and then I'll make sandwiches for DH and I to take with us.  I think we need to be at the hotel around 6 or possibly even earlier so there are not a ton of choices for us.

Saturday - At this point, the weekend doesn't look that great weather-wise but of course we can't be sure.  I think I'll make something chicken - Hmmmm - how about chicken enchiladas?  We love those!  I'll do chicken enchiladas and salad.  YUM!

Sunday is usually just DH and I and the two little ones.  Hmmm - IF the weather is nice, I know DH will want to BBQ on the boat so I think I'll pick up boneless chicken thighs.  If it's nice, we can grill those and have it with the leftover potato salad.  If it's not nice, I can cook them in the oven pretty much the same way as on the grill.  So we'll do thighs, potato salad and green salad.  Yeah, that works.

Monday - I try to get to Monday since with me riding on Mondays, there's not much time to shop or anything so if I'm not prepared for Monday, then we don't do well.  I think we'll do a cranberry pork roast to finish out the pork roasts I have in the freezer.  It's a crockpot meal, so nice and easy for me to come home from riding and finish the prep work.  I'll serve it with rice and peas. 

OK - DONE!  :)

Monday - "good salad", rolls
Tuesday - meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans
Wednesday - pizza, hero, ziti, salad
Thursday - steak, potato salad, corn
Friday - kids: leftovers, adults: sandwiches
Saturday - chicken enchiladas, salad
Sunday - chicken thighs, potato salad, green salad
Monday - cranberry pork roast, rice, peas

Menu plan for this week

MAN was today a work day!  I convinced hubby to get the garage cleaned out so I could get my car in there and after working about 4 hours, no car can fit in there yet.  However, we have 8 bags of trash at the curb, along with a broken table, a broken door and a broken dog gate.  We have a huge box of books for the library, another box of books for the church library, another box of children's books for Freecycle, and about 3 boxes for us to keep.  Then there's the huge section of the garage that's holding all of the other Freecyle stuff that I need to list and then the few things that will need to go into the shed....when we get the shed cleaned out.   Oh - and 5 bikes in various stages of disrepair.  LOL  We need to now go to the shed next week and empty that which will add a ton more trash to the curb, more Freecycle finds - and will give us enough room to put away everything so that we should be able to not just get one but both cars back into the garage for the first time in about 4 years!!  Woo-hoo!!

So hubby and I were just sitting comatose at the kitchen table having a cup of tea and I figured I'd think about dinner this week.  Because of circumstances last week, I had 4 meals that I planned for that we didn't use so I'll recycle them to this week and I just needed to fill in a few more days with leftovers/freezer stuff/take-out because of busy days and we're all planned!  Woo-hoo!!  When I planned last week, it was still only in the 40s/50s during the day and yesterday and today were pushing 90 so these things are not typical summer fare but need to be eaten to use up the ingredients.  Next week will reflect the weather a bit more.  So, this week, we have:

Monday:  Chicken Supreme, rice, broccoli (Chicken Supreme is basically browned chicken breasts put into a casserole pan, mushrooms sauteed with white wine put on top and Monterey Jack cheese over all - very yummy!)

Tuesday:  Beef and pepper stir fry, rice (eat early because of National Day of Prayer worship practice)

Wednesday:  Italian Wedding Soup, homemade bread

Thursday:  Pulled pork sandwiches, leftovers or fend-for-yourself (it's the National Day of Prayer gathering at our church for all of the county evangelical churches and hubby is doing sound and I'm doing the computer/projector so we need to be there early)

Friday:  Three Amigos (a local Mexican restaurant that has a GREAT family meal that consists of 1 lb. beef or chicken grilled with seasonings, 1 lb. grilled peppers and onions, 2 c. pico de gallo, 2 c. beans (refried, black or pinto), 2 c. rice, 1 c. guacamole, 1 c. sour cream, 12 tortillas and chips along with all the homemade salsas you want for just $20 - it easily feeds my hungry family of 6!) (We're doing this because I'll be at church at 9 am and not get home until after 5 because of work/homeschool group)

Saturday:  Coq Au Vin or chicken thighs on the grill (dependent on the weather - both will use the chicken thighs)

Sunday:  Mother's Day - we'll be going to see my ILs so we'll eat there.