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Last week didn’t go at all as planned.  This week I’ve decided to forego in part* the pre-made menu plans (as much as I like them and their magic shopping lists) and focus on what I have in excess, as these don’t usually show up on other people’s plans: smoked sausage (purchased for $.99 ea.), hot dogs (purchased for $.58 each), pork chops (purchased at $.97/lb.) and ham (leftover from Easter).  It will be a very porky week.  But first, I have a package of chicken breasts that has to be used.

Monday: (If I can get to the store) Crispy Parmesan Crusted Chicken Cutlets with green beans, recipe from another planner, The Six O’Clock Scramble.
reality: Well, I did get to the store, but it was much later than I prefer to shop and there was to be no cooking by the time I got home.  We had a combination of Subway, Sonic, and a local diner.

Tuesday: Hot ham sandwiches with coleslaw
reality: I wasn’t able to get panko bread crumbs or pumpernickel bread at either of the stores I was at yesterday, nor the little one here in town, so both Monday’s and Tuesday’s dinners are out of the question.  Tonight is the chicken cutlets from Monday except plain instead of crusted, and a broccoli rice casserole from the freezer.

Wednesday: Cheddar Cornbread Casserole with Avocado Salad, recipe from The Six O’Clock Scramble.
reality: I made the casserole, and it was decent.  Very similar to a corn dog casserole I’ve made in the past, the recipe for which escapes me at the moment.  It wasn’t great, but we ate it, and sometimes that’s all I can ask.

Thursday: Hot dogs with baked beans
reality: This was as easy as can be – especially since I forgot to heat up the beans.

Friday: Lemon Pepper Pork Chops with broccoli and baked potatoes, recipe from The Six O’Clock Scramble.
reality: We all went our separate ways.  I think I had a burrito from leftovers.

Saturday: Cheese-stuffed smoked sausage with chili
reality: Mom bought Subway sandwiches.

Sunday: Fried rice with carrots
reality: Did it.  Actually, I sort of did it.  I don’t have a big enough pan to do enough fried rice for everyone, so I stir-fried everything but the rice and served them together.  Carrots, snow peas, asparagus, egg, and diced turkey (lunchmeat) went on top of the plain rice.

*Even though I didn’t use a pre-made planner, The Six O’Clock Scramble allows you to easily swap out meals and automatically generates a shopping list for the new selections.  You can add as many or as few meals to the plan as you like, so I made one with just these 3 recipes and only need to add a couple of things of my own for the other, more basic meals.  One of these days I should review and compare the several meal planning services I use…

Visit OrgJunkie for more menu plans.

This week’s menu is from my eMeals menu planning subscription.  I am going to be diligent in my attempts to follow it.

Monday: Cream Cheese Chicken Pockets, potato chips, fruit
reality: Weeeeell…I overslept from my nap (didn’t get much sleep last night and wasn’t able to go back to bed in the morning thanks to a son who shall remain nameless) and by the time I got the chicken poaching I realized that it would be far after “dinnertime” by the time the meal was done, so I turned to one of my emergency pantry meals: Banquet Homestyle Bakes Cheesy Ham And Hashbrowns

Tuesday: Tacos, corn
reality: This week just went south right from the start. I figured I’d carry over the chicken pockets, since now I had chicken cooked for it.  Went to roll out the crescent roll dough, and it was not cooperating in the least.  Shredding, tearing, sticking, there was no making sense of it.  I was already in a bad mood and I just threw my hands up and walked away from the whole thing.  People ate what they could find.

Wednesday: Sausage and Cheese Muffins, spinach salad, sweet rolls
reality: Sometime Wednesday it dawned on me that no one was going to be home for dinner except me, mom, and E.  Well the heck with that, why cook?  I made some rice, turned some into rice pudding for mom, and ate that for dinner.  Not the best, nutritionally, but filling and better than, say, jelly beans.

Thursday: Layered Supper Salad, baked potatoes
reality: Wow, I’m really batting 1.000 this week.  I got distracted watching The Chew and made Mario’s Asparagus Milanese for dinner.  It was really, really good, even though I overcooked the eggs some.  It’s a keeper.

Friday: Coconut Shrimp Bake, rice, asparagus
reality: I went with Tuesday’s tacos, and then I saw Adam Richman eat a sweet roll the size of a tire so I fixed those too. 

Saturday: Balsamic Pork Chops, mashed potatoes, carrots
reality: With frozen shrimp, frozen pork chops, and frozen hamburger looking at me at 4:00, I decided to forego defrosting and went straight for an emergency meal: Bertolli Chicken Parmagiana and Penne and New York Garlic Knots.  Worked for me.

Sunday: Skillet Stroganoff, noodles
reality: Well duh, it’s Easter.  Note to self: think about the week before planning a menu, shall we?  So I made a ham, some frozen mac & cheese from Tender Filet, biscuits from Schwan’s, and a repeat of Thursday’s Asparagus Milanese because asparagus went well with the rest of the meal and it was just so darned good.

Visit OrgJunkie for more menu plans.

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Last week’s updates.

Monday: Chicken with Lemon Sauce, rice, cucumber salad
reality: Well….. The chicken was fine. Rice was ok. Cucumbers, eh.  Lemon sauce, ICK!  So basically we had plain chicken and rice with soy sauce.

Tuesday: Tortellini Soup
reality: It pays to read recipes before 4:30. This is a slow-cooker recipe, and not only was it way too late, my new slow-cooker is still in the box.  So I made cheesesteak sandwiches (Schwan’s ingredients) instead.

Wednesday: Dijon Lime Chicken, ?, salad
reality: 

Thursday: (Slow-cooker) Asian Pork & Snow Peas, egg rolls, rice
reality:

Friday: Quiche Cups, smoked sausage, fruit
reality:

Saturday: Spinach Artichoke Farfalle
reality:

Sunday: Cheese Enchiladas, Mexican rice, beans
reality: 

I’ve decided to use my pre-made menus again, mostly because it made yesterday’s shopping much easier to use the given shopping lists.  For this week I decided to combine two plans, one from 5 Dinners 1 Hour and one from The Organized Cook.  Each of these is for 5 days and there are a few freezable meals, so I plan to use 7 this week and freeze 3 for another time.

Update: It pays to actually check the freezer before setting up a menu and shopping rather than assuming what you thought you saw the last time you opened it bears any resemblance to reality.  I barely found enough boneless chicken for 2 of the 5 dishes calling for it.  I also found a HUGE surplus of pork chops and more hamburger than I thought.  Go figure.  Adjustments noted below.

Monday:
Pita Pockets with Cucumber Yogurt Sauce and Mediterranean Potatoes
reality: The potatoes morphed into packaged couscous…sorta kinda from the right area, right? At any rate it was much faster. The pita pockets fell apart and most of the kids wouldn’t go near the cucumber sauce.  It was a nice try though and the meat had a nice flavor.

Tuesday:
Lorax Pasta (This is really cute. You cook the pasta in 3 pots with food coloring to make it pink, orange, and yellow, add broccoli and asparagus for “trees”, and color alfredo sauce blue for a river.)
reality: A comedy of errors. Didn’t have food coloring; decided to just make it without. Didn’t have broccoli; made it with just asparagus but there wasn’t much. Alfredo sauce turned out to be out of date *blush*. Butter and parmesan are tasty, but buttered noodles and a sparse sprinkling of asparagus does not dinner make. Went to fix pork chops; they were still frozen. Our final salvation was a package of Oscar Mayer Carving Board turkey, chopped, mixed with noodles, asparagus, butter, seasonings, and fresh parmesan cheese. 

Wednesday:
Chicken Enchiladas with Tex-Mex Rice (becomes cheese enchiladas)
reality: Mom sent us to the diner for dinner.

Thursday:
Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup with Polenta Cakes (becomes hamburger tortilla soup)
reality: A very simple soup of hamburger and black beans with the polenta. Nummy, if not fancy.

Friday:
Lemon Chicken with Steamed Rice and Asian Cucumber Salad
reality: I don’t remember (it’s now Monday) but I guarantee it wasn’t anything on this menu.

Saturday:
Spinach Artichoke Farfalle with Green Salad and Dinner Rolls
reality: Chris was going to make the Bertolli dinner but Mom disapproved and paid for Subway.

Sunday:
Slow Cooker Asian Chicken and Snow Peas with Steamed Rice and Egg Rolls (becomes Asian pork)
reality: Sometime in the middle of the week it was decided that I was taking 3 of the kids to OKC to the science museum, so we ate up there.  Mom, Chris, and E were on their own here.

I also have 2 quick & easy emergency meals on hand just in case: Bertolli Chicken Parmesan and Penne, and Homestyle Bakes Ham and Cheesy Hashbrowns.

Last week did not go at all as planned.  It really would have been better if it had, but it’s water under the bridge now.  Many of these meals are carried over (at least one more than once).

Monday: Tomato soup & grilled cheese sandwiches
reality: Nobody’s feeling all that great around here this week.  Most people fended for themselves but I did get up and make a few grilled cheese.

Tuesday: Beef enchiladas & guacamole
reality: We had to go to town in the afternoon anyway, so we ate out (Chinese buffet) for Valentine’s Day.

Wednesday: Aloha Chicken Fingers & rice
reality:

Thursday: Stuffed Pork Chops & random vegetable
reality:

Friday: King’s Arms Tavern Peanut Soup & spoon-bread
reality:

Saturday: Mixed fried rice
reality:

Sunday: Spaghetti & meat sauce
reality: 

I think updating the posts with the reality of what I made is working well.  It’s not just seeing how closely I stuck to the plan, but also reviews recipes I tried for later reference.

Monday: Chicken Quesadillas from Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food
reality: I made chicken quesadillas, but I skipped all the hidden veggie hoopla and just put some cooked strips of chicken in regular quesadillas.  Not because I disagreed with the concept, I just wasn’t up to it at the time.

Tuesday: Boneless Rib Roast with potatoes and artichokes (for those of use who like them)
reality: A last minute realization that there were no eggs with which to make Yorkshire pudding made me far less interested in this meal.  We had sausage and rice instead.

Wednesday: Stuffed Pork Chops
reality: A sudden and odd aversion to eggs, among other factors, led to a lack of cooking and dinner at the diner.  Well, Chris and 3 kids went to the diner, they brought me takeout because I wasn’t feeling well. I *have* to make the roast beef tomorrow, no later.

Thursday: cheeseburgers
reality: I fixed artichokes for the grown-ups in the afternoon when Chris got home from work.  I didn’t want to argue with kids about who does or does not like them, and I only had 3 anyway.  Then the roast beef and Yorkshire pudding for dinner.

Friday: King’s Arms Tavern Peanut Soup and spoonbread (mix) – carry-over from last week
reality: Chris went to Sam’s Club after work and brought home large boxes of pizzas, so that’s what we ate.  Even a dessert pizza (which I wasn’t crazy about).

Saturday: popcorn chicken
reality: I went shopping in the next town over and brought home McDonald’s.  It’s been one of those weeks, and most of these meals will end up on next week’s menu.  

Sunday: Tacos from Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food
reality:

Nothing new to report.  Notes on last week’s outcomes are on the original post.

Monday: Pork chops with apple-almond pesto, and probably gnocchi.
reality: Exactly as stated. Nothing fancy with the pork chops, just a pan sear.  They were thin, didn’t need more than that.  The pesto was fine, nothing to write home about.  And I always love gnocchi.

Tuesday: King’s Arms Tavern Peanut Soup and spoonbread (mix)  I’ve been wanting to make this for a long time now.  Years and years (and years) ago I was in Williamsburg over Christmas and I remember liking it quite a bit.  A will run screaming from the room at the sight of peanut butter, so she’ll have to make something for herself.  She’s not allergic, just doesn’t like the stuff.
reality: Nobody really cared so they made their own and I’ll make the soup for lunch later.

Wednesday: Pork Chops with Apple & Cabbage from Weight Watchers One Pot Cookbook.
reality: I decided it was too close to Monday’s pork chops, and I wasn’t feeling well, and Chris got a job, so we had celebratory pizza.

Thursday: cheeseburgers
reality: Cheeseburgers it is.  Nothing with them, just burgers.

Friday: Asian glazed turkey loin from Eat, Shrink & Be Merry: Great-tasting Food That Won’t Go from Your Lips to Your Hips!.
reality: This week’s menu has clearly gone down the tubes. Leftovers and whatever was lying around. 

Saturday: Tacos from Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food.
reality: Bacon-ranch crusted turkey breast tenderloin and gnocchi. 

Sunday: Herb crusted chicken tenders from Ready, Set, Go! Cookbook (Weight Watchers).
reality: When I wrote this I forgot it was Super Bowl Sunday.  I made a variety of snackish foods instead of a “real” dinner.

*The book links to Amazon are affiliate links…as I’ve never had anyone use one before I don’t know what I’d get, probably a few cents.  Just a heads up to be fair.

Last week was hit or miss, but I’m liking doing things we’ve never done before.  They don’t always work out and they’re not always universally popular, but I can say I tried.  I took most of this week’s recipes out of books so I don’t have many links.  One thing I am going to try is from Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food.  The theme of the book is to add vegetable purees to other recipes so the kids don’t know they’re eating veggies.  I’m doing it as much for me as for them, as I’m not by nature a veggie person.  Time will tell if it works.

Monday: Beef Stroganoff was a request for this week.  I don’t really use a recipe for it, just throw it all together as I feel like.  If I find some non-ground beef in the freezer that’s great, if not so be it.
reality: I made it rather differently, but everyone liked it.  Instead of mushrooms and a cream sauce (or cream of mushroom soup) and sour cream, I used cauliflower puree in the beef broth to thicken and lighten it up.  It went over well, with noodles and a salad.

Tuesday: I was wrong last week.  I’m not out of buffalo burgers, they were just in a different freezer.  Now that they’ve been found, they can be dinner.
reality: McDonald’s

Wednesday: Pork chops with apple-almond pesto, also held over from last week.
reality: emergency meal: Frito chili pie

Thursday: A week or two ago I stumbled across Hillshire Farm smoked sausages for $.99 ea.  If you’ve ever bought smoked sausage, you’ll know that’s one heck of a deal.  The ever-helpful stocker at the store brought me out a full box to take home, so I have 16 12-oz. links sitting in the freezer.  I’m going to crack a couple of those open to go with the roasted root vegetables I didn’t get around to making last week.
reality: Tuesday’s burgers, with coleslaw.

Friday: Macaroni & cheese, from scratch for a change.  I’ve never made a really good one but I’m going to try again.
reality: Thursday’s sausage and root vegetables.  Verdict: meh.  The sausage was fine – though when I make 2 pkgs there’s not nearly enough but I made 3 and there’s easily a whole pkg left in there.  The roasted veg…took me and A an hour to get into the oven, almost an hour to cook, and I didn’t really care for it.  I’ve tried and tried to make myself like sweet potatoes, and I just don’t.  I’ve never liked cooked carrots though these were still crunchy enough to be ok.  The potatoes were fine.  The parsnips were under-done and even the smaller ones that weren’t…weren’t worth all the fuss and hassle to get them in the first place, imo.  I’m trying to eat more produce, and I’m trying to eat things reasonably in season, but this winter stuff is for the birds.  

Saturday: Herb crusted chicken tenders.  Another request, and I’ll probably make some gnocchi I found on sale at the store.
reality: Friday’s mac & cheese.  There was butternut squash puree in with the cheese.  It was good, it was creamy, the kids all liked it, but I think it needed a slightly sharper shredded cheese and less cream cheese.

Sunday: Roasted turkey legs with stuffing.
reality: Friday’s leftover sausage with rice and Thursday’s leftover coleslaw

Emergency Meal (something Chris can cook if necessary): Frito chili pie

Last week’s menu actually went fairly well, all things considered.  When I made new dishes it was fairly successful, and I think I’ll continue this week.

Monday: Ginger Shrimp, snap peas, noodles
reality: Well…I made the shrimp and it was good, and I did rice instead of noodles (frankly because I forgot I’d planned noodles and the recipe itself said rice).  But I also didn’t think I had enough shrimp to go around, so I decided to try marinated tofu to bulk it up…that didn’t go so well.  I won’t be trying it again, but I suppose it was worth a shot.

Tuesday: Buffalo Cheeseburgers, Cheesy Tots, coleslaw
reality: I was out of buffalo so they were sirloin, and I totally forgot about the slaw.  I don’t have many drumsticks for Wednesday so I’ll move the slaw there I think.

Wednesday: Lemony Chicken Legs, roasted potatoes, broccoli
reality: Made as planned…mostly.  I didn’t roast the broccoli plain, I did this.  I also made a small coleslaw for myself.  *I* loved the broccoli, and the kids ate it.  Mom passed on dinner altogether, and Chris hated the broccoli.  I’ll do it again anytime, but he said to warn him first.  Hmph.

Thursday: Love Soup - skipping the jar and going straight to dinner – salad, bread
reality: I re-wrote the recipe for making it fresh, had oatmeal crunch bread, and put pumpkin seeds in the salad to be all fancy. This was probably the most healthy meal I am capable of cooking.

Friday: Chicken Satay, rice, Shaved Carrot and Peanut Salad
reality: I didn’t feel like fighting anyone over peanuts and we had lots of leftovers so I took the lazy way out.

Saturday: Pork Chops with Caramelized Apple-Almond Pesto , stuffing
reality: I was sick all morning and half the afternoon so Chris made an emergency pizza run.

Sunday: Roasted Turkey Breast with Mustard Dill Sauce, Chef Meg’s Roasted Root Vegetables, salad
reality: Friday’s chicken and carrots.  They must’ve had some mutant carrots on the show, because the salad Michael Symon made on The Chew had a big pile of nice big ribbons.  We used 4 carrots (instead of 3), had puny strips, and it was way overdressed with the amount of dressing called for.  Tasty though.

I’m going to try “real” recipes this week. I’m trying to be better in a lot of ways, and healthier dinners is one of them. So here goes…

Monday: Chef Meg’s Orange Chicken (probably subbing grapefruit), rice
reality: I spent the day shopping and really didn’t want to cook, so we all did our own thing and I’ll shift things forward.

Tuesday: Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Mustard Dill Sauce (subbing boneless turkey tenderloin), Chef Meg’s Roasted Root Vegetables
reality: Monday’s chicken with mixed results. Mom and B LOVED the grapefruit sauce, I was a little ambivalent, Chris hated it, and the girls didn’t try it. I don’t know what E did or didn’t eat. Anyway, it was the chicken with grapefruit in place of oranges, rice, and mixed greens in a rice wine vinaigrette which may or may not have had some grapefruit in it.

Wednesday: Chef Meg’s Roasted Salmon with Caramelized Apple-Almond Pesto (subbing tilapia – a lot of subbing going on here), egg noodles
reality: Thursday’s Taco Soup

Thursday: Taco Soup (didn’t get to it last week)
reality: Friday’s chicken, but I discovered at the last minute that somehow garlic had escaped my shopping list.  I made it with just the onion and tomatoes, and it was neither spectacular nor horrible.  

Friday: Baked Chicken with Garlic and Sun Dried Tomatoes, whole wheat pasta
reality: We did another ffys (fend for yourself) night.  I’d thawed the fish for Wednesday’s recipe but found a few ingredients missing (I didn’t shop well, apparently) and didn’t want to mess with it.

Saturday: hamburgers (have to do something “normal” before I have mutiny on my hands), Cheesy Quik Taters
reality: Almost totally off-track.  I went to make Wed’s fish (with tilapia), but realized I’d missed a couple of key ingredients while shopping.  So I pan-seared the fish and made corn pudding and mixed veg.  One of these days I’ll remember that I don’t like fish.

Sunday: Still up in the air, maybe pizza or something easy, I’ll be shopping again that day.