Meal Planning = Fun?

Looky at what I made today! I happened to stumble upon some meal plan templates during my blog hopping today (I wasn't looking for one), and five minutes later I had my very own.

I love it. I want a little easel to hold this... and maybe a different frame, but hey, this is a frame we had stashed in the basement. Literally, I downloaded the template for free here, printed it, grabbed the frame, and put it together in five minutes or less. I love LOVE that with the template behind the glass I can write my meal plan on it with dry erase markers.

I had to run to the Target anyway so I stopped in the home office section and found these beauties. 

Is it weird that when I saw this package of 8 double sided dry erase markers in 16 colors that I clapped my hands with glee? Yes? Oh.

I'm OK with that.

We were pretty good about eating meals at home for a while, but slowly we've fallen back into old habits of eating out 3-4 meals a week. We realized that we're eating out with friends on Friday and Saturday nights, then usually going out or picking up take out once during the week, and then there is the occasional lunch. It doesn't sound so bad, but we all know eating at home is healthier, saves money, and the food is just better (we know where it comes from). My goal is to have a plan for dinners each night of the week, and fill out my meal plan each Sunday. Doing this should save me a ton of time because I will be more prepared with a solid list to go to the grocery store each week (I heart my Grocery iQ app). Also, it will save me the stress and time spent trying to decide each day what I'm going to cook for dinner with the ingredients we have, or having to run to the store again. Now the challenging part will be keeping it up... but I have high hopes. The best part about meal planning is that it will help me be more creative with meals and trying new recipes. Why haven't I done this before? Well, I have half heartedly... meal planning is not a new concept, I just feel like I finally have my act together!

So now that I'm all set up, here is this week's plan (I've linked recipes if I found them online):

Monday: Fillet Mignon wrapped in bacon with roasted asparagus and couscous (today is a special occasion, we don't have fillets often)
Tuesday: Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken with brown Jasmine Rice and salad
Wednesday: Slow Cooker Green Chili Pork Tacos
Thursday: Left over Baked Ravioli (defrosted) with salad
Friday: PIZZA, my go-to wheat pizza dough is here
Saturday: Eat out, or leftover tacos
Sunday: Chili with Pumpkin Cornbread. I'm going to re-attempt this chili...

I'm pretty excited! I should have plenty of leftovers for lunches and to freeze. I may start blogging my meal plans each week... hmm, we'll see. So, are you a planner? What's on your menu this week? Really, I want to know!

This post is linked up to these link parties:
Just a Girl's Show and Share Day

 

Revamping Our Dinner Menu

A couple of weeks ago I felt like boycotting cooking. I was so tired of our regular go-to recipes that I desperately asked for easy recipe suggestions through my facebook status. I only got a couple of suggestions, unfortunately. So I began a search on my favorite cooking (and other life stuff) blog, The Pioneer Woman and her recipe site Tasty Kitchen, and I found some keepers! Here are the ones I've tried so far that I recommend:

Baked Honey Mustard Chicken by wasntmesb. We really liked this dish, the sauce is Yum-O. I served it over brown Jasmine Rice with sweat peas. I'll definitely be making this again.

Baked Raviolli by Amy Lynn

Slow Cooker Green Chili Pork Tacos by mcmom are next on my list from Tasty Kitchen, I can't wait to try these! I know, not quite a recommendation since I haven't made them yet, but they seem to be a TK user favorite.

Last week Jessica Seinfeld was on Oprah for the release of her latest cook book and shared some recipes. The one that stood out to me as one I wanted to try was her Crock Pot Lasagna. I had never heard of making lasagna in a crock pot before! I made this last week for guests and it was a hit. I did change up this recipe a bit.. I added beef, used less ricotta, used only 1 heaping Tbsp of oregano (instead of two, since the comments said 2 was too much), halved the salt, and used less red pepper - though I think next time I'd use the full amount. 

Have you tried a new recipe lately? If you have recommendations please put them in the comments! I'm always looking for good, easy, yummy recipes... and if they are quick AND easy, then that's even better :).

JO's TED Prize Wish

Jamie Oliver's TED Prize Award Speech:

"I wish for everyone to help create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity." 

~ Jamie Oliver, TED 2010

If you share this wish, please sign Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Petition here.

Some other TED talks that I have found fascinating and inspiring are:

• Sylvia Earle's TED Prize wish to protect the oceans
• Jill Bolte Taylor's "Stroke of Insight"

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I am not Irish, but I married into an Irish family :).  Which means we're having corned beef with cabbage, potatoes, and carrots, along with soda bread. The soda bread is the most important part, as it is my favorite! Right now the corned beef is slow cooking in Guinness. I am going to try and remember to take pictures of our Irish feast tonight to post...
 

Check out my windowsill herb garden. I think the basil is still in shock from being potted, but otherwise they have all grown a bunch and are looking good. My shamrock plant is doing great, I love it! It has a lot of new blossoms, which are hard to see since they blend into the wall... I haven't found a pot I like for it yet, so it's still in it's original container.

So what are you doing to celebrate? Going out to party and drink green beer? Staying home and cooking your own Irish specialty? Or do you think St. Patty's Day is an overrated holiday and you ignore it all together?

What's for dinner?!

PIZZA! Tonight I made pizza for dinner and it turned out so yummy (it usually turns out yummy, but tonight it seemed better than usual). I used this Whole-Wheat Pizza Dough recipe (made in the stand mixer) and topped it with caramelized onions, sauteed zucchini, turkey pepperoni, and mozzarella cheese. I was really happy with the dough! It was so easy to make and was not a sticky mess that my other whole wheat dough can be... but this one does have all-purpose flour in it with the whole wheat flour (my other recipe does not).

Oh. So. Good.
I heart my pizza stone!

NOTE: I updated my previous post to include pictures of the ornament wreath I made...