Month of Meals {January}

I've said it again and again, "this month I'm going to start planning my meals". And I have, just not as consistently as I would like. Since it's the start to a new year, why not say it again. I use a combination of websites, Pinterest, cook books and my own recipes when coming up with things to make. I plan for cooking Sunday-Friday, with Thursdays open for left-overs. We usually eat out Saturday night. 

Here's what I've come up with for January {links to recipe when available}:

Jan 1-5

Tuscan Chicken Soup

Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

Chimichuri Steak & Chicken

Jan 6-12

Chicken Skewers with Taziki

Lettuce Wraps

Crispy Chicken Parmesan & Salad

Tomato Basil Soup

Chicken Tacos

Jan 13-19

Mac & Cheese with Roasted Chicken

Whole Wheat Orzo with Broccoli

OMG Chicken with Roasted Vegetables

Tortellini & Asparagus

Stir Fry

Jan 20-16

Baked lemon chicken & salad

Kale & Roasted Vegetable Soup

Slow Cooker Garlic Chicken with Couscous

Taco Salad

BBQ Chicken with Polenta Potatoes

January 27-31

BBQ Pork

Chicken Noodle Soup

Pesto Chicken Pasta

Pepper Crockpot Chicken

Note: I try and cook as healthy as possible. If a recipe calls for cream or butter, you can guarantee I swap it out for milk and olive oil. I also make a grocery list at the beginning of each week so I can go through the pantry and mark off what I already have and get everything I need. 

Month of Meals - January and a New Year's Resolution

I know it is the 3rd, so technically I'm already late on one of my New Year's Resolutions. I really want to stick with my calendar that I prepare for my monthly meals. I feel like I fell off the band wagon late in 2011 and you could definitely tell by what was for dinner. Another one of my resolutions that goes hand in hand with my meal planning is spending less money on groceries all together. I try and buy as much organic as I can and I know that can be a bit more pricy, but I want to be more conscious of what I put in the cart. Hopefully with a meal plan on the fridge and being more conscious when I shop I can cook up some successful meals and keep some $$$ in the bank.

I actually went through my recipe book {If you don't have one I highly recommend getting a 3 ring binder, adding a few tabs and putting all your recipes into page protectors. It's a great way to keep good recipes.} and found I really had made a few good recipes last year. So January is tending to look like the "best recipes of 2011". Here are a few of my favorites:

Cooking Light Meyer Lemon Chicken Piccata
Lasagna
Stubbs Pork Marinade Crock Pot Pork Tacos
Lemon Roasted Chicken
Picky Palate Enchilada Bake
Picky Palate Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs


I'm going to attempt to photograph and share one dinner recipe a week with you all. Hopefully that will help me spruce up my meals. 

Month of Meals- October

Back to Basics would be the theme of my October meals if I had to pick a theme. After a good 4 months of searching magazines, online and cookbooks for new meals I think we are ready to return to the basics. No recipes needed, just a little of this and a little of that and you're all set for a good dinner. I think the cooler weather makes me want to make soup and pull out the old crock pot {yikes}. We have left overs on Fridays and usually go out on Saturdays. I did repeat a couple of times but overall was able to have something new every day. Here's what's on the menu:

Roast Chicken

Chicken Tacos

Lettuce Wraps

BBQ Chicken

Pork Tenderloin

Turkey Chili

Turkey Meatballs

Chicken Noodle Soup

Carrot Soup

Teriyaki Chicken

Stir Fry

Chimichuri Chicken

Taco Salad

Lemon Chicken

Taco Casserole

Month of Meals- September

I cannot believe it is the end of August! I have spent the past week and a half moving {hence the blog neglect}. Who would have thought one could accumulate so much stuff in 4 years of marriage. We are really excited about our new place. I'll post pictures soon. I had a few minutes of downtime when the cable guy was here and I was waiting for Pottery Barn to come deliver our new couches {yay!} to put together September's meals.

My meal plan for the end of August has been a complete failure. Between packing, moving and more packing our dinners have been sad. Last night I tried to serve leftovers of a frozen meal I think I made back in May {maybe April}. Hopefully September will be more of a success. And thanks to my obsession with Pinterest, I hopefully have made some of my meal planning a lot easier. I am a big fan of cook books with pictures; I like to see how things are supposed to look before I make them. I searched "healthy dinners" within Pinterests' Food page and found some great recipes, all with awesome photos. I then pinned them to my new board "What's for Dinner". You can check out the recipes I've chosen here. All I have to do is go to the board, click on the image and it will direct me to the recipe source.

I also added a few of my own as well as some from this month's Cooking Light. Hopefully I'll have more success in this upcoming month! Here are a few things that are on the menu:

Tortellini Primavera {pinterest}

Stir Fry Chinese Egg Noodles {CL}

Garlic Lemon Chicken {pinterest}

Chicken & Roasted Garlic Lasagna {pinterest}

Crock Pot Santa Fe Chicken {pinterest}

Chicken Tostadas & Avocado Dressing {CL}

Chimichuri Chicken/Pork {Mom's Recipe}

Lettuce Wraps {a staple in our house}

Waldorf Salad {CL}

BBQ Chicken Salad {CL}

Panko Crusted Chicken Salad {another staple}

Cheese Ravioli with Pesto {CL}

I know you see we eat a lot of chicken. I haven't eaten red meat in over 15 years and my husband doesn't eat fish so basically my choices are chicken, pork, and more chicken. I'll throw turkey into the mix every now and again.

Month of Meals- August

We returned home from Hawaii today and I realized it was already the 31st! Just in time for me to figure out what we are going to have for dinner the next month. I must admit I kind of failed at cooking what I had planned the last week or so of July. We were leaving for vacation and I wanted to clear out the pantry and fridge. Let's just say it was very successful, with beer and condiments left to eat and baby rice cereal in the pantry. See????

And it looks like some leftovers...that are now 2 weeks old!

I pulled out my August cooking light and began tearing out pages of what looked good. I also printed this super cute dinner calendar from Emily at Jones Design Company. I subscribed to the monthly printables in which she gives you some super cute calendars, note cards, etc... to print each month. My meal plan will now look pretty on the fridge! Check out what she has here.

CookingLight was able to provide about 80% new meals but I still had some days I was trying to figure out what to make. I asked Drew if he felt like anything special to which he asked if I could make some old favorites (meatloaf, tacos, lasagna). I guess with all these new meals it is nice to have an old classic every now and then. Here are some of the recipes from CookingLight. You can search the recipes here.

Linguine with Quick Lemon Ricotta

Cumin Spiced Chickpeas with Carrots and Couscous

Shredded Chicken Tacos

Herbed White Bean Salad with Shrimp

Avocado Corn Chowder with Chicken

Cuban Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

Summer Veggie Pizza

Rice Noodle Salad

Ginger Asparagas Stir Fry

And some old classics:

Pork Chops with Apple Sauce

Roasted Chicken

BBQ Chicken with grilled veggies

Lemon Chicken

Pasta Salad

Turkey Meatloaf

Lettuce Wraps

Taco Bar

Hamburgers

Month of Meals- July

I'm not sure where the month of June went and can't believe the 4th of July is next week! More importantly, I cannot believe I now have a six month old! July's meals were a bit easier to come up with. We are out of town for a week and Drew is gone for a few days as well. Not that I don't cook for myself, but I'm happy eating a tuna salad for dinner. This month's Cooking Light had some fantastic recipes, so many of the recipes below are from the July issue.

BBQ Chicken with Creamy Buttermilk Potato Salad

Chicken Kababs with Nectarine Salsa

Pork Tenderloin with Balsamic Reduction

Chicken Satay

Baked Ziti with Summer Veggies

Pork Tenderloin with Plum BBQ Sauce

Summer Lemon Vegetable Riotto

Honey Lime Enchiladas

Pork Chops with Cherry Couscous

Linguine with Two Cheese Sauce

Month of Meals and Mini Vacay

We're off to Palo Alto and Sonoma this weekend! My cousin is getting married at Stanford this Saturday and we're then heading up North to Sonoma for some wine tasting and relaxation.

As May is coming to an end I put together my month of meals for June. I added a Sunday meal and a vegetarian meal each week (to my husbands chagrin). My husband can't say that I always make the same thing, because we now will have had a different meal every day for the past 2 months! Here is a glimpse of what's on the menu:

Penne w/spinach sauce- Giada

Tuscan lemon chicken- Barefoot Contessa

Tequila glazed grilled chicken- Cooking Light

Chicken salad with green beans, almonds and dried cherries- Martha Stewart

Grilled chicken sliders with apricot chutney- Cooking Light

Roast pork loin with grilled vegetables - Martha Stewart

Bulgar with roasted peppers and spinach- Martha Stewart

Happy Memorial Day!

A Month of Meals- May

I've been trying to plan our meals at least one week in advance since Morgan was born. That way I can go to the grocery store once a week (which is an event with a 4 month old) and get everything I need. I aim at making dinner 4 nights a week, with left overs on Thursday or Friday. I leave the weekends open because we never know what we are going to do and I can always whip something up (quesadillas anyone???). Anyways, I decided that for the month of May I was going to plan a month of meals, go shopping for all my pantry staples at the beginning of the month and shop once every week or so for my perishable items. It took a good solid 45 minutes to go through my recipes and find some good new one's online but I think it is going to be worth it. Not like you are that interested, but here's a sample of what's on the menu:

Meyer Lemon Chicken Piccata- CookingLight

Lettuce Wraps- my version

Chicken and Black Bean enchiladas- Picky Palate

Green Chili Pork Tacos- Picky Palate

Chimichuri Chicken & Steak- Epicurious

Thai Chicken Saute- CookingLight

Pappardelle Pasta with Spinach and Ricotta- CookingLight

Flank Steak & Arugula Salad- my version

Greek Salad- mom's recipe