July Meal Planning - Week 2

Week 1 Down.  Week 2 here we go.  We kicked off July meal planning with some gooood stuff.  Here are last week's eats.

Meatless Monday - Refrigerated cheese ravioli and clean out your fridge / freezer of veggies.  This included artichokes, olives, squash, and frozen peas.  Pour on some jar s'getti sauce and serve with a side salad.  
Fat Tuesday - Renamed to travel Tuesday.  I had to celebrate my nephew's 4th birthday party.
Slow Cooker Wednesday - This became fat Wednesday.  Thin, bone in pork chops with a mustard gravy sauce (you gotta try coarse grain mustard in your gravy - PW idea), rice, and some mixed veggies. 
Taco Thursday - Homesick Texan's Picadillo with homemade gorditas.  The gorditas took around 30 minutes to make but were really easy.  I will repeat the picadillo recipe.  One of the better flavored ground beef recipes I have had.
Fish Friday - Snapper purchased from the local market served with grilled corn, grilled tomatoes, and a salad.  The fish was good but not great and I paid a pretty penny.  I do feel oh so culinary as I have homemade fish stock in my freezer AND I made fish cakes with the leftovers.  Must peruse my John Besh cookbook for things to use fish stock for.  Maybe next fish friday??

Use a crab cake recipe and substitute fishy fish. :)

 
For today's meatless Monday, I plan to try to recreate my MIL's eggplant and stewed tomato pasta dish.  Eggplant plus garlic equals wonderful.  This is also one of those meals you can cook all day on your stove with minimal effort and have dinner ready without having to cook with a baby-toddler on your hip. 

July Meal Planning Adventure - Please Join!

Would you like to join me for a meal planning adventure this month?  We will be celebrating....

Meatless Monday - A vegetarian meal obviously.

Fat Tuesday - Serve up your unhealthiest mostest deliciousest meal on Tuesday.  This is when you want your chicken fried steak, your enchiladas, your chicken pot pie. 

Slow Cooker Wednesday - Wednesdays are tough.  Simplify your life and turn on that crock pot. 

Taco Thursday - You don't have to do tacos, but taco thursday flowed much better than mexican thursday.   You know I will be celebrating with Mexican food as frequently as possible. 

Fish Friday - I want to make use of the local seafood markets and cook more fish. Or make Hunter go fishing more. Maybe I can get more adventurous with my seafood cooking?  Maybe?  Can I?

Please join!  Share your recipes with me on the blog, through email, or instagram.  I guess you can tell me in person too.  Happy cooking!

Meals For the Week

These are some of the meals I have cooked over the past few days that were surprisingly good.

Black Bean, Quinoa, and Citrus Salad - by EatLiveRun - This was my first time to have quinoa and I thought it was pretty good.

The Super Pancake - by EightyTwenty- This was guaranteed to keep you full unlike regular pancakes. It was definitely better than regular pancakes but didn't last until lunch time.  You sprinkle granola, pecans, and strawberries on top of the pancake and cover with a lid so you don't have to flip. 

Citrus Cake - by America's Test Kitchen. I substituted oranges for lemons. 

This week I am making:

Alton Brown's meatloaf
Beef Fajitas with Annie's Eats Queso Blanco
Salmon
Lemon Chicken (the Edmondsons love when I make lemon chicken wink,wink)

Meals for the Week

I try to make about 3 new recipes a week and spend the rest of the week eating leftovers or attempting to use items I already have efficiently. This is not the way to have the cheapest grocery bill, but keeps life fun for me. 

New meals for this week:

• America's Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook - Skillet Roasted Chicken
• Antioxidant Agua by EightyTwenty
• Orange Peel Shrimp - PBS - via EatLiveRun
• America's Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook - Pasta with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Basil

To find ideas I flip through one of my cookbooks, check out pinterest, or star items I find in my feed reader from one of the many food bloggers I follow.   If you would like to see my Pinterest idea board I have 2 categories.

1. Tried and True Recipes
2. Recipes to Try

If you are in need of more food bloggers to follow let me know and please share your favorites with me.