Meal Planning for the Busy Family

We finally have a grill! And the Iron Bowl of softball is this weekend, SO Let's grill out!  I plan on doing at least 2 meals at once on the grill.  You have to fire up your grill no matter how much you plan on cooking, so why not fill it up! This saves time, AND the most important thing, No kitchen has been harmed while grilling. Meal 1 – Grilled Pork Chops with Grilled Veggies and Rice Pork Chops Zucchini, Squash, Mushrooms Brown Rice Recipes needed: http://www.paleocupboard.com/italian-dressing.html I will use this recipe as a base for my Pork Chop Marinade. Anything with Vinegar, lemon juice, and a bit of oil will do the trick. Yo u can also just used store-bought here. For the veggies, just sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder.  Apply liberally. And for extra kick, add red pepper flakes!  Meal 2 – Grilled Steak with Grilled Sweet Potatoes and Green Beans Steak Sweet Potatoes Green Beans Reci...

A day late and a dollar short! I normally post these on Sunday, but didn't have time.  I again altered my plan from earlier in the week.  For Meal #3 instead of roasted chicken, I grilled it.  I also had some fresh veggies leftover from Meal #1 so I decided to grill those too.  Out grill finally kicked the bucket at the very end of the summer/fall last year, and we decided not to replace it until it was time to grill again this year. Well we got a grill this weekend and I was more than ready to use it! Day 1 - Chicken Parmesan over Sauteed Vegetables. For this, I had no recipe. I started by preheating my oven to 425 and chopping up my veggies. I used 1 lb of zucchini, 1 lb of squash, and a few onions.  You can add whatever you want to for this. I then heated up 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the pan and sauteed these veggies until tender.  I also added some salt and pepper to taste.  Once done, I placed these in the bottom of a greased 9x13 i...

Meals and grocery list for the week! I'll order groceries soon too.  I'm trying to keep it simple this week. No recipes needed.  I will post this weekend what I do step by step.  The Turkey/cabbage stir fry is one of my new favorite recipes.  You can transform this into anything you want. I've added soy sauce and ginger for an Asian kick,  Italian seasonings for Italian, and Cumin/chili powder for a more Mexican flavor. It is also made quick and easy by using the pre-shredded cabbage/slaw mixes.  Anything where I don't  have to chop a lot is a win for me. Enjoy! Meal Plan Meal 1 – Turkey Cabbage Stir Fry Ground Turkey Cabbage - I will use pre-shredded lettuce to save time. Recipes needed: None This is quick and easy.  You will brown your turkey. Then add in Slaw, Can of diced Tomatoes (or two), a Tablespoon (or two) of Apple Cider Vinegar and spices.  I use Salt, pepper, Garlic Powder, onion powder, and either c...

Rain came so all our ballgames were canceled. This gave us more time to get some things completed around the house that we have been putting off. I have cleaned (ok mostly) the house and caught up on laundry and my husband got the garden planted! Can't wait for those fresh tomatoes to come in from the garden! I split the cooking across two days again so that I didn't have to do it all in one day. Day 1 - I cooked two of the meals.  They were the Paprika chicken and Rice bake and the Hamburger Steak. Recipes needed: https://www.buzzfeed.com/clairenolan/paprika-chicken-rice-bake?utm_term=.ac9kkWEox&bffbtasty&ref=bffbtasty#.vu5WWPOX5   I want to say, I am unsure if I will cook the paprika chicken again like this.  It turned out more greasy than I would want.  I am unsure if it is because I swapped out the white rice for brown rice but even then, do I want to eat rice that has soaked up grease?  They chicken was flavorful and ohh so juicy! But I'm t...

I have  compiled my meals and grocery list for the week.    No quantities are placed on the grocery list so that you can cater it to your needs. For example, I will double the recipe for the paprika chicken because I have 5 people to feed, and I want multiple meals to come out of it. I did not list a recipe for the hamburger steak with onions and mushrooms.  This is because I do not have one.  I will post what I do exactly but it’s pretty simple.  You season your ground beef and make into patties. You then place in a skillet and cook until done. See told you it was easy.  I will probably make myself some turkey burgers instead of using the ground beef, but this is because it fits more into my diet.  My husband and kids want regular hamburger steaks, so that’s what I’ll cook for them.  (I also have enough chicken and shrimp that I may not need to make me a separate meal. It depends on how much time I get) I did not list a b...

This weekend was busy, but I still had time to play around with a recipe.  I love breakfast casseroles.  I usually put them in muffin tins, but wanted to see if it was easier to make a large casserole and just cut it into portions.  It was. :) The casserole turned out so pretty it was almost to pretty to eat, but eat it I will!  The recipe is very versatile, so you can swap out the veggies to use what you have on hand as well as the meat.  I used turkey sausage, I believe you could  use almost anything - ham, pork sausage, bacon etc. This recipe does call for a lot of eggs, but if you want you can easily half this recipe. First you will brown your meat and place the sausage in the baking dish. You will then layer any vegetables you have on top of this.  For this one, I had baby spinach (picked fresh that day by me) and Roma tomatoes.  You could easily use peppers, zucchini, squash, and mushrooms (in case you are wanting some ideas for...

First, I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend! Ours has been beyond blessed. We spent all day Saturday at the ball fields then today, our oldest two got baptized. My heart is so full right now! Since we were going to be busy, I split the meal prep into two days instead of all on one day. As it happens on most weekends, I ended up altering my original meal plan I had posted earlier.  I decided to not fix the rice with the taco salads.  I also added some roasted asparagus because my parents gave us some they had just picked out of their garden.  What is better than fresh?  Our grill is also out of commission so I made Sauteed Garlic Chicken.  That is one of the things I LOVE about cooking.  I can take each recipe and make it work for us. If you notice, I use parchment paper when cooking anything in the oven.  This is to save me time. The parchment paper keeps foods from sticking to my pan. It also keeps my pan from getting very dirty which ma...