Menu-Plan Thursday: Daddy's-Not-Here Edition

Shannon left today on business for a week, so it's just going to be me and the girlies here again for a bit. I always try to plan a bit ahead when he's going to be gone so that I don't have to lug a bunch of stuff home from the store along with both girls.

That being said, Shannon's been on a diet of sorts for the past couple months. High cholesterol runs in his family, and when he last got bloodwork done they wanted to put him on medication. He asked for a few months to try to get it under control with diet and exercise. So, diet it's been. Less cheese, less butter, less sweets, and I'm working on expanding my gluten-free repertoire, because I think we'll try a gluten-free diet for a month this fall and see if it helps some of his stomach problems. That being said, he's going to be gone for a whole week. Which means we'll be enjoying some things I haven't been making much of:

Pizza

Quesadillas

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Peach Muffins

Chicken Dijon

Hummus

Pasta Primavera

And maybe we'll eat a bit extra ice cream. I've also been trying to cut back on the junk food so that Shannon's not "suffering" alone (but believe me, he's not suffering. We did have enchiladas for dinner yesterday), and I've been missing some foods! Is it bad that I'm looking forward to him being gone so I can eat more?

Menu Plan (almost) Monday

It's official: fall is here. The weather has turned rainy and chilly. We turned our heaters on (yes, we are very fortunate to have control of our own radiators in this new apartment!) yesterday after some clothes had been hanging up for almost 48 hours but still weren't dry. It's been raining, or at least drizzling, for about a week straight. And we're swamped with busyness. I can't believe my due date is two months from today...we have way too much to do before this baby comes!

I've been trying to get better at planning our menus for a month at a time in preparation for when the new baby comes. It's a little bit more effort, but it's quite nice in the long run. I spend 2-3 hours coming up with a menu and a nonperishables-grocery-list at the beginning of the month (or, actually in our case I do it in the middle of the month when Shannon gets paid). I try to make one big shopping trip to stock up on everything we'll need for the month that won't spoil. And then each week I can decide what we'll eat from my monthly menu and buy produce accordingly.

This month I'm trying something new. We usually eat leftovers for lunch, since Lane isn't really into the sandwich thing, and I'm not big on processed meats. I made a huge pot of minestrone soup on Wednesday for dinner that we're still finishing up (and that's after I put about two meals' worth in the freezer) and I thought that it would be nice to try making one big pot of soup at the beginning of the week to eat for lunch every day. It'll cut down on the amount of meals I have to cook (only 22 or so instead of 30 or so) over the course of the month. And it will save me time as well, since it'll just involve an extra 15-20 minutes of work when I make the soup as opposed to the time spent to make an extra three meals that week. We don't mind eating the same thing every day, as long as we get some variety for one of our meals! And if I'm making a soup with meat in it, I'll just freeze half of it and pull it out mid-week.

So, without further ado, here's what we're eating this month:

Soups (for lunches):

Chicken & Rice

Lentil Vegetable

Chili with cornbread

Tomato with grilled cheese

Vegetable Beef

Vegetarian:

Garden Chowder

Baked potatoes with broccoli

Breakfast

Sloppy Lentils

Pizza (x4)

Pasta Primavera

Meat/Chicken:

Spaghetti with salad or broccoli

Whole chicken with potatoes and a veggie (x3)

Enchiladas with Mexican rice

Chicken and Dumplings

Chicken Divan

I'll also be making some homemade chicken broth, chai shortbread, pumpkin bars, pumpkin french toast, and hopefully an apple crumble or two. I'll get recipes up for you as soon as I can. I'm trying a lot of new recipes this month since I'm getting tired of some of our old staples. I also have a crockpot again, so I'm trying to utilize it at least twice a week. Tonight I made the whole chicken in the crock pot and it was quite easy and tasty...I will be doing it again.

What are you eating this month (or week) for dinner? Anything I should add to my repertoire?

Menu Plan...Wednesday?

In light of all my newfound energy and re-desire to plan our meals and actually prepare them myself, I thought I'd share with you our menu for the week (which started...Monday. Sunday we moved, so we had pizza for dinner). So far it's involved very little prep work, which has been really, really nice. I love it when we can eat healthily without me spending hours upon hours in the kitchen!

First let me say that I rarely plan to cook breakfast. Sometimes it happens on weekends, sometimes when I have a random potato (for hash browns), but usually we just eat fruit and cereal. I'm lazy like that (or it just takes me long enough to wake up in the mornings that it's usually lunchtime before I'm capable of cooking without burning the house down).

Monday:

lunch: leftover braised balsamic chicken from Saturday night

dinner: homemade chicken and rice soup, bread

Tuesday:

lunch: leftover pizza from the move on Sunday, chicken soup from Monday

dinner: Louisiana dirty rice and beans, cornbread

Wednesday:

lunch: Shannon ate out with friends, Lane and I had leftover rice and beans and cornbread from Tuesday

dinner: sautéed veggies, couscous pilaf, and chicken paillards (chicken pounded flat, dredged in breadcrumbs, and pan-sautéed)

Thursday:

lunch: tuna salad with avocado (if I can find one) on whole-wheat bread, carrot sticks

dinner: leftover rice and beans, cornbread from Tuesday

Friday:

lunch: leftover chicken paillards, couscous pilaf, and veggies from Wednesday

dinner: spaghetti, garlic bread, green salad

Saturday:

lunch: leftover spaghetti from Friday

dinner: whatever our small group decides to cook

Sunday:

lunch: leftover spaghetti from Friday

dinner: that southwestern salad that I mentioned yesterday

Ahh. Healthy food all week long! There are times that I wish I lived in the States when it comes to cooking. We can't get whole-wheat pasta here, which would make our spaghetti healthier. I want to put an avocado in our tuna but I don't know if I'll be able to find one at the bazaar tomorrow. My chicken soup only had about half the amount of celery in it that I'd like because it's over $2.00 for a super small amount (about 1/3 of a bunch that you'd get in the States), and I just can't justify buying more for soup, especially when I'm using it twice in one week. I just trust that if I do as much as I can to make our food healthy, God will take care of our bodies and redeem my efforts, even if we could eat "healthier" in the States.

Anyone have any fantastic recipes out there? Anyone have any great ones that involve little prep work (no canned soups or pre-packaged goods to save time...they're not available here), are cold dishes (I'm not going to want to spend lots of time over a stove come August!), or are recipes specifically for tuna? I'm trying to eat it at least once a week since I'm pregnant and it's good for me, but I'm worried that I'll get burnt out on tuna sandwiches. Any ideas are appreciated!