Meal Schedule

When it comes to meal planning there are a ton of different ways to do it.

I usually use my Google Calendar to plan my meals, but I taught a class on meal planning and decided that I needed a cute display and came up with this...

Start with a dollar store frame (take out the glass). And print out a cute calendar, I found mine HERE at Anything but Perfect. And more HERE!

Place a couple of sheets of tin tiles behind your calendar, and your almost done!

Then you need to make a list of all of your 30 plus favorite meals that you know how to make... type out a list of them, here is mine if you want. Print them out on a few different colors of paper, you will need to space/size them to fit on your calendar. Then make magnates out of them. I traced some with pebble marbles, cut out, and Mod Podged them to the back.

Then hot glued a magnate to the back.

Others I just stuck a magnate on the paper.

So WHY meal plan?

You know what to buy at the store because your meals are set and you know what to get!

It makes being in the kitchen more enjoyable.

Your eating more of a variety, and it should be healthier and cheaper, because of your planning.

And the best part is NOW you KNOW what's for dinner!

Try throwing in a "New recipe night" or maybe buy something that you have never cooked before (because it's on sale) and try cooking it. Always have a "fill in meal" or a "fall back meal" something that is easy and requires no prep, so that way if you had a "leftover" night but you have no leftovers you still have a meal. Like potstickers that you pull out of the freezer, or cans of soup. Canned beef is a great one to have on hand... you can mix it with BBQ sauce and throw it on a hamburger bun (that you keep in the freezer). Or you can take that same can of beef and mix some green chili sauce with it, bust out some beans and tortillas and you have green burritos.

Apple-Pickle-Carrot Sandwiches

OK I know that tuna is nothing new to anyone but I wanted to share how I have started to make my tuna. So far everyone that has tried it, likes it.

Growing up we would put dill pickles in our tuna mixed with mayo and that was it. I never knew that there was any other way to make tuna, never crossed my mind. So once when my mother-in-law asked me what I put in my tuna I thought it was a weird question because I just thought that everyone only put pickles, period. So when I answered pickles and she was still waiting for an answer I said... mayo.... tuna. On her end she was probably thinking "She only puts pickles? How weird!" She had a whole list of things and I found out that I really enjoy carrots in my tuna, thanks to her. And thanks to my grandparents I found out that apples add a sweet crunch. So here is my favorite tuna.

My three year old calls them "Apple-pickle-carrot sandwiches" kind of a long title I know! Grandpa even asked her if she wanted a tuna sandwich the other day and she simply told him, "I don't like tuna sandwiches." The reason: they aren't simply called tuna at our house.

My kids eat tuna sandwiches better than anything else... really... well... lunch food anyway!

It may sound like a weird combo but it is so yummy. You need tuna, half an apple (any color), dill pickles, carrots, and mayo. And I have noticed that adding fruit and veggies to it makes it stretch further and it's got to be more health, right?

Slap-chop it up! So easy and fast. Plus it's fun to let the kids help chop, both my kids love it.

Add a couple spoon fulls of mayo just enough to stick it together.

Slightly toast the bread and eat!

MMM...

I kid you not my kids plates are always clean.

How do you make your tuna?

My Favorite Pork Chops

Here is another meal from my Meal Schedule it is one of our favorites, I think I might schedule it more often.

Ok so I kinda burnt them because I was grilling and not my wonderful grillmaster husband! But they still tasted SO good!

Close up on the color of these babies!

So here is how you make these delicious pork chops.

I love Sam the Cooking Guy and this is a modified version of his pork chops.

If you want to follow the recipe per Sam you can but I would feel a little funny walking around the grocery store with a 6 pack of beer, but that is just me though!

So here is my recipe:

6 boneless pork chops, about 3/4-inch thick, trimmed
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar

2 crushed cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons fresh ginger root, chopped very fine

8 oz of Apple Juice

Put all the ingredients in a gallon bag. Let the chops marinade for a night and day and then grill 'em.

(I usually buy a huge thing of pork chops and then as soon as I get them home from the store I split them up in groups of 4 or 6 add the marinade let them sit in the frige for a day and stick them in the freezer, it's a quick, easy, YUMMY meal.)

Doesn't it make you hungry, MMM so good.

PS those are my new glasses I just got from IKEA for my birthday and I LOVE them!

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Sister Stuff

Ritz Chicken

Ok here is a start on the recipes I promised back in THIS post. This recipe is for the start of the month next week. The first Tuesday of the month is Ritz Chicken. One of our family staples, mainly because it's easy, yummy, and fool proof. Oh and because I don't have to use a recipe! It's so simple!

So here is what you need some Ritz Crackers, a stick of butter and chicken. That's it!

Drop Ritz into bag. One sleeve to two sleeves (depending on how much chicken; 2 sleeves do 8 chicken). So if I'm doing 6 chicken I use a sleeve and a half of Ritz. Get the picture.

Crush Ritz so that they are unrecognizable. I've had it where the crackers are chunky and I didn't enjoy it as much. Plus people are more impress when they don't know what you used.

Melt your butter, drudge chicken into butter then in the bag of Ritz, place on the baking sheet. ~Here is my spin I usually pour some Ritz on my pan so that the under side of the chicken has extra.~

I usually have extra butter left which, I then pour on the top of my chicken. Then with whatever crumbs are left I will pack those on the top.

Ok so I almost didn't post this picture because it's not pretty. My butter got away from me but then again... this is usually how my pan ends up and it still looks good at the end. Don't be afraid to get messy.

Bake at 350 for 30-35 min. Or if chicken is frozen 40-50 min.

Doesn't that look yummy! I know! Because I got to eat it after this picture!

Here is my secret in my Meal Schedule I have a star by my Ritz chicken. Which means that I will be using my extras later that week. So with the star by the chicken I make extra chicken (and salad) so I can use it on chicken salads the next day. So Wednesday's dinner is done too! I just reheat my chicken throw it under the broiler for a few to get crispy and TA-DA!

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All Thingz Related

Meal Schedule

I recently made up a calendar of every meal for every day for an entire month. I figured that we could follow this food schedule and then just repeat it each month. I did a WHOLE BUNCH of shopping and just multiplied the things I'd need over the next few months. Which has been a big help to get food storage and meals done.

So NOW, I know what's for dinner!

I am going to share some of my tips, calendar, and recipes in posts to come. Hopefully it will help someone else.

So here is what I've done. I figured out Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner for each day, (figured how much we eat on weekdays, the kids and I, then on weekends remembered to count daddy.) I'm super luck to have such generous and helpful parents and they have all of they're kids over every Sunday night and have dinner. So you may need to think of an extra meal. I usually have a "fill in meal" for those nights you didn't remember to put it in the crock pot or you just don't feel like making the chosen meal of the day. I have a bag of frozen pot stickers for our "fill in meal" it's easy and yummy and no one minds the "fill in meal." We have left over night on Monday's because it usually works best for us on that day. You may need to move it to a different day. And if you have no left overs, that is a "fill in meal" night. I also keep cans of soup handy which also makes for a good "fill in meal."

*These meals are what we normally eat, but I think I would like to implement more meals that have more 'food storage' ingredients.

I made the calendar first and then figured out what I'd need for each meal for the whole month. This may be different for your family. We have two adults and two small kids in our family. I'd say try to stick with the schedule for a week and see how much food your family eats and then calculate the numbers according to your family. It was a lot of work but it was worth it. These are meals I know my family likes and will eat. If you don't like the meals you may want to make up your own using mine as a guide. Here is a tip if you have your menu for an entire month you can watch the deals and sales on the meats you buy and then stock up. I have all my meat frozen and I can either stick it in the crock pot frozen or since I know what the weeks meals are I can thaw it.

Don't forget snacks: yogurt (I freeze mine), cheese, crackers, pretzels, pudding, Jell-O, apple salad, frozen/can fruit, muffins, cookies (make a batch every once in a while freeze the dough and you have a few cookies whenever you want them), cake, vegetables, raisins. I didn't calculate real specifically on the snacks.