It’s been awhile since I’ve participated in Menu Plan Monday and it feels good to be back. I won’t say how long it took to come up with this menu but it wasn’t a five-minute thing despite its simplicity. And I really should have cleaned out my fridge, freezer, and deep freezer before I made the menu plan so I could make the best use of use-it-or-toss-it items but I didn’t.

Monday: Slow-Cooker Pork Chops, carrots, edamame
Tuesday: Pasta Roll-Ups with Turkey and Spinach, salad
Wednesday: Mexican Lasagna, salad
Thursday: Moroccan-Spiced Tomato Chicken, brown rice, brussels sprouts
Friday: leftover lasagna
Saturday: leftover Moroccan Chicken
Sunday: Thanksgiving dinner at my mom’s (Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend!)

There are many, many more menu plans to be perused over at I’m an Organizing Junkie.

Today is a day off school for B and as the weather is still rainy (it’s been raining for two weeks) it might be a challenge for us to spend the day inside without going crazy and getting on each others nerves. I have some bananas to use up so muffins are likely in the works. I also grated up a zucchini the other day and froze it so zucchini muffins are also an option. If the rain holds off long enough in the morning B and I will dig some potatoes for the Slow Cooker Pork Chops. We may also head down to one of the garden centres to pick up some apples for making applesauce later in the week on one of my days off. I wish we had orchards around here but the nearest ones are at least two hours away and my work schedule isn’t meshing well with the weekend, when B is off school.

Now it’s off to bed for me for a few hours of sleep before my mom drops B at home on her way to work. I worked a night shift tonight (4 p.m. until 2 a.m.) so he slept at her place tonight.

Another week, another menu plan, and another week dedicated to clean eating. Like last week, I’ll be using the same two cookbooks and the Clean Eating magazines that I have up to this point. Snacks will be simple (eg: grapes and a few almonds, cottage cheese and fruit) and smoothies will be aplenty.

This week’s line-up is as follows:

Monday:
Breakfast - smoothie with spinach and flaxmeal added
Lunch - Mango Chicken Salad Wrap (ECD F&K, pg 239)
Supper - Baked Salmon with Orange Glaze (Spring 2008, pg 82)

Tuesday:
Breakfast - Spinach Frittata (Spring 2008, pg 57)
Lunch - Orzo Primavera; spinach salad (ECD Cookbook, pg 81)
Supper - Smothered Mushrooms, corn with tarragon (Jan/Feb 2009, pg 79)

Wednesday:
Breakfast - Omelette Wrap with Spinach (ECD F&K, pg 203)
Lunch - Warm Salmon & Couscous Salad; fruit (Spring 2008, pg 89)
Supper - Shrimp, Spinach and Mushroom Barley (May/June 2009, pg 83)

Thursday:
Breakfast - Crock-Pot Porridge; smoothie (ECD Cookbook, pg 9)
Lunch - Black Bean, Avocado and Chicken Wrap; fruit (May/June 2009, pg 31)
Supper - baked chicken breast; Quinoa with Sun-dried Tomatoes (ECD Cookbook, pg 77)

Friday:
Breakfast - Morning Hot Cereal; smoothie (ECD F&K, pg 207)
Lunch - leftover quinoa; yogurt
Supper - Chicken, Spinach and Ricotta Quesadillas (May/June 2008, pg 74)

Saturday:
Breakfast - Whole-grain Pancakes; smoothie (ECD F&K, pg 208)
Lunch - Dinosaur Kale Quinoa Wrap; yogurt; fruit (Spring 2008, pg 72)
Supper - Pasta Roll-Ups; spinach salad (Spring 2008, pg 64)

Sunday:
Breakfast - Morning Hot Cereal; fruit; yogurt (ECD F&K, pg 207)
Lunch - unknown (heading to Toronto to pick B up from the aiport)
Supper - also unknown at this point

Don’t forget to head over and check out Organizing Junkie for more ideas. By the end of the day, hundreds of bloggers will have posted their plans for the week’s meals.

This week marks the beginning of what will hopefully be a lasting change - the beginning of eating clean and of consuming only water as a beverage. This week’s meal plan reflects that. All of the recipes come either from the Eat Clean website, the two books I have (The Eat-Clean Diet for Family & Kids and The Eat-Clean Diet Cookbook), or one of the Clean Eating magazines in my subscription. The page numbers are for my reference. My beverages will be one of the following: water, a smoothie, or some concoction created with my underused juicer. I will also have two to three healthy snacks. Some days it may look like I have lunch and supper reversed but those are likely days that I’ll be working a night shift and will have to take something to work already prepared.

Edit: August 12 - last night I sat down and made up two complete meal plans for this week and next. I’ll be heading out in an hour or so to pick up the things that I’ll need but am updating the menu I posted on Monday, which only contained suppers. I’m only filling in for the current and following days; I’m not back filling.

Monday: garden salad

Tuesday: Friday Night Chili (ECD F&K, pg 290)

Wednesday:
Breakfast - Oatmeal with apple; yogurt
Lunch - Quinoa, Apple & Walnut Salad with Turkey Sausage and Spicy Apple Vinaigrette (Fall 2008, pg 80)
Supper - unknown (road trip)

Thursday:
Breakfast - Potato & Egg Italiano Sandwich; smoothie (Jan/Feb 2009, pg 27)
Lunch - Mango Chicken Salad Wrap; yogurt (ECD F&K, pg 236)
Supper - Quinoa Black Bean Salad; sliced orange (Winter 2008, pg 76)

Friday:
Breakfast - Oatmeal with banana; juice
Lunch - Hummus & Veggie Wrap; smoothie (ECD F&K pg 240)
Supper - leftover chili

Saturday:
Breakfast - Oatmeal; smoothie
Lunch - Crispy Tuna Triangles; spinach salad (ECD F&K, pg 224)
Supper - Shrimp, Spinach & Mushroom Barley (May/June 2009, pg 82)

Sunday:
Breakfast - cottage cheese with apple butter; juice (Spring 2008, pg 54)
Lunch - Baked Salmon with Orange Glaze; brown rice (Spring 2008, pg 82)
Supper - Egg Salad Sandwich (ECD F&K, pg 232)

There are many more menu plans to be found over at Organzing Junkie. If you’re at a loss as to what to serve up this week, head on over and check them out.

Late last week I picked up a ton of fresh fruit and veggies so this week’s meals will be a fridge and pantry challenge. There should be no need for me to go to the grocery store this week except possibly for milk towards the end of this week if we run out.

• Monday: whatever’s easy - B fell asleep as I was beginning supper and is still sleeping so that meal has been moved to Tuesday
• Tuesday: ground turkey and chicken pot pie with cream soup instead of gravy
• Wednesday: turkey chili
• Thursday: spaghetti with marinara sauce and garlic bread from scratch
• Friday: Orange-Glazed Chicken Thighs made with fresh-squeezed orange juice
  
• Saturday: slow cooker beef roast and sweet potatoes
• Sunday: Ginger-Glazed Mahi Mahi with Lemon-Herb Quinoa

After supper was prepared, I took pity on the three brown bananas that were on my counter and mixed up a batch of apple-banana muffins, which I’ve just pulled out of the oven. It smells good in here! The batch makes 24 muffins and at the rate B eats them (double-fisted), I’m going to have to freeze some in 4-muffin portions or there won’t be any left by tomorrow afternoon.

If you’re interested in seeing other meal plans, head over to I’m an Organizing Junkie to see what 300 other people are going to be eating this week.

I had a bit of a difficult time planning this week’s menu and I’m not sure why. I really should have this post ready each week by Sunday evening, just waiting for Monday. Here we are though, another plan completed. As always, check out orgjunkie.com for many more links.

This week is a bit of a pantry/freezer challenge.

Monday: grilled hot dogs
Tuesday: spaghetti with homemade marinara sauce from the freezer
Wednesday: tortilla pizzas with the above sauce
Thursday: (night shift) butternut squash ravioli from the freezer and the above sauce
Friday: (night shift) Moroccan-Spiced Tomato Chicken with Almonds, brown rice, edamame
Saturday: Apple Mustard Rosemary Chicken with asparagus and Italian potatoes*
Sunday: grilled pork chops with dill potatoes**

*I cut up several potatoes into approximately one-inch cubes, place them in a lidded casserole dish on an appropriate size, and coat them in whatever oil-based salad dressing I have on hand. I then microwave them until they are roughly 3/4 cooked before putting them in the oven. If I don’t have anything else in the oven, I cook them completely in the microwave instead.

**Cut potatoes in half lengthwise and then slice to desired thickness. Microwave in a lidded casserole dish just until done. Place in a tinfoil pie plate or pan and drop in butter. I don’t know how much I use; I put in several 1/4-teaspoon-sized dollops around the pan. Sprinkle generously with salt, pepper, dried dill weed, and poppy seeds. Cover with foil and BBQ alongside the meat, checking every so often and moving to the top rack when necessary.

This Menu Plan Monday is going to be short and quick on my way down for a nap. I’m working another night shift tonight and then four more starting on Thursday. As always, you know you can head over to orgjunkie.com for many more menu ideas.

• Monday: Lentil Chili (night shift - frozen leftovers)
• Tuesday: BBQ pork chops
• Wednesday: pasta casserole
• Thursday: pork chop, brown rice, edamame (night shift - frozen leftovers)
• Friday: Butternut Squash and Tomato soup (night shift - homemade, frozen leftovers)
• Saturday: pasta casserole (night shift - leftovers)
• Sunday: turkey meatballs in sweet and sour sauce (night shift - frozen leftovers)

Monday: butternut squash ravioli (bumped over from last week)
Tuesday: Moroccan-Spiced Tomato Chicken, steamed asparagus
Wednesday: Pizza Roll-Ups
Thursday: butternut squash soup (using leftovers)
Friday: Chicken Bombay, asparagus
Saturday: lentil chili (night shift - frozen leftovers)
Sunday: Mandarin Orange Chicken (night shift - frozen leftovers)

In the past few days I have tried three new recipes, two comprising supper tonight and the other being a fruit dip.

Supper tonight was bumped to this week as I didn’t get to it last week. Tonight we had butternut squash ravioli using wonton wrappers; it was topped with a delicious marinara sauce that, although incredible on its own, overpowered the flavour of the squash rendering it rather unnoticeable. I filled all the wrappers in the package and have put some ravioli in the freezer for another night. I have a fair bit of the squash mixture left over, which will become soup later this week.

The fruit dip appears to be far healthier than one I’ve made a few times in the past (consisting of cream cheese, white sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla) and has been given a thumbs up by B. This recipe contains cream cheese, pumpkin, a bit of sugar, and some spices, and, as written, makes a large amount. The next time I make it, I’ll cut the recipe in half. We’ve been eating it with Granny Smith apples and nice tart Macs.

Now I’m on the hunt for the best hummus recipe in the world. B loves the President’s Choice hummus and I’ve never found anything that compares. The PC brand was our first exposure to hummus so that may have something to do with our pickiness.

Take a few moments to skip over to Organizing Junkie for a huge list of other weekly menu plans.

This is the beginning of another week of meals. I am liking this meal plan deal. I may not follow it to the absolute letter but it is so nice to know in advance what is for supper and what needs to be done to prepare for it. Sometimes, like last week, I inadvertently get one day ahead of myself or end up with a spontaneous barbeque with my boyfriend and his daughter instead but for the most part, the plan remains. It’s also an easy way to use what is in my pantry and freezer and makes grocery shopping so much easier. Who would have thought, right?

Monday: spaghetti with turkey meatballs
Tuesday: Lentil Quinoa Stew (slow cooker!)
Wednesday: leftover stew (night shift)
Thursday: Mandarin Orange Chicken from last week (frozen leftovers; night shift)
Friday: grilled pork chop with quinoa and edamame (frozen leftovers; night shift)
Saturday: Butternut Squash Ravioli using wonton wrappers
Sunday: Brown Sugar Salmon

And these are not on the menu this week but the recipes look interesting. I have a squash that has been in my cold storage for awhile now and in looking for a recipe to use it in this week, I came across these.

• No-Bake Butternut Squash Cookies
• Butternut Squash Latkes
• Butternut Squash Skillet Lasagna

Today was another sick day for me. I feel like I hit 30 years old and started falling apart. I never used to get sick; I remember being in college and the entire class would be carrying around Kleenex boxes and I’d waltz through with nary a sniffle. Since having B I’ve definitely caught a few more colds but in the last year, that seems to have gone up even further. And the headaches. This year - and the cause of the sick day today - I’ve had at least three instances of two- to three-day headaches. They start off faint-but-there and untouchable by Advil or Tylenol and carry through the night turning into a stronger one with a stabbing head rush every time I stand up. Love ‘em. This one is nearly gone and will be gone by morning, so back to work for the next two nights.

Tonight was a scrounging kind of dinner night. B ate part of a peanut butter and banana sandwich and then part of my egg-on-an-english-muffin. Canned peaches rounded out the gourmet meal. I’m enjoying Menu Plan Monday, both for the recipes and new blogs that I find via I’m An Organizing Junkie and for the way it makes it so much easier to make dinner on any given night. I’ve done meal planning before and somehow fallen off the wagon; I’m hoping I ride this one for a long time.

June will be another Make It Instead month in the kitchen too. I have the dry ingredients for bread pre-mixed in the freezer, a recipe for yogurt and one for pita bread, and puréed tomatoes in the freezer ready to be made into another pot of tomato soup. Crackers may be on the agenda too. I was surprised at how easy it was to do the last MII month and am looking forward to this one too.

The sewing machine has continued to hum a little and I now have two pairs of long pj pants and two pairs of short ones to go with the ones B modeled the other day. Some of the shirts are partly cut out as well but I’m still digging through my solid knits bucket trying to find colours that coordinate the best. Look for more pictures in the coming week.

Up tomorrow: B’s first real dentist visit in the morning, lawn-cutting (if the weather cooperates), and a nap for both of us in the afternoon.