Menu Planning: Week of July 8, 2024

Sure hard to believe it is already July.  We have HelloFresh coming this upcoming Thursday again.  I am looking forward to the recipes this week from them: Honey Thyme Pork Filet and Cheesy Smashed Burgers.  Get a FREE box from HelloFresh using my referral code.  I suspect a few other meals this week will include spaghetti and potentially a recipe from SkinnyTaste, stuffed peppers.  I sure appreciate both HomeChef and HelloFresh though when it comes to menu planning.

Menu Planning: Week of June 24, 2024

This week, we have a few meals arriving from HelloFresh!  Try a FREE box from me!  

This upcoming Thursday, we have the following meals arriving on our doorstep.  These have been helpful as Jakob recently has decided he should learn how to cook new things.  The step by step instructions have been beneficial for him too.

• Hot Honey Peach Pork Chops with Rice & Lemony Roasted Veggies
• Sheet Pan Dijon Onion Crunch Chicken with Green Beans & Garlic Bread

I'm not entirely sure what other plans we have this week yet.  We are officially hitting 100 this week it appears.  So I know I will attempt to limit the oven if possible.  What are you cooking this hot summer week?

Menu Planning: Week of June 17, 2024

This week, we have a few meals arriving from HelloFresh!  

We have two dinners arriving tomorrow: Honey-Butter BBQ Pork Chops and Sweet Chili-Lime Glazed Pork Chops.

We are also making spaghetti this evening and had BBQ Sausage and rice planned earlier this week.  What's on your menu this week?

Menu Planning: Week of May 27, 2024

This upcoming week, we have meals and recipes arriving from Home Chef and HelloFresh.  My coupons will expire on Home Chef with this upcoming week and then HelloFresh sent me a coupon to return!  I have learned to switch back and forth as needed between the different meal prep companies since they will offer you discounts to return!  One advantage to Home Chef is customizing the recipe servings.  I prefer being able to change some recipes down to two rather than the default four-person setting.  We vary from having the meal-prep service every week to on average every-other week.  What are your favorite menu planning websites or meal prep companies?

Home Chef Steak with Bacon-Blue Cheese Butter with Oven-Roasted Asiago fries.

Home Chef Sheet Pan Mozzarella Chicken Cutlet with Garlic Sweet Potatoes and Green Beans

HelloFresh Creamy Garlic Chicken Spaghetti with Nutmeg, Parmesan & Chives

HelloFresh Chicken in a Lemony Sauce with Pistachio Rice & Roasted Carrots

Maple-Glazed Sausage with Wilted Spinach and Brown Rice

Last night, I cooked maple sausage w/spinach and brown rice.  I really like this recipe and the flavors work well together!  This is the second or third time I have cooked it and really like it.  I honestly can say I did not eat spinach often, but I will cook this recipe when I receive spinach from my local Bountiful Baskets.  Ashlyn does not like the spinach as much, but both Jakob and Roland have both wolfed it down which really surprised Jeff and me.  My one recommendation is to really watch the time on the spinach.  The first time I really wilted it quickly and have turned the heat down dramatically the last time I cooked it. Enjoy!

Maple-Glazed Sausage with Wilted Spinach
Servings: 4
Start to Finish: 22 minutes

Ingredients:
10 ounces smoked turkey sausage, cut diagonally into 3/4 inch slices
1/4 cup reduced calorie or sugar-free maple syrup
1/4 cup cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup finely chopped sweet onion
1/4 teaspoon dried sage, crushed
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 6-ounce packages fresh baby spinach (about 10 cups)

Instructions:
1. In a very large nonstick skillet cook sausage slices over medium-high heat about 3 minutes or until sausage is heated through and browned, stirring occasionally.  Reduce heat to medium-low and add syrup, tossing to coat sausage.  Remove sausage from skillet using a slotted spoon; cover and keep warm.
2. Add onion, broth, sage, and pepper to skillet.  Cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until onion is just tender, stirring occasionally.  Increase heat to medium.  Add spinach to hot skillet; cover and cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until spinach is just wilted, tossing once.
3. Divide spinach amount four servings plates.  Top with sausage slices.

Per Serving (Maple-Glazed Sausage with Wilted Spinach): 166 cal, 15 carbs, 14 g protein, 7 g total fat, 726 mg sodium.

Recipe from: Diabetic Living Diabetes What to Eat

Cheeseburgers with Sweet Potato French Fries

Jeff and I cooked cheeseburgers yesterday evening.  In the past, we usually bought frozen patties from Costco and Jeff seasoned them and took them out to the grill.  I wanted to try doing them ourselves to see if I would like the taste better.  The hamburger patties from Costco tend to be dry to me.  Overall, I thought they came out pretty good and Jeff's only comment was he could have had a little more on the seasoning.

I used my Better Homes and Gardens recipe book that I have had since we probably got married. It was a basic recipe that began with beating an egg and then adding bread crumbs. Jakob complained about the noise I made when I ran my small food processor for the bread crumbs! After mixing the egg and the bread crumbs, I added the seasoning and the hamburger meat.  I think I cold have made five to six patties instead of the four.  Jeff might add additional seasoning to the outside of his hamburger the next time we make them.  The sweet potato french fries were store bought from Costco and cooked about thirty minutes to make them extra crispy.

Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book - Cheeseburgers
1 beaten egg
2 TBSP milk or water
3/4 cup soft bread crumbs (1 slice) or 1/4 cup fine dry bread crumbs
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/8 tsp garlic powder (optional)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 lb ground beef
4-6 hamburger buns, split and toasted

Doctor's Appointments and Great Food for Dinner!

Monday was a busy day!  I had two regular doctor's appointments scheduled and Mom had agreed to help watch Jakob.  Initially, it began with one appointment when I first asked if she could come up for the day!  Then when I called another doctor's office, I was able to schedule the appointment on the same day!  Due to the time of the appointments, it worked better if she and Jakob came with us and we could do lunch in between the appointments.  While at the first appointment, my doctor wanted another test completed.  Right before heading into my second appointment, the hospital called me and I was able to get the other test completed on the same day too!  So what was initially one appointment worked out to be three appointments!  When we were all done, I thought Mom deserved Olive Garden!  We all met Jeff and had a wonderful dinner.

We went over the mall and wandered around.  We went to the Cheesecake Factory!  Boy did the cheesecake taste so good!  It had been such a long day in and out of doctor's offices.  Jakob did not want cheesecake and ordered vanilla ice cream instead.  I was taking a picture of my cheesecake and Mom's cheesecake and he asked me to take a picture of his ice cream too!

Roland had another orthodontics appointment on Tuesday.  It went well and it sure is neat to see how much straighter his teeth are now compared to when he first got his braces on about a year ago.  After the appointment, we went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch.  I thought about going to Michael's and looking around but remembered I had to go home since I had scheduled Orkin to come out to the house and begin spraying to get rid of the bugs!

Breakfast for Dinner!

I made breakfast for dinner last night! I made blueberry pancakes, bacon, and toast and it was delicious!  The pancakes were fantastic and just melted in my mouth!  Jakob really enjoyed the dinner and wolfed down the pancakes!  He has never had blueberry pancakes before but he really enjoys eating blueberry muffins.  I figured if he likes blueberry muffins, he would like the pancakes and sure enough I was right!  I also had other intentions for making breakfast for dinner!!  Recently, I mentioned how we bought the FoodSaver from Costco.  I purposely made extras and sealed for the freezer for the hectic busy mornings!

One Busy Week!

Jeff and I registered Jakob for Kindergarten on Thursday!! Registration began at 9:00AM and the current Kindergarten students performed a few songs and then the principal and assistant principal talked about the upcoming year.  We completed the paperwork and took a short tour of the school.  Jeff and I both liked the design inside the school; should be a fun and busy next year!

Earlier in the week, I learned about E-Mealz.  They create menus for the week that include the ingredients and instructions for the recipe.  Using some of the options from the menus, I came up with the following menu for this upcoming week.  (Jeff and I have created menus before and when we made them, the week was so much easier at dinner time.  Even if you flip flop days, you still have the items on hand to cook dinner!) View my pretty menu HERE.

Sunday: Pork Chop Casserole with Green Beans

Monday: Spaghetti with Garlic Bread

Tuesday: Cheeseburgers with French Fries

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Walnut Crusted Chicken with Red Potatoes

Friday: Banana French Toast with Bacon

Saturday: Chicken Fried Steak with Mashed Potatoes

I took Jakob to his ice skating lesson this morning.  This is the 3rd week of lessons and he did much better today!  He was so proud of himself overall and loved getting the sticker from Ms. Palma!  Jakob was not attached to the wall nearly as much as he was the first two weeks of practice and stayed near the cones.  Most of his skating was by himself with little assistance from the teachers except every now and then!

Jeff and I went out to eat at Parkers Brothers Trail Dust steakhouse for dinner.  It was pretty good.  I had an 8 oz steak, baked potato, salad, and bread.  Jeff ordered their chicken fried steak and it came with mashed potatoes, beans, and bread.  Jakob ordered from the kids menu and wanted the chicken strips.  I think he got as much food as we received!  We took his leftovers home with us for him to eat during the week.  After he finished eating, he went down the slide.  I did not know this was inside the restaurant and he absolutely loved it!  He went super fast on the slide and had to reminded not to scream inside the building!

We are down to three more weeks of school and I cannot wait until the summer!  We have two more instructional weeks and then students will be taking their semester exams.  Only two more Mondays since one of them is Memorial Day! It has been one amazing year and am blessed with the teachers I am surrounded with everyday!

Weekly Menu

Jeff and I have been trying to have a weekly menu to help with grocery shopping and planning in the evening. I found a website called Menus4Moms.com that has really helped. Some weeks we take a lot of what they planned and some weeks, I change it up. However, the weeks we have a menu, it is so much easier because we know we have the materials to make what is planned! So here is our current weekly menu.