Meal Plan 11/22

Another issue of Cooking Light arrived yesterday. It is chock full of yummy goodness. (Take a look for yourself.) One thing I love about the recipes in this magazine is that they use ingredients we typically have on hand. They're also quick and super tasty.

• Grilled shrimp & broccoli with brown jasmine rice
• Chicken & Black Bean-Stuffed Burritos
• Asparagus Noodles
• Kid's choice - quesadillas won
  
• Thanksgiving - I always make rolls. This year I'm going to give the brioche rolls a shot. And we'll also bring bread pudding.
  
• Leftovers!!
  

Meal Plan 11/15

Not much in a cooking (or planning) mood this week. I've been dealing with a sinus infection for a couple weeks and currently have zero motivation.

• Carne asada
  
• Grilled burgers
• Homemade pizza (with this sauce) - didn't make last week because I was on my own (which pretty much never happens) one night and decided to have quesadillas instead
  
• Tomato soup and grilled cheese
• Breakfast burritos
• Spicy Shrimp Bowl for the adults & basic shrimp noodles for the kiddos
• Dinner at our favorite restaurant to celebrate good grades!
  

An easy and yummy snack for the week:

• Popcorn balls
  

Meal Plan 11/08

I'm so excited that it's cool enough for soup. Lots and lots of soup.

• Homemade chicken noodle soup - this has been on the list a couple times recently, but we never got around to it
• Taco salad with Verde Valle flor de mayo beans - super tasty beans similar to pintos
  
• Chili con turkey with brown jasmine rice and salad
  
• Lentil soup with veggie broth and homemade rolls or crusty bread
• Pizza with Alton's dough

Note from last week:

• The remnants of the roasted chicken make excellent stock.

Find more menu plan ideas at Org Junkie.com.

Granola

This one is super easy and almost always hits the spot. We like it with or without additions - almonds, craisins, white chocolate chips - and on top of yogurt. Flax meal blends nicely too (love to sneak that in wherever I can).

Wet Ingredients
1 3/4 c brown sugar (I realize this one's debatable, but sugar is a wet ingredient to me)
1 1/2 c canola or olive oil
2/3 c water
3 Tbsp vanilla
3/8 c maple syrup or honey

Dry Ingredients
2 lb old fashioned oats
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 250*

1. Mix liquid ingredients in medium bowl
2. Mix dry ingredients in very large bowl
3. Add liquid to dry and stir well
4. Spread granola mixture onto two cookie sheets
5. Bake for an hour or two (really depends on your oven) stirring every 20 minutes or so
6. Cool & try not to eat too much!

The granola goes fast around here, but I'm pretty sure it'd be fine in an air tight container for a while.

Meal Plan 11/01

• Roasted chicken with brown jasmine rice and salad
  
• Minestrone (using chicken stock from the crock pot) and rolls
• Asparagus Noodles - sauteed asparagus with homemade noodles
• Ham sandwiches on Pain a l’Ancienne - this was kind of a throw together last week that was amazingly delish. This bread is nothing short of THE BEST BREAD EVER. I often eat it to the point of popping and then eat some more. LOVE it!
• Carne asada with grilled broc - I've gotten a little addicted to broc grilled on the grill. Not sure how I'll get my fix when the weather gets cold.
  
• The weekend is up in the air at this point, but I plan on not cooking. Hopefully someone else will. :)
  

Stuff that I'll probably get around to baking this week:

• Chocolate chip cookies - these will definitely be made and might include a few bits of toffee
  
• Granola - this is going to be a weekly. The kids dig the heck out of it and it requires about thismuch effort.
  
• Something with pumpkin