Menu Plan Monday, September 14th!

We had an exciting adventure cooking dinner Saturday night. I had bought some plain coconut yogurt thinking it would be perfect for the beef stroganoff that I was planning to make. When we opened it to put it in, it had some green fuzzy stuff growing in it! Gross! I was thinking on my feet that night though–I grabbed the dairy free cream cheese I had in my fridge and when the dish didn’t have the desired tang you usually get from sour cream, we added some apple cider vinegar! Ta-da! Diary/gluten-free beef stroganoff that even the pickiest eater in my house devoured!

The theme for the Gluten Free Menu Swap over at Celiac Family is pomegranates! Pomegranates are a funny fruit to try and eat–I remember trying one once as part of a homeschool unit! I prefer to use the juice to flavor a smoothie. It will be interesting to see what kind of recipes you can use pomegranates in!

My breakfast this morning–plus a banana! I almost felt normal 🙂 I was hungry for muffins this week, so I made two different kinds and boy are they yummy!

Breakfasts: cereal
Lots of Double Chocolate Blender Muffins–Still going strong on these 🙂
Lighter Blueberry Muffins
Apple Cider Muffins
German Apple Pancakes These were super yummy!!
Sausage Potato Breakfast Taquitos
Zucchini and Sweet Potato Hash Still need to make this!

Lunch/Dinner:
Beef Stroganoff over rice
Bacon/Mushroom Frittata This got skipped last week.
Fried Rice
Beans and rice (or hotdogs)
Tomato Soup
Smoothie and Popcorn
Pizza, salad

Healthy dessert: Coconut Vanilla Ice Cream

For more menu ideas check out Org Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday! Or for gluten-free menus check out Celiac Family and the Gluten Free Menu Swap!

Menu Plan Monday, September 7th!

I’ve had lots of posts up in my head rolling around, but zero time to actually write them down! Hopefully, I’ll find some spare moments in the next few weeks because I really miss writing! 🙂

The theme for the Gluten Free Menu Swap over at Celiac Family is okra! This isn’t something I’ve tried before unless in a frozen veggie soup mix, but it sounds interesting!

That face–that’s exactly how our first weeks of school have gone. The Princess hasn’t been all that sure what getting up and getting ready actually meant or if she was even interested in doing it. We’re still working on convincing her.

Breakfasts: cereal
Lots of Double Chocolate Blender Muffins–because that’s something the Princess will eat without any discussion!!
Pumpkin Muffins/cupcakes
German Apple Pancakes
Sausage Potato Breakfast Taquitos
Zucchini and Sweet Potato Hash

Lunch/Dinner:
Burgers, corn, steak fries
Spaghetti & Meat sauce, broccoli
Bacon/Mushroom Frittata
Clam Chowder
Steak Sandwiches, tater tots, veggie
Balsamic Pork Chops, baked potatoes, coleslaw
Pizza, salad

Healthy dessert: Maybe some ice cream?

For more menu ideas check out Org Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday! Or for gluten-free menus check out Celiac Family and the Gluten Free Menu Swap!

Menu Plan Tuesday, August 18!

Yesterday was the first day of school!! Whew, what a busy day! Today we have off since we do staggered start, so we get to take a deep breath before starting over again tomorrow.

The theme for the Gluten Free Menu Swap over at Mom’s Plans is gluten-free snacks! I think that the Princess would eat snacks all the time if we let her. We have some larabars on hand, plus some gluten-free pretzels, cheese, and some sunbutter! Target started selling the individual packages, so we got some special for the start of school. Since the Princess has a hard time finishing her breakfast at breakfast time, we’ll also be using those leftovers for snacks.

I was busy this weekend–homemade nutella and stuffed peppers! Both are super yummy!!!

Breakfasts: (breakfasts are the same again this week! Partly because the banana bread never got made until Saturday night!)
Paleo Coconut Pecan Breakfast bars
Egg McMuffins
Banana Bread
Smoothie
Simple Grain Free Granola

Lunch/Dinner:
Chicken salad, veggies, chips, rolls, ice cream cake (Happy Birthday Princess!)
Grilled Chicken and Pineapple with sweet potatoes and yellow squash
Breakfast for dinner: either eggs or French toast–husband can’t decide!!
meatloaf with French fries, broccoli
Fried rice
Pizza

Healthy dessert: Cookies if I have time!

For more menu ideas check out Org Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday! Or for gluten-free menus check out Mom’s Plans and the Gluten Free Menu Swap!

Menu Plan Monday, August 10!

Woohoo! We’re almost ready for back to school! I’ve made new routine lists for this week (rough drafts so I can tweak them before school starts next Monday!) and next is a list of lunches. The goal is to have the Princess help/make her lunch as much as possible. She’s already been making her snacks for camp with supervision, so hopefully the transition of packing a lunch everyday will go smoothly.

The theme for the Gluten Free Menu Swap over at Celiac Family school lunches! We’ve already made a rough draft of school lunches including tuna fish and lunchmeat with crackers and other sides and of course an old favorites like beans and hot dogs and sunbutter and jelly. (The Princess doesn’t have a peanut allergy, but her school is peanut free.) We’ll see what happens when we pack and what the Princess will actually eat. She tends to get distracted when eating with others, so this will be an interesting experience for all of us.

No picture of food this week–just a picture of the new routines for the Princess. So far, she hasn’t liked them too much.

Breakfasts:
Paleo Coconut Pecan Breakfast bars
Egg McMuffins
Banana Bread
Smoothie
Simple Grain Free Granola

Lunch/Dinner:
Bacon Mushroom Frittata
Salmon Salad
Grilled “Peanut” butter and jelly –likely sunbutter or almond butter for me!
Some sort of noodle/ground beef/tomato sauce type of thing. My hubby has a recipe in his head he likes to make, so he’s in charge this night!
Crock Pot Pork Chops with sweet potatoes and sautéed yellow squash
Pizza

Healthy dessert: Some sort of ice cream–it is hot!

For more menu ideas check out Org Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday! Or for gluten-free menus check out Celiac Family and the Gluten Free Menu Swap!

Menu Plan Monday, August 3!

Summer has gone by so fast–I cannot believe that school starts in two short weeks! I am sure that the teachers feel it even worse than I do. Summers have changed drastically since I was a wee tad. I remember getting somewhat bored and having time to read great quantities of books during the summer and now I feel like I’m lucky to have time to sit down to read for a few minutes each day during the summer! I’ve kept things easy this summer and quick! I’ve also seen my grocery bill get higher–and not because I’m buying a ton of convenience foods either! In trying to combat that I’ve made a lot of meals from leftovers including tonight when I made Chicken A La King from some leftover roast chicken from last week! Has your grocery bill gotten higher this summer? What do you do to try and keep it lower?

The theme for the Gluten Free Menu Swap over at Celiac Family is quick and healthy breakfasts for back to school! I’ll be trying some new muffin recipes from one of my favorite cookbooks, “The Allergy Free Cook Bakes Bread”. I can’t recommend this cookbook enough, especially if you are dealing with multiple allergies and not just gluten!

The almond chocolate chip muffins that I made for breakfast! They got rave reviews from the princess!

Breakfasts:
Almond Chocolate Muffins from “The Allergy Free Cook Bakes Bread”
Chocolate Gluten Free donuts for a birthday breakfast
Pancakes, sausage
Smoothie
Simple Grain Free Granola

Lunch/Dinner:
Chicken A La King (from Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook–although it was so easy I almost didn’t need a recipe!)
Pancakes (same as above)
Chicken nuggets (Trader Joe’s gluten-free), sweet potato fries, broccoli
Beans and rice/beans and hotdogs
Pizza
Fish and sweet potatoes

Healthy dessert: Simple popsicles

For more menu ideas check out Org Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday! Or for gluten-free menus check out Celiac Family and the Gluten Free Menu Swap!

Menu Plan Monday, July 6!

This seems to be a summer of not having much time to think about blogging! I feel like all my thinking time is taken up with caring for the Princess and making sure she has stuff to keep her busy during my work schedule. We’re also doing a bit of homeschooling–I felt like she forgot everything she learned in preschool before she started kindergarten last year and I’m determined not to let that happen again. So, if I’m quiet over the next month it’s not that I don’t still love you all or that I hate writing all of a sudden!

The theme for the Gluten Free Menu Swap over at Celiac Family Cajun food! I am not sure that I really have cooked Cajun food before, although I know I’ve sampled some while eating out. The picky eaters around here would probably revolt, but I’m going to check out what Celiac Family posted to see if there is anything simple I can try!

The Princess made waffles for dinner the other night! They were so YUM!!!

Breakfasts:
Egg McMuffin
Eggs, bacon, donuts
Pancakes, sausage
Whatever breakfast foods are leftover
Simple Grain Free Granola

Lunch/Dinner:
Roast with carrots, celery (in the crock pot), and mashed sweet potatoes (I actually cooked all of this without a recipe!)
Chicken, mac & cheese, veggie
Beans and hotdogs (I will probably have beans and brown rice chips with VEGGIES!)
Garlic Butter Shrimp Pasta
Out for Dinner
Pizza
Fish (it’s preparation depends on my mood that day!), French fries, brussel sprouts

Healthy Dessert: Grain Free Cookie Dough

For more menu ideas check out Org Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday! Or for gluten-free menus check out Celiac Family and the Gluten Free Menu Swap!

Menu Plan Monday, June 22!

So I had good intentions of posting last week, but the post-VBS flu got us! Thankfully, it was short lived and we have a bit more energy around here this week!

The theme for the Gluten Free Menu Swap over at Celiac Family is mangos! My favorite smoothie is Mango Marriage Saver Smoothie and Mask! I love the cute name and the smoothie is delicious too. I’ve also made Mango Raspberry Jam from “Preserving the Harvest.” (It’s an older cookbook, so you might find it in your library!) I love it, but jam is not in the cards this year. There are some great recipes over at Celiac Family too! I can’t wait to try some of them!

So whoever invented Egg McMuffins did the world a great service! I am loving experimenting with different types. This morning was sausage, cashew cheese, and egg–delicious!

Breakfasts:
Egg McMuffin
Make-Ahead Muffin Melts
Mango Marriage Smoothie
Chocolate Coconut Smoothie
Cherry (or blueberry) Banana Smoothie
Grain Free Cinnamon Rolls

Lunch/Dinner:
Broccoli Quesadillas
Leftovers/Sandwiches
Nachos
Vanilla Cinnamon Waffles
Vegan Mac & Cheese (recipe coming soon? I’m going to make-over my mom’s old recipe!)
Macaroni Salad with Tuna and lots of veggies
Out for our EIGHTH Anniversary! Woohoo!
Sticky Chicken in the Crockpot

Healthy Dessert: I have no idea actually. Maybe some cookie dough?

For more menu ideas check out Org Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday! Or for gluten-free menus check out Celiac Family and the Gluten Free Menu Swap!

Menu Plan Monday, May 25!

Last week–maybe not as crazy, but still busy. I guess things will continue that way until school is done which won’t be for another week and a half. Swimming lessons are done though! I made it my goal to keep my fridge tidy and clean and eat up leftovers so I didn’t have much/any to throw out. So far I would call it a win. I had to throw out some food for the Princess, but I don’t let that count against my goal because she is still sporadic on how much she eats.

The theme for the Gluten Free Menu Swap over at Celiac Family is basil! I love basil and although it’s not on my list of things to make this week, I have a marinade for veggies that is so awesome. I found it when I wanted to have kabobs and I wasn’t eating meat and it is still my favorite kabob of all time.

A salad in which we eat lots of leftovers

My Produce delivery!

My dessert last night!

My organic produce delivery was awesome! I can already see more veggies creeping into my diet. I used a chef salad as a way to finish up some leftover green beans and some frozen bread cubes plus some mushrooms I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with! And what better way to start off the week then a Chunky Monkey Milkshake with chocolate syrup? Oh and the Double Chocolate Almond Butter Blender Muffins? A huge hit!

Sunday
Breakfast:
veggie omelet, coffee
Lunch:
olives, pretzels, ham, pickles
Dinner:
hamburgers, sweet potatoes, corn

Rest of the week
Make Ahead Muffin Melts
Pink Panther Smoothie
Pancake (using gluten-free flour blend)
Waffles

Dinner:
Potato chip fish with sweet potato rounds and beets
Copycat Chipotle Beans and Rice didn’t get to this last week!
Tuna Fish Apple Salad
Quinoa Salad
Quesadillas
Pizza, salad
Leftovers!
Cucumber salad as a side dish any number of times minus the radishes just because we have TONS of cucumbers in our garden right now.

Healthy Dessert: Chunky Monkey Ice Cream! Making again only with this chocolate sauce instead of chocolate chips

For more menu ideas check out Org Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday! Or for gluten-free menus check out Celiac Family and the Gluten Free Menu Swap!

Menu Plan Monday, May 18!

Last week was CrAzY! For some reason when I was planning the menus I forgot that the Princess had swimming lessons. Not a huge deal, except they are right during when I would usually prep dinner. So, I wasn’t home to cook dinner one day last week, but I still had to figure out and cook ahead/leave instructions to cook and some of the things on my menu were not make ahead/leave instructions friendly. I did get to the Quiche and hope to post the recipe later this week! Also, this week is crunch time when it comes to grocery budget. That means I searched my cabinets and fridge and figured out what I could make without buying a lot of new stuff!

The theme for the Gluten Free Menu Swap over at Celiac Family is chives! Chives are one of the herbs that I managed not to kill. That is until dearest hubby decided to plant something new in my dead herb garden and dumped it out. Yikes! I haven’t replaced it yet, but I love it in eggs. I’m excited to try some new things with it!

One of the exciting things I got to do this weekend was clean my fridge! Notice the empty space in the bottom drawer? I’m actually getting an organic produce delivery TO MY DOOR! I’m so excited since I had to miss the Farmer’s Market this week. Plus anytime I don’t have to go to the grocery store gets something like three giant pluses in my book. Also in case clean fridges don’t excite you I included a Princess picture. We went to a Super Magical Princess and Superhero party last night and had a grand time!

Sunday
Breakfast:
veggie omelet, French toast, coffee
Lunch:
chicken, sweet potato tater tots, green beans from the garden (steamed!)
Dinner:
popcorn, pickles

Rest of the week:
Eggs (Probably Egg McMuffins)
Tropical Smoothie Didn’t get to this yet AGAIN, but I froze the fruit this weekend so it will happen this week!
Flourless Double chocolate Peanut butter Blender muffins (sub some almond butter probably!) Hoping to get to this!
Waffles

Dinner:
Spaghetti and meatballs (zoodles for me, gf pasta for the Princess, regular pasta for hubby) Had this tonight!
Southwestern Veggie Wraps I’m hoping to get to this
Copycat Chipotle Beans and Rice
Celebration Dinner for the end of Swimming lessons probably at Chick-fil-A
Pancakes, maybe sausage
Pizza, salad
Leftovers!
Cucumber salad as a side dish any number of times minus the radishes just because we have TONS of cucumbers in our garden right now.

Healthy Dessert: Chunky Monkey Ice Cream! I’m going to make this again because it reminds me of actual ice cream and it is summer hot here in Florida already and I want ice cream like every day.

For more menu ideas check out Org Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday! Or for gluten-free menus check out Celiac Family and the Gluten Free Menu Swap!

Menu Plan Monday, May 11!

For some reason we didn’t get to all the meals I planned for last week, so there are a few repeats! Oh well, it’s better for the grocery budget that way! Happy Mother’s Day to everyone! I hope you had a lovely day!

The theme for the Gluten Free Menu Swap over at Angela’s Kitchen is dill! Fresh dill is one of my favorite herbs. I made this pasta salad last week and it is a family favorite! (I used shrimp instead of imitation crab meat since that has gluten in it!)

I made yummy hot dog buns!

Sunday
Breakfast:
eggs, bacon, English muffin, coffee
Lunch:
Hot dogs (with BUNS!), baked beans, salsa
Dinner:
popcorn, and Chunky Monkey Ice Cream

Rest of the week:
Eggs (Probably Egg McMufins)
Double chocolate hazelnut bread from my gluten-free, vegan cookbook Not gone yet!
Tropical Smoothie Didn’t get to this yet
Flourless Double chocolate Peanut butter Blender muffins (sub some almond butter probably!) Forgot to make this last week!

Dinner:
Fish and tater tots with whatever veggie falls out of the freezer on my foot when I open the door!
Spaghetti and meatballs (zoodles for me, gf pasta for the Princess, regular pasta for hubby) Didn’t get to this yet!
Crock Pot Southwestern Corn & Potato Chowder Making this tonight
Southwestern Veggie Wraps Ran out of time to make this!

I’m thinking of trying to remake this recipe for Quiche. It would have to be diary-free of course and no “crab.” I’ll let you know next week if it makes it on the table!

Pizza, salad
Leftovers!

Healthy Dessert: Chunky Monkey Ice Cream!

For more menu ideas check out Org Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday! Or for gluten-free menus check out Angela’s Kitchen and the Gluten Free Menu Swap!