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Meal plans

Week of September 18th

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Monday– Steak Fajitas with black bean, edamame, corn salad

Tuesday – Crockpot chicken and mushroom

The last step calls to remove the chicken and add cornstratch to thicken the sauce. I didn’t do this, mostly because I forgot, but it still tasted good!

Wednesday – Creamy Pumpkin Sausage Pasta – It was a little labor intensive and included lots of dishes, but we doubled the recipe and the leftovers were just as good as the first night.

Thursday– Quinoa Fiesta Enchilada Bake from Skinnytaste

Friday – Lemon basil pork chops

 

Meal Plan for Week of September 4th 

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Monday – Easy Baked BBQ Ribs

Tuesday – Crockpot cilantro lime chicken


Wednesday – One-pot chili mac and cheese


Thursday – Thai Pork with peanut sauce over rice


Friday – Easy veggie panini with eggplant, mozzarella, pesto, and roasted red peppers

Week of August 7th 

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Monday – One-pot teriyaki chicken over zoodles


Tuesday – Panini with tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and garden fresh basil


Wednesday. – Creamy kale and turkey sausage pasta


Thursday – Chicken drumsticks with kale shallot salad


Friday – Pizza with pesto, chicken sausage, basil, and sundried tomatoes

Baby food 

Quinoa pea muffins 

I realized I haven’t given my son quinoa in a while, so when I had some left over from lunch, I decided to try some recipe experiments.  I want him to eat more veggies, so I knew I wanted to mix it with some greens. I didn’t want to fry anything. He loves his baked cauliflower nuggets, so I gave baked quinoa pea muffins a try. He devoured them!


Baked Quinoa Pea Mini Muffins
 
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Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Recipe type: Finger foods
Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • ½ cup cooked quinoa
  • 1 cup cooked peas
  • ¼ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 1 egg
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Mix quinoa, peas, cheese, and egg in a bowl. Stir together.
  3. Spray mini muffin tin with cooking spray
  4. Using spoon, scoop up mixture and place into mini muffin tin.
  5. Bake for 20 minutes.

 

Meal plan for week of July 24th

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Monday – Asian inspired teriyaki-glazed salmon served over rice noodles.


Tuesday – Mexican chicken and rice skillet. A one pot meal and the left overs are fabulous!



Wednesday – Chicken Fajitas. My trusty favorite Trader Joe’s came to the rescue with this meal. I used half a bag of their frozen peppers and onions, heated it in a skillet, added sliced chicken, and cooked until no longer pink



Thursday – Stuffed peppers with ground beef. Use left over stuffing to make a taco salad for lunch!


Friday – Stuffed chicken with Gorgonzola cheese, dried cranberries, and sage. A restaurant worthy dinner that you won’t believe you cooked!

Meal Plan for July 17th

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Monday – Elote style zucchini noodles.  For any Mexican corn lovers out there, this is the recipe for you!


Tuesday – Trader Joe’s chicken fried rice. Sometimes you just need a Trader Joe’s frozen dinner. I try to avoid as many processed and frozen meals as I can, but knowing this summer would be super busy with my husband back in school, I stocked up on some of my favorite easy and quick dinners from Trader Joe’s. For those of you who are from Northern/Central CT, you know the pain of not having a Trader Joe’s close by! Please take the time to join and like my Facebook group “Bring Trader Joe’s to South Windsor, CT.” Hopefully with enough votes, they will consider bringing a store closer to us!

Tonight, I made their chicken fried rice. It couldn’t be simpler! I actually was able to multitask – cook dinner and feed the baby, which doesn’t happen often! Listen closely, this might get confusing. ;o)

Steps

  1. Heat olive oil over wok or large skillet.
  2. Pour bag into skillet.
  3. Cook 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  4. Serve!

I’ve also bought the veggie fried rice and added my own cooked chicken.


Wednesday– Gnocchi with zucchini and cherry tomatoes. A perfect summer recipe. Light, fluffy gnocchi and, if you’re lucky, garden ripened cherry tomatoes and zucchini!

Thursday – Cobb salad. Simple, healthy and very easy to prep the hard boiled egg and bacon in advance. If you want more protein, add grilled chicken!


Friday – Steak with grilled sweet potato wedges and squash. Everything cooks together on the grill.

Baby foods 

I asked my husband to pick up lettuce and he came home with collard greens?!??  🤦🏼‍♀️. Hating to waste food, I decided I have to use this somehow!  One of the recipes I made was collard green pesto! I mixed it with Trader Joe’s veggie pasta and gave it to my son! Double whammy of veggies!


Collard Green Pesto
 
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A healthy pesto packed full of fresh vegetables. This sneaky mommy recipe will leave you happy and your kids eating vegetables without them knowing it!
Author:
Cuisine: Italian
Serves: 2
Ingredients
  • ½ zucchini
  • 3 large collard green leaves
  • 1 large carrot or 4 baby carrots
  • ⅛ cup olive oil
  • 1 cup pasta of choice
Instructions
  1. Add zucchini, collard greens, and carrots to a food processor and pulse until thoroughly blended
  2. Continue to pulse and slowly drizzle in olive oil until combined
  3. Meanwhile cook pasta according to package directions
  4. Use a slotted spoon and pour over pasta, stir to combine

 

Week of June 4th 

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Just when you think life couldn’t get any crazier, guess again! My hardworking hubby is going back to school. He works as an 8th grade English teacher, runs the after school program, and is now getting his reading certification. So for the next 15 months, he will have night classes 2-4x/week! Yikes! So now our dinner, Noah’s dinner, bath time, bedtime routine, lunches for the three of us, and dishes will all be me! I’m not looking for sympathy; in fact, I look at it as a challenge! How can I master my meal planning? The answer – cooking meals in advance.  This way by 8pm I can still park my butt on the couch with a glass of wine and watch The Bachelor!

So moving forward I will mention which meals I prepped in advance and what I did the day I served the dinner.

Monday – Avocado/spinach pasta. This was an easy make-ahead meal. The sauce couldn’t be any easier, and it makes a great finger food for baby, too! Reheat in microwave when you’re ready to serve it!


Tuesday – Sirloin steak with roasted brussel sprouts and parmesan riced cauliflower. For those who follow my IG account, @megsmealplanning, thank you for all the recommendations for riced cauliflower. This entire meal was prepared in advance. I know reheated steak isn’t as good as fresh steak, but I’d rather reheat than eat at 9 pm, and you know what, it still tasted pretty darn good!


Wednesday – Peri peri chicken with brown rice and kale chips. This was my first time having peri-peri, sauce which is basically a red pepper sauce. Both the chicken and the brown rice were cooked in advance. I made the kale chips 20 minutes before we were going to eat. The prep work is minimal, so it’s easy enough to do and still keep an eye on the baby.  TIP- Make extra chicken  and brown rice for Friday night’s dinner! 


Thursday – Stir fry with brown rice, mushrooms, and kale served over brown rice. Who knew how much two cups of rice really makes! I had enough rice left over from last night’s dinner that I could make a 3rd dinner using it! And we used the rest of the steak from Tuesday’s dinner , as well as the rest of the kale.


Friday – Leftover peri-peri chicken wraps. This is the 2nd dinner using the left over chicken and rice from dinner on Wednesday.

Week of May 28th

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Monday – Feta and spinach stuffed turkey burgers with grilled squash and sweet potato fries 


Tuesday – Parmesan crusted pork chops with roasted brussel sprouts and bacon! This is the 2nd time I’ve made the pork chop recipe and both times the chops didn’t need the 30 minutes of cooking time like listed. Good thing I was using a meat thermometer. Pork is done cooking when internal tempature reaches 145 degrees.


Brussel sprouts and bacon

Ingredients

  • 12 oz brussel sprouts, washed, ends cut off and cut in half (if really large quarter them)
  • 4 strips bacon
  • 1 shallot, sliced thin
  • 1 tablespoon balasmic vinegar

Steps

  1. Place cast iron skillet over medium heat, add bacon and cook until crisp, flipping once. Set aside on a paper towel lined plate.
  2. In same pan, add the brussel sprouts and cook 20 minutes or until charred and starting to soften. Stir often.
  3. Add shallots and cook another 2 minutes.
  4. Add balasmic vinegar, stir together, serve.

Wednesday – Crockpot ribs with mac and cheese and three bean salad! To make this meal easier, you can make up the mac and cheese the night before (all but the last step) and 20 minutes before you need it, add the shredded chedder and breadcrumbs. 


Thursday – Kale greek salad. Healthy and refreshing! I grilled up some chicken to add to it. Leftovers make a great lunch the next day! 



Friday – BBQ chicken thighs with green beans and cheddar/sage biscuits! These biscuits are da bomb 💣(sorry for my corny joke). I’ve made these for the past few years everytime the weather warms up and the BBQ’s start! 

BBQ chicken thighs

Ingredients

  • 1 package boneless chicken thighs
  • BBQ sauce
  • Salt and pepper

Steps

  1. Season chicken thighs width salt and pepper. Slather BBQ sauce on chicken. Please on heat grill. Cook over medium heat 5 mintutes per side.

Week of May 15th 

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Monday – Baked pesto chicken with caprese salad – I followed this recipe, but used breadcrumbs instead of almond meal



Tuesday – Taco salad – Besides this dish being tasty, it’s also a one pot dish! 

Taco Salad

Ingredients 

  • 1 lb ground turkey
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1/2 yellow onion, diced 
  • 1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes with green chiles
  • 2 tablespoons taco seasoning – click here to see my homemade taco seasoning
  • 1 cup shredded mexican cheese
  • 1 avocado, diced
  • Handful of fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
  • Romaine or iceburg lettuce 
  • Scoop or two of salsa 

Steps

  1. Heat olive oil in large skillet, add ground turkey and cook on medium heat until browned
  2. Turn heat down to low, add onions and cook until translucent, stirring often
  3. Add tomatoes and taco seasoning, mix well
  4. Top with shredded cheese and cook until cheese melts
  5. Add lettuce to plates and top with taco salad 
  6. Top with avocado, cilantro, and salsa



Wednesday – Blackened salmon with tomato, avocado, and corn salsa  – The smoky char from the blackened salmon adds depth and intense flavor!  Silly me forgot to take the thawed corn out of the microwave and didn’t find it until dinner the following night! 🤦🏼‍♀️



Thursday – Velveeta one pot cheesy chicken and broccoli rice – I changed this recipe up a little. I used brown rice, instead of white. And let the rice cook in the chicken broth (with the chicken) for 45 minutes.  Brown rice always takes longer to cook than white rice, so it needed much more time. 



Friday – Garlic lime chicken quinoa. Great family recipe! 

Week of April 30th 

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Monday – Pesto pasta with fresh mozzarella and cherry tomatoes. This recipe is so easy and is a perfect dinner for busy nights! Pesto is a great sauce to keep on hand. You can either buy it from the store or make ahead of time and freeze it! Click here for my pesto recipe] I use almonds instead of pine nuts because they are more affordable! 


Tuesday – T-bone steak with roasted vegetables and beans. This is why I don’t let me husband do the food shopping. T-bone steaks, despite not being on the grocery list, somehow made it into the shopping cart! But I have to give him credit, they tasted great!


Wednesday – Acini de Pepe with spicy sausage, cherry tomatoes, and spinach. A one pot dinner…Woohoo!

Acini de Pepe with spicy sausage, cherry tomatoes, and spinach


Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup acini de Pepe
  • 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 2 1/2 sausage links, casings removed
  • Handful of fresh spinach
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil

Steps

  1. Heat olive oil over large cast iron skillet. Add sausage and cook until brown, about 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently. Set aside.
  2. Add tomatoes and cook until soft, about 5 minutes, and set aside
  3. Add 1/2 cup acini de Pepe and 2 1/2 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to medium-low and cook until all water has absorbed, about 10 minutes, sitting constantly. 
  4. Add spinach and another 1/2 cup water, cover and simmer until spinach is wilted and water has absorbed
 

Thursday – Cheeseburgers with coleslaw and tator tots! You don’t always need a fancy dinner, and sometimes tator tots just call your name!


Friday – Pork enchilada skillet dinner. Happy Cinco de Mayo! Celebrate with this one pot meal!