Meg's Meal Planning

meal plan

Week of September 13th 

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Monday– Rotisserie chicken with mac and cheese plus grilled squash and zucchini. We needed a fast dinner, so rotisserie chicken to the rescue.  Plus I used some of the left over chicken to make chicken salad for lunch later in the week!

Tuesday– Quinoa enchilada bake from Skinnytaste! One of my favorites! 

Wednesday– Chicken parmesan.  Yumm … fall is here! 

Chicken parmesan

Ingredients

  • 4 boneless chicken breasts, pounded thin
  • 1-2 eggs
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • 1 cup flavor breadcrumbs (Or season plain breadcrumbs with salt, pepper and your favorite herbs)
  • 2 cups of tomato sauce (homemade is the best!)
  • 1 8oz package of shredded mozzarella cheese 
  • 1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil

Steps

  1. Heat frying pan on stove with oil.
  2. Glently whisk egg and milk in a shallow bowl. Add breadcrumbs to another bowl.
  3. Dip chicken into the egg/milk mixture, then into breadcrumbs, completing covering chicken with the breadcrumbs.
  4. Add to hot pan and brown chicken, 2-3 minutes on each side.  
  5. Meanwhile, spread tomato sauce on the bottom of a baking dish.  Place chicken pieces in the baking dish.  Cover the chicken with the remaining tomato sauce and sprinkle the shredded mozzarella cheese over everything.
  6. Cover with aluminum foil, bake at 350 for 30 mintues  

Thursday– Homemade chicken and pastina soup with carrots, squash, and celery

Homemade Chicken and Pastina Soup

Ingredients

  • 4 chicken thighs or breasts
  • 1/2 cup pastina (uncooked)
  • 2 stalks of celery and carrots, chopped
  • 1 yellow squash
  • 1 onion, peeled and cut in half
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 glove garlic, whole
  • Handful of fresh parsley
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
  • Dash of nutmug

Steps

  1. Clean chicken, remove the skin, put in a pot of cold water, filling the pot half way. Add onion, garlic, parsley, and salt and pepper. Cover and bring to a boil.  Lower heat and let simmer for 45 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool for 20 minutes.  When the soup is cool enough to handle, drain through a colander into a bowl and discard everything except for the chicken and broth.
  2. Put broth back in pot, add carrots, celery, squash, salt, pepper, dried thyme, and the dash of nutmug. Bring to a boil, lower heat and let simmer until the vegetables are cooked about 20 minutes.
  3. In last few minutes add pastina to the pot and cook according to package. Meanwhile cut chicken off bone into small pieces and add to pot

Friday– Sausage and peppers. I used sweet italian sausage, browned them on the grill until outside is crisp.  Set aside. Cook sliced peppers first on the stove on low for about 15 minutes, then add sliced onions and cook for another 5 minutes. Add sausage to peppers and onions and 4 tablespoons of water and let simmer for 45 minutes.  

Week of August 16th

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Monday– Panini with fresh mozz, basil, tomato (from my garden!) with a balsamic drizzle. Perfect and EASY summer meal. Click here to read about more easy and quick dinner ideas!

Tuesday– Stove top vegetable frittata. I have to give my mom Laura credit for this recipe! It’s a great way to use garden vegetables and who doesn’t love breakfast for dinner?

Stove Top Vegetable Frittata

Ingredients

  • 6 eggs
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 cubanelle peppers, cut in half, seeds removed, then cut into large slices
  • 1 yellow squash, thinly sliced
  • 1 onion, thinly sliced
  • 3 tablespoon Parmigiano Reggiano grated cheese
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Steps

  1. In a large saute pan, heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat.  When the pan is hot, put sliced peppers in the pan and lightly season with salt and pepper.  Saute for 4-5 minutes, stirring often so they cook evenly on both sides
  2. Add the sliced onion and yellow squash and continue to saute for approximately 4-5 minutes stirring often
  3. Using a whisk, lightly whisk the eggs separately in a bowl and add to the saute pan, completely covering the vegetables. Season with salt, pepper, and 3 tablespoons of grated cheese.  Let the mixture set and cook for 1-2 minutes, then using a wide spatula, gently move the mixture from the outside of the pan towards the center.  As you do this, the egg mixture will spread into the “open” space. Continue moving different areas of the egg mixture into the center of the pan until the eggs no longer spread out into the space.  Continue cooking until done

Wednesday– Cooking with Hope. Pork tenderloin with baked sweet potato, grilled squash/zucchini, and a tomato salad.  My brother in-law is home for the week from California, so we had a nice family dinner with my husband, brother in-law and sister! Click here to read more.

Thursday– Colony Grill. I haven’t posted take-out in a long time!! I try to avoid this; I like to give my followers 5 home cooked dinner ideas. However, last week was super busy and I didn’t make 5 dinners for myself at home. Don’t worry, because today you are all getting a GREAT recommendation for a pizza place! The original restaurant is in Stamford, CT, but it has now expanded to Fairfield and Milford, CT with one coming soon to Norwalk, CT. Pizza is the only food item on the menu, so you know it must be good! Try it out if you find yourself in one of those towns!

Friday– NY strip steak with rice and a garden salad. Season the steak with salt and pepper and cook for 3-4 minutes per side.

Week of July 19th 

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What an adventurous week for megsmealplanning! I only followed 1 recipe all week! Four of the meals were created by me! Also new this week, I’m going to start including my shopping lists so you can print them out to make it even easier for you at home to try these recipes!

The shopping list will be located at the end of every weekly meal post. I’ll include every item needed for each recipe. Don’t freak if it looks like a lot of items; once you start building your pantry, you’ll find you will already have a bunch of these items. For more tips on building a pantry, click on my meal planning tips! Remember to buy things when they’re on sale. For example, I only buy pizza dough when it goes on sale for 10/$10, I’ll buy 2-3 and freeze them until needed.

Monday– Homemade pizza! Margherita and pesto pizza with spicy chicken sausage. My sister came over for dinner because she wants to learn how to cook.  For the next few weeks I’m going to be featuring a mini-series called “Cooking with Hope” featuring meals my sister and I cook together. To read more about this meal, click here!

Tuesday– Chicken legs with sweet potato and pineapple. I found this recipe in the cook book One pan, Two Plates, by Carla Snyder.

Pan-Roasted Chicken with Thyme, Sweet Potatoes, and Pineapple

Ingredients

  • 2 tsp minced fresh parsley
  • 1 tsp minced fresh thyme
  • 1 garlic glove, minced
  • 1 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 2 whole chicken leg quarters or drumsticks
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 shallot, chopped
  • 2 small or 1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
  • 1 cup diced fresh or canned pineapple
  • 1/2 cup chicken broth

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
  2. Combine 1 tsp of the parsley, all the thyme, garlic, and butter in a small bowl and mash it all together. Working with one chicken piece at a time, gently slide your fingers under the skin to separate it from the meat and push half of the herb butter under the skin, pressing it evenly over the surface of the meat. Sprinkle the chicken all over with salt and pepper.
  3. Heat a 12 inch ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat and add olive oil. Add the chicken, skin side down, and brown it on the first side, without moving it. Turn and brown the other side. Transfer to plate. (It won’t be fully cooked.)
  4. Add the shallot, sweet potatoes, 1/2 tsp of salt and a few grinds of pepper to the oil in the hot pan and saute until the vegetables begin to soften. Add the pineapple and chicken broth and bring to a simmer. Add the chicken and any juices, layering the chicken pieces on top of the potatoes. Transfer to the oven and roast until the chicken is cooked through and potatoes are tender, about 35 minutes. *Note if not using leg quarters, the chicken will cook faster, use a meat thermometer and insert into the chicken until it reads 165 degrees).
  5. Divide the chicken and potatoes between two plates and top with remaining parsley.

Wednesday– Cheeseburgers with grilled squash and zucchini and baked beans. This is as easy as they come. Slice the veggies, season with salt, pepper, and olive oil and cook at the same time with the burgers.

Thursday– Grilled chicken salad with roasted corn, black beans, scallions, and feta cheese with a honey lime vinaigrette.  I’m very happy with this salad because I didn’t follow a recipe for the salad or the dressing!

Grilled chicken salad with black beans and roasted corn

  • Servings: 2
  • Print

Ingredients

  • 1 bag of spinach
  • 2 pieces of skinless, boneless chicken breast, grilled and sliced
  • 1/2 cup black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1/2 cup ofcorn
  • 3-4 scallions, finely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons feta cheese
  • Salt and pepper

Steps

  1. In large bowl add spinach, chicken, black beans, scallions, and feta cheese
  2. Heat small frying pan over medium heat, add corn, salt, and pepper and cook 3-4 minutes or until corn starts turning brown. Add to spinach.

Honey lime vinaigrette

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup lime juice
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 tbsp orange juice
  • 2 teaspoon honey
  • Salt to taste

Steps

  1. Mix all ingredients together and pour over salad.  This will make more than enough, you can store the rest in the fridge and use on another day!

Friday– Spaghetti with pesto, artichokes, and sun dried tomatoes. Once again I didn’t follow a recipe! This was a good week for that! I had the pesto I made in advance, click here for the recipe.  Cooked pasta according to package directions, added artichokes and sun dried tomatoes.

Shopping List

  • Print
  • Two store bought pizza doughs
  • Pizza sauce
  • Fresh basil
  • Mozzarella cheese
  • Pesto
  • Spicy chicken sausage
  • Artichokes
  • Sun dried tomatoes
  • Shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 2 whole chicken leg quarters or 4 drumsticks
  • Sweet potato
  • 1 fresh pineapple or canned pineapple
  • Hamburger patties
  • Hamburger buns
  • Zucchini
  • Squash
  • 2 Chicken breasts
  • Spinach
  • Feta cheese
  • Scallions

Please note, I didn’t include the following items because they are what I consider as pantry items aka I always have them in stock and buy when they go on sale

  • Parsley- can use dried
  • Thyme- can use dried
  • Salt and pepper
  • Olive oil
  • Garlic
  • Shallots
  • Butter
  • Baked beans
  • Corn
  • Black beans
  • Lime juice
  • Orange juice
  • Honey
  • Spaghetti

Pesto Pizza

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This was an easy week night recipe, especially since I already had the pesto made up. If you don’t, no worries, it’s still simple to make. I used the pesto I made from sorrel. Click here for the pesto recipe. And I used store bought dough.

I LOVE fresh basil!!

 

Spray pizza stone and roll out dough, use flour if needed

 

Spread pesto on top


Ingredients

  • 1 package of store bought dough
  • Fresh pesto, click here for pesto recipe 
  • Mozzarella cheese, shredded
  • 1-2 tomatoes, slicked
  • 5-6 basil leaves, sliced

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Spray a cookie sheet or pizza stone and roll your dough out. Use flour if sticking to rolling pin

3. Spread pesto over dough

4. Add shredded cheese

5. Add slicedtomato

6. Bake for 12-15 minutes

7. Add basil slices

Kale, quinoa, black bean, sweet potato and avocado salad

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Super foods unite! This salad is unbelievable!  The flavors all blend well together and the avocado sauce has the perfect amount of kick!  I really enjoyed making this because it has a lot of my favorite foods to cook and eat! It was the perfect size for two people; my husband and I polished if off!

 

Spiralize sweet potato, season with olive oil and salt and bake in oven at 400 degrees for 25 minutes

 

 

Add avocado , cilantro, lime juice, lime zest, olive oil, and salt to food processor, blend well

 

 

Season kale with salt and massage well

 

Ingredients

  • 1 cup quinoa
  • 1 bunch kale, ribs removed and chopped into bite size pieces
  • 3 tablespoon olive oil, divided
  • 1 lime, juiced
  • lime zest
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 sweet potato
  • 1 table spoon olive oil
  • Salt to taste
  • 1 avocado, sliced and pitted
  • 1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeds and stem reomoved. You can use more if you like it really spicy!
  • Handful of cilantro leaves
  • 1/2 can black beans, drained and rinsed.

Steps

  1. Prepare the quinoa as per packed directions. Set aside to cool.
  2. Spiralize sweet potato onto baking sheet.  Season with 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes.
  3. Place kale in serving bowl and season with salt. Then massage kale with hands for 1 minute in order to really blend the salt.  Wisk together 1 tablespoon olive oil, juice from 1/2 lime, lime zest, and salt. Drizzle over kale. Set aside.
  4. Add avocado, 1/2 jalapeno pepper, cilantro leaves, juice from 1/2 a lime, lime zest, and salt to a food processor and blend well.
  5. Add cooled quinoa to kale, stir to combine. Distribute the kale to plates and top with sweet potato, black beans, and avocado sauce.

 

Top with roasted sweet potato, black beans, and avocado sauce