It’s a holiday week! I’m blessed to work at a place where I get holidays off. Since I’ll have off from Thursday-Sunday, I decided to go home with one of my best friends to South Carolina. The bad news is I”m leaving Wednesday afternoon when I get off work, therefore I only have one meal to give you for this Meal Plan Monday. The good news is that I compiled a whole new list of blogs who regularly post menu and meal plans on Mondays! Also you can check out my Recipe Index. A list of every other Meal Plan Monday can be found there as well as a list of all my blogged recipes.

More blogs doing Meal Plan Monday:

• Mostly Homemade Mom
• Mom’s Confession
• Three Loud Kids
• The Distracted Housewife
• Honey I Shrunk the Mom
• Love Jaime
• Vanessa’s Values
• Picture Perfect Cooking
• To Write a Better Story

top right: cucumbers + fat free ranch dip + blta (blt with avocado) sandwich bottom left: grape tomatoes + cheese tortellini + garlic bread + almond butter bottom right: stuffed zucchini + salt & vinegar potatoes + cucumber tomato salad

I hope you all have a lovely and wonderful Independence Day! I hope you too get to have work off. I hope you get (and I) get to indulge in some traditional July 4th festivities including BBQ and fireworks!

What are you eating this week? What are your family’s Independence Day traditions? Post your weekly meal plan in the comment section below! You can also link your meal plan up over at Organizing Junkie and see even more people who are meal planning. 

Keeping it short and sweet so I can sneak this post in on Monday and not Tuesday! I will take up a little of your time to apologize that the posts haven’t returned to regular frequency, but you just better brace yourself! Guess what I did this weekend and today?? I FINALLY took the time to switch from my old computer to my new computer. Okay and I watched an unhealthy amount of Dawson’s Creek on Netflix. BUT all of my picture files are now on my computer, not on my phone, not on my old computer, on this very computer that I type on and labeled and organized. AND there is a plan for 3-5 posts for this very week. Keep your fingers crossed friends. Now to the meal plan for this week.

Monday: 

BLTA (Bacon Lettuce Tomato Avocado) Sandwiches with Chips and Homemade Salsa

Tuesday:

Rice and Beef Stuffed Zucchini, Salt and Vinegar Roasted Potatoes, and Cucumber Salad

Wednesday: 

Church Potluck (making Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding)

Thursday: 

Leftover Stuffed Zucchini

Friday: 

Jalapeno Popper Grilled Cheese (never got to this last week), Red Potato Salad, and Sweet Pickles

Saturday:

Leftovers

Sunday:

Lemon Poppy Seed Waffles, Scrambled Eggs and Bacon

Lunch Ideas:

Are you meal planning? Post your weekly meal plan in the comment section below! You can also link your meal plan up over at Organizing Junkie.

Back by popular demand… MEAL PLAN MONDAY! I know it’s barely Monday still, but I’m just getting back in the routine. Thanks for your patience! There actually wasn’t a “demand” per se, but I decided to check out my blog stats this weekend. Apparently my most viewed post are all meal plan posts! Who knew?! Meal planning comes natural to me, so I never realize it’s valuable and helpful to other people. I enjoy it! I do it whether I post it or not, so if it’s what the people want, I’m going to give it to them! And whether I post or not, I still collect a ridiculous amount of meal planning resources and notepads… I have a problem.

At least they were all only $1! They motivate and inspire my meal planning even more. Since I took the accidental extended break from blogging, I need things that motivate me. So I’m adding them left and right! And taking pictures too, of course, which also motivates me.

Remember the cute little red grill I used to have and the grilled recipe posts I used to make? The bottom fell out of my grill early last summer and I never replaced it. I wanted another red one! I never found one, so I finally gave in. Motivation #3… Grilling! Wanting to grill equals wanting to cook more equals taking pictures of food equals wanting to blog them. Done!

Monday: 

Tuesday:

Wednesday: 

Thursday: 

Friday: 

Saturday:

Sunday:

Extras: 

• Homemade Salsa for snacking
• Two Skillet Apple Pies for Missional Community
• Two Strawberry Icebox Pies for Missional Community

Lunch Ideas: 

tuna egg salad sandwich + goldfish + orange slices + Mississippi cookie

edamame with soy sauce + two boiled eggs

managers special treat! cheese slice + almonds + carrots + apples slices with already purchased nutella & hummus

Along with my other nifty notepads, I also got these $1 food labels! How cute are they! Ignore the chocolate butter cream mess that got on this one from the cupcakes I made yesterday for the Father’s Day memorial meal.

German Chocolate Cupcakes! My dad’s favorite dessert was German Chocolate Cake. I never made it from scratch before yesterday, just box mix and pre-made icing. I wish I could have made this delightful, way easier than I thought, homemade dessert for him before he wasn’t with us anymore, but I’m glad I got to make it in memory of him!

I had great intentions of posting my meal plan Monday post early, before night time even. But then my Internet decided to be fickle! After many attempts I gave up and am now posting from my phone. Since I can’t format the way I like and am super OCD, I just made a graphic with an app on my phone. Thanks for saving the day smart phone!

Lunch Ideas: 

leftovers: stroganoff + green beans + butter beans

leftovers: rigatoni baked pasta + blueberries + toast croutons

leftovers made over: fish taco salad + lime pinenut couscous + tomato chick pea salad

sometimes you run out of time and have to get lunch on campus, BUT can still make healthy-ish  choices: chicken ceasar wrap + side salad + pretzels and honey mustard

It’s 10:42 pm on Monday night as I’m writing this Meal Plan Monday post. Brief explanation (or excuse) for the lateness: I usually prep these posts on Saturdays or Sundays. Saturday I attended a fundraiser pancake breakfast, had Jesus time at Starbucks for several hours, prepped blog picture for future posts, conquered the art of self pedicures and manicures (DIY cuticle care included!), straightened my hair, put on makeup (for the first time since… Christmas?), attended a BFF’s 30th birthday celebration, hosted the Nancy Drew watching, nail painting, after party, and then spent the night with her so she didn’t have to have the unpleasant after party every one is gone feeling. Sunday I attended a membership class at church, went to church, grocery shopped for a dinner party I forgot I was hosting when I did last week’s meal plan, cooked ALL afternoon (pictures of the dinner ensemble below), hosted the dinner party, went to the new RA reveal night, had my first meeting with my new next year RAs. Today for my day off I slept for a significant amount of time for the first time in days, got a needed hair cut, attempted Starbucks Jesus time, grocery shopped for my next two weeks of meals, worked out, filed my taxes, ate dinner, had my weekly meeting with my accountability partner, packed my lunch, and made coconut quinoa granola (pictures below, recipe to come soon!). AND approximately 2.5 minutes after I post this I will fall asleep, all exhausted and the like.

My RAs picked an Italian theme for our dinner party, chipped in money, and I cooked! Pizza Dip + Homemade Baguette Chips  (not pictured) + Garlic Bread + Baked Rigatoni + Salad with Homemade Italian Herb Dressing (not pictured) + Fruit Pizza.

Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday:

Saturday:

Sunday:

Lunch Ideas: 

new michelina’s lean gourmet meal test + green giant singles corn & peas + CHEERWINE (brought a case back from SC)

another new michelina’s lean gourmet meal test + green giant singles corn & peas + cuties

Extras: 

If it’s wrong to own every size of mason jar, I don’t want to be right!

What’s on your menu for this week? 

Facts are facts and the fact is I’m slack! I said I’d post more last week and I didn’t! Heck, I barely made this post on Monday (But it’s still Monday! Before midnight counts right? Especially if I was in a car for 10 hours!)! I was pressed for time with going to South Carolina and FINALLY organizing my closet (pictures coming soon!). I promise to at least post two more times this week than last. For real! I just can’t even believe March is gone! It’s April. How the heck did that happen!? Here’s to hoping April is calmer than March (It has to be, Spring Break and Easter were in one month!). Since April is going to be slower, I really am gonna post more!

So that being said, I’m posting my meal plan and I need us to agree that you won’t judge me. It’s going to be hard, but allow me to explain. Easter was GREAT! Went to South Carolina with a best friend to have Easter with her family. It was seriously perfect and amazing. However, holidays are still sad with my dad being gone. I processed, I grieved, and I’m okay, BUT sometimes your soul craves comfort food! I just really do believe memorable food can provide comfort for the soul the same way a hug can sometimes. Not like over eating emotional eating kind of reliance on food, but just soul comforting food! So all that to say, I can cook so many things and am mostly not afraid of a food challenge, but good-old-super-easy-anyone-can-make-it Hamburger Helper is one of my comfort foods. Yes, I could make it homemade! But Hamburger Helper brings me back to childhood when my dad ate the leftovers off our plates (and often grossly picked at the browning hamburger meat before it was brown enough). And so, I’m making it this week and we’re just going to all nod, smile, and not judge because we don’t do that judge thing. Sometimes you just have to eat cereal and “cook” Hamburger Helper.

To the meal plan! See what happens when I go weeks without posting anything other than a meal plan? I get too chatty. On track. Kale. I’m obsessed with it right now. You know I don’t repeat things often, but kale has appeared in my last three meal plans. I was doing so well and not going to use kale this time, but then I saw the baby kale! How can anyone see adorable baby kale for the same price as the lettuce they were going to get and not change their mind?! I couldn’t. I didn’t.

Monday:

Cereal (Home from 10 hour car ride!)

Tuesday:

Leftover Cheesy Chicken Pasta and Sautéed Garlic-y Kale

Wednesday:

Hamburger Helper Stroganoff (Added mushrooms and Greek yogurt – I gotta doctor it up a little!), Butter Beans and Garlic Toast

Thursday:

Leftover Hamburger Helper

Friday:

Yummy Snacks from the International Festival

Saturday:

WingStop (For best friend’s birthday.)

Sunday:

Greek Fish Tacos (tortillas + honey lime baked tilapia + baby kale for lettuce + hummus + julienned cucumbers + tomatoes), Chick Pea Tomato Salad and Lime Rice Pilaf

Lunch Ideas: 

I made buffalo chicken salad from a rotisserie chicken, loved it, ate it all week for lunch & made road trip sandwiches.

buffalo chicken salad sliders + baked lays (not pictured)

buffalo chicken sliders + carrots & celery with yogurt bleu cheese dressing

 THIRTEEN HOURS OF LABOR! I was wise to plan no meals for the two days after the first catering order was filled. I didn’t even want to go in the kitchen, much less cook in it. But it turned out great!

I made roughly 120 iced sugar cookies, 130 salted chocolate chip cookies, 85 red velvet cupcakes and 100 vanilla bean cupcakes. I’m pretty sure I’ve never felt so accomplished! And never fear, I was back in the kitchen today humming happily as I cooked my dinner. I can’t stay out of the kitchen for that long! And thus I bring you this week’s meal plan. This week’s plan is weak as well due to another holiday and going out of town! Spring holidays are almost as stacked as fall/winter ones.

I scored another rotisserie chicken on sale! I will never get tired of Manager’s Special labels.

Monday:

Leftover Crock Pot Pork Chops, Rice and Gravy, Stewed Cabbage, and Balsamic Mushrooms

Tuesday:

Cheesy Chicken Penne and Sauteed Kale (Using the rotisserie chicken!)

Wednesday:

Leftover Chicken Penne

Thursday:

Leftovers (While packing for going out of town and baking cookies for the road trip. I know I said no baking, but I do have an excess of leftover homemade chocolate chip cookie dough! And the car ride to South Carolina is lengthy. I wouldn’t be a good car rider if I didn’t bring baked goods!)

Friday:

Visiting South Carolina

Saturday:

Visiting South Carolina

Sunday:

Visiting South Carolina (and Easter!)

Lunch Ideas:

healthy tuna salad sandwich + cuties + leftover kale pasta salad

leftover kale pasta salad + leftover kale bagel pizzas

Happy day after St. Patrick’s Day! Did you do anything fun? I’m not a huge fan of parades, but my version of celebrating holidays is usually cooking a themed meal and painting my nails festively.

The pizzas had a pesto/alfredo pizza sauce, sauteed mushrooms, slivered red onions, chicken, and kale. I also made a green pasta salad with bowties, green peas, kale, pesto, red onion, and a little chicken. AND, last but not least, GREEN DOUGHNUTS!

Key Lime Baked Doughnuts with a lime glaze and lime zest sprinkles. So good! I’ll post the recipe soon.

And now, this week’s meal plan!

Manager’s special label treasure hunt success! I needed chicken for two dishes on my meal plan. I planned to buy raw chicken, but then found this cold rotisserie chicken on sale! A. Cheaper than buying a bag of frozen chicken. B. ALREADY COOKED! Hello easy week of meals. I also went to the grocery store with the intention to get spinach and use spinach as my St. Patty’s Day green meal star, but kale was 99 cents! Two dollars less than the spinach. Point? MEAL PLAN! Make a list. But look for special surprises like this to cut your budget!

Also, my meal plan is weak this week because I have exciting news. I HAVE MY FIRST CATERING ORDER! By Friday at 5:00 I will have made 180 cookies and 120 mini cupcakes. And so… Thursday night and Friday night there is no way I can cook! Saturday night, I won’t feel like cooking! But all for a good reason.

Monday:

Leftover St. Patty’s Day Meal

Tuesday:

Buffalo Chicken Salad Sliders, Buffalo Chicken Rice, Celery and Carrots with Blue Cheese

Wednesday:

Leftover Buffalo Sliders

Thursday: 

Cereal (Or food to go from one of the on campus places.)

Friday:

Take Out – While resting my feet that will surely be hurting from all the standing! Note to self – don’t bake barefoot this time! Wear tennis shoes.

Saturday:

Something microwavable or easy!

Sunday:

Crock Pot Pork Chops, Brown Rice and Cabbage

Extras:

-Tuna Salad for lunches
-Smoothies for breakfast (still loving theses!)

The title of this post is slightly misleading. I don’t have a meal plan for you this week. However, I am going to give you resources for meal planning! And I do have a good excuse (for not having a meal plan AND for missing posting it on Monday). I’m not a student, in fact, I get grumpy when people think I am sometimes, but I do work at a university. My boss let us have off for Spring Break with the students! So I drove to Georgia to visit my BFF, who happens to be one of my biggest fans and most loyal blog readers, and her beautiful baby Alice. Alice can now say my name! Or a version of it at least, KK. So I’m dining with them this week and get a week off of cooking and meal planning in exchange for baby hugs and helping my BFF settle into her new house.

So resources! You know how obsessed I am with meal planning. I could, and have, gone on and on about the benefits of it! It’s healthier and way more budget friendly! If me constantly advocating for it isn’t enough, allow me to share with you the many other blogs I’ve found that post weekly meal plan! I use these fellow meal planners for inspiration in creating my meal plans often. It’s easy! Copy us!

Blogs that post weekly meal plans: 

• This Week For Dinner (My fav and the reason I started posting meal plans!)
• Six Sisters’ Stuff
• Real Mom Kitchen
• Life as a Lofthouse
• Modern Alternative Kitchen
• Organization Junkie
• Lawfully Wedded Wife
• Gospel Homemaking
• Stock Piling Moms
• My Scraps

There is even a Meal Plan Monday Facebook! I liked this the instant I found it. She posts tons of great tips, ideas, and resources.

Lunch Ideas:

Next week won’t have lunch ideas since I’m not working this week and therefore not taking my lunch, but I did last week! Sad news… I microwaved one of my lunch containers a little too much! It got a hole. I WILL be buying more of these Ziplock containers though. In case you can’t tell, I’m obsessed!

top left: asian chopped salad + leftover baked breaded chicken tenders + peanut dressing + celery + homemade peanut butter  top right: leftover beef stew + crackers + a cutie bottom left: fancy sandwiches + yellow cherry tomatoes + leftover corn grits + coconut crack bar  bottom right: caesar salad + yogurt caesar dressing + leftover broccoli cheese twice baked potatoes

Monday:

Leftover Sunday Dinner Stew

Tuesday:

Twice Baked Broccoli Cheese Potatoes & Caesar Salad (Never got to it last week due to a bonding dinner with some of my staff. Life happens and sometimes it’s good!)

Wednesday: 

Leftover Potatoes

Thursday:

Lazy Chiles Rellenos, Tortillas & Guacamole Salad (Never actually made this meal 2 weeks ago, forgot ingredients!)

Friday:

Leftover Rellenos

Saturday:

Buffalo Chicken Salad Sandwich, Hummus & Veggies

Sunday:

Crock Pot Pork Chops, Brown Rice & Brussel Sprouts

Extras:

• Smoothies: Strawberry, Blueberry, Pineapple Mango, Peach, and Vanilla (Flax seed + almonds + milk + greek yogurt + frozen bananas + assorted frozen fruit)
• Some healthy version of baked doughnuts, haven’t gotten to use my pan yet! 

Lunch Ideas (The DOs and DON’Ts): 

DO – leftover veggie pizza in moderation (1 slice) + hummus + veggies + a cutie

DO – asian chopped salad & peanut dressing + leftover baked breaded chicken tender + celery & peanut butter + fruit

DO – if you must eat out for lunch meetings, veggies + grilled chicken isn’t bad DON’T – eat all that rice (I didn’t, but I did eat too much!)

DO – say yes to your brother paying for your lunch + a grilled chicken sandwich DON’T – order fried homemade chips like I did