Monday Menu Plan May 11, 2015

It’s National Eat What You Want Day!

Isn’t that cool? Well sort of. If we really ate what we wanted would it be the best thing? Imagine what most kids would choose to eat if they could eat anything they wanted all day long.

I was just discussing this with the Sweet Peanut yesterday. A few years ago if you sat a cupcake and bowl of fruit in front her she would pick the fruit bowl hands down. She loved fruit that much. She still loves fruit but I wonder if she might pick the cupcake first now adays.

I guess it depends on how she’s feeling.

The Sweet Peanut expressed a great interest in nutrition a few years ago when she got her hands on my copy of Prescription for Nutritional Healing.

It’s encouraging to watch her make healthy choices in snacks and maintain her apple a day habit. Let’s hope mom remembers to do that same 🙂

On to Meal Planning

I was shoulder deep in the freezer yesterday looking for proteins for this week’s dinner. A friend and I have been discussing introducing a meat free meal each week at the dinner table.

I’ve tried that approach in the past with my meat loving family. They’re all for it at first. Gung ho and willing to give it a try. But it never fails. As soon as the dinner is over later on I catch my husband rummaging in the fridge for some meat! He insists that he can eat a vegetarian meal but I beg to differ.

Well I aim to get them there one way or another. Just one meal a week. It would really free me up from having to come up with so many meaty main dishes and it will be a nice change.

This past week I slowly got them there with the bean gratin dish from last week. Now this dish does have bacon in it for which I substituted turkey bacon for but it was delicious and a crowd (3) pleaser. This was really good has been requested again.

Think they’ll notice if I remove the bacon?

This week I’ll be trying to use what’s in the house already mostly. I found several packs of boneless skinless chicken thighs, a frozen meatloaf from last week (it was really good), some frozen Baked Chicken Tenders to go with Avocado Dipping Sauce, porkchops, ground turkey, catfish, leftover salmon.

This is what I came up with….

Monday: Spring Rolls (will be baking them)

Tuesday: Salmon Cakes

Wednesday: Surprise Me

Thursday: Chicken Drumsticks in Tomato Soup via Matt Preston

Friday: Quesadillas

What’s on your menu?

• Find more menus to inspire you from other bloggers at Organized Junkie.
• Read some Menu Planning articles for tips on planning your weekly menu
• Need delicious easy recipes for your family? Simplified Dinners is your template for fresh easy recipes every day.