Meal Planning - Week of December 17th

A few of my favorites from last week:

BBQ chicken quinoa salad - this may not look great, as I failed to get a picture before I stirred everything into my bowl, but it was delicious!  Greg told me no less than 10 times that night that I had done a good job AND gave me a Facebook shout out about it - so, it was a success.

We made tandoori chicken (teriyaki and tandoori spice) in the crock pot and had it with the lemon orzo pasta.  Instead of "blanching" the asparagus (because, uh, what?) I roasted it in the oven.  I also left the cheese off because I didn't think it needed it.

 

I've decided to put my weekly produce deliveries on hold, as I'm finding them a lot more fun to do in the summer.  I don't want it to become something that I'm planning all of my meals around (finding the right recipes to include the sometimes random vegetables they send), so I'll report back on this when I start them back up.

 

I'm excited that next Friday begins my vacation for the rest of 2012 - woot!  We also have Jamie and Collin's Christmas Party (and due to recent events, it will now also serve as their ENGAGEMENT PARTY - yesssss) so no cooking that night.

 

Since we seem to have accumulated a lot of stuff in the pantry and freezer over the past couple of weeks, this week's theme will be:

 

Use What You Have!

 

Monday: Ever since I made it a few weeks ago I have been craving it, so I'm going to make another batch of Chicken and Potato Florentine Soup, except this time, I will definitely halve the recipe.  This will help me use up some of the frozen chicken I have in the freezer, as well as the carrots, cream cheese and cheese I have in the fridge.  The recipe also calls for fresh spinach, but I have frozen....so I might see how that works this time.  (And I'll be making this Sunday evening to heat up on Monday since I teach yoga that night).

 

Tuesday: Cod and Saffron, Zucchini and Herb Couscous. 

 

Wednesday: Breakfast for dinner!  We have some bacon from the cobb salad pizza I made last week and a full carton of eggs.  And to make it a classy meal, I'll use up the rest of the tater tots we have in the freezer.

 

Thursday: Spaghetti (not from scratch), green beans and garlic bread. I have some vodka sauce that I'll add some mild Italian sausage to and call it good!

 

Friday: Par-tay!  I may pick up a Papa Murphy's gourmet veggie pizza for my mom and Ben to enjoy since she will be babysitting!  Isn't that what you are supposed to do for your babysitter?  Order them pizza? :)