Meal-Planning: Week of 10/31/10

Does anyone else have a helluva time with planning meals on the WEEKEND? I never know what we're going to do! Half the time we don't know our weekend plans until Thursday, so I don't necessarily want to waste money buying the supplies for a meal we're not going to eat... but at the same time, I can always add that meal to next week's menu. Usually Sundays are pretty mellow, so Slow-Cooker Sunday works out nicely, but today we ended up taking a day trip to Oakland to see our friends' 1-month-old baby and had to leave around 9:30 to make it there by 11 (UGH, up so early on a Sunday!), which also meant I couldn't go grocery shopping, either (ok, I could've, but sleep won out). So we grabbed a frozen meal from my secret lover, Trader Joe, and called it a night. It bums me out a little, though, to not do SCS because that means I don't have leftovers for tomorrow night's meal and have to cook from scratch. BOO. So I planned an easy meal for Monday night. Anyway.

This week's menu is Monday-Saturday. I know, weird. It'll resume Sunday-Saturday next week.

Monday:
Lame-ass Pasta Primavera & Italian Sausage
I have a thing of alfredo sauce to use up, so I'm going to steam some frozen broccoli and cauliflower, add it to the warmed-up sauce, and pour it over some pasta. DONE. The Hubs refuses to eat without meat, so I'll grill up some turkey italian sausage for the side. 

Tuesday:
Chicken Soup Florentine
We received a "Cooking for Two" cookbook by Better Homes and Gardens that has this recipe. It looks like a cross between chicken noodle soup and italian wedding soup. Either way, if it's good, I'll post the recipe.

Wednesday:
Carnitas tacos and refried beans
Technically, due to us being gone about 10+ hours a day and having an obnoxiously fast "slow-cooker", I'm going to cook the carnitas while we sleep Tuesday night. We'll make soft tacos with them. The recipe is delicious, highly recommend. For the refried beans, I usually add some spicy tomato sauce (look in the Mexican food section, it's a yellow can), garlic powder, and shredded cheddar cheese. NOM. I'm also considering using leftover carnitas to make some enchiladas for the freezer so we can just grab n' heat next time we're hungry.

Thursday:
"Oriental"-Glazed Chicken
I would just like to state for the record that I did NOT come up with that awful name. ANYWAY, it looks easy and like something new and different. So there ya go.

Friday:
Papa Murphy's pizza (cheap and easy!)

Saturday: 
Grilled Chicken Thighs, Potluck Beans, and "snugglers"
We're tailgating on Saturday at the local college's football game! I've never seen a football game live, so I'm hoping that it's marginally more interesting than how it is on tv. Heh. I'm more interested in the tailgating anyway. I'm using Guy Fieri's recipe for chicken wing sauces for the thighs, and the Potluck Beans are from a 30-minute Recipes cookbook I got from my mom. We've tried them before, they're very tasty! "Snugglers" is basically hot cocoa and peppermint schnapps. Mmmm. So we'll either eat any leftovers for dinner tonight (or lunch tomorrow), or Pizza for dinner. 

For breakfast, I'm sucking it up and buying a plug-in kettle to use at work for Instant oatmeal during my morning before school or early prep periods (and for Cup O' Noodles, which I keep in my desk as a back-up for those busy mornings where I don't bring a lunch. Lunch Monday is leftover Asian noodle salad from Sunday, and bologna/cheese sandwiches the rest of the week (I'm having a bologna sandwich craving, so I'm going to indulge it). The goal this week is to not buy fast food, barring our agreed-upon Friday pizza night. If I had more time and desire, I'd plan a different lunch every day or get back into making bentos, but at this moment in my life, it's easier to just keep breakfast and lunch fairly rote.

OH, so last week's meals! The tomato soup recipe was not great. Not BAD, just not as creamy as I hoped for. TBH, while I like the help Menus4Moms offers (esp. since they offer a variation of the service for free), the majority of the time I try a recipe from them it's on the bland side. So I'm looking at them from now on as good base recipes to add my own pizazz too. On the plus side, the soup was cheap to make and made a TON, we froze the remnants. The tater-tot casserole was great, totally hit the spot for warm, filling, and comforting.

I do realize that these are probably some of the most boring entries EVER; I just know that meal planning is something I'm trying to master, so it helps to write out my plan and reasoning so I can see it for myself. I figure other no0bs might appreciate it as well.