Delicious Weekly Menu...Week 2 of January

So I have fallen in love with a few websites lately. www.ziplist.com and Pinterest.

A little about Pinterest...I keep pinning EVERYTHING I love. I have to go back in there and organize it a bit more, but I have found several cute ideas that I want to do/make for various holidays birthdays etc. If you don't PIN...hop to it! I even heard some ladies gossiping about all the good pins they pinned lately at Maia's dance class the other night. Very fun.

Now Ziplist is just WONDERFUL! Thanks to my .....cousin-in-law in-law?? Well anyway something like that....Jill (and her sweet family) are GREAT. She recommended Ziplist through her blog (check out her blog @ Bottled Beauty) and I have been hooked ever since. What is it you ask? Well the best thing ever! I have done weekly menu plans for a long time. I started with meals we regularly had and just planned a shopping list with a good old-fashioned hand written list. Then I linked my Google calendar to my phone, and I always knew what we were going to have for dinner. I loved it. As I got used to weekly menu planning. I started to add a new recipe or two every week. Then I loved trying new things, and I ended up with 5 recipes every week. Sometimes I planned only 4, because we usually had a leftovers night or a take-out night. But somewhere between 4-5 meals a week. As my cooking skills grew and I used more and more recipes, naturally my shopping list grew too. I would search various websites, then copy and paste the menus or ingredients to an Excel spreadsheet or a word.doc. This got tedious and time-consuming due to how each website listed their stuff and eventually I slacked off. I still loved cooking, but the planning was taking too much time. At that time I had a new baby and time wasn't easy to come by. We went back to our old habits. Which weren't bad, but they got boring for me. We would do the family favorites or eat out. Whichever was easiest.

In comes ZIPLIST! Sometime back in December I started using Ziplist to plan a menu for Christmas. What's best is the website has various link sites for recipes. Such as marthastewart.com or allrecipes.com, etc. So you could search and click through what you wanted all at 1 site. Then you would add the recipes to your box, and then when you were ready to select your menu for the week, you add the ingredients to you shopping list. A pop-up box comes up and you can uncheck items you already have. I am starting to sound like a commercial...can you tell I love it? It takes me just a few minutes now vs. a long time of searching, copy/pasting etc.

This past week (what i call week 2 of January and named my menu that same thing) I planned my menu in just a few minutes. I didn't even print out the recipes. While I am cooking I just pulled the recipe up on my iPad. I guess some might say I am being environmentally friendly too. ;) Well, I know I am saving printing paper and ink! And most importantly time!  I work a full-time job, and of course I am a Mom of 2 kids...so time is precious. I want to spend my spare time with the kids and not hunting for recipes. There will be time for that when they start ignoring me for their friends. (Some day they will be teenagers....ugh.)

This week we had some delicious meals. I even added some healthy muffins that Maia and I ate for breakfast. She LOVED them. I forgot to take pictures of a few of my meals.

Breakfast for the week: Healthy Banana Blueberry Muffins - I added a touch of pumpkin pie spice and also added some milled flax seed. I was trying to make sure we were getting a good morning start, and these were a HIT!

Sunday - We had Quick Shrimp Po' Boy sandwiches! YUMMY! The adults had the real sandwiches and the kiddos (Ages 8 and 1) had a deconstructed version.

Here is what Maia had, and the baby ate all the same things, but just cut up in pieces, of course.

Monday - We had Quinoa With Broccoli, Cheese & Bacon. This was pretty good. Its the first time I have made quinoa. I have attempted to a few times before, but I never got around to it. This was a pretty easy transition. We do mac and cheese with broccoli too. The hubs loved it. He said it was great. Maia wasn't too sure and, well, the baby will eat anything. She is NOT picky about food. As long as its ready when she comes in the door. She's like a 1950s husband who needs dinner on the table when she walks in the door. If its not ready the night is ruined! (No lie!)

Tuesday - We had Grilled Steak And Potato with Salad. Everyone loved this! I don't often make steak. For a few reasons, its a big cut of expensive meat that if you mess up...you are eating charcoal. There are too many good steak cooks in the family. I am TOTALLY hit or miss. BUT...this was 1/2 and 1/2. Part of the grill was WAY too hot and charred 1-side of the steak. Oh well...the other one was perfect! This recipe came with a nice mustard vinaigrette recipe. I thought it was a little sour. Danny LOVED it!

Wednesday I was sick, and didn't feel like cooking. Maia offered to cook dinner. She mainly cooks with crescent rolls. She decided to make Pigs in A Blanket. She even made a few tiny ones for the baby.

Thursday Night we made Turkey Teriyaki Meatballs With Edamame and Snow Peas. This was SO fantastic we all agreed it would be a "regular" on the menu. The baby couldn't get enough of the shelled edamame. I actually ended up using ground beef instead of turkey because the store was totally out of ground turkey. It was still GREAT. I think ground pork, chicken, or turkey would all be GREAT. The sauce was so flavorful it made the normally bland brown rice FANTASTIC! I forgot to take a picture before I ate this meal, but here is one while it was cooking. I ended up cutting the meatballs 1/2 way through the cooking because they didn't' seem cooked enough for me.

Well tonight...we were supposed to have Thai Pork And Noodles, but Danny had a late lunch. The baby was starving, and Maia desperately needed sopapillas. Jocelyn had leftovers and Maia and I did take-out. So, I guess now I know what we are doing for lunch tomorrow.

I am off to plan January Week 3. I really enjoy cooking for my family. Maia can usually choose to "skip" one new meal if its a recipe we haven't had before. This week, she didn't even ask. I guess that's a good thing.

I am thinking about trying something else...but its seems a tad more complicated for planning. Someone told me that they cook all their meals on 1 day of the week. I think I will try this one time and see how its goes. I envision a sink full of dishes and the family (namely Danny) eating the food before the week is done. HA! If anyone has done this, do you have any tips?

I do TRY to make my meals with some ingredients I already have like brown rice or quinoa. Say, if I bought too much from the last recipe. My pantry is full. I really ought to go look in there before grocery shopping again. Now, if only I could find someone to organize my cabinets.....that would be FANTASTIC. I wonder if there is something on Pinterest for that? lol I am SURE there is.