Category: meal planning
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Wednesday, January 24, 2024
Happy New Year! A recommitment to cooking
Hello, This Week for Dinner friends! LONG time no talk. I know that I’ve been short of reliable since last summer in terms of planning meals and cooking. The blog has felt it, you have felt it and my family sure has felt it the most (holy eating-out-all-of-the-time 😳). Life has been in flux more than usual this past year. I am knocking on all of the wood as I say the following, but this week is the first time in a long time that feels normal-ish. And, after so many months of dinner uncertainty and eating out, I am beyond ready to get cooking again.
Carne Asada Salad with Cilantro Crema
With that, here is my food resolution for the year: cook. Cooking is such a lovely excuse at the end of a busy day to breathe. To listen to a podcast, music or audiobook. To spend time with a family member who also likes to cook. To prioritize our health as well as our enjoyment of food.
Along with a recommitment to cooking, I will once again consistently post a weekly menu! It’s all a part of the same goal and that weekly check-in with you all here on the blog is incredibly helpful. I hope that you will continue to share your menus and recipes with us each week as well!
Cilantro Sour Cream Enchiladas
That said, I’ve also found myself enjoying a few nights a week where I don’t have a plan, where I swing by the store and just grab a couple things for that night. I used to hate that. I think when the kids were younger and required more physical care there simply was no space for impromptu shopping and cooking. These days, however, there is a bit of room for spontaneity, a flexibility in what we cook and eat that I honestly haven’t felt in 19+ years. (Yep, Cate is 19 now!) I will still create a weekly plan, but I may or may not do weekly grocery shopping and I’m giving myself mental permission to mix the plan up when I feel like it!
One last thing…my cooking resolution also fits in well with the blog’s yearly resolution related to food and the environment. In terms of trash and food waste, cooking at home is automatically a huge improvement. In addition, when you cook at home you have more control over the ingredients and where they come from, making it easier to source local food as much as possible. So here’s to eating well and putting our own little drop in the bucket for Mother Earth.
I am looking forward to another year of planning, cooking, eating well and enjoying time in the kitchen!
Posted by Jane Wallin at 10:44 am 12 Comments
Categories: Eat Well. Heal the Planet., meal planning, Meal Planning, weekly menus
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Sunday, October 29, 2023
Week 779 Dinner Menu
Hello! Not only is Owen, my 12-year-old, excited to cook with me now, he actually popped right out of his room when I asked if he wanted to come plan a menu. He is such a great motivator for me these days!
MONDAY:
- Hamburgers
TUESDAY:
WEDNESDAY:
- Carnitas tacos
THURSDAY:
FRIDAY:
- Leftovers
SATURDAY:
- Eat out night
SUNDAY:
- Smoked short rib, roasted potatoes and salad
Looking forward to seeing your menus!
Posted by Jane Wallin at 4:07 pm 11 Comments
Categories: meal planning, Meal Planning, weekly menus Tags: dinner ideas, MEAL PLANNING, weekly menu |
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Tuesday, November 1, 2022
Week 757 Weekly Menu
Happy November! My first menu of the month is coming a day late because we were just too busy with Halloween festivities Sunday and Monday. Here we go!
MONDAY:
- Candy. No, really. Candy and random food people scrounged.
TUESDAY:
- Leftovers (smoked pork butt! the best!)
WEDNESDAY:
- Butternut squash soup and grilled cheese
THURSDAY:
- Chicken piccata, mashed potatoes, salad
FRIDAY:
SATURDAY:
- Leftovers
SUNDAY:
- Eat out
Your turn to throw a menu in the comments below! And thanks for all the well wishes last week…still recovering, it was a doozy of a flu/cold/whatever-it-was-just-know-it-wasn’t-covid-phew.
Posted by Jane Wallin at 10:43 am 11 Comments
Categories: meal planning Tags: dinner ideas, MEAL PLANNING, weekly menu |
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Monday, November 27, 2017
Week 560 Weekly Menu from Rachel Faucett of Handmade Charlotte: Eat. Make. Groove.
Hello! I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving filled with the best food! We did…and we’re still swimming in leftovers. My family has informed me they are done with Thanksgiving food, but I beg to differ. We shall see…
Today’s guest menu is fun and different than anything we’ve ever had on the blog. It comes from my friend Rachel Faucett, the founder of the blog and company Handmade Charlotte. Rachel and I initially bonded as roommates on the ONE-Heifer trip to Malawi I took a few years ago (here’s proof). My connection with Rachel is something for which I will be forever grateful. There is seriously no one on this planet like Rachel. She has boundless energy and creativity and is hysterical to boot. When I was asking friends if they wanted to write a guest menu for my blog, she was the first to jump in, immediately responding with ideas and inspiration for dinners, crafts and music. I told her to run with it and now here we are. Grab yourself a cup of coffee, sit down, and enjoy a trip through Rachel’s meal planning brain, which is unlike any meal planning trip you will ever take. Thank you, Rachel, for creating a menu that is just so you.
MONDAY
EAT:
This ricotta ravioli looks so beautiful and so deliciously inviting!
SURF:
I adore this Sailing Ship Kite! I think I may try to sail away to Neverland on it. Will you join me?
GROOVE:
Chill out to Yo La Tengo – My Little Corner Of The World while you enjoy your delicious dinner.
MAKE:
This is such a great fall crafting project.
FLIP:
Flip through this cool magazine.
VIBE:
All good vibes here! http://butdoesitfloat.com/
TUESDAY
EAT:
Soup meets glorious bread bowl in this brilliant combo!
STYLE:
WOW! I’m in love with everything from this shop!
MAKE:
How fun and adorable! Let’s make these hair ties with Lunch Lady magazine!
WEDNESDAY
EAT:
Dinner is a walk in the garden with these gorgeous pizzas!
MAKE:
J’adore everything about these DIY Parisian Dolls!
DIG IT:
We love everything about Winter Water Factory and painted our studio a pattern from their fall collection!
GROOVE:
Listen to Come On, Come Over by Jaco Pastorius
THURSDAY
EAT:
Order in from your fave take out place!
MAKE:
Sew Patches All Over Your Clothes! Check out these Etsy finds:
FRIDAY
EAT:
Mix it up and eat breakfast for dinner under your table! Try these awesome Fried Eggs and Garlic Toast and this Potato Skillet Bake! And for dessert? This Blackberry Slab Pie will be gone in seconds.
WATCH:
Watch silly home videos, or make some new ones!
MAKE:
Draw silly pictures. Can you sketch a silly portrait of your siblings or parents?
SATURDAY
EAT:
Nosh on these melt in your mouth grilled pimento cheese sammys!
MAKE:
Rock out with these DIY Rock Candy Magnets!
GROOVE:
Get your groove on with this cool Putumayo jam!
SUNDAY
EAT:
Make some Stuffed Butternut Squash for dinner!
MAKE:
Marbled Mugs! One for each person in the family! Fill them with Hot Cocoa afterwards!
GET COZY;
Fill your crafted mugs with the most amazing Hot Chocolate ever!
AS USUAL…please share your dinner plans in the comments! And, in honor of Rachel, share something that inspires you in addition to food!
Posted by Jane Wallin at 9:44 am 4 Comments
Categories: guest menus, meal planning Tags: craft ideas, dinner ideas, music, rachel faucett, weekly menu |
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Sunday, January 11, 2015
Week 416 Weekly Menu
Hello! So, last night we saw Kathy Griffin perform stand up and all I have to say is I laughed so hard that I was wheezing and needed an inhaler. I didn’t have one, but thankfully I didn’t die laughing. It was a close one! 😉
Menu time!!!
MONDAY:
– Veggie Quiche
– Fresh FruitTUESDAY:
– Beef Stroganoff
– BroccoliWEDNESDAY:
– Chicken Caesar Wraps
– Fresh fruit and chipsTHURSDAY:
– LeftoversFRIDAY:
– Chili
– Corn chipsSATURDAY:
– Take out nightSUNDAY:
– Breakfast for dinner or leftoversClick here for the free printable of this week’s menu plus the shopping list!
You know the drill…please share your menu for the week! I seriously love reading your meal plans each week as I plan my own!
Posted by Jane Wallin at 12:26 pm 36 Comments
Categories: meal planning, weekly menus Tags: dinner plans, free printable, meal plan, menu plan, PRINTABLE MEAL PLAN, shopping list, weekly menu, weekly menu planning |
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Thursday, January 8, 2015
Managing Your Grocery Shopping List Using iPhone Reminders
If you don’t have an iPhone, then let me apologize in advance for today’s post. It’s pretty much useless to you, unless you get an iPhone one day and then you need to be sure to come back and read this! For those of you sporting iPhones, I am so excited about today’s post and I hope you’ll find it as useful as I do!
My neighbor Joan was telling me a few weeks ago how she uses Reminders on her iPhone to manage her grocery shopping list. She was describing how she uses it and it sounded pretty cool, so I gave it a try. Joan was right! Reminders is perfect for building a shopping list you can use week after week. The list is saved each week and it’s easy to make visible only the items you need for a particular shopping trip and then checking them off. I thought I’d run through the steps for how to use it and highlight why it’s so cool in the steps.
1. Open Reminders on your iPhone.
2. Click on “New List” at the top.
3. Name your list. I went super fancy and called my shopping list “Grocery Store”. You can also select the color you want the header to be, if you’re into coordinating your Reminder lists by color (which I am).
4. Start typing in your items. Easy peasy!
5. After you’ve entered in all the items for your shopping list, click “Done” on the top right.
6. Click “Edit” on the top right to reorder the items on your list (using the little parallel lines on the right-hand side to move things around). Order your list however you want. I chose to order the items by what section of the store they are in. I also add in parentheses what store I prefer to buy certain items at, just for my own reference.
7. Now you have your list and it’s time to go shopping! Go through and check off any items on your list that you do NOT need that week, then select “Hide completed” at the bottom. Sometimes you need to click the title of the list at the top to go to the Reminders home screen and then click back into the list to reset the list and make the “Hide Completed” and “Show Completed” button show at the bottom.
8. Go to the store and check off items as you shop. If you have “Hide Completed” selected they will disappear like magic!
9. When it’s time for the next shopping trip, choose “Show Completed” and uncheck the items you need that week. It should automatically reorder to how you originally organized the list – if it doesn’t, just click the list title to get to Reminders home screen then click back into the grocery list and it should be all good!
My goal is to put EVERYTHING I ever shop for at the grocery store on this one list. That means the first few times you go to the store, you’ll be constantly adding items you remember and re-ordering the list, but once it’s all put together it will be SO awesome and worth the work (and, honestly, it’s not very hard work). Note: when you are adding items and reordering them, you will need to have ALL the items on the list unchecked (so, NOT completed) to make sure you are putting them in the spot where you think they are going.
Hopefully this all makes sense! As soon as you start playing with it I promise it will. Here’s to happy grocery lists for 2015!
Update 1/18/15:
- My friend Jamie excitedly texted me this morning saying she had just set up lists in her reminders and it was perfect! She actually set up separate lists for the different grocery stores (a Trader Joe’s list, a Von’s list, etc). I thought that was a great idea and wanted to share!
- Android users: Be sure to check out Comment #6 below, where Kay describes and app called Google Keep and how she uses it for grocery shopping.
- Comment #7 below also shares another great iPhone app with sharing capability. If two people in your household equally do the shopping, I would definitely check it out. I know Reminders has a sharing aspect to it, but I’ve yet to try it out and see how well it works.
Posted by Jane Wallin at 9:55 am 15 Comments
Categories: Kitchen Tips, meal planning, weekly menus Tags: grocery list, grocery shopping, iphone tricks, shopping lists |
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Sunday, January 4, 2015
Week 415 Weekly Menu and Why Meal Planning is a Great New Year’s Resolution!
Happy New Year! We are home from the east coast and are gearing up for getting back into the groove of real life. Given that it’s January, I’m sure some of you are making new year’s resolutions! Which means it’s time for me to make my annual plug for meal planning! Whether you’ve never planned menus before or just want to be more consistent, meal planning is a great, actionable goal that is quite easy to implement, especially if you decided to post your menu here each week to stay accountable. See? It’s totally the best resolution around. 😉
So, here’s my first menu for 2015! We are starting the week with Grammy’s Orange Chicken. We are really missing her this week and I think orange chicken pretty much has to happen.
MONDAY:
– Grammy’s Orange Chicken
– Rice and Side VegetableTUESDAY:
– Easiest Ever Chicken Pot PieWEDNESDAY:
– Real Simple Lasagna
– SaladTHURSDAY:
– LeftoversFRIDAY:
– Rachel SandwichesSATURDAY:
– Takeout NightSUNDAY:
– Veggie Quiche
– Fresh FruitClick here for the free printable of this week’s menu plus the shopping list!
Okay, let’s see your menus! Please share! Happy New Year!
Posted by Jane Wallin at 1:57 pm 23 Comments
Categories: meal planning, weekly menus Tags: dinner plans, free printable, meal plan, menu plan, PRINTABLE MEAL PLAN, shopping list, weekly menu, weekly menu planning |
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Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Call for Recipes: Cooking During Difficult Times
Megan, a new mom returning to work this week, recently emailed me with a request that inspired today’s Call for Recipes. Megan emailed asking for dinner ideas for moms and dads with brand new babies. In Megan’s own words, “I am looking for ideas and suggestions on how you get dinner on the table during the week that’s easy and relatively healthy when we’re both back at work and I won’t be walking in the door until around six-ish and more interested in lavishing attention on A than spending a lot of time in the kitchen.”
I was definitely in survival mode when this guy came along, but it sure was worth it! Look at that yummy face!I think we all struggle with this on a fairly regular basis, but there are definitely seasons of life where it is more difficult than usual to get dinner on the table. Case in point: newborn baby. Also, sickness in the family, stressful work/school, the list goes on and on! We’ve all been there and we all go through these seasons.
Often during difficult times friends and family step up to the plate with meals. I wouldn’t have survived after Owen was born if people had not been so generous in this regard! But even with help, dinner doesn’t come every day and it doesn’t last forever.
Time to share ideas! What meals, recipes and/or strategies do you have around getting dinner cooked even when you’re stretched for time and/or energy? Please share your wisdom because Megan is right–sometimes (all the time?) you’d rather be cuddling with your new baby than slaving in the kitchen!
I’ll kick us off with a tip! Make sure your fridge and pantry are stocked up with basics so you don’t have to go to the store very often. That was key for me. Whether it was having cooked meals in the freezer at the ready or just a jar of sauce and a package of spaghetti in the cabinet, if I had supplies we didn’t starve and ate relatively well. One more piece of advice…don’t be afraid to ask for help!
Posted by Jane Wallin at 11:12 am 33 Comments
Categories: call for recipes, Meal Planning, meal planning, Pregnancy and Babies, Recipes Tags: cooking after baby, easy meals, quick and healthy dinner ideas, quick meals |
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Sunday, January 1, 2012
Week 258 Menu…and HAPPY NEW YEAR!…and a Resolution Suggestion for You!
Happy 2012, everyone! We rang in the new year by drinking copious amounts of Coke and Martinelli’s and watching Karate Kid (which may have been obvious by my Instagram feed last night…see here and here and here). It was a pretty rockin’ party. That’s how we roll around here.
Okay, so it’s time for me to do my annual spiel…you know the one telling you how AWESOME meal planning is and that you should make it your 2012 resolution? So, here we go…meal planning is AWESOME and I think you should make it your New Year’s Resolution, starting today! Okey dokey, spiel over…but if you need some reasons why you should do it, click here! And, yes, I am ‘spieling’ for purely selfish reasons…the more of you who jump on board, the more menus I get to read each week. 😉
MONDAY:
– Pulled BBQ Chicken (in the freezer) sandwiches, topped with coleslawTUESDAY:
– Chicken teriyaki and rice
– Stir fry veggiesWEDNESDAY:
– Orange Chicken and rice
– Roasted CauliflowerTHURSDAY:
– LeftoversFRIDAY:
– Eating out with friends for a birthday celebrationSATURDAY:
– Lasagna (in the freezer)
– Crusty bread and veggieSUNDAY:
– Waffles, fruit and home friesYour turn! Let’s see all of your menus! And for those of you who haven’t posted a menu before…give it a try, it’s January 1 after all!
Also…even though I’m bugging you about the meal planning resolution…I am going to have another one for you later this week that I’m super excited about, building on my resolution theme from the last few years. Can’t wait to share it with you!
Here’s to a delicious 2012!
Posted by Jane Wallin at 9:21 am 78 Comments
Categories: holidays, meal planning, weekly menus
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Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Thanksgiving Prep: The Menu!
Thanksgiving is just over a week away, so I think it’s time we all share our menu plans for the big day! Of course, if you don’t have it pulled together yet, just come back later when you do!
I seriously have been in such a baby fog I didn’t even realize Thanksgiving was so close, so we haven’t thought much about what we’re going to do that day. But I do know we’re going to eat! I’m going for a simple menu this year with our all-time favorites.
- Turkey and Gravy
- Mashed Potatoes
- Pat’s Butternut Squash (recipe to come later this week!)
- Sweet Potato Souffle
- Green Beans (not a casserole, just straight up green beans)
- Canned Cranberry Sauce (yup, canned this year and it will be delish!)
- Homemade Rolls
- Pumpkin Pie (I’m going to just buy a Duarte’s pie from Draeger’s)
- Swedish Apple Pie (recipe to come later this week!)
- And, of COURSE, Cranberry Slush!
Please share your menu plan for Thanksgiving! And if you have links to recipes and/or can type recipes into your comment, please do! I’m certain we can all be great inspiration for one another for the best eating day of the year!Posted by Jane Wallin at 8:09 am 35 Comments
Categories: holidays, meal planning, thanksgiving prep