I’m cooking out of the freezer again this week. I’ve been socking stuff away in there for a few weeks and now it’s too full to get any ice cream products in there, so it’s imperative that I use some of the stuff in there up.

Tuesday: Ravioli and Spinach Bake (Six O’Clock Scramble), green veggie

Wednesday: Lamb chops, some kind of boxed rice pilaf, veggie

Thursday: Sour Cream Salsa Chicken, rice, salad.

This is our favorite crock-pot dish! It’s so easy. Put 3-4 chicken breasts into the crockpot. I usually put them in frozen even though I know that’s a health department no-no. That being said, we’ve never had a problem. Dump a jar of salsa on top. The better the salsa, the better the dish. Cook it until the chicken is done. I usually cook it on high for 3-4 hours, or on low for 6-8 hours, but it will depend on your crockpot. When the chicken is cooked through, shred it with a couple of forks (or not). Dump it back in the crockpot and stir in anywhere between 1/2 cup to 1 cup of lite sour cream. Let it warm up a bit and then serve it over the rice.

Friday: Baked Turkey Chimichangas (Six O’Clock Scramble), salad, chips and salsa  (I never got to this last week)

Saturday: Corn and Wild Rice Soup (Six O’Clock Scramble), garlic bread

Sunday: Chicken and Veggie Pot Pie (Saving Dinner), salad

Monday: Spaghetti — This will be subbed in whichever day it is that I’m too lazy to cook what I’ve planned for the night.

I go shopping on Tuesdays usually. It’s Wyatt’s first day back at preschool after the weekend, so I have a bit of time to go through cookbooks and make a menu/shopping list. Also, we’re usually out of food. This week, I revisted my copy of The Six O’Clock Scramble and found a ton of recipes I wanted to make. I also pulled a few from the Saving Dinner menu mailer.

Tuesday: Apricot-Mustard Glazed Fish (from Saving Dinner), lemon rice, steamed asparagus

Wednesday: Ravioli Lasagne (Six O’Clock Scramble), green salad with tomatoes and blue cheese crumbles

Thursday: Grilled Steak Mojito (Six O’Clock Scramble), baked potatoes, brussels sprouts

Friday: Baked Turkey Chimichangas (Six O’Clock Scramble), salad, chips and salsa

Saturday: Sloppy Joes Six O’Clock Scramble), baked french fries, home-made coleslaw (anyone have a good, non-creamy recipe for coleslaw?)

Sunday: Skillet Chicken Curry (Saving Dinner), egg papardelle, garlic naan and broccoflower.

Man, I just didn’t have time to put together a menu this week. At least not one where any creativity was involved. So what did I do? I picked a bunch of stuff out of the freezer and turned to my old Trader Joe’s stand-by’s.

Tuesday: frozen Costco falafels, whole wheat pitas, cucumber-pepper salad with lemon vinagrette and hummus

Wednesday: Carne asada tacos: meat, tortillas, arugula, sour cream (Trader Joe’s meal!)

Thursday: curried chicken tenders, garlic naan, rice, peas (Trader Joe’s meal!)

Friday: sour cream salsa chicken, brussels sprouts

Saturday: Chicken parmesan, green beans, garlic bread. Seriously, I’m going to make this this week.

Sunday: lemon pepper fettucine with lemon-artichoke tapenade and extra frozen artichoke hearts mixed in. (Trader Joe’s meal!)

Monday: I’ll dig something up — probably spaghetti.

So, you’ll be happy to know that I did cook dinner at home every night last week.  It was tough and we had to switch a couple of meals around and improvise a little here and there, but we managed to do it. Yay us! We never made the fish because I kept forgetting to take it out of the freezer. Also, out turkey didn’t thaw in time for Sunday dinner, so we’ll be doing that this week.

This is what I have planned for this week:

Tuesday: Skillet Paella from the Cook’s Country website, green salad

Wednesday: slow-cooker pot roast with carrots, potatoes and parsnips

Thursday: turkey dinner — out turkey didn’t thaw in time to have it for dinner on Sunday so we’ll be having it this week.

Friday: Reuben sandwiches, green salad

Saturday: Chicken parmesan, green beans, garlic bread. This is the last of our Dream Dinners meals that I prepped before Augie was born.

Sunday: pork tenderloin, acorn squash, broccoli

Monday: Thai coconut fish, stir fried snap peas and red pepper

I’m also going to buy stuff for a back-up meal of spaghetti with turkey Italian sausage.

OK, so my big goal for this week is to make dinner at home every single night for seven days. Yikes! To many of you, this would probably be no big deal, but we are really bad about getting take out when we are tired, so this is a challenging for me.

We started last night, but I’m just getting to posting our menu today. I’m hoping posting here will keep me on the straight and narrow.

Tuesday: Pork, broccoli and red pepper stir fry over white rice

Wednesday: Skillet Goulash from the latest issue of Cook’s Country, green salad

Thursday: home made chicken noodle soup, bread, green salad

Friday: artichoke ravioli with lemon-artichoke sauce, garlic bread

Saturday: Thai coconut fish, stir fried green beans and red pepper

Sunday: Turkey dinner! I got a free turkey for spending $100 at Lucky, so I’ll be making that along with sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts and stuffing. Our neighbors are coming over and they’ll bring mashed potatoes and a pumpkin cheesecake.

Monday: pork chops with some kind of pan sauce, roasted acorn squash and green salad

I’m also making homemade applesauce and trying a couple of recipes from a book called the Toddler Café
to see how Wyatt likes them. I’ll report back here with the results on those.