Our days have been full and blessed and seem to have been flying by! We thoroughly enjoyed our weeks of VBS ministry in June, gathered with family for vacation at the start of July, and have been getting back into the groove of summer with sleeping in, visits to the pool, and having friends over this past week. The 4H fair is this week, and my oldest will be participating in a few events at the fair.
It's a good thing I've kept up with my monthly and weekly meal plan to help keep food on our table this summer! As I've mentioned before, meal planning is a bit different in the summer. I find myself planning more simple meals, sandwiches or grilled items, because it seems to better fit our schedule and tastes. I've been trying to make better use of the crock pot this summer so that dinner can be ready when we come home from our afternoon summer adventures. Also, I don't always have our vegetables and fruits planned out, but we eat a lot of them in the summertime. We've been stopping at various farm markets and just picking up whatever looks good. We had some super sweet corn this past weekend, so I definitely want to enjoy that again this week some night.
I'm also finding the need to better plan out our lunches and snacks or I find myself staring at the pantry at noon saying, "Looks like it's peanut butter, peanut butter and jelly, or peanut butter and honey today, kiddos!" While they don't mind a PB sandwich a few times a week, they get bored (as do I) with the same thing day after day. So, I've started planning out what we can have for lunch, sort of like I do for breakfast. I have a list of options and we sort of just pick from that.
So, here's what's cookin at our house this week:
MONDAY - Pork Carnitas, Rice and beans, avocado salad, pineapple cheesecake apple salad
TUESDAY - Pizza, Salad (treat at the fair after judging)
WEDNESDAY - Teriyaki Turkey Burgers on Hawaiian Sweet Buns (saw this in a magazine and plan to tweak it a bit for our tastes), Sweet Potato Fries, Blueberry Cobbler
THURSDAY - Sweet and Sour Chicken, Rice, Sesame Green Beans
FRIDAY - Grilled Italian Sausage, Pasta with sauteed zucchini, yellow squash, and garlic, watermelon
SATURDAY - Jazz and Rib Fest
SUNDAY - Grilled fish, Rice Pilaf (some sort of salad or veggies from Farmers Mkt)
BREAKFAST CHOICES:
Cereal, cinnamon swirl toast
Sausage links, chocolate chip pancakes
yogurt, pumpkin muffins
Sausage, egg, cheese burritos
Banana and peanut butter burritos
LUNCH CHOICES:
Peanut butter sandwiches, grilled cheese sandwiches
Leftover pizza
Turkey Hot Dogs
Black Bean Nachos
Sloppy Joes
Salad
SNACK CHOICES
Granola Bars
Snack Mix (Honey Kix, pretzels, nuts, M&Ms, raisins, Bugles, marshmallow bits)
Pretzels/Cheese Crackers
Crackers with spreadable cheese
Veggies/Dip
Fruit
Popsicles
What's on your table this week? Do you always follow your summer menu plan?
Need some inspiration? Check out what's on the tables of families around the country this week over at Menu Plan Monday at orgjunkie.com
Just popped over from orgjunkie when I saw the name of your blog. I have to say that I'm impressed! Most people say easy & it's loaded with preservatives & convenience foods. I like your healthy choices! So... can I come over for dinner Friday night? ;-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words! You'd be welcome for dinner anytime! I dubbed myself "Queen of the Easy Meal" because it's really not that hard to make healthy food that tastes great on a budget. I love using my creativity to come up with dishes that leave empty plates, full bellies, and happy hearts for all the eaters around our table! Have a great week!
ReplyDelete