Menu Plan for the Week of 12/8/13

Menu Plan for the Week of 12/8/13

I have written before, about the importance of delegating things out. If you do not enjoy doing something and if it can be done by someone else, delegate it out. I have lots of friends who hire people to do their grocery shopping, cleaning, and even cooking. One of the first things I ever delegated out was cleaning. It has been years since I cleaned my own house. I personally don't enjoy it and my girl does as good a job as I do.

But for me, I love grocery shopping (I am a couponer) and I love cooking. With my schedule though, while I have a lot of down time, I also have a lot of other things on my plate and dinner time comes right in a prime time hour for me. So how do I find time to build a multi million dollar empire and figure out what is for dinner? I am very organized!

You are probably wondering what organization has to do with menu planning, but really menu planning is a great way to stay organized. Since I coupon, I have a favorite store that also happens to have great sales on Friday. So Wednesday after the store sales sheets arrive, I see what meats and veggies are for sale. I do my grocery shopping on Friday for the whole week ahead.

I have tried a couple of different programs and a couple of different ways to organize my shopping lists and menu. I recently discovered a great blog, IHeartOrganizing, and she has the cutest organization sheets. I use a lot of them including the day planner which has a menu box for each day and a separate menu planning page with a shopping list.

Something else that really helps me, is that 1-2 of my meals and snacks are accounted for, 6 days a week. I have the best shake in the world, every morning to start my day. So really I only have to worry about planning 8-9 meals a week.

Like I said I use a couple of different meal planning websites. Relish! is one I recently joined, and I have found a couple of recipes that caught my attention, but I have not tried using their calendar or any of the recipes yet. I have been a subscriber of Rachael Ray's magazine for quite some time and integrate a lot of her meals in my plans. For a long time I had a subscription to Plan to Eat, but without an app I was finding other programs that do the same thing, for free.

I have subscribed to e-meals for a couple of years now and have found their recipes to be fantastic. Plus they have different menu options such as Gluten-free, Paleo, Slow Cooker, Portion Control, and my favorite Simple Gourmet. This week, all 6 recipes came from my menu from e-meals.

So without further ado, here is my menu plan for the week of 12/8/13:

Sunday: Whatever I want!

Monday: Lemon-Rosemary Chicken and Winter Veggies

Notes: This was delicious. I would probably start the vegetables 30 minutes before the chicken so they get an hour to cook. I put the chicken aside while I finished up the vegetables because they just were not done. I would probably also add 1/4 cup of white wine to the pan. I am not concerned about clean eating ;)

Tuesday: Slow Cooked Tri-Tip Roast, Easy Caesar Salad, Roasted Red Potatoes

Notes: This was so amazingly good!! I would not change a thing. The meat was incredibly tender, I did not need a knife. You could taste the tang of the vinegar, the sweet from the honey and the amazing flavor of the fajita mix. Definitely going to be thrown in the mix again. Plus, being a slow cooker recipe, I just put it in earlier today and bam!

Wednesday: Sweet Hot Country Style Pork Ribs w/Red Rice

Notes: This was delicious but I do feel that it was missing something. I decided to make gravy out of the sauce to thicken it up a bit. It was filling but if I make this again, I will probably use 2 lbs of ribs instead of just one. Also could have used a little more crushed red pepper (I like a little heat) and maybe a little more flavor in the rice. Still hit the spot.

Thursday: Family Surprised Me!!! 

Friday: Baked Curried Chicken Thighs, Steamed Green Beans, Roasted Red Potatoes

Notes: I boiled the green beans in chicken stock with a little fresh ground black pepper and crushed red pepper. The only thing I would change is make more chicken. It was flavorful, succulent and exotic. Definitely adding this to the rotation. 

Saturday: Late family lunch so I opted to make a shake for dinner.

I will be updating this each night after dinner with pics and some quick notes. All of these recipes can be found on e-meals under the Simple Gourmet Plan.

I would love to hear how you plan your menus and where you find your recipes! Comment below.