Monday, February 13, 2012

Menu Plan Monday 2/13-2/19

I must confess something. I don't always follow my own advice! I wrote this post which outlines a schedule of sorts to follow when planning meals for the week. While I think that is a great idea and I tried it for a few weeks, I quickly realized that it just doesn't work for us. I was disappointed, at first, because I wanted to do what I thought was the MOST ORGANIZED WAY EVER to plan meals. I was forcing myself to find soup for Tuesday and sandwiches for Thursday and whining my way through making homemade pizza on Saturday nights until I realized...hey, I don't HAVE to follow that schedule. I am imposing that on myself...nobody is standing in my kitchen, judging me on the fact that I am serving my family soup on Thursday instead of Tuesday. Whew...what a relief that was!

I do still plan a crockpot meal for Monday nights because I am gone all day doing laundry, but I do not stress if I am not serving the meal that corresponds with the day in my thematic menu planning. And, you know what, I am pretty sure I am more fun to be around because of it. Silly me, stressing over getting dinner on the table.

Here is our plan for this week...

Breakfast
  • Soaked oatmeal and fruit x 5
  • Whole wheat heart shaped cinnamon rolls and fruit
  • Soaked whole wheat pancakes, bacon and fruit
Lunch
  • Leftovers and smoothies x 4 (for me)
  • Standard lunch x 4 (for hubby)
  • Valentine's lunch (Kerry is planning this!)
  • Hot dogs, chips and fruit
  • Church lunch
Dinner
  • Unstuffed cabbage rolls, whole wheat biscuits and fruit (recipe below!)
  • Leftovers x 2
  • Stir fry, mashed potatoes and fruit
  • Spud special soup, whole wheat biscuits and fruit
  • Meat and potato meal, whole wheat biscuits and fruit
  • Popcorn and smoothies
Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls
 
Kerry LOVES cabbage rolls, but they are SO time consuming. I made them the traditional way a few times before Julian came along, but now that I have a baby to keep an eye on, I don't really have the time to devote to traditional cabbage rolls. Enter the unstuffed cabbage rolls!
1 lb. ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
4-5 c. cabbage, shredded
1 can tomato sauce
1/4 c. sucanat (you can use brown sugar)
3 tbs. apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. onion powder 
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
2 c. cooked brown rice

In a crockpot set to low, layer the ingredients in order given. Put the lid on and cook for 4 hours. Add cooked rice and stir. Put the lid back on and cook for another 4 hours on low. 

1 comment:

  1. We love Cabbage Rolls too and it's been forever since I've actually made the rolls. I usually just layer it all in a 9x13 pan. But I LOVE the idea of putting in the crockpot to avoid the post-nap dinnertime rush. :)

    ReplyDelete

Share your thoughts!