Monday Meals

It has always been a goal to meal plan. Unfortunately, that sometimes proves to be difficult. With school starting for me this week (tomorrow...eeeekkk) I know I need to get back into planning what we will be eating so everything goes a little smoother.

Monday -
Steaks
Baked Potato
Salad

Tuesday -
Chicken and Pasta

Wednesday -
Hamburger Helper (I know, not the best food, but Mike loves it so I make it every few months)

Thursday -
Perogies with Horseradish sour cream

Friday -
Black Bean Burgers
Coleslaw

Saturday and Sunday -
The local Greek Festival is going on, so we will hopefully be eating there.

The chicken and pasta from Tuesday is a favorite of mine...

Pasta and Chicken--

• 3 cups uncooked penne pasta
• Olive Oil
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 1 can of canellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 6-oz bag of fresh baby spinach
• Salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste

Prep time, ~25 minutes

Boil water for pasta. While the water is boiling, chop up the garlic and drain and rinse the beans. Add pasta to boiling water.
Heat olive oil in a large skillet, then add minced garlic. After a minute or so, add the beans and some salt and red pepper flakes, stirring occasionally/frequently. After a few more minutes, start adding the spinach, a bit at a time, waiting for each addition to wilt before adding more. You may need to add a bit more oil as you go.
Once pasta is done cooking, drain and return to pan, then add the spinach/bean mixture and mix. If it seems dry, add a bit more olive oil. Add more salt and pepper to taste, plus Parmesan cheese if you want.

Coat the bottom of a baking dish with olive oil, then add salt, pepper, and garlic powder, then plop in some frozen chicken breasts, add more oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder on top of the chicken, then brush it all around. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes, then flip chicken breasts and do another 25 minutes.

Super easy and super yummy!!!

Have a great week!!

Mel

This was a project that had been haunting me for a while. I have a small kitchen. One of the few things that really bugs me about my house. Worse than the lack of counter space was the lack of pantry space. No space meant clutter. Lots and lots of clutter. Everytime I would go into the pantry I would shutter and close it as soon as I could. While pregnant this past time, I went on a HUGE organizing spree, and I thought my bins had solved the problem...as you can see, over a year later the bins were overflowing and messy. So this past week, I decided to tackle the problem.

This area was the worst of it. The floor held everything that we could not find a spot for, my baking and cooking supplies were everywhere along with snacks. I could never find anything when I needed it and dreaded cooking of any sort.
First things first, I emptied the entire pantry. I threw away anything that was expired or stale. The I headed over to Target to look for some containers to store opened items in.

When that failed, I stopped into Meijer. They had everything I needed. I definitely bought too much, as I had to go back the next day and return, but I was able to accomplish my task without stopping, which is important. I really dislike having to stop, especially when I am concentrated and on a roll to rethink what I need, load the kids up, go to the store, think again of what I need, drive home and hope said kids will cooperate again so I can continue.

I wish I had gotten pictures mid project, but as I said before, I was on a roll and did not even think about anything else.

I present, my new organized pantry:
Top shelf has drinks and pasta's. Coffee and tea, filters and sugar. This makes it easier for hubby in the mornings. All the pasta is in the boxes they came in,although I would like to find containers for those also as I am always using it. For now though, this works well
Spices. I can finally see everything. Some are in the spice rack (the shelved slant out) and others are on the step organizer
Canned goods and prepacked items. I kept the bin here to help keep my mixes organized as opposed to all over the shelf. Since I removed the cans to a step organizer, it is much easier to see what I have.
Kids snacks are in the bin. I moved this to the lower shelf so my preschooler has easy access. I have a bin each for salty and sweet snacks (crackers and cookies) and then miscellaneous (like his snack packs or the random snacks that need to be finished) are in the bin. WHY do we always end up with 5 boxes of stuff opened?? I am hoping seeing what we have will help that. I also have cerial on this shelf, again for easy access to the kids.



The new final look....LOVE.