meal plan May 28th-June 1st

Monday - grill out! Grilled barbecue chicken for me, grilled steak wrapped in jalapeno bacon for him, grilled corn, grilled squash, and easy chocolate pie
Tuesday - Grilled venison backstrap, roasted cauliflower with lemon tahini sauce
Wednesday - picnic for date night! spinach salad (leftover grilled chicken, grape tomatoes, cucumber, croutons, red onion, craisins, and homemade vinaigrette dressing) and fruit salad (with clementines, strawberries, pineapple, bananas, blackberries, and honey)
Thursday - dinner meeting with pizza provided
Friday - I am having a girls dinner with friends and he wants macaroni and cheese

and we will make guacamole at some point this week for a snack

Guacamole

Guacamole is the best food. If we aren't including chocolate. Okay, guacamole is the best non-dessert food. My husband and I love to make and eat guacamole when we want a good snack or as an appetizer for a mexican meal.

The follwing recipe will make a large bowl of guac. I made this amount recently to share with family. I just halve this when I just need a smaller amount for the two of us. I also just estimate if I am using small avocados rather than large ones. Here is how I make it.

Ingedients:

6 large avocados

1 small red onion

1 lime

4 large cloves of garlic

1 jalapeno, seeded

1 bunch of cilantro with stems cut off

1 1/2 cans of diced tomatoes with green chiles

a little salt and pepper

(tortilla chips)

To make:

Dice the avocado, red onion, garlic, jalapeno, and cilantro. Mix in a bowl as you go so that the flavors can be combining. Squeeze in the lime. Drain just a little bit and pour in one whole can and half of another can of diced tomatoes with green chiles. Add a little bit of salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly.

Voila! I'm not sure how to make a picture of guacamole super pretty, but I guarantee that it is TASTY.

meal planning

I love meal planning. It combines so many of my favorite things: list making, reading recipes, planning, calendaring, couponing, and grocery shopping. I try to meal plan for two weeks at a time, when I can. I plan to use items from my freezer for the last part of the two week meal plan so that none of the produce spoils. I also try to plan meals where I can get leftovers out of it. I try to plan for a couple of fun breakfasts, too. I also use coupons as much as possible. Because of these reasons, it usually takes me a long time meal plan. However, once I am done meal planning and grocery shopping, I am done for two weeks! I made a document that makes it so simple for me to meal plan and grocery shop.

Meal Plan & Grocery List

If you click on that link above, it will take you to a google doc that I have created and shared that you can download and print. It makes grocery shopping so much quicker because it has the different areas of the store separated out.

I use coupons.com, couponmom.com, savingwithshellie.com, and thekrazycouponlady.com to find my printable coupons. We also use the ones from the Sunday newspaper.

I follow a lot of recipe blogs (you can find on my blogroll on my blogger profile) and Pinterest has also made searching for recipes fun. Here is my food board on Pinterest:

 http://pinterest.com/marylinds/foodie/ .

Here is our meal plan for the next couple of weeks:

MON (night class)-pancakes
TUES (Sla works late)-pizza
WED (date night)-sweet potato jalapeno soup with a salad
THURS (night class)- soup leftovers with rolls
FRI-leadership training all day w/all 3 meals provided. balsamic strawberries with almonds for snack
SAT-leadership training all day w/all 3 meals provided. Make guacamole that night for cinco de mayo
SUN - salad for lunch, bubble up pizza for dinner
MON (night class) -leftover bubble up pizza
TUES (lifegroup)- black bean, corn, cilantro, & avocado tacos & make oreo balls for work potluck
WED (date night)- overnight chicken, roasted garlic broccoli, rolls
THURS (night class)- leftovers of chicken, broccoli, and rolls
FRI (go to a retreat after dinner)- skillet huevos rancheros
SAT - retreat with dinner provided
SUN - honey chipotle turkey meatballs with roasted cauliflower with lemon tahini sauce