Cook Ahead Day and Back to School Menu Planning

Yesterday we had evening church planned, so I was able to rise early and get to the grocery store before the rest of the city. I came home with a stack of "cook ahead" ingredients to get a head start on the week. Sorry about the pics -- still no flash drive for my camera so iPod it is!

I started out making this beautiful breakfast I found on Pinterest.  It was very pretty and had eggs instead of butter (like most pull-apart). We used a cup of cooked sausage leftover from Pepper's breakfast burrito cook-ahead project a couple of days ago.  We enjoyed it with a fruit salad.

This would not be "everyday" food for us, as we're not that into canned biscuits, but it would be great company food because it sure is fast and easy.  I wonder if it would work just as well with my homemade biscuit recipe?

My next project was to poach chicken breasts, which I cooled and diced.  I put 2 into 3-oz packs for Pepper and I for quick lunches and froze the rest in 1.5# packages for a quick addition to dinners.

I prepped some celery for the week -- sticks for the kids and dice for recipes. I sauted and froze some of the dice. Today I will separate the grapes and grape tomatoes into snack size bags for fast access.

We made Cherry No-Bake Granola bars.  My basic recipe originated here, but of course, I've Tischler-ized it. My version is on Spark Recipes. If you've never made your own granola bars, do try them. These are so fast - they take minutes  - and you can customize them to your taste. If you use my recipe, make sure you like the taste of roasted sesame before you add it, because it's a prevalent flavor. We eat it a lot on our Japanese foods so we all are used to it but I would think some kids, especially, might not care for the strong flavor. You can leave it out with no ill effect. (36 bars per pan, 5 WW Points +)

We will have our favorite bento on Tuesday, Turkey, Carrot and Egg Soboro.  I cooked all the parts except the egg part so tomorrow's assembly will be super quick.

Our last bit of fun for the morning was putting together our favorite fruit snacks made of (get this) actual dried fruit.  This version is strawberries, papaya, kiwi, pineapple and tart cherries. As we were making it, the Blitz said, "This isn't really fruit snack, it's "Fruit-tastic."  We all decided that was a perfect name for our favorite fruit snacks and we'll be calling it that hence forth.

I am trying to keep adding to our prepared foods so that each week's lunches and snacks are easier .

Here's the plan for the week:
Monday:
Lunch: Pizza, grape tomatoes, cuties
Dinner: Chicken Yakisoba, cucumbers

Tuesday:
Lunch: Turkey, Carrot, Egg and Green Bean Soboro bento

Dinnner: Asian Salad

Wednesday:
Lunch: Boiled egg, "Kids sushi" sandwiches, apple
Dinner:  Root hog! (Everyone eats from the larder or leftovers)

Thursday:
Lunch: (Kids eat school lunch today)
Dinnner: Black beans and Rice on bed of baby spincah

Friday:
Lunch: (Whatever I can dig up!)
Supper: Three cheese potato tacos, iceberg salad

Can't think ahead to the weekend. Have a great week!

PS - forgot to mention I'm joining Org Junkie's Menu Plan Monday Link-up!