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!

I've decided to join Orgjunkie.com in her Menu Plan Monday link-up.  I'm always looking for inspiration so maybe I can share a little at the same time.

I'm so aware of summer just slipping away.  We are eating our "school time lunches" now to be sure that The Captain knows how to open, eat, and re-store his lunch stuff.  I should not admit this but sometimes I am very tempted by the PBJ in the plastic bag that will become landfill.  He is catching on though and will be a lunch pro by the time school starts!

Monday:
Baked Oatmeal, fruit (made night before and refrigerated)
Tamagoyaki, Ham/Cheese roll up,  rice, mini veggies, sauteed spinach, fruit (roll-ups made night before)
Avocado Chicken Salad, bread or roll, carrots (chicken was roasted on Sunday)

Tuesday:
Yogurt, banana, plain cereal
Peanut Sauce Bento Bowl (sub shrimp for tofu), grapes
King Ranch Chicken, mixed green salad (again, Sunday's roasted chicken)

Wednesday:
Pancakes and Milk
Lemon Chicken Nuggets, carrot kinpira, spinach knots, rice
On their own for supper!

Thursday:
Eggs and Toast, Milk
Slow Cooker Orange Chicken, rice, greens
Beef Tips, Mashed Potatoes, fresh veg (whatever is on hand)

Friday:
Cereal
Zucchini cakes, Yogurt, Potato Salad, green or yellow veg
Order pizza!

Saturday:
Muffins or quick bread, cheese, fruit
Oven BBQ Chicken Legs, baked potatoes, corn
Leftovers or snack plate

Sunday:
Pancakes or Waffles, bacon
Leftovers (likely chicken and some kind of fried rice dish!)

I prep my veg the night or several days before for lunches.
Yes, I know we eat chicken almost every day.  I have no way to justify this except that we eat two small meals containing meat so one of them is often chicken.  Maybe I should have been a chicken farmer!

I plan my meals on Google Calendar, so they repeat on a set schedule; this saves me tons of time and it's easy enough to make a change if I want to try something new.  It also ensures that our favorites do come back because I love to try new things, but the family loves to eat the old favs.

Monday Lunch Menu

Yummy Lettuce/Chicken Wraps for Back to School

Lazy summer is nearing an end.  The "bigs" have been so much help and it has made our no-schooling time so enjoyable.  Yesterday after taking her next-to-last Intro to Psych test, Pepper relaxed with her ukulele, part obsession and part constant companion.

Sunshine built the most fantastic fort ever. Let's face it, if you live in Texas, you'd better find some ways to play indoors in August.

 

With school starting in only 3 weeks, we are shifting focus around here.  I just moved the kids "wake up lights" to come on a half hour earlier; next week they will be adjusted again.  We are practicing a "school time" schedule to make an easy adjustment to the rhythm of our days.  By the time school starts, the rhythm will be set and we can focus on helping The Captain adjust to Kindergarten, itself.  I blogged about it for adoption. com but then re-thought it a bit and realized we needed to ease in and not just jump in with both feet (duh!).

Tinkerbelle will be headed to Pre-K 3 hours a day; her days will either begin or end at the same time as The Captains.  Both will attend Old Town Elementary, right across from our neighborhood.  Sunshine and Pepper will be homeschooled again; we are starting after Labor Day.  Pepper is taking dual-credit classes at the community college. In the fall, she'll be taking composition and art history.

It all adds up to me reorganizing myself in the kitchen.  We are "back to bento" for the fall.  Our bento lunches pack a lot of protein into an interesting and compact arrangement.  They are so perfect for lunch.  We are teaching The Captain how to take his lunch out and eat from the bento boxes; he is just a boy who needs to practice things!

For today's lunch, I found this interesting recipe on Iowa Girl Eats and then made a few changes so that I can make it any time with ingredients I always have on hand.  It was so wonderful, it'll go on a 2-week rotation.  We enjoyed it with edamame and cous-cous.

P.F. Chang’s Lettuce Wrap - adapted 

Serves a family, or 6  hungry adults
(approximately 185 cals., 5 grams carbs, 8 grams fat, 21 grams protein)

Ingredients:

1. 4  large cloves garlic, minced
2. 3 tsp fresh ginger, peeled & minced (I buy it frozen - MUCH easier to deal with )
3. 1-1/2  tbsp  sesame oil
4. 1/4 cup  soy sauce
5. 2  tbsp  peanut butter
6. 1  tbsp  honey
7. 2 tbsp rice vinegar
8. 2 tbsp chili garlic sauce (I use the one with the rooster)

1. 2 tsp. olive oil
2. 3 fresh carrots, washed and diced finely
3. 2 lb ground chicken breast
4. salt & pepper, a dash of each

1. 18 or more large outer lettuce leaves, rinsed and patted dry (you can buy these all prepared now, in a plastic box!)

Directions:

Place the first 8 ingredients for the sauce in a small bowl.  Microwave 30 seconds.  Stir until smooth and set aside.

Using a large non-stick fry pan, heat the olive oil briefly and add the carrots.  Saute for 2 minutes, then add the ground chicken, salt and pepper.  Stir fry until the chicken is cooked through and no longer pink -- this only takes a few minutes.  Add the sauce and cook a few minutes until desired consistency is reached.  I like to cook out a bit of the liquid.

Place the chicken mixture in a bowl.  If desired, garnish with chopped green onions and/or ground peanuts.  I used just a bit of chopped cilantro.

Feeding the Multitude

Sometimes getting healthy meals on the table is a real challenge.  It seems like we rush from school to athletic events to bed and back to school.  We really fell apart -- healthy eating wise -- the first two weeks of school.  Suffice it to say that at the end of that two weeks, "sandwich" was a dirty word in our house. 

So it was back to the menus.  Menu planning really works for me.  It saves money (because we are not grabbing fast food or convenience foods), it saves calories, and it saves time. When I make up a menu, I go do all the shopping for that menu at once, even if I go to two stores in order to take advantage of coupons.  Since every time I go into the store it takes 45 minutes to an hour (not including travel time), that saved time adds up quickly when I am not constantly going to the store.  I also save time because a little forethought means I can do prep work for more than one meal, slicing carrots for example.  Finally, not standing around thinking "what are we going to eat" somehow saves time.  No searching the pantry or fridge for answers.

My system may or may not work for you, but maybe it will spur your creativity and that's all that counts, right?  I have one picky eater and one two year old ('nuf said, right?), so I try to accommodate their tastes at least some of the time.  I plan for 5 servings of fruit and veg a day;  I get 3 and sometimes 4 of these into lunch.  I either use a handwritten form like this one from Just Bento, or I type them in excel.  This depends mostly on my whim.

I start my menu with weekday lunch because it now the main meal of our day.  Most days I plan bento boxes (see this post for details) because they are easy for Pepper and Dear Hubby to transport and we all love them.  What I love about the bento boxes is that even though we are in 3 different places, we are all eating the same meal, and it's almost like we are eating together.  It's a heart thing not a logic thing.  I usually send an extra piece of fruit because that's what we will be snacking on at home.   ( I have another post on bento boxes here.)

Next I fill in weekday suppers while consulting the calendar for games, meetings, etc.  That said, I do have a basic formula for the week:

• Thursday is pasta night, so the pasta chosen depends largely on complexity and time.  If we have had a lunch that is new and unusual I will serve "regular" spaghetti or homemade mac and cheese to appease my two special cases.  I make both of these in large batches and freeze them so some forethought on Wednesday makes it simple.
• Mondays are often meatless;  this is a night for 9 bean chili or a quiche or "breakfast for supper."  
• Fridays I do try to serve some sort of fish.  The whole family loves all things fishy though I am not a fan myself.  
• That really only leaves two weekdays to fill in with something easy.  We often have a very light meal at night; big salads, sandwiches, tacos, "snack plates" or leftovers. 
• If we have ballgames, I switch the "light meals" for the other meals;  I cook very little on ballgame nights.
• If I am in a hurry when I plan, I don't include veggies on my supper plans because my freezer and fridge are always stocked with veggies.

Now I fill in weekday breakfasts, and basically, I have a revolving list.  I just fill in from our list of  favorite breakfasts  based on what I feel is lacking from lunch.  Here are some of our favs (all served with milk):

• Scrambled egg and toast
• Yogurt, banana and "plain" cereal (like Cheerios)
• Pancakes (I make the mix ahead of time so they are fast)
• Boiled egg, dry cereal or toast, cheese
• Baked oatmeal
• Cold cereal with milk and fruit
• Cheesy scrambled eggs and tortilla
• Refried beans, egg "over" and corn tortilla

Finally, I fill in the weekends.  We have breakfast late and aim to have our big meal around 2:00.  This is when I try new recipes or make more complicated meals.  Also, if we are ever having waffles, it will be on the weekend.  The big girls and Dear Hubby know they will be fixing their own supper.  The little kids will be having a snack plate or leftovers.  

I keep all my menus and mark out anything that wasn't a show stopper.  If we didn't love it, we don't make it again.  I muse through these menus when doing my planning;   I sometimes just rerun an entire week from the past.  I take feedback from Dear Hubby and the Bigs about what they like and try to get a few favorites into every menu.

Last year I planned three weeks of menus for a friend.  It made me think through how I time-save so it has a lot of notes.  If you are crazy enough to want more detail, you can find it here.   These are clearly not bento lunches; more like lunches with a microwave available.

Now you have had a glance into my crazy mind, tell me how you keep from losing yours!