Meal Planning Challenge-Week 4

Last week went out the window with meal plans as of thursday, but for a good reason. I have learned if something fun comes up roll with it. What is important is that you're not going nuts wondering what's for dinner and that you are not missing key ingredients that require multiple trips to the store. Not that you must make said meal on said day. Nothing in a mom's life is predictible and sometimes spontaneity is fun!

I discovered this dough from Heavenly Homemaker and decided it would be a fun project for my daughter. We made many sandwich pockets that night and shes been munching on them ever since. I would like to find a dough that has less butter in it but a similar consistancy. They where such a win that I think they are going to find a permanent home in the freezer as a quick go to even with the butter. DD loved stuffing them and had no problem eatting them even with different fillings.  The dough works with milk instead of yogurt for those of you that run out as I did.  I also let her in on the secret that we put beans in our ground meat, explained here , and that she's eaten them her whole life. Wish I had a photo of that the initial YUCK! It was quite funny but she got over it quickly.  She even asked that this week's taste test be Beans.

My husband rolled the dough out and used a bowl to make the circles.  Then my daughter loaded them up and I folded and crimped.  Our topings included  sauce, cheese, cooked meat and beans, peas and carrots, peppers and onions, cooked spinach, and sliced black olives. I defrosted all the veggies quickly in the pan after I cooked the meat mixture.  The spinach you can run some warm water over in the sieve and squeeze out the liquid.  The pockets went into the oven, on some tinfoil to help keep our baking stone clean, for about 20 minutes. While there was no rhyme or reason to how my dd stuffed these,  I personally like them best where there is a bit of sauce and cheese along with toppings in each one.  I heard no complaints from anyone and the majority of them have disappeared no matter what combo appeared to be in them.  I wholeheartedly recommend shredding your own cheese.  It is cheaper, melts nicer, and tastes better. I just didn't have the time to run across town and buy it at BJ's, and I will not pay Stop and Shop prices for more than a little bit.  These do take a little while to make and have a lot of clean up, but they are fun and, when you can spread them out to multiple meals, the work pays for itself. I also loved that my daughter was willing to eat anything since she didn't see what was inside first.

Monday

Breakfast: waffles

Snack: Apple slices

Lunch: chili/ PB and banna sandwich

Snack: Going to try making gelatin using juice. I'll give an update next week

Dinner: Stuffed squash - this was moved from last week

Tuesday

Breakfast: Eggs

Snack: yogurt

Lunch: Tuna fish sandwiches

Snack:  gelatin

Dinner: Chicken pot pie -using leftovers from sunday

Wednesday

Breakfast: waffles

Snack: Banana

Lunch: rice macaroni and sauce

Snack: trail mix

Dinner: Breakfast- this is my husband's specialty and he's home first on wednesdays.

Thursday

Breakfast: pancakes - we normally have leftovers from wednesday night

Snack: fruit bar

Lunch: leftovers.

Snack: taste test- the asked for beans, I am still trying to decide how to present these. Maybe with some sauce

Dinner: Fish with rice and steamed veggies- we also didn't eat this last week, and thursdays are nuts with our library trip, so this makes a quick easy meal

Friday

Breakfast: waffles

Snack:Peanut butter and crackers

Lunch: egg salad sandwich with spinach

Snack: fruit slices

Dinner: Pizza

Saturday

Breakfast: Pancakes

Snack: trail mix

Lunch: chicken sandwiches for a picnic lunch

Snack: fruit

Dinner: Pizza pockets I mentioned above - This will be a quick heat when we get home

Sunday - I decided to roll with my family's sleep schedule instead of trying to conform on this one.

Snack: cereal

Brunch: french toast

Snack: veggies and dip

Dinner: pork loin, steamed veggies and mashed potatoes - going to try to freeze some mash and see if it works out.

Remember to check out my other Meal planning posts, all including our meal plan.

Week 1 - How to meal plan

Week 2 - My pantry list as well as chili recipie

Week 3 - How to use beans to replace ground beef

Also, every monday check out many meal plans at  Keeper of the Home  and I'm an Organizing Junky, where I link up my post and gather a whole slew of ideas.

Comments

[Barb@ A Life in Balance]

The sandwich pockets look like a fun meal! I could see my own kids having fun picking out their own "innards."