Mandatory Meal Plan

I've never participated in Org Junkie's Menu Planning Monday, but this week, I planned so well that I had to brag blog about it. I've been meal planning since March and it's significantly helped eliminate my late-afternoon stress while reducing our food waste and saving us money. I haven't thrown away spoiled food in months!!! Actually, when produce is overripe, I'll steam and puree it to freeze and "sneak" into meals later.

Since participating in the produce co-op last weekend, I have both drawers of both fridges OVERFLOWING with fresh food and because most of it is organic, if I don't plan my menus accordingly, I'll be wasting a ton of great food.

First, I took inventory of what I have on hand and prioritized my meals based on the foods that are going to spoil first. This meant pulling out my new, handy recipe binder and flipping pages like crazy. The good news for you is that most of my recipes will have links to them! In my boredom, I've been watching A LOT of Food Network and have been dying to try some of these new dishes, plus I have a few that I've found on other blogs.

Here's what I have on hand that's perishable...this quantity is excessive for our household plus we have a ton of stuff that I don't know what to do with don't normally use in my cooking (radishes, yams, eggplant, green onions):
Vegetables
zucchini
eggplant
tomatoes (at least a dozen!)
yams

red potatoes
radishes
corn on the cob
yellow squash
green leaf lettuce
1/2 a head of iceberg leftover from tacos last night
Fruit (every day's snacks will have to be fruit salad if we're going to go through all of this fruit!)
bags upon bags of peaches
plums

grapes

apples

mangos

cantaloupe

blueberries

strawberries

limes

a lemon

Herbs, aromatics, and other flavorings
white onions
red onions
green onions
jalapeno peppers
celery
cilantro
homemade salsa
shredded Parmesan cheese
shredded mozzarella cheese
shredded Mexican cheese blend

feta
Other perishable items
Chicken Mango sausage from Trader Joe's (YUM)
Turkey bacon
Tortilla
Taco Shells
Deli turkey
Bread

Cheese sticks

So here's what I came up with (and I'm starting this today, not Monday, because some of this stuff is on it's way out and can't wait until next week) and I planned our meals for 14 days. I just bought milk, bread and eggs today at Trader Joe's, so I won't need to go to the store for a single thing until August 7th. I literally have every ingredient I need and am on CLOUD 9 about the efficiency of it all!!!

Thursday
Dinner: Tomato & Spinach Pasta Toss (added eggplant and replaced canned tomato with fresh because I have SO many!)

Friday
Breakfast: Oatmeal with raisins (I double the serving size for the 4 of us to share and add 2 egg whites at the end of the cooking time - I also cook it on the stove. A great way to sneak in protein with breakfast and if you whip the egg white in with a fork, you can't even tell it's in there!)
Lunch: Salad for me, turkey sandwiches with cheese sticks and fruit for the kids, Mike has a lunch appointment
Dinner: Crock Pot Salsa Chicken Burritos

Saturday
Breakfast: Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl Bread Pudding (There's bread, eggs and milk - like French toast, right??? Okay, so there's chocolate...I don't care - it just looks too good not to try.)
Lunch: leftover Vegan Shepherd's Pie
Dinner: Crockpot White Chicken Chili with cornbread

Sunday
Breakfast: Whole Wheat Pancakes with fruit salsa
Lunch: Quesadillas
Dinner: Baked Chicken (from this Chicken Parmesan recipe) with Emily's Zucchini Cornbread Casserole and sauteed radishes (we're not into radishes, so we'll see about this one!)

Monday
Breakfast: Oatmeal
Lunch: Salad for me, turkey sandwiches and fruit for Mike and the kids
Dinner: Healthy Corn Soup with homemade bread

Tuesday
Breakfast: cereal and fruit
Lunch: Salad for me, turkey sandwiches and fruit for Mike and the kids
Dinner: Chicken on the grill with corn on the cob and Black Bean & Couscous Salad

Wednesday
Dinner: Rice, Bean & Cheese Casserole with leftover grilled chicken from Tuesday night, using remaining iceberg lettuce and tomatoes to top in the taco shells + the rest of Mike's salsa for him.

Thursday
Dinner: Spaghetti Carbonara with salad

I hope you get some good ideas from these recipes...I'm excited to try the new ones! What's really exciting is that I'll be using ALL of the listed perishable items except the red potatoes (which will keep for after the 2 weeks), yams and squash, which I'll puree this weekend since I know we're not going to eat them. WOO HOO! Have I mentioned that I love being efficient???