Nonetheless, I did follow the meal plan quite well, and am looking forward to what December brings. I was able to make my meal planning calendar for December in less than 1 hour, and I did my grocery list today. Now I just need to cross off the items that I already have, and I'm ready for my weekly shopping trip on Saturday!
November 2017 Meal Plan
Meals (with links to recipes if available)
Steaks with sweet potato parmesan fries & pasta salad
- My husband grilled steaks because that's not my thing. I made the fries and the pasta salad. These fries are now a go to because Sami loves them!
- I didn't make the fries totally as suggested, I just used olive oil, coarse kosher salt, coarse black pepper and grated parm (Kraft).
- The pasta salad was just a Betty Crocker "Suddenly Salad", the classic one.
- We loved this. It's been going on my meal calendar every 3 weeks and it's easy to make so if I'm in a pickle, it's an easy go-to.
- I had frozen some leftovers.
- My husband isn't crazy about lamb, and it's usually more expensive. This time I made them with ground beef. I've also made them with chicken.
- I don't put mint in the Tzaziki. I add pepper and oregano.
- The relish btw, is really good. It's great on sandwiches too.
Ravioli
- I usually by the store brand beef raviolis and I make them with Parma Rosa sauce (Knorr packet)
- FYI the prep did not take 15 minutes. Maybe I had more chicken then suggested, but yeah it took like an hour.
- I was not fond of the pasta sauce, but I didn't use crushed tomatoes. I don't like tomato chunks, so I used diced tomatoes and tomato sauce. Wasn't my favorite. Next time I make these, I might just make them to go with a side of green beans or something.
- Sami loved these.
- This was also really good. My husband was a gem and helped me cut up the beef chuck. I got everything else ready and browned the meat so that he could then dump everything in the next morning.
- Tip: I peeled and cut up the potatoes and put them in a glass tupperware and covered them in water. This prevented them from browning.
- I under-seasoned, so don't be shy with your seasonings.
Pasta Primavera
- Neither my husband or myself were a fan of this meal. This was my attempt to be healthy... go figure. I really thought I would like it because I love peppers, but yeah... just wasn't for us.
- We ended up having a commitment the night I had this planned and never got around to making it... but I've mentioned this recipe in one of my posts and it's really delicious and I find it less time consuming than making a regular shepherd's pie.
- In this recipe, I make my own mashed potatoes (trick - add whipped cream cheese to them)
- I wasn't overly fond of the marinade, but the quinoa was really good.
Pizza
- We always have pizza on the 19th. It gives us time to think about Preston and remember him. While pregnant with Preston, if I ate pizza, he had a party in my tummy. Nothing else made him do that. Since it was his birthday, my husband ordered pizza for the firehouse in our neighborhood, and got pizza for us from the same place (Anthony's Pizza & Pasta).
- Is it obvious yet that I like Rachael Ray's recipes? I've made several of her dishes and they are usually really good. I watched her show a lot while on maternity leave and she made it look so easy.
- We hadn't had beef in a while so I opted to use ground beef instead of chicken.
- Tip: if you want leftovers, keep the meat in a Tupperware and cook with the tortillas the night of. Nachos don't reheat well
- I wanted to make this a couple days before Thanksgiving, but I fell ill, and my husband and child were already under the weather. We didn't eat much and had leftovers.
- I did however make it this week. It was surprisingly quick to make.
- I didn't have any vodka so I used rum (my house should always have rum). It was really good. I had some for lunch the next 2 days.
- I also made it with mini penne and Sami actually had a bit (after we bribed her with ice cream).
- I haven't made these yet (we had plenty of Thanksgiving leftovers).
- I make my own full size meat pie - I'll have to put up the recipe at some point, I've made it my own. That being said, I'd love to be able to make mini pies that aren't as time consuming which is why this recipe got my interest.
Taco bowls
- Haven't made these, and not sure what I did with the recipe. Because there were a couple things I didn't make last week, I decided not to make these and try to make one of the other recipes instead... and then we had a craving for burgers, so yeah...
Mac & cheese
- I have my own recipe which I will have to put up at some point.
- I probably won't be making these Friday, because I was going to try to make the meat pies, but now I remembered that we are going out Friday, so...
- I have made them before and they are delicious. Great alternative to regular Sloppy Joes on buns.
I'd love to hear your feedback on these if you end up trying them. The nice thing this meal planning is doing is that if I see my family loves a meal, I make sure I do it again in 3 weeks or so. If they liked it, maybe I wait 4-5 weeks. If they didn't like it, then I probably won't make it again or I might try again in several months (especially if I liked it!).
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