What's For Dinner?

I know this question plagues many families on a daily basis. I subscribed to Saving Dinner, which is a meal plan that gets emailed to me once a week, complete with meal plan, recipes, and a shopping list. It's a great idea, but I found my family was picky and I was picky and we weren't enjoying the meals as much as I would like. So, I figured I would just keep doing it myself. Having used the Saving Dinner format helped me to make my system better. And I like the food I make. My family likes my food. I make real food. It's the kind of food that I grew up with, so it's familiar and normal. And since I do it anyway and maybe you're wondering, "What are the Taylors eating tonight?" Well, let me tell you what's on the table this week. I'm going to back track a little because I only have until next Monday planned.

So...
Monday, October 13 (Thanksgiving)
Turkey Dinner
complete with
mashed potatoes
stuffing
spaghetti squash
brussel sprouts
cranberry sauce
rolls (store-bought)
red wine
pumpkin pie with real whipped cream
pecan pie with ice cream

Tuesday, October 14
Turkey Pot Pie
leftover turkey dinner layered in a pie crust:
cubed turkey
gravy
frozen corn
frozen peas
topped with mashed potatoes
bake 45 min at 375

Wednesday, October 15
Turkey Noodle Soup (ok, it's a bit of turkey week) with store-bought rolls
I made my own egg noodles (mmmm... yummy) Zoe helped feed the dough into the machine.
If there's interest, I'll post the soup recipe for you.

Thursday, October 16
Sirloin Tip Roast
I'm just going to roast this with salt & pepper and maybe some garlic slices pressed into some little slices in the meat. I think we'll do some roasted potatoes or rice and peas and carrots, too.

Friday, October 17
Beef Fajitas
I'm going to use the leftover roast beef and mix it up with some fajita seasoning, peppers and onions and have some tasty beef fajitas. We'll be using up the rest of my homemade black bean refried beans (look at me, don't I sound like a domestic diva?). I'll cook up some corn, a bit of rice and shred some cheese to go in our fajitas.

Saturday, October 18
Chili with cornmeal muffins and a salad
Zoe will at least eat the muffins.

Sunday, October 19
Sloppy Joes
Using the leftover chili, I'll pop a bit on some toasted buns with some cheese and throw together a salad.

Monday, October 20
Chicken Nuggets
I'll make my own again (do I sound crazy? I only work mornings, people; I get the afternoon to do all this stuff). It's pretty easy. I'll cut some chicken breasts into pieces, dredge them in egg and bread crumbs and pop them in the oven for about 20 minutes. We'll have crudite with these (the e should have an accent agu on it... and it's just a fancy word for cut up veggies)

So, that's what we're eating this week. Do you need ideas? I get them from my weekly flyer (what meat is on sale), from ideas that come to me during the week (next week I think we're going to have some lasagna... stay tuned), from my husband or kids, from using up leftovers. I also found super-great weekly planner sheets at Michaels for $1.50. They're just like days of the week lists; that's where I do the meal plans. There's room to write all the ingredients and jot down some extra groceries for breakfasts and lunches. Go get one. I took a picture of it with Dan's computer, but I forgot that Photobooth takes mirror pictures, so all the words are backwards, but I know you're all smart people and you can figure out what it really looks like.