Weekly Meal Plan: Weds, Nov. 21 - Tues, Nov. 27

Weds, Nov. 21:
Peach Whiskey BBQ Chicken Thighs, Baked Potatoes, and Salad


Thurs, Nov. 22:
First Home-cooked Thanksgiving Dinner! I was only serving my husband and myself, so I created a mini feast! I opted for smaller portions of various items, and roasted a chicken/turkey breast instead of a whole turkey. Check it out here!


Fri, Nov. 23:
Chicken Fried Rice


Sat, Nov. 24:
Thanksgiving Leftovers


Sun, Nov. 25:
Chicken and Mushroom Jalfreezi over Basmati Rice


Mon, Nov. 26:
BBQ Chicken Pizza and Salad


Tues, Nov. 27:
Pork Sausage Tomato Sauce over Spaghetti Squash with French Bread

Thanksgiving Dinner for Two

This Thanksgiving was my first time creating Thanksgiving dinner! We usually have lunch with my family and dinner with my husband's family, but my husband's family had made other arrangements for dinner. We will be visiting with them on Saturday. Since I was only serving dinner for my husband and myself I created a miniature feast. I opted for smaller portions of various items, and roast split chicken breast instead of a whole turkey.

The Menu:
Roast Split Chicken Breasts
Mashed Potatoes
Stovetop Stuffing
Parmesan Roasted Butternut Squash (which I've blogged about before)
Green Bean Casserole
Mini Sweet Potato Pies with Whipped Cream

The Decisions:
I decided to treat the Chicken similarly to Turkey on Thanksgiving, so I followed Ina Garten's Herb Roast Turkey Breast recipe with my Split Chicken Breasts instead. I had fresh rosemary and sage in my garden, but my thyme was really struggling so I used the dried herb instead.

I won't elaborate too much about my Mashed Potatoes, since they're a fairly common side and my recipe isn't atypical. I peel my potatoes, boil them in salt water, mash them, and then add butter, milk, and pepper before serving. I don't usually add more salt since the potatoes absorb salt from the water, and the butter I use is salted.

Stovetop Stuffing is ubiquitous and I make it according to package directions. My husband loves it, and I've not ventured into the home-made croutons or bread crumbs area yet. Notice I said yet. We will leave his beloved Stovetop Stuffing behind at some point in our lives. I promise.

The Parmesan Roasted Butternut Squash is a recipe I go to again and again. I've discussed it on my blog in the past (see link above) and I've used it in my weekly meal plans several times. It's absolutely wonderful, and a very nice divergence from sweet sugary butternut squash dishes.

I've never made Green Bean Casserole before. Can you believe that? I grew up in North Carolina and still I haven't made it before. Green beans are in season and inexpensive right now, so why not give the casserole a try? I followed fairly closely to Taste of Home's recipe, but skipped the sour cream, and I used ~3oz cream cheese, 2T ricotta, green beans leftover from Sunday and added bacon, season salt and pepper.

The Preparation:
On Wednesday I prepared some thing to make dinner come together faster once we get home from visiting with my family. I accomplished a great deal, and made dinner at the same time. Here's what I recommend:

• Chop the butternut squash & place it in foil covered ramkins in the fridge. 
• Peel and chop the potatoes, put them into a pot, cover them with water, and put them into the fridge. 
• Prepare the green bean casserole (minus the onion topping) and put it into the fridge. 
• Prepare the sweet potato pie (from making pie crust & baking the sweet potato all the way through cooling the pies) and put them into the fridge.

The Big Day:
I wanted dinner to come together about 7:00PM, so I started well in advance. I made sure to pull my prepared items out of the fridge with enough time for the baking dishes to warm up a little. I didn't want to put my ceramic and glass dishes into the oven directly from the fridge. Here's what I did:

• 5:30PM Season chicken
• 5:40PM Place chicken in oven
• 6:10PM Place butternut squash in oven
• 6:15PM Put potatoes on to boil
• 6:30PM Check chicken, cover with foil if browning too much
• 6:30PM Top green bean casserole with onions & bake
• 6:30PM Add cheese to butternut squash, continue to bake
• 6:40PM Drain potatoes, add milk & butter, mash & season to taste
• 6:45PM Start stovetop
• 6:45PM Remove chicken from oven, tent with foil, & rest 15 minutes
• 7:00PM Remove green bean casserole and butternut squash from oven
• 7:00PM Serve dinner

This was a fantastic 2 person dinner. We had leftovers of everything, but they were devoured within a few days. The chicken turned out fabulously, and I'll definitely be using that recipe again! The green bean casserole was about what I expected. I would prefer my green beans steamed and seasoned with butter, salt and pepper next time. My husband really enjoyed them though, and commented about the tasty bacon! Have you ever cooked a Thanksgiving (or other holiday) dinner for a small group of people? What did you do?

Weekly Bag Breakfasts & Lunches: Mon, Nov. 19 - Fri, Nov. 23

Mon, Nov. 19:
Breakfast - Chai tea and Stoneyfield Vanilla Whole Milk Yogurt with Blueberries
Lunch - Spinach Salad, Stuffing, a Cheddar Cheese Stick, and Clementines

Tues, Nov. 20:
Breakfast - Chai tea and Granola bar
Lunch - Leftover stuffed flour tortilla, Salad, and a Clementine


Weds, Nov. 21:
Breakfast - Chai tea and Stoneyfield Vanilla Whole Milk Yogurt with Blueberries
Lunch - Grocery Store Fried Chicken 


Thurs, Nov 22:
Off work today
Breakfast - Coffee, Sausage Biscuits and Tater Tots (I used Grands biscuits and frozen tots because we had to be out of the house early, and my husband is far from a morning person so I wanted food in his tummy quick!)
Lunch - Thanksgiving Lunch with my family! I brought Creamed Onions, and used a family recipe my mother [altered to her taste and then] passed down.


Fri, Nov. 23:
Off work today, but I went to volunteer from 12:30 - 4PM. I slept in late so I just had a brunch before volunteering.
Brunch - Coffee, Everything Bagel with Veggie Cream Cheese, Colby Cheeze-its, 2 Clementines.

Weekly Bag Breakfasts & Lunches: Mon, Nov. 12 - Fri, Nov. 16

Mon, Nov. 12:
Breakfast - Chai Tea and  Pear with Blueberries
Lunch - Macaroni, BBQ Pulled Pork, and Salad


Tues, Nov. 13:
Breakfast - Chai Tea and Kraze Chocolate Cereal
Lunch - Leftover Asian Pasta Stir Fry and a Mandarin Orange Cup


Weds, Nov. 14:
Breakfast - Chai Tea and Chocolate Croissant (the co-director of my workplace brought in a dozen!)
Lunch - Spiral Ham and Stuffing


Thurs, Nov. 15:
Breakfast - Chai Tea and Yogurt with Blueberries
Lunch - 1 Small Slice Leftover BBQ Pizza, Leftover Mac n' Cheese, and Spinach Salad


Fri, Nov. 16: 
Breakfast - Coffee and Trail Mix
Lunch - Subway Melt Sub

Weekly Meal Plan: Weds, Nov. 14 - Tues, Nov. 21

Weds, Nov. 14:
Pork Sausage, Spinach, Mushroom and Cheese Stuffed Pasta Shells

Also: shred the remaining Crock Pot Pork and put it into a bag with lemon juice, taco seasoning, and taco sauce and marinade in the refrigerator. Move split chicken breasts from freezer to fridge.


Thurs, Nov. 15:
Shredded Pork Fajita Nachos


Fri, Nov. 16:
Pizza and Garlic Cheese Bread, per my husband's request


Sat, Nov. 17:
Another week where we didn't go grocery shopping until Saturday. We still ate pretty Wednesday through Friday! For dinner Saturday we had:
Roast Split Chicken Breasts with Potatoes, Carrots, and Celery


Sun, Nov. 18:
Ham, Potato and Cheese Puff Pastry with Green Beans

Also make: extra Mashed Potatoes for Southwestern Stuffed Anaheim Peppers & Brownies out of the box.


Mon, Nov. 19:
Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Anaheim Peppers, Saffron Rice, and Salad
(Substitute Leftover Mashed Potatoes for Beans, mix Bacon into Filling, saute Onions and Leftover Green Beans into Rice)
Also make: flour tortillas stuffed with extra filling, rolled up, and baked 10 - 15 minutes.


Tues, Nov. 20:
Leftover Roast Chicken, Roast Sweet Potatoes, Scarlet Turnips, Butternut Squash, and Onions over Leftover Saffron Rice

Weekly Meal Plan: Weds, Nov. 7 - Tues, Nov. 13

Earlier in the week I was searching for something to make with my recently purchased lemon curd and Nutella, and I stumbled across this recipe for Lemon Cheesecake with Chocolate Ganache. This sounded far too good to pass up, so I put the ingredients on my shopping list! Meanwhile, I continued dredging on because I was certain I could find a delicious recipe that used both Lemon Curd and Nutella, but alas the internet failed me. Instead I improvised and made some Mini Lemon-Nutella Puffs inspired by this recipe for Mini Nutella Puffs. They turned out mighty tasty!

I've also had a major hankering for K & W Cafeteria Mac and Cheese, so I found this recipe online and will absolutely positively be making this sometime this week!


Weds, Nov. 7:
We didn't make it to the grocery store until Saturday this week. Today we had to utilize stuff we had at home. We had:
Freezer Popcorn Chicken, Freezer Fries, and Roast Delicata Squash


Thurs, Nov. 8:
Fast Take-out Dinner before Family Birthday Outing :)


Fri, Nov. 9:
Pizza and Garlic Cheese Bread


Sat, Nov. 10:
We finally went grocery shopping! Thank goodness! For dinner we had:
Yakitori Chicken Skewers, Mac and Cheese, Green Salad, and French Bread

I also started the dough and prepped the filling for the Pumpkin Rolls, which I served to my husband, as well as my brother and my vegetarian parents when they came over Sunday morning.

My friend came over and we had a great time making:
Lemon Cheesecake with Chocolate Ganache

Sun, Nov. 11:
My husband had a friend over today and he had dinner with us. I served:
Crockpot Roast Pork and Potatoes with Steamed Asparagus and French Bread


Mon, Nov. 12:
Asian Pork Noodle Sautee
With leftover Yakitori Chicken Skewers instead of Pork; Mushroom and Baby Corn instead of Broccoli.


Tues, Nov. 13:
BBQ Pork Pizza with Bell Pepper, Onion and Mushrooms, served with Green Salad
With leftover Crockpot Roast Pork.

Weekly Bag Breakfasts & Lunches: Mon, Nov. 5 - Fri, Nov. 9

Mon, Nov. 5:
Breakfast - Chai Tea and Vanilla Yogurt with Pear Slices and/or Kellog's Kraze Chocolate Cereal
Lunch - Chicken Salad Sandwich, Hummus with Pita Chips, and a Tangerine

Tue, Nov. 6:
Breakfast - Chai Tea and Mandarin Orange Cup
Lunch - Chicken Corn Chowder with BBQ Fritos


Wed, Nov. 7:
Breakfast - Coffee, Grapefruit
Lunch - Hummus with Pita Chips and a Pear


Thu, Nov. 8:
Breakfast - Chai Tea and Oatmeal with Fresh Berries
Lunch - Chipotle Burrito Bowl

 
Fri, Nov. 9:
Breakfast - Chai Tea and Kraze Chocolate Cereal
Lunch - Leftover Chipotle Burrito Bowl

Weekly Meal Plan: Weds, Oct. 31 - Tues, Nov. 6

This week we tried something completely new: we bought 2 rotisserie chickens instead of raw chicken. Rotisserie chickens were on sale for $4.99 at our grocery store, which was a better deal that an whole chicken or a 3-pack of split chicken breasts (which are the cuts I tend to buy). We did make one fatal error this week though; we accidentally left a bag of groceries at the store, and this bag included most of our vegetables. :( We ate out a few times, and I had fewer vegetables in these meals than I tend to have, but I think we made it through the week with some healthy and delicious meals!


Wed, Oct. 31:
BBQ Chicken Sandwiches with Steamed Green Beans and Buttered Turnips with Mixed Herbs


Thurs, Nov. 1:
Rotisserie Chicken and Stuffing


Fri, Nov. 2:
BBQ Chicken Pizza with Bell Peppers and Red Onion


Sat, Nov. 3:
Chinese Take-out


Sun, Nov. 4:
Thai Chicken and Bell Pepper Curry over Jasmine Rice

Also make: Chicken Corn Chowder and Chicken Salad (for lunch Mon.)


Mon, Nov. 5:
Modified Simple Squash Risotto (Substituted White Acorn Squash for Butternut, and Added Shredded Chicken Breast Meat)


Tues, Nov. 6:
Chicken Nachos with Yellow Rice

Weekly Bag Breakfasts & Lunches: Mon, Oct. 29 - Fri, Nov. 2

Mon, Oct. 29:
Breakfast - Chai Tea and Strawberry Lemon Scone (from Whole Foods)
Lunch - Carrots, Pita Chips and Hummus with Cheddar Cheese Stick


Tues, Oct. 30:
Breakfast - Coffee and Raspberry Yogurt
Lunch - Pepper Ham and Colby Sandwich on Hawaiian Sweet Bread and a Cheddar Cheese Stick


Weds, Oct. 31:
Breakfast - Coffee and Kashi Chocolate Soft-baked Square
Lunch - Leftover Indian Chicken Jalfreezi with Garlic Naan Bread


Thurs, Nov. 1:
Breakfast - Chai Tea and
Lunch - Pita Chips, Bell Peppers and Hummus with Cheddar Cheese Stick and Flamin' Hot Munchies


Fri, Nov. 2:
Breakfast - Chai Tea and Strawberry Yogurt
Lunch - Chic-fil-A Chic-n-Strips Salad