Meal Plan: 8/14-8/20

Let's face it, blogging has officially been pushed to the back burner in my life.  Work has been worse than I think anyone could imagine, making me stressed out every moment that I'm awake (thankfully I'm not one of those people whose sleep suffers when they're stressed).  I have been wanting to tell you all about Baby Girl and how wonderful she is--because she really is--her official 2-year-old posts, and now to tell you about our vacation that we returned from Friday the 12th.  I wish I could say vacation was a great way to recharge my batteries, but it really wasn't the case.  But it was nice to get away and it was priceless to spend that much time with Baby Girl.

Anyway, something that remains constant is my meal planning.  I may not stick to it all week, but money has had me pretty stressed out recently, so we've been making a more concerted effort to eat the food we've already bought.  I made this plan this morning while Baby Girl played (almost a first, honestly) and then she and I went to the grocery.  She was a big help, counting green peppers and corn on the cob with me.  I was actually happy to have her along.

So even if I can't make the time to post about all the other things I want to, I can post my already-made weekly meal list so you all know I'm still around.  I don't really know what night we'll have each thing, but know that I want to do a lot of grilling to have cooked chicken for a couple of the dishes when we have grilled chicken for dinner. 

BBQ Chicken Pizza (the basis for this recipe is this but I don't get that complicated anymore--this is a meal we need pre-cooked chicken for)

Smoked Sausage Pierogi Bake:  I'm going to lighten this up with smoked turkey sausage, fat free cream cheese, and reduced fat cheese.  It honestly shouldn't be nearly as unhealthy as it looks :)  And it looks delicious.  In fact, we might have it tonight.

Unstuffed Pepper Skillet: I have some steamer bags of rice that will work well for this recipe and I saw that my grocery had green peppers for $0.50 apiece (plus I have a few that might come out of my own garden soon).  Now I just need to see if all of my frozen ground turkey applies to the recall...

Grilled Chicken and Corn on the Cob w/ rice: Simple and yummy.  I have some marinade that I'll use on the chicken that we'll eat that night and then grill some extra for other meals.


Chicken Pasta Primavera: a recipe that uses some of the veggies I'm growing (summer and zucchini squashes), some of the many boxes of pasta I've got in my basement, and chicken that was on sale for $1.88/lb this week.

Smoked Sausage Pizza: When I saw that the Smoked Sausage Pierogi Bake didn't use a whole package of smoked sausage and realized that I'd have an extra pizza crust (I buy the Kroger brand pre-baked crusts that come two to a package and are still cheaper than Boboli's one crust), I knew I needed to find something that used those ingredients.  And when I realized that this recipe also used green peppers, I was sold.  Never tried it before, but it looks yummy and my whole family will eat any type of pizza.