I love menu-planning! But sometimes I get into ruts and find it helpful to look at menus posted on other blogs and Instagram. Seeing what other women are cooking really inspires and motivates me to get in the kitchen.
Last month I participated in the 31-day “Happy Homemaker Challenge” on Instagram, hosted by Whitney at Come Home for Comfort, and one of the photo prompts was called “On the Menu”. So after posting my menu for the week, I thought I might as well snap a photo of each night’s meal and post them here.
Our weeks are pretty busy, but I still want to put healthy meals on the table. These are a few of my easy go-to’s for quick, healthy weeknight meals.
Monday~ Greek turkey meatballs (cooked in Ken’s Caesar Lite dressing, in crock-pot on high, 2 hours), Mediterranean quinoa (frozen microwavable bags from Walmart!), Greek anti-pasta salad (tossed in the same Ken’s Caesar Lite dressing), hummus and quinoa chips.
Tuesday~ Herb grilled chicken and summer salad with fruit, feta, bacon bits, toasted almonds, and Lite Raspberry Vinaigrette.
Wednesday~ Asian bowl with brown rice, teriyaki beef, steamed carrots and broccoli, sauted peppers, onions, and green onion.
Thursday~ Breakfast burritos with scrambled eggs, crumbled turkey sausage, shredded cheese, tomatoes, avocado, salsa verde, and cilantro, wrapped in CarbSmart wheat tortilla. Served with cantaloupe.
Friday~ Pizza night! Whole wheat pizza dough rolled out and braided around shredded mozzarella, turkey pepperoni, Parmesan, and herbs. Topped with a spread of olive oil and sprinkled with more herbs and Parm.
I bake this at 400 degrees and slice it into strips to dip into pizza sauce.
Satruday~ Swiss Family Robinson Feast! We usually have healthy snacks and games on Saturday night, but last Saturday we did something out of the ordinary. This wasn’t exactly a quick meal (although it didn’t take nearly as long as I thought it would) because it was a celebration of our summer read-aloud of Swiss Family Robinson. Just my son and I read the book, but the whole family got to join in our island party with a seafood supper! More on this meal coming in a post next week!
Sunday~ You’ll notice that at the time I made my menu, Sunday’s meal plan was still up in the air. I was hoping to prepare a pork tenderloin dish, but had pancakes in mind as a backup since I would be cooking a big meal Saturday night and might not have time to cook for Sunday. It turned out that we had enough leftovers from our seafood meal to eat again for Sunday lunch! Woohoo!
The following photos are not from my dinner menu but just a couple of extra items I enjoyed last week.
For Sunday morning breakfast, I experimented with my own recipe for Ginger Pumpkin Pecan Muffins. Perfect with my hazelnut coffee! I’ll share the recipe soon.
And my favorite afternoon snack lately has been yogurt with cherries and toasted almonds. I’m not too sad about summer ending, but I sure am going to miss fresh cherries and fresh peaches!!!
For more menu inspiration (along with other great homemaking and organization tips and lots of cute cat photos!) check out Whitney’s blog Come Home for Comfort!
These meals look delicious! I enjoyed the first month of “safer at home”. It was so nice to have the time to cook again. But then it started to seem like we were always having the same thing. We definitely need to be sharing menu ideas with each other! I’m in if you do a class!
I agree, Missy! The extra time with “safer at home” afforded great meal prep time, but now that we’re back to the weekly grind, we need new tricks to getting good meals in the table. Let’s talk!
I need to talk to you about how you did some of these meals! Yummy!
I would love to talk, Rivers! These are my short-cut, healthy, easy versions of our favorite meals. I’m thinking of hosting a cooking class for something like this???—not because I’m any kind of expert or authority, but because it would be fun yo gather a few women in my kitchen and hopefully helpful to some moms on the go who need new ideas. I’m praying about it!