I’ve been trying meal planning for maybe a year now. The concept isn’t hard: sit down once a week, every two weeks, once a month (whatever works best for you) and write down a bunch of recipes. The recipes can be new, old, something you discovered…whatever sounds good. I usually write down the meals day-by-day, also noting if DH will be out of the house that evening (meaning I’m not cooking much), if we have guests and so on. When you plan all the recipes ahead of time, you can buy everything you need in one trip to the grocery store for the upcoming two, three or even four weeks. This will save you money because you find less impulse buys while in the store since you’re in there less often.

A few months ago, I started making muffins and breakfast bread for Stefan to take to work with him every morning. On the weekends we usually have a few of those left over to eat and I might make something on Sunday morning depending on how much work lies ahead of us and who’s staying with us. I’ve been serving him zucchini bread since last fall for breakfast and he’s never complained about having the same thing all the time. But in the last few weeks I started mixing things up a bit, going with muffins with blueberries, apples, carrots and all sorts of other things.

This week, I’ve gone even more breakfast-style with ham & cheese breakfast muffins. They are best right out of the oven or reheated in the microwave. Turns out I’ll be freezing them and giving them a thaw for quick weekend breakfasts since Stefan doesn’t have access to a microwave at work. Cold they’re just not the same. It’s like a cold Egg McMuffin. Not good. Guess I’ll be making something else tomorrow for him since I don’t want him to get tired of the chocolate banana mocha muffins I made for dessert snacking. Plus they’re not exactly on the healthy side although they do have some fruit in them. 🙂

We’re going to be trying some new recipes from our biker cookbook, The Harley Biker’s Cookbook, that we’ve never experienced before. We love most of the recipes from the cookbook that we have tried so we’re wondering why we haven’t cooked everything out of there by now.

• Tonight – Garlic parmesan chicken breasts on sandwiches with croquettes from the store
• Tuesday &  Wednesday – Lasagna from our favorite biker cookbook
• Thursday – Stefan is out so I’ll be having leftovers or something. I’m also going to make a breakfast casserole for Friday morning since Stefan has the day off
• Friday – Garlic & Honey Chicken and Mac & Cheese from the biker cookbook
• Saturday – Steaks on the grill with rosemary potatoes and leftover mac & cheese.
• Sunday – Biscuits for breakfast & then biscuits with chicken breasts & gravy for dinner
• Monday & Tuesday – Torque Master Meatloaf from the freezer with mashed taters
• Wednesday& Thursday – Shredded Beef Enchiladas

Recipes and our thoughts for all these new foods coming soon!