Meal Planning: Week of January 14th

Who is ready for another week of food?!

I have to say, with Ben's new teeth coming in (he has 10+ chompers now) it is making my meal planning a little easier.  I can actually see him moving food to the back of his mouth, so I am a lot less worried about incorporating stuff that he can chew because he is doing a pretty good job with everything now.  He also (at times) has been more willing to try different things, so I'm using that as my opportunity to develop his palate.  (Yes, still obsessed with Top Chef).

I also have to say how excited I was to see that my friend Brenna has adopted my meal planning mission!  She is an excellent cook, so I look forward to seeing what she puts together, particularly what she makes for weeknight meals when time is limited.  :)

After a few months of doing this, I have noticed that we are starting to have the right items in the pantry and in the freezer for what we like to eat.  For example, this week, we will be using frozen boneless/skinless chicken breasts and cod currently in our freezer, quinoa and chicken/vegetable stock that we always have on hand in the pantry, and goat cheese, tortillas and minced garlic that we tend to keep stocked in the fridge.  Sure, there are a lot of items we still need to pick up each week (OMG our milk budget - never thought we would go through the gallons each month!), but I am finding it is getting easier to plan our menu based on the items I know we tend to stay on top of.

A quick review of last week:

• I wouldn't make the Chicken Florentine Artichoke Bake again.  It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great.
• I never ended up making the Chicken Chickpea Chopped Salad.  I made BBQ Chicken Quinoa Salad instead, which was excellent a second time.
• The Cheesy Chicken, Bacon and Avocado Quesadillas were DELICIOUS.  Greg told me they were restaurant quality!

Now, after several tangents, here is the menu for this week:

Monday: Soup (canned) and sandwiches.  I think for mine I will try this Green Goddess Grilled Cheese I saw on Pinterest this week.  Greg and Ben will probably opt for something more "meat and cheese".

Tuesday: Chicken Saltimbocca (this is a "skinny" version, but this dish is one of Greg's favorites so hopefully it's a hit!) and cauliflower "mashed potatoes" and roasted rosemary carrots.

Wednesday: Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos.

Thursday: Tortellini with Lemon and Brussels Sprouts (and bacon) and an arugula salad.

Friday: Roast Cod with Garlic Butter over quinoa.