Meal Planning 7.1

I'm a little late with this for the week. After last week's highly unsuccessful cooking and baking (read about my kitchen mishaps in the updates and feel triumphant in your own cooking prowess because your baking last week was probably better than mine! ha!) I made an executive decision. We will add one new recipe each week and only one. Which means only one possibly sucky meal each week instead of 3 or 5 or 7. Which has been a comforting thing so far because now that we know we like these recipes, we can make more than we'll eat and freeze the rest for later (though we had a short power outage this weekend and the idea of losing all my newly-empowering freezer food was a thought I had to quickly dismiss. We're living in the moment people!)

This week's line up...

For Dinner This Week
Monday: Spaghetti. Very simple tonight so I can't mess it up! Browned ground beef. Added to pre-made spaghetti sauce with no preservatives or sugar (Meijer "Naturals" is good for this and one of Kroger's "PS" brands is too). Over a bed of Tinkyada Rice Noodles which I had to buy at Whole Foods.
UPDATE: Everything was edible!! So happy!

Tuesday: Honey Lime Chicken Skewers. This is a repeat from 6.18 meal planning. We loved it and are ready to make it again.
UPDATE: After a super trying day at work I realized on my drive home that a) we didn't defrost the chicken, b) we both left work late and weren't going to have time to cook AND go to the fireworks and c) it was pouring with flash flood warnings so we probably weren't going to the fire works. We decided to do a quick switch to Taco night since you can brown frozen ground beef faster than you can marinade frozen chicken. But we're all out of Chili Powder and my homemade spice mix didn't smell right without it. SO I went for spaghetti (yeah, yeah I know, but it was a comfort food tonight with leftovers to freeze) and he went for reheated homemade pizza since I finally did make it! Skewers are rescheduled for Thursday.

Wednesday: Pulled Pork leftovers with homemade fake barbecue sauce. I'm already hungry!

Thursday: Homemade Tacos with homemade seasoning. And just for me - lettuce wraps and avocado with tomato. No chips this time! (sad face)

Friday: New Recipe!!! Crockpot Honey Sesame Chicken with brown rice (for me) and Jasmine rice (for him). Will I finally conquer the crockpot??

Saturday: Gluten Free Pizza. We finally made this last Sunday but here's the kicker. Yes, I found the millet and arrowroot for substitutes, but did I find millet flour? No. No, I used whole millet which wasn't disgusting but it was crunchy. I found this website which I'm holding on to because it gives suggestions on how to make your own GF flour mixes. I'm also going to do a hybrid of the Gluten Free Pizza Recipe with our old favorite recipe. Topped with organic mozzarella and basil for me, organic cheese and regular pepperoni for him. Now I just need to find pepperoni without preservatives and I'll be super happy!

Sunday: Hamburgers and homemade seasoning. Lettuce wraps and agave ketchup for me!

For Lunch This Week
Modified Crockpot Chicken Enchilada Soup. I made something in the crockpot and it doesn't taste horrible! Woo! I modified the recipe by adding a diced whole pepper, omitting the corn, using frozen shredded chicken from tacos the other week and adding a serving of brown rice to make it heartier.
UPDATE: This turned out really well and has been a good lunch. Easy to heat up in my mason jars and eat at my desk, walking to my car (I'm a road warrior at work sometimes) or wherever I am. 

Snacks This Week
Granny Smith Apple with (safe) peanut butter.

Grapes.

Cashews.

Water flavored with frozen fruits (raspberry is my favorite).

Coconut Bliss
UPDATE: I now have eaten all three pints I wrote about purchasing on my last grocery trip. I think I need to buy one at a time because my self control here isn't so ... controlling. But it was soo good even if I did feel it a bit the next day.

Breakfast This Week
Banana Oatmeal Muffins. I made muffins and I can eat them! But now I ate them all and I still need breakfast for the next three days. I'll make these again but add nuts and possibly raisins.