Menu Plan Monday: 10/7/2013

Ok, it's the end of the day. You just worked your butt off for 8 hours or possibly even more. You are beat tired. Then all of sudden your stomach grumbles with such a ferocity that it could scare a small child. You need food... NOW! Ugh, you know there is nothing at home to cook, but yet you really don't want to have another drive-thru party. What to do? You are starving, dead tired, have no food at home, and you don't want another processed "chicken" sandwich for dinner.

Ok, so I didn't have a drive-thru party, but instead one night we ate at our favorite sushi place. Yes, it's better than fast food, but come on the whole point of menu planning is to actually follow your plan! Oh, well hopefully I'll do better this week. Alright, let's get on to this week's tip!

Meal Planning Tip #3

The past two weeks I've been giving tips on how to meal plan. Here is Tip #1 and Tip #2. Alright now you've collected your recipes and hopefully they are organized and more manageable now. The next step is to sit down, pick out the recipes you want to cook for the week, and make your grocery list.

When choosing your recipes, just keep in mind how busy you'll be on days. I mean come on, we all know that if we have busy work days, we are NOT going to come home and cook. So pick out easy and quick recipes for those nights. Or heck, if you really don't like cooking, pick these recipes each night of the week!

Once, you've chosen your recipes now you need to make your grocery list. I mentioned the amazing site Cozi last week for organizing your recipes. I love it for that, but I REALLY love it for making my shopping list. I click on a recipe and then I'm able to add all the ingredients from that recipe to a shopping list. Best thing is that Cozi has an app for your phone where you can access your shopping list! It honestly just makes making a grocery list soooo much easier. Other ways to make a grocery list is to either write or type it out. Just make sure you don't forget the list!

Making the grocery list gives me the confidence that later on during the week when I go to cook something, I will have everything I need. It also prevents those extra side trips to the grocery store that can add up! I have one last tip for next week so make sure to come back!

Weekly Meal Plan

Monday: Mexican Stuffed Bell Peppers

Since we ate sushi last week, I didn't get a chance to work on this recipe. Just perfecting this recipe before I decide to put up on here.

Tuesday: In-N-Out

Wednesday: Tomatillo Salsa Steaks & Baked Fries

I did make this last week, but now I'm gonna make it and take pictures for the blog!

Thursday: Chicken Picatta Pasta

New recipe!

Friday - Sunday: I don't plan for these days because we just plan on the go.

Have no clue about menu planning? It's ok head on over to OrgJunkie.com for more tips and info on menu planning. If you cook something this week, take a picture and post using #tablefortwoplease. What are you cooking this week?

The PINcentive Blog Hop: Week 5

PLEASE NOTE: The PINcentive Blog Hop week 6 will resume onOctober 15th!  Mark your calendar; you don’t want to miss out!  We’ll be choosing 4 winners, one of which will receive a special surprise in addition to being featured, having their content pinned a minimum of 31 times, co-hosting our next hop, and priority seating!

Menu Plan Monday: 9/30/2013

Ok, it's the end of the day. You just worked your butt off for 8 hours or possibly even more. You are beat tired. Then all of sudden your stomach grumbles with such a ferocity that it could scare a small child. You need food... NOW! Ugh, you know there is nothing at home to cook, but yet you really don't want to have another drive-thru party. What to do? You are starving, dead tired, have no food at home, and you don't want another processed "chicken" sandwich for dinner.

GUILTY.... I totally had my own little drive-thru party last week. Yea, I was tired and did not feel like cooking. Plus Jack-in-the-Box was conveniently on the way home. Oh, well like I said it happens. The hard part is moving on and trying your best to not let it happen again.

Last week, I started sharing my meal planning tips and now I'll give you another tip to help.

Meal Planning Tip #2

So last week I told you to go out and collect recipes. Now, you have all these recipes, but what the heck do you do with them!? To make meal planning easier and quicker you need to organize your recipes. There are many different ways to do this, but a couple of my favorites are binders and the amazing site Cozi. If you need ideas on binders, I suggest you search recipe binders on Pinterest. 

Ok, so how do I use Cozi? Cozi has many different functions, but the one I use the most is the recipe box. I am able to store all my recipes here online and can even put a link in so I can go back to the original recipe site. I then print my recipes and keep them in a folder for easy access. It's easy and it works for me.

The big key is to just find what works for you. There are many different ways to organize your recipes and you just have to find a way that makes sense to you. Trust me it may seem tedious and unimportant, but having your recipes organized makes meal planning so easy. I'll give you another tip on that next week!

Weekly Meal Plan

Monday: Sesame Chicken

This is a new recipe that I did not make last week. So we will see how it turns out!

Tuesday: IN-N-OUT

Per usual

Wednesday: Tomatillo Salsa Steaks

I made these once and they were great! 

Thursday: Mexican Stuffed Bell Peppers

This is a recipe I'm working on for the blog. It will be coming soon!

Friday-Sunday: No plans

Most weekends we just wing it and eat what we like. It's nice and allows me to keep to my meal plan during the week.

Have no clue about menu planning? It's ok head on over to OrgJunkie.com for more tips and info on menu planning. If you cook something this week, take a picture and post using #tablefortwoplease. What are you cooking this week?

Chicken & Vegetable Enchiladas

Imagine walking into your favorite Mexican joint and smelling all the goodness it has to offer. You pick up the scent of slow roasted chicken and the smell of freshly made tortillas. Maybe you can even pick up the spice and aroma of a nice spicy red sauce. Your mouth waters as it waits for some delicious spiciness and cheesiness goodness.

Yep, that is totally how my kitchen smelled last week as I cooked! My mouth was definitely watering and wanting all that Mexican tastiness. You can make your kitchen smell just as amazing, too. Just follow me on into my kitchen and let's make some...

Menu Plan Monday: 9/23/2013

Ok, it's the end of the day. You just worked your butt off for 8 hours or possibly even more. You are beat tired. Then all of sudden your stomach grumbles with such a ferocity that it could scare a small child. You need food... NOW! Ugh, you know there is nothing at home to cook, but yet you really don't want to have another drive-thru party. What to do? You are starving, dead tired, have no food at home, and you don't want another processed "chicken" sandwich for dinner.

We have all suffered through this horrible dilemma, and most likely we ended up having that drive-thru party and feeling a bit guilty about it. Trust me, my husband and I have been there several times. It's ok. Everybody does it. Now one way to avoid this horrible problem, is to just simply plan out your meals for the week. I know way easier said than done, but it is possible. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be giving out some simple tips that can help you get started with meal planning and avoiding those horrible dilemmas like above.

Meal Planning Tip #1

Collect recipes! How are you gonna plan what you are going to cook if you don't have any recipes? Pinterest is my top place to look for new recipes to try out. Also Google is another great place to start. If you know you are going to be tired after a long day of work, I suggest you look for 30 minute or less recipes or crock pot recipes. That way you don't have to spend a ton of time and energy cooking when you come home from a long day at work. Save those time consuming recipes for the weekend.

Simply search for recipes and save them so you can refer to them in the future. That's why I use Pinterest because not only can I search for new recipes, but I can also save them. Start collecting your recipes this week and next week I'll tell you what to do with them!

Weekly Meal Plan

Monday: Chili's

It's Monday Night Football and the Broncos and the Raiders are playing! We are headed to Chili's with a bunch of friends to watch the game.

Tuesday: IN-N-OUT

This is our weekly grocery shopping day and this is where we eat when we do our weekly grocery shop. It's just super convenient and cheap for us.

Wednesday: Sun-Dried Tomato and Chicken Pasta

Thursday: Sesame Chicken

New recipe!

Friday - Sunday: DISNEYLAND!!!

Yes, I know I said last weekend we were going, but that didn't happen. It's all good because we should be going this weekend!

Have no clue about menu planning? It's ok head on over to OrgJunkie.com for more tips and info on menu planning. If you cook something this week, take a picture and post using #tablefortwoplease.What are you cooking this week?

Menu Plan Monday: 9/16/2013

I would say last week was a pretty good cooking week. I mean honestly I did not have much planned, but I still cooked the majority of it. How did your cooking go last week?

Weekly Highs & Lows:

Lows: I honestly think it was a pretty good week. I mean we did eat out a lot, but I already knew that was going to happen. I only missed one meal and that was dinner last night because we had our "lunch" around 5. So we really weren't hungry later on.

Highs: The fact that I cooked! It's been really hot here in California so I've just been too tired to even turn on a stove plus the heat is ridiculous. We only had two meals so I really can't pick our favorite for last week.

Weekly Meal Plan:

Monday: We are going to go out with some friends for dinner!

Tuesday: Like I said last week, this is our new day for our weekly grocery shop. When we do our grocery shop, we usually eat at IN-N-OUT.

Wednesday: Chicken and Vegetable Enchiladas

The original recipe is just a simple veggie enchilada, but we love our animal protein in this family. So I'm going to add the chicken from my Chicken Tacos in the Crockpot. You also may notice that I made this dish last week as well. I was testing this recipe out for the blog so now this week I will shoot the pictures for it!

Thursday: Chicken and Peanut Noodles

New recipe! Always got to try something new each week!

Friday-Sunday: DISNEYLAND!!!

We are off to Disneyland for the weekend! We love this place so much and it's close enough that we go at least once a month. Can't wait to eat all the food I crave from there all the time!

Have no clue about menu planning? It's ok head on over to OrgJunkie.com for more tips and info on menu planning. If you cook something this week, take a picture and post using #tablefortwoplease. What are you cooking this week?

Menu Plan Monday: 9/9/2013

I've been away from the blog for a bit, but hey school and life happens. I needed to focus on school more so the blog suffered just for a bit. Anyways, I'm back and here to share what we are going to eat this week!

I won't be sharing any weekly highs and lows this week just because it's been awhile. However, there are a few changes to our schedule. Football season is in high gear and believe it or not this has changed our schedule big time. Pretty much we plan our day to day lives around football games now. So our grocery shopping and how I'm planning our meals has changed. Check it out below!

Weekly Meal Plan

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday:  In-N-Out

So if you have read my meal plans before, you will know that when we do our weekly grocery shop we eat at IN-N-OUT. We have now officially moved our grocery shopping day to Tuesday since Sunday and Monday now consist of FOOTBALL!

Wednesday: Black Bean and Spinach Enchiladas

I'm going to be adding the chicken from my Chicken Tacos in the Crockpot recipe. These are really amazing and pretty healthy.

Thursday: We are probably going to head to Chili's to watch a football game. I told you football has now consumed and changed how I plan our meals.

Friday: Movie Night

Each week we try to get together with a group of friends to eat dinner and watch a movie.

Saturday: We will probably go out to eat this night.

Sunday: Lunch: Pepperoni Pizza Rolls Dinner: Breaded Baked Chicken

It's FOOTBALL SUNDAY!!! So we will most likely not even leave the house which means I need to plan for lunch and dinner!

Most of the recipes I make our pretty much just for two people. You can take most of the recipes and easily make it for more people as needed. What do you plan on cooking this week? Take a picture of it and send it to me on Facebook, Instagram, Google +, or my email. Use the hashtag #tablefortwoplease so I can find your pictures easier. Have no clue about meal planning? Check out OrgJunkie.com for more tips and tricks!

Chicken Arrabiata Pasta

Sorry, once again. I've been MIA for a bit on here. I needed to put school first for a bit, but hopefully I'll be able to spend more time on here. I try my best to regularly post, but sometimes life just gets in the way.

Anyways, I have an amazing recipe to share with you today! If you love pasta and spicy food, then I would stick around if I were you. Let's hop into my kitchen and start making...

Menu Plan Monday: 8/19/2013

Every single blog I read lately is all about Back to School. Yes, as a kid I loved this time of year and to be honest, I still do. It's just Isaac and I don't have kids right now. Yes, I am in school, but my summer break consisted of one week in July, that's it. Technically, I've been in school for over 2 years straight now. Anyways, I guess I'm just sick of all the back to school crap, and I needed to rant a bit. Thanks for listening :)

Ok, let's get on with the program, now. First up, weekly highs & lows, and then our weekly meal plan.

Weekly Highs & Lows

Lows: Honestly, the only low from last week was that I didn't exactly stick to my menu plan. I think that's the best low I've ever had!

Highs:  I cooked every single meal on my plan last week!!!! That is a first and has not happened in awhile! Now, I may not have done it on the exact night that I had planned on cooking the meals, but they were still cooked none the less! Our favorite meal last week was definitely the Yellow Curry with Chicken! It was the first time that I made an exotic dish, and got the flavor spot on! So proud!

Weekly Meal Plan
Just so you know I only plan meals for Monday through Thursday. On the weekends, we usually eat out. If I didn't cook one day earlier in the week, then I will cook the recipe on the weekend. It just depends on what our plans are for the weekend.

Monday: IN-N-OUT.... just kidding haha! Pad Thai with Chicken

We actually did our weekly grocery shopping yesterday so I get to cook tonight! New recipe and hopefully this will be a good one. Pad Thai has been a thorn in my side and I've yet to perfect it. We shall see though.

Tuesday: Chicken & Black Bean Taquitos

Another couple favorite! Isaac loves these and I haven't made them in awhile.

Wednesday: Lemon Chicken & Broccoli

I need something quick and easy to make. I'll be coming home from a group project meeting and it will be late so quick and easy is needed for dinner.

Thursday: Sun-Dried Tomato and Chicken Pasta

Another pasta dish, Isaac will eat. It's slightly creamy and of course it's a bit spicy!

Found a new recipe you want to try!? Pin it so you don't forget about it! You can also follow my Pinterest to look at all the recipes I've made and ones I will be making! If you cook a dish and are proud, then send a picture my way! You can send it either through Facebook or Instagram! Either tag tablefortwoplease or use the hastag #tablefortwoplease so I can find all your pictures! Thanks! Need more menu planning ideas, tips, or tricks? Check out Orgjunkie.com!

Menu Plan Monday: 8/12/2013

I've honestly been enjoying cooking more often during the week lately. There's just one thing. Usually one recipe each week escapes me and it never gets made. Then this recipe just haunts me week after week after week until I finally just cook the dish. So I'm going to put an end to it this week. My goal is to cook dinner every single night that I have planned to cook this week. Let's see if it happens! Ok, let's take a look at last weeks' highs and lows.

Weekly Highs & Lows

Lows: I did pretty well last week with cooking except I did not make the Yellow Curry with Chicken, once again. So it will be on the menu plan once again, but it will NOT be there next week!

Highs: I think our favorite dish was definitely the Ground Beef Enchiladas. As always they were really delicious and we both enjoyed them!

Weekly Meal Plan

Monday: IN-N-OUT

Ok, so we didn't go grocery shopping yesterday like we normally do. Oops. It was a long weekend and we just wanted to rest yesterday. So we will be doing our weekly grocery shop trip tonight and as always we will be eating In-N-Out.

Tuesday: Yellow Curry with Chicken

I am determined to make this recipe! Even though I just ate yellow curry with chicken leftovers from a Thai restaurant for lunch, I will be making this for dinner tomorrow!

Wednesday: Spicy Chicken & Cashews

I was browsing through my recipes and I came across this one. I hadn't made it in awhile so I decided to make it. Plus, it's really good!

Thursday: Chicken Arrabiata Pasta

One pasta dish, Isaac will actually eat! It's delicious and spicy. Two key factors for making a great dish for Isaac!

Hopefully, you found a new recipe to try out some time this week! Show me what you cook up this week or heck even when you grab fast food. Send me a picture either through Facebook or Instagram. Use the hashtag #tablefortwoplease so I can find your pictures! Need more menu planning inspiration? Check out Orgjunkie.com!

Bacon Wrapped Chicken

This recipe post has been a long time coming. I've seriously planned to takes pictures of this recipe for at least a month, but never did it. So, finally here is this amazing recipe!

So, this is one of Isaac's favorites because of the BACON! Seriously, add bacon to any dish and it's going to be a hit with practically anybody. I posted a little sneak peek of this recipe yesterday and lot's of people were excited! Let's go to my kitchen and get started!

Menu Plan Monday: 8/5/2013

I'm actually excited for this week and being able to cook more! I finished my class last week and now I'll be cooking 4 times a week instead of 2! Yea, let's see often this happens. Just being real and knowing that cooking 4 days in a row just doesn't happen all the time. 

Luckily, this week I'll only have to cook 3 days. We went to Disneyland this past weekend and we will be doing our weekly grocery shopping today instead of on Sunday. We eat at IN-N-OUT for dinner on our grocery shopping days. It's easy, quick, and super cheap!

Weekly Highs & Lows

Lows: I think my weekly low last week was the fact that I only cooked once last week. I made the Chicken Arrabiata Pasta, but that was it. Oh well, life happens and some times we just can't cook all week long.

Highs: And, of course, our weekly high was the Chicken Arrabiata Pasta since it was the only thing I cooked! It really was good, though. A nice spicy tomato sauce with some grilled chicken over rotini pasta. My husband doesn't like Italian food and he really enjoyed this dish.

Weekly Meal Plan

Monday:  IN-N-OUT

Like I said, we are doing our weekly grocery shop tonight and we always eat IN-N-OUT before grocery shopping.

Tuesday: Ground Beef Enchiladas

Yea, since I didn't make these last week, here they are again this week. 

Wednesday: Yellow Curry with Chicken

A new recipe that I didn't try last week. I'm excited to try it out!

Thursday: Bacon Wrapped Chicken

This is a favorite in our household! I mean come on add bacon to anything and practically any man will eat it!

I hope you found a new recipe to try out this week. If you do try out a new recipe, let me know in the comments! You can also send me a picture of it either through Instagram or Facebook! Use the hashtag #tablefortwoplease so I can find your pictures easily! If you want more menu planning inspiration, check out Orgjunkie.com!

DIY Fruit Snacks

As you can see I've been into the whole DIY thing in the kitchen lately. If you missed last weeks DIY, I made DIY Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal Packets. Go check it out! I found this recipe on Pinterest awhile ago and I'll make these every once in a while. I think these DIY Fruit Snacks are perfect to add to lunches and just keep in the fridge as a quick snack.

What I really love about these fruit snacks is that I know exactly what is in them. I try my best to stay away from processed food. I just don't think it's great to be consuming all those chemicals. Ok, let's head into my kitchen and make...

Menu Plan Monday: 7/29/2013

It's that time of the week again..... MONDAY! Yea totally not excited about it either. Oh well. This week is going to be a pretty laid back week since it's the last week of this rotation/class! Whoo hoo! Another one down and about 3 more classes and 6 more months to go :) Anyways, let's see what our weekly highs and lows were from last week.

Weekly Highs & Lows

Lows: The only sort of bad dinner we had was the Grilled Spicy Chicken Wings. I honestly just had  a hard time cooking them and I kind of burnt them which ruined them. Oh well just gotta learn how to cook them better!

Highs: I think our favorite meal of the week was definitely the Thai Chicken Bites with Peanut Sauce. These were really good  and packed some good flavor. The best part is that they were pretty easy to make. These will definitely be in an upcoming recipe post!

Weekly Meal Plan

Monday: Chicken Arrabiata Pasta

Yep another pasta dish. This one is really good because it has a real good kick. That's pretty much the only way Isaac would eat red sauce.

Tuesday: I'll be at clinical so another fend for yourself night!

Wednesday: Ground Beef Enchiladas

So we may have these we may not... It all depends on my clinical. Oh man, I hope we get to eat these. We really love these enchiladas! Isaac really likes them because they come pretty close to the ones he grew up with.

Thursday: Yellow Curry with Chicken

New recipe! Excited to try it and see if I can replicate the yellow curry from our favorite Thai restaurant!

As always I'm excited to cook up my meals this week. Hopefully you found some inspiration to cook this week, too. If you cook anything this week, send me a picture either through Instagram or Facebook! Use the hashtag #tablefortwoplease, so I can find your pictures easily! If you want more menu planning inspiration, check out OrgJunkie.com!

DIY Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal Packets

Well I'm finally back with another recipe post! If you don't know why I've been gone just click here. So my go to breakfast in the morning has been oatmeal lately.... yep even in the summer. I think it's my little bit of comfort food for the day. Anyways I was buying the instant packets every week and I thought there has to be a way that I can make this on my own. So I headed to Pinterest and found this recipe. 

I decided to try it out and I love it but I thought adding raisins would make it even better. Yep, you guessed it, it made the oatmeal even better! So I've been prepping these on Sunday night so I have my instant oatmeal packets all ready for the week! It's so easy and saving us tons of money each week! Ok, on to the recipe and of course the pictures.

Menu Plan Monday: 7/22/2013

Whoo hoo!!! I'm back and found my mojo! If you have no idea what I'm talking about just click here to find out! So yes, I'm back and I'm really excited to start blogging again! Since I don't really have any highs and lows this week, I'm just gonna jump right into our meal plan for the week.

Weekly Meal Plan

Monday: Thai Chicken Bites with Peanut Sauce

This is a new recipe that I'm trying out. We shall see how it turns out tonight! Follow me on Instagram or go like the Facebook page to see what we thought about it!

Tuesday: Grilled Spicy Chicken Wings & Baked Fries

We haven't had these in a really long time! I'm looking forward to these because for wings these are more on the healthier side which is always a plus!

Wednesday: I shall be at clinical so hubby will have to fend for himself.

Thursday: Sun Dried Tomato and Chicken Pasta

You all know I loooooove me some pasta or at least now you do. It's always a task to find one that Isaac (hubby) will eat and this is one of the few!

I'm super excited to cook this week! Hopefully you found a meal that you want to try to cook this week. If you do make something, take a picture and send it to me either through Instagram or Facebook. Use #tablefortwoplease! If you want more inspiration on meal planning, check out OrjJunkie.com!