Sundays have become quite full since we are hosting a marriage class in the mornings and high school huddle in the evenings. What helps most to keep this enjoyable is to make as much food ahead of time as possible. My goal each week has been to get Sunday night’s main dish completed by Friday. That way, all I have to do on Sunday is put the food in the oven, then serve it up. Easy! I’ve also realized the importance of choosing a very easy Sunday noon meal so that when we get home from church, all I have to do is put on the final touches and put the meal on the table.
Therefore, Saturday night while I was cleaning the kitchen after dinner, I put together a big pan of Italian Pasta Bake for our Sunday lunch. If you haven’t tried this dish, I’ve got to say that it is one of the easiest meals ever to make. I cooked it up, cleaned up after myself and put the pan in the fridge so that as soon as we got home from church today all I had to do was heat it in the oven while I made the veggies. Simple, inexpensive, healthy and a crowd pleaser. In fact, I think I’ll be making this dish next week for Huddle! :)
Here’s our menu for this week:
Sunday, October 9
Marriage Class – Breakfast cake, juice, coffee
Italian pasta bake, corn, green beans
Huddle – Chicken enchiladas (x4), tossed salad, chips and salsa, oatmeal butterscotch cookies
Monday, October 10
Whole wheat waffles, blueberries
Grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup, carrots
Roasted chicken, potatoes, carrots, gravy
Tuesday, October 11
French toast, peaches
Bean dip with organic corn chips, sweet peppers and tomatoes
Chicken alfredo, steamed broccoli and carrots
Wednesday, October 12
Fried eggs on toast, creamy orange cooler
Tuna salad with crackers, apples
Italian stew, sourdough biscuits
(We’ll be having lots of company this weekend – I can’t wait! Bring on the family and friends!)
Thursday, October 13
Chocolate chocolate chip muffins, pears
Leftovers
Cream cheese chicken and pasta, tossed salad, green beans
Friday, October 14
Easy breakfast casserole, vanilla muffins with cinnamon crumb topping, grapes
Sandwiches, chips, fruit
Hamburgers, ranch potato wedges, veggie tray with homemade ranch dip, fruit salad
Saturday, October 15
Simple soaked pancakes, applesauce
Sloppy joes, angeled eggs, fruit
Tacos
What’s on your menu this week?
Lol– had to laugh when I read “Chicken Alfredo” for Tues. night– that was on MY Tue. night, too! And I was just thinking how much I miss a dear friend that used to do frozen meals with me…I think I’ll have to start doing that again by myself now that we’ve moved. =(
We are actually having Chicken Alfredo tonight! I make a loaf of beautiful french bread and it is one of my hubby’s favorites :)
This is my 3rd week doing a full menu plan – breakfast, lunch and dinner. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to realize how much smoother my day/week goes when I have all our meals planned! This week we’re going to be having spaghetti and meatballs, chicken and zucchini bake, gyros with homemade pitas and kielbasa and sauerkraut in the crockpot. I made a brown sugar glazed pork roast today for dinner that we’ll use for BBQ pork sandwiches later in the week. Thanks, Laura, for all your inspiration and motivation to do a weekly menu plan! God’s blessings!
I love pasta, but hubs needs to limit his intake of starches, so it’s a treat on our menu. :(
We’ve got planned:
Pasta Fagioli soup
Leftovers (roast, baked potatoes, broccoli)
Greek food from our local Greek Festival (I can’t wait!!!)
Easy week for me…
Love reading your blog.
That Italian Pasta Bake looks delicious! I wonder how it would be with shredded chicken. I may have to try and report back!
The Italian Pasta Bake is delicious!! I make it and freeze in serving sizes. Works great to send to a son that doesn’t cook. Ha!!! We love the whole wheat pasta.
I just made 2 qts. of your apple pie filling Laura. Lots of peeling for 2 jars. HA!!
You amaze me Laura! I have been menu planning for a long time, and I love it, but I only ever manage to plan dinners. It looks like your family eats really well, you make breakfast for them and everything :)
Thank you for sharing all the work you do freezer cooking. That is probably the one thing that has helped me the most to have healthy food that is quick and convenient. Now all my friends want to do freezer cooking too!
I am just starting to incorporate breakfast and lunch in my meal plans! I love all the breakfast ideas you have:)
I just made the Pasta Bake last week. It was great! Much easier than lasagna, but with the same taste. (I think I added ricotta to the 2nd batch). We had mini apple pies this morning. The Breakfast Cake sounds great and might add it to the menu soon. Thanks for all your great, healthy, fun recipes. We love checking in with you!