You all know that food makes me excited. Can I tell you about my latest little fun food thing? I found these cute mini chocolate chips at Amazon. They don’t have any soy lecithin in them (my reason for looking). They’re so stinkin’ cute and fun to bake with. Yep, doesn’t take much to entertain us all around here. (And yes, I often do make my own chocolate chips, but sometimes a girl just needs a little chocolate chip convenience.)
I’ve also got to tell you about how we tried Valerie’s Bacon Cheddar Meatloaves last week! We’d been excited all week long because, hello? Bacon, cheddar cheese and beef all together in one dish? How would that not be good?
So Saturday night came and I had the meatloaves in the oven baking…went to the fridge to get out the bacon to wrap around the loaves for the last phase of baking…and DIDN’T HAVE ANY BACON. I knew I had some bacon in there. Except that I didn’t. And I was WAY too scary looking to run to the store (which thankfully I remembered before I went).
So we had Cheddar Meatloaves , which were still amazingly wonderful, by the way.
Here’s our menu for the week, and here’s hoping I have all the ingredients this time:
Sunday, March 7
Oatmeal, pears
Fund raising meal for youth mission trip
Creamy mac and cheese, steamed broccoli and carrots
Monday, March 8
Chocolate chip pancakes, bananas
Homemade corn dogs , apple slices
Roasted chicken, potatoes, carrots, gravy
Tuesday, March 9
Mini breakfast pizza, oranges
Grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches, strawberry peach slushie
Sloppy cornbread, tossed salad
Wednesday, March 10
Orange muffins, fruit and kefir smoothies
Cheddar ranch burgers, green beans
Chicken and noodles, carrot sticks, fruit salad
Thursday, March 11
Fried eggs, cinnamon swirl bread, clementines
Turkey sausage, mashed potato pancakes, peas
Italian stew with green beans
Friday, March 12
Peanut butter honey toast, canned peaches
Taco potatoes
Lamb-burgers on whole wheat hamburger buns, onion rings
Saturday, March 13
Mom is Great breakfast Cake
Leftover buffet
BBQ meatballs, baked potatoes, asparagus
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Find more menu planning inspiration at Organizing Junkie.
I’m glad you post links to previous posts. I’ve only been reading your blog for a couple of months and never would have found the post of homemade chocolate chips. Will definitely be trying those!
Thanks for the inspiration from your weekly meal plans!
I love those Chocolate Chips. I don’t do very well with that soy lecithin so these work good for me. They are pretty expensive but I’ve made mine last a long time!
Your menu looks great! I have to tell you, my children LOVE the strawberry peach slushies…even my youngest son who thinks that spinach is only on the earth to take away his “super powers”. 9 year old kryptonite…He asks for these slushies all the time! Score 1 for moms everywhere!
Oh, please inform me. What IS soy lecithin and how is it bad???
I actually don’t know specifically what it is, I just know that in general, soy isn’t the greatest so I was trying to avoid it. I plan to do research on soy and blog about my findings eventually.
Here is a great Weston A. Price article on what soy lecithin is… http://www.westonaprice.org/Soy-Lecithin-From-Sludge-to-Profit.html
ooh thanks…i am in the process of starting our eating healthy journey and for at least this month we’re eating healthy stuff out of our pantry (ie non-organic but with ingredients i can recognize andspell! soy lecithin was one of those questionable ingredients i wasn’t sure about! thanks!!)
Hi Again, Laura!
Ok… another grocery question… where do you buy your turkey bacon? (or is it not turkey bacon??). Azure had these great “turkey breakfast strips” that were fantastic… they were by Shelton’s but they just discontinued carrying them. I was buying them in bulk and we loved them. Now I don’t know what to buy instead since turkey bacon is so expensive when not bought in bulk (also– wondering where you buy your turkey sausage). Anyway– I love to check out your weekly menu on Sundays and even though I am quite a bit older than you– I have never made out a weekly menu. Oh well!
God Bless you!
Cynthia
I’ve not found a great source for turkey bacon, so every once in a while we just get some regular turkey bacon from the store.
I make my own turkey sausage: https://www.heavenlyhomemakers.com/make-homemade-turkey-sausage
Yum! You week sounds like it’s going to be a delicious one! I like that your meals are hearty and tasty.
and include fruit!
Laura thank you SO MUCH for adding the date to your blog!
I’ve been looking for a soy-free chocolate chip. Our health food store has a dark chocolate one we like, but they are really pricey ($8.39/lb)! These look like a great option for milk chocolate at a reasonable price. My buying club has the Enjoy Life brand for a comparable price, I just never knew until I looked for that brand. Thank you for sharing!
Those are the chocolate chips I always use. I haven’t been able to find any “healthy” chocolate chips that are any cheaper, and that amazon price is a pretty good deal. I managed to find some at my grocery store for half off because they were about to expire so I bought all 8 bags that were there and stuck them in the freezer. And since they’re mini, they stretch further than the regular size chips without a noticeable change in taste. Now if only I could keep my husband from snacking on them all the time ;-)
Your recipes sound delicious. I checked out your mac and cheese and have never seen a recipe like it. I’ll give it a go. My boy is a mac and cheese fiend.
Have a great week. Thanks for sharing your meals.
your weekly menu sounds so yummy and inexpensive…
also, i noticed when u commented about making the bacon cheddar meatloaf… you didnt seem to have used a microwave? if i am correct in assuming this, how long did u bake them before and after you added the bacon.. lol. or would have added the bacon?
Right, I don’t use a microwave if I can help it. I baked them for 45 minutes and would have added the bacon at that point, then put them back in for 15-20 minutes more. I was just guessing on the time, but I think it would have been about right.
I see the picture of potatoes is that how you bake yours without using foil? Sometimes I just put mine in the oven but the skins get really hard.
Yep, I just scrub them, stab them and bake them in a covered casserole dish for about an hour and a half. I need to write a post about that huh?