I think this will be another regular feature… first you’ve got your “Five On Friday” and now you’ll get “Menu Mayhem Monday”.   I used to (at one time or another or another) actually plan our meals for the week,  flip through collected recipes, assemble a grocery list, buy the actual required groceries and be able to look at the fridge any one day and choose from multiple meal options (including a spare) – all with the confidence that I wouldn’t run out of item A or  ingredient B at any time during prep.  Then life took over and I lost one more aspect of my organization and the grocery store blitz or quick run for bread/milk/eggs became the norm, mealtime became a disaster and we often have too much of this or not enough that in the cupboards at any given time.

So… duh, duh, duh, DUH… without further ado, I present my week of meals, as planned yesterday for “Menu Mayhem Monday”,  a collection of 7+ meals to get me through the week’s meal prep sanely (although the actual consumption is another story…)

Week 1:

• Glazed Maple Chicken with Carmelized PearsThis is what we had for dinner tonight, served with white rice and a healthy side of cucumbers.  1 1/2 monkey approval rating (Kaleb loved the chicken but the pears made him gag – that kid has texture issues!)
• Mexican Baked Penne (originally from Today’s Parent but I can’t find the recipe.  Basically it’s prepared penne with ground meat, corn, black beans – which we omit because Kevin has bean issues – tossed with salsa and cheese, then baked.
• Ribs, Twice Baked Potatoes, Salad & Fresh Cut Veggies
• Easy Jambalaya
• Chicken Pot Pie
• Mini Pita Pizzas and Fiesta Chicken Soup (the soup will be a first for us… but it sounds yummy!)
• Chicken Fingers, Sweet Potato Fries and Mixed Veggies

and a spare

• Spaghetti & Meatballs

Now… the plan itself is a start but I never did make it to the grocery store.  I don’t plan on heading out tonight.  However, if everything goes as planned, I can head over with Justin tomorrow while Kaleb’s at school and we can eliminate some of this week’s mealtime mayhem – if not, we’ll have to resort to chicken fingers or the spare (neither are Mommy’s favourites!)

Happy eating 🙂