...with R's birthday gathering.

We celebrated R's birthday this past weekend by having several friends over to watch the Marquette basketball game on T.V. (they won-woohoo!), making chili and later in the evening, by playing hours of Wii. We had a great time and stayed up way too late! As a snack, I made homemade salsa using this recipe from the Pioneer Woman. I should have taken a picture, but forgot. This is definitely a good recipe to keep and I will be making it again!
For his birthday "cake", I made cupcakes. Chocolate cupcakes that are supposed to taste like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. The recipe came from my FoodNetwork magazine. They were pretty good, especially the peanut butter layer. I did manage to remember to take a picture of these!

Today was spent relaxing since we are sleep deprived! I did work on this week's dinner menu:

Trader Joe's Orange Chicken (this was on last weeks menu, but we ended up making something else instead)
Pork Chops with Mango Mint Salsa
Chicken and Sun Dried Tomato Salads
Thyme Chicken Thighs
Toasted Deli Sandwiches

...with week 2 and 3 of meal plans

Here I am catching up on 2 weeks worth of meal plans (last weeks and this weeks). I've been doing a good job of keeping up with them and even finding new things to make!

Tortilla Soup (homemade!)
Tri-tip Steak Sandwiches
Pizza
Leftover Tortilla Soup
Grilled Chicken

Chicken Stir Fry Lettuce Wraps
Sauteed Pork Chops with Onions and Bell Peppers
Leftover Pork Chop and Corn
Beef Tacos
Orange Chicken (yum.....the kind from Trader Joe's!)

...with the "goals".

Let's face it. I hate "New Years Resolutions". Try as I might, I have never kept one. Maybe it's because they aren't achievable. You know, like "win the lottery". Yeah, not going to happen.
So this year, my *ahem* New Year's Resolution is to not have any New Years Resolutions :)
It does just so happen to be a coincidence however, that A. it's a new Year and B. I have made a few goals for myself in this coming year.
One of these goals, is to be a better meal planner. I have become the person who has a cupboard full of food yet still manages to stare into said cupboard for 20-30 minutes trying to decide what to make for dinner. When I can't decide, I go to the refridgerator and stare in there for 10 minutes. Then I head back to the cupboard and look in there again; you know, just in case some more food has shown up while I was busy looking in the fridge. All the while, that darn food just stares back at me (pick me, pick me!). I give up and make grilled cheese, or worse, a frozen pizza. Now, mind you, I have many cook books and actually subscribe to the Food Network magazine. Problem is, is that I get halfway through an ingredient list before I realize I don't have 25% of the ingredients listed....many of which are the essence of the recipe! Or, I decide I want ribs and whaddayaknow......the ribs are frozen solid in the freezer and will take hours to thaw......if only I knew last night that today I would be in the mood for ribs then I could have put them in the fridge to thaw. So, how is this going to work?

1. Make a meal plan consisting of 5 dinners one week in advance. (I will only do 5 per week, as we tend to have alternative plans on the weekend and don't always cook at home).
2. Read through the ingredient list (if using a recipe) and make a list of any ingredients that need to be purchased.
3. Go grocery shopping and purchase ingredients needed to make those 5 meals.
4. Read meal plan each night in order to be proactive and thaw any ingredients out in a timely fashion!
5. Make meals without staring into the cupboard or fridge for 30 minutes.

That's it folks! Let's hope I can meet this goal.
To get us started, here's my meal plan for week one! (I have decided not to assign a meal to a certain day of the week).

Tortilla and Black Bean Pie
Chicken Stir Fry
Pork Loin Tacos
Cheesy Salsa Chicken
Pork Loin Sandwiches (using left overs from the tacos)