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Meal Plan Recap for Week of February 29

Original Meal Plan

Monday-Roast Chicken and Vegetables
Tuesday- Spaghetti and meatballs and salad
Wednesday- Chicken quesadillas and corn
Thursday- Sandwiches (made to order)
Friday- Goulash
Saturday- Pizza
 ------------
Adjusted Meal Plan
Monday-Roast Chicken and Vegetables
Tuesday- Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti Bake
Wednesday- Chicken fajitas with rice and corn
Thursday-  Lasagna ( freezer meal)
Friday-  Sandwiches (made to order)
Saturday- Spaghetti and Meatball Bake ( freezer meal)






 The purpose of a meal plan is to give you something to aim for, but sometimes life happens  so even the best intentions may not happen.  On Monday, this week I started with the roast chicken, which turned out wonderfully.  This was the first time I made this recipe.  I’m not sure why I’ve never made it before.  I guess I’ve always been intimidated to try it.  Perhaps I thought it to be too time consuming.  It turned out so well, and I ended up with enough leftover chicken for two additional meals.  Everyone seemed to like this, so I will file this under a fan favorite.


On Tuesday evening, I was feeling creative and wanted to do something different than the usual spaghetti and meatballs.  I wanted to do something with the leftover chicken and leftover ricotta cheese in the fridge from making lasagna.  I found a few recipes online for chicken-etti.   Here is my version that I call Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti Bake.  Everyone loved this recipe, and I will definitely be making it again. At the same time that I made this recipe I put together a spaghetti and meatball casserole and put it in the freezer.
  

Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti Bake

 1 package uncooked spaghetti
2 Cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup shredded Mexican or cheddar cheese
1 cup ricotta cheese
¼ cup Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 egg

Cook spaghetti and set aside.   Combine ricotta, egg, Parmesan, margarine, and half of mozzarella cheese ( as if making lasagna). In 8x8  pan layer cheese mixture with spaghetti,  and top with mozzarella, and Mexican cheese.    Bake at 350 for 45 minutes

On Wednesday , I still had more chicken left over, and I ended up making more of a soft chicken taco instead of a quesadilla. The reason was that I simply ran out of time, and so I could serve the components of tacos separately. This tends to be the best way for my family because not everyone usually will eat every component of a combined dish. I have found that when I try to add to many elements to a dish that is where I get into trouble with the kids not wanting to try new things.   The side dish with this meal was just simple fruit salad of clementine’s, and bananas.  My husband and I both enjoyed this dish as intended, but the kids ate the components separately.  I would make this again, but I don’t think that the kids would have considered this to be a fan favorite.

Soft Chicken Tacos

( Busy evening and I forgot to take picture)

2 cups chicken stock
1 cup rice
1 can corn
¼ cup salsa
 1 package taco seasoning
 Mexican Shredded Cheese
1 onion
1 red pepper
Flour tortillas or soft taco shells

Direction
Saute chicken, salsa, taco seasoning, onion, and diced peppers in butter or margarine. Cook separately rice in chicken stock as per package direction.  Serve in flour tortillas with cheese, corn and rice.

On Thursday we had an extremely busy evening, and I really was not in the mood for sandwiches.  Therefore, I grabbed lasagna out of the freezer and popped it into the oven for an hour.  I usually add about 15-20 minutes extra to cooking time when baking anything directly from the freezer.  This recipe usually is a favorite at my house, but tonight the kids just didn’t seem to be in the mood. I likely should have gone with the sandwiches.   At the very least, my husband and I enjoyed it and there was enough for leftover for lunch the next day.

Friday night normally is another busy night at our house.  I was busy all day with taking care of a sick child, so I decided to have the sandwiches. This worked well, because they were made to order.

On Saturday, I had great plans of making homemade pizza. However, in the afternoon, we had some furniture delivered and we spent good portion of the afternoon rearranging things in our living room.  I never had the opportunity to make the pizza dough so I ended up pulling the spaghetti casserole out of the freezer.  Though my kids aren’t big tomato sauce fans, they ate it. Their favorite part was the meatballs.  My baby daughter enjoyed feeding herself the spaghetti with some mozzarella cheese and was all smiles.  My husband will have the leftovers for his lunch on Monday.


I find meal planning to be helpful, but  am also a believer in being flexible. It is not always possible to  foresee things that end up happening that might affect our meal plan. This is why it is important to be flexible. This is another reason I like freezer meals because they give me some flexibility.  I likely will move anything I didn’t make, like the goulash, and pizza, into next week.  

So how did you do with your meal plan this week? Please feel free to leave a comment below,
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