Meal Plan and My Process! :)

OK, friends.  A few disclaimers before I get started.

First, none of these recipes are mine.  I am not claiming to be this awesome cook that has tons of recipes to share.  I like to cook.  And I like to be organized and prepared.  I started this blog for me, myself, and I.  So I could have all of the recipes that we like in one place.  It's just totally easy to share with y'all.  I will credit the original posts that I found these recipes from.  And I don't mind sharing my process with you--but that doesn't make me an expert.

Second, we try to eat as clean as possible.  That doesn't mean that every single part of every single meal is "clean."  I do the best I can--based on what we can afford during that particular shopping trip and on what I can find.  You don't have to buy exactly what I do to make these meals.  I normally take "regular" recipes and make them as clean as possible--you can do whatever your little heart desires!

OK, enough of that!  Here's what I did today.  It took me about 3 1/2 hours.  The kids were watching a movie with Adam so I was able to take my time.  I also stopped about half way through to clean up and sit down for a second.  My back was killing me! Anyhow.  I only made meals for this next week.  I will do more next weekend.  I didn't want to spend so much time in the kitchen on my last few days left.  But, it was raining today--so... here's how I spent my afternoon!

The Meal Plan:
Saturday (tonight)-- Lasagna (doubled the recipe so I could freeze one) and salad
Sunday--Grilled chicken and steak, grilled veggies, baked sweet potatoes (no recipe needed for this!)
Monday--Crustless Zucchini Enchilada Quiche from ifoodreal and a salad
Tuesday-- (first day back for teachers!) Crockpot Salsa Pineapple Chicken from Who Needs a Cape?, green beans, carrots
Wednesday-- Cheeseburger wraps from Mostly Homemade Mom, peas, organic corn
Thursday-- Pulled Pork, sweet potato fries, ??

I didn't make a plan for Friday.  Adam will have football and I will figure it out then.

The Process:
First thing I do is turn the radio on :)  I can not function without music playing.  Then I pull up my blog on my Kindle and get that set up.

Next, I get my bags ready, pull out the pitcher I'm gonna use, and get coffee.  Coffee is also a must.

I started browning the meat for the Cheeseburger Wraps first. I always buy this meat from Lowes Foods.  Whatever ground beef you want to use is totally fine.

While the meat was browning, I started with the easiest recipe I had--Pineapple Salsa Chicken.

First, I put the ziploc bag inside the pitcher and wrapped the edges around the side.  Then, I drained the pineapple and dumped that in.  Then the salsa.  The chicken went on top.  I used already frozen chicken tenderloins.  Chicken breasts freak me out.  :)

Next, I did the Pulled Pork.  Again, I put the meat in last.  The pork wasn't frozen--I bought it yesterday.

Then I put those two in the freezer.

Before I started the Crustless Zucchini recipe, I cleaned up the kitchen and added the ingredients to the Cheeseburger wrap meat.  After it simmers a while, remove it from the heat to cool down before placing it in a bag.

The Crustless Zucchini Enchilada Quiche required some effort.  And patience.  Kind of tedious.  I have never tried this one before, so if it doesn't turn out good, I will let y'all know!

First, I made the homemade enchilada sauce that she recommends in the recipe.  I let that simmer while I did the rest.  It smelled so good!

 Then, I was supposed to shred the zucchini.  I just grated it! haha   

Two large zucchinis made the 3 cups that the recipe called for.  I had to squeeze the water out of the pile of zucchini that I had after I grated it.  I used a paper towel.  Annoying.  Kinda gross.  Oh well.  Once I had the zucchini done, I cut up the tortillas.  I used whole wheat.  She uses corn, I think.  You use what you want!

After I combined everything, I let it cool.  I did not add the cheese yet.  I will stir that in before I bake it on Monday.  

Next, I made lasagna! I doubled the recipe so I could freeze one for later.  I also used one pound of ground beef, and one pound of ground turkey.  Not much of this meal is clean.  It's hard to find whole wheat lasagna noodles.  I also have a hard time finding good cheese.  And I don't feel like making my own sauce.  Like ever.  Oh well.  You need a cheat meal every once in a while! :)

OK, so in the big pot is the sauce and meat.  The two smaller ones are the noodles.  I boiled 1 1/2 boxes of noodles.  I wasn't sure how many I would need.  After the sauce simmered for a while and the noodles cooked, I dumped the noodles in the strainer in the sink.  Make sure you let them cool off before trying to layer them in your pan!  Just sayin!

While the noodles were cooling, I poured the quiche filling into a ziploc bag and put that in the freezer.

Then, I started layering the noodles into the pan that I was going to use for dinner tonight.

After that finished, I popped it in the oven!  I bought a disposable aluminum pan for the one to freeze.  So, I did that one next.  Everything was cool by now, so the cheese didn't melt when I put it on.  Then I wrapped the pan in foil.  Then I put the plastic lid on top.  Just to protect it some.  Make sure you slide a baking sheet underneath the aluminum pan before moving it to the freezer.  Especially if your freezer is in the garage.   Dropping it would be a disaster.  A disaster I barely avoided.  

I had a lot of sauce and noodles left over.  So, I decided to make some lasagna roll-ups.  But, I didn't add any cheese.  I just spread some sauce on each noodle and then rolled them up!  I froze them in pairs.  I figured we could take them for lunch when school starts.  I ended up with 4 "packets."

And then I STILL had sauce leftover.  So I froze it! haha  We will use it someday!

By this time, dinner was ready!

These sweet faces were happy!  They love lasagna and ate it all!

Here's what my freezer looks like now.  I put a piece of cardboard on each shelf when I was cleaning it out this summer.  One day last school year, one of my bags busted.  I think it slipped through one of the openings of the wire shelf.  I remember like not having time to clean it out.  Well, I didn't clean it until this summer.  It was a frozen, disgusting mess.  So, I added the cardboard to hopefully prevent that from happening again.

OK friends.  I am exhausted.  My back pain is on a whole new level right now! :)

I will have more meals next week.  Well, I will make more.  From the list I posted the other day.  I don't think my post with be this detailed.  Depends on my mood! :)