Monthly Menu #7

 We ate out so much this month! I had a full month of meals planned but with a weekend trip away, a few parties and late night with friends and the 4th of July weekend of cookouts we really didn't end up  making all that many meals at home or following my plan much.  Here is what we did eat.. 



1.  BBQ chicken tenderloins & Cole slaw grinders with chips and salad.  (I just had salad with chicken)

It was so good I had another salad with the leftovers for lunch the next day!

2. Grilled pork chops with pasta salad and salad.



3.  Family cookout for the 4th of July-- We brought salad, fruit salad, mini parfait cups and a key lime pie-- flag decorated with whipped cream to look like the 4th of July.





4. Leftovers from the family cookout on the 3rd.

5. My husband, Ian, and I headed to the movies in the late afternoon so some it was a fend for yourself/ eat junk at the movie kind of night. (I skipped dinner entirely!)

6. The boys and I got ice cream on our way home from the beach; I had cooked up sloppy joe meat before leaving so a few people had that for dinner and a few of us made do with the ice cream.


7. Honey lime shrimp stir fry; I used up some veggies I had on hand (butternut squash, broccoli, and mushrooms) and served it over pasta.  The younger boys just had pasts and chicken tenderloins.


8. Roasted chicken, asparagus, corn on the cob, and rice pilaf (sorry the photo is so awful it has been so dark and stormy here).


9. Grilled filet steaks, grilled romaine, leftover salad or corn (depending on who wanted what)-- again I'm sorry for the poor lighting in the photo... we're hopeful the sun will come out again one day soon. 


10. & 11.  Weekend in Maine we ate out for every meal.

12. We unexpectedly had a date night out when we went to pick up our jet ski so the boys fended for themselves making Caesar salad and reheating leftovers. 

13. Summer squash lasagna and salad.


14. Grilled chicken legs, potato salad, and salad.


15.  BLT grinders with our weekly salad and leftover potato salad. 


16.  Spaghetti with leftover sauce from the freezer that I heated in the crock pot all day, sautéed zucchini, and salad.

17. The younger boys and I were at a party so my husband and Ian fended for themselves; they ended up with chicken salad sandwiches and chips. 

18. New England baked scallops (without the vermouth),  grilled chicken (for the boys), green beans, and rice pilaf (with riced cauliflower for me). 


19. Pulled pork sandwiches with a weight watchers lightly lemon apple coleslaw and salad.


20. Chicken & sundried tomato Orzo one dish.


21.  Grilled pizzas with salad. 


22. Weight Watchers Tuscan chicken pasta (a new recipe that was just amazing!!) with salad.



23. Steak, tropical broccoli salad, corn on the cob, and salad.


24. Last minute take out of Chicken Parmesan and Pizza since we were busy putting in our basement flooring all day. 

25. Tacos, nachos, or taco salad 


26. New England baked fish with baked potato and salad (with chicken tenderloin strips for the boys).


27.  Grilled ham steaks, with Weight Watchers pea and bacon salad (a new recipe), and egg noodles. 

28. Chicken, broccoli, and rice casserole


29. Meatball grinders with salad

30. Leftovers

31. Eating out somewhere.. 

Linking up with: Spread the Kindness, 








Comments

  1. HollyJuly 27, 2021 at 5:36 AM

    Still sounds like a delicious month- that key lime flag pie is just amazing

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joanne July 27, 2021 at 4:10 PM

      We had no idea that you could color whipped cream until we Googled it!

      Delete
  2. Tamar SBJuly 27, 2021 at 7:04 AM

    What a great and tasty month. I need to tried grilled romaine!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Doused in Pink | Chicago Style BlogJuly 27, 2021 at 8:07 AM

    Love all of these dinner ideas! All of the salads and the chicken and sundried tomato orzo dish sounds delicious!

    Jill - Doused in Pink

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joanne July 27, 2021 at 4:11 PM

      That is one of our favorite dishes that we make pretty much every single month.

      Delete
  4. Lindsay's Sweet WorldJuly 27, 2021 at 9:45 AM

    You always make some really great stuff! I need to learn how to cook filets... I've never attempted them, but I'd love to try! They're my favorite thing and I only ever have one when we go out to dinner for a special occasion.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joanne July 27, 2021 at 4:17 PM

      We actually buy a slab of beef from BJ's-- a beef tenderloin-- and cut our own filets too; usually it's about $150 but with our family of 5 we get at least 3 (sometimes 4) meals out of it as we tend to cut our filets a bit thinner than a typical filet mignon from a restaurant. So for us it's MUCH cheaper to eat it at home! My husband cooks the steaks on the grill "low and slow" as he likes to say. We heat the grill to 300 degrees and keep the steaks cooking between 300- 350 degrees until the meat thermometer reads "medium" which is around 145 degrees.

      Delete
  5. Rebecca JoJuly 27, 2021 at 12:23 PM

    I still am in love with that flag pie!
    I love pasta salad during hot days. I need to make a batch.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joanne July 27, 2021 at 4:17 PM

      I am such a sucker for a good pasta salad!

      Delete
  6. Linda @ Life and LindaJuly 27, 2021 at 12:32 PM

    Looks so delicious Joanne. Salads are so perfect for summer plus grilling. I love 1 dish meals. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Pat @ Mille Fiori FavoritiJuly 27, 2021 at 1:37 PM

    Everything looks delicious, Joanne! I never kept a food diary before last year but I began then to try to make sure I used up all the big bags of vegetables I purchased at Costco in an effort to reduce my shopping. I'd check for recipes online and then make up a meal plan. I enjoyed doing it and have kept it up, but I never thought to take photos of all the meals I prepared and now I'm inspired by this post to do so.--thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joanne July 27, 2021 at 4:18 PM

      You're welcome! I like to have this record to look back on when I start to feel like we're eating the same old things again and I need to remember other meals we've tried and enjoyed.

      Delete
  8. Amy at Ms. Toody Goo ShoesJuly 27, 2021 at 11:02 PM

    A yummy month! The weekend of eating out in Maine sounds wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joanne July 28, 2021 at 5:38 AM

      It was wonderful; it was probably the highlight of my month.

      Delete
  9. Veronica LeeJuly 28, 2021 at 3:24 AM

    Yummm! Delish dinner ideas!

    I'd love to try the Summer squash lasagna.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Nancy 's Fashion StyleJuly 28, 2021 at 3:37 AM

    Looks very delicious. I also love to eat a lot of vegetables.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joanne July 28, 2021 at 5:38 AM

      I try to fill up mainly on fruits and veggies.

      Delete
  11. Kim CarberryJuly 28, 2021 at 8:26 AM

    It is nice to eat out but home cooked is always the best. What tasty meals, my mouth is watering just looking at them. x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joanne July 28, 2021 at 4:56 PM

      Yes, I actually miss home cooking when we eat out too much; like a week or even a weekend away.

      Delete
  12. Claire JustineJuly 29, 2021 at 8:48 AM

    I am so ready for my lunch now. I could just eat the BBQ chicken! Everything looks so tasty :)

    Thanks so much for linking up to The Wednesday Link Up.#TheWednesdayLinkUp

    ReplyDelete
  13. Shelbee on the EdgeAugust 1, 2021 at 12:06 PM

    Key lime pie is my favorite! And it looks so great with the flag icing! Thanks for sharing all this yumminess, my friend.

    Shelbee
    www.shelbeeontheedge.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joanne August 1, 2021 at 5:38 PM

      I thought that was so clever of him to try and tint the whipped cream.

      Delete
  14. LyshaAugust 3, 2021 at 3:22 PM

    So many great ideas. Grilled Pizzas sounds really good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joanne August 4, 2021 at 7:44 PM

      It is so good! The crust gets good and crispy and has that great grilled flavor.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Favorite TV Shows Growing Up in the 80's and early 90's

Image
Do you remember the TGIF lineups on Friday nights? I can remember planning sleepovers and time with friends around TV Show lineups of our favorite shows... or else trying to set the VCR to record our favorite shows if we weren't going to be home. And through the years I had SO MANY favorites! Growing pains aired in 1985 which put me around age 8 and it stayed on the air until I was 15 or so; I'm pretty sure most people in my age group watched mostly for Kirk Cameron and all his antics.  I still have a soft spot for family sit-coms!  The Facts of Life aired when I was just 2  and stayed on the air until I was 11 so I'm sure the episodes I remember so fondly were either some of the later ones and then reruns shown later on when I was old enough to watch from the beginning. I think everyone would have loved an Edna Garret in their lives.   Benson another sitcom that began airing when I was just 2 and was done by the time I was 9 (another one I must have watched mai...
Read more

Things That Make Me Laugh

Image
I loved the challenge of this week's list for our 26 lists link up.  I don't know about you but I really need to laugh more lately.  It's such a great stress reliever. 1.  Books-- I love a good funny book that makes me laugh out loud.  I haven't read one in a while but if you have any recommendations I'm all ears.  The last book I can remember making me laugh was the Un-Honeymooners. 2  The boys being silly. 3.  Watching shows like America's Funniest Videos or Family Feud. 4. My husband.  Most people don't realize it but he's actually pretty funny and often makes me laugh. 5.  Whenever my sisters/ family get together and we get to reminiscing (particularly if my Aunt Elaine is around) we end up laughing so hard at all the old family stories that we are all in tears by the end of the night.  It's fabulous. 6. Movies like Mom's Night Out, Christmas Vacation, and Grown Ups make me laugh out loud. 7.  When my ...
Read more

Making Gift Card and Money Holders Using Scrapbooking and Cardmaking Supples

Image
I don't tend to keep a lot of crafting supplies on hand so when I saw this month's de-stash challenge I wasn't sure what I was going to make.  I finally realized that with so many of my Christmas gifts being cash and gift cards this year that I needed to make up some fun paper crafting/ creative ways to gift them.   I still want my nieces and nephews to have something to open so I pulled out my papers and stamps and made up some cute little money/gift card holders. They were much easier to make than I thought.  The first one I worked on was to hold some oversized Nintendo gift cards.  I made a standard sized card and folded down one corner of the card front.  Then I ran my double sided tape along the bottom an 1/2 way up the side creating a cute little pocket.  Finally I added some cute embellishments and ribbons.   Voila! A simple and easy gift card holder for those larger sized gift cards.  The bulk of the tweens and teens on my list j...
Read more

Dollar Store Candy Cane Wreath

Image
Today I am linking up with some fellow bloggers for a Dollar Store craft challenge.  I don't often participate in these challenges since I try to stay away from our local Dollar Stores; I find they can be quite dangerous for me!  I knew this was the perfect time to find some inexpensive holiday decorations though and I just LOVE how my wreath turned out!  I hope you stop by and see what the other hosts are sharing. Meet this month's co-hosts! Across the Blvd | Purple Hues & Me This Autoimmune Life | Our Unschooling Journey Domestic Deadline | Sew Crafty Crochet Stone Cottage Adventures | Sum of Their Stories | Two Chicks & a Mom I bought the candy cane wreath base and a few rolls of mesh (not knowing how many I'd need I bought waaay to many; I only ended up using one white roll and one red roll. Using some chenille stems I already had on hand I attached the mesh to the wreath base trying to alternate the whit...
Read more

Making a Sugar Cookie "Gingerbread" House

Image
 Alec really wanted to try making his own gingerbread house this year without using a premade kit.  We talked about how we never really eat the house since they don't taste very good.  Years ago we gave up on the frosting that comes in the kit and began making our own so we thought perhaps we should try making our our house too. Only problem is that no one in the house likes gingerbread.  We talked about trying to make the house using a sugar cookie recipe.  Alec was so excited at that idea since he just LOVES sugar cookies.   He found a recipe online for a simple sugar cookie recipe and mixed up the dough.  He rolled it out an cut it to the size of our cookie sheets-- we had read that it's easiest to cut the house pieces out after the dough has been baked and is still warm and soft because then you don't have to worry about any of the pieces losing their shape while baking. I had picked out a simple cookie cutter set on Amazon and as soon as the ...
Read more