Meal Planning

I love to bake, but cooking is another thing. Ingredients don't inspire me. I am not comfortable making things up as I go along. I am a recipe follower and a measuring freak. I am OK with that. So, to make sure we eat proper meals during the week, I have to plan it out. I don't do this every week. On the weeks that I don't plan, we end up eating oatmeal (which my actually husband loves) or a lot of pasta.

Today, I felt inspired to plan some meals. And Cheryl is visiting next week, so I went ahead and planned for that week, too.

Here's what I have planned:
- Meatball sliders with creamy Parmesan mashed potatoes
- Parmesan pasta with chicken & rosemary with garlic broccoli
- Quick and Easy Chicken and Dumplings

I have been wanting to try the quick and easy chicken and dumplings for a long time now, but it never occurred to me before to half the recipe. Cooking for two is not always the easiest thing because most recipes serve 4+ and then you end up with a ton of leftovers. I loathe leftovers, in most cases, so I do what I can to avoid being stuck with them. Luckily, both the parm pasta and the chicken/dumplings use store-bought rotisserie chicken, so I can half each recipe.

This is my rough idea for next week: 
- Stirfry...I'll probably make Charles make this, He's a pro with stirfry.
- Caesar pockets. They are simply and delcious! Basically it's Caesar salad in a pita with deli turkey.
- Tangy Asian Meatballs. I have been craving teriyaki meatballs. Plus, they go in the slow cooker!
- Almond crusted chicken with twice baked potatoes. I made this chicken a week or two ago and I think this time I'm going to add another spice or something to give it a little more flavor.
- Chicken nuggets with fruit salad (homemade)

Next week, I will also probably make breakfast a couple times. I am thinking monkey bread and maybe French Toast casserole (a recipe I clipped, but haven't tried yet). And for desserts, I'm planning on homemade ice cream (love the Ben & Jerry's cookbook), fondue and mud pie.