Weekly Meal Plan 018

mountaintopsmama

Weekly Meal Plan 018

Weekly Meal Plan 018

Last week’s meal plan consisted of a lot of repeat meals. Some weeks I’m just not excited about cooking; I want something easy and familiar or I pick meals my husband can easily cook so I can take a break. I usually prefer and like to cook but sometimes it’s just not in me to do so. I’m thankful for a husband who will cook as much as needed!

When I was working full time, we either rotated nights cooking or he would start dinner and then when I got home I would finish cooking. It all depended on who got home first and what else we had going on that night.

So, just remember, when meal planning it’s not all about *what* you are cooking. You also should plan *who* will do the cooking!

Here are the recipes from last week’s menu. Click each meal to take you to its recipe below!

Make Your Own Pizza (Sourdough Crust and Homemade Marinara)

Crispy Chicken Carnitas

Southwest Meatloaf with Roasted Sweet Potatoes

BBQ Baked Potatoes

Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad

Sun-Dried Tomato Basil Linguine

Make Your Own Pizza (Sourdough Crust and Homemade Marinara)

Sourdough discard crust with a little extra flavor, homemade marinara topped with mozzarella and our favorite toppings? Yes, please. This week I tried a crust using my sourdough discard and I am so glad I did because it was SO good. Also, because I apparently can’t stick to a recipe to save my life, I made some seasoning mix and added a teaspoon of it to the dough. I also prefer to make homemade pizza sauce and you wouldn’t believe how easy it is and it tastes so much better than store bought! All recipes are below.

Sourdough Pizza Crust

Homemade Pizza Seasoning

Homemade Pizza Sauce (5-Minute Recipe)

 

Crispy Chicken Carnitas

I have shared this recipe before and it was as good this time around as it was the first. We obviously enjoyed it enough to put it back in rotation!

Crispy Chicken Carnitas Tacos with Avocado Cilantro Lime Sauce

 

Southwest Meatloaf with Roasted Sweet Potatoes

We love a good meatloaf around here and this is one of our favorite ways to have it. I do change a few things in the recipe so I’ll include the modifications below!

Southwest Meatloaf–Food Truck Knock-Off

 

Modifications:

  • Instead of using ground turkey, I double the ground beef. We buy half a cow at a time and always have ground beef!
  • Because the beef isn’t quite as moist as the turkey, I add in an extra egg and some water (or sometimes I won’t drain the rotel) until the meatloaf all comes together and it’s easy to form the loaf.

Roasted Sweet Potato Recipe

BBQ Baked Potatoes

For the BBQ itself, I use a family recipe that I’ll include below. Then I take baking potatoes and rub them with olive oil, salt and pepper, poke them with forks and bake on 425 until a fork can easily pierce the potato. Of course, I prefer to make my own BBQ sauce! So I’ll also include that recipe and the modifications below.

Oven Kalua Pork

You will need a 3-4 lb. pork butt, slashed.

Combine in a small bowl:

1 tsp Kosher salt

3 Tbsp soy sauce

3/4 tsp minced garlic

1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger (or 1 tsp ground ginger)

1-2 Tbsps liquid smoke (I use hickory flavored!)

Fresh ground pepper, to taste

Rub sauce mixture over pork butt in a roasting pan. Cover with foil – seal well! Place in a 350 degree oven for approximately 4 hours until meat thermometer read 200 degrees. Before serving, shred pork.

https://www.simplejoy.com/bbq-sauce-recipe/?ssp_iabi=1682910784405

 

Modification:

  • You MUST use smoked paprika instead of regular paprika. Game changer!!!

Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad

This is literally exactly what it sounds like; a Caesar salad with chicken and pasta all mixed together. Chop up some romaine, grill some chicken (rubbed with herbs and salt and pepper), cook some penne pasta, throw it all in a bowl topped with Caesar dressing, parmesan cheese and croutons and call it good! In case you want an actual recipe here is one that is very similar:

Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad

Sun-Dried Tomato Basil Linguine

I love pasta. A lot. I try not to make many meals like this because they can be very heavy. But they are just so good! For a family of four and to have some leftovers, I doubled this recipe. So good.

https://juliasalbum.com/linguine-with-spinach-and-sun-dried-tomato-cream-sauce/?ssp_iabi=1682911217528

I hope one of these makes it on your menu this week! Happy cooking!

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