Weekly Meal, Grocery List and Recipes: Easy Weeknight Dinners

This weekend, we were getting into the festive spirit with some last minute Christmas shopping, the annual toy run, decorating the tree and I spent a majority of my time with the kids in the kitchen baking different types of cookies, making fudge, peanut butter balls and trying a new recipe for Peppermint Bark.

This week is a great time to start baking and making those food gifts if you haven’t started already. Food gifts are great because they are simple, fun to make and can be done inexpensively.

Last week, Noel’s Family Meals Members started a majority of our batch and freezer cooking in preparation for a less hectic second part of this month when our focus will be on Christmas. For this week’s menu plan, we still want to keep it simple as we move closer to the holiday. This avoids the feeling of being burnt out later in the month when we want to enjoy our time with family and friends. Remember, we are incorporating all of those useful meal planning tools.

Our December Plan Continues….

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Before we get started, How are you like this layout? There’s still some teaks to work out, but in the long run, I feel it will be much easier. I’ve also added the meal plan to Google Calendar. If you prefer to be included in receiving the Calendar, please send me an e-mail to: noelskitchen@gmail.com and I’ll add you to the list.

Monday December 12: Potato, Corn and Broccoli Chowder

task: double the recipe and freeze the second batch.
additional day: Monday December 26

Tuesday December 13: Chicken Pot Pie

task:use cubed cooked chicken (from previous week); double the recipe and freeze the second pot pie.
additional day: Tuesday December 27

Wednesday December 14: Crockpot Enchiladas, Beans, Rice

task:task: double the enchiladas and freeze half; make the beans and freeze half
additional day: December 28

Thursday December 15: Pasta Bar: lots of noodles, two kinds of sauce: red sauce and alfredo, bread and salad

task: prepare red sauce first part of week and refrigerate. Make quick alfredo sauce, heat garlic bread, make salad

Friday December 16: Mom’s Favorite Chili in a Bread Bowl

task: make bread bowl dough in morning. refrigerate and make bread bowls while chili is heating.

Saturday December 17: Leftovers (Every once in a while it’s good to use up leftovers so no food goes to waste, especially when we have a big dinner coming up next week.)

The plan for lunches this month is leftovers, sandwiches, quesadillas, salads or finger foods. For breakfast, plan to rotate between oatmeal, cold cereals, scones or muffins with fruit, pancakes, waffles, cinnamon rolls and granola. Recipes can be found on the Recipe Index page.

**** Please be aware that the December Shopping List for Week 2 will be posted later due to site server issues beyond my control. I’m sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

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