Creating weekly meal plans

Since I'm going to be working and traveling fulltime, I'm trying to learn some new strategies for making better, more realistic meal plans for my family.

I love to cook, and I anticipate this becoming a source of frustration for me if I don't get a handle on it right out of the shoot.

I learned today that Meijer grocery stores does something nice on their website to this end. They create weekly meal plans that are built around the sale ad for that week. THANK YOU Meijer!

I'm gonna give it a try. http://www.meijerhealthyliving.com/

I also signed up for Bust-a-Meal. www.BustAMeal.com
On this service, you go to the website and pick your favorite yummy easy recipes from their database of hundreds (maybe thousands by now). All are sorted by main dish and there are side recipes too. You tag your favs, then each week, they send you an email with a menu for the week with whatever number of meals you want (I just picked 3 per week because I know that I won't have time to cook more than that. Then I just fix extra to have as leftovers and we wind up doing a sandwich or going out once or twice for something cheap and fast on a busy day.)

So, the automatic weekly menu email is compiled from the recipes you flagged. They mix it up and follow stuff that's in season. Then, you get the email which contains your menu and a shopping list to take to the store to make sure you have all the ingredients on hand! I'm loving this! Thank you Bust A Meal!

Lunch...a warm multigrain salad

I'm into these warm salads these days.

It's easy -
I usually just put a pile of salad greens on a big plate, then mound some hot seasoned rice or multigrain pilaf in the middle of it and top it with some sauteed veggies. Sometimes I add meat, sometimes not. It's so good - especially with some good vinaigrette.

It's best with a good sturdy lettuce like romaine or iceberg.
I like a few drops of sesame oil and soy sauce in it.