Meal Planning 101: Week 17 & 18

Is anyone else as excited as I am that stores FINALLY have seasonal creamer?! It just makes everything better. Mornings, coffee, days, motivation. It's all better because my coffee tastes warm and cozy. 

The weather, and maybe the presence of seasonal coffee beverages, definately influence my cooking and meal planning too. It's been happening already with my baking, but it's now taking over my cooking! My meals this week are full of stew, crockpot meals, fall salad condiments, and even savory pumpkin. Since I neglected you last week, I'm giving you last week's meal plan and this week's! I've also been going baking crazy and making things left and right. Expect recipes soon.

My fav bread in the banana bread extravaganza was the pumpkin one. A pumpkin chocolate pizookie also happened. 

Monday:

Leftover Corndog Muffins and Balsamic Crash Potatoes

Tuesday:

Baked Chicken Fajitas and Mexican Salad

Wednesday:

Leftover Fajitas

Thursday:

Chicken Fajita Salad

Friday:

Dinner at the Mississippi State Fair

Saturday:

Creamy Tomato Basil Soup and Fancy Grilled Cheese

Sunday:

Green Chili Beef Stew (this recipe but with beef instead of pork) and Perfect Brown Rice

Monday:

Leftover Stew

Tuesday:

Pumpkin Ravioli with Thyme Rosemary Brown Butter and Fall Chopped Salad

Wednesday:

Leftover Ravioli

Thursday (today):

Crock Pot Ranch Roasted Chicken and Potatoes with Butter Beans

Friday:

Frozen Pizza and Cheesy Shells*

Saturday:

Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese Bake and Corn*

Sunday (OCTOBER 14TH!):

Chicken Tamale Bake, Homemade Guacamole, Homemade White Queso, Homemade Pico Salsa, Smashed Beans, Jenny's Grandma's Apple Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream and Homemade Caramel Sauce**

*My friend Jessica is coming to town and staying with me for a few days! Normally I'd never have two back to back pastas and especially not two back to back macaroni and cheese dishes. However, Jess was my roommate when I first started cooking! One of my first cooking accomplishments was getting her to like macaroni and cheese which she had never liked before. It's embarrassing to admit it's just shells and cheese (not Velveeta even, the powder cheese kind) from a box that I doctor up! A. She loves pizza. B. She requested my box mac and cheese. C. She loved buffalo chicken stuff. Thus the Friday and Saturday meals.

**If Sunday looks over the top and fancy, it is! Two things happen on this Sunday, October 14th. 1. It's my favorite day! It's been my celebrated favorite day for 10 years now. Wow, just realized it's our (mine and October 14th's) 10th Anniversary! Makes the fancy meal even more worthy. And 2. It's Lat-Webb Family Fun Night with the Lat-Webb Staff! We have FFN twice a semester and it's just a time for us to set aside time to be intentional and have staff (family) bonding time and have fun. We cook, we eat, we play games, we laugh, we love.

I also make a Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal dish for make ahead breakfast for the week that I think I'll share soon.

Finally found the perfect no chill, no spread sugar cookie recipe! I went a bit crazy with my mini fall cookie cutters.