Tag Archives: meal planning

In which we give eMeals another go

I’ve been in a meal-planning rut lately, so I decided to subscribe to eMeals again. It’s a meal-planning service rather than a meal-in-a-box service, so the costs are a lot lower than some of the meal subscriptions I’ve tried in the last few years.

I used the service years and years ago, and then I stopped using it when my free review subscription ran out. (You can read “Put meal-planning on autopilot” to see what I thought about it initially.) The plan options have changed quite a bit in the last half decade. You can switch your meal plan any time now rather than once a month, and I think there are more options now. For this week’s meal plan, we’re trying some recipes from their 30-Minute plan. I’m going to switch to Heart Healthy for next week, and I’ll probably try out some of the other options as well. I don’t know that I’ll ever give them a shot, but they do have Paleo, Vegan and Keto plans if that’s your thing.

Here’s what we’ll be having this week.

Monday: Mexican street corn tostadas

This is one of the eMeals recipes, and it looks pretty simple to put together. I’m going to see if Pete can make it himself.

Tuesday: Pizza
Rockford and I are going out to a concert, so I’m ordering pizza for my mom and the kids.

Wednesday: Scattered
The kids both have activities on Wednesdays, and they end at different times. So we’re here and there and here again.

Thursday: Sticky Chicken
It’s another eMeals option, and it sounds like it’s a mildly sweet stir-fry.

Friday: Bacon-wrapped chicken with guacamole
Our final eMeals meal of the week. I figure you can’t go wrong with bacon or guacamole, so I’m anticipating good things from this one.

Hungry for more? Check out the Menu Plan Monday linkup at OrgJunkie.

Of course I’m calling them David S Pumpkins muffins. Any questions?

It is decorative gourd season, mighty friendlies, and I got my October off to a properly spooky start by walking straight into a dangling spider in the garage this morning. Later this evening Rockford will be figuring out where we put all of the Halloween decor when we moved in some 10 months ago, and then we will commence with the spookyfication of hearth and home.

In further autumnal news, today I made some pumpkin muffins with a lot of chocolate chips and every fall-evoking spice in the cabinet. They were delicious, and they tasted like break-apart chocolate oranges because I also put an orange’s worth of zest in them.

The children, naturally, did not care for them.


David S Pumpkins Muffins
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
zest of one orange
1 cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Pop paper liners into a muffin pan.

Mix sugar, maple syrup, oil, eggs, pumpkin and water. In separate bowl mix together the baking flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices, zest and salt. Add wet mixture and stir in chocolate chips.

Fill muffin cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake in preheated oven for 20.

And here, friends, is what we’ll be having for dinner this week.

Monday: Chili

I made chili for a church thing yesterday, and I far overestimated how much I’d need. So the “spare chili,” as Pete calls it, will be appearing on our table this evening.

Tuesday: Meatball soup
I used to make Rachael Ray recipes all the time, and then I just stopped for no particular reason. Rachael fatigue, I guess. But lately I’ve been very enthusiastic about soup and meatballs — because I am about to turn 40 and that’s what happens, kids — and when I googled “meatball soup” this popped up.

Wednesday: KFC?
I don’t know. These busy Wednesday nights are wearing on me.

Thursday: Breakfast for dinner
Maybe I’ll let the kids make their own eggs this week.

Friday: Tacos
Poppy is volunteering at a fundraiser for a friend’s non-profit, but the rest of us will be at home eating tacos.

Hungry for more? Check out the Menu Plan Monday linkup at OrgJunkie.

A poem and a menu plan

Pete cleaned his room over the weekend and unearthed a small notebook that used to live in my purse but somehow ended up buried under 6 months’ worth of Legos and socks in his room. In it, I found this gem that he wrote way back in those halcyon days of 2015:

The Ballad of Road Muffin
Road muffin —
you taste so good.
Road muffin —
How could I ever
leave you behind?
Oh road muffin —
How I will miss you
when you’re in my stomach.

I found you on the road
and now you’ve been eaten.
Yes I found you on the road,
and now you’ve been eaten.

I don’t know if this is an autobiographical work or not. I hope he didn’t eat a muffin he found on the road. I also hope that he will eat all of these things I’m making for dinner this week.

Monday: Chicken Tinga tacos

I keep typing “chicken tikka tacos, which is not what I’m making but does sound good. I’m making it with a rotisserie chicken.

Tuesday: Breakfast for dinner
There will be bacon.

Wednesday: Maybe McDonald’s
Or maybe something else. We’ll see.

Thursday: Honey soy pork tenderloin
The honey-soy pork tenderloin from Add A Pinch was on last week’s menu, too, but it’s a hard dish to make when you forget to buy the pork tenderloin.

Friday: Frozen pizza
I think I may have exhausted everything I have to say about frozen pizza.

Hungry for more? Check out the Menu Plan Monday linkup at OrgJunkie.