One of the commenters from my original post about cooking on Sundays asked what a sample of a weekly menu looks like in our house. Since I know that everyone is always looking for kitchen inspiration, I thought I would share a couple of Confetti family weekly meal plans (nearly all of which is cooked on Sunday and eaten throughout the week).

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On a Sunday afternoon preparing this week’s meals, I start first with the Happy Monday Chicken (recipe: here), since it requires a full hour in the oven. I preheat my oven first thing.  While it’s warming, I mix up my seasoning, rinse and dry the chicken thighs, and coat the chicken. By the time the oven is ready, my chicken is too, and once it’s in, I set my timer for 30 minutes, when I will baste them and then add my carrots on the other shelf.  While the chicken starts cooking, I dice up a pan worth of baby carrots, coat them with a dash of olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder, and place them on a foil-lined pan (for easy clean up!) so they are ready to go in when my microwave timer beeps.

At this point, I get a pot of water boiling for the tortellini (Colin’s favorite).  This is my one easy meal – I just boil them and add a jar of pre-made sauce that I doctor up with some spices.  While I wait for the water to boil, I wash and start chopping the peppers, onion and mushrooms for my stir fry. If I have time, I continue chopping veggies, shifting to halving cherry tomatoes and cutting up cucumber, which C loves to dip into Italian dressing throughout the week. By now, the water for C’s “nini” is ready, so I focus on that for 2.5 minutes while they quickly cook. I drain the tortellini, then dump them back into the pot and add sauce and spices, then transfer it all into a container for the fridge.

My timer beeps, and I baste the chicken and add the carrot pan to the oven.  Then I shift focus to my chicken for my stir fry.  I dice the raw chicken (the job I hate THE MOST), and put it in a Ziploc bag with a heavy dash of Soyaki sauce, one of my favorite store-bought marinades. While the chicken marinates, I saute my veggies for the stir fry in a bit of vegetable oil.  While I stir occasionally, I finish the rest of my “chopping,” cutting up a large container of strawberries that were on sale (!!!) and the remainder of the cucumber.  I throw a bag of broccoli and cauliflower into the microwave to steam, and wash up the apples and plums before putting them in the fruit drawer in the fridge.

When the veggies are soft, I remove a small container worth of them to reserve without sauce (probably for a quesadilla lunch later in the week), and then move the rest out of the pan temporarily so I can cook the chicken all the way through before adding them back in with more marinade.  As the stir fry is coming together, my microwave beeps again: chicken and carrots are done!

Everything comes off the heat and onto the counter to cool a bit before I transfer each dish into a storage container and into the fridge. At this point, all that is left are the burgers and a whole lot of clean up.  I head to our deck to preheat the grill, and then return to mix up my burgers. What started as this recipe has now been adapted quite a bit over time – I’m including my recipe below. I mash up the ingredients and form them into patties.  Then I head to the deck and get them on the grill, and head back in to clean. I set my timer for 8 minutes, and then get to it.  So much cleaning.  The eight minutes fly by, and then I grab my tongs to flip the burgers. Eight more minutes later, most of my cleaning is done and so are the burgers.

By the end, it’s all a matter of figuring out which size containers to use and how to arrange them so my refrigerator door will close.  Four entrées, three side dishes and fruit all ready for the week in less than 2 hours.

And in case you’re still reading, here is my favorite recipe that I have adapted over time for flavorful and delicious turkey burgers:

Turkey Burgers

Ingredients:

2 20-ounce package lean ground turkey
1 envelope Lipton onion soup mix
1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs
2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp garlic power
1/2 tsp black pepper

Instructions:

Preheat your grill to high heat.  Mix together all ingredients.  Form 10 patties, and cook on a lightly oiled grill for 8 minutes on each side or until cooked through. Patties can be frozen raw or cooked for an easy weeknight dinner as well.