Menu Plan Monday - Pizza, Pasta, Leftovers, and Homemade Tater Tots

I actually stuck to my menu this week! It was relatively simple. I didn't have to buy anything. Since I'm trying to go through what I have in my pantry, I'm trying not to spend much at the store. I got the staples--eggs, milk, bread. But everything else I already had. I didn't do much cooking ahead of time. I'm going to try to do more of that this week to free up my evenings. This is what I made:

The Plan:
Monday: Homemade Pizza
Tuesday: Pasta with Sausage and Cannelini Beans
Wednesday: Chicken, veggies with cream sauce, rice
Thursday: Leftovers
Saturday: Steak, Homemade Tater Tots

The Method: 
Monday: I still had pizza dough and homemade sauce leftover from a couple of weeks ago. It was borderline...it was 2 weeks old. But I made it anyway. And nobody died.
Tuesday: I had bought sausage the week before and never did anything with it. So I decided to throw it in with some rotini pasta, cannelini beans, and a can of diced tomatoes. I added a couple of ladlefuls of the pasta water back into the pot, and the pasta soaked it up so it wasn't too dry. It was a delicious, easy dinner.
Wednesday: I had visions of making a cheesy chicken and rice dish, so I roasted some cauliflower (bought the week before and never used), cooked some rice, and pan-fried some chicken thighs. By the time I was done, I picked at the veggies, chicken and rice so much that I wasn't hungry for a real dinner.
Saturday: I had a steak in the freezer, which I defrosted and grilled. Easy enough. I also had 3 potatoes that were starting to sprout aliens out of their eyes, so I had to do something with them. My recent copy of Cook's Country magazine had an article for homemade tater tots in it. I'm a sucker for anything with potatoes, and tater tots are awesome. I even like the frozen ones. Not anymore, though! Holy cow. Homemade tater tots are delicious.

Update: Here is the Homemade Tater Tots recipe with a printable recipe card!


For more meal planning obsessiveness inspiration, check out orgjunkie.com!

Zucchini Muffins Even Your Toddler Will Eat

These muffins were inspired by the Zucchini Muffin recipe on this beautiful, beautiful food blog, Scaling Back. But of course, I have trouble following directions and can't do anything as I'm instructed, so I changed it up a bit. That, and I was getting a little sick of wiping poppy seeds of Baby T's butt. (Gross, I know.) Oh, and I've been making them with gluten-free baking mix. The recipe usually makes 24 muffins, and I put at least half in the freezer. I can grab one at a time and microwave it for 15 seconds to thaw.

This was a lesson in toddler patience.