It’s Monday, and time to plan out your meals for the upcoming week! I LOVE meal planning. It saves me time, money, stress….and we end up enjoying a much wider variety of food! When we don’t plan ahead, we can so often find ourselves in a rut…always falling back on the same old things. If you are looking for more ideas, check out the Weekly Menu Archives.  If you don’t like the ideas you see here, pull out some cookbooks, surf the internet, and ask around…find several weeks worth of recipes, and write out the ingredients that you would need to purchase. Make your list, and then stick to it at the store! You’ll find yourself saving a lot of money, and will have everything you need to make a week or two’s worth of great tasting dinners!

Monday: The Pioneer Woman’s Bow-Tie Lasagna (I love her, and I LOVE this recipe!) I have a need to play with all recipes….so, I do half ground chuck and half Italian sausage…just to keep it interesting!

Tuesday: Chicken and Dumplings – I will be doing a featured post on this recipe soon!!

Wednesday: Mashed Potato Burgers – This is one of the recipes submitted to the recent Idahoan Recipe Challenge (for which I am the judge), and I still have a few more of the entries to make and try! This recipe features potatoes as the bun! How fun!

Thursday: Quesadillas – I like to customize these at our house…I set out a variety of fillings and cheeses, and let everyone create their quesadilla to their liking! I like mine with shredded chicken, a mix of jack and cheddar, and green chiles! I dip mine in refried beans.

Friday: Jambalaya – There are lots of recipes floating around for this…but honestly, since I am a self-proclaimed pantry cook (and I have NO problem with packaged items), I will freely admit that I love Zatarains Jambalaya mix! I add in a turkey sausage cut into pieces, and dinner is ready! Serve it up with some biscuits or conrbread and you are set!

Saturday: French Bread Pizza – LOVE this variation on pizza! I love the crusty bread with all my favorite toppings!

Sunday: Crockpot Pesto Chicken – My friend Carol came up with this idea and I love it! Place your frozen chicken breasts into your crock pot and cover them with the Red Pepper Pesto (my friend Heidi came up with). Cook on high for 4 hours, and you have deliciously moist and tasty chicken!

Enjoy your week of tasty meals!