menu plan monday: 01|08 to 07|08

In my blog travels last week I discovered that Laura at Organizing Junkie has a handy dandy compilation of recipes from the weekly Menu Plan Monday contributors. It's aptly named the Recipe Index Round-Up. I anticipate that I will lose vast amounts of time there in the near future.

This week, however, I've pulled my recipes from other sources. As I attempt (yet again) to get back into meal-planning, I'm also attempting to get us back on track via budgeting (it's been a looooooong time since I've used my budgeting program, YNAB) and couponing. Here in Canada we aren't quite as fortunate to have the coupon system that our American friends do but we get by. If our neighbour across the street can save $160 in one grocery shopping trip, surely I can save a few dollars too and work my way up as I learn the tips and tricks and find the places for scoring relevant coupons.

I am cooking mostly from the pantry and freezer this week and trying to use alternatives to the oven whenever possible. On Saturday I picked up a 16-cup rice cooker to replace (or accompany) our 3-cup cooker. I've been seeing a few posts on using a rice cooker to cook chicken and thought it the perfect solution to dinner on the many days of heat and humidity we've had of late.

On to the recipes for the week. This week is a rather short one as we have family obligations going on and I will only be making dinner three or four nights out of the seven.

Monday: Sweet Potato Salmon Cakes with Cilantro Lime Rice and Special Cauliflower

Tuesday: Rice Cooker Macaroni and Cheese with garlic toast

Wednesday: Caesar Chicken with Orzo (and carrots, corn, and broccoli)
Thursday: day off

Friday: day off

Saturday: day off

Sunday: Chicken-Stuffed Peppers (using turkey instead) and Sugar-Crusted Parsnips

Whether you check out this week's link party or the recipe index round-up, you're sure to find hundreds of recipes to add to your usual rotation.