Are you joining us for the #Backpack11 twitter party tonight? We’re giving away over 75 prizes! Be sure to check out the details and enter to win.

In addition to the twitter party, I have a week of crazy nights. We have Back to School Night at one of the schools, Fashion Night, and more. It’s going to be crazy. Crazy busy… but that’s life, right?

I sneaked off for an hour today and shopped (alone!) at Trader Joe’s stocking up on lots of goodies for busy dinners. Can’t wait to start making them. Especially things like turkey chili and seafood stew.

This week…

Tuesday: Fish Stew
Wednesday: Crispy Chicken Salad
Thursday: Baked Chicken in Sweet BBQ Sauce with mixed vegetables
Weekend: Pizza, Turkey Chili

© 2011, Julie Meyers Pron. All rights reserved.

First, the basics. The weekly menu plan:

Monday: Celebrate Middle’s birthday at his favorite spot. But for those of you not celebrating his birthday, why not have his favorite salmon?
Tuesday: Turkey Burgers, Wedge Salad and fresh fruit
Wednesday: Roasted Pork Chops with Polenta
Thursday: Scallops with Sweet Cucumber and Mango Salsa
Holiday Weekend: Make Your Own Pizzas with your favorite toppings and Ragu Sauces, Burgers, Chicken… and everything on the grill!

Now, the big announcement:

Welcome Candice! Long time friend of mine, Candice (who blogs at Fashionably Organized), came to me a few weeks ago with an idea. She wanted to post about her goals in menu planning and in helping her family to become healthier eaters. Beginning this Thursday, and through December, Candice will post every-other-week about her family’s progress, their goals and their reactions in a new column on Just Precious, Healthy Family From Scratch.

So many of my readers comment that they just wish they could get “into” the swing of menu planning and healthy eating. I’m certain that many of you will identify with Candice’s goals and her experience. I’m hoping she’ll inspire many of you, as she shares her ups and downs (hopefully many more ups.)

Please come back this Thursday to help me welcome Candice!

© 2011, Julie Meyers Pron. All rights reserved.

I returned home from Blogher (not a vacation) absolutely exhausted from a rough Red Eye ride. White knuckles, hyper-anxiety rough ride. So. I barely slept. And I returned home to an almost-6-year-old with an upset stomach.

So, I have amazing friends and Whitney offered to run my grocery order for me. Isn’t she fabulous?

Tonight, because I was everything but creative, we had a Rotisserie Chicken, green peppers dipped in tzatziki and applesauce. That’s like, the ultimate healthy meal when one is coming off a BRAT diet, yes?

So… for the rest of the week…

Tuesday: Grilled Pork Chops with Sesame Slaw

Wednesday: Cod with Beans, Corn and Pesto

Thursday: leftovers

Weekend: Chicken and Dill Souvlaki

All 3 of these dinners are favorites in our family: they’re lite, easy to make, and rich in flavor. They should each take about 20-30 minutes to cook.

© 2011, Julie Meyers Pron. All rights reserved.

I’ve been making this recipe for years. Years. It’s a very simple to make, but excellently popular soup recipe. And, yes, I realize that this isn’t soup season, but there have been a few rainy days this summer when we’ve had soup cravings.

1/2 cup salsa (I used Sams, it recommends On the Border)
2 large, ripe avocados, mashed iwth 3 T salsa (I skipped this and used SAMS guacamole, which is incredible!!)
3 14 oz cans of chicken broth
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 pound)
4 Tablespoons uncooked rice
1/2 chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro
1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack Cheese (I used Mexican Shredded Cheese)

Heat chicken broth to boil in a large saucepan. Add chicken breast halves, reduce heat and cook until chicken is opaque. Remove chicken and cut into bite size pieces. Add salsa and rice to broth. Cook about 15 minutes until rice is tender. Return chicken to sauce pan, add 1/2 of the chopped onion. Simmer 5 minutes. Just before serving add remaining onion and cilantro. To serve, break a small handful of chips into the bottom of each bowl. Ladle soup over tortilla chips. Top with cheese and 1 rounded Tablespoon of avocado (or guac.) Serve immediately with additional chips or salsa if necessary. Serves “4″.

Actually, this was about 7 servings for us. Also, the guacamole changes the consistency and makes it thicker. So if you stir it in, you have a creamier soup. We started with teaspoons, and ended up liking it with a Tablespoon.

Enjoy!

© 2011, Julie Meyers Pron. All rights reserved.

This week, I’ll be posting mostly recipes. There may be a post or two interspersed about going back to school, or the heat, or Blogher… or whatever, but definitely plan to read lots and lots of recipes. It’s cooking week!

I was asked by The Motherhood to join a team of Philadelphia-area bloggers to create a holiday meal using Lawry’s spices and seasonings. The majority of these recipes are part of that project, so you’ll notice that a lot of the recipes use the seasonings. It was so fun to experiment with them and to plan new creations. My wrap up post, our team’s “entry” into the cooking competition will post next week, so this week is a sneak peek at all we created.

You’ll notice that I actually started yesterday, with a very simple grilled, fresh, local vegetables recipe.

Like so many in the blogoshere, I’m heading to Blogher this week. But my family? They still have to eat, right? So while I’m not convinced that my husband will follow this meal plan, here are some suggestions, in the form of an easy to make meal plan.

Monday:  Grilled BBQ Chicken with raw sugar snap peas
Tuesday:  Beef Tacos
Wednesday: leftovers
Thursday:  chicken parm over spaghetti
Weekend:  Pizza… at least twice!

© 2011, Julie Meyers Pron. All rights reserved.

Camp starts this week, so I’m singing and celebrating. I was worried that this week’s meal plan would be hard to keep up with all the changes and places to be. But as I look at my calendar, I realized what I probably should have realized before: scheduling works for me. With a set schedule for every day, we should be able to eat on time and at home.

Let’s hope.

This week is week 4 of 5 weeks of bloggers’ favorite dinners. I’ll be calling for another set of favorites in a week or two, so keep your eyes open. I’d love to feature your favorite.

© 2011, Julie Meyers Pron. All rights reserved.

Little secret, I was out of town last week! And while I planned to make a meal or two from the menu plan schedule, well… I barely cooked. Truly. A vacation. I did have time to make Andrea’s Texican Chicken, finally, and Blissfully Domestic’s BBQed ribs and Spaghetti Squash. The kids were a little overwhelmed with the barbeque ribs. They were messy and something too new and different, perhaps, when it came to eating off the bone and the texture. But my husband was delighted. I’d never made ribs before. He’s requested them again.  The Texican Chicken was exactly as Andrea promised, a crowd pleaser.

So, I’m catching up. In the mean time, for those of you who are keeping with the original 5-weeks of bloggers’ favorite recipes schedule, here’s week 3:

Tuesday: Alissa from Fun Finds for Families recommends cheap and easy slow cooked BBQ Chicken which has several of my favorite words in it, especially on a busy Tuesday
Wednesday: Alissa also suggested cheap and easy-peasy Split Pea with Ham Soup. I’ll be interested to see which of the kids likes this one.
Thursday: Debi from Who Says 8 is Enough? suggested Lise’s Ham and Cheese Bake. She usually makes this with leftover ham, so it’s perfect the day after having Split Pea with Ham Soup
Weekend: Katja Presnal’s Greekburgers, looking forward to trying a different style burger than what’s usually on my menu with a Greek salad

Are you keeping on schedule? Did you try something from this week already, or from another week? What did you think? What are your favorites?

© 2011, Julie Meyers Pron. All rights reserved.

Back from another conference and so looking forward to a holiday weekend with lots of family time. My husband and I were both away for business last week… Traveling like this isn’t easy on your family.

Do you have any tips for families when both parents are traveling?

This week, I’m focusing on seasonal dinners:

Monday:  Shrimp Leek and Spinach Pasta
Tuesday: Chicken Pita with Tzatziki
Wednesday: Apricot Glazed Ham with Potatoes and Asparagus
Thursday: leftovers
Long Weekend: Mexican cheeseburgers (which means cheeseburgers with salsa, tomatoes, guacamole, etc., for toppings), pizza night, and more

I’ll be back next Tuesday with a shortened Menu Plan for the first week of June(!)

© 2011, Julie Meyers Pron. All rights reserved.

Ah, yes. Back to “normal.” Back to post-conference, post-Spring Break, post-Passover, post-Easter life.

That also means back to an empty refrigerator, stale bread and week-old eggs. The grocery store is calling my name. So is, of course. Baseball. And grilling.

And chances of rain. Which means maybe baseball and maybe rain? Making this a not-so-easy menu plan to create… because I’d really love to grill.

As I looked at the week ahead, I was perplexed. We only have one “normal” night this week. One night where we’ll gather around the table for a real dinner. The rest of the week we’re running from the karate studio to the baseball field to Kids Night Out and back again. I asked my twitter friends:

Most of the responses were people agreeing in frustration. Good to know I’m not alone. Some shared that they feed dinner at 4. Which is early for our family that eats at 7:15. (btw, I realized later that our schedule actually keeps us out until 8 3 nights this week, I mistweeted.) So, I’m following other suggestions with sandwiches or snacks at 4, then more healthy snacks again before bed. Not ideal. At all. Thanks to @MollyinMinn, @penny_riordan, @hchybinski and @WomenontheFence for the great discussion.

I’m beginning to learn how the convenience of McDonald’s can be so irresistible.

Monday:  raw veggies and Rotisserie chicken

Tuesday:  shrimp pasta salad (make Monday night)

Wednesday:  Spicy, Crunchy Chicken Wraps

Thursday: Steak with Artichoke and Cherry Pepper saute

Weekend: Hamburgers, Grilled Vegetables, Sweet Potato Fries

© 2011, Julie Meyers Pron. All rights reserved.

There’s nothing quite as satisfying than coming home at 4 pm from the bus stop and having the kids say, “mmmm… what smells so good? What’s for dinner?!” Yesterday, my house smelled old-fashioned delicious, and the scent still lingers.

Even better. Everyone ate dinner.

And even better than that? It was easy.

What you’ll need:

• 1 whole chicken
• 1 jar apricot preserves
• 1 pound baby carrots (or whole, but then you have to cut them into 1-inch size)
• 1 bag cranberries
• crockpot

Get cooking!

• Around 11 am, rince the chicken (remove the gibblets!) and place it in the crockpot
• surround the chicken with carrots and cranberries
• pour jar of apricot preserves over top
• cook on low/slow-cook for about 7-8 hours

That’s right. A 5-ingredient meal that takes about 5 minutes to prepare, makes your house smell divine and your home feel warm and tastes delish.

You’re welcome.

© 2010 – 2011, Julie Meyers Pron. All rights reserved.