# 7, # 8 and # 20

7. Create weekly meal plan (31/143)

8. Have one meatless dinner a week (25/143)
20. Try at least two new recipes a month (41/66)

Last week we once again made four of the meals, and we pretty much enjoyed them all.

Orange Glazed Sea Bass with Black Beans & Rice and Roasted Carrots

Cuban Black Bean Stew with Sofrito Quesadillas

Teriyaki Chicken with Asian Flavored Quinoa

Teriyaki Chicken Burrito Wraps

The fish was supposed to be halibut, but we weren't able to get it. The sea bass had bones so we couldn't really give it to Peter, but he was more interested in the side dishes anyway. If we make it again, I think that we'll try a different fish.

This week, we weren't thrilled with the menu (a lot of prep which I just don't feel up to right now), so we are going with a week that we've done before.

January 2013 Update

So the year is off to a decent start, especially with the meal planning and new recipes. So far The Fresh 20 experiment has been pretty successful. We have yet to make every meal (something always seems to come up), but we have been liking what we've made so far. It hasn't lowered our grocery costs, but we still have some wrinkles to iron out in the grocery shopping arrangement. I forgot to update the meatless meals that we've had so far with the plan, the twice baked pizza potatoes and the garlic mushroom linguini, so I've gone back and tagged these posts and updated the master list.

Other than that, the big push we've been making this month is getting ready for the baby. I haven't made much progress on my resolutions as far as completing items, but I have been keeping up with Peter's 365 project. I haven't been able to get photos of him every day (FAIL), but I have taken photos that represent him on the days that I was missing.

I'm hoping that the beginning of February is a little more productive, since I really don't see the end of February doing this list any favors.

# 7 and # 20

7. Create weekly meal plan (27/143)
20. Try at least two new recipes a month (31/66)

Since I didn't like the meal plan scheduled for this past week, I switched it with a previous week, and I am so glad that I did. There was one meal that we didn't make because we weren't home, but the rest were big hits. I made:

Turkey Cutlets with Quick Mushroom Gravy (it was supposed to have Baked Maple Sweet Potatoes, but I didn't make them since we like plain sweet potatoes so much, so why add the sugar and butter)
Baked Tilapia and Green Beans with Tangerine Butter, Almonds and Wild Rice
Turkey Noodle Casserole with Parmesan Breadcrumb Topping
Garlic Mushroom Linguini

I was not a fan of the tilapia, but I that definitely had more to do with the type of fish than anything else. I could definitely see myself making any of these meals again.

# 20

20. Try at least two new recipes a month (27/66)

Last week we added two more recipes from our The Fresh 20 meal plan, Twice Baked Pizza Potatoes with Sauteed Garlicky Kale and Greek Chicken with Warm Spinach and Orzo Salad. The potatoes had real potential, but the directions did not have me bake them long enough the first time for them to be twice baked, they were hardly baked at all. Some weekend in the not to distant future, I plan on trying them again. The chicken was a hit with Geoff (Peter still wasn't really eating much), it wouldn't surprise me if I was to make that on a weekend as well.

# 7, # 8 and # 20

7. Create weekly meal plan
8. Have one meatless dinner a week
20. Try at least two new recipes a month

I have been really struggling with creating meal plans, mostly because I have not wanted anything which makes it hard to plan. I didn't see this getting any easier with the baby coming in two months. One of the blogs that I follow on Facebook had asked for suggestions on lowering grocery bills, and one of the major suggestions that they received was to try The Fresh 20. It is a meal planning service which uses non-processed ingredients. So last night I decided that I would try it, especially since I found a Groupon which dropped the cost drastically. I'm going to see how long this will work for us, but hopefully it will at least get us through the first few months with the baby. As well as meal plans, this will also help with the meatless meals and new recipes (since all the recipes will be new).

In case you are interested, here is the Groupon for a one year subscription at half price.

September 2012 Update

It seems, looking back, that I didn't do much this summer, but the truth is that we were super busy, just not with items from this challenge. The next few months were much more productive as far as this challenge goes.

8. Have one meatless dinner a week (15/143)
19. Use the crockpot for dinner sixty times (12/60)
20. Try at least two new recipes a month (16/66)

Once again, I fell behind on the meatless meals and the menu planning, but I did have four new recipes, one of which was in the slow cooker. All the new recipes were from The Six O'Clock Scramble.

Warm Pasta Salad with Spinach
Hearty Beef Stew
Mexican Confetti Casserole
Tortellini Soup with Spinach and Tomatoes