Well, Well, Well....Happy New Years.

Well my friends, it has been a loooooooong time since my fingers fluttered over the keys on this blog.  Years ago this blog was born out of necessity and as life evolved, so did I.  The organized SAHM gave way to a flighty working Mama who seemingly had it all together, and don't get me wrong, I was doing ok, just didn't have enough head space to plan meals in advance to accommodate my ever changing world.  But guess what happened this week? I planned, and I resurrected some old favorites that I found on the blog so I figured why not let you all know about it.

I'm not promising the world at this point, but we all know that if you shoot for the moon, you will at the very least land among the stars.

Until next time, eat well.

Amber
aka...Meal Planning Mama

Wednesday - Cheater Chicken Souvlaki with roasted veggies

Thursday - Maple Mustard Pork Tenderloin with Caramelized Apples

Friday - Tacos!

Saturday - Clean out the fridge night

Sunday - Lemon Butter Chicken

One big ol' rut.

It's true my friends. Meal Planning Mama went from crazy meal planning blogger to a sad tired "What is easy to make tonight?" Mama. I need to find my inspiration! What do you do when you're not feeling like a rock star in the kitchen? Where does your food inspiration come from?

I've got mail!

Today I received mail. It was addressed to Meal Planning Mama. It was a pretty box. It had pretty stuffing in it and product. Like good stuff I love. And no instructions....NO INSTRUCTIONS.....so in my generally preferred method of communication of 140 characters or less (errr more) what does one do with a box of free stuff?

Some weekly inspiration!

I spent much of my lazy afternoon yesterday hopping from recipe to recipe on the internet, a long forgotten love of mine. I found some delicious inspiration and thought you'd all love to see what treats I found.

The first was 15 Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta found on Oh She Glows Doesn't it look delicious??? (P.S. I don't know the internet rules on posting other peoples pictures on your site, so I just decided to link you instead. Can anyone enlighten me?)

The second was Heirloom tomato and avocado salad with crispy wontons and spicy cilantro dressing found at Food & Style and guess who just so happened to pick up fresh cilantro AND heirloom tomato's at the Framers Market this past Saturday!

I also came across an AMAZING recipe in House and Home magazine this month for Sesame-Crusted Salmon with Quinoa Salad. I can't find the recipe on the internet yet, but will post it when I make it.

My final inspiration for the week came from the local Farmers Market where I found purple beans and Firecracker Jack's Barbeque sauce. I am thinking I will serve the beans sauteed with some slivered almonds and a bit of lemon juice as for the BBQ sauce...it tasted GREAT on this...

Enjoy my friends!

Get Stuffed!

A dear friend of mine gave me a giant orange vegetable.

I thought it was a zuchinni but turns out it might have been a squash at any rate my first thought was "What the HECK does one do with a giant orange vegetable?" So I stuffed it. People like it when you stuff things. It also make for an easy dinner and an excuse to blog.

I cooked some onion and garlic added ground beef, basil, parsley, oregano and peppers. Cooled it added feta, stuffed my squash and VIOLA!

Well there you have it my friends, if you ever find yourself with a giant orange vegetable...stuff it :P

Spaghetti Squash - What the Heck am I doing with it?

A few weeks back a friend came for dinner and brought me a spaghetti squash. Now I'm going to be honest here so get in nice and close cause after all it's kind of a secret...  I've never cooked with one... Yes, it's true.  In all of my culinary adventures I have yet to tackle the spaghetti squash.  It seems oddly foreign to me and as such intimidating.  I'd like to cook it tomorrow, or the next day so any advice is GREATLY appreciated. 

Do you cook with it often?  Or ever?  Is it a side? or used in a main?  Once again I'm ending this post with....HELP.

xoxoxo
Meal Planning Mama

The one in which I ask for blogger advice...

Is it a sign when your non interactive FB page and your EXTREMELY active under the influence twitter account (you should follow me there I'm funny @MPMtweets ) are far more active than your blog? Does this mean I am good-ish at social media, (I have a fairly decent "klout" score)but essentially SUCK at blogging? Can a blogger revamp her style? How EXACTLY does one do this? AND where EXACLEY should MPM go from here?

My friends, it would appear MPM is at a crossroads in her bloggy life. I suck these days at meal planning, and that is because my dearest of husbands (not that I have extra "dears" to pick from...) does a lot of the cooking. Like most of it. AND I find that when I am not the one who actually cooks, it becomes rather difficult to plan. Would anyone be interested in reading random musings along with some cool recipes and the meal plans I do actually do? Or is it time to toss in the MPM towel?

My friends it looks like it's one of those times when MPM needs a little bit o'HELP.