Happy Fall!! The first day of fall was just this past week and man, am I ready! Like I said last week we’ve got a busy fall ahead so I’m trying to stay on top of the meal plan despite traveling, birthday party planning, and wanting to spend every waking moment outdoors. This week I really wanted to get some recipes on the blog that I’ve been tweaking so be on the lookout! Here’s what I’ve planned.

Meal 1: This sloppy joe recipe is inspired by Eating Well’s Beef and Bean Sloppy Joes. I’ve tweaked the recipe based on our family’s preferences and it happens to be one of our favorite meals. I love the fact that it has beans as a way to stretch the recipe and add some fiber. Sometimes I ditch the buns and serve it on top of sweet potatoes, but not this week. I’ve got a bag of Alexia’s Tater Tots and some Kirkland broccoli in the freezer to make things easy. It’s a family friendly meal and there’s something for everyone - including Reed (he’ll eat buns, tots and broccoli… we’re working on accepting the sloppy joe mixture).

Meal 2: If this meal isn’t easy, I don’t know what is. I mix a few tablespoons of grainy mustard and a tablespoon of honey, smear it on the salmon and bake it (see my Honey Mustard Salmon recipe). I’ll serve that on top of Costco’s Mediterranean Crunch Chopped Salad Kit and toss in some Trader Joe’s Harvest Grain Blend. It’s just a big salad/grain bowl, basically. The kids will have all this in a deconstructed state and I’ll throw some fruit and bread on the table too.

Meal 3: I don’t know how I came up with the recipe… I’m tempted to call it pizza peppers, because that’s what it tastes like! But, one day last year I had some leftover lentils, some turkey sausage, and a lot of peppers in the fridge. I started to throw things into a pan (lentils, peppers, tomato paste, red wine, kale, etc.) and then stuffed it into a pepper. It came out REALLY good and I’ve played around with the concoction since then, so now its ready to be made, photographed and shared! We’ll have these with rice and veggies and hummus or side salads (but there’s a lot of veggie already in the pepper so…..).

Meal 4: Naptime Kitchen’s BBQ Chicken Quinoa Casserole is amazing. If you haven’t made it, you should. I used the 18 oz. bottle of Trader Joe’s Carolina Gold BBQ sauce and increased the chicken to 4 large breasts in the crockpot. It makes two casseroles!! One for now, one for later… or one for you and one for a friend! We love it as she (Kate) does, with chips (however I think cornbread would be awesome too). I forgot to put in the plan that I’ll be serving this with a side salad. The rotisserie chicken legs are a part of the meal because I’m banking on “certain” people not tolerating this on their plate, and I have leftover rotisserie chicken legs…so… there you go, call it “catering” if you must.

Meal 5: My mom used to make Rice Krispy Chicken for us when I was little and it was one of my favorite meals. I’ve made it for my family a few times now and want to share it with you! So, look for this recipe on the blog soon. I’m keeping it kid friendly with some Annie’s boxed mac and cheese and roasted green beans. It’s a meal geared towards the kids, but as an adult, I’m pretty excited about it too.

Meal 6: Leftovers or Pizza

Meal 7: OUT (Charlotte for a concert!)