What's for Dinner?

I'm starting a new blog series called What's for Dinner.  People are amazed when I tell them I have the whole month of meals planned and shopped for (minus perishables like milk and fresh fruit and veggies for the last half of the month.)  I haven't exactly figured how I'm going to post everything but for this week I'll post daily and do more posts on how I plan and shop.  So here we go!

Monday nights Ellie has gymnastics from right after school until 5:30.  So Monday's meals are always crock pot meals, ones that if you were working would take you maybe 3 minutes to put the ingredients in before you left for work!  There are four Mondays in December and I have the same meal twice this month, alternating weeks.

December 5th and 19th is Easy Peasy Chicken

Recipe:
Frozen Chicken Breasts (enough to feed your family)
1 can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup + 1 can of water
1 packet of Lipton Onion Recipe Secrets Soup and Dip mix
A dash of garlic powder

Combine everything in Crock Pot on Low for at least 6 hours.  That's it.

For sides we will have pre-prepped garlic butter bread (that I've bought and prepped already with my own butter, less calories!), canned green beans or a simple salad and a fresh fruit such as apple slices.  It will take me about 5 minutes to heat up the bread, warm the green beans and cut up the apple slices or salad.  The main dish is all done!

December 12th and 26th is Chili

Recipe:
1 1/2 lbs of ground beef or turkey cooked
2 cans of chili beans (I usually use the Great Value brand)
1 can of diced chili ready tomatoes

Combine everything in Crock Pot on Low for at least 3 hours, the longer the better though!

I usually make cinnamon rolls for dessert (which will be ready by that time if I put them in while I prep everything else), its a old school thing here where I live.  Sometimes we make Frito Chili Pie with it, other times not.  If I don't have salad ingredients we have baby carrots and as always a fresh fruit.

That's it!  Easy don't you think?  I buy the Cream of Mushroom soup, the Lipton Onion packets, the frozen chicken and the ground beef and the cinnamon rolls at Sam's.  I usually pre-make the ground beef after shopping for it, click here for some other tips on making dinner faster.  I've been really good lately about either freezing the leftovers or eating them for lunch that week.  As always feel free to comment if you have any questions or great chicken or chili recipes, I'd love to hear them!