Series of Planning Ahead

Here's some more ideas on planning ahead for breakfast, snacks, and dinners.

Breakfast

Sometimes planning the day or night ahead for breakfast is helpful. Here's what I have come up with in the breakfast menu department.

Muffin or Scone Mixes: So easy to prepare and pop into the oven while cooking dinner or desert. Each muffin or scone can be wrapped up for individual eating or a 'grab and go' situation. A little trick I noticed is that you can add frozen fruit like blueberries or a nut topping to the muffin or scone.

Breakfast Burritos: Very filling and also makes a good lunch item. A quick mixture of cubed potato, scrambled egg, cheese, and salsa rolled up and placed in the skillet to brown up the stuffed tortilla. (Also a good idea if you have leftover taco meat this can be used to make breakfast burritos.)

Pancakes or French Toast: Cooking up a big batch of pancakes or french toast can be used for two breakfast meals. Pancakes made from scratch or a pancake mix are easy to adjust the quantity of pancakes made. French toast requires additional batter and bread for appropriate servings. Think ahead and plan extra in one cooking period. This will help save time on other mornings. A good idea once the food has cooled- place pancakes or french toast servings in a sandwich bag with syrup.

Snack Ideas

These are great for school or work lunches. Also good ideas for camping menu. (Camping season is approaching even with the closure of some state parks. A day hike is just as pleasant with some snacks to bring along.)


Fruit and Nuts Snack Mix

Need:

Banana Chips
Mixed Nuts: Almonds, Cashews, Walnuts, Peanuts
Dried Fruit - Cherries, Cranberries, Raisins, Apricots, Blueberries

Grab a few tupperware containers and make one for each family member to snack on.

Place a 1/3 cup of each item in the tupperware container. Shake and eat at snack time.


Chips and Crackers Snack Mix

This mix is more fun for kids but parents find it tasty too! I also think this pairs good with string cheese.

Need:

A bag of Doritos chips (or Nacho Cheese Chips)
Pretzel Sticks
Captain Crunch
Cheese Its (or a small cheese cracker)

Pour equal amounts of each item into a bowl to toss. Then scoop in portion controlled 1/2 cup measurements into snack bags.

Dinner Meals

I decided to make two meals at once when I had time in the kitchen. Just plan ahead when purchasing the foods at the grocery store.

For my plan ahead meals I decided to make turkey burgers and turkey meatloaf. This comes in really handy when the ground turkey on sale.

Turkey Burgers

This recipe is flexible in the seasonings added to it. It can easily switch from barbecue flavor to island burger favorite. One thing to note is I love to add old-fashion oats to my turkey meat (or ground beef). I like the texture and it adds health benefits.

Place the following ingredients in a bowl:

1 lb. of Ground Turkey
1/2 cup of oats
3 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce

Season with salt and pepper

2 teaspoons of chopped garlic



Combine all the ingredients together. Grab some wax paper or syran wrap and start forming patties.



These can be stored in the freezer until ready to use.