If continually coming with fresh ideas for getting meals on the table for your family is what you dread, let me help with that! Monday Menu has 2 great meal planning tips this week, along with all the recipes you need to create 2 scrumptious family meals, a dessert, snack and an easy hot breakfast to keep your people fueled up and going!

This Meal Plan’s Secret To Success

This week’s family meal ideas revolve around 2 keys to meal planning success: balancing time in the kitchen and efficient use of ingredients.

When recipes require an ingredient or two that you don’t usually stock in your pantry or fridge, finding ways to maximize that ingredient for the week actually makes it worth purchasing something out of the norm. For instance, using pears and sweet potatoes this week in more than dish makes the most of your purchasing power and saves you time in the grocery store!

Note: Keep this strategy going by switching out walnuts for pecans in the salad so you can use them in your snack recipe (or vice versa) and you don’t have to purchase 2 kinds of nuts.

This week’s meal ideas also balances a meal that requires a little more cook time with one that gets you in and out the kitchen quickly. This, for me, is a fundamental cooking strategy. Never load up a meal or even a week with more than one “big cook”– a dish that requires a lot of prep and/or a lot of active cooking time. This keeps time in the kitchen light and easy.

Dessert This Week

A Pear Galette is a perfect fall dessert! Easy to make with premade pie crusts, there are no difficult crimped edges or pie plates required for this pretty dessert. Simpley piling the middle high with sliced pears and walnuts and folding the edges in is all it takes. Quick, easy and full of seasonal fruit and flavors, a pear galette is THE dessert you’re going to love adding to your rotation.

Here’s What We’re Snacking On

Seriouly bursting with apple flavor from hot cider drink mix and loaded with pecans, this crunchy Apple Spice Caramel Corn only needs 15 minutes in the oven to create the BEST homemade snack for fall. You’re going to love just how easy this popcorn recipe is!

Making Breakfast Easy

A breakfast casserole isn’t just for the holidays or special occasions. It is a brilliant one time cook that supplies a hot breakfast for the whole school or work week! And this easy overnight strata with simple layers of flour tortillas, cheese, green chiles, and Canadian bacon, soaked in an egg and cream mixture and baked into golden yumminess is more than ideal for slicing and heating up on busy mornings when a hot breakfast is still important.

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