Category: Summer
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Easy Ranch Chicken and Rice Salad for Summer Meal Prep
2025 Summer 6 – Monday July 22, 2025 – by Carol in 2025, Summer 6, Tuesday, Weekly Meals 🍽️ The Menu 📸 Final Plate 🔍 About the Meal The base is a homemade version of Rice-A-Roni — long grain white rice toasted with vermicelli, simmered in seasoned broth (thank you, nutritional yeast), and fluffed to…
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Steak Twice, Salads Once: When the Meal Plan Got a Mind of Its Own
When the Plan Meets Real Life (and Steak Wins Twice) 👋 So… About That Week Summer Week #5 was supposed to be a parade of cold salads, smart prep, and low-effort wins. And it almost was… until the week started making its own decisions. We lost a few meals to heat, cravings, and leftover fatigue…
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Leftovers Never Looked So Good: A Sunday Steak Strategy
2025 Summer 5 – Sunday July 20, 2025 – by Carol in 2025, Summer 5, Sunday, Weekly Meals 🍽️ The Menu 📸 Final Plate 🔍 About the Meal Sunday lunch out with Mom, Dad, and Stephen meant one thing: Dad got his steak. And so did I. We headed to Long Horn, where I ordered…
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Summer Meal Plan Saturday – Lunch Out at Ovation Bistro 2025
2025 Summer 5 – Saturday July 19, 2025 – by Carol in 2025, Summer 5, Saturday, Weekly Meals 🍽️ The Menu Main Dish:Lunch Out with Barbara Side Dish:Eye rolls, shrimp substitutions, and one very confused server Embedded:Memories of French toast past 📸 Final Plate 🔍 About the Meal Saturday means lunch with Barbara. It’s tradition,…
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The Shrimp’s Still in the Fridge: A Cautionary Tale
2025 Summer 5 – Friday July 18, 2025 – by Carol in 2025, Summer #5, Friday, Weekly Meals 🍽️ The Menu Planned:Dill and Shrimp Salad Plate with Rice Salad and Ginger Garlic Cucumber Salad over a fresh Salad Base. Reality:Whatever we found in the kitchen. Probably something involving cheese. Maybe a pickle. Definitely not shrimp.…
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Easy Ground Beef Sliders with Cheddar and Onion Rings
2025 Summer 5 – Thursday July 17, 2025 – by Carol in 2025, Summer 5, Thursday, Weekly Meals 🍽️ The Menu 📸 Final Plate 🔍 About the Meal This was one of those “nope, not making what I planned” nights, and honestly? No regrets. We had just enough ground beef to form five mini patties—each…
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🥗 The Great Cilantro Lime Recovery Mission
2025 Summer 5 – Wednesday July 16, 2025 – by Carol in 2025, Summer 5, Wednesday, Weekly Meals 🍽️ The Menu 📸 Final Plate 🔍 About the Meal I had updated this to Southwest Chicken Crunch Salad, but wasn’t sure when Stephen was arriving home this evening. So tonight’s dinner took a hard left from…
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Cool Summer Dinners for Hot Nights: Easy Meal Plan with Fresh Recipes and Sweet Treats
☀️ Summer Week #6 – Meal Plan 📅 Date Posted: July 20, 2025 — by Carol in 2025, Summer, From Scratch, Meal Plan, Weekly Dinner ☀️ Summer Week #6: The Season Starts… with the Hottest Week of the Year Welcome to Summer Week 6—aka the moment Florida stops pretending and just tries to melt us.…
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Mickey Plate Magic: How a Last-Minute Pivot Became the Perfect Summer Dinner
2025 Summer 5 – Tuesday July 15, 2025 – by Carol in 2025, Summer 5, Tuesday, Weekly Meals 🍽️ The Menu 📸 Final Plate 🔍 About the Meal Tuesday’s plan called for rice and ham salad, lovingly prepped the night before. But real life had other ideas — and this time, it involved zero chopping…
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The Ultimate Summer Steak Salad with Tangy Pickled Veg
2025 Summer 5 – Monday July 14, 2025 – by Carol in 2025, Summer 5, Monday, Weekly Meals 🍽️ The Menu 📸 Final Plate 🔍 About the Meal This week’s meat meal is summer simplicity and flavor perfection in one chilly, crisp bowl. Thin slices of freshly pan-seared Denver steak rest over a chilled Salad…