Happy New Year!

We had a lovely and fairly relaxed holiday week here at the Frugal Upstate house.  The kids played, we had friends over, ate way too much good food and enjoyed ourselves. .. How about you?

But now it’s back to reality and back to menu planning!  Did any of you make a New Years resolution to start menu planning this year?  If not, maybe you should!  I promise you, it really does make life easier AND save you money.

Here we go!

This week’s considerations:

1. The kiddos go back to school on Tuesday and then I start playing major catch up on writing and work.  I really need to crank some stuff out this week, so I want to keep dinner prep simple so I can spend as much time on writing and organization as possible.

2.  We are back to our normal after school activity schedule.  That’s scouts & Yankee Bill’s pool on Wed night, dance on Tuesday etc.  I’ve also got a really late conference call on Tuesday (so dinner better be done before the call starts) and an American Legion Riders meeting on Thursday.  Quick and easy meals would be good.

3. In the fridge is a 1/2lb of pork sweet sausage (from the 1/2 pig I purchased), about a 1lb of leftover “oven fried” fish, and about a 1/4 lb of raw, cubed beef that should be used in something.  I’ve also got a small head of cabbage, one yellow pepper, celery, and a dozen eggs in there that need to be used.

4.  The only greens left alive in the garden are the turnip greens (honestly, if we had snow then I think the rest would have been insulated & lived, but rain, cold, rain, cold is just too much!).  I’ve also got carrots mulched under about 5 inches of leaves that can be dug up and used at need.  And I can’t forget the 8 butternut squash stored up on top of the kitchen cupboards.

5.  There are some folks at church who need meals delivered, so I need to double up some of my meals to share.

6.  My goal continues to be 1 meatless, 1 bean, 1 soup, 1 venison and 1 fish/seafood meal each week.

Taking all that into account here is my game plan:

Monday:  Fish Chowder and Popovers

The breaded “oven fried” fish can be chunked up and used in the chowder along with some celery, onion, carrot etc.  The breading should fall off, dissolve (more or less) and add some thickening to the soup.  My first instinct was to pair the chowder with baking powder biscuits, but then I decided that my popover recipe would be a fun change, and slightly more “special”.  I know that there isn’t really much in the way of veggies for this meal (the veg in the soup will probably be pretty minimal) but I think that’s ok every once in a while.  I’m going to make an extra large pot to share with those families from church

This is my fish meal and soup meal for the week.

Tuesday:  Crock-pot Pork Chops over Noodles with Canned Greenbeans

I have some pork chops (store bought, not from my pig) that practically jumped out of the freezer at me the other day-I really need to use them up.  I’ll just toss them in the crock-pot with some “cream of” soup, ham bullion and onions to cook all day.  I can pull out a can of home canned green beans and boil up some noodles in no time to finish up this meal in a jiffy-leaving me all day to work on my writing without having to worry much about supper.   This is also a meal that can be “doubled up” (I’m pretty sure I’ve got a second pack of pork chops in there) and shared–when I go to pick the kids up from afterschool care I can deliver the food!  I love it when a plan comes together.

Wednesday:  Breakfast Casserole for Dinner

I like to do breakfast for dinner every once in a while.  This egg & potato casserole typically is put together the night before then baked in the morning-instead I’ll put it together in the morning and then cook it in the evening!  I’ll use up the eggs and the yellow pepper in this one.

This is my meatless meal for the week.

Thursday:  Beef & Chickpea Curry over Rice with Sauteed Cabbage

The cubes of beef I need to use up aren’t really enough for a meal (unless I stretched them out by making soup)–but if I brown them and pair them with the chickpeas it will just give some extra flavor to the curry.  The rice comes from my stash (note to self-time to buy another 25lb bag of rice) and the cabbage (probably with some onion & celery added) will use up that small head I have left.

This is my bean meal for the week.  (chickpeas, remember?)

Friday:  Pizza Day

I’ll use my Pizza Hut Crust Clone recipe for the crust.  Instead of my typical pepperoni I’m going to fry up that leftover sweet sausage (probably earlier in the week so it will keep longer) and use that as a topping.

Saturday:  Venison Parmesan over Angel Hair Pasta with Mixed Vegetables

Venison Parmesan is a different way to jazz up my venison.  I’ll serve it with extra red sauce over some garlic buttered angel hair pasta and then make a vegetable medley out of some of my frozen garden produce-chard stems, squash, kohlrabi. . . whatever takes my fancy

Sunday:  Leftover Buffet

There should be a variety of foods leftover to use up by Sunday.  If not, I’ll whip up a fried rice using things from the fridge.

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Are you interested in learning more about menu planning? Check out my post “Why Plan a Weekly Menu” .

Thanksgiving is over-and we have managed to eat most of the leftovers!  Now we start into the holiday rush.  Trust me-if you have never used meal planning before now is a great time to start!  The holidays tend to be one of the most hectic times of year for families.  School parties, church events, office parties, obligations on any and all sides of the family, shoppping, etc etc etc. . . it can be overwhelming!  Having the “what’s for dinner” question taken care of will help-trust me!

Here is what we are looking at this week that may affect the menu plan:

1. It’s still hunting season-so Yankee Bill will be gone from Friday through Saturday again I hate seeing him so little, but I’ve got to admit, the venison in the freezer is AWE-SOME!

2. Speaking of venison-the doe & button buck Yankee Bill shot came back from the butcher. . .so I had to make room in the freezer. That means I found a bunch of stuff that needs to be eaten this week. Some vacuum sealed venison sausage from 2007 (yes-it’s still fine). A bunch of semi freezer burned vegetables. A loaf of bread that has been in there too long to make anything other than breadcrumbs out of. 3 packages (what was I thinking?) of corn tortillas. I also had 2 cans of turkey that didn’t seal when I was pressure canning on Saturday-so those are in the fridge and have to be used up soon.

3. There are brussel sprouts, carrots, mizuna, chard, tat-soi and turnip greens still growing in the garden.

4. We’ve got at least 3 families in the church who need meals brought to them-so I need to make some of my suppers in triplicate so I have extras to share

5. We will most likely be decorating our tree on Sunday evening-which means we will have potato pancakes that evening. It’s a Frugal Upstate Family Tradition to commemorate the fact that Yankee Bill and I met in Germany and used to eat potato pancakes at the Kriskindlemarkt’s there

6. I continue to work a venison, meatless, fish/seafood, soup and bean meal into every week. Since we picked up our half pig (butchered & wrapped!) from my CSA friends I’ve been considering adding a pork meal in there.

Taking all that into account here is my game plan:

Monday: Potato Sausage Soup or Venison Rice Soup with Rolls

I have leftovers of both of these soups in the fridge from last week. I was going to bring them over to the families I mentioned above, but never had a chance. So we’ll eat them tonight and I’ll make a couple of new pots to take over. The rolls are leftover from this week’s deer camp! This is my soup meal for the week.

Tuesday: Crockpot Turkey Tetrazzini with Sauted Mizuna

I’ll make a double batch of crockpot turkey tetrazzini. That will give us plenty to eat as a family and still have tons to bring over to the families from church. That should use up the two cans of turkey that didn’t seal and some of the mizuna from the garden.

Wednesday: Homemade Baked Beans and Cornbread

I haven’t made baked beans in a really, really long time, which is a shame! I guess it just doesn’t seem like a summertime meal I’ll start the white beans (great northern probably) soaking on Tuesday night so that they are all ready to be rinsed and started in the crockpot on Wednesday moring. Buddy isn’t fond of beans, so he’ll have the option of making himself a sandwich for dinner after he’s tried a spoon or two of the beans. This is my meatless meal for the week AND my bean meal. A two for one (note: yes, there is a tiny bit of bacon in the beans for flavor, but I consider it just that-a flavoring)

Thursday: Tuna Stuffed Shells with Turnip Greens

My tuna stuffed shells are not only tasty-but they are a great meal to share–so I’ll double or triple this meal as well and send it over to those church families I mentioned. The turnip greens from the garden will be stewed “pot green” style–possibly in the crockpot–with a bit of either ham bullion or a strip of bacon and some red pepper flakes. Mmmm. This is my fish meal for the week.

Friday: Pizza Monkey Bread

The kids have been begging me to make these again-it’s pizza made monkey bread style!  I’ll post a recipe soon, promise!

Saturday: Venison in Gravy over Rice with Carrots

Saturday will be consumed, I’m sure, with the start of holiday chaos…plus Yankee Bill will be out at deer camp overnight. I’ll just plan a simple supper for the kids and myself-Home canned venison (from 2009-yes, it’s FINE) with a package of premade gravy mix over rice cooked in the rice cooker. We’ll dig some carrots up out of the garden and cook them lightly (Buddy told me he doesn’t like ‘mushy’ carrots). Quick, simple, tasty & healthy. This is my venison meal for the week.

Sunday: Potato Pancakes with Sour Cream and Applesauce

It’s a tradition!  The kids look forward to this meal every year!  This year we’ll get to use homemade applesauce with our potato pancakes–which is fun. We’ll have my Mother in Law and my brother over, eat potato pancakes and decorate the Christmas Tree while sipping Gluhwein. What could be better. This is another meatless meal   And yes, I realize that this is not exactly a nutritionally balanced meal-oh well.  It’s once a year.

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Are you interested in learning more about menu planning? Check out my post “Why Plan a Weekly Menu” .

Back on track with a menu plan this week!  And I’ve got to say-I absolutely HAVE to be organized when it comes to meals this week. I have play rehearsal every night for the next two weeks-which requires me to be out the door by 5:45 most nights.  Without a plan I think the family would be living on PB&J sandwiches!

I will be relying heavily on crockpot meals and things that can be cooked ahead and then simply warmed up by my husband this week.  Another challenge for this week is that I am valiantly attempting to use up some of the random items I have languishing in my freezer.

Monday: Teriyaki Venison Steak with rice & steamed vegetables

Yeah, I know.  I was supposed to serve this last week.  Well for a variety of reasons it just never happened.  But I have it merrily bubbling away in the crockpot right now, so I should have a tasty dinner ready to go tonight.

Tuesday: Homemade Chicken Soup

I made stock last week from the leftover chicken bones.  I set it in the fridge and then promptly forgot about it.  My initial plan had been to freeze it in 2 C packages, but now I’m at the point where I really need to just use it up.  I’ll make a quick crockpot vegetable soup and serve it with homemade biscuits.

Wednesday: Crockpot Pizza Beans, Green Salad & Bread

This is my meatless meal for the week.  This is a new recipe for me-I am hoping that Buddy (who is not fond of beans) might enjoy these pizza style Great Northern Beans.  If not-well, he can always eat a PB&J (I am NOT a short order cook-one meal gets made)

Actually, there will be a babysitter this night (conflicting meetings & play rehearsals!!).  This should be easy for her to dish out and feed the kiddos.

Thursday: Tuna Loaf, Creamed Spinach, Carrots and Rice

This is my fish meal for the week-it is just my “Old Fashioned Salmon Loaf” made with Tuna.  I had originally considered making Tuna Patties, which are delicious, but realized that having to bolt out the door in a time crunch for play rehearsal and planning a meal that requires standing over the stove frying patties was a bad combo.  We’ll have to do those in a couple of weeks!  Tuna loaf is a little easier in that it bakes away without supervision.

The creamed spinach is just to make things a little fancier. Oh la la!

Friday: Calzones

With my Pizza Hut Crust Clone recipe of course.

Saturday: Meatloaf, Mashed potatoes and Green Beans

Part of my goal in cleaning out the freezer is to use up some of the meat that has been there for a while.  I have ground beef that is several months old-a bit family pack.  I also have sausage patties from last year’s deer (08) that were way to spicy for the kids.  If I mix the 5lbs of beef with 2 lbs of this year’s venison burger and then about 2 lbs of the spicy sausage I should wind up with a very nicely flavored meatloaf mix.  I can stretch it even farther with the addition of TVP reconstituted with beef broth.

Yes-that will be a mammoth portion of “meat mix”. . . I will make a couple of meatloaves and then freeze  some, make some burgers to freeze for the grill and then make, bake & freeze meatballs for future easy meals.

Sunday: Leftovers

We will enjoy a buffet of all the various meals from the week.  If we eat everything up, then I’ll toss together some spaghetti & meatballs last minute.

For more great menu plans head on over to The Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Monday. Even if it is Tuesday.

I’m back from the Blissdom women’s blogging conference (where I was a speaker) and in “conference recovery” mode.  That means that I have my own sleep to catch up on, unpacking to do, laundry for the entire family and usually some pickup/reorganization to do with the house.  As a result I like to keep the first few days after a conference very easy on the meal front.

Monday: Spaghetti & Meatballs with Canned Veggies

Can’t get much more simple than that. I’ve got frozen venison meatballs that I made downstairs in the fridge.  I’ll add jarred spaghetti sauce and store brand spaghetti to make a quick and easy meal that the whole family will eat.  I have no idea which veggies we’ll add-I’ll decide at the last minute.

Tuesday:  Baked Chicken, Baked Potatoes & Green Beans

Talk about an “All American” classic meal.

Wednesday: Green Chili Chicken Lasagna, Spanish Rice & Mixed Veggies

I haven’t made my Green Chili Chicken Lasagna in a long time-it’s a great twist on your typical tex-mex dishes.  I’ll use the leftover chicken from Tuesday night as the meat

Thursday: Hamburger Casserole, Salad & Bread

I have a meeting, so I wanted it to be easy.  It’s been a long time since we’ve had “Hamburger Casserole” so I figured I’d go for it! My mom’s recipe includes corn & peas to up the veggie quotient.

Friday:  Stromboli

I’m going to do a twist on my typical pizza and use my Pizza Hut Crust Clone recipe, then roll it up jelly roll style (with the toppings inside) to make stromboli.

Saturday:  Fish Chowder & Biscuits

This will be my “fish” meal for the week-I’ve got some pollack down in the fridge that I’ll use.  Leftover potatoes, corn etc from the week will turn it into a tasty meal.

Sunday:  Aloo Gobi, Rice & Naan

Ok, I thought I’d experiment with an Indian style meal to be my vegetarian dish for the week.  Not sure how it will turn out, as it’s my first time trying it.  But this Aloo Gobi recipe got over 80 great reviews on RecipeZaar.com, so I figured it had to be decent!

For more great recipe ideas, head on over to The Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Mondayd.

This week is a very short menu plan since I’m heading out to Nashville to speak at and attend the Blissdom conference!  I have learned to accept reality when I go out of town-Yankee Bill is just not going to cook.  Freezer meals will cost more than the meals I usually cook-but are way less than eating out!

Monday:  Homemade Pigs in a Blanket & Salad

I have half of a package of hotdogs left in the fridge, and that will be plenty to feed us since Yankee Bill will be eating supper in town before pool.  There is also almost a full bowl of salad leftover from dinner last night.  All I have to do is whip up a batch of biscuits and wrap them around the hotdogs-the rest will be saved for Tuesday night.

Tuesday: Salmon Loaf, Green Beans, Citrus Rice & Biscuits.

By request of Yankee Bill   I can make the Salmon Loaf in the morning and then refrigerate it until it’s time to pop it in the oven!  The rice will be cooked in my rice cooker, which means I can start the pot and it will cook & stay warm for 3 hours.

Wednesday:  Ridiculously Easy Crockpot Roast, Carrots & Rice

I fly out on Wednesday afternoon but I will have the ridiculously easy crockpot roast on and cooking before I go (the carrots will be in with the meat), so all Yankee Bill has to do is warm up the leftover rice and dish it out.

Thursday: All Day Macaroni & Cheese

I will have the All Day Macaroni & Cheese set up and in the fridge in a second crockpot liner (lucky I have two) so Yankee Bill can just toss it in the crockpot and turn it on low in the morning.  Tada, easy peasy dinner.

Friday, Saturday & Sunday: This will be a combo of Frozen Turkey Dinner (family size), Frozen Pizza & dinner at Nana’s.

For more great menu plan ideas, head on over to Menu Plan Monday at The Organizing Junkie.

In this week’s plan I try to get back on track a bit. .

Monday:  Tuna “Salmon” Loaf, Carrots & Lemon Rice

I’ve been a bad, bad girl about working fish into our diet for the last couple of months.  I vow to be better!  To start my renewed commitment I’m going to make my Salmon Loaf recipe, except I’ll use tuna instead of Salmon.  The lemon rice is an usual way to dress up your basic rice recipe-look for me to post that soon!

Tuesday:  Hunter’s Pie

This was on the menu last week, but due to an unexpected invitation to dine at my mother in law’s house we never made it.  Think “Shepherd’s Pie” with venison instead.

Wednesday:  Pork Schnitzel with Mushroom Gravy, Creamed Spinach, Buttered Noodles

I got a pork loin on sale a couple of weeks ago ($1.79 lb) and had the butcher at the grocery store cut it into 1 inch butterflied chops.  I then packaged & frozen them in meal sized portions.  So now I’ll use one pack, pound them out just a little bit more and then make my favorite Schnitzel recipe.  If I have time I’ll make my homemade Spatzel, but if not I’ll go with plain old buttered noodles.  Hmm, I probably better make a desert too-my MIL always makes a lovely dessert when we visit. . .

Thursday: General Tso’s Chicken, Rice &  Stir-fried Veggies

I finally got my sauce packet mixes from SunBird to try out.  Buddy’s favorite Chinese takeout dish is General Tso’s Chicken, so it seemed a good place to start.  I’ll be using some frozen split chicken breasts that I got on sale a few weeks back.  Since I’m hoping the sauce will be flavorful I’ll go with very basic rice & stirfry up some onions, carrots & cabbage for a side.

Friday: Pizza

Of course. I couldn’t miss out on my weekly Pizza Hut Crust Clone!

Saturday:  Stone Soup

I’m sure to have a bunch of miscellaneous leftovers by Saturday.  It’s going to be a busy day-I’ve got some stuff going on at Church that will take all afternoon-so I wanted a crock pot meal-so Stone Soup it is!  I plan on rounding it out with either fresh bread or rolls.

Sunday: Vegetarian Lasagna, Salad & Garlic Bread.

Just as I’ve been neglecting my “once a week fish” pledge, I’ve also fallen off the “once a week meatless” pledge.  I’m going to try out a new Vegetarian Lasagna recipe and see what the family thinks.

For more great menu plan ideas, head on over to Menu Plan Monday at The Organizing Junkie.

Welcome to another crisp, cold week!

The menu plan this week doesn’t have to take too much into account. We do have the regular 2 weekly sessions of Wrestling for Princess-which means I have to be able to feed her by about 4:30 so she can be at wrestling at 6 (she can’t wait till after, and you don’t want to eat too soon before people are going to jam a shoulder in your stomach). I also have a meeting on Thursday-but it is late enough that I can eat with the family.

As always, I try to make my menu using items I have already purchased on sale.  That’s just one of the ways I try to stay frugal and within my budget!

Monday: “Pizza” Pasta Bake

Yankee Bill won’t be home for supper tonight-so I wanted something quick and easy that I could toss together for the kids-I’ll be eating something else after my meeting from the “more weight conscious” selections in my freezer. I’ll make a smaller batch of this casserole-and there still should be plenty left to send in for lunches later.

Tuesday: Split Pea Soup & Bread

There is a ham bone left from the Christmas Eve Ham. No worries about the safety of leftovers, I stuck it in the freezer I’ll just pop that in the crockpot in the morning and have a lovely pot of soup by evening. Have I mentioned lately how much I love my crockpot??

Wednesday: Baked Chicken Breast, Mashed Potatoes & Green Beans

I bought chicken breast on sale last week-and I need to have cooked chicken for the chicken chili I’m making for our party on Saturday. This way I can do up a large batch and have enough for Wednesday’s meal, my party on Saturday and hopefully a bit to freeze.

Thursday: Hunter’s Pie & Rolls

The leftover mashed potatoes will be used up on this “Shepard’s Pie” that uses Venison instead of beef. Yummy comfort food-and again I’ll try to make double and freeze one for later.

Friday: Pizza

Using my Pizza Hut Crust Clone, of course. Would you expect anything different?

Saturday: Wendy’s Chili Clone & Chicken Chili Blanco with Cornbread

We are hosting our American Legion Riders club post Christmas “Blah’s” party on Saturday. Yankee Bill & I will provide both Wendy’s Chili Clone & Chicken Chili Blanco, Cornbread and chili toppings (cheese, sour cream etc). Everyone else is bringing side dishes, appetizers & desert to pass. It should be a rocking time!

Sunday:Leftovers

Heck, I’ll be tired from cleaning up after the party. Plus there will probably be a ton of food leftover! Using it up is very frugal.

For more great menu plan ideas, make sure you head on over to “Menu Plan Monday” at the Organizing Junkie!

Welcome to January folks! This week is a total catch up week for me. After house guests, Christmas and kids on vacation I have a lot of things that need to be gotten in order this week. So I’m trying not to get too ambitious on the menu front this week. Although of course I want the family to have tasty & filling meals, I really don’t want to spend my days in the kitchen.

Monday: Leftover Buffet

We didn’t wind up doing this over the weekend-Yankee Bill suggested we try some of the canned venison instead. His actual words were “So, when are we going to try some of that canned vension” accompanied by a pleading look-so naturally I couldn’t resist Since it’s just the kiddos and I we’ll be able to make a full meal out of the leftovers, even though they’ve been depleted by lunches etc.

Tuesday: Venison Tacos, Spanish Rice & Green Beans

I’ve got some Venison Cubesteak defrosted, so instead of a ground beef style taco it will be meat strips. I have a new Spanish Rice recipe that I am trying out-if it’s any good I’ll share it with you all soon!

Wednesday: Crockpot Turkey Tetrazzini

There is still smoked turkey left over from Christmas Dinner. Wednesday I will be running errands during the day and have a meeting early that night, so I needed a meal that could be easily put together in the morning, cooked in the crockpot and served up by Yankee Bill for the kiddos.

Thursday: All Day Mac ‘n Cheese w/Green Salad

Have you ever gone to a party and come home with more food than you brought? Somehow that happened to us last week-we wound up bringing home a bunch of varieties of cheese that we hadn’t brought to a party. What better way to use up some sharp cheddar, spicy jack and horseradish cheddar than in some homemade All Day Mac ‘n Cheese!

Friday: Calzones

Lately my bread & pizza dough have been coming out very wet-I can’t really figure out why. I’m following the measurements in my Pizza Hut Crust Clone recipe exactly and using the same measuring cups I always have. Maybe it’s the humidity in the air? Anyway, I had told the kids last week that we’d make calzones instead of pizza-but then the dough came out so runny that there wasn’t any good way to work with it-so I sort of spread it around on the pan to make the pizza crust. I figure I owe them this week-so I’ll watch the dough more carefully and we’ll make calzones this time!

Saturday: Chicken Parmesean over Pasta with Broccoli

I bought a couple of big packs of chicken breasts on sale a couple weeks back, and when I made Chicken Parmesean for dinner I went ahead and flattened/breaded all the remaining breasts. They were flash frozen and are sitting downstairs in the freezer just waiting to be used!

Sunday: Baked Potato Buffet

Yankee Bill loves baked potatoes, but I rarely make them. For some reason I seem to have a mental block where they are concerned-I just never remember to get them started early enough to be ready for dinner time. But with a new year comes new challenges-and of course new Christmas bills! Potatoes are inexpensive and filling, and if you offer them up baked with a bunch of optional fillings such as chili, creamed chicken and broccoli cheese sauce they can even be fun!

For more great menu plan ideas, make sure you head on over to “Menu Plan Monday” at the Organizing Junkie!

Photo by avlxyz

Christmas=Chaos.

Let’s just leave it at that.

In an attempt to get back on track-here is the week’s menu plan.

Monday: Smoked Turkey & Venison Sausage Casserole

This was my own invention.  I used leftover Smoked Turkey (of which there is a ton) and some leftover Venison Breakfast sausage for the protein, elbow macaroni for the noodles, a can of carrots, a can of mushrooms and all the leftover cheese dip & garlic dip from Christmas Eve.  On top I sprinkled about a cup of crushed crackers mixed with 3TBS of butter. Bake & yum!

Tuesday: Dinner at Moms

My MIL is so sweet-an early morning call asking if we’d all like to come over for dinner relieved me of all cooking duties.  Yay!

Wednesday:  Par-Tay

My husband’s pool team is having their year end party.  There is always so much food that it is ridiculous to even think of feeding the kiddos before we go!  I’ll be bringing my Buffalo Chicken Dip & Caramel Corn.

Thursday: Broccoli Ham Casserole

I love casserole weather!  There is something so satisfying about eating a nice warm casserole when it’s cold outside, plus they are a fantastic way to use up lots of odds and ends of meat, veggies & cheese without it seeming like leftovers.

For this particular casserole I will use the leftover rice from the Chinese Takeout we ordered last Wednesday, Ham from Christmas Eve and a flat of fresh broccoli florets purchased by one of my house guests that remains in my fridge.

Friday: Pizza

We actually have not had homemade pizza in a while.  It seems that for the last 3 or 4 weeks something has completely derailed my plans each Friday.  But never fear, on New Years Day I’m sure we will all be having a slow quiet time and enjoying some homemade pizza made with our favorite Pizza Hut Crust Clone recipe.

Saturday: Leftovers Buffet

There is leftover Turkey. Leftover Ham. Leftover Casserole (2 types by then). . . I don’t think anyone will starve.

Sunday: Turkey Soup & Biscuits.

I need to boil the turkey carcass and make some soup!  I may just throw some of the leftover casseroles in there (if there is any left) for additional flavor & ingredients.  All that is old can be made new again!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/avlxyz/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

The kiddos are anxiously counting down the days until Christmas, I’m counting down the days until both my parents, my brother & my sister (with baby) descend on the house.  We are totally in a flurry of decorating, house cleaning/organizing, and Christmas shopping & wrapping. Not to mention the regularly scheduled program of kids sports, husband’s evening meetings, meals, laundry, blog writing, business correspondance and a backlog of review items.  Oh, and throw in 1 hr three days a week of physical therapy for my shoulder on top of all that.

I love the holiday season, but it does get chaotic!

So my plan for this week’s menu plan is to try to follow the “KISS” principle from back in my Army days.  “Keep it simple-stupid!”

Monday:  Venison Steaks w/Brown Gravy & Onions, Baked Potatoes, Carrots

Yankee Bill will be home for supper, but he’s got to head out early for Pool.  We had a different guy clean & butcher the deer this year-and he had the ability to cube the steaks. So we figured what the heck, we’d try it.  So now Yankee Bill has said several times “I can’t wait to see how that tastes”.  .  . so tonight we’ll find out.  I’m not going to do anything fancy with them this time-just sautee in a bit of butter with onions.  Toss a couple of potatoes in the oven to bake-viola, dinner!

Tuesday: Quiche & Salad

Wrestling practice for Princess, so we need something that can be made early so she can eat before and the rest of us can eat after/during (only one of us takes her over, the other stays home with Buddy.  Hanging around and watching sis practice for an hour is hard for an active 6 yr old.)

Sunday after dinner there was a lot of rice and sausage leftover, so I decided to get a little ahead of things and whip up a couple of rice crust quiches to have for the hectic days ahead.  I’ll use one for this meal with a tossed salad, the other will be frozen and saved for lunches next week.  Although there is some meat in this meal, I’m going to count it as my “meatless” meal since the sausage is more a seasoning than a main course.

Wednesday: Turkey Soup & Biscuits

Spending the day in town with errands, which usually means I won’t get back home until just before dinnertime.  A crockpot is the way to go on these occasions!  I did a massive chicken cooking session on Sunday night-the meat was frozen up for future meals, but the bones were tossed in the crockpot to cook overnight for stock.  I was able to pick another cup and a half of meat off the bones!

I’ll toss the meat in the de-fatted stock along with any leftover baked potato, cubes, carrots etc.  If there isn’t enough to make a full soup I’ll fill in with some leftover veggies, carrots & celery from the crisper and some pasta.  I’ll use my Homemade Biscuit Mix to whip up some last minute drop biscuits.

Thursday:  Baked Chicken, Green Beans & Rice

Have a conference call conveniently scheduled (can you hear the sarcasm) at 4:30-5:30pm.  Need something that can be made & cooking while I’m on the phone.  I also have the same situation I do on Tuesday nights-Princess has wrestling practice again.  I’ll cook the chicken and rice in time to feed Princess before the start of my conference call and simply reheat for everyone else later.

Friday: Pizza

Heck, it’s a tradition.  Couldn’t make it without my “Pizza Hut Crust Clone” recipe though.  I think I’m going to plan ahead and make a double batch of dough, then crank out not only our two pizzas, but also a bunch of homemade calzones that I can freeze up and have ready for a meal next week.

Saturday: Salmon Patties, Mashed Potatoes and Green Beans

I haven’t made Salmon Patties for quite a while! This should be a bit more time intensive (with the frying and all-baked just don’t cut it) but I’ll have a bit more time on the weekend.  Taters will be instant and the beans out of the freezer from our garden produce.  This counts as my fish meal for the week.

Sunday: Spaghetti with Italian Venison Sausage & Mixed Veggies

Church & Christmas Pageant rehearsal in the morning.  Walk through of the house my mom is buying in the afternoon.  My sister & her baby fly in to Syracuse at 8pm-so I’ll need to head out around 7ish to pick them up. . . So there is time for an early dinner & cleanup before going.  . . but I’ll want to keep it simple (is that my refrain for this week or what?). Spaghetti & sauce can be whipped up quickly & reheats well.  I’m pairing it with frozen veggies cooked in the microwave. Easy peasy.

So that’s my plan.  For more great menu plans check out Menu Plan Monday at “I’m an Organizing Junkie“.