Meal Plan 6/13

Yup.  It’s Wednesday.  I’m aware!  Some weeks are just like that.  Although I’m only creating my plan today we have been eating at home all week.

So what am I working around this week? Let me tell you!

1.  Monday, Tuesday and Thursday mornings I have appointments that will keep me out of the house for big chunks of the day.  That usually means I’m playing catch up on other things for the rest of the day and don’t feel like making anything complicated/time consuming for dinner.

2.  Last week’s boyscout camp out got moved to this week due to weather.  So Friday night we’ll be at the campground having a BBQ (dish to pass-so I don’t need to make a full meal), then Buddy will spend the night.

3. Yankee Bill is out of town this week starting today-somehow cooking for just me and the kids seems like less of a “sit down meal” than when we are all together.  So we might have some quick meals.

4.  School year type activities are winding down. Dance & Girl Scouts are done, but we still have Boy Scouts tonight.  That means we need a quick meal to get out the door and over there in time.

5.  The garden has green garlic, lettuce, tiny radishes, and some pea pods ready for harvest.  My brother gave me a big bag of garlic scapes from his garden to use as well.

6. As always my goal is to have one venison meal, one fish meal, one bean meal, one meatless meal and one soup meal per week.

Taking all that into account here is my game plan:

Monday: Chicken Pesto Pasta and Green Salad

This was a last minute, I have no idea what I’m going to make for dinner type thing that actually turned out awesome!  I have frozen pesto cubes from last year’s basil in the freezer, so I defrosted about four of those, opened and drained a big can of chicken (store bought) boiled some pasta and threw it all together.  It was YUM.

I paired it with a huge green salad from our garden made of lettuce and various wild greens, a couple of tiny radishes (sliced up the tops and everything) and herbs.  I did use a cucumber that I bought at the farmers market from local folks-they have big mobile hoop houses, so this was not a watery grocerystore cuke-it was a delicious garden fresh organic locally grown cuke.

Tuesday: Venison Cube Steak in Gravy with Onions, Rice, Roasted Garlic Scapes, Stewed Tomato & Squash, and Green Salad

We had a friend over for dinner last night-actually our friend Craig who is going to Laconia for Bike Week with Yankee Bill (they left this morning with the bikes, camper and a fridge full of beer).  I wanted a nice home cooked meal for them since I figure they will be basically eating junk for the next 5 days.

I sauteed some onions up and set them aside, then I made up some packaged brown gravy (I know, cheater!) and set that on simmer on a back burner in my big saute pan.  I pan fried the cube steak in batches in my cast iron frying pan and then moved them to the simmering gravy to stay warm and finish cooking.

I tossed the garlic scapes with olive oil, threw them on my stoneware baking sheet and sprinkled with salt & pepper.  Roasted them for about 30 min at 450.  That wound up burning the tiny thin tips of the scapes, so I had to cut those off.  Next time I’ll either roast for a bit less time or cut the thinnest portion off to begin with.

The rice was from my big ol 40lb bag of rice, the green salad was from the garden and the tomatoes & squash I had cooked & frozen together last fall.

It was an great meal if I do say so myself.

This was my venison meal for the week.

Wednesday: Lentil Soup & Homemade Bread

Buddy has actually been asking for lentils for a week.  Yes, really.  And although lentils are one of the quickest cooking legumes out there, each night I’ve either had other plans, or I’ve been busy right up until dinnertime (last weekend we went completely off my meal plan and wound up with a lot of quick thrown together meals)

So today I’ll start a lentil soup in the crockpot and I’ll get my bread baking done (way behind on that as well) and it will be a quick and easy meal ready to go.  That should get us out the door with time to spare for scouts tonight.

This is my meatless, bean and soup meal for the week.  Wow, three in one!

Thursday:  Tuna Stuffed Shells, Butternut Soup and Green Salad

It’s been a while since I’ve made either my Tuna Stuffed Shells or my Butternut Soup. The shells just sound good to me this week-and if I am feeling very productive I can make a double batch and then freeze some for an easy meal on a hot day sometime in the future (I think they taste good room temp).

I have a couple of butternut squash I grew last year still on top of my kitchen cabinets (those things last a LONG time in this climate!).  To make sure I use one up I peeled, cubed and steamed it a couple days ago.  So now I have to make something, and the butternut soup is easy, tasty, and leftovers are good for lunches.

Salad again from the garden.  We will be eating a lot of salad for a while until the lettuce gives up the ghost due to the heat.

This is my fish meal for the week.

Friday: Boy Scout BBQ

I’ll probably bring deviled eggs.  Who doesn’t love those (plus I’ve got 18 eggs in the fridge.  Just say’in).

Saturday:  Pork Lettuce Wraps and Pasta Salad

Lettuce wraps are a fun meal because you make them at the table.  Think “burrito” or “taco” with lettuce instead of a tortilla as the wrapper.  Usually these are made with marinated meat-I’ll use planned leftover meat from Thursday’s grilled porkchops.  Usually you add in some other shredded veggies for crunch-onion, grated carrot, chopped garlic, water chestnuts etc.

Since it’s a cold meal and I don’t want to add something hot for a side, I will make a simple pasta salad to accompany it.

Sunday: Pizza

Since we won’t have pizza on Friday due to the camp out and BBQ, I’ll put my Pizza Hut Crust Clone pizza into the rotation on Sunday instead.

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

Tagged as: Menu Plan

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