Menu Plan 4/18

Believe it or not, I think I have a fairly calm week planned!  Princess is gone for the week on a special trip with grandma, so I only have one kiddo to contend with. . . and it’s the kiddo who DOESN”T have 6 million after school activities.  That makes life a bit less complicated.

Here is where you put the considerations for the week

1. Yankee Bill has meetings only one night this week!  Woohoo!

2. Buddy has swimming two nights, which means that he needs to have eaten and digested by 5pm.  That means something easy that he can eat around 4:30 or so. . .

3. I’m hosting 10 folks for Easter Dinner on Sunday.  Yeah, I know.  I’m insane.

4.  As always the goal is one meatless (or pretty meatless), one fish and one venison meal for the week.

Taking all that into account here is my game plan:

Monday: Breakfast for Dinner-Pancakes and Sausage

Since Buddy is missing his sister, I let him pick tonight’s dinner.  I asked  him “what’s your favorite meal that mama cooks?”.  He told me that was a very hard choice (Awww, what a sweetie) but finally decided on Breakfast for Dinner.  Since that is Yankee Bill’s LEAST favorite meal, and he has a meeting this Monday. . . well it seemed like the perfect fit!  And, since it’s my menu plan, my goals and I get to make the rules. . . I’m going to count this as my “meatless” meal-since the sausage is more of a garnish than anything else.  I’m considering making my Pumpkin Pancake recipe-but may just go with plain old regular ones.

Tuesday: Spaghetti w/Venison Meatsauce and Green Salad.

I defrosted and used about half a tube of Venison Sausage a few days ago-the remainder needs to be used up before I have to throw it out.  I hate throwing food out!  Browned up with some onion added it will make a can of jarred spaghetti sauce more appealing and be a quick and easy (as well as easily reheated) meal for a night that Buddy has swimming.  This can count as my venison meal for the week.

Wednesday: Spinach, Ham and Cheese Strata and Steamed Carrots

Even though I know I’ll be making Ham on Sunday for Easter, I have some in the fridge I also need to use up.  I also bought bread last week, thinking the kids would eat a lot of sandwiches (which they didn’t) and inherited a dozen extra eggs from a friend who was heading out of town and cleaning out her fridge.  Strata is a great way to use that all up!  I’ll steam a few carrots and add them to the side to satisfy my need for a side vegetable (even though there is spinach in the strata)

Thursday:  Chicken Vegetable Soup with Biscuits

I’ll use some frozen chicken and make a basic vegetable soup.  Quick and easy which means I can get Buddy out the door for swimming and still have it warm for when Yankee Bill and I want to eat a bit later.

Friday: Baked Fish with Green Beans and Rice

I have a sneaking suspicion that the latter half of this week will be spent in a frenzy of “oh my gosh I’ve got half my husband’s family coming over for dinner on Sunday” type cleaning.  That means I won’t want an complex recipes to deal with.  Plain old baked fish with veggies & starch will be healthy, filling and meet my “one fish meal a week” criteria.  I’ll call that good.

Saturday: Leftovers or Dinner Out

I will definitely be in full frenzy mode by Saturday.  We’ll either graze off the fridge or splurge and take Buddy out.  Since it’s just him, it will sort of special.  Plus he’ll miss his sister a lot on Saturday-they actually (for all their bickering) play together a lot.  Dinner down at the local pub will be a treat and something to cheer him up.

Sunday: Easter Dinner-Ham, German Potato Salad, Carrots, Fresh Rolls, Green Bean Casserole and whatever else I decided at the last minute we can’t do without.

I’ll be writing more about this tomorrow.  Suffice it to say “big family dinner for 10″.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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

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

Tweet