Back to Monday, back to meal planning! The last two weeks were a bit more “fly by the seat of your pants” than I like–but hey, that’s life. Yankee Bill was at deer camp for a week, and then last week was Thanksgiving (lots of eating with family and warming up leftovers). Now we are back to a bit more normalcy, and that means Meal Planning!
So this is what I’m working with this week:
1. This week is a busy one-I’ve got haircuts, shopping trips, doctors appointments–you name it. At least 3 days I’ll be out and about in town for at least part of the day-and I’ll probably try to squeeze in the final Christmas Shopping while I’m out. I rarely feel like cooking anything complicated when I get home from those types of days, so I need things that either are cooked ahead, cook while I’m gone (crockpot) or are super quick and easy to put together.
2. We’ve got the normally scheduled dance lessons and scout meetings for the kiddos, and Yankee Bill as always plays pool one night a week.
3. Yankee Bill brought home a ton of food from “Deer Camp”. They were out there from last weekend to this weekend-basically only coming home for Thanksgiving and a couple of showers in there. Since it’s guys doing the planning and shopping for food (about 6 men and 2 boys at various times-I think all of them were only there together for about 2 of the days) there was a lot of leftover stuff. I think we actually wound up with more food than we sent out! Specifically we got back the 2 cans of venison which need to be used soon, a big package of “snappy griller” sausages, Virigina Ham luncheon meat, about 5 packages of rolls and bread, and some junk food (although I put the unopened bags of chips away for later).
4. I canned meat last week and wound up with a can of ground sausage and a can of link sausage that didn’t seal-so they are in the fridge and need to be used up. I had cubed up several cups of raw pumpkin last week when I was cooking and dehydrated some–I cooked it last night to be ready for a meal this week. I also have leftover flaked fish and fish stock I made (I told everyone in this Facebook update yesterday that it was going to be Sunday’s dinner, but I had to slide it to today!). I’ve also got half a package of home frozen radish pods and half a package of home frozen broccoli to use up.
5. Believe it or not, in my cold frames I’ve got chard, mizuna and lettuce. In the garden I’ve got carrots under a thick hay mulch, unprotected kale & chard (it can handle a bit of snow) and a few turnips. There are also Jerusalem artichokes that I could dig up (note to self-mulch Jerusalmen Artichokes).
6. As always my goal is to have one venison meal, one fish meal, one pork meal, one bean meal, one meatless meal and one soup meal per week.
Taking all that into account here is my game plan:
Monday: Homemade Fish Chowder with Grated Salad and Rolls
The fish stock I created yesterday will be the base for my fish chowder. I’ll add the flaked fish, milk (or evaporated milk-haven’t decided yet), potatoes and veggies to create a nice filling chowder. Since we’ve got all those rolls from Deer Camp I won’t bother trying to bake up any myself–we’ll just use them up. I feel guilty about not having a vegetable, so I figure if I grate up the last of the turnips, some of the carrots, shred some chard and maybe peel and shred some of the broccoli stems (the plants are still standing in the garden) I can create a sort of shredded salad/slaw to go to the side in a small bowl.
This is my fish meal and my soup meal for the week.
Tuesday: Venison over Noodles with Buttered Broccoli & Radish Pods
I’ll heat up the home canned venison and make the broth into a gravy (basically just thicken it and adjust the seasoning). That will be served over some noodles. I’ll simply heat up the broccoli and radish pods and toss with a bit of butter, salt and pepper. It might not be fancy food, but it will be good food-actually other than the noodles it’s all things we’ve provided for ourselves! I grew the broccoli and radish pods and Yankee Bill shot the deer.
This is my venison meal for the week.
Wednesday: Ham, Salt Potatoes and Stewed Garden Greens
Wednesday is going to be a busy one! I can put the ham in the crockpot to cook–maybe I’ll fancy it up a bit, maybe I’ll just leave it as is. I’ll get a bunch of greens (chard, kale, mizuna–whatever looks like I should get it picked and cooked) and put them in another crockpot with ham broth (I’ve got bullion!) and some red pepper flakes to cook down all day, southern style. Our buddy gave us about 40 lbs of potatoes from his father’s massive planting–many of them are small-so I’ll just scrub a few of those up and have them in a pot of salted water ready to turn on and boil when I get home.
This is my pork meal for the week.
Thursday: Mexican Pumpkin, Black Bean and Beef (venison) Tamale Pie
Instead of the ground meat that my Mexican Pumpkin, Black Bean and Beef Tamale Pie calls for I’ll use the canned venison sausage that didn’t seal. I’ll add in the baked cubed pumpkin I cooked this weekend as well. I’ll have it all ready to go so that I can just stick it in the oven at dinner time since I’ve got appointments in town on Thursday. This really is a whole meal in a casserole (it’s got pumpkin and beans for the fiber/vegetable thing) but I’ll probably feel guilty at the last minute and add some sort of side vegetable as well. . .
This is my bean meal for the week.
Friday: Pizza Hut Crust Clone Pizza
I’ll make homemade pizza using my Pizza Hut Crust Clone recipe.
Saturday: Vegetable Lasagna with Salad
I’m adapting several recipes to create my own vegetable lasagna–if it comes out well I’ll share it 🙂 I intend it to be a “white’ lasagna and to use some of my dehydrated summer squash (re-hydrated of course) for the bulk of the veggies. The salad will be with greens from the cold frame, carrots from under the garden mulch, store bought onions and maybe I’ll try to rehydrate some of the tomatoes and see if they are palatable in a salad 😉
This is my vegetarian meal for the week.
Sunday: Snappy Grillers on Rolls with Pickles and Potato Salad
We can do the Snappy Grillers out on the grill if the weather cooperates, or I can cook them up in the frying pan–we’ll serve them on some of the rolls that were also brought back from Deer Camp. I’ve got tons of pickles I made this summer in the basement fridge (that counts as a vegetable right?) and I’ll use extra potatoes from Wednesday to make a potato salad.
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Are you interested in learning more about menu planning? Check out my post “Why Plan a Weekly Menu” .
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