Menu Plan 5/26

After last week’s Monday morning freezer debacle, I gave up on the menu plan and just tried to use up as much defrosted food as possible This week the freezer door is securely closed and I am back on track!

Tuesday: Crockpot “Roasted” Chicken w/Gravy, Rice & Frozen Veggies

I had a whole chicken in the freezer. It had just started to thaw when the “incident” happened, so I let it finish thawing in the fridge last week. Since I’ve got a Dr’s appt this afternoon, I figured rather than using the oven, I’d toss it in the crockpot this morning. I’ve read that if you make balls of foil to rest the chicken on-thereby keeping it out of it’s own juices, it comes out like an oven baked bird. I however am feeling lazy, so I just threw it in there. If it comes out a bit more like it’s stewed rather than roasted I don’t really mind. The drippings will still make fantastic gravy. If I get the rice cooker all set up before I head out for my appointment, all I’ll have to do when I get home is flip the switch and wait for it to finish

Wednesday: Lasagna & Salad

One of the things that defrosted was a roll of sweet italian sausage. I also noticed I have 2/3 of a container of cottage cheese that has to be used up. That spells Lasagna to me. Yes-if you are a purist, I realize that Ricotta cheese is better, but hey, cottage is what I’ve got on hand.

Thursday: Jambalaya

One of the things I noticed in my freezer was a bag of Okra. It was still completely frozen, which is good, but it’s been there for a while. A really long while. As in I can’t remember when or why I bought the stuff! The only dish that comes to mind for me when i think of Okra is Jambalaya. I plan on adapting a recipe for Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya with Okra that I found on Recipezaar.com. I’ll have to step down the spicyness for the kids-but that’s ok, because Yankee Bill and I can add Tabasco at the table. I’ll use up the leftover rice, the leftover chicken and add in some of that spicy venison sausage that we have waaaay to much of.*

Friday: Pizza

We actually haven’t had pizza day for a couple of weeks because of various scheduling issues. So this should be appreciated.

Saturday: Hotdogs, Potato salad, green salad & Chips

It’s BBQ time, so I might as well enjoy it.

Sunday: Leftovers

I may rework the leftovers into something cool. . . or we could just have the “little bit of this, little bit of that” type of meal. But we need to just use up what we’ve got!

*Yankee Bill ordered half sausage and half ground meat from the guy who butchered our deer. .. and he gave us ALL spicy sausage, which the kids have found to be too hot. Next year-sweet sausage only thank you!