Brrr. If you are in the North East like I am, you are struggling to keep warm this week. I don’t think we are projected to get above freezing all week. Plus we’ve got the kids home for winter break all week–and I can’t even send them outside to burn off some energy.
Here’s what I’ve got to plan around this week:
1. It’s holiday break so the kids are home. I tend to make a hot lunch more often when I’ve got everyone here. Dinner time can be a bit more variable since everyone is here. We’ve got some events this week–Monday we planned an outing for the kids with some friends that included dinner out. Wednesday we were invited to a friend’s house for dinner (I’m bringing dessert). My mom has her birthday this week and we are taking her out to dinner on Saturday. This week is also the start of Lent so Tuesday night is Shrove Tuesday–when the traditional meal is pancakes.
2. I’m actually doing pretty well eating down what is in the fridge. We’ve got a bit of the ham left–not enough for a meal that is heavy on ham, but enough to use as a protein/flavoring in beans or fried rice. There are small amounts of assorted vegetables in the crisper–half a head of cabbage, a few baby carrots, a 1/2 cup of broccoli cole slaw mix, a few green onions. I cooked up some BBQ sauce and Glaze using some super dark beer that we’ve been needing to use up–I should probably find a meal to use at least one of those this week. The freezer has pork, venison and beef from our bulk purchases/hunting season. I also have some frozen fish. We’ve got home frozen vegetables and home canned vegetables in the cellar, along with onions from the 50lb bag I bought in the fall and potatoes from our friend’s field. I’ve got carrots, beets, Jerusalem artichokes and some radishes buried under straw in the garden. . . I just don’t feel like digging through the 3 feet or so of standing snow we have in the yard to get to them (although with the straw insulation they would be fine)
Taking all that into account here is my game plan:
Monday: Chinese Buffet
I needed a buffet to make sure the teenage boys I had with us were filled up 🙂 Plus the kids just love Asian food.
Tuesday: Pancakes and Bacon
Shrove Tuesday is the last day before Ash Wednesday. In the old days, people would fast for Lent–so they had to use up the end of the “rich” foods in their house like fats/oils, eggs etc. Pancakes became the traditional meal cooked to use up those ingredients, and I was raised always eating pancakes for supper on Shrove Tuesday–frequently at a church dinner! I haven’t decided if I’ll use my regular pancake recipe (straight out of the Better Homes and Garden Cookbook) or my Pumpkin Pancake recipe.
I consider this my meatless meal. Yes, I know bacon is a meat, but I consider it more of a garnish than a huge part of the meal. It’s my goals, I can interpret them how I like!
Wednesday: Dinner at Friends
I’m making the dessert–a recipe from my husband’s family for “Boston Creme Pie” that is really more of a cake. And it doesn’t have chocolate. Trust me, it’s delicious even if the name seems a bit off.
Thursday: Ham Fried Rice
I should be able to use up the ham and all the veggies by making fried rice. Plus it’s an easy, one dish meal.
This is my pork meal for the week.
Friday: Fish Chowder and Biscuits
Something warm for the cold days this week–plus I need to fit some fish and soup into our meal plan somehow. I’ll just use frozen fish, corn, carrots, evaporated milk, potatoes and more to make a tasty soup. Soup needs some sort of bread so biscuits (or beer bread if I feel like it) as a side.
This is my soup
Saturday: Dinner Out
It’s Mom’s birthday dinner.
Sunday: Hunter’s Pie
This is shepard’s pie, except with venison 🙂 So basically a venison style stew with lots of veggies covered with mashed potatoes. I’ll use venison from the freezer, potatoes from the basement and either frozen or dehydrated vegetables. Warm and filling.
This is my venison meal for the week.
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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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