The end of summer is getting near–we’ve been busy folk and I admit that meal planning has fallen by the wayside the last month or so. The number of times that dinner has been ravioli from a can or sandwiches is truly embarrassing. But I’m here, and I’m writing, and I’m going to have a plan this week!
These are my considerations:
1. The kids are home-no camp, no nothing. Yankee Bill is going to be out of town for a few days from midweek on. I may splurge and take the kids to the dollar theater and supper one night. Also I’ve got to head into town at least one day this week for errands and such, and I’m teaching a jam and jelly making class on Thursday night.
2. Produce is coming in from the garden. The tomatoes are beginning to ripen. I need to pull beets. The squash may actually be ready by the end of the week (they are WAY behind this year). The green beans are swinging into production (also late). So there are plenty of fresh veggies–plus some stuff that will need to be harvested and preserved.
3. In the fridge cooked I have 2 pork chops, snow peas, chicken broth, 2 chicken thighs, cooked chick peas, leftover chicken, pasta & pesto and boiled potatoes.
4. The temps this week are supposed to be in the mid 70’s. Not cool, but not too hot to use the oven or anything.
5. 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: Chicken and Pork Pasta Bake with Marinated Snow Peas
I’ll chop up the leftover pork chops, mix them in with the chicken, pasta & pesto from the other night, add red sauce and cheese and bake the whole thing. (I may have to add more pasta–not sure). I’ll take the snow peas that I cooked last week and just marinate them in some salad dressing to serve on the side.
This is my pork meal for the week.
Tuesday: Chicken Soup and Biscuits
I’ll use the meat from the chicken thighs with the broth I made last week, throw in the leftover potatoes (although there will STILL be some left–I’ll probably make hash one of the mornings) and other veggies from both the crisper drawer, my dehydrated stuff and the garden. It will go all day in the crockpot and I’ll make up the biscuits right before the meal.
This is my soup meal for the week.
Wednesday: Dinner Out
We’ll go see a movie at the cheap theater and eat out as a special treat.
Thursday: Venison Stirfry over Rice
I’ll do a stirfry using a bunch of garden veggies and some venison from the freezer, and serve it over rice. I’ve found a bunch of stirfry sauces that I want to try out, so you’ll probably be seeing stirfry on the menu quite a bit for a while until I find the “right” one.
This is my venison meal for the week.
Friday: Homemade Vegetarian Pizza and Roasted Green Beans
I haven’t made pizza in a while. We’ll make some of my Pizza Hut Crust Clone dough in the bread machine for a couple of cheese pizzas and roast some fresh greenbeans from the garden as a side.
This is my meatless meal for the week.
Saturday: Fish Tacos and Spanish Rice
Saturday is going to be a busy day, so I’ll “cheat” for my fish tacos and use store bought tortillas and frozen battered fish (Although I won’t be making my own Corona Batter this time, I will make the Cabbage Slaw). The spanish rice will be more of a mock spanish rice–salsa and rice.
This is my fish meal for the week.
Sunday: Cincinnati Chili and Sweet Northern Cornbread
We haven’t had chili in quite a while, so I’ll make Cincinnati chili in the crockpot. We’ll be hanging out with some friends that day–and chili is always something that will feed a crowd. For some reason chili always just goes with cornbread in my mind, so I’ll make my Sweet Northern Cornbread
This is my bean 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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