Welcome to October!
Fall chaos continues, and so does the lovely crisp weather. I love being outside when it’s just the perfect weather for a pair of jeans and a sweater.
Luckily this week we don’t have a lot going on beyond the standard activities. . . but let me tell you, that is enough 🙂
1. Mondays and Wednesdays Princess has field hockey & dance. On Wednesdays Buddy has scouts. Yankee Bill has a meeting on Thursday. Friday is a day off from school for Columbus Day weekend.
2. I’m running errands on Monday this week-so I’ll be mostly out of the house. I know me, and when I’ve been running around for a big chunk of the day I’m just not much into cooking when I get home. With field hockey and dance, that means I better have something simple planned for dinner.
3. Our school is hosting the field hockey tournament on Saturday. That means I’ve got to cook chili and be ready to work a shift as well as Princess playing.
4. In the fridge I’ve got a few leftovers, a big block of American cheese (not the kiddos favorite) and a bunch of garden vegetables: peeled and diced “mystery squash” (it grew in the compost and looks to be cross between summer squash and gourds-tastes fine but a bit firm), chard, turnip greens, carrots, radishes and green beans. I’ve got more carrots, turnips, chard, beans, etc out in the garden (the kale and the beets are coming along) .
5. I never did make the shrimp stir-fry over the weekend.
6. As always my goal is to have one venison meal, one fish meal, one bean meal, one meatless meal and one soup meal per week. Since I have a half of a pig in the freezer I better try to squeeze one pork meal in each week as well!
Taking all that into account here is my game plan:
Monday: Shrimp & Vegetable Stirfry over Rice
This weekend we wound up with the kids over at a friends house for dinner so we just ate a quick meal ourselves instead of making the shrimp stir-fry. Despite Monday being crazy busy in the evening I should be able to whip up a stir fry very quickly–the rice cooker will make up my bulk purchased rice completely untended and I’ll get the veggies cut up during the day so all I’ll have to do in the evening is saute and toss some sauce ingredients in.
This is my fish meal for the week.
Tuesday: Squash “Eggplant” Parmesan over Angel Hair Pasta.
My “Zuchetta Tromboncinio” squash plant is insane. It has decided that the fall is the perfect time to just go nuts and put out a ton of squash. While this vining plant is eaten as a summer squash, it is actually MUCH more firm than your typical zucchini or yellow squash. So I’m going to be brave and try making eggplant Parmesan using it instead. We shall see how it goes! Nothing ventured, nothing gained right? And frankly, with red sauce and cheese, who cares if it doesn’t turn out and I get mush, I’ll just mix it all up and serve it over the pasta and call it sauce instead 😉
This is my meatless meal for the week.
Wednesday: Chard & Venison “Cabbage Roll” Casserole and Salad
I’ll make Cabbage Roll Casserole-using ground venison for the meat and using chard from the garden instead of cabbage. I’ve got leftover salad from the weekend which we’ll put on the side to add some extra vegetable “oomph”. I make this casserole in the crockpot, which makes it awesome for my busiest day of the week.
This is my venison meal for the week.
Thursday: Garlic Pork Balsamico with Roasted Potatoes and Root Vegetables
Apparently I’ve never posted my recipe for Garlic Pork Balsamico (or at least I can’t find it). It’s pork chops with rosemary, tons of garlic cloves and a balsamic reduction. Delicious, and not quite as complex as it sounds. I’ll toss together quartered potatoes, some carrots and the cute little Hakeuri Turnips from the garden and roast them for a side.
This is my pork meal for the week.
Friday: Pork and Vegetable Soup with Popovers
I’ll use the veggies left over from the stirfry on Monday (I cooked up extra and took them out of the pan before I added any sauce or spices) and the pork left over from Thursday’s dinner in the crockpot with some frozen soup stock I’ve got down in the freezer. Toss it all in the crockpot and let it cook away all day. Right before dinner whip up some blender popovers and I’m ready.
This is my soup meal for the week.
Saturday: Wanna Be Wendy’s Chili and Sweet Northern Cornbread
I’ve got to make chili overnight on Friday to have ready for the field hockey tournament on Saturday. Since I’m making one batch of Wanna Be Wendy’s Chili it really isn’t any trouble to make two instead. . . In the morning I’ll just take one batch up to the tournament. The other will go in the fridge (after cooking overnight I don’t want to leave it on all day as well). I can just reheat at supper time when I’m tossing the Sweet Northern Cornbread in.
This is my bean meal for the week.
Sunday: Homemade Pizza
Friday and Saturday are way to hectic this week, so I’ll make pizza on Sunday instead with the Pizza Hut Crust Clone recipe
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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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