It’s Thanksgiving week! I bet you can guess what’s on the meal plan for Thursday!
Here’s what I’ve got to plan around this week:
1. It’s the opening week of regular deer season, so Yankee Bill is off work and staying up in the woods with the boys at “deer camp”. He’ll come home on Thursday for dinner, and will probably pop in a couple times for showers. . .but pretty much I’m husbandless for the week.
2. The kids are only in school today and tomorrow. So I’ve got extra hungry people in the house. That also means I can put them to work. . . so maybe I’ll get them to cook a few meals while they are home and give mama a break. We are still going to try to get to Karate at least once this week, maybe twice if they are open on Friday. Otherwise things like Scouts and Odyssey of the Mind are are on hold for the holiday.
3. Thanksgiving dinner is at my Mother in Law’s house, so I don’t have to do a lot of the cooking. I’ll make my fresh rolls and maybe a side vegetable dish. I’m also on tap to go pick Great Nana (97!) up from the assisted living.
4. In the fridge I have some leftover sliced ham, beets (which I’ve been meaning to use for 3 weeks now!), some roasted squash cubes, about 2 cups of pasta, carrots, lettuce and two dozen eggs. On the counter I have a couple of big old zuchinni, which when over ripe have been actually holding up quite well. I dug up some Jerusalem artichokes from the yard and pulled a few dry scarlet runner beans from the vines out in the garden (they were leftover–I though I had harvested everything already). Of course we have meat, frozen veggies and such in the freezer.
Taking all that into account here is my game plan:
Monday: Pasta Carbonara, Beets and Salad
Pasta Carbonara will use up some ham, some eggs and the leftover pasta. I’ll use the lettuce, celery, carrots etc to make a green salad (maybe grate some Jerusalem artichoke for crunch), and then also serve cooked beets.
This is my pork meal for the week.
Tuesday: Bean and Veggie Soup with Biscuits
I’ll shell and soak the dry beans from the garden (I may add a hand full of the other kind I harvested earlier–that way I can try the flavor of both) overnight. In the morning I’ll put together a soup in the slow cooker–broth, fresh carrots and onions, dehydrated vegetables from the pantry, maybe even some Kale from the garden. A can of stewed tomatoes would probably be good as well. Cook all day and then serve with homemade biscuits.
This is my bean, meatless and soup meal for the week.
Wednesday: Shepard’s Pie
This really is a one dish meal. Meat and veggies in the bottom, mashed potatoes on the top. I’ll use ground beef from the freezer (from our 1/4 cow), canned corn that I put up last year, carrots-celery-onion from the fridge and pantry, and make mashed potatoes from the potatoes in the basement. Actually–my full plan is to get the kids involved in making this.
This is my beef meal for the week.
Thursday: Thanksgiving Dinner at Nana’s
Friday: Teriyaki Salmon, Rice and Snow Peas
I’ll probably do the salmon with a homemade teriyaki glaze in tin foil packets–it never dries out when you cook it that way. The rice will be plain, and the snow peas are ones I grew in the spring and put up in the freezer.
This is my fish meal for the week.
Saturday: Venison and Onion on Buttered English Muffins, Roasted Jerusalem Artichokes, Squash and Potatoes
If you’ve got Venison Tenderloin, all you have to do is lightly fry it in some butter with salt & pepper. Then I’ll caramelize a bunch of onions, serve it together over buttered English muffins. It’s a family tradition from Yankee Bill’s family 🙂
Sunday: Lasagna, Sauteed Zucchini and Rolls
I can make the lasagna with venison sweet sausage from the freezer and probably a cottage cheese/ricotta mixture to cut on the cost of the cheese. The zucchini will just be sauteed in a bit of butter and I’ll use my homemade dinner roll kits to make rolls.
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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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