Welcome to daylight savings time! I hope you all are enjoying a bit of extra light in the mornings–I know it’s a tad less depressing right now to wake up with a bit of a glow in the sky instead of pitch dark 🙂
Several unusual things going on this week that effect the meal plan:
1. Yankee Bill is still gone (cutting down trees in Hurricane Sandy relief efforts) and it’s production week for Princess’s play over at the middle school–which means she’s there till something like 7pm each night and they feed them supper there. So basically all week it’s just Buddy & I for supper all week.
2. I’m being a good theater mom and volunteered to bring an entire loaf of bread worth of sandwiches for the show cast on Monday & Friday. So I’ll already be making sandwiches those days.
3. Wednesday I’ll be in town for a meeting and running errands–so I won’t be in much of a mood to cook. Crockpot meals are always good on errand days. Wednesday is also Scout night, so I have to have Buddy over there in the evening right after dinner.
4. In the garden we still have turnips, carrots, chard and kale. In the cold frames there is additionally mizuna (an asian green) and lettuce.
5. We’ve got a couple parishioners at church who need meals for various reasons, so I’ve got to do some cooking 🙂
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. I’m going to be officially adding in one pork meal–since we have half a pig in the freezer and all.
Taking all that into account here is my game plan:
Monday: Ham and Cheese Panini with Roasted Turnips
I’m already making ham and cheese sandwiches to take over to the school at 4ish–so I’ll just make a couple extra, stick them in the fridge and then at supper time grill them on the panini press (which I won several years ago–I didn’t got out and buy it). Since I have a whole row of turnips–and they are salad turnips so not great to store–I need to eat some up. Roasting them is tasty and easy and will give me a vegetable as a side dish.
Tuesday: Cheese and Chard Quiche with Shredded Carrot Salad
I’ve been buying eggs from a friend who has a farm (actually we’ve got a pretty slick system worked out!) so I’ve got plenty for egg dishes. I like quiche because you can cook it ahead, eat it warm, eat it cold, eat it for breakfast, lunch or dinner. All of that also makes it a perfect dish to cook for the church families who need some meal help. I’ll use chard from the garden to give it a bit of color and mineral boost. Not exactly sure what I’m going to do for the carrot salad-I’ll shred them and add a few things and then marinate it with a vinegar based dressing for a bit I think.
This is my meatless meal for the week.
Wednesday: Lentil Soup with Homemade Bread
Lentil soup is very easy to toss together in the crockpot in the morning and then enjoy in the evening–so it’s perfect for an errand day! I’ll probably make the thinner version (sometimes I make it super thick like a pea soup) and add in carrots, potatoes and tomatoes–that way I’ve got my vegetables and can consider it an all in one meal. For the bread I baked two loaves at the end of last week (trying to get back into the bread baking groove).
This is my bean meal and my soup meal for the week.
Thursday: Venison Cola Roast with Rice and Creamed Mixed Vegetables
I’ve got about a half liter of cola left over from having folks over after Halloween last week. Of course it’s sort of flat and icky now, but I just can’t bear to throw it away. I’m going to toss some venison in the crockpot with the sauce from my Cola Wings recipe and let it cook all day. That will give me tasty venison and a sweet sauce that can be served over the rice. For the vegetables, I’ll be using the frozen mixed vegetables that I dehydrated 🙂 I’ll just make a simple cream sauce and mix the rehydrated veggies in. If I’m feeling fancy I’ll do it more as a casserole-bake it in a small dish with some crumbled cracker topping.
This is my venison meal for the week.
Friday: Fish Sticks, Rice and Turnip Greens
Not only is it just Buddy & I for dinner on Friday night, but it’s also opening night for Princess’ s play–so I want something very quick and easy so I don’t have to stress about preparing a meal while I’m trying to get folks to the theater for call. Fish sticks (the battered filet kind–actually the are more fish filets) are not the healthiest thing in the world, but they aren’t terrible either. And actually since we buy stuff like that so rarely my kids think they are a treat! We’ll serve with leftover rice from the night before and I’ll stew up some of the turnip greens from the turnips that I used on Monday. (note: if you wrap the greens in a dishtowel and put them in a zippered baggie with the top left open and then in the fridge they last a long time without getting slimy)
This is my fish meal for the week.
Saturday: Pork Fried Rice
I’ll cook up a bit of the pork from the freezer and use it with the end of the leftover rice and whatever veggies I’ve got (there are a few odds and ends of open bags in the freezer I should use up as well) and make a homemade fried rice.
This is my pork meal for the week.
Sunday: Chicken Pot Pie
We’ve got some frozen chicken down in the freezer–and chicken pot pie just sounds good! Warm, tasty comfort food to finish off a week that is going to be very cold.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Are you interested in learning more about menu planning? Check out my post “Why Plan a Weekly Menu” .
Leave a Reply