Can I tell you how glad I am to have a regular, back to normal week? Sure, we always have a fairly busy schedule. . . but it’s so nice to have a routine. I really do better with a routine! And of course part of that routine is making my weekly meal plan. It just always makes my week run so much more smoothly when I have a plan. I admit it though–sometimes I don’t follow it exactly. But that’s ok!
These are the considerations for this week:
1. We have the regularly scheduled activities: Dance two nights, Odessey of the Mind two afternoons, Scouts one night for the kids, Drill and Pool for Yankee Bill. Wednesday I am volunteering at the food pantry in the morning (it’s our church’s month). I’ve also got “Girls Night” planned with the ladies on Friday. Woohoo!
2. In the fridge I have hard boiled eggs (I did two dozen for breakfasts and to pickle-but they could be used for dinners). I’ve also got a couple dozen eggs fresh. I’ve got two meal sized packages of turkey still left from the holidays-but I vacuum sealed it so it will last for a bit longer. There are some measly looking salad greens, a butternut squash roasted but haven’t used (it’s in cubes), the last of the Jerusalem Artichokes I dug before the storm, a couple of broccoli crowns I purchased and some cranberries (fresh). I’ve also got the carrots that are mulched out in the garden that I could dig, and in the cold frames the chard, kale, turnip greens and radishes look pretty decent. The lettuce & Mizuna is not looking happy 🙁 Oh, and somewhere under the snow I’ve got some Kale plants.
3. In the freezer I’ve got fish, tons of venison and pork, and some other odds and ends that I need to start using up. I particularly need to remember that I’ve got some frozen veggies from the summer garden–purslane, beans and radish pods.
4. 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: Crockpot Salsa Chicken over Rice with Green Beans
It really doesn’t get much easier than Crockpot Salsa Chicken–and it is SO tasty! I’ll toss it all in the crockpot as soon as I get done writing this post and it will be magically ready for dinner. I just love my crockpot! I’ll make some rice in the rice cooker to serve it over, and I’ll warm up the leftover frozen garden beans to serve on the side.
Tuesday: African Bean and Sweet Potato Stew with Bread
My sister sent me this recipe. She said it was so delicious that she couldn’t stop eating it! I can’t wait to try it out and see how my family likes it. I’m baking bread today so we’ll have some on the side–unless I get all fancy and decide to make dinner rolls instead 🙂
This is my meatless, bean and soup meal. I love it when one meal covers so many options!
Wednesday: Green Chili Chicken Lasagna with Squash Puree and Green Salad
I have not made my Green Chili Chicken Lasagna in forever! Sometimes a recipe is a favorite and you use it all the time, then for some reason it sort of falls out of the rotation until you forget all about it. That is what happened with this recipe, and it really shouldn’t have since it is such a family favorite. So I’m fixing the issue this week! In order to use up the squash I’ll puree it, add some butter and use it on the side. Hopefully I’ll be able to get enough greens out of the garden cold frames to make a salad, but if not I might break down and buy some lettuce and cabbage.
Thursday: Ginger Fish with Sesame Noodles and Sauteed Broccoli
I’ve got several nice packages of mild fish in the freezer from my BIL–I’ll use my ginger fish marinade for an hour or so and then cook it up. If time gets tight I might just serve it with leftover rice, but my intent is to play around with a sesame noodle recipe that I haven’t gotten quite right yet. And as a green veggie I’ll just do a quick saute of the broccoli crowns that I bought last week.
This is my fish meal for the week.
Friday: Venison “Cheaters” Stroganoff over Egg Noodles with Carrots
I’m going out to dinner on Friday night, so I need a meal that the family can serve up and eat on their own. The “cheater’s” Stroganoff is a crockpot recipes, which fits the bill. I’ll have the noodles and carrots already made up so that Yankee Bill just has to heat them.
This is my venison meal for the week.
Saturday: Pizza Hut Crust Clone Pizza with Homemade Coleslaw
I’m probably going to move pizza day to Saturday since the school moved pizza day to Friday. It’s just silly for the kids to have pizza for lunch and for dinner. I’ll use the Pizza Hut Crust Clone recipe for the pizza, and I’ll make some coleslaw as a side. I think we’ve been skipping some of our veggies and it seems like in the winter you need all those extra vitamins even more.
Sunday: Cranberry Pork, Oven Fried Potato Wedges and Marinated Green Beans
Since I’ve got fresh cranberries in the fridge and I need to fit a pork recipe in, I’m experimenting with a cranberry pork recipe in the crockpot. We shall see if it’s worth posting. I still have quite a few potatoes in the basement, so I’ll make Oven Fried Potato Wedges. I have plenty of canned green beans from our garden–but the kids really aren’t fond of them plain (too mushy-which is pretty much unavoidable) I’m experimenting with different ways to prepare them to make this garden staple more palatable. I may try a casserole instead, but for now we’ll assume that I’ll marinate them in some salad dressing to give them a bit more zip.
This is my pork 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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