Welcome to February everyone! I hope folks aren’t too worn out from the Superbowl last night. We had my brother over, made a few snacks and watched the game. Well, the guys watched the game, the kiddos played Minecraft and Pocket God on our phones and I watched commercials and eventually fell asleep on the couch. Have I mentioned I’m just not really a sports fan?
Be that as it may, here we are one week further into 2012, and making one more meal plan!
Here’s what I’ve got to plan around this week:
1. Of course we’ve got dance, Boy Scouts and piano lessons for the kiddos and both pool and American Legion Riders for Yankee Bill. The Odyssey of the Mind competition is coming up, so Princess will be at practice pretty much every day after school as well.
2. This weekend Yankee Bill has the Birthday party of a friend to attend, and I get to attend the first of 6 all day sessions (Saturdays spread over 3 months) for the “Ecological Design Course” that I’m taking to learn how to design my back yard using Permaculture.
3. I’m still feeling sub par–got some kind of lingering cold thing–so it’s probably not a great week to plan any more complex meals that will take a lot of effort to cook. I’m just not feeling it by the end of the day.
4. I need to free up some more space in both the deep freeze (I still have 1/2 a pig at my Mom’s and I need to get it over here) and the regular refrigerator freezer. Items I need to use: smoked turkey, polish sausage, bass, twice baked potatoes, creamed corn (homemade), mushrooms (wildcrafted by BIL), broccoli, summer squash, beet greens and pesto cubes.
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: Turkey & Gravy, Rice , Cream of Squash Soup and Beet Greens
I’ll just heat up the turkey and make a quick gravy (either from a package or cheating with chicken bullion, butter & flour). The beet greens just need to be defrosted and heated, and I’ll make a quick pot of rice in the rice cooker. For the soup I’ll take the frozen summer squash and puree it (I’ve decided I hate the texture of frozen summer squash–I don’t freeze it anymore, these are vacuum sealed and frozen from last year). I’ll add some chicken bullion, some evaporated milk (instead of cream) and then thicken it up a bit for a light cream type soup. Maybe I’ll get all crazy and add one of those pesto cubes in!
Tuesday: Polish Sausage and Sauerkraut, Time Saver Twice Baked Potatoes and Broccoli
I’ll cook the polish sausage with it’s classic pairing of sauerkraut (store bought–hopefully this coming year I’ll make my own)–probably with some onion, carrot, caraway, wine and more in the mix. I’ll put the twice baked potatoes along side]]they just need to be baked in the oven since they are premade (my Time Saver Twice Baked Potatoes). Finally even though sauerkraut is technically a vegetable I’ll up the health quota by adding the frozen broccoli.
This is my pork meal for the week.
Wednesday: Crockpot Spinach Egg Strata
I’ve been meaning to make the Crockpot Spinach Egg Strata again so I can take a picture to put with the recipe.
This is my meatless meal for the week.
Thursday: Fish Pie with a Green Salad
I’ll use the bass, potatoes, corn and other veggies to make a fish pie (I know, it sounded gross to me initially too-but it’s actually quite good). It’s pretty much a one dish meal, but I always feel guilty if I don’t have a separate vegetable, so I’ll use up that last head of romaine lettuce and make a salad.
This is my fish meal for the week.
Friday: Cheaters Venison Stroganoff over Noodles with Marinated Green Beans
I’ll make my Cheater’s Stroganoff in the crockpot with some of the venison and add in those mushrooms that I need to use up. That will be served over egg noodles (I’ve got some in the cupboard). For a vegetable I’ll use some green beans I canned. The kids don’t like the texture (the canning makes them sort of mushy) but will eat them if I marinate them in some homemade dressing.
This is my venison meal for the week.
Saturday: Split Pea Soup with Light and Tasty Cornmeal Biscuits
Saturday I’m going to be at a class all day, so I need a nice easy crockpot meal like split pea soup. I’ve been saving some ham hocks which can be used to flavor it as well. I’ll put together some Light and Tasty Cornmeal Biscuits last minute to eat with the soup and we’ll call it good.
This is my bean (pea) and my soup meal for the week.
Sunday: Turkey Stirfry over Rice
If there is leftover turkey from Monday I’ll put it to use, along with any odds and ends of vegetables etc, in a stirfry. I’ll either use leftover rice or make a new pot. If I use up all the turkey I can either take out some frozen pork or venison. . . or I can crack open one of my jars of canned chicken that I put up this fall.
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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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