It’s spring break this week for my teenagers, which means my schedule is even more out of whack then usual this week. Actually, I’ve only got one kiddo in residence as Princess is on vacation with a friend’s family. So I figured I better let Buddy do something a little special–he invited a friend and we headed to Syracuse in order to hang out at the Destiny Mall there. We got a special lunch (Fondue from the melting pot) and a combo pass for the science museum, ropes course and laser tag that are there at the mall. I’m currently sitting in a club chair at the mall, using their free wifi while the boys enjoy the museum.
But on to the menu. Here are the week’s considerations:
1. Well the boy and I are in a community theater production that has rehearsals every night from 6:30-8:30, so dinner pretty much needs to be ready to go right at 5 in order for us to eat and get out the door. Tonight (Monday) and Wednesday in particular will be pretty tight because of being away from home in the afternoon.
2. Sunday I am hosting Easter dinner at my house.
3. I’ve got salad fixings in the fridge and some leftovers to use up. . . They will mostly be used as lunches, so that doesn’t effect dinner very much.
4. I my canning shelves are still relatively stocked. Plenty of jams & jellies, pickles, vegetables and fruit to utilize.
5. Yankee Bill and I are on the Weight Watchers Freestyle plan. It is working well and our weight is coming off in a healthy manner without us feeling hungry (Yay!). However it has changed our diet a bit–despite having a freezer with plenty of beef, pork and venison, I’ve been buying and using a lot of chicken breast and fish since those are “zero points” on the plan. We’ve also been eating even more eggs, soup and beans then before (although we’ve always eaten eggs soup and beans) as those are zero as well. I have found that it’s made it a bit harder to rework some of my leftovers into meals, as the easiest way to do that is to remake something into a casserole or put it in a sauce of some kind.
6. Usually my goal is to have one venison meal, one beef meal, one fish meal, one pork meal, one bean meal, one meatless meal and one soup meal per week. Because of the weight watchers, I’ve pretty much reduced it to one pork/beef/venison meal a week, one or more fish meals, and the rest chicken.
With all that in mind here is what I came up with:
Monday: Fend for yourself
I’m out with the boys at the mall, and hubs is home. I’ve got several homemade “frozen dinners” that are weight watcher compatible in the freezer, along with several different kinds of soup. Yankee Bill will warm something up for himself. The boys and I ate a pretty big fondue lunch, and will probably grab something at the food court before heading home (or hit McD’s on the way–I haven’t eaten there in forever. . . and actually I may just wait till I get home and have a bowl of bean soup.)
Tuesday: Lentil Soup
Part of the way I’ve been managing the Weight Watchers Freestyle program is to make sure I have plenty of zero point soup on hand to use for lunches and snacks. I’ve been making one bean and one chicken soup per week. Tuesday I’ll make a pot of lentil soup that we can eat for dinner and then will be available for the rest of the week. Usually I’d throw a ham hock or some bacon in, but to keep it to zero points I’ll just uses some ham bullion powder instead. We will most likely eat it with some type of bread or bagel.
Wednesday: Baked Salmon with Maple Dijon Sauce, Rice and Roasted Vegetables
I have fish in the freezer from my good friend who trades me the salmon her step-father catches for some of our venison. Perfect trade! Anyway, I usually cook it with a sauce made of yogurt and dijon mustard, but we’ve got a lot of maple syrup that we boiled up from our trees, so I thought that a sauce made of dijon mustard mixed with some maple syrup would be very tasty. The rice is from my bulk purchase, and the roasted vegetables will be a combination of butternut squash, carrot, onion and celery.
Thursday: Chicken Picatta with Roasted Potatoes and Broccoli
I’ve been making a lot of different chicken “cutlet” type meals, mostly by pounding boneless skinless chicken breasts out flat and then either sprinkling on seasonings or marinating and then grilling them on my panini press (a Foreman grill would work the same). These can be eaten fresh as a meat entree, or put in the fridge for a nice sandwich later in the week. It occurred to me that these are very similar to a picatta chicken, so I think I’ll just go all out and make that–cutting down on any breading or oil/frying to make it more WW friendly.
Friday: Pizza Bagels and Salad
I love making pizza on Friday, but I don’t have much willpower when it comes to only eating a bit of it. So I figure if I make bagel pizzas instead (using the “Thomas Bagel Thins” which are only about half as thick as a regular bagel) then I’ll be automatically portion controlled. Add a salad for a side and dinner is done in a flash.
Saturday: Broiled Chicken & Vegetable Skewers with Noodles
I’ve got several low point (or zero point) store bought marinades in the cupboard. I’ll pick one and chunk up some boneless chicken breast into it on Thursday or Friday. On Saturday I’ll thread them onto skewers and broil them in the oven along with some skewers of grape tomatoes, onions and squash chunks. Usually I do a whole bunch of chicken and use it over the course of several days, not just for the one meal.
Sunday:Spiral Cut Honey Ham, Crescent Rolls, Twice Baked Potatoes, Asparagus, and Dessert
Easter dinner is at my house, and boy will it be easy on me. Besides setting the table and making sure the house isn’t a mess, all I’ve got to do is put a spiral ham in the slow cooker to warm up, and cook some crescent rolls that come in a tube (which my kids love). My sister in law is bringing the potatoes, my mother in law the vegetable, and my sister the dessert. I love shared family meals!
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Are you interested in learning more about menu planning? Check out my post “Why Plan a Weekly Menu” .
Sounds like some tasty eating this week.