Meal Plan 3/10

Ok, I took a couple of weeks off to work intensively on the house–and although I’m not done, I’m going to slow it down a bit and make time for my writing and online work as well as the continuing home projects.  As in continuing to try to get the downstairs under control.  Meals were, well, pretty sketchy the last two weeks-as in there were several nights hubs and I looked at each other and said “what the heck are we going to do for dinner?”.  I was proud that we only broke down and ordered food twice. . . but all in all that’s just not the way I like to roll.  So I’m officially back on track today.

So this is what I’m working with this week:

1. We’ve got a full week of school and the normally scheduled kiddo activities–scouts, dance lessons, piano lessons.  Luckily Odessey of the Mind is done for the year-so that’s one less thing to worry about–and although I’ve asked every year neither of the kids is interested in doing a winter or spring sport.

2.  I’ve got some appointments out of the house on Monday and most of the day on Wednesday.  Friday night I’ve got an annual St. Patricks Day “Pampered Chef” party at my friend’s house.  2 of the last 3 years the cops have knocked on the door-so you know it’s fun (actually, it’s always been about the streetside parking that an annoying neighbor calls and complains about–but hey-I’ll take the street cred).  Saturday I’m at my Ecological Design class all day.

3.  I’ve got a bag of mushrooms that I defrosted in the fridge which needs to be used up.  I’ve also got some fresh broccoli, some carrots I dug and a turnip that I bought a while back that is withering in the crisper drawer.

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: Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup with Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and Pickled Three Bean Salad

I’ve defrosted a large bag of mushrooms that were lost in the back of my freezer.  They are kind of mushy now, and there are quite a few of them, so I thought that a homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup sounded good.  I felt like I needed some protein and a vegetable, so I’ll add some quick grilled cheese sandwiches (made with cheddar-my kids hate normal sliced cheese) and a jar of my home canned three bean salad.

This is my soup meal and my meatless meal for the week.

Tuesday: Tuna Stuffed Shells with Garden Salad

It’s been a long time since I’ve made my Tuna Stuffed Shells recipe–and Buddy was asking for it recently so I thought I’d add it to the rotation.  It isn’t terribly labor intensive, but it does take a few minutes to boil the shells and then stuff them–so the fact that I don’t have a lot of appointments and am going to be home all day makes Tuesday a good day for this recipe.  Salad is a great pairing with this–plus it will let me use a bit of the broccoli, the turnip, and some of the carrots in the salad.  If the weather stays mild I should also be able to dig up some Jerusalem Artichokes to grate into the salad as well.

This is my fish meal for the week.

Wednesday: Pintos with a Kick, Sweet Northern Cornbread and Pot Greens

I’m going to be running around with errands all day–and the last thing I want to do when I get home and unload the car is to cook.  A slow cooker meal is perfect in these circumstances.  I’m going to make the Pintos with Kick from white beans instead (because that’s what I had in the kitchen cupboard).  I’ll whip up some Sweet Northern Cornbread and then warm up a can of greens that I preserved last summer.

This is my bean meal for the week.

Thursday: Homemade Chicken Fingers, Roasted Broccoli and Cornbread Stuffing

Chicken is on sale at the local store this week (boneless skinless) so I’ll buy some and make up chicken fingers.  Actually if I’m feeling up to it I might make up a LOT of chicken fingers and then freeze some for later 🙂  I’ll toss the remaining broccoli in some olive oil and roast it with salt and pepper.  Yum.  Then I’ll make stuffing from the leftover cornbread as a side.

Friday: Venison Chili with Rice

We’ve got a lot of venison stew meat, so I thought a chili would be nice-the kind that isn’t made from ground meat.  I’ll put it together in the crockpot in the morning and a nice hot supper will be ready in the evening.  Just ladle over some rice and call it a meal.

This is my venison meal for the week.

Saturday: Crockpot Pork Chops, Rice and Sauteed Carrots

My class on Saturday is from 10-5, which means I have to leave the house just after 9. . .which means if I sleep in (and I probably will) there won’t be a ton of time to prep a meal for that night.  I’m going to do a good old basic, yes it uses canned cream of soup, type recipe for the pork chops.  I’ll have leftover rice from Friday (intentionally) and then all I have to worry about is sauteing up a few carrots–and if I have to I can grab a can of those instead.

This is my pork meal for the week.

Sunday: Roasted Chicken, Roasted Potatoes and Beets

It’s been a while since I’ve done a whole roasted chicken, so what the heck 🙂  It’s an easy but somewhat elegant “Sunday Dinner” type of meal.  I’ll roast potatoes in with the chicken to make my life easy, and I’ll cook up some of the beets that I froze last year. (note to self–plant more beets, they are yummy)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Are you interested in learning more about menu planning? Check out my post “Why Plan a Weekly Menu” .