Have you made your weekly meal plan yet? Last week my intent was to concentrate on the house-but then an early dismissal, a snow day and a sick kiddo threw a monkey wrench in my plans! Still-even though I didn’t make an official meal plan I did manage to get supper on the table every night-it was just a much more stressful affair than it is when I plan ahead!
This week things are more or less back to “normal”. . .whatever THAT is! Here are my considerations for the week.
1. I still want to spend a big chunk of my time this week continuing to work on “Operation Take Back the House”. That means quick and simple for the meal plan-nothing that is going to have a whole bunch of steps.
2. Princess and Buddy are both more interested in cooking lately-this is a trend that I want to encourage-so maybe I should plan intentionally for them to help with a specific meal during the week.
3. Last week Yankee Bill had a meeting or activity almost every single night-it really rotted 🙁 This week things are much calmer. As of right now Wednesday night is the only night that I know of where he will be out of the house in the evening. That is also the night that the kiddos both have scouts, so it’s a really busy evening.
4. I’ve got about 2 cups of rice in the fridge left over from cooking this weekend. I also have some carrots I dug up from the garden when it was mild on Saturday that should be used up and a half package of delicious organic bacon from my half pig 😉
5. My goals as always are one meatless meal, one bean meal, on venison meal, one fish meal and one soup meal for the week.
Taking all that into account here is my game plan:
Monday: Spaghetti Carbonara with Greens
The Spaghetti Carbonara will use the delicious bacon I’ve got open in the fridge. I’ll pair it with some of the greens from the garden that I have in the freezer.
This is my meatless meal for the week.
Tuesday: Blue Cheese Stuffed Venison Burgers on Homemade Buns, Homemade Seasoned Oven Fries and Sauteed Carrots
I still have some blue cheese in the fridge from the last time I made blue cheese stuffed burgers. Although it keeps for a very long time it’s probably best not to leave it in there forever-and since the kids love the burgers I figure I’ll just make them again! I’ll make the homemade hamburger buns today so they are ready for tomorrow, and then pair those with the homemade seasoned oven fries and some sauteed carrots from our garden.
This is my venison meal for the week.
Wednesday: Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
To up the nutrition of this classic pairing I’ll make the soup with milk. The Grilled cheese will be on thin slices of my homemade bread with shredded cheddar cheese. My kids won’t eat American Cheese Slices-which shows their good taste but makes sandwiches a bit more difficult 😉
This is another meatless meal–some weeks are just like that! It also counts as my soup meal for the week.
Thursday: Shrimp and Vegetable Stirfry with Rice.
I noticed a couple of bags of frozen shrimp down in the deep freeze this weekend. Since we eat shrimp fairly rarely I want to use it in something that will really let us appreciate it. A simple stirfry will let the flavor take center stage-I’ll use onion, carrot, cabbage etc with it and then serve it over rice.
This is my fish meal for the week.
Friday: Pizza Monkey Bread
For a change of pace from our typical Friday night pizza we’ll make Pizza Monkey Bread with my favorite Pizza Hut Crust Clone recipe.
Saturday: Pork Chops, Mashed Potatoes and Mixed Veggies
It isn’t glamorous, but it should be good. I’ve got pork chops from my half pig in the freezer, I’ll just pan fry them-maybe with a bit of rosemary. If I’m feeling like it I’ll make homemade mashed potatoes-if not I’ll use a box. I’ll rehydrate some of my mixed veggies and use that as a side dish.
Sunday: Wanna-be Wendy’s Chili with Sweet Northern Cornbread and Greens.
Sundays are busy with church and other varied and sundry activities. I frequently find dinner time sneaking up on me! That makes a crockpot meal perfect-sort of a “set it and forget it” dinner. I’ll make the Wanna Be Wendy’s Chili-using dried beans I’ve soaked of course (note-dry kidney beans do need to be boiled to destroy some toxins-so I tend to use small red beans instead) and ground venison instead of beef. Cornbread is the classic pairing for chili-so I’ll make the sweet northern cornbread-maybe as muffins for a bit of a change. Finally I’ll again make use of garden greens that I’ve frozen for a side dish.
This is my bean 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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