Welcome to my week! Yes, it’s Tuesday, but with a federal holiday yesterday I think it’s ok to consider this the “Monday” of the week!
While I know school either has or is drawing to a close for many of my readers to the south, here in the north country we still have several weeks left. In New York the Middle school and High school end dates revolve around the state Regents exams. The Primary school goes longer–so Princess has about 2 weeks of school left and Buddy has a month. Meanwhile I’ve got to get the garden in, straighten up the house a bit and get ready for two trips in the month of June–one to Walmart Headquarters for the annual shareholders meeting, and another to Orange County (Middletown area) to attend the Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Master Preserver Certification course. Woohoo–busy times!
But on to my meal plan for THIS week. . .
Here’s what I’ve got to plan around this week:
1. Monday was Memorial Day and we hosted what seems to be becoming our annual BBQ. That shortens the week (how does losing one day seem to throw the entire week off?). The dance recital is coming up so we have special rehearsals this week in the evening, which adds a layer of complexity. The kids still have piano lessons for a couple weeks before summer break, Buddy still has scouts, Yankee Bill still has his regular pool league and other organizational meetings, and I’m still taking my photography class–plus I have a Saturday class on Photoshop. So I’ve got someone going somewhere every single day this week Tuesday through Saturday.
2. After a cool and rainy day today (60’s) the weather is supposed to soar up into the mid 80’s for the rest of the week. Tuesday and Wednesday are likely to have some rain. So I don’t want to be heating up my kitchen in the evenings too much, and I shouldn’t plan on using the grill tonight and tomorrow.
3. I’ve got leftovers from the BBQ (although really, not too bad)–this includes a bunch of open bags of chips, some lovely pasta salad a friend brought over, and some green salad (which will probably become my lunch today). I’ve got plenty of eggs in the fridge, and a couple of butternut squash that really, really need to be used up. In the garden I’ve got lettuce in the cold frames from last fall that bolted (but probably would be ok if I cooked it–yes you can cook lettuce–that’s how Thomas Jefferson original ate it), chard in the cold frames that really needs to be used before IT bolts, and green onions. Nothing else is really at the “eating” point yet–but I have hopes for snow peas sometime soon if the bunnies don’t get it all. Evil bunnies.
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: BBQ
Tons of foods from the attendees–everything was delicious. I made the NY Finger Lakes Chicken
–I marinated large chunks of boneless skinless breasts, then threaded them on wooden skewers that I soaked for several hours (normally I use our metal skewers, but due to the volume I went with wood. That also enabled me to make all the skewers ahead of time and then set them back into the marinade until Yankee Bill was ready to fire up the grill)
Tuesday: Venison Parmigiana with Dandelion Greens and Winter Squash Bake
I never made the Venison Parmigiana last week–I got busy and ran out of time that day so I wound up browning up a package of venison sweet sausage instead, adding onions, celery and green pepper then a jar of spaghetti sauce and serving it over crusty bread with some mozzarella. It was quick, easy and delicious. Regardless, this week (tonight to be exact) I WILL make it and I’ll pair it with the dandelion greens I picked, cleaned and boiled last week and then didn’t use in the quiche I planned on (they will need a bit of bacon and onion to dress them up). To use up the butternut squash, and because it’s supposed to be cool, the Winter Squash Bake should be good.
This is my venison meal for the week
Wednesday: Ham, Boiled Lettuce and Macaroni Salad
The weather is supposed to improve tomorrow–so I’m assuming I’ll be out in the garden getting everything planted that I couldn’t get planted over the weekend because it was too cold (frost warnings. seriously.). That means I won’t be in the mood to cook much–so just plopping an organic ham from the 1/2 pig we buy into the crockpot in the morning should make dinner simple. I’ll just boil some of the ready to bolt lettuce from the cold frame and dress it with some butter salt & pepper, and then put the leftover Macaroni salad from the BBQ on the side. That’s about as close to an instant dinner as I can get and still have it home cooked!
This is my pork meal for the week.
Thursday: Trout Alfredo over Pasta with Salad
I found a package of trout in the freezer (from my BIL the fisherman). It is a fairly small package and has a bit of freezer burn around the edges, so I figure that hiding it in some of my Mock Alfredo Sauce will not only stretch the fish, but hide the freezer burn. I’ll just serve it over pasta and I’ll make a green salad to go with–using some store bought lettuce but also a variety of baby greens and onions that are starting to pop up in the garden.
Friday: Homemade Pizza, Raw Veggies and Dip
I’ll make the Pizza Hut Crust Clone in the breadmaker during the day, then I’ll let the kiddos do the toppings after piano lessons. Since I’ll be going to the big vegetable stand during the week I’ll make sure to pick up some dippable type veggies–carrots, cauliflower etc–and we’ll put those on the side with some of the leftover ranch dip from the party (or I’ll make new if that’s gone).
Saturday: Super Sandwich, Pickles and Chips
It’s going to be pretty warm on Saturday, so I will just buy a loaf of uncut Italian bread and make a huge cold cut sandwich that can then be cut into slices. It’s fast, it’s cool and it tastes good! The chips are left over from the BBQ and I’ll crack open a can of pickles I made last fall.
Sunday: Ham & Lentil Soup with Bread
Sunday is going to be chaos between church, dance recital and the rest of life. I’m keeping it simple with a basic soup. There should be ham left over from earlier in the week, so that will go right in the slow cooker with broth and lentils.
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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