It’s Monday, and we are back on the meal plan train!
Here’s what I’ve got to plan around this week:
1. The garden is in full swing, which means not only do I have plenty of vegetables to work with–but I’ve actually got MORE vegetables then we can eat. That means canning, drying and freezing. When I’m busy doing those things it’s easy to forget about cooking supper! I need some seriously easy meals for the week.
2. We are having a friend and his son over for the weekend–so we’ll need to plan good sized meals 🙂 Also I don’t want to go out too far on a limb with anything weird when we are having guests.
3. I’ve got some leftover sausages and hotdogs that need to be used up from the freezer, along with a stack of homemade burgers.
4. We’ll be hitting the water park one day next week–that’s a full day trip and let me just say I won’t be cooking dinner after that! So we’ll plan at least one meal out.
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: Bratwurst on Buns with Coleslaw
We’ll do an easy grill meal tonight to keep things simple. I’ll just put the coleslaw together by mid day so it has a chance for the flavors to meld.
Tuesday: Lasagna, Garlic Bread and Salad
I’ll do a nice meaty lasagna with some of our Italian Sausage from our freezer. I’ve been craving some garlic bread-the nice, crunchy, garlicy, buttery kind, so I’ll pick up one of those inexpensive loaves of Italian bread that the grocery store always has by the bakery and make some. The salad will be a bit of store bought lettuce mixed with chard, kale, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and beans from the garden. yum!
This is my pork meal for the week.
Wednesday: Frozen Pizza
After a day at the water park frozen pizza is about my speed.
Thursday: Hamburgers, Fire and Ice Salad, and Grilled Squash
When I did the burgers for the Midwest Steak Seasoning post I made up 6 extras and froze them with wax paper in between. Now I’m all set for a super easy meal (since I have a feeling with the way the beans are looking that I”ll be canning beans by the end of the week). I’ll use my tomatoes, onions and cucumbers for the Fire and Ice Salad, and if I don’t have a squash ready to be grilled I’ll just pop by the Mennonite farm up the road and grab one.
Friday: Tuna Stuffed Shells, Sauteed Chard and Roasted Green Beans
I haven’t made my Tuna Stuffed Shells in a while. They are rather rich so for veggies we’ll keep it light and simple with some veggies from the garden: sauteed chard and roasted Green Beans
This is my fish meal for the day
Saturday: Venison Stir Fry over Rice
I told you last week I’d be doing quite a few stirfrys for a bit–I’m trying to find a really good sauce. Yes, yes, I promise I’ll share the recipe once I nail one down. The other great thing about stirfrys are they can really stretch a bit of meat and a bunch of odds and ends into a delicious meal for the whole family!
This is my venison meal for the week.
Sunday: Leftover Buffet or Grilled Cheese
We’ll use up a bunch of the odds and ends left over from a week of cooking–and if there isn’t enough to go around then we’ll just put together some grilled cheese sandwiches to round things out!
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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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