All at once the garden decided to start really producing. The zucchini, beans and tomatoes all are going nuts at the same time. That means I’m spending long days in the garden harvesting and then in the kitchen processing. It seems like every day supper time just sneaks up on me.
But on to what’ s happening this week:
1. It’s the last week before school starts. We’ve got a final girlscout outing that will take a big chunk of the day on Wednesday. Yankee Bill has evening events on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Even though we don’t have a lot of plans right now for the weekend, a lot of our friends will be in town for Labor Day next week–so I’m going to bet that we will suddenly find ourselves with things to do.
2. I’ve got some canning “leftovers”–food that either didn’t fit into the canner (and I didn’t want to do another batch) or items that didn’t seal. So there are beets and a big can of “soup vegetables”. I’ve got plenty of tomatoes and fresh beans in the crisper as well as an eggplant.
3. I’ve got a dozen eggs that really need to be used soon. There is also some leftover sausage and shrimp from last week and a big gallon bag of boiled salt potatoes from our party last week.
4. As always my goal is to have one venison meal, one fish meal, one bean meal, one meatless meal and one soup meal per week.
Taking all that into account here is my game plan:
Monday: Grilled Steak, Green Beans, and Potatoes
I have a post due for Walmart on steaks for Labor Day. So poor little me, I was just FORCED to go out and buy some USDA prime steaks and grill them up for a post. I did an interesting twist on them–but I won’t tell you what it is. You’ll just have to read the post later this week!
Tuesday: Shrimp and Sausage Jambalaya over Rice
This is a tasty dish that I haven’t made in quite a while. I’ll use up the leftover shrimp and sausage and I’ll use some of the wild purslane in the garden in place of the typical okra. Served up over some rice from my 25lb bag it will be tasty and filling. I may even pull out the crockpot version and get it going in the morning (except for the shrimp of course).
This is my fish meal for the week.
Wednesday: Oven Fried Eggplant Parmesan with Sauteed Tomato and Summer Squash
I’ve got some eggplant in the fridge. Buddy thought that it looked yummy at the farmers market last weekend. Well it’s been sitting in the fridge so I figure I better use it up before it goes bad. I’ll “fry” it in the oven instead of in oil–basically dip, dredge and bake, and then make the Parm. Yummy! For a vegetable I’ll add some summer squash and tomato sauteed together and tossed with some basil and oregano.
This is my meatless meal for the week.
Thursday: Venison & Vegetable Saute over Noodles with Steamed Beets.
I’m not going to use a recipe for this one–just slice and brown some venison steaks along with onion and carrot and then add in whatever veggies I’ve got in from the garden that haven’t been dehydrated or canned 😉 Because I’ve already got biscuits, potato and rice planned into the week I’ll change things up and serve the saute over some angel hair noodles. As an additional vegetable I’ll use the beets that didn’t quite make it into the canner.
This is my venison meal for the week.
Friday: Chilled Potato Onion Soup with Salad and Cheesy Biscuits
Right now Friday is forcasted as the hottest day this week at 90 degrees. I know from experience I won’t feel like cooking or eating anything hot–since I’ve got a ton of cooked potatoes that I will blend up with some cooked onion, milk, broth etc to make a creamy cold soup. I’ll finish it with some salad and a quick batch of cheesy biscuits.
This is another meatless meal and also my soup meal for the week.
Saturday: Homemade Pizza and Steamed Radish Pods
Using my Pizza Hut Crust Clone recipe, of course. Since I’m drowning in vegetables I’ll add some sauteed radish pods for the vitamins and flavor.
Sunday: Grilled Pork Chops with Marinated Chickpea and Tomato Salad
I’ll make the chick pea and tomato salad in the morning. After grilling the pork (most likely with Montreal Steak Seasoning–love that stuff on everything) I’ll just add in some leftover starch from the week–I don’t know if it will be rice, noodles, potatoes or what–but since I’m serving them all I’m pretty sure I’ll have something left.
This is my bean meal for the week (the chickpeas you know!)
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Are you interested in learning more about menu planning? Check out my post “Why Plan a Weekly Menu”.
Radishes on pizza? Wow. Great idea.
How do you store your rice? I am always tempted to buy a big bag at SAMs or Costco, but am afraid it will go bad. Would live to know how you do it!
Chrystal-This is a great question! I’ll pull it out and answer it more fully in a readers question later this week. Short answer-for the longest time I just kept the big huge bag (which had a zippered top) in the cabinet and used it. We go through a decent amount of rice and here in the North East it didn’t seem to get bugs or have any major problems. Now I actually use a 5 gallon food grade bucket with a special “gamma seal” lid on it. The gamma seal makes it so you can spin the lid on and off easily. Long story short-heat and moisture (with light a somewhat more distant 3rd) are the enemy of storing grains, so whatever you can do to minimize that–anything that keeps moisture out and has an airtight seal-vacuum sealing it, repackaging it in large plastic containers with a good seal, etc etc etc. As I said, I’ll write a much more detailed answer in a few days-but this is to get you started!