This week is the first full week of school, and let me tell you. . . I need a meal plan! And actually, although it’s Wednesday and I’m just posting it I have actually been following it all week.
I have a lot going on this week, and a lot to consider:
1. We have activities full to the hilt with Field Hockey, Soccer, Scouts and piano lessons. That’s Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings and most of the day Saturday full up with kids stuff! Yankee Bill is out of town Tuesday & Wednesday, and has events on Thursday night and all day Saturday. ACK.
2. I had friends over all day Monday to can spaghetti sauce from scratch.
3. I have chicken leg quarters that need to be used up. In the garden I’ve got plenty of squash, carrots, radish pods, beans and broccoli to eat.
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: French Dip Sandwiches and Coleslaw
The French Dip was made in the crockpot-I’ll be posting that recipe soon in a post about party foods! They were really good and I was able to let them cook while we were canning sauce, so at dinner time I just tossed the meat on the buns and added some coleslaw.
Tuesday: Tuna, Radish Greens & Pasta
I created a warm pasta dish with canned tuna, boiled radish greens and angel hair pasta. I just made a cream sauce and added Parmesan cheese. To be honest it was pretty mediocre, but it was edible, inexpensive and fast (since I already had the radish greens cooked in the fridge). Sometimes you don’t eat fabulous. .. sometimes you just eat.
This is my fish meal for the week.
Wednesday: Crockpot Chicken Thighs with Couscous and Broccoli
Wednesdays are going to be insane this year between Field Hockey, Cub Scouts, Girl scouts and Dance (the latter two haven’t even started yet. hold me). I’ll be having lots of quick and easy meals. Today I’ve got my chicken cooking in the crockpot –and I’ll pair it with some couscous, which is super fast to cook, and some steamed broccoli from the garden.
Thursday: Grilled Pork Chops, Grilled Squash and Homemade “Rice a Roni”
I just got my 1/2 pig delivered. .. and I had to put it in my Moms freezer because I didn’t have room! I need to put more pork on our family menu–so I’m starting out by using up some of the nice chops on the grill. Since I”ll have it fired up anyway I’ll also grill some squash (which is my favorite way to eat summer squash!) and add a homemade rice a roni as the side.
Friday: Tomato and Cheese Pizza
Using the Pizza Hut Crust Clone recipe of course! I’m going to keep it just cheese with some garden fresh sliced tomatoes on top. Mmmm.
This is my meatless meal for the week
Saturday: Wanna-be-Wendy’s Chili with Sweet Northern Cornbread
Things have cooled off and we are heading into soup and stew weather (yay!). I’ll make the Wanna Be Wendy’s Chili using dry beans that I’ve soaked up and venison for the meat. I might even have enough ripe tomatoes to use those instead of canned stewed 🙂 Awesomeness. And of course you can’t make chili without cornbread, so I’ll whip up a quick batch of my Sweet Northern Cornbread
This is both my venison and my bean meal for the week.
Sunday: Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup with Popovers
This can be made in the crockpot if I’m organized or put together closer to dinner if I’m not. The blender popovers will make it seem a little more elegant and “Sunday” ish 🙂
This is my soup meal for the week.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Are you interested in learning more about menu planning? Check out my post “Why Plan a Weekly Menu” .
“Sometimes you don’t eat fabulous. .. sometimes you just eat. ” I love that!! Sometimes I feel like I have to be Rachael Ray every night when dinner rolls around–30 minutes or less and absolutely amazing.
Glad you like 🙂 I put that in there because it’s something I have to keep reminding myself. I love making tasty & nutritious foods for my family, but sometimes simple (like soup, or grilled cheese, or scrambled eggs) is what fits into our day!