Welcome to this week’s meal plan! Are you all trying as desperately as I am to get into a regular back to school schedule? It’s only the second week of school for us (and the first full week) so our sleep schedules are still off, our daily routine is still pretty rough and we just need help in general. Meal planning is going to help!
Here’s what I’ve got to plan around this week:
1. We’ve got an evening appointment on Tuesday, Buddy has soccer practice and Yankee Bill has pool on Wednesday, I’m teaching a canning class on Thursday, Buddy has soccer on and Yankee Bill leaves for Drill on Friday. Luckily Princess’s play auditions and rehearsals are directly after school (she walks home) and her dance lessons and Buddy’s boyscouts don’t start till next week. On Sunday we’ve got Sunday School, Church, a soccer game and a play rehearsal.
2. I’ve got about 4 gallons of crab apples, a bunch of tomatoes and a bunch of green tomatoes that I need to find time to process this week–as well as catch up on my writing. That’s just going to take time–and after cooking all day I usually don’t feel much like cooking dinner. Either super easy or slow cooker recipes are the way to go.
3. My fridge is jam packed with stuff–little bits and pieces, odds and ends. I need to do some serious cleaning out. I especially need to use up the 3 eggplants from the garden, the mini peppers I bought at the farmers market and the leftover chicken from yesterday’s dinner.
4. In the garden I’ve got cabbage, green beans, pac choi, beets, green & red tomatoes (blighted, but still there), basil, onions and lots of chard.
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: Venison Stirfry over Rice
I thawed out some venison stew meat which I carefully cut against the grain into thin pieces (cutting across the grain rather than with it gives you more tender meat–and stew meat isn’t particularly tender). From the garden I’ll take pac choi, cucumbers, onion etc, and I’ll use the green peppers from the fridge and make a stirfry. It will be served over mixed rice (brown & white together).
This is my venison meal for the week.
Tuesday: Crockpot Ham and Corn Chowder, Light and Tasty Cornmeal Biscuits and Pickles
I think I can still get sweet corn (I hope!). I want to grab several dozen ears and not only can corn, but freeze some on the cob and of course use some FRESH for corn chowder. Yum! I’ll do a crockpot version so I can spend the day processing food and writing without having too worry too much about dinner time. I’ll add my Light and Tasty Cornmeal Biscuits on the side. We’ll have some pickles on the table for a bit of extra vegetable.
This is my soup meal for the week.
Wednesday: Eggplant Parmigiana, Pasta and Sauteed Chard
I have GOT to use up those eggplant, and I can’t think of a better way then with Eggplant Parm. I’ll use an idea from an old weight watcher recipe I had and bake the eggplant slices & breading instead of frying them. I’ll just do pasta (probably angel hair) with butter & parsley on the side and sautee up some garden chard for a veggie.
This is my meatless meal for the week.
Thursday: Crockpot Pork Chops, Rice and a Salad
I’ve got plenty of pork chops left, I’ll probably do a white sauce, bullion and onion treatment in the crockpot. The rice is leftover from Monday and I can toss together a salad from the veggies in the garden an a bit of lettuce.
This is my pork meal for the week.
Friday: Homemade Pizza and Cucumber Spears
I honestly can’t remember the last time we made pizza or calzones from scratch. Now that we are back in school we’ll go back to pizza Fridays!
Saturday: Leftover Buffet
By the end of the week we are likely to have a bewildering array of culinary odds and ends in the fridge–so we’ll just eat it all up buffet style. If by odd chance there isn’t enough to do that–I’ll just make mac ‘n cheese 🙂
Sunday: Tomato Lentil Soup with Homemade Rolls
It just sounds good to me and I can set it up in the crockpot so it will be ready regardless of church, soccer games and other projects. I’ll basically make it like a typical split pea soup, except with lentils and lots of chunked up fresh tomatoes from the garden.
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” .
I know you’re busy but can you tell me the process of freezing corn ON the cob? I usually cook it and then remove it from the cob. I like the sound of it ON the cob much better. Thanks.