This week’s meal plan is dedicated to cleaning out my upstairs freezer. I was scrounging around in there yesterday and realized how many bits and pieces of things there are in there that have to get used up-STAT! Freezer burn is starting to set in on some of it-but as I’ve written about before, freezer burned food is still safe-just not as appealing.
The food I’ve got to use up includes:
- 2 frozen hamburger patties & 2 frozen turkey burgers left over from summer bbq’s
- a quart bag of cooked shredded chicken
- a gallon bag of ham pieces
- some frozen fish
- 6 chicken wings
- 3 or 4 different bags of various bread crusts
- frozen homemade broth. Chicken? Pork? I’m not really sure.
- 3 cooked frozen chicken breasts that are starting to get freezer burned
- 1 quart bag of oven dried cherry tomatoes
- a small baggie of frozen rhubarb & frozen currants
- 1 or 2 each of various muffins & quick breads (banana, apple etc)
The Plan:
1) I’ll be taking the bread crusts/ends later today and using the wonder of modern science (aka my food processor) to create breadcrumbs, which will be consolidated into a single gallon bag and placed back in the freezer to save for future recipes. Heck, I might get really organized and go through the corner cabinet and toss in all the odds and ends of chips, crackers and pretzels as well.
2)Â The quick breads & fruit I’m going to combine into a bread pudding I think. I normally don’t make desserts-not even on the weekend. However my brother is visiting this week so I’ll make the extra effort.
3) As for the rest of it, I’m dealing with food that’s got a bit of freezer burn, I like to make sure that they are cooked and served in a sauce, gravy or soup. That adds moisture in to the dish and makes it more appetizing.
So here we go with the “Cleaning out the Freezer” menu plan!
Monday: Spaghetti and Meatsauce with Salad
I’m defrosting out the poor widowed burger/turkey patties in the microwave. I’ll chunk them up and toss them in with a can of sauce, a cube of pesto and some onion to simmer away the afternoon. Tada-Meatsauce.
Tuesday: Chicken and Biscuits with Sauteed Apples and Cabbage
Before I even started writing this post I tossed the mystery broth (honestly, it doesn’t much matter if it’s pork or chicken) and the chicken wings into the crock pot. I set it on high, covered it with a couple of kitchen towels (which helps keep the heat up) and set the timer for 2 hours. That should be long enough to get it defrosted and warmed up. Then I’ll turn it down to low and let it cook all day. I may get fancy and throw in some celery tops, withered carrots (a few always get lost in the back of the crisper) and a rough cut onion. By this evening I’ll have some good, extra flavorful broth-and the little bit of meat from the wings. I’ll chill, skim the fat and be ready to use it all, al0ng with some of the already cooked frozen chicken, to make chicken and biscuits.
Then I’ll take the half head of cabbage that is hanging out in the crisper, peel the apples that no one wound up eating fresh, and create a side dish.
Wednesday: Skillet Fried Ham with Potato Pancakes and Green Beans
The kids requested potato pancakes this week. I decided I’d make a smaller batch as a side dish instead of a main meal. I may decide to get fancy and instead of skillet frying the ham, chunk it up and add it to the potato pancakes themselves.
Thursday:Â Fish Casserole, Canned Carrots & Biscuits
I’m trying a new fish recipe here-we’ll see how it works out! This will be my fish recipe for the week.
Friday: Pizza
From the Pizza Hut Crust Clone recipe of course. I’m going to make an extra ball of dough and save it uncooked in the fridge to make breadsticks for Saturday.
Saturday: Chicken Soup & Homemade Breadsticks.
There will be leftover broth and chicken from Tuesday’s Chicken and biscuits dinner which I will use to make a pot of crockpot soup on Saturday. Actually, if there is any of the chicken left from Tuesday I’ll just toss it all in there. I love crockpot meals on Saturday-time seems to run differently on the weekend, and dinner sneaks up on me. With a crockpot meal you are ready for dinner whenever folks feel like eating!
Sunday: Chana Masala over Rice and Naan
This is an Indian chickpea curry-so obviously that’s my meatless meal for the week. I’ve had the dish in restaurants before but never tried my hand at making it, so we shall see how it turns out 😉
For more great menu plans head on over to Menu Plan Monday at Organizing Junkie. If you want to know more about the benefits of menu planning-check out my post “Why should I plan a Menu?”.
And finally, feel free to share what is on YOUR menu plan this week. . . I’d love to know!
Hooray for the home version of Iron Chef.
I’m heading to Florida today, but I’ll definitely be doing my own iron chefing when I get home. I have a pile of shrimp shells and chicken backs (bagged separately) in the freezer and I need to get some stock made.
I should probably photograph the shrimp stock for a tutorial, but we’ll see if I have the patience for that.
Thank you so much for being such a great roommate and friend.
For future reference, some of that bread could have been used for a savory bread pudding that can be a main dish. Add herbs, meat, cheese, etc. to the egg and milk mixture and bake. I would have suggested a ham and cheese with onion and mustard bread pudding.
Ohh, savory bread pudding. I’ve been meaning to try that.
Are you planning to buy the naan premade or make it yourself? I’ve been tweaking my own naan recipe and would be happy to share it with you if you’d like it.
Karen, I’d love to hear your Naan recipe!