Menu Plan 1/9

Christmas is well and truly over, school is back in swing and the Frugal Upstate household is busy with plenty of different types of work and fun. Menu planning, as always, making things easier!

This week’s considerations

1. Tuesday Princess has dance right at suppertime, Wednesday is chaos as usual with scouts for both kids in two different places (thankfully close to each other) and Yankee Bill playing pool. I’ve got a Dr. appt one afternoon, tax appointment another and a full morning at the food pantry as a volunteer on Thursday. In particular Tues & Friday I need simple easy to get on the table meals.

2. I’ve got 2 chicken breasts in the fridge, a head of lettuce and about 2 cups of chick peas to use. Also I didn’t wind up making the breakfast casserole last week, so I still have plenty of eggs.

3. I’m doing the church lady meal thing again-we’ve got another parishioner home from the hospital who needs a couple of very simple, bland meals. I’m thinking something chicken and rice based. I’ve also got to find time to make a cake for the church’s senior luncheon on Sunday. I’ll probably do that on Saturday.

4. Buddy asked to make homemade gnocchi sometime soon. He’ll be home without his sister for a while this afternoon-she’s got after school activities, so maybe he and I will roll gnocchi together! I can take pictures and get a post out of it as well!

4. My goals are 1 fish, 1 venison, 1 meatless, 1 bean and 1 soup meal. Remember-those can double up (fish chowder would be a fish & a soup meal for example)

Taking all that into account here is my game plan:

Monday: Gnocchi with Pesto or Red Sauce with Salad

Buddy and I will make gnocchi together this afternoon. I”ve got pesto cubes in the freezer from a bumper crop of basil 2 years ago to toss over it. I’ll make a very simple salad-lettuce, celery, some carrot from the garden. Maybe I’ll try draining a can of stewed tomatoes & adding those-I can’t stand buying tasteless tomatoes at a premium price in the winter so I avoid it if at all possible! The good thing is that I can take extra gnocchi with a bit of butter and Parmesan over to the lady who needs a bland-ish meal.

This is my meatless meal for the week.

Tuesday: Crockpot Salsa Chicken with Tortillas, Rice and Refried Beans

The recipe for Crockpot Salsa Chicken is so simple as to almost not be able to be considered a recipe. Great for a day when I’ve got conference calls, appointments, kids heading to dance etc etc etc (ad nausem) with tortillas and rice the meat can either get rolled up burrito style with some shredded lettuce and the rest of those stewed tomatoes, or else tossed over some of the rice. The refried beans are out of a can, but hey-they taste good.

Wednesday: Breakfast Casserole

Since I didn’t get the breakfast casserole together last week I’ll make it this week. Again-it not only will be tasty, but I can make a second smaller pan of it to take over to that lady.

This is actually a second meatless meal.

Thursday: Curried Chickpeas with Rice

Yes-I know I made this last week. You see it was a new recipe and I made some drastic adjustments while cooking since I thought the intial dish was far too bland (which may have been the fault of my really old curry powder). Anyway before I can share it with all of you I really need to make it again to ensure that it comes out consistently the same. And hey-I’ve got to use up the rest of those chick peas so what the heck (I made them from dried instead of using canned).  I’ll put some sauteed carrots fresh from the garden on the side.

This is another meatless meal-plus it is my bean meal for the week.

Friday: Venison Vegetable Stew with Homemade Beer Bread

I know I usually do pizza on Fridays-but I’ve got a busy Friday planned so I don’t know that I’ll be home in time to get the dough into the doughmaker and have time for it to rise and cook etc. Instead I’ll push that off a day and I’ll go ahead and get some soup started in the crockpot. That way it can cook “low & slow” all day with the flavors melding, and all I need to do is whip up the beer bread when I get home.

This is my venison and my soup meal for the week.

Saturday: Pizza Hut Crust Clone Calzones

We’ll have our pizza calzone style using the pizza hut crust clone recipe. I’ll have time on Saturday not only to make it but to let each kiddo make their own!

Sunday: Old Fashioned Salmon Loaf with Baked Potatoes and Green Beans

Old Fashioned Salmon Loaf uses canned salmon. Sometimes I even substitue in some (or all) canned tuna instead. I’ll make hollandaise sauce to serve over it (maybe even the real stuff instead of the packet?) and then do simple baked potatoes that can be cooking at the same time as the Salmon Loaf. The green beans are canned from our garden this summer.

This is my fish 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” .