Menu Plan 2/21

Here we go with another weekly menu plan. So what things affect my planning for this week?

1) The kids are off from school for the first two days, which always makes things interesting!  I like to do things that aren’t too complex when the kids are home because I have found that I lose track of time easily when they are here and dinnertime sneaks up on me!

2) There are evening meetings for various and sundry family members on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.  The ones on Tues and Wed require that dinner be ready and eaten before 6pm-so that has to go into my planning process.  The Friday meeting is just hubs-so the only planning concession there is that there will be one less for dinner.

3)  The kids have an after school activity that I have to drive them to and wait for them from 3-4 on Thursday-so dinner needs to either be fast, in the crockpot or already done.

4)  I am still attempting to work one fish and one meatless meal into each weeks menu.

5)  Believe it or not, I still have some ham left from last week.  Partly because ham just stretches and stretches, and partly because we skipped one night’s dinner and did a substitute meal instead.  I need to use it up!

So here is what I came up with.

Monday: Fiesta Chicken & Brown Rice Casserole with Steamed Vegetables

This recipe is something that I need to take pictures of for Wednesday’s “Meal Solutions” post.  Hard to take pictures if I don’t make it!  I’m actually amping it up a bit from the recipe I was given-more on that Wednesday.  It’s sort of a one pot meal, but not super heavy in the veggies, so I’m just heating up a bag of Aldi’s mixed veggies to go on the side.

Tuesday:  Homemade Ham & Cheese Hotpockets with Green Salad

I made the remainder of the ham into a big batch of ham salad to use on sandwiches today for lunch.  The leftovers will be put into homemade hotpockets~basically just my Pizza Hut Crust Clone used to make little meat turnovers.  If I run out of ham salad I’ll use tuna salad and pepperoni & cheese.  Green salad on the side.

Wednesday:  Lentil Casserole, Scalloped Tomatoes, Roasted Cauliflower and Fresh Rolls

Mmm. I haven’t made this Lentil Casserole in a while.  It’s delicious, filling and versatile!  Since it makes an 8X13 pan, there are plenty of leftovers, and I use them anywhere that I’d typically use ground beef-in tacos, spaghetti sauce etc.

The scalloped tomatoes are a great side dish that I got from my Mother in Law.  I’ll just drizzle the cauliflower with some olive oil, sprinkle w/salt & pepper and roast.  I’ve never met a veggie that didn’t taste even better roasted.

Thursday:  Lentil Burritos, Cheater’s Mexican Rice and Veggie

Some of the leftover lentil casserole will go into the burritos, I’ll put my cheaters mexican rice on the side and, because my mom always insisted you need a veggie-I’ll open a can of something and insist the kids eat a few bites.

Friday: Pizza-White Garlic and Pepperoni

Of course I’ll make it with the Pizza Hut Crust Clone recipe.  Buddy has been asking for White Garlic Pizza, so I’m going to try my hand at it this week, along with regular Pepperoni. . . just in case it’s a flop 😉

Saturday:  Salmon Loaf, Creamed Peas, Green Salad and Biscuits

Salmon loaf is a classic-and it’s a great way to use canned salmon (which is an inexpensive and shelf stable fish source! Woohoo!)  This is one of those meals that will make use of my fresh homemade breadcrumbs.

Sunday: Roasted Chicken with Gravy, Baked Potatoes, Carrots and Snow Peas

I always love roasting a chicken-it just makes me feel like a domestic goddess!  Plus it’s inexpensive, there are tons of leftovers and you get to make chicken stock at the end.  Win-win-win!  The carrots are canned from the garden, and the snow peas are frozen from the garden last spring.  Yum.

So that’s it for this week!

Are you interested in learning more about menu planning?  Check out my post “Why Plan a Weekly Menu” .

For more great menu plan ideas, head on over to Menu Plan Monday at the Organizing Junkie.