This week just past I did not make a meal plan-and boy, did I feel it! It seemed like every night was a frantic rush to figure out how to feed everyone. Having a week like that every once in a while just reinforces how wonderful menu planning really is!
As always I like to consider what is going on in my week before choosing my meals. This week’s considerations are:
1. The weather. This week will be pretty moderate-the high is 87 on Friday. The humidity has been up and since, as you all know, we don’t have AC I would prefer to keep the use of items that heat up the house to a minimum. I don’t mind using a pan on the stove to do a quick stirfry or such-but baking for 45 minutes really isn’t on the agenda.
2. The kids have evening activities on Tuesday and Thursday. I don’t need long cooking complex meals on those nights.
3. Bill has a meetings on Wednesday and Thursday nights, so I can do meals that the kids like but he isn’t fond of those nights, like breakfast for dinner.
4. The garden is in full swing. I have the last of the peas & snow peas to use up, my daikon radishes that bolted (a bit woody & very hot) green beans, lambsquarter, squash and the tomatoes are starting to ripen. Lots of veggies to use.
5. I’ve had 2 dozen eggs sitting in the fridge for two weeks-they really need to be used. There is leftover pasta and sauce from Sunday’s dinner in the fridge-not enough for a meal, but enough to use as ingredients in something else. There is also leftover Italian Squash Medley (ie squash, tomato, pepper & onion skillet)
6. I need a meatless meal, a venison meal and a fish meal.
7. I am most likely going to take the kids to go visit my mom for a few days at the end of the week.
Taking all that into account here is my game plan:
Monday: Cheese & Chicken Quiche with Homemade Bread, Sauteed Daikon Radishes and Italian Squash Medley
The quiche used up some eggs-plus I needed to bring a meal to a parishioner who has recently had surgery so I just whipped up two. To tone down the heat from the radishes I cut them into pennies and then sauteed them in olive oil with a bit of seasoned salt. Not fabulous, but decent and it used them up. The leftover squash medley was warmed up as well. This is a mostly meatless meal 🙂
Tuesday: Teriyaki Grilled Shrimp, Rice and Sauteed Snow Peas
I have had a bag of shrimp in the freezer for a couple of months, so I pulled that out and tossed it in some teriyaki sauce and soy sauce to defrost. Then I speared them onto my skewers and grilled. It’s actually a pretty fast meal. I cooked up some rice in the rice cooker (I used some vegetable stock I had frozen a while back for extra nutrition) and then sauteed the snow peas in a bit of olive oil. They are so darn good you really don’t have to add much to them! This was my fish meal for the week.
Wednesday: Waffles for Dinner with Bacon
The kids LOVE it when we do breakfast for dinner! It is not Yankee Bill’s favorite, so I usually reserve it for a night he isn’t home. This is another mostly meatless meal (let’s face it, the bacon is more or less a garnish)
Thursday: At Moms
I’ll probably drive to my mom’s on Thursday, but if I don’t, we’ll do Venison in Gravy over biscuits with Lambsquarter sauteed in butter on the side.
Friday: At Moms
Again, I’ll probably be gone, but if not I’ll do stuffed Zucchini boats using leftover rice mixed with the extra sausage that I browned up and froze last week.
Saturday: At Moms
If I don’t wind up going we’ll pull out the crockpot and make a ham, bean and pea soup. I shelled the end of the peas-probably about 2 cups-but they are pretty starchy now. I think the only way they will be palatable is to cook them more like dried peas.
Sunday: Order Pizza
It has been a very long time since we ordered out pizza. Since I’ll be driving home I won’t want to cook.
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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.
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