Meal Plan 1/11

It’s  just a keep on trucking, get back on track kinda week this week.  Nothing exciting happening but lots of everyday stuff.

I’ve got several things to consider this week:

1. This week Yankee Bill has pool one night, I have three days I’m going to be in town (once for a lesson, once for a meeting and once to take my Dad to an appointment). We’ve also got evening activities for either me or the kids 4 nights. . . that means a bunch of times dinner needs to be ready to go on the table even though I’ve been out all day, and that people need to eat and be back out the door again. Should be interesting. . .

2. I’ve got leftover potatoes, about a serving of Ramen noodles, some cut up onion, baby carrots and a dozen eggs in the fridge. In the freezer I’ve got the usual compliment of beef, venison, pork and chicken from my various bulk purchases and stocking up. I’ve got potatoes in the basement and a variety of canned vegetables (home and store).

3. As always my goal is to have one venison meal, one beef 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: Spaghetti with a Sausage Cream Sauce

I was at my wit’s end tonight for supper, so I figured “spaghetti”.  I went to the deep freeze and pulled out a package of cheesy Italian venison sausage.  Princess requested a cream sauce instead of a red sauce, so I browned the sausage, made a cream sauce, added back in the sausage and some Parmesan cheese, and served it over angel hair pasta.  I was naughty and didn’t serve a vegetable.

This was my venison meal for the week.

Tuesday: Salsa Chicken in Tortillas, Cheater’s Spanish Rice and Green Salad

Crockpot Salsa Chicken is so simple I can barely call it a recipe. You wouldn’t think something so easy could be so good. . . but it is!  It will just cook all day and then when I get home I can shred it up and serve it with tortillas, rice and a green salad.

Wednesday: Chickpea and Potato Curry with Green Beans and Naan

This will be a new recipe for me.  I know that chickpeas and potatoes are a classic curry combination, so I knew I’d be able to find a bunch of recipes for it.  I should be able t put it together in the early evening and get it on the table before Buddy has to leave for scouts.  The Naan is an Indian bread cooked in a dry skillet–I made it once with a recipe I found that incorporated yogurt and was sort of a shortcut type recipe–that should be able to be made pretty easily too.  The green beans will just be canned.  You know me and my vegetables.

This is my bean and my meatless meal for the week.

Thursday: Ridiculously Easy Venison Roast with Carrots and Potatoes

Another “toss it in the slow cooker and go” recipe, Ridiculously Easy Roast can be started in the morning and then simply served when I get home.  The potatoes and carrots and all just cook in there.

This is another venison meal for the week.

Friday: Homemade Calzones

I make my homemade calzones with the same Pizza Hut Crust Clone recipe I use for pizza–it’s just formed into a little hand pie instead.

Saturday: Pork Ribs with Sweet Northern Cornbread and Southern Style Greens

I’ll probably par boil the ribs to start them and then finish them in the oven with BBQ sauce to get some nice carmelization going on.  Ribs are undeniably southern, so of course I have to pair them with my Sweet Northern Cornbread and Southern Style Greens (cooked with bacon and hot pepper–yumm!

This is my pork meal for the week.

Sunday: Tuna Casserole and Steamed Snow Peas

I needed to fit a fish meal in for the week, and I realized that it has been ages and ages since I’ve made good old tuna casserole.  It’s pretty much a one dish meal with some peas and carrots in the mix, but I’ll bump up the veggies by adding some of the garden snow peas I froze last spring.

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” .