Menu plan for the week of January 17, 2010

What a week!
It seemed like every day there was some new chore to run. I tried to limit what I bought this week, intending to eat out of the pantry. I dug out some new spices, went fishing through my collected recipes on Spring pad and came up with a few interesting ideas.

As always, lunches are leftovers. Snacks are fresh fruits/vegetables with simple dips. Breakfast is toast & natural peanut butter or oatmeal. My drinks of choice are tea, diet coke and water (unfortunately, in that order). My goal this week is to get through to Friday without ordering in or not making something on the menu. Wish me luck!

Sunday 17	Breakfast: Multigrain Breakfast Musli, an apple & tea. Lunch: Steak burritos, diet coke. Snack: broccoli, cauliflower, dip Dinner: Roast chicken, baby potatoes & salad with red wine vinagrette, diet coke
	I had a ton of folks over in the afternoon, and even with the smell of roasting chickens, they didn't stay for dinner. :) I bought two small grain-fed chickens, trussed them with lemons, tossed two cut up carrots, some celery, an onion and a ton of herbs and butter in with the birds and cooked them for about an hour. This results in one bird for dinner, and the second for leftover chicken for the week. I've also now got tons of stuff to make more chicken broth this weekend.
Monday 18	Breakfast: Multigrain Breakfast Musli, an apple & tea. Lunch: Shepperd's pie, diet coke. Snack: an apple Dinner: Chicken a la king, soda biscuits, salad & green tea Desert: Pistachio ice cream
	Chicken a la king, also known as chicken and vegetables in a white sauce. It's one of my favourite ways to use up leftover chicken. I always try to make a few extra soda biscuits as they make really good additions to a lunch and they freeze well, even when baked. The ice cream was requested specifically. It will mean a fair bit of shifting of things in my freezer; but it shall be made tonight and ready to eat either late tonight or tomorrow night for dinner. If anyone has a favourite ice cream recipe--please share. I'm always looking to expand my repertoire.
Tuesday 19	Breakfast: Toast, peanut butter, tea. Snack: an apple Lunch: Roast chicken legs, potatoes, asparagus & peppers, diet coke, an apple. Snack: yogurt & flax seed Dinner: Mom's cold season chicken soup with day old bread, tea.
	Chicken soup is a very fast meal to make if you have all the ingredients handy. Tasty too. Any leftovers should go great as additions to lunch (like the basis of a healtier raman) or last in the fridge until the weekend.
Wednesday 20	Breakfast: Toast, peanut butter, tea. Snack: an apple Lunch: Healthier Raman, diet coke, an apple Snack: yogurt & flax seed Dinner: Slow cooked beef & buttered noodles
	It seems odd to make this recipe from a good cut of beef; but it's a bit freezer burned and needs to be used up. Without good grilling weather, it's therefore destined for the crock pot. The grey weather of late has me wanting gravy and this dish can produce a lot of it.
Thursday 21	Breakfast: Toast, peanut butter, tea. Snack: an apple Lunch: Lemon pepper tuna, crackers, and mixed vegetables, diet coke, an apple. Snack: Pretzels Dinner: Broiled white fish, steamed green beans, tea.
	A simple dinner of fish and vegetables, it's healthy and easy to make.
Friday 22	Breakfast: Toast, peanut butter, tea. Snack: an apple Lunch: Leftover bonanza, diet coke, an apple. Snack: Pretzels Dinner: Pot luck & Leftovers
	I regularly bring food over to a friend's place and cook it. The problem is, I never know what I'm going to make until the day arrives. Then I email friends, tell them what I'm lacking and bring the rest. Dinners can be quite creative; but are always served (soup, meal & salad, sometimes desert) for 5$ a head. Sometimes I completely blow the budget (often with desert), but in general it's a fairly easy guideline. If someone brings food for the dinner (and not just snacks for the evening) they don't have to pay me $5.

Menu plan for the week of January 10, 2010

And so it continues.
We've not even had the Cosco card for a month, and already we're planning our next trip. Still, if we're careful then the purchase of a membership at our local bulk store is a wise decision. Figures though, one week after getting the card and we stumble on a 1/2 price sale for toilet paper. So that's one thing we won't be buying at Cosco for a while.

They have everything at Cosco. It's rather intimidating. Being part of a household of two - any six pack of consumables that can't be frozen (bread, baked goods, cheeses, etc) are problematic, and even those that can be frozen (meats, finished meals, etc) are often so large that my new and ginormous fridge-freezer is too small to store them properly. It's a hard question to ask. But do you really need to purchase a six month supply of eggs, shampoo and office supplies? The savings on such things are often marginal at best. But if you're careful, you can find a few deals. Note to self: pack a calculator and your price book.

As always, lunches are leftovers. Snacks are fresh fruits/vegetables with simple dips. Breakfast is toast & natural peanut butter or oatmeal. My drinks of choice are tea, diet coke and water (unfortunately, in that order). My goal this week is to get through to Friday without ordering in or not making something on the menu. Wish me luck!

Sunday 10	Breakfast: Egg sandwich, whole grain, turkey sausage. Tea. Snack: Rice cakes Lunch: Smoked meat sandwich, diet coke. Snack: Kellog's bar Dinner: Chicken nuggets & mixed green salad. Diet coke.
	It was my day to cook; I just didn't cook dinner. Dinner was frozen chicken nuggets with a bag of mixed salad and bottled salad dressing. Yummy - but not home cooked. Today I baked two turkey legs (strained and saved the broth, shredded the meat and saved the bones for soup. I made 4l of chicken broth (with mostly leftover vegetables and a bit of chicken bones) in the crock pot, and a cooked up two breakfasts worth of blackberry multi-grain oatmeal.
Monday 11	Breakfast: Tea. Blackberry multi-grain oatmeal. Snack: Kellog's bar Lunch: Risotto & cassoulet. Apple & diet coke Snack: cottage cheese Dinner: Hearty Ministrone soup and leftover bread. Tea. Snack: Banana bread?
	This is a great bean soup with a few vegetables. It tastes best when made with homemade stock, but any stock will do. The recipe I'm using makes enough for 4 hungry people; so I'm hoping to have a small amount left over for lunches. I also hope to make some more banana bread (mostly for breakfasts later in the week, but also as tonight's desert). Only time will tell if this happens though.
Tuesday 12	Deli-style coleslaw and meatball subs
	A classic combination, this is another version of a very sloppy joe. The meatballs are drenched in freshly made tomato sauce that is barely even seasoned. I am just as apt to use store-bought meatballs as homemade for this recipe; but the tomato sauce is simple and comes together so quickly that it is worth making from scratch. The coleslaw is creamy and gives the meal the traditional deli twist that would be otherwise lacking from eating on real plates with cutlery.
Wednesday 13	Basic sauteed chicken cutlets with mixed green salad
	This is quickly becoming a winter staple for me. The chicken breasts and flattened (or cut, depending on how I feel) and then pan fried in very little oil. Sometimes I make a sauce, but most times I don't.
Thursday 14	Risotto and Martedi and possibly apple pie
	Can you tell I have people coming over? Risotto is a pleasantly creamy dish that goes well with anything. Martedi is a recipe (of sorts) by Fae; and a great way to feed a crowd with very little preparation. The dinner isn't gorgeous, but it is delicious. There's been a request in my house for me to make another apple pie. I've given a definite maybe to the request. If it's gonna happen -- it will be the night folk come over.
Friday 15	Soda biscuits and turkey a la king
	The recipe is for chicken a la king, but I have leftover (cooked) turkey thanks to the cooking I did on Sunday. Soda biscuits are the easiest bread you'll ever make and come together in less than 30 minutes. They'll be put in the oven as soon as the turkey a la king goes onto the stove and both should be ready about the same time.

Weekly menu for January 03, 2010

Happy New Year!
My sister gave me a blank recipe book for Christmas. I promised my mother I'd fill it with recipes and give it to her. If all works well, I can give her the book and a link to my Springpad! At least then she'll be able to read my recipes. I'm trying to update them and comment on them as I use them; in most cases this also means minor alterations due to either goofs on my part (leaving out a recipe, misreading when it's supposed to go in, etc), or simply having to substitute ingredients due to costs.

There's another round of clean-out-your pantry going on out there in the Internet (as hosted by Jessica at Life as Mom and Crystal at Money Saving Mom). I'm not going to partake; but I am trying to design meals around what I have rather than what I need.

I'm still trying to finish off the little bottles in my fridge; but there's only so many uses I can find for hot and savory sauces. Friends comment that my fridge is always full to bursting; I tell them to look again just before I go shopping -- it gets pretty empty around then.

As always, lunches are leftovers. Snacks are fresh fruits/vegetables with simple dips. Breakfast is toast & natural peanut butter or oatmeal. My drinks of choice are tea, diet coke and water (unfortunately, in that order). I'm trying to stay away from deserts for a while, but (considering the number of dead bananas in my fridge), I can see myself making a loaf (or two) of banana bread.

Sunday 4	Chicken Cassoulet, steamed broccoli
	The dish took a fair bit of time to assemble, but I was able to do it with company in the house. I cooked way too much and will be eating the leftovers for lunches this week. It's a very hearty meal, but a bit bland for my tastes. Cheese helps, but I'm wondering if some of the spicy pastes in my pantry wouldn't help more.
Monday 5	Steak Fajitas.
	Served atop flour tortillas (warmed in the stove), these are filled with a mixture of sandwich steak, bell pepper, salsa, and sour cream. Just one problem -- I'm out of tortillas. I made quesadillas for friends on Saturday and that used up my supply. I found a recipe online, so this might just work.
Tuesday 6	Fish sticks, steamed vegetables, basmati rice
	I'll make the rice with chicken broth & herbs; mostly just to give it some flavour. As to the fish sticks - they're store bought.
Wednesday 7	Turkey Scallopini, buttered noodles and green salad
	I have a package of Turkey Scallopini in the freezer that's been there a while. This is another easy meal. The noodles are whole wheat egg noodles that I'll cook up and add a bit of thyme and butter to flavour. The green salad is dressed with a red wine vinagrette.
Thursday 8	Cracker crusted fish, risotto and steamed vegetables. Banana bread.
	Every time I put this recipe on my menu, something happens. Last time we ran out of crackers for ... um ... some unknown reason. Still, I want to use up the fish in my freezer -- so crackers or no crackers -- it will be eaten on Thursday. The banana bread is technically for Friday night; but it has to be tested before I can dole it out to friends.
Friday 9	Santa-Fey Chicken Chili with cornbread biscuits. Banana bread (leftovers).
	Chili always pleases a crowd. Ideally, I'll have everything mixed up and cooked before leaving the house in the morning. I realized this weekend that, whenever I bring soups, stews or chili's (or even wet ingredients for a meal) to serve to people, I pack the food hot in to freshly-washed mason jars. The results are easy to carry and I never worry about leakage.