Weekly Meal Plans

1. taco salad
2. voice/choir - leftovers
3. choir – emergency chicken w/ rice
4. Tilapia Coconut Curry
5. One Pot Spaghetti with Mushrooms Out.  Someday I’ll make this recipe.  Really. 
6. Smoked Salmon Linguine with Lemon Cream Sauce w/ added asparagus or peas?
7. Turkey Tetrazzini

Thanksgiving went well!  All the new (recipes I tried turned out very well and everything was enjoyed by all.  I’m very happy with everything and it was wonderful to spend the time with my parents. 

Now it’s time to get back into the swing of meal planning.  Art is out of town this week, so I’ve got two (recipes on the plan that involve fish – this is super exciting since I feel like I haven’t had fish in a while!  I hope that it will be a tasty week of home cooked food. 

We’re all most looking forward to meal 7, traditional post-Thanksgiving Tetrazzini.  Yum!  I’m waiting for Art to get home for this one, since he would be sad to miss it!

Thursday
No Knead Bread (for eating) Bread Machine White Bread x2 (for stuffing)
High-Heat Roasted Turkey (We’re getting another heritage turkey this year!)
Apple-Raisin Bread Stuffing x2
Green Bean Casserole
Cream Cheese and Chive Mashed Potatoes x3
Sweet Potato Casserole
Pumpkin Bread
storebought vanilla ice cream and pecan pie
Molten Lava Cakes x1.5 Buttermilk Pie

Friday
Breakfast: Bundt Cake w/ eggs w/ grapefruit Lunch: Avgolemono w/ Spanakopita Puffs (make ahead) Dinner: Taco Salad As expected, we were too full/busy to eat three meals on Friday, so we just had breakfast and the Avgolemono with Puffs for dinner. 

Saturday
Breakfast: Shakshuka w/ English muffins
Dinner: Leftovers!

At the moment, Thanksgiving 2012 is the same, at least for Thursday, as Thanksgiving 2011.  I’m considering making a recipe for Pecan Pie Ice Cream I ran across the other day, but that would be the only thing I’d add.  I like the foods we eat and don’t feel inspired to try out anything new this year. 

My parents will be staying in town from Thanksgiving dinner through Saturday breakfast, so I got to plan some other meals to eat with company as well!  Last year we never got around to Friday lunch, but my plan is to cook the soup and puffs regardless and have them for dinner instead of Taco Salad if we don’t have the for lunch. 

I’m thankful so very many things this year but, most of all, I’m thankful for the amazing people in my life.  I’m looking forward to sharing a Thanksgiving feast with a few of those people!

Update:

I realized I forgot to post my cooking schedule with this menu, so here’s an update with that information.  This week is very busy for me with choir stuff, so I’m having to spread my cooking out a little bit more in order to have time to get everything taken care of. 

Sunday
This is the day to make the Labneh and Harissa which are both components of Saturday morning’s Shakshuka.  I’m super excited about trying out this dish. 

Monday
This is casserole assembly day.  I’ll put together Green Bean Casserole and Sweet Potato Casserole and get them in the fridge.  They’ll go into the oven for baking while the turkey rests on Thursday.  I’ll also make Pumpkin Bread. 

Tuesday
I guess this is bread day.  I’m out of the house a lot, but I’ll be able to get bread ingredients into the bread machine when I am home.  I’ll be doing Bread Machine White Bread x2 (for stuffing) during the day and then No Knead Bread (for eating) after I get home from choir. 

Wednesday
This is another busy day for me with errands, but I’ll be making Friday’s lunch/dinner (recipes.  I’ll get the Avgolemono and Spanakopita Puffs made and in the fridge.  I hope there’s room in the fridge… This plan might need to be revisited a little bit.  Ugh.  I clearly need a bigger fridge. 

Thursday
Yay Thanksgiving Day!  Once I know my parents are en route I’ll get the Turkey in the oven.  Then Art and I will make the Stuffing and Mashed Potatoes.  Once the Turkey is out of the oven the casseroles will go into the oven for their baking time.  After we finish dinner and digest a bit, my mom and I will make Molten Lava Cakes for dessert!  (I figure I can get the Buttermilk Pie ready to go into the oven right as we sit down to eat and it can bake while we’re eating.) 

But, yeah, I need to get the fridge space issue figured out.  I guess this won’t be so much of an issue once we eat more of the leftovers that are hanging around.

1. Chicken Enchilada Pasta
2. voice/choir
3. choir far away
4. One Pot Spaghetti with Mushrooms Out due to lack of space in the fridge!
5-7. Thanksgiving 2012

I know this meal plan is super early for me, but since next week is Thanksgiving, I figured I needed to get my act together so I could do the non-perishable shop sooner rather than later.  I’m not entirely sure what’s going on for meals two and three.  Two will be a normal leftover night, but for meal three I’ve got choir rehearsal at a location about an hour away from home which means I’ll need to leave early and get home super late.  So who knows what will happen for dinner on that night.

1-2. Out
3. emergency chicken
4. Baked Cod with Crispy Herbed Topping w/ Ranch Roasted Potatoes
5. Salmon Cakes with Lemon-Caper Sauce w/ some green – arugula or spinach
6. Spaghetti Gangnam Style
7. Baked Filled Pasta w/ garlic bread

First off, Alinea was AMAZING.  I hope that I’ll get to posting a write up before too much time passes and while it is still all fresh in my mind. 

Art is still out of town for work, so I’m getting two fish dishes in during this week to take advantage of his absence.  I feel like we’ve been eating out a lot recently due to all the travel and scheduling, so I’m happy to be cooking delicious (I hope) new (recipes this week.

1. Best Beef Stew w/ Buttermilk Biscuits
2. Leftover Night (voice/choir)
3. Election Returns – sushi and ice cream
4. leftovers, emergency chicken stuff, or out
5. ALINEA!!!! OMG YAY!!!
6-7. Out

This is sort of a strange week to plan since there isn’t much to plan!  Lance and I had a conversation about beef stew while we were stranded in Pennsylvania.  This, combined with Art being out of town for the next two weeks on business travel, inspired me to add beef stew to the menu for after Art leaves.  (He’s not a fan of beef stew, you see.) 

I’m also planning on starting a new tradition of sushi and ice cream while watching the election returns come in on Tuesday night.  I plan to stay up as long as I need to for results, so I’ll need a lot of sushi and ice cream. 

I’m not entirely sure about Wednesday night yet, it’ll depend on what we’ve got in the fridge.  I don’t want to cook up something that will generate leftovers because no one will be home to eat them until Monday night! 

The really exciting part of the meal plan is Thursday night at Alinea.  We’re super excited about going out to Chicago and getting to start our event weekend with such an amazing experience.

1-2. L&G: Out, A: Fends for himself
3. Out
4. spaghetti type stuff
5. burgers to use up the awesome tomatoes my mom gave me
6. taco type stuff
7. Lemon Feta Dip w/ pita chips w/ Smoked Beef Brisket w/ Basic Barbeque Sauce w/ Super-Stuffed Potatoes w/ roasted green beans or broccoli, depending on what the store has

Well.  It’s safe to say that nothing has gone as planned so far this week.  Lance and I went to Philly for an event over the weekend and Art stayed home to hold down the fort.  The plan was that we’d go up on Thursday and come back home on Monday morning.  Hurricane Sandy had other plans for us!  Art stocked up and got the house battened down while Lance and I were working. 

Lance and I ended up leaving late Sunday night and driving to my parents’ house, which is only about 50 minutes away from the tournament site.  The conditions were too horrible to drive all the way home to Southern Maryland, but we were worried that if we waited until Monday to go somewhere that we wouldn’t make it anywhere at all and we’d be stranded in the hotel. 

Everything worked out in the end and my family was reunited on Tuesday evening after a very dull, gray drive.  Now that I’m back home, things are discombobulated and hectic enough that I’m not prioritizing proper meal planning and just resorting to easy things in various jars and pouches.  The exception is Sunday when Brian will be joining us for dinner of delicious smoked brisket.  Between now and then I figure I’ll pick out a few sides, but I’m not going to devote time and brain power to it right now!

I hope that you are all safe and sound wherever you may be!

1. grilled burgers w/ buns, lettuce, red onion, tomato
2. Loaded Egg Salad w/ lettuce, bread
3. Beef Chili with Bacon and Black Beans w/ Hushpuppies
4. Slow Cooker Basil Parmesan Chicken Pasta
5-7. L&G: Out, A: Fends for himself
Beef Broth
Sausage and Lentil Soup

This is a fairly short meal plan because I’ll be heading out of town for the weekend on Thursday.  Thankfully this is my second to last event, so these weekends where I vanish will cease to be such common occurrences! 

I had a few goals for meal planning this week.  Goal 1 was to plan things that would generate leftovers for Art while Lance and I are gone for the weekend.  Goal 2 was to try out a recipe for baked hard boiled eggs that I found online the other day.  Meals 1, 3, and 4 will all meet goal 1 and meal 2 will nicely use the eggs from goal 2! 

In other news, I had Art pick out a big piece of meat to use in meal planning this week and he reported that we didn’t really have anything huge left aside from two briskets and a pork belly.  I went to check this out for myself and, wow, the freezer is fairly empty these days!  I ended up picking out a leg of lamb which is the biggest thing in there otherwise.  [And then I realized that I didn’t have time on Sunday for all of the lamb prep, so I’m postponing that and have changed meal 1 to the much easier meal of burgers.]

We’ll be getting another half cow and whole lamb from Zekiah in December, so that will help to restock our dwindling stores.  We probably still have a good 50 pounds of ground beef, though, so I really need to do a push on that in the upcoming weeks.  (Thankfully I’ll be able to give 10 pounds to my parents next weekend.) 

While in the freezer I noticed that I had about 15 beef bones that I got in my last cow order and never got around to doing anything with.  I decided to change that and try my hand at making beef broth this week as well.  Of course this just means more things for the freezer… but I use broth with some frequency so I’m not super worried. 

Then I got to thinking about what I should do with all the delicious pork juices being generated in my slow cooker right now from the pork roast I’m crocking for carnitas and decided that I should make Sausage and Lentil Soup during the week to supplement Art’s weekend food and to have around in the freezer for lunches on the upcoming cold and rainy days. 

Lots of fun cooking and experimentation this week!

1. Chicken Breasts Gourmet w/ rice
2. Leftover Night (Voice/Choir)
3. Oslo-Style Kebabs w/ Kebab Sauces Attempt #2
4. Slow Cooked Carnitas Tacos w/ Cilantro Lime Rice
5. Hunan Beef w/ rice
6. Kofta Balls with Indian Tomato Sauce w/ rice
7. Cajun Chicken Pasta

I have successfully planned meals for another week!  Yay!  I also put quite a dent in my outstanding (recipes!  I think I’ve only got six (recipes left to go and seven restaurants.  Slowly, but surely, I’m catching up.  Thankfully the crazy traveling part of my life is almost over, so I’m hopeful I’ll do a better job of keeping up in the future. 

This meal plan is almost completely from the world wide web.  Meal 3 is another attempt at kebab sauces because Lance did some research for me in Norwegian to find better (recipes to try.  All of the other (recipes are new and, hopefully, exciting!

1. Simple Roast Beef Tenderloin w/ Savory Mushroom Puffs w/ Simple Horseradish Sauce
2. Leftover Night (voice/choir)
3. TOP SECRET – Lance’s Birthday Dinner - grilled filet mignon steaks w/ Stephanie’s Baked Potatoes w/ Caesar Salad w/ Molten Chocolate Cakes w/ vanilla ice cream
4. Top Round Roast Beef w/ Bread w/ Horseradish Sauce w/ lettuce
5. Chana Masala w/ rice w/ Naan
6. Out
7. Grilled Marinated Leg of Lamb w/ Orzo Baked with Greek Cheeses

This week took less time to plan than I feared it would for a few reasons!  Meal 1 is a holdover from last week, meal 3 was already planned, and once Art picked a few meats out of the freezer, the rest of the plan quickly came together as well.

1. eggs to order w/ Waffle Iron Hashbrowns w/ sausage
2. Leftover Night (voice/choir)
3. Biscuit Taco Cups
4. Smoked Brisket w/ Onion Roasted Potatoes The brisket finished at 5am, so we ate out and had brisket for lunch the next day on sandwiches.  Oops. 5. Oslo-Style Kebabs w/ Kebab Sauces
6. Simple Roast Beef Tenderloin w/ Savory Mushroom Puffs Out
7. Cumin-Pepper Flank Steak with Horseradish Chimichurri w/ Garlic Monkey Bread

When I started planning this week’s meals, I thought “I should have a vegetarian day.”  Instead, I seem to have gone the exact opposite route with cow almost every night.  Oops.  There’s a good reason for this, I’ve sent out next ¹⁄₂ cow order to our farmer so we need to do a push to clear out the old cow before the new cow comes to join us!  Meals 3, 4, 6, and 7 will all use cow from the freezer.  Meals 1 and 5 will use pig and lamb from the freezer!  It’s unusual to have a meal plan with no chicken or fish, but it certainly makes for an easier and cheaper trip to the grocery store. 

Meals 1 and 3 are holdovers from last week since I still haven’t quite gotten into the routine of cooking dinner every night.  I’m working on it.  I also, finally, started working on my backlog of unposted (recipes!  I still have a ton of posts to make, but it’s nice to be making a dent in my backlog instead of just ignoring it. 

In other news, I got my copy of Modernist Cuisine at Home on Friday!  This is the home cook version of the original Modernist Cuisine tome.  It has 150 new (recipes which are geared toward the equipment an experienced home cook will probably have at his disposal.  I’ve skimmed through the book and there are certainly a number of (recipes that I feel I’ll be able to tackle.  Some require a sous vide or a foamer, two tools I definitely don’t have, but maybe I’ll pick them up some day in the future.  In the meantime, I want to figure out a way to work (recipes from Modernist Cuisine at Home into my cooking life.  If I was home on Mondays to cook, I’d do “Modernist Mondays,” but I’m not.  Instead, I might do a “Monthly Modernist” feature.  I’m still pondering.