Weekly Meal Plans

1. Smoked Beef Brisket w/ Hushpuppies 2. Chicken Parmesan Pot Pie
3. Leftovers for choir
4. Three-Cheese Baked Penne
5. Tuna Casserole
6. Sonoma Chicken Salad
7. Manicotti w/ Garlic Toast Out to local Greek place!

This week’s meal plan doesn’t have any sort of cohesive goal, so bear with me as I explain things. 

Meal 2 and 3 were the first, and easiest, days to fill in on the schedule.  Chicken Parmesan Pot Pie is a holdover from last week, since we turned to emergency rations instead, and meal 3 is choir night.  I will be home all alone (by myself, in the dark) for meal 5 so I’ll be making the trashiest meal in my repertoire – Tuna Casserole.  Yum.  Those were the easy meals to plan. 

Lance will be away for meal 6, so Art and I will be feasting on nut-containing chicken salad.  Meal 1 has been planned since last weekend when I gave Art his Christmas present early.  He’s super excited to try it out and decided that revisiting Brisket would be the safest place to start. 

Then I turned to the 2009 Cook’s Country Annual to fill in the gaps – Hush Puppies were chosen to go with the Brisket and meal 7 also came from the book.  Meal 4 comes from the need to update a picture. 

Hopefully it will be a tasty week here at Chez Gwen!  And, also hopefully, I will start to plan next week, the week of DOOM, er, Thanksgiving.

1. Strip Steak with Spicy Hoisin Sauce and Cucumber Relish w/ Sliced Baked Tomatoes
2. Crunchy Buttermilk-Coconut Chicken Fingers w/ Cheater Mustard Greens
3. Brie-Stuffed Chicken Breasts w/ rice w/ Green Beans with Soy and Pine Nuts
4. Tilapia with Pine Nut, Parmesan, and Basil Pesto Crust w/ Pasta with Arugula Pesto and Cherry Tomato Sauce
5. Leftovers for Choir
6. burgers w/ Sweet Potato Fries w/ Aioli
7. Chicken Parmesan Pot Pie Switched to “emergency rations” due to my lack of motivation. 

My main inspiration during this week’s meal planning was all of the veggies I picked up at the farmers market.  There are only three weekends of the market left, so I’m feeling inspired to get as many green things as possible.  Local vegetables feature in meals 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6. 

Other goals include using up cow (meals 1 and 6) and updating old pictures (meals 2, 3, and 7). 

I did pick a cookbook (Ted Allen’s The Food You Want to Eat) to use in meal planning but only the green bean recipe in meal 3 comes from it.

1. Broccoli Beef Noodle Stir Fry
2. Outside-the-Box Pasta Pie w/ Mom’s Chicken 3. Mexican Chicken Rice Casserole
4. Smoked Salmon Quiche
5. Leftovers for choir
6. Sloppy Joes
7. Marjoram Chicken w/ rice w/ Roasted Acorn Squash

I’m definitely feeling back on track this week even though I’m still at the tail end of recovering from the previous week’s sickness. 

For the first time in forever, I grabbed a cookbook to use in meal planning.  Because I’m still not feeling 100%, I chose Food Network’s How to Boil Water. It’s actually the book I’ve started to recommend to new cooks in recent years because I find it to be a fantastic teaching tool.  The book has lots of great illustrations and explanations.  It also has some pretty tasty (recipes that feature in meals 2 and 3.

Meals 1 and 4 come from my huge collection of delicious bookmarks.  I’ve also been on a smoked salmon kick recently, so the idea of Smoked Salmon Quiche really appeals to me right now.  Meals 6 and 7 are previously posted (recipes that could use updated pictures. 

Happy eating!

(And, yes, I will be pulling pictures off my camera so I can start posting (recipes again. Soon.  I promise!)

1. Out
2. Hamburger Stroganoff
3. Spaghetti
4. Potato Soup w/ Slow Cooker Brussels Sprouts
5. Leftovers for choir
6. More leftovers.  I didn’t cook many meals this week, but when I did cook I cooked a LOT.
7. Founding Farmers

Well.  As you might be able to tell from the meal plan last week, and the lateness of this week’s meal plan, I’m sick.  This menu isn’t very exciting either. 

I hope to be back on the ball next week.

1. Swiss Chicken Cutlets w/ Roasted Potatoes w/ Peas au Gratin
2. Broccoli Beef Noodle Stir Fry Out
3. Tater Tot Casserole w/ Cheater Greens
4. Smoked Salmon with Fresh Dill and Capers
5. Tuna Green Bean Salad
6. Out due to early voting
7. Asian Burritos w/ Thai Peanut Sauce Out

Apparently my goal for this week is to update pictures of (recipes I posted before I got the light box.  I didn’t know this was my goal when I was picking (recipes, it just sort of happened.  At least that’s the case for meals 1, 3, 4, and 7.  Meal 7 was also inspired by Lance’s absence – yay peanut sauce.  Meals 2 and 3 are the cow (recipes for the week. 

Meal 5, however, is the meal I am looking forward to most.  I will be home all alone for the first time in forever so I am going to indulge in the very rare treat of tuna fish from a pouch (or can, whichever) and make a beloved recipe from my youth.  I can’t wait. 

As the weather gets colder I find myself drawn more to casserole type dishes and (recipes I’ve already made.  Hopefully awareness of these tendencies will help me to fight them!  Just… not this week.

7. Lunch: Lentil Sausage Soup w/ Bread. Dinner: grilled hamburgers w/ grilled acorn squash w/ Creamy Potato Salad
1. Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs with Goat Cheese and Parsley w/ Bread w/ various jams and jellies.  Dinner: Chicken Crepes w/ sautéed broccoli w/ salad Mom’s Chicken, Pasta Amatriciana, sautéed broccoli 2. Chicken Vesuvio
3. Tex-Mex Pasta Bake
4. Slow Cooker Duck
5. Leftovers before choir
6. Crispy Tilapia Fingers with Lemon and Garlic Mayonnaise
7. Pasta with Sausage, Basil, and Sundried Tomatoes

To say that the weekend’s meals did not go as planned would be the understatement of the century. 

Since Art’s parents were arriving for the weekend and I wanted to cook super amazing Chicken Crepes for them, I started doing prep cooking on Thursday before choir.  While doing the prep cooking I noticed that the butter was a bit softer than usual.  Can you see where this is going?  I bet you can!  I didn’t think too much of it at the time, but I put the thermometer in the fridge just to be on the safe side. 

I got home from choir and the thermometer read 60*F.  Gulp. 

I ended up having to throw away everything and plan a completely new meal for crepe night in addition to losing a lot of food.  Sad times. 

On Friday I headed over to our friendly, neighborhood Lowes and ordered a new fridge which was, thankfully, delivered on Saturday.  The new fridge is infinitely better than the old fridge so I’m trying not to be too upset.  I just wish the timing had been a bit better! 

Anyway… I’m finally going to make Chicken Vesuvio this week since I’ve been putting it off for quite a few weeks now.  Meal 3 is also a holdover from last week and should be a tasty casserole for these days which are getting cooler.  Meal 7 is Art’s request.  The rest of the meals are just a hodgepodge of things that sound good or things I’ve been wanting to make for a while and keep forgetting about when meal planning time comes around.

1. Chicken Vesuvio
2. Red Stroganoff w/ rice
3. Coconut-Crusted Salmon with Coconut Chili Sauce w/ rice
4. Out due to scheduling
5. Leftovers for choir night
6. Tex-Mex Pasta Bake Changed to taco salad due to arrival of Art’s parents.
7. ***Top Secet*** (See next week’s meal plan.)

Meal planning this week did not have any sort of overall theme or purpose.  Meal 1 is a revisit of an old recipe that desperately needs a new picture.  Meal 2 is the attempt to recreate Lance’s beloved childhood stroganoff which is red unlike the white/brown kind that I grew up eating.  Meal 3 is the attempt to get some fish into our diets since we didn’t have any last week.  Meal 6 is an easy casserole-type dish since I’ll be doing prep cooking for the weekend that day.  And Meal 7 is currently Top Secret because Art’s parents are visiting and I don’t want them to peek!  

I did, finally, use up all the meat in the chest freezer last week, so for now it’s just cow from the upright that I need to work on using up.  So far I’ve been successful at planning two meals with cow a week in order to use it all up within a year.

1. Peppery Chicken Curry w/ rice
2. Out!!
3. Honey Butter Pork Tenderloin w/ Creamy Parmesan Orzo
4. Crock-Roasted Chicken w/ Carbonara
5. Leftovers
6. Pan Seared Rib Eye w/ Garlic Butter w/ Butternut Squash Risotto
7. Sirloin Beef Stroganoff w/ egg noodles

Meal 1 is a holdover from last week since it ended up being replaced with an Appetizer Feast – (recipes for Pepperoni Pizza Puffs, BBQ Chicken Wontons, Bacon Wrapped Pineapple, and Four-Layer Dip will all be coming soon. 

The rest of the meal plan just revolves around using up a few cuts of meat from the freezers in the continued effort to make room for the forthcoming half pig.  This is a pretty straightforward week as far as meal planning goes.

1. Steak Tips with Mushroom-Onion Gravy
2. Horseradish Crusted Beef Tenderloin w/ Caprese Panzanella
3. Seared Tuna Salad with Wasabi Vinaigrette and Crispy Wontons
4. Hawaiian Pulled Pork Sandwiches w/ Sweet Potato Fries
5. Leftovers
6. Pepper Chicken Curry w/ rice Postponed due to appetizer feast with company: Pepperoni Pizza Puffs w/ BBQ Chicken Wontons w/ Bacon Wrapped Pineapple w/ Four Layer Dip
7. spaghetti w/ garlic bread

My goal for this week is still “don’t buy meat!”  I was even more successful at it than last week because all the meat for this week comes from the freezer.  (Please don’t judge me for having tuna in my freezer, I have yet to be able to find fresh tuna in Southern Maryland.)  After this week the only meats, aside from cow, left in the freezer are a whole chicken and a pork tenderloin.  I feel confident that I’ll be able to use those both next week. 

Meals 1 and 2 have (recipes from Cook’s Illustrated 2009.  Meals 2, 3, 4 and 5 use (recipes from my delicious bookmarks.  The spaghetti sauce will come from the freezer and be doctored up with some ground beef, bacon, and summer squash. 

In other news, I got to see my pig today at the Charles County Fair.  Art decided to name it Bacon.

1. Out
2. Steak Tips with Mushroom-Onion Gravy Moved to next week due to an unplanned choir thing
3. Roasted Chicken and Potatoes with Garlic, Lemon, and Rosemary
4. Maple Mustard Pork Chops w/ Roasted Acorn Squash
5. Leftovers
6. Slow Roasted Salmon w/ Cauliflower Pasta Casserole
7. AB’s Meatloaf w/ Cheesy Baked Gnocchi

This week’s meal plan took an unusually long time to plan.  This is probably because I’m pretty wiped out from the quick trip down to Florida over the weekend.  Travel is pretty tiring when you’re not in one place for very long.  But, tired or not, meal planning has to happen. 

The only goal I really tried to meet this week was that of “don’t buy more meat.”  The only exceptions to this rule are the needs to eat chicken at least once a week and to eat fish at least once a week when Art is gone.  This week the chicken will be coming out of the freezer, so it’s still meeting my goal!  I will be buying salmon for meal 6, but I’m okay with that.  I’m pretty sure that every recipe aside from the Acorn Squash is a new recipe, and that is also exciting! 

My oven died last week so I wasn’t able to bake the Pecan Pie Bars I’d been dreaming about, but it got CPR while I was on my trip and seems to be working perfectly again.  If all goes well, I’ll be making Pecan Pie Bars this week!  The idea of needing to buy a new oven was very unappealing, so I’m glad that it was able to be repaired with no problems. 

Happy eating!