Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Menu Plan Monday: Menu for Week of 8/1/16

Ever realized that making and keeping appointments takes a level of planning rivaling that of the Normandy Invasion?  Well, now you know if you didn't already.  Trying to get an allergist appointment in for my son when my husband has to be out of town like the day before, but is trying to put it off until my son's appointment is done is giving me levels of stress I certainly don't need.  Why can't anything be easy?  Sigh.

Sorry *shakes head* just kind of in a funk as the allergist appointment is stressing me out already as we have to stick around two hours after the injection to watch for signs of anaphylaxsis...that in itself scares me even though I know the chances of it are slim.  Then there is the logistic nightmare of keeping my son from melting down into a heap while sitting around an office for two hours.  THEN after I completely tick him off and traumatize him doing that dad will be gone the same day and be gone the rest of the week, which is going to make the son 10 times worse...kind of makes me want to cry and I'm not even dealing with it till Monday.  Times like this I'm REALLY glad that I didn't inherit my dad's crippling depression or goodness knows where I'd be.  I'm just crossing my eyes, making odd noises and making funny faces to make my daughter and I laugh instead.  It's definitely healthier.

Anyway, onto the menu for the week.  I finally had a moment after finishing up the latest stage of food preservation to check out the freezer, google some recipes, hit Pinterest and my cookbooks and I think I have a decent plan menu-wise the rest of the week. So, let's get to it!

Menu Plan for Week of 8/1/16
Monday:  Leftover pork roast slices, potatoes au gratin, salad

Tuesday:  Baked fish, pasta with pesto sauce (use pesto from freezer), salad

Wednesday:  Pork pot pie (use rest of leftover pork)

Thursday:  One Pan Garlic Ranch Chicken and Vegetables, Outback Steakhouse Copycat Rolls

Friday:  Blueberry pancakes, bacon, eggs

Saturday:  Grilled cheese sandwiches with chicken or ham (depending what I have in the freezer), home made tomato soup, salad

Sunday:  Chicken Alfredo Casserole (use leftover tomato soup instead of tomato sauce in recipe), salad

To Bake:  Rolls (Thursday), Bread (Wednesday)

Desserts:  Banana cake or banana bread (make Wednesday).

And there you are folks.  My menu for the week.  How about you?  Got anything good planned?

11 comments:

  1. Wow Erika your menu sounds fantastic! Could you move to my house? If you need anything while your husband is away, please email...I know first hand how hard it is to be without a husband for days.

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    1. I will, Heather, thank you.

      Anytime you're in the Wasilla area and want to come over to dinner let me know. I'll hook you up ;).

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  2. Nice to see your menu plan post again. That's a pretty great menu for when your husband is away...or is this for the week before he goes?

    Those Outback rolls look interesting. Will you let us know what they taste like if you do make them? I'm curious whether they will be more like a dessert (with the cocoa added) or a bread roll.

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  3. He doesn't leave till Monday, so this is the week before he leaves.

    I'll let you know what the rolls come out like. I've made German brown bread with cocoa and molasses in it before and it didn't come out tasting too sweet, so I'm curious. My biggest "hmmm" on the recipe is she admits it's a "bit sweet" so we'll see what that turns out to be like.

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  4. I'm also back to menu planning and trying to get on track. I'm a teacher, so I've got to get it together right away. I'm thinking about making the same meals each day M-F - at least for a couple of weeks at a time. Monday- chicken; Tuesday- tacos, etc. We'll still have the weekends for variety. I think this would really help me in the grocery store too. I have a pantry, but buy meat, eggs, bread, lunch meat, etc. each week. I sometimes get ahead on meat in the freezer. We've had a couple of power outages recently, so I guess it's a good thing I didn't have a lot stocked.

    I made a chocolate zucchini cake today from my own zucchini, but it wasn't as moist as I'd hoped. I baked it for the minimum recommended time...
    My garden is still producing well, so I'm incorporating as much into the menu as possible. I started seeds yesterday for a fall garden. I sometimes have more luck with broccoli and spinach in the fall because it gets so hot so fast in the spring here in Arkansas. I was thinking about it getting into the 40s at your house at night. I thought of that as I was picking veggies and sweating! I'm a relatively new gardener, but it's been my observation that bugs must have cycles. Have you noticed that? Did you have so many slugs last year? Last year, the squash bugs got so bad here that my plants died way before now. I just got tired of fighting the bugs. This year I'm still harvesting squash every day and haven't seen many bugs at all. We don't like squash enough to eat it all (not sure it'd be possible even if everyone loved it), so I'm giving it away. Relatives are happy to get it. I have too many squash plants and too few okra plants. I will try to switch that next year. I have frozen some squash, okra, homemade Rotel, and tomatoes for soup. I enjoy your canning posts, but I'm not sure I'll ever try canning on my own. I gave made freezer jam before and enjoyed that process.
    I always enjoy your posts. I hope next week is smoother than you anticipate.

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  5. No, our slug problems are definitely new this year. We've had so much rain this summer (not complaining about that) that the slugs are just thriving. I am grossed out looking out my window at the slugs that are dotting my driveway like small blades of yellow grass...everywhere. I actually slip on them when I'm walking out to the garden in the morning. With how many of them there are everywhere, really I consider it a miracle that I got a garden at all this year and that it did so well.

    I think the main reason we've had SO many problems with bugs the last little bit is that the last two years we had REALLY dry and hot summers and then mild winters. Between those two things, bugs eggs stayed put in the ground (didn't get washed away or anything) and the winter didn't kill anything off. So, all the bugs are just compound interest from the last couple of years.

    The last few years we've also had fall. Up here we like to say fall lasts about ten minutes. All of the leaves are just dead when you wake up one morning, the wind kicks up and then all the trees are bare. Spring kind of happens the same way. You just go out one morning and everything is green. But the last couple of years we had late winters (for us) and wonderfully long autumn seasons. I got up this morning, looked out the window and saw the leaves are turning yellow and starting to fall off of some of the trees, where last year that didn't start happening till the middle of September. I'm thinking we're going to be having a typical early Alaskan winter this year. But, I'm just going to wait and see on that one and keep my eye on the weather.

    We sweat up here, but at about the mid 70's and up *laugh*. We're keeping windows open at night even with the temps falling into the 40's. That just isn't cold for us, yet ;).

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    1. As for canning...it's really not as hard as you think it is. The big thing is to make sure to keep everything spiffy clean when you do it and watch your headspace (which you can actually gauge via the threads on the mason jars...there's diagrams online to help that out). And prepare to heat up your house when you do it too. Really, the thing that takes the longest is waiting for the canner to heat up (I have a 27 quart canner, so there's a LOT of water to heat up in there). I don't do much pressure canning, mainly because I don't really have time to babysit a canner for up to an hour and a half watching the pressure gauge. But, water bath canning is actually relatively simple. I tell people to start with jam, add about 1/2 a box more than the recipe calls for if you don't want syrup at the end, add in about 6 more jars than the recipe calls for (just in case) and go from there. Trust me, once you get the hang of it, it becomes a normal part of yearly food preservation :).

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    2. 1/2 box more of pectin. Duhhh...not enough coffee this morning.

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  6. My menu plan is peaches for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
    I went to the peach orchard my friend told me about this weekend and it was wonderful. It was out in the middle of nowhere, a small mom and pop farm, but worth the drive. When we pulled in they were unloading the tree ripened peaches they had just picked. The lady asked us which of the five varieties we liked the best. My husband and I had no idea. She took out a knife and began cutting them up so we could taste the different flavors. I was shocked at how different they were and how GREAT they tasted. She handed us napkins because they dripped juice all over us. She explained that they pick the peaches, put them straight into a small plastic basket, then sell the peaches to you along with the basket. They charge $1.25 per basket, $1.20 per pound for peaches plus they had day old ones for $.60 per pound. They won't put them in plastic grocery bags because they will smash. They grow for flavor not storage so they won't transport. When you return, they refund your money for the baskets. I went wild and bought three different kinds. I suppose it was not frugal since we spent time and gas when we could have gotten them at Kroger for not much more. But there is no comparison in flavor and nutrition. Sometimes, you have just got to spend the money...did I really say that?
    Jeannie

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    1. I'm drooling at the thought of orchard fresh produce, especially peaches. I totally understand where you are coming from. The flavor is not even CLOSE in comparison to the stuff you buy at the store. So, so much better. Glad you were able to have that experience. I had no idea there were that many varieties of peaches *laugh*.

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  7. I have an idea about the two hours you need to spend at the allergist just waiting. Do you think they might let you stay in one of the examination rooms instead of sitting out in the lobby? If they do that your son might be more comfortable. You could take a quilt and have a picnic on the floor. I would NEVER sit on on the floor in a doctor's office. Take some of his favorite toys and play a game? Two hours with children is an eternity!
    Jeannie

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