When it comes to menu plans of late...well there hasn't been one. I've been basing a bunch of my dinners on just what we have in the freezer (spoilers it has been a lot of thin sliced beef dishes and pork chops or thin sliced pork roast as those have been on sale the cheapest) and just going from there. I have finally found the energy to try and get back into menu planning here as we NEED to pay off debt this winter as next year we have a bunch of expenses we are going to have to wrack up in the way of home repairs from the earthquake (including new windows it looks like), so I need to save every single penny I can. Not that we didn't need to before with how the price on everything just keeps creeping up, but that just piles onto the need to save money.
You'll notice kind of a lack of fresh produce on our menu plans right now. Part of that is cost as fresh produce tends to go up in price and down in quality up here in the winter time and part of it is due to lack of supply. This time of year we don't have a lot of variety in fresh produce in the stores (like I laugh every time I see a recipe that calls for like fresh ginger this time of year, as good luck with that!), so I tend to just switch over to mainly frozen, shelf stable or canned goods during the winter. I might buy some lettuce every once in a while, but other than say apples, potatoes, cabbage and carrots, our fresh produce consumption just cuts way back in the winter. Bright side is that this winter at least I have a bunch of different veggies frozen from our CSA that we had over the summer, so those will come in handy.
When it comes to food, I have tried to expand our horizons on what we are eating without breaking the bank, so be prepared for some dishes that weren't on our menu plans before here.
So, onto the menu plan for this week!
Menu Plan Week of 12/9/20
Wednesday: Pork Schnitzel (basically just thin cut, spiced pork) with mushroom gravy (use dehydrated mushrooms for gravy), leftover mashed potatoes (we had meatloaf night before last for dinner), green beans, sourdough bread.
Thursday: Japanese Chicken Curry Rice (this is a GREAT way to use up different veggies from the fridge and freezer I've found and it is really tasty. Does not taste like Indian style curry.). Use some leftover Thanksgiving turkey from freezer to make it.
Friday: Homemade Pizza and Breadsticks. I double the pizza crust recipe and then use 1/2 of it to make bread sticks. I then found a couple of copycat Pizza Hut breadstick recipes online and make a topping for the breadsticks from that. The son is finally eating the tops of the breadsticks, so that makes me feel good.
Saturday: Beef and barley stew, leftover sourdough bread.
Sunday: Cheeseburgers on home made buns, oven fries (husband's request as he's having a long week).
Monday: Spaghetti with garlic toast (make bread and use leftover tomato sauce from making pizza)
Tuesday: Spiced German Pork Roast (pressure cooker), leftover bread, roasted carrots and potatoes.
Desserts: Sugar cookies or gingerbread cookies with milk.
And there you go folks . Our tentative menu plan for the week. Here's hoping I can stick to it with any degree of success!
It must be really difficult not to have access to reasonably priced fresh veg. Here at Christmas most of the supermarkets compete to offer cut price veg. Usually parsnips, sprouts, carrots and potatoes. Usually I buy loads and freeze them for later but I don't have the freezer space since I downsized my home. Your menu sounds very interesting.
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