Meal Recap and Sort of Planning the Month

     

     We enjoyed the Marching Band event very much. It was only 30 minutes and included a few demonstrations of their process and then a 5 1/2 minute show as if they were performing their competition or half time show. It was all very safe-people spread far and wide and all masked. We went home afterwards, even though it turned into a perfect night. I thought downtown would be too many people and judging from the number of cars at our local just up the road from us, I think we were right.  On the thinking about meals.

      I will say it is much easier to plan meals with just the two of us. DH, while he has things he likes more than others, and I generally do not make things he doesn't like, he is happy to just have a meal ready for him without any thought. With my daughter home, there was a fair amount of, "I'm not feeling that," or"I don't know, just not that" when asking for suggestions. With a bulging freezer, refrigerator, and pantry and a non-picky spouse, I have no excuses to not produce relatively  fine meals out of my kitchen and not resort to take out. So with coffee cup in hand and more of the strawberry banana quick bread in the oven, I gave the week some thought. 

Here was what we ate last week:

• Sunday: Burgers and salad for lunch, leftover sloppy Joe's and pork loin sandwich for a late supper
• Monday: Aldi supreme Take and Bake pizza, (Leftover eaten on Thursday lunch when DH and I were both home)
• Tuesday: Aldi red bag chicken on brioche buns, with green beans and au gratin potatoes
• Wednesday: Meatballs in mushroom gravy over rice, and corn
• Thursday: Corn chowder soup and chicken salad sandwiches on brioche buns
• Friday: Gyro Sandwiches, with onion, tomato, and cucumbers, air fryer homemade fries
• Saturday: Leftover Gyro (there is still a bit more), Meatballs and rice, and soup

     I did very little cooking last week-and some weeks will be like that.I tried to add more salad and extra portions of vegetables to make up for convenience like the pizza, red bag chicken, pre-made meatballs and Gyros. Did I cook at all? I don't do well following a tight meal planning schedule, but here's a list of potential actors for the week ahead. There's a lot of pasta ideas, but likely we would not have more than one to two times. Even with me eating leftovers for lunch, the goal would be to have a leftover night as well. I added five huge red bell peppers and some little red potatoes from the farmers market to incorporate into the week as well.

• Pork Roast, bought pre-seasoned for Carnitas ( and likely will freeze 1/2 as it is quite large), with tortillas, rice, black beans, and tomatoes
• Homemade chicken tenders and air fryer fries with steamed vegetables
• Crispy chicken and country gravy over biscuits with steamed carrots and roasted red potatoes
• Crock pot pasta with zucchini and mushrooms
• Chicken Alfredo over some kind of pasta (we have spaghetti, penne, farfalle, and rotini)
• Goulash with mixed vegetables (Oh, and a 2 # box of elbow macaroni)
• Chicken, rice,broccoli and cheese hotdish, with drop biscuits
• Fried rice with pork or chicken, mixed veg and egg and egg rolls
• Apple Cheddar sausage meatballs, scalloped potatoes and steamed carrots
• Lasagna and garden salad
• Chicken Cordon Bleu over wild rice with broccoli
• Burritos or bowls with beef, refried beans, rice cheese, corn,and tomatoes
• Chili and corn bread
• Brats and buns with pork and beans and potato wedges
• Stuffed peppers with rice, veg, and cheese
• Turkey meatloaf, cheesy mashed potatoes and green beans
• Sweet and sour meatballs, rice pilaf and mixed vegetable
• Pork loin with apple sauce, brown gravy and rice and some sort of vegetable

     This gets us well  through the week, month actually with leftover nights. I'll start a new possible list with what I didn't make, next Sunday, likely switching up mains and sides. I plan to get a few freezer meals for myself out of this bunch as well as back up for when there are not leftovers, or I'm saving them for a  reheat and eat supper. I'll need to cook vegetables as they need to be used, so likely things with zucchini, tomatoes and mushrooms will be earlier in the week, though I can freeze roasted veg for later, particularly if they will go in a past, hotdish, or soup. Would this meal plan of sorts work in your house? What are you eating more or less of right now based on what is available?