Menu Plan

I've been feeling pretty unmotivated in general this week (well, except maybe in regard to that book I stayed up too late reading), so this is not a very inspired menu plan. But it will keep us fed.

On Saturday, we ended up having ersatz Broccoli Cheese Soup from the November/December 1998 issue of Taste of Home magazine -- ersatz because we had no broccoli, so, as suggested in the recipe notes in the magazine, I replaced it with some of the shredded zucchini in the freezer from last summer. That added some healthiness to the soup made also with the last of a block of Velveeta cheese from the fridge and half a bag of egg noodles from the cupboard. So, not only did it not contain broccoli, it also wasn't particularly cheesy. But it was hot, and filling, on a cold day, and the Apple Muffins I made to go with it, from my mom's recipe and sliced apples thawed from the freezer from last fall's apple picking, were good.

Monday: Spaghetti. Used half a giant jar of Ragu sauce; the rest went in the freezer for another day.

Tuesday: Cranberry Chicken and Rice. Rice from the cupboard, chicken breast from the freezer from my December purchases, some salad dressing still in the fridge mixed with a can of whole berry cranberry sauce from the cupboard, purchased at the time of Thanksgiving deals.

Wednesday: A challenge because of church activities -- likely either Church Supper (although this hasn't been very reliable lately, as they've lost their cook), or Dinner Out.

Thursday: Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and Tomato Soup. Bread, cheese in the fridge; cans of tomato soup purchased at Walgreen's sales in the cupboard.

Friday: Pizza. I went grocery shopping last week and restocked our frozen pizza supply.

Saturday: Goulash. I have not had any other inspiration on what to do with the box of elbow macaroni in the cupboard, or with some of the hamburger I browned up and froze in meal-size portions a couple of weeks ago. Except...hmm..we are out of tomato sauce, and I really don't want to go grocery shopping this week...but we do have half a jar of Ragu left over....hmm...

Other ideas regarding food: still haven't done anything with those four potatoes in the pantry. It's probably time to throw them out before they become truly scary and liquefy -- I had one do that once. The cleanup was unpleasant. Also still haven't made fruit salad, and have been thinking that raspberry scones would be a good thing to make with some of the raspberries in the freezer from last summer's berry picking --- if I could remember where I found that recipe I wanted to try. Might also try the orange marmalade recipe from The Tightwad Gazette, as I bought a bag of oranges at the grocery store -- would probably be a healthy thing to put on English muffins for morning breakfast.

Find more (and more inspiring) menu plans at Org Junkie's post.