Menu Plan

This week's menu plan has us still eating mostly out of the freezer/pantry, although the plan is to actually do a "real" grocery shopping run this week -- a few things need replaced, and citrus fruit and cereal are on sale. Used up a couple of oranges last week by making some fresh-squeezed orange juice and then running the rinds down the garbage disposal to clean/freshen it, and also successfully substituted "can of French onion soup" in the ingredients for the salisbury steak with onion gravy with a can of beef broth with the remaining portion of a package of onion soup mix mixed in. The salisbury steak tasted OK, but was more labor-intensive than it was worth (especially since my beef patties never stay stuck together). The calzones and sauteed apples and raisins meal, however, won high marks from the four-year-old, who is now claiming that it is her "favorite" meal.

This week:

Monday: Vegetable Stuffing Bake

A recipe culled from the ads within coupon inserts when I was living in my first young adult solo apartment, it's an old standby around here, with ingredients like StoveTop stuffing mix (in the cupboard, from Thanksgiving-time sales), frozen veggies (mixed veg this time), Miracle Whip and shredded cheese. The cheese was what didn't get used in last week's calzones, and we also threw in the rest of the ground ham that didn't get used in that recipe.

Tuesday: Crockpot Chili

There really isn't a recipe for this one: I take some browned hamburger (some of the family pack that I browned on Saturday when I was making our salisbury steak meal), some chopped onion (I pulled a bag of chopped onion out of the freezer last night), a couple of cans of kidney beans, some cans of tomato sauce and some chili powder (all from the cupboard), and turn the crockpot on to simmer on low all day.

Wednesday: Chicken and Pasta

More chicken breasts from my stockup purchase in December, plus a box of Good Earth pasta mix stuff that I discovered in my cupboard from...something...when I did a pantry inventory..

Thursday: Macaroni and Cheese and Tuna

I'm supposed to be at a meeting Thursday night, and this is an easy meal for DH to pull together to feed the starving masses. (Yes, we only have one child, but she's a big eater.) All of this is from the cupboard.

Friday: Pizza

We actually ate the last of the pizza from our freezer at last week's family movie night -- which is one reason I'm going grocery shopping this week.

Saturday:

Not sure yet. A few ideas that have kicked themselves around include Cocktail Weinies (there is a package in the freezer because I didn't want to make too much for our family Christmas dinner when we were going out of town the next day) -- which just doesn't actually seem like something one should plan a meal around; the potato recipe from The Tightwad Gazette, both because I recently read it and it seems intriguing (and I really do need to use up those last four potatoes), and five-cup fruit salad -- the recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens red and white cookbook -- because the four-year-old has requested it recently, and I may be able to use the portion of canned pineapple that is in the freezer because it was too much for whatever recipe I used the rest of it in.

Find more menu plans for the week at Org Junkie's Jan. 17 Menu Plan Monday post.