Weekly Menu Plan - Stretch Week

We have Harvest Day this week but since we shop on Thursday, I find these few days prior to shopping is always a bit of a stretch.  I think I planned better last pay period: I have milk, bread and lettuce and some other fresh produce on hand.  Good for me!  GREAT for the budget.  I'd been just ignoring these outages until we shopped but John, in a moment of honesty last pay period, said sadly, "I'm so tired of NOT having lettuce or snacks this last part of every pay period!"  Well he's not going without entirely but I'll own up to refusing, stubbornly refusing, to go out and buy locally what I can get much less expensively at Aldi come shopping day.  So instead of stocking the pantry or freezer this past pay period, I stocked up on snacks (an extra box of crackers), produce (an additional head of lettuce), a little more dairy (1/2 gallon more of milk and one bar of cheese).  Lo and behold, I spent less than $10 more in those areas (easily removed from the stock up funds) and we've enough to last the pay period and a little to carry over.  Lesson learned. Just because I want to save money doesn't mean I can't redistribute my funds so that we can have our lettuce and eat it, too.



Someone asked how to make the creamed peas in last week's menu.  Miss Shirley always just made a thin white sauce and tossed in the cooked peas.  That's what I did, too.   You can add some new potatoes as well, but if you really want to do it old Southern Style, add a few dumplings to the creamed peas.  That's the way Big Mama used to make her first peas stretch to feed her family.

And yes, Angela, I suppose most families have a Big Mama or Memaw in the South, lol.  My Big Mama was Granny's mother, a woman I was priviledged to know for 26 years of my life.  I was a very lucky girl with TWO great grandmother's living until I was well into my 20's as well as both my grandmothers, and we won't even mention all the aunts and great aunts and even a great great aunt or two. I even had the privilege of two great grandfathers who lived into their late 90's.  We do live long in my family.  That's why I feel perfectly safe saying I'm only just in my middle age... lol.

Sarah I've changed the settings on comments.  It's back to 'Any'.  I think with the word verification I shouldn't have any of the Spammers that I had before.  We'll see how that goes.  In the meantime, feel free to comment!

Now, let's get this menu plan down on paper.  I find more and more these days I actually follow these things instead of winging it so much.  It's one less thing to have to think about in days that are all too busy already.  This week you'll notice I'm cutting down our meat usage a little more.  It's partly because of budget needs but also because I'm just lower on meat than usual.  I'm saving up for a trip to the meat market but I'd like to make it July rather than June when we go.  I think I can just make it.

Sloppy Joes, Corn on Cob, Chips, Fresh Peaches
I found an extra half pound of ground beef in the freezer.  You'd have thought I'd found gold the way I got excited, lol.  I stretched this half pound with plenty of vegetables: zucchini, onions, carrot, celery, bell pepper.  I guess that's why I ended up with about a cup of sauce leftover.  It might seem a bit odd to have corn and potato chips but we've so many vegetables in the sloppy joe mixture I felt the chips would be okay.  I'm counting them as a treat not a vegetable.


Chef's Salads, Deviled Eggs, Corn Fritters
The chef's salad is mostly lettuce with a bit of feta, some grape tomatoes (cut in half to look like more), thin sliced red onion, very thin strips of smoked turkey breast (I cut mine into slices for sandwiches, then cut two of those into strips), two crumbled turkey bacon strips.  I thought I'd make popovers but I failed to allow for the time to cook those, so we opted for corn fritters.
Hint:  Red onions we buy are almost always very strong onions, almost bitter.  I read to soak the thin onion slices in just enough water to cover and add a few drops of vinegar.  Let them soak for about 10 minutes, drain, rinse, and pat dry.  Nice onion flavor with little bitterness.

Sloppy Calzone, Wedge Salads, Ice Cream Parfaits
I'll use the rest of the sloppy joe meat sauce and top with a thin potato and onion slices, and cheddar cheese in my dough pockets.  My 'parfaits' are just a good way to use up some cookie crumbs that accumulated in the bottom of my cookie jar.  These crumbs are mostly graham cracker, coconut and a few random chocolate chips.


Corn Fritters with Maple Syrup, Scrambled Eggs, Bacon Strips, Watermelon
I have a gracious plenty of corn fritters left.  I plan to heat in the oven.

Roasted Chicken, Roasted Asparagus, Potato Salad, Peaches
I've plenty of whole chickens on hand so roasting one is the solution for the meat shortage this week.  I'll use a dry rub to season.  I've potatoes that are getting a bit old, so potato salad will help use them up.  It's one of John's favorite salads.   

Chicken Salad Plates, Popovers, Peach Cobbler
I'll make chicken salad and add a deviled egg or two to the plates.  I'll be sure to plan ahead for the Popover baking time but if I forget I can just make muffins and put in oven with the cobbler.


Philly Cheesteak Sandwiches, Chips, Watermelon
I'll use some of the roast beef from last week's meal to make the sandwiches.  They'll be topped with pepers and onions and quite possibly sliced tomato as well.