This Week In My Home: Meals to Go

Meal planning is difficult enough when you know just what you're going to be doing all week long and where you'll be.  It's another thing entirely when you are bid to be open and spontaneous.  That's what is asked when my husband takes time off work in May.  "Let's just have a vacation frame of mind," he'll say, and so we do for the two or three weeks he's off.  I love every minute of it except the part where I'm expected to come up with a meal on the fly, or an impromptu picnic.  Then I tend to panic.  I mean to be well prepared these two weeks.  Fortunately for me, his vacation doesn't start until mid-week.  That gives me time to do my thing: Plan!

The meals that follow may look odd.  They are in no particular order.  They are ideas of meals I might serve if day/time/circumstances coincide.  So you'll find a couple of picnic worthy meals, and some deli/take out meals and some home cooked meals.  All meant to cut down on my time in the kitchen, cut down on my worry about what on earth will I do for this meal or that, and  not too severely restrict my husband in his spontaneity.  I'm including breakfast and supper ideas as well since those meals tend to  be ones where John requests 'vacation foods', lol.  Even if we don't travel much we do enjoy having our vacation.



We'll need to go to the meat market and soon.  I'm out of chicken and have 1 pound of ground beef left.  I have set aside some money for meat purchases this month.  It's just a matter of when we will determine to go.  Unexpectedly I find that there's no urgency to visit the grocery this coming week.  We've plenty of produce, need only to buy bread and fruit which we can do at any moment while we're out.  I know this state of affairs won't last but it's nice to find I'm going to get a 'vacation' from one of my household tasks and nice to find I'll have a little extra money for our fun.

Breakfasts:  Croissants, Jam, Cafe au Lait (for me.  John will take his coffee  black and his croissant with an egg)
Omelets, Biscuits
Cereal with fruit, Toast
Pancakes and Sausage
Chicken Biscuits
Muffin Sandwiches
Bagels with cream cheese

Take away meal #1:  Chicken (fried or rotisserie), Macaroni salad, Sliced Tomatoes, Corn on Cob

Take away meal #2: Pizza, Salad

Picnic #1:  Homemade Sub Sandwich, Chips, Pickle Spears, Lemonade, Grapes
I'll pick up some deli meats this week, most likely pastrami, bologna, or some spicy chicken we'd not normally have.

Picnic #2:  Cheese and Peanut Butter Sandwiches, Bananas, Corn Chips
You might think I mean cheese or peanut butter but I don't.  I mean cheese AND peanut butter, a favorite of John's that is tastier than you might expect.

Steak, Baked Potato (or corn), Salad

Hamburger, Fries, Baked Beans, Slaw

Leftovers

Croissant Sandwiches, Hummus,  Corn Chips

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Tomato Basil Soup

Chicken Wings, Carrot and Celery Sticks

Now that I've put all these here please understand that it is all subject to change.  Perhaps we won't go out.  Perhaps we'll go to the grocery deli and buy different things than I've planned.  Perhaps we'll decide to eat nothing but sandwiches (ha...not likely for me!), but the point is that this is one week out of the year when we do what we want.  Treats all week long and then right back on the straight and narrow.  Not that we'll do a hard splurge.   I've set money aside for this week of  'no plan is the plan'.

Jobs This Week

I am pretty proud of all that was done this past week.  I noted on last week's work list what I'd done each day.  The freezer is a little fuller thanks to the meals I added.  I added to my at home wardrobe turning two pairs of pants into shorts for summer.  I've only half a work week so not a long list this week.

This Week
A good pickup and straightening of house each day.  Mopping floors and changing sheets are the only two priorities I have.  I mean to do them in the early part of the week but it's 'officially' vacation, and...

Good idea?

I'll have a few posts up this week but likely you'll see more of me next week...unless that baby comes soon.  Katie is now on twice weekly visits and maternity leave starts this Monday.