Menus and Gathered Fragments

Well phooey on me!  Last night I sat down and wrote a menu plan and this morning, I got distracted and forgot to thaw a thing until it was past 1pm.  Which means nothing thawed in time for this evening's meal.  

There were not a lot of fragments in the fridge after our trip but I did have a few and then I have a few others in the freezer so here we start a new week with a plan to use what we have first and what we've most recently purchased last, but well before it starts to turn.

When we returned from Florida I had in my fridge 2 hard boiled eggs which I purposely left behind.  I wanted to be sure we used those.   I brought back a partial bag of ready made salad,  three very pricey Boars Head Frankfurters, two hot dog buns and two hamburger buns, and a small assortment of cheeses (Havarti, cheddar, Swiss) and we each had half a Boars Head Bbq Maple Roasted Turkey Sandwich left from our lunch on Friday, a Tangelo, and half a pound of Brussels Sprouts.  That's what went into the fridge when we came home Friday evening.

For our Friday night supper we had the Frankfurters on buns.  I don't know what we ate with the Franks.  I am pretty sure there was something else on the plate but what?  I was so tired it's a wonder I remember we ate the Frankfurters!

Saturday we had bagels for breakfast.    I'd taken out pizza dough from the freezer to thaw, but it did not.  I made Chicken Pot Pies (a bought frozen item) and Brussels Sprouts for our noon day meal, which this day really did need to be our heavier meal.    For Supper, I heated the Turkey sandwich halves and we shared the Tangelo.

Sunday (yesterday) we had boiled eggs which I heated in boiling water to warm them through, and toast.  We went to the grocery after church and I bought the usual necessary produce, dairy and chips plus two of those lovely big Never Any Roasting Hens that were marked down $2 each making them nearer the 88c a pound I paid for the Broiler Fryers a couple of weeks ago, for twice the amount of meat on each bird.

When we got home, I made a quick Pepperoni pizza and for supper I roasted one of the Chickens and some of the fresh vegetables I'd just bought ( potatoes, zucchini and tomato with garlic).  We have plenty of chicken leftover to use this week in meals.

Then last night I contemplated the rest of the items in the fridge, a recipe I'd seen for the third time that makes my mouth water and wrote out my menu plan.

This morning, I pulled three of the Tropical Banana Muffins from the fridge freezer and heated those in the microwave.  I served them for our breakfast with some polish sausage from the freezer.

For today's lunch: I used the last of the bag of salad, half a tomato from last night, some cucumber I'd just purchased a bit of the leftover chicken breast, a hard boiled egg (I tend to keep these on hand so I boiled more) and bacon bits to make a yummy salad.  I also cut into cubes and toasted the two hamburger buns and made croutons.

Tonight, we'll have a plate of soft tacos with some chips and salsa on the side.  I usually serve mine with finely shredded lettuce and tomato.  I know that John won't want a heavy meal.  He's been mowing and weed eating our yard and he's already not feeling good due to allergies.   I had the taco meat already cooked and in the freezer.  Good thing since my plan A was a fail.  

Now here's my plans for the rest of the week:  There is a lovely Weight Watchers recipe that I enjoy making for Sloppy Joes.  These have grated carrot and zucchini, bell peppers, onions, tomatoes and the vegetables really bulk up the sloppy joe while imparting a lot of additional flavors.  I have in the freezer some Hawaiian dinner rolls which I meant to use two weeks ago and didn't.  I'll make Sloppy Joe sliders with those and serve them with oven fries and coleslaw.   I have a pound of venison and will use half in this recipe.

The other half I'll use to make Glazed Mini Meatloaves.  I'll serve that with Mashed potatoes (probably instant) and a Green Bean side dish I enjoy that has onions, soy sauce and red bell peppers in it.

I took two small Chicken Breasts from the freezer to thaw to make a Cesar Chicken dish that uses Cesar dressing.  I have a bottle in the fridge and John won't touch it.  I've no idea why not.  But this recipe looks like a good one.  Three separate cooks have shared it on their You Tube channel and all three exclaimed over how tasty it is.  I'll serve this with rice and a green salad.  I'll make extra rice.

I'd like to make Chicken Fried Rice one night. This will use an egg or two and about a cup of the roast chicken from Sunday.    I load mine down with vegetables (cabbage, celery, onions, carrots, zucchini, peppers) and it makes a substantial one dish meal.   I may slice some cucumber on the side as John says he ate Fried Rice in that way when he was stationed in Thailand and he likes when I serve it the same here at home.

For breakfasts:  I would like to make biscuits one morning and put extra in the freezer to bake at another time, so I'll likely double that batch, which means I'll have probably two dozen to go into the freezer.  I'll serve the biscuits with bacon and eggs.

Another morning, I want to do oatmeal.  

John requested pancakes while we were gone and they were an abysmal failure.   I bought a box of mix to try again and did much better, but I now have two open boxes of mix.  I'll probably make pancakes one morning and have some pan browned Spam on the side.

For our last morning this week I plan to make cereal with bananas and toast.

For lunches:  Chicken sandwiches with chips and homemade pickles.

                       Chicken Noodle Soup (homemade)

                       Tuna Pasta Salad with Saltines

                        I may make egg salad sandwiches.  They are a favorite with John and we've plenty of eggs on hand.

So there you have my fragments for this week and my meal plans using those foods. 

What have you planned for meals this week?  What fragments do you need to be sure and use?