Meal Plan for the Third Week of September

 


This is one of my favorite old ads to look at.  It's meant to show the capacity of the new fridge/freezer combination.  I want to know exactly what is being stored in this freezer and fridge!   I've blown up the image often enough so I can look at it all more closely. 

Someone certainly played Tetris in stacking these things, didn't they?  Can you imagine how hard it must be to remove a single item?


Gathered Fragments:  

Pork Roast and Broth (chopped the meat and mixed with bbq sauce for sandwiches.  I froze that then strained the broth and froze that too).

Beef Roast and Broth

Roasted Vegetables (eaten as leftovers for lunch on Sunday)

Cucumber

Tomatoes

Cauliflower (already sitting in brine so I can make Giardiniera.  I don't have everything the recipe calls for, but I figure I've got enough it will be tasty)

Zucchini

Broccoli

Mushrooms


I want to make:

Bagels 

Bread

Coffee Cake Muffins.  I'm tempted to grate the last of the zucchini into these...

Sandwich fillings (I'm thinking tuna salad and pimento cheese)

Cucumber and Onion Pickles.  With all the cucumber I have on hand at present, this too would be a good thing to pop in the fridge.  And since I plan to make a jar of pickles anyway...

Possibly make Giardiniera.  I have jalapenos in the freezer and may have some red bell pepper, I have carrots, celery, cauliflower, pimento stuffed olives.  It would be a good way to use up the remaining cauliflower I have.  I don't have all the spices the recipe calls for, but I have enough of them I should be able to make a good replica of the recipe.  The recipe makes about 6 pints. I probably will end up with 1.5 pints.  Basically, I needed to know ingredients and water to vinegar ratios.   This is not something we typically eat but it sounds good.

Stuffed Jalapenos.  I bought a big package of jalapenos and froze the seeded peppers.  I thought I'd stuff a few of them to have on hand for appetizers.  I've got plenty of cheese on hand at the moment.


Meals:

Roast Beef Hash, Tossed Salad, Green Beans, Muffins. I'll use some of the beef broth in the hash, and if there is extra it can go into the freezer for a future meal.

Mac and Cheese, Broccoli, Giardiniera, Green Salad.  If I double the recipe, I can put a mac n cheese in the freezer for the future.  I definitely need to buy cheese though.(I bought cheese on Sunday as a loss leader at the grocery).

Corned Beef, Potatoes, Cabbage.  Any extra meat will be nice to have on hand for sandwiches.  I have rye and Pumpernickel breads in the freezer, Swiss cheese slices on hand.

Slow Cooker Chicken and Stuffing, Waldorf Salad, Green Peas with Mushrooms.

Chicken Pot Pie, Cranberry Sauce, Pear Salad. I always feel I need another side to add when I make pot pie, but the pot pie filling has lots of vegetables in it already.  I think I shared that when I was growing up, Daddy expected to see potatoes on the table in some form every single night and if we had pot pie, we had to have French Fries (oven baked) as one of our sides.  If I find I'm very nostalgic the night I make this, I could always do that, lol.  I'll see how it looks when I start to prepare it, and I'll make some corn to go with it.

Meatloaf, Beans and Potatoes, Sliced Tomatoes.  I didn't make meatloaf last week and I really would like to have some.  I'll grate zucchini into the meat mixture, something I often do to add nutrients to food.  John doesn't like zucchini or cooked carrots, but I can shred vegetables and 'hide' them, and he eats them right up.

Leftovers.  My goal is to have nothing left at the end of this week to carry over into next week.  We'll see how well that plan works!


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5 comments:

Cindi Myers said...

Your menus always inspire me. You've come up with some great ways to use leftovers. Friends gifted us a bunch of peppers (green and jalepeno) so I'll be doing something with those this week.

Tammy said...

Good morning! I hope Katie and all are doing well.
I got one refrigerator cleaned out last week, and need to get to the garage frig today. Leftovers were either frozen or eaten over the weekend, with the exception of my piece of chicken for lunch today, and some roasted vegetables we'll have tonight. The grandkids were here for lunch both Saturday and Sunday, and they're great for cleaning out the frig.
In mid-July I had a lasagna love delivery to make, so I put an extra in my freezer. I haven't had a delivery since, so we're having that frozen one for supper tonight after the Junior High football game. I'll bake it this afternoon, and leave it in the oven on warm so we can all have supper ready as soon as we get home. No menu plans the rest of the week yet. I'll get to those after I clean out the garage frig.

Karla said...

I should not have read this right before lunch. It's making me very hungry. I made a batch of soup this weekend that I've been meaning to make for a couple of weeks to use up some sweet potatoes and spinach. It's Sweet Potato Chowder, new to me and of course I altered it to use stuff up. It called for fresh veggies but had a large can of sweet potatoes and a small can of carrots so I used those. I had some fresh mushrooms that needed used, chopped those and added along with a 1/3 pound of Italian sausage that was almost past its prime. Since the veggies were not fresh, I cooked it much less than it called for. It still needed something to flavor it better and I had a partial container of herb flavored goat cheese so I added that in as well. It turned out very well. I got almost 6 quarts out of it and that was after not adding all of the broth it called for. I shall have this for my lunches this week.

I had several zucchini and a bunch of apples to use up. Sunday morning breakfast I made some fried apples to go with our scrambled eggs, hashbrowns (had lots of potatoes) and ham. Then I decided to make a dozen muffins for our breakfasts this week at work and used 2 zucchini and an apple grated into it. Very good.

I'm trying to do mostly use it up meals this week. Hopefully I won't need to go to the store any time this week. And even more importantly, hopefully I can keep my motivation.

Chef Owings said...

I an grabbing what ever is quick at this point. Got about half the garden taken down, need to process what I harvested tomorrow and try to get the rest of the half taken down on Wednesday, maybe finish on Friday and then give the berry gardens a good clean up.

terricheney said...

Juls, you are amazing. Two weeks ago, you could barely stand and here you are working like a farmhand! I truly do admire you and your determination.

Karla, I am in full use it up mode here too. I just tossed zucchini in a pan of roast beef hash. And I also made pickled vegetables
from some veg I knew we couldn't eat this week, and I don't like to freeze.

Your soup sounds lovely. Enjoy it!

Tammy, I pulled lasagna I made in July out for a meal this past week. It was easy to make (put in oven and wait) and delicious.

Cindy, how nice to have a pepper gift!

Journal of My Week: Autumn Comes Slowly