Food This Week 5

One part of menu planning that I've had to work on recently is flexibility. Last week, a lack of leftovers, forgetting to thaw frozen entrees, a rescheduled dinner invitation, and more unexpected changes caused a major reworking of the weekly menu. It's okay! I moved the meatloaf dinner over to this week, we ordered pizza once, and the last bit of tater tot casserole stayed in the freezer. (That's a real benefit of cooking ahead and not planning around all-fresh foods!)

(However, these fresh foods are yummy)

Produce Box
I made my wife put all the produce into a basket, 'cause I forgot -- again!! -- to take pictures before I unloaded the box. We have two bunches of basil, which will become nut-free pesto, and some red chard. Only a couple of red potatoes (I need more -- any variety), a very large but not yet ripe avocado, one apple, one orange to join the waiting ones we haven't eaten yet, and a whole mess of plums. I forgot about the baby carrots until after the photo, 'cause anything that disappears into a drawer in this fridge is instantly out of mind. :/ (This was bad when SOMEONE put a whole chicken in there to defrost... and I found it two weeks later.)

Menu

Friday: chicken soup, woven wheats, apple & peanut butter / plums; out for sushi?

Saturday: leftover pasta w/ meat sauce; leftovers / MAKE BLACK BEANS

Groceries:

• corn
• potatoes
• white sugar
• brown sugar (if on sale)
• milk? half and half?
• butter

Sunday: eggs, quesadillas; game hen w/ red potatoes and carrots / BAKE? (I'm thinking about pumpkin bread, but it's not time yet, so maybe a plum/berry cobbler or crisp or a pound cake. We have lots of eggs!)

Monday: beans & rice, leftover chard; quesadillas, multi-grain blend / TAKE OUT MEATLOAF AND PULLED PORK

Tuesday: bean & rice burritos, fresh tomato; tater tot casserole, corn, oranges

Groceries:

• mix/match meats: chicken breasts, ground beef, lamb chops, tilapia, etc.
• egg noodles
• mac & cheese
• chicken broth
• Bartlett pears
• canned pears
• peanut butter
• Oreos

Wednesday: [WORK PROVIDES LUNCH] / pulled pork and something; meatloaf, mashed potatoes, peas / TAKE OUT CHICKEN

Thursday: leftover work lunch or oatmeal & fruit; pesto tortellini, fresh tomatoes, broccoli, garlic focaccia?

Freezer

Starting to see some space in there! (It'll go away after this week's meat sale, but I know we're rotating out the older stuff.) I'm hanging onto a couple of T-bone steaks, which will be a treat to celebrate when we hear certain news on my wife's college enrollment.

Chopped onion is ready to be added to any slow cooker or saute pan; homemade pesto will join it there shortly.

Oh, aaaaand we added a new tool to our kitchen, which I will blog about later in detail once it's withstood its initial trial. Very exciting!