On the Menu...4th Week of February

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 Menu Planning

The general meal plan for this week is to use up a lot of lettuce! I had purchased a head of lettuce last week, and then was gifted two containers of lettuce from a local organization that I volunteer at, who'd had had more lettuce donated than they could use. And then, we had a catered work dinner and I took home a massive bowl of salad from that. Needless to say, side salad will appear with most all dinners this week.

Otherwise, this weeks meal plan is primarily based around items that need to be used up, whether from the fridge, pantry, or freezer.

  • two heads of cauliflower
  • roma tomatoes
  • open jar of salsa
  • Olive Garden leftovers from a work dinner
  • multiple heads of lettuce
  • green peppers & mini sweet peppers
  • homemade hummus
  • broccoli

What's on the Menu?

How menu plans tend to work for us is that some ideas get assigned to specific nights, other tend to float so that we can adjust incase our schedule changes. This is my rough projection for the week.

Breakfast

Ben has requested something egg based, so I will either make a breakfast casserole or scrambled eggs in tortillas. For myself, likely my standard granola bar at work.

Lunches

Lunches are always either dinner leftovers or a meal specifically prepped for lunches. I typically take the dinner leftovers, and make another dish for Ben to take throughout the week that might not be to my taste.

This week for lunch there are leftovers from Olive Garden (pasta and sausage), leftover mac and cheese from our family game day, plus various dinner leftover later in the week. I might also put together a few taco salads to use up some of that lettuce. Additionally, I plan to make a blended soup using cauliflower, white beans, and sausage for Ben's lunches.

Dinners

Monday: pasta w/ pesto, panko crusted chicken, and a large side salad

Panko Crusted Chicken & Pesto Pasta

Tuesday: maple mustard chicken with rice and salad

Maple Mustard Chicken, Rice, & Salad

 Meal Prep: cauliflower white bean soup

Wednesday: pork chops with broccoli, cornbread, cream style corn, maybe salad?

Thursday: cheese burgers with homemade french fries or.... salad

Friday: I haven't decided yet... but maybe calzones or pizza...but probably something with a salad

Other Kitchen Happenings

On Thursday we had a work dinner catered by Olive Garden. There was plenty for everyone to take leftovers home, plus after helping clean up, I was offered a whole bowl of salad, plain pasta, sauce, salad dressing, croutons, and a whole gallon of ice tea! I made sure everyone was all set before taking anything extra - courtesy first! The event organizer did not want to see anything go to waste though, so was happy to have me take what was left behind. 

I froze the extra sauce, made work lunches with some of the pasta and sausage (my original to-go), and we've been eating salad non-stop. A very frugal win!

Also this past weekend we got together with some family on my husbands side for family game day - which consists of dinner and card games. I contributed a mac and cheese, pan of cornbread, and cake. I chose to contribute dishes that I had the ingredients on hand to make, which of course helps keep costs down, vs. running to the store and paying full price.

Have a great week, and happy meal planning!

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