Week of Oct 10
This week’s menu plan technically starts on Saturday the 8th. Usually Gary cooks something in the smoker on Sundays, but since it was his birthday on Sunday, we went out instead. Because I’m still attached to the whole ‘leftovers on Monday’ idea (and we already finished all leftovers from last week because I ended up not cooking on a planned day, and since it’s continuing to be unseasonably cool), I made a batch of Sausage, Kale and Potato Soup on Saturday for us to eat from over the next few days of lunches and dinners. Be sure to read through to the end of the post – I’ve included my recipe there.
I was sick last week, so I still had a pound of ground beef defrosted that I didn’t get around to using. We also didn’t go through yogurt quite as fast since I wasn’t eating as much of it. Still, we did go through 3 out of the 4 jars of yogurt I made, so I needed to make another couple of batches for this week. Fresh-made yogurt will last for 2 weeks in the refrigerator, so I don’t have to worry about last week’s batch going bad before we finish it off. The ground beef I cooked up as a beef taco mixture and worked it into our meal plan this week.
I have to admit, having a month planned out ahead and planning for leftovers for either lunches, weekends, or days I don’t feel like cooking (whatever the reason) – these two things are working for me. This last week was the first week where I really just needed to roll with the punches since I just didn’t feel good at the beginning of the week. While all weeks where I’ve menu planned have pretty much been successful, this last week was one where I really saw the benefits. It’s reassurance that what I’m doing works for us. (Another thing that’s working is the weekend meal prep. I’ve include my meal prep tasks for this week after the menu.)
We’ve also been slowly cutting down on how much we’ve been eating out. First it was Sunday dinner – Gary decided to make smoked meat a weekly thing. Recently I’ve been starting to plan for Saturday dinner. Right now, we’re down to eating out three times a week (in general) – Friday night, Saturday breakfast/lunch, and Sunday breakfast/lunch. This is down from Friday night and two to three meals each on Saturday and Sunday. I’ll definitely count it as a win and keep working at it; I think one of the breakfast/lunches will be worked in next over the next few weeks. The only night that eating at home just generally isn’t feasible is Friday. Friday nights I am often DJing a swing/blues dance, and it’s far enough away from the house that I don’t go home first after work in order to save gas and time.
This week’s menu plan:
- Monday
Breakfast: hard-boiled eggs
Lunch: leftovers
Dinner: leftovers - Tuesday
Breakfast: Warm Banana Coconut Breakfast Bowl
Lunch: leftovers
Dinner: Beef Tacos - Wednesday
Breakfast: Warm Banana Coconut Breakfast Bowl
Lunch: leftovers (maybe out – I have a lunch meeting)
Dinner: Rosemary Dijon Pork Chops - Thursday
Breakfast: hard-boiled eggs
Lunch: leftovers (maybe out – I have a lunch meeting)
Dinner: Garlic-Herb Chicken Thighs (Against All Grain) - Friday
Breakfast: hard-boiled eggs
Lunch: leftovers
Dinner: at my Mom’s house for Gary’s family birthday dinner - Saturday
Dinner: Cheeseburger Casserole - Sunday
Dinner: something smoked
Meal prep for this week:
- Pre-cook taco meat
- Trim and half brussels sprouts, peel and cut carrots
- Chop onion
- Make 2 batches of yogurt
Get the recipe!
Sausage, Kale and Potato Soup
There is one recipe in our house that is always welcome, no matter what time of the year that it is. Hot soup in the summer? Sure, why not. Hot soup in the fall, winter and spring? Yes, please. This is the one of the recipes that my husband always requests when I ask him what he wants me to add to this month's menu plan.
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground hot Italian sausage, either buy un-cased or remove the sausage casing
- 8 cups chicken broth, or enough to look 'soupy' to your taste - sometimes I add a bit more
- 3 potatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 bunch kale, cut into 2" strips
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 4 cloves garlic, pressed
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 3/4 cup coconut cream or coconut milk
Instructions
- In a large pot or dutch oven with a tight-fitting lid, cook the sausage over medium-high heat until cooked through; remove from saucepan and set aside.
- While sausage is cooking, remove kale from the thick center stem and rough chop it into 2" strips. Cut up potatoes.
- In the same saucepan, melt the coconut oil; add onion and garlic and sauté for 1 minute.
- Add pepper, salt and paprika and cook until onions have caramelized.
- Add kale and cook until wilted.
- Add potatoes along with drained, cooked sausage and broth. Depending on the size of your potatoes and kale bunch, you may need to add additional chicken broth. Bring to a boil then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
- Add coconut cream or coconut milk and stir well.
Notes
If you don't like the spice or can't find the hot version, mild Italian sausage can be substituted. Keep in mind that the coconut milk does quite a bit to tame down the spiciness of the hot Italian sausage, as does draining the sausage well. You can leave a bit of the rendered fat from cooking the sausage and reduce the amount of coconut oil if you want to up the spiciness. I also prefer to have ground Italian sausage, though you can use Italian sausage in casings in a pinch. (If that's all I can find, I remove the casings by cutting through them down a long side and turning the sausage inside out in to your pot. But that's fiddly. Ask me how I know, and why I buy plain ground now.) Peeling your potatoes and chopping them smaller will cause them to almost dissolve in the soup. This is why I leave the peels on and cut them a little bit larger - I like the potato chunks.
We generally eat the soup with saltine crackers (crushed up into the soup at the end to soak up the yummy broth, of course.)