Last week turned out to be busier than I thought it was going to be. There were a couple of late nights at the office for me, which meant that one night was pizza/wings and the other was ‘grab something on the way home.’ (All this to say that there are going to be a couple of meals reappearing from last week since I still have the ingredients on hand.)
Tri-tip was on sale for a really good price when we went to the grocery store on Saturday, so even though I picked up frozen shrimp we bumped the shrimp meal to this week. There are also now extra tri-tip and rump roasts in the freezer for the future. Every couple of years we try to buy a half of a side of beef, which will last us about a year and a half. We’re out of pretty much everything except a couple of flat iron steaks, London broil, and a couple of other random cuts – it’s about that time again.
How do I tend to handle when the unexpected rearranges my menu plan? Sometimes I just look for what sounds good, whether a missed meal or one I had planned for that day. Other times, when I’m feeling more organized, I try to look for the meals with ingredients that are most perishable and make those first. Either way, I try to bump the remaining meals to the first part of the following week.
The Creamy Italian Chicken from last week was a huge hit. My husband loved the sauce and was already planning what other things we could use it on.
This past Saturday night I also made the Buttermilk Country Cake from Rose Levy Beranbaum’s The Cake Bible (affiliate link). It’s the same cake I made for our first anniversary. The top layer from our wedding cake was made with a cream filling (which fell before we made it back from our honeymoon) instead of the lemon filling that we had asked for. I ended up making the cake for our first anniversary dinner since the replacement cake we were promised didn’t get made in time for our first anniversary. I also made a creme fraiche from the same cookbook as the cake, and we had both with fresh strawberries. (If you love to bake, definitely consider getting this book – I’ve made several cakes from it, including a yellow cake and chocolate angel food cake, and every one of them has been wonderful.)
This week’s menu plan:
Monday: Leftovers
Mondays I’m usually really drained after work. Leftovers worked really well last week on Monday, so I figured I would do it again. We should have leftovers from either the Coq Au Vin Blanc from Saturday, or tri-tip left from Sunday evening.
Tuesday: Shrimp and Zucchini Pasta (a family favorite)
Wednesday: Easy Slow Cooker Pot Roast
Usually I’m more of a from-scratch kind of cook and make an Italian-style pot roast, but I was looking for something a little different.
Thursday: Easy Tender London Broil
Friday: Out
My mom returns from her trip, so we’ll likely go out to dinner with her.
Saturday: Out? Not sure. I’ll throw something together simple from the pantry if we decide to stay in.
Sunday: Chicken Fricasse (a new try)
That is so lucky that you have the freezer space to buy a side of beef! Does it come butchered into cuts already? I have heard of local CSAs that have that here, but I don’t have a freezer (yet!)- your creamy italian chicken sounds yummy- I pinned for later!
Thankfully it does come butchered already: a lot of ground beef, steaks, roasts, stew meat, and other mixed cuts. It’s still a lot of meat though! We have an upright freezer in our garage. The creamy Italian chicken is really, really good! 🙂
I find menu planning fascinating! I used to be very disciplined and planned each and every week without fail, but I got out of the habit and have found it very hard to find my way back to. I find myself looking at a lot of different methods on Pinterest!
One tip I have picked up which might be useful to you, is to have a ‘Plan B’ meal in my freezer which is quick to defrost, for use on those days that just don’t go the way you thought they would.
I’ve found freezing meals in plastic bags laid flat makes them easy to store, and also as they are large and thin, quite quick to defrost.
Ground beef tends to be my go-to for days that I don’t feel like cooking. I add frozen vegetables, a pre-cooked quinoa and brown rice mix, and a little steak seasoning and…dinner! The freezer meals are a great idea – I actually used to have some ready to go, but we ate them all. I just need to sit down and make another batch of them. (And you know…I think I have pre-made mini meatloaves somewhere, but I haven’t seen them in a while. I need to find those since they’re a quick 30 minutes from frozen in the oven.)