On The Menu

I helps me so much to menu-plan.  I like having several weeks of good menus and shopping lists printed out and then I can easily shop and rotate meals from week to week.  

Breakfast:  I rarely plan out menus for breakfast, mostly because we are on such varied schedules, and also because I work three days a week.  I keep individual packages of instant oatmeal, grits, and Cream of Wheat on hand for warm items.  Also, there are waffles for the toaster.  Then there’s cold cereal.  I have two children who love cold cereal.  One of those children we refer to as The Cereal King.  One morning this week we’ll have overnight oatmeal from the crockpot, just because it’s getting cold and I love to wake up to something like that.

Lunch: 

• Monday –   Egg salad sandwiches with fresh peppergrass and rustic arugula from the garden, just-roasted pumpkin seeds
• Tuesday – BP&J sandwiches, carrot sticks and chips.  (Why do children open another jar of jelly when there’s already one open in the fridge?)
• Wednesday – Turkey & Cheese sandwiches, Purple Punch (the recipe is in Five In A Row volume 4)
• Thursday – Picnic with our homeschool group
• Friday – Sandwiches TBA

As you can see, we like sandwiches for lunch. 

Supper:

• Monday – Turkey sausage, scrambled eggs, waffles with strawberries
• Tuesday – Pumpkin Soup (again, recipe is in Five in a Row volume 4) and a green salad
• Wednesday – Baked chicken with fresh rosemary and garlic, salad, cottage cheese, mashed potatoes
• Thursday – Auntie Betty’s Pasta Casserole (I saw this recipe from a blog I like to visit and will give it a go substituting venison for the ground beef), Pavlova (recipe from FIAR V. 4)
• Friday – London broil with gravy in one crockpot, pinto beans in the other crockpot, rice.

As you can see, we are having several items to celebrate October and of course to celebrate our finishing up The Pumpkin Runner.  I hope for this to be a fun week! 

As far as shopping this week, there are many good sales locally and we are working here to finish up our venison as Hubby will hopefully have fresh venison going into the freezer by mid to late November.  His (and my son’s) hunting from last year has kept us supplied all year!  Yaaay!  It was a good year.  I am working to stock the pantry with things for wintery rainy-snowy days.

Food Storage Tip:  If you have a pair of pantyhose with runs, you can wash them, cut the legs out and then cut the foot out of each leg.  Tie a knot in the bottom of each leg.  Fill each leg with onions, one at a time, tying a knot between each onion then hang from a nail.  They add beautiful (if not funky) interest to the kitchen and are a good way to store onions.  When you need one, just cut the bottom onion off.