I want to be able to hit the ground running in December with so much going on between work and prepping for the holidays it feels as if I am ahead of the game if I have my dinner menu plans in place. Tightening up the food budget I will be scheduling more meatless and 'stretcher' type meals such as soups and stews. College age son has two more weeks of his Tuesday night class which doesn't see us getting home until 9 pm. We've stopped having a real dinner on these nights, choosing to go with hot cereal or cold sandwiches. Instead of driving home, then turning around and driving up to his school I've begun just staying at my school and either doing work at my desk or reading. Saving on gas this way!
Friday nights has me working until 6:30 so these nights are designated as GF's choice, he either makes dinner himself or takes us out to eat. There will be three of these in December since I have an upcoming two week vacation at the holidays. We also have annual plans to join GF's brother and sister-in-law for an evening out on New Year's Eve and Christmas day is potluck at my son's house.
This left me 24 dinners to plan. I designated Wednesdays as Meatless Meal night, Thursdays are Soup night. I am using either quick or slow cooker ideas during the work week. I have also included some meals based on planned overs.
Cheddar Brats, Spanish rice, green beans with lemon & herb (quick meal)
Winter Veggie Stew, pumpkin muffins (meatless & slow cooker)
Chicken soup Florentine, crescent rolls (slow cooker)
Heather's garlic baked chicken, mushroom risotto, peas with savory
Cranberry pot roast, mashed potatoes, corn (slow cooker)
Hot dogs, baked beans, mixed veggies (quick)
Homemade Garden pizza, salad (meatless, quick)
Chicken corn chowder, homemade biscuits (slow cooker)
Sloppy Joes, mac and cheese, green beans
Chicken and noodles (slow cooker), Harvard beets
Irish bangers, colcannon, candied carrots (quick)
Corned beef hash (uses planned over chopped corned beef from last month that I stuck in the freezer), mixed veggies
Pumpkin pancakes, Scottish skillet potatoes (meatless, quick)
Vegetable soup (aka Libby soup), butter muffins (meatless, slow cooker)
Chicken marsala, homemade cavatelle, salad
Spicy meatloaf, mashed potatoes, red cabbage & apples
Horseradish encrusted tilapia, baked potatoes, sugar snap peas
Chicken stir fry, basmati rice
Christmas Eve: Pork Tenderloin balsamico, white & wild rice, Winter salad
Tacos with shredded beef (uses planned over roast from Christmas Day), Spanish rice, corn
Turkey Creole (uses leftover turkey from Christmas Day), brown rice, salad
Texas beef brisket, scalloped potatoes, green beans
Lemon & herb salmon, baked potato, peas with savory
Beef stroganoff (uses leftover brisket), egg noodles, salad
A nice selection. Many of these recipes sound good, such as the winter vegetable stew-would you be able to share that one?
ReplyDelete