Sunday, May 3, 2015

May dinner menus

  With the budget issues I have there will be no grocery shopping of any kind happening in May except for perhaps milk and fresh produce. I've barely made any kind of dinner in the last month, college age son has been working two nights a week or joining his girlfriend's family at the dinner table. Adult son has only eaten dinner at home twice in the last month due to his crazy work schedule and college age daughter mostly joins her boyfriend for dinner, either cooking them a meal at his house or joining his family meal. Cooking for one person generally means not really making a whole meal at all. A lot of nights I've brought home leftovers from school lunch and reheated those, or eaten cereal, or salad, or an egg and toast. This means we still have nicely filled freezers and pantry shelves. Weekend cooking has been at GF's house using the food he buys. And while I was home with shingles I really didn't feel like eating at all.
This means I can plan out some nice meals for May. Whether or not I make them is another thing. This is final exam week at college for the youngest two so I anticipate that college age son will work additional evenings and college age daughter has told me not to worry about feeding her this month as well as over the summer as she has gotten a summer job (her current job is aftercare at the school where I work which will end in 5 weeks) whose hours mean she probably won't be home for dinner. Adult son of course continues on with his unpredictable schedule.
All of these dinner plans are based on food already in the house except for salads.  If I can get salad fixings I will but if not I will substitute a cooked frozen vegetable for the salads. Everything else is already on hand (including two cans of German potato salad and two cans of three bean salad and a turkey at GF's house that needs to be cooked to free up space in his tiny freezer). Mother's Day has been spent at oldest son's house for a family picnic. I don't know if that is happening this year but if not it is still a day I do not have to cook. GF also has a picnic each year at his place the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend and we usually have leftover picnic foods on Memorial Day itself so I did not plan meals for those two days either. All Fridays are GF's choice since I will be working later at the aftercare job until school is out. I am doing my 'quick meal'/slow cooker meal plan for weeknights except that now that it is grilling season there are more quick meals using my grill.
Here are the meal plans I have put together. Meals using the slow cooker are in bold. Meals using the grill are in italic. Meals using planned overs are underlined. They aren't in any type of order except that the pork roast will be today's dinner. It is a new recipe I am trying.

Maple Glazed stuffed pork roast
scalloped potatoes
garlicky green beans


Chicken picata
penne with oil and garlic
green salad

Pork fajitas
Spanish rice

Swiss steak
egg noodles
peas

Cheddar brats
German potato salad
green beans

Chicken Marsala
Rice pilaf
Salad

Hot dogs
Baked beans

Honey Mustard pork scallopine
rice a roni
corn

Spaghetti with marinara sauce
broccoli

Garam Masala salmon
basmati rice
green beans

Grilled lamb chop
baked potato
peas

Roast Turkey
 mashed potatoes
candied carrots

Turkey curry
basmati rice

Swedish meatballs
egg noodles
beets

Turkey stir fry
steamed rice

Bangers and Mash
peas

BBQ Ribs
potato salad
corn

BBQ chicken thighs
home fries
three bean salad

Country Beef stew with veggies
rolls

Teriyaki chicken
basmati rice
cucumber salad

Grilled pork chops
parsley potatoes
corn

Herb crusted spit roasted roast beef
white and wild rice
Harvard beets

 

1 comment:

  1. Nice, varied menus. A thought would be to make up dinner plates/containers for the freezer,

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