Lately, I’ve surprised myself with how well I’m doing cooking just a couple of days a week and having food for all week and maybe longer. Mondays are definitely the busiest day but the rest of the week is smooth sailing. On Monday morning I make bread and, depending on what bread I made and how much I made, I may make more on Thursday. I almost always make yogurt during the night on Sunday so Monday morning that has to be poured into the strainer to make the thick Greek yogurt we like. It’s very easy, just takes a second but it’s still another step in my my Monday morning chores. On Monday I also make sure everything I need for the week’s meals is here and if it has to be pulled from the freezer, that is done as needed.
This morning, Monday, was the usual . . pour off the yogurt . .
Yogurt Draining
. . make bread (regular loaf and no knead dough to keep in the fridge) . . cornbread muffins for lunch – nothing was baked yet in this photo.
Breads
. . check to be sure everything I need for the week is here. If it isn’t, I can either adjust the menu or go to the grocery store. You know what I choose! 🙂
This week’s menu:
Monday
Red Beans, Sausage and Rice (the sausage is what we grilled the other day)
Coleslaw
Cornbread Muffins
**I’m making enough to have two extra meals of red beans and sausage in the freezer
Tuesday
Hot Links on buns (the hot links were grilled the other day)
Potato salad, Pickled Beets
Wednesday
Meatloaf (already mixed up – just needs to be baked)
Mushroom Risotto
Roasted Pumpkin
Hawaiian Rolls
Spinach Salad
**This recipe made 2 – 1-1/2 pound meatloaves so one is in the freezer plus one meatloaf makes two meals for us.
Thursday
Creamy Mushroom Chicken (I’ll use some of my home canned chicken for this)
Pasta
Crusty Bread**
Eggplant Salad
**Extra crusty bread will be made for seasoned croutons for tomorrow’s soup and for having French Toast over the weekend.
Friday
Corn Chowder in the PC (There will be leftovers which we’ll have over the weekend.)
Meatloaf Sliders (from leftover meatloaf and Hawaiian rolls)
Coleslaw
I don’t plan meals for the weekends because that’s when eat anything left over or meals we may have missed because something took precedence over my plans. We’ll make pizza or grill something one night over the weekend.
From this week, we’ll have two meals in the freezer for another time – red beans/sausage and meatloaf. If I do at least 2 meals per week for the freezer, that means I can basically cook for 2 weeks and pretty much eat out of the freezer every third week. Not bad!
patti says
leftovers are a hard sell at my house. how do you reheat things that are frozen for later? do you cook them the first time? reheating just seems to dry out or overcook when i do it. my mom never cooked much so maybe i just didn’t learn the art of reheating. would love tips and tricks from all of you.
Mama Spark says
You are inspiring me to cook more! I have a question, what kind of yogurt strainer is that in your pic? I too strain mine but use cheesecloth over my wire strainer.
Dar in MO says
I’d be interested to know too what the yogurt strainer is. Sometime I’m successful with reheating frozen food, but my biggest problem is remembering to take it out of the freezer early enough let it defrost naturally. This helps keep the food moist and not as dried out for me.