Meals This Week

I felt like such a slackard last week coming up with a menu plan so late...and then we barely even followed it.  I don't think we ate more than one or possibly two of those meals.  Some weeks it is just that way.  This week I've put more time and thought into it and I hope that indeed we do stick to the menu plan.

I didn't get to make my potato soup, but Patsy asked especially if I'd post my recipe.  It's really not a recipe per se, just my tossing things into a pan, but here goes:
Potato Soup:
 Boil four cups diced raw potato in chicken broth to cover until tender.  Salt well.  Add a little minced garlic (1tsp or so), 1/2 cup diced onion (or skip and add in green onions later) to the potatoes while they are cooking.  When potatoes are tender, add 1 can of evaporated milk and four ounces of cream cheese.  Smush and mash potatoes around in the liquid as the cheese melts.  Depending on how thin the mixture is you can add instant potatoes to thicken slightly.  Serve as is or add finely minced green onions, cooked crisp bacon, shredded cheddar, sour cream, etc.  I usually end up with just enough soup for three servings (we eat big bowls and very little sandwich, lol).

Now, that done, let me get busy with this coming week's planned menu.  It's very warm and pleasant here in Georgia at the moment, but supposed to turn off cold once more, so I've planned two soup meals this week ahead.  We'll see how that goes.  If it remains warm we probably won't have soup but once.  I'll figure out an alternate meal using the same ingredients.

My plans are to use no more than 1 1/2 pounds ground beef and 2 chicken breast halves this week.  I'm pretty sure I can manage just fine on that and will likely have leftovers as well, I usually do.

Sweet and Sour Chicken, Fried Rice, Steamed Broccoli, Clementines
1 breast, bell peppers (2 colors) a few bits of carrot, onion and pineapple in homemade sweet sour sauce.  The fried rice may just end up being steamed rice with extra made to make a later meal for fried rice.

Shepherd's Pie, Fruit Cocktail, Biscuits
I don't make the standard shepherd's pie.  This recipe is an old Pillsbury or Betty Crocker mini cookbook recipe and I've made it for year's on end, but lately every time it appears someone refers to it as Shepherd's Pie.  It's a layered casserole: green beans, cooked ground beef with onions and tomato soup, mashed potatoes topped with cheese.  It's tastier than Shepherd's Pie in my opinion and one of MY favorite meals.  I use just 1/2 pound of beef in this dish and it will probably serve four.
I'll make extra biscuits for breakfasts in the week ahead.

Quiche, Sweet Potato Fries, Salad, Ambrosia
I never seem to make quiche when it's on the menu and I finally figured out why: most recipes make an 8 inch pie which is four times too much for us.  I'm going to make a mini quiche, just big enough for two this time and see if that isn't best.  Of course, leftover quiche is good for a lonely supper for one.
Ambrosia on the menu for this day will be made as I zest and then peel and section a bag full of navel oranges for the freezer.  It's my plan to 'harvest'  something in my kitchen that is seasonal every month this year.  This month I've chosen oranges.  I'll buy another bag or two over the next few weeks and freeze them too.  I love ambrosia and the frozen orange segments are so good in the middle of a long hot summer.

Olive Garden Chicken Gnocchi Soup, Parmesan Breadsticks, Salad
The first soup meal planned for this week, a Pinterest recipe.  I hope to use just one chicken breast for this and some of the fresh spinach we bought.  I purchased a dried gnocchi several months ago at Aldi and popped it into the freezer.  I'll use that for this soup.

Mock Filet Mignons, Baked Potatoes, Broccoli-Cauliflower salad, Molten Lava Cakes
This is tentatively planned as my Shabat day meal.  The mock filet mignons are nothing more than broiled ground sirloin patties with bacon wrapped around them. A half pound of meat will net me two nice 'filets'.   I'll bake extra potatoes to use for this week's meatless meal.  The broccoli and cauliflower salad is raw florets mixed with a rich ranch dressing and shredded cheddar cheese.  I won't make a lot of this as it is very rich.

Twice Baked Potatoes, English Peas with Mushrooms in herb butter, Spinach and Apple Salad
The potatoes will be split and scooped out and restuffed with the mashed potato, egg, shredded cheddar and a bit of cooked turkey bacon and green onion for added flavor.  I think this is hearty enough to allow me to skip meat for this day.

Cheeseburger Soup, Tomato and Lettuce Salad, Corn Muffins, Crisp Apples
A new to me recipe.  Again, just 1/2 pound of meat is all that is required and I'm sure there will be leftovers.
A second harvest from my kitchen this week if there are still a lot of apples left at week's end.  I'll probably cook this and make homemade applesauce (not sweetened but oh so very sweet and good!) which I can freeze or can as I choose.