I'm a big fan of make ahead meals, though I only make ahead one or two meals a week (and let's face it, this is when all the stars line up). I am a fool for shopping sales and giving myself as many choices each week as possible. These menu plans are for dinners only (I'll post a menu grid which includes all meals and snacks on the homepage). I am not afraid to admit this is my best case scenerio menu plan. There are plenty of days in the month where dinner is really a frozen pizza or take-out (or some sort of every man for himself fridge rummage).
Week 1
Sunday: Baked chicken, mashed potatoes, peas
Monday: Chili and corn bread
Tuesday: French Onion Soup, bread, fruit and cheese plate
Wednesday: Chicken Pot Pie and spinach salad
Thursday: Cheeseburgers and scalloped potatoes, corn on the cob and salad
Friday: Eggs and pancakes or waffles
Saturday: Chicken and Dumplings with green beans
Week 2
Sunday: Roast chicken, baked potatoes and asparagus
Monday: Enchiladas (beef or bean) and salad
Tuesday: Homemade chicken noodle soup and bread
Wednesday: Pork chops with dijon sauce and gnocchi with green beans
Thursday: Cheeseburgers with baked potatoes and corn casserole
Friday: Fish, polenta, and veggie melody
Saturday: Spaghetti (sauce full of diced veggies and left over ground beef)
Week 3
Sunday: Chicken, stuffing, peas, salad (do you see the "but my mom always made chicken on Sunday, honey" theme yet?)
Monday: Flank steak, potatoes, corn or carrots, caesar salad
Tuesday: Mushroom and Chicken Risotto, spinach, bread
Wednesday: Flank left overs with Potato and Cheese soup, left over caesar salad
Thursday: Homemade pizza
Friday: Salad and bread (or Potato Leek soup or left over Potato Cheese soup)
Saturday: Dump Night (see below)
My best kept secret is 'Dump Night.' This is the night I unload most of leftovers (meats, veggies, cheese, deli meat, fruit, and bread). It starts with the Egg Cup.
Egg Cup serves 1
I love these because the sky is the limit. Below is a sample of how one is made followed by a list of alternative ingredients. There are two ways to make these: scrambled and fried.
Scrambled Egg Cup Preheat oven to 325
Cooking spray or butter for the ramekin
1 oven safe small bowl or ramekin
1 egg, beaten
1 ½ Tablespoons half and half (or milk)
slat and pepper to taste
potatoes (already cooked), veggies, meats, cheese of your choice
1. Whisk egg, half and half, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl.
2. Layer sprayed/greased ramekin (I have learned the hard way it is best to put potatoes or meat down first below the egg layer) with potatoes, meat, cheese, egg mixture, veggies. (You do not have to use potatoes).
3. Place ramekin on lipped baking sheet (learned this the hard way too) and bake for 10-15 minutes. Watch these, its best to pull them when the egg is still slightly runny (since it will continue to back in the ramekin after pulling it from the oven).
Fried Egg Cup Preheat oven to 350
Cooking spray or butter for ramekin or muffin tin (if you want to make 6-12 at a time depending on your muffin pan)
1 egg
1 slice of ham
1 slice of swiss cheese
1 thinly sliced tomato
salt and pepper to taste
1. Layer sprayed/greased muffin tin/ramekin with ham on bottom, then tomato, cheese, egg on top. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
2. Cook (if using ramekin place on lipped cookie sheet) in oven 15 minutes or until egg done as desired. (If you don't like runny yolks, pierce the yolk with a folk before cooking).
Ingredient Ideas: (your choice of any or all)
any cheese (shredded or sliced)
any cooked meat: ground, sliced, pulled (sausage, ground beef, chicken, turkey, roast beef, salmon, ham, pork, bacon)
any veggie: whether it is already precooked or raw is up to personal preference (zucchini, squash, tomato, spinach, onion, leek, peppers broccoli, mushrooms, etc)
potato (must be precooked either baking potatoes or sweet potatoes): shredded or diced
You can even make these without the egg (my husband doesn't like eggs, so I just put potatoes, sausage, cheese and veggies in his)
Here is why I love these for either breakfast, lunch or dinner: I get to clear out that week's leftovers. If I have a couple potatoes left over, I shred or dice them into hash browns, brown and put as the bottom layer; the one hamburger patty no one ate I crumble up and use as the meat (or that sausage no one ate), the half a tomato and handful of cheese left over from taco night, the zucchini left over from last night's dinner, the deli ham left from lunches (you know, there is enough for 1 sandwich, but you have 4 kids to feed). The idea is to use what you have, not buy extra ingredients for this. Now add some bread.
Just 4 slices of bread left and 4-8 kids to feed? Fry into French toast and cut into 1-2 inch strips for French toast sticks. Have just a little French bread or homemade bread left? Cut into small cubes, dip into an egg, milk/half and half, cinnamon mixture and fry in a little butter for French toast bites. Again the idea is just to use left over bread pieces/slices, nothing new. No left over bread? Mix up some cinnamon muffins (or pumpkin muffins, poppy seed muffins, fruit muffins, etc). Now add some fruit.
Use all the left over fruit from the week (a handful of watermelon, cantaloupe, 1 orange, a handful of grapes, 1 banana, an apple, a few blueberries, the two blackberries your 3 year old put back in the fridge, etc), cut up and make a fruit salad. Toss with a little sugar or lemon or lime juice (you know the lemons you bought on sale because it was cheaper to buy the bag of lemons than just the 2 lemons you needed for another recipe but you were absolutely not going to pay an extra 47cents for less food).
You've done it: meat, veggies, dairy, carbs, and fruit all in one meal, all leftovers (except for the eggs and milk/half and half). You are now a Dump Night Diva.
