Fall 2014 Rotating Meal Schedule

It's the first of October and I'm moving on from "how will I use up all these tomatoes?". We do have plenty of eggs again (thank you, Weasel, Kevin, Pecky, Frances, and Mudge) so I included egg salad sandwiches and an egg breakfast casserole to this menu.

I don't plan out breakfasts but Overnight Baked Oatmeal has been a hit with mix-ins such as blueberries and nuts, apples and cinnamon, and a rhubarb sauce. The kids like helping prepare it the day before; I keep it in the fridge until bedtime, then just let it sit in the oven overnight, programmed to come on around 7:00.

Week A

Soup and grilled cheese or bread

Hamburger Helper (from scratch)

egg salad sandwiches

enchiladas

pizza

breakfast (German Apple Pancake is good when we have lots of apples)

crock pot rabbit

Week B

Sweet and sour

Egg/sausage casserole

BBQ sandwiches (chicken or rabbit)

Macaroni and cheese

pizza

spaghetti

chicken and rice

dessert ideas: apple crisp with whipped cream, pumpkin bars, zucchini bread, pumpkin pies

Harvest Menu 2014

The last 6 weeks I didn't have a meal plan, due to being deluged with post-baby meals and also blessed to be traveling with family. We returned home from our latest trip to ripe tomatoes in the gardens and greenhouse, thus beginning the season of the BLT.

We currently don't have chickens laying eggs (perhaps soon?) but we do have rabbits to eat. I've not cooked rabbits before so I'm not sure exactly what kind of recipes I will use for them. The meal plan uses 1 rabbit every two weeks, so we'll see if that is a good rate compared to how many we have available to eat.
If you don't have rabbit you could substitute a chicken meal for the rabbit meals in the menu.

Week A

tacos or fajitas

BLTs or egg salad sandwiches

spaghetti

salad & bread

Pizza

Breakfast

Oven or crock pot rabbit

Week B

Yakima Valley Pie

Stir fry or sweet and sour and rice (meat: leftover rabbit?)

zucchini quiche (Simply in Season page 139)

tavern & veggies with dip

Pizza

Misc. garden-produce-inspired meal

burgers or brats

Fall 2013 Rotating Meal Plan

Ta-da! Fall meal plan. I put jackets on the kids outside yesterday, so it is officially fall at our house.

I hope to have a good supply of kale and cabbage from the garden, and I can use fresh, frozen, or canned tomatoes from the garden or greenhouse in soup or pizza. Fresh basil tastes great on pizza, and gives us a break (a free and healthy one, too!) from other toppings like pepperoni and Canadian bacon.

It is not on the meal plan, but on Sunday night after church we usually have homemade chocolate pudding or chips and salsa. Friday nights is always pizza, and popcorn during our movie. Do you have any meals or snacks that are a weekly family tradition?

Week A

Chicken pesto pasta

Runza Casserole

Enchiladas

Kale/Potatoes and sausage or other meat

Sourdough Pizza

Breakfast

Teriyaki Chicken

Week B

Soup and bread/biscuits

Quinoa/spinach bake

Baked egg rolls

Egg casserole

Sourdough Pizza

Mac 'n cheese

Pork Chops

Click here for a downloadable pdf one-page version of this meal plan for your fridge.

Summer 2013 Meal Plan

It's that time of the year when we use up the strange things in our freezer and savor the first bits from the garden. We've been eating a lot of apple butter pie (I make it with just the bottom crust, like pumpkin pie) and putting kale in lots of things.

We're partway through our first rotation through this plan. The sweet potato and kale casserole was pretty good, and I hope all the other new things turn out well too, else I might have to edit them out! I tried to design this plan so that it can use whatever produce is coming from the garden: for example we had egg salad sandwiches on Tuesday because we aren't getting tomatoes from the garden yet, the quiche can use a variety of vegetables, and burgers can be served with or without tomatoes and lettuce. Seasonal fruits and veggies can be served as side dishes or snacks as well.

I've made a one-page printable version of this meal plan for your fridge (it includes a few snack and breakfast ideas too) if you'd like to try it out. I rotate between weeks A and B, sometimes switching meals around to fit our schedule. Our backup meal is spaghetti.

Week A

quinoa salad (we made this without the zucchini and served it with quesadillas)

BLT sandwiches OR egg salad sandwiches

sweet potato kale casserole

potato-crust quiche (from Simply in Season)

Sourdough Pizza

quesadillas

Chicken (ideas: grilled kabobs or maple chicken)

Week B

runzas or pocket sandwiches

pasta/veggie salad

Sweet and sour meatballs (or chicken) with rice

lettuce or cabbage wraps

Sourdough Pizza

Breakfast (sourdough waffles, omelets)

(grilled) burgers/brats/sausages

Spring 2013 Rotating Meal Plan

Spring forward without falling back into the rut of pulling some chicken out of the freezer and then wondering what to do with it! 

Week A

M: taco salad

T: spaghetti

W: chicken nuggets & veggies with ranch dip

Th: potato or hash brown casserole

F: Sourdough Pizza

Sa: rice and beans casserole

Su: grilled chicken (raspberry or BBQ or Italian)

Week B

M: bean, bacon and cheese sandwiches

T: pasta w/ broccoli or asparagus

W: Stir fry & rice

Th: hummus & pita bread & sprouts, veggies to dip in hummus

F: Sourdough Pizza

Sa: Breakfast

Su: grilled burgers/brats/sausages

I found that my first meal plan was helpful. I could look ahead and see what needed preparing, and when I got a little time I would work on something like browning meat, getting something sprouting, chopping veggies, or mixing up a bowl of sourdough for something on an upcoming meal. We didn't get sick of repeating the meals because they were always a little different.

Seeds, nuts, legumes, and whole grains can be sprouted. Sprouting increases the nutritional value of many foods and the bioavailability of nutrients such as Vitamin C. Sprouted foods are supposed to "cost" less for your body to digest, so you get more out of them. I'm still learning about what the benefits are and how to do it, but it has been fun and easy to try. So far I have sprouted alfalfa seeds, clover seeds, radish seeds, brown rice, wheat berries, almonds, lentils, and mung beans. Today's taco salad includes some sprouted lentils that I browned with an onion and some meat.

I am hoping that soon we'll be getting fresh veggies out of the greenhouse or the garden to add to these meals!

Rotating Meal Plan

Every New Year's Resolution is about food, right? I didn't make any hard and fast actual resolutions, but I do have a few food inspirations that I would like to try...things that sound healthy, fun, or just interesting. Sprouts, mozzarella, bottling a batch of pop, kefir!

But it doesn't help to burn yourself out on an über-healthy meal or project, and then the next day have no meal ideas, does it. I have that problem sometimes. I bet you do too.

I have tried, with varying success: making a meal list (ideas that I have the ingredients for on hand) and crossing things off it as I go, using saymmm.com to plan out a week at a time, freezer cooking for a month, and the old "just wing it" method. For January, February, and March I am going to try a 2-week rotating base meal plan. I can always substitute something "more interesting", but at least I have a default idea to fall back on.

When the seasons change I can either make a new 2-week rotation, or ditch this method and do something else. My goals were to aim for not too much dairy, use a moderate (for us) amount of meat, and try to use things like frozen applesauce that tend to get forgotten about in the freezer. There are a variety of recipes and variations that can be used for some of the things like soup, pizza, and stir fry. It may need some tweaking or juggling around yet, but hopefully it is a good start!

Winter Meal Plan Week A
Monday: make a snack, stir fry and rice for supper
Tuesday: make yogurt, burritos or quesadillas for supper
Wednesday: BBQ chicken or pork sandwiches + applesauce
Thursday: Goulash
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Breakfast for supper (French Toast, Pancakes, Waffles, etc.)
Sunday: Baked Chicken (raspberry, BBQ, basil, or other flavoring) and apple crisp for Sunday dinner


Winter Meal Plan Week B
Monday: make a snack, Soup and bread/biscuits for supper
Tuesday: make yogurt, noodles with chicken or tuna for supper
Wednesday: egg casserole or breakfast burritos
Thursday: Fish + squash or sweet potato
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: lentil taverns or shepherd's pie
Sunday: lasagna