I'm very adament about having menu plans...it's part of me keeping my house running with less effort. I would be a mess if I didn't know, at least roughly what we were having for dinner. As we have meat every night, and it's always from our stash of hunted and homegrown meat in the freezer, it has to be thawed in advance.
This Week: Monday December 26th, to Sunday, January 1st.
Breakfasts: We alternate between oatmeal, yogurt and granola, buckwheat pancakes, toast with peanut butter and jam and rarely we have cereal.
Lunches: Lunches for us are leftovers or soup. I almost always have bags or containers of soup in the freezer that I can thaw if I see there aren't any leftovers.
Dinner: This is our planned meal of the day! You'll notice we eat veggies and dip a lot, and that's because my 2 ½ yr old, and my husband don't like cooked veggies very much, so while they will eat them cooked into something, if they are raw, they'll eat WAY more. Our veggies and dip usually have a mix of carrots, celery and broccoli. I make the dip from homemade yogurt, so it's really quite good for us.
Monday
Bear Sausages and applesauce with rice, veggies and dip. (Are we the only ones who LOVE applesauce with game sausage? It's a must have in our house)
Tuesday
Kate Hundt's Chicken with steamed kale and mashed potatoes. I've never made this recipe before, but it looks great. I'm customizing it for what I have though, and instead of cutting up an entire chicken for 3 people, I'm going to use chicken thighs that I've saved from other chickens I've cut up. It'll cook quicker and will fit our needs better.
Wednesday
Coconut Curry Meatballs with Rice. It's a new recipe again, and we'll see how it goes!
Thursday
Venison Stew, I don't use a recipe for the most part, just chuck what root vegetables are needing to be used and season with what I feel like that day! Favourite add-ins are red wine, thyme, rosemary, lots of garlic, salt and pepper. I don't add flour to my stew, and don't thicken it. I just let it cook and thicken on it's own!
Friday
Coffee Crusted Venison Backstrap on the BBQ with BBQ potatoes and veggies and dip. I'll be doing a bit of research on this one, but again it's a recipe I've been meaning to try for a while and I think a BBQ backstrap is the perfect way to try it out!
Saturday---New Years Eve!
We don't get our for New Years Eve, it just doesn't happen. So I decided I'd cook something that Cowboy has been on me FOREVER to try...Fried Chicken! I've been stockpiling chicken Drumsticks in the freezer and I think I have enough now. (I take a couple of our homegrown chickens at a time and cut them up into thighs, breasts, drumsticks, drumettes and wings. Then boil the carcass, pick off the meat for adding into something and freeze the chicken stock. That way I have all the different parts on hand). I'm not going to tell Cowboy about this, he'll just figure it out as I'm cooking! And be SOOO excited! So if you have a good recipe you'd like to share, or any suggestions, I'd love them as I am a Fried Chicken Virgin.
Sunday
Chili---I'll probably make this a few days in advance, Poppa, Mac and I will have it lunch while Cowboy's at work, then have it for dinner this night.