Menu Plan for Family of 6 (April 8)

I love menu planning for a week at a time, but I don't do it as much as I would like.  Which then, of course, leaves me flying by the seat of my pants.  I have to think about it from the time I wake up until I decide what I'm going to make, and sometimes I don't have the time to think, or don't decide, until later on in the day which leaves me rushed or having to make "fast" food.

Sunday night after everyone was in bed I sat down with 2 cookbooks, my own and the one from our church, and made a menu plan.

Sunday
Breakfast: Freezer French Toast
Dinner: Frozen Pizza and Salad

Monday
Breakfast: Blueberry Streusal Coffee Cake*, Sausage & Sweet Potato fry*, Strawberries
Dinner: Chicken with Artichoke Hearts & Mushrooms, Pasta, Broccoli
*portions of what I made to take to our MOPS meeting

Chicken with Artichokes & Mushrooms

Tuesday: 
Breakfast: Leftover Oatmeal with Bananas and Maple Syrup
Dinner: Stuffed Peppers Casserole, Zucchini

Wednesday:
Breakfast: Eggs, Biscuits, Fruit
Dinner on the way to church: Chicken Nuggets, Fruit, Chips
Snack after we get home from church: Yogurt with Applesauce

Thursday:
Breakfast: French Toast, Sausage Patties
Dinner: Pickle Roast, Mashed Potatoes, vegetable

Friday:
Breakfast: Eggs, Toast
Dinner: Kids at Grandma's, I usually work on leftovers or whatever is easy to find in the fridge

Saturday:
Breakfast: Cold Cereal
Dinner: Chicken Dumplings (freezer meal)

~~~

This past Saturday night, after all the kids were in bed, I spent a while in the kitchen frying up 2 big loaves of French bread into French Toast.  I had cleared WalMart's marked-down bread shelf several weeks ago on a rare trip to WalMart, and stuck all the bread into the freezer.  It was several loaves, maybe as many as 8, (ranging from $.25 - $.59 ea).  We have used a couple as garlic bread to go with Italian meals, but the majority I wanted to make into French Toast for the freezer.  It makes a yummy, quick breakfast when you reheat the slices in the toaster (our toaster has a "frozen" setting which really helps it thaw, heat evenly, and crisp up just perfectly). 

Monday's dinner is a new recipe.  In the mood for something "different" I browsed the church cookbook's Main Dishes section and found this recipe which works out perfectly because I have some fresh mushrooms that REALLY need used, and a can of artichoke hearts in the cupboard from a while ago.  I just hadn't taken the time to find a recipe for the artichokes (I like to use them in meals from time to time). 

Wednesday night dinners are far from my favorite, but we make it work.  We have to leave at 6pm to get to our Wednesday church activities which, if I wanted it to, could really throw a wrench in my dinner plans.  So... I had to figure out a solution outside the box.  Right now what is working is that most Wednesdays we have frozen chicken nuggets (that I buy on sale at Costco), fruit of some kind, and a salty, crunchy something.  Right now it is the individual baggies of chips from the huge variety box Costco sells.  If I don't have fresh fruit, the girls usually get an applesauce pouch.

Our Thursday night roast. :)  Susannah has been asking for a pickle juice roast for a long time, and I finally have enough pickle juice saved to fill her request.  I simply put the roast in the crockpot, and pour a jar of pickle juice over it for the seasoning.  I have used dill pickle juice in the past, but the most recent was made with juice from bread & butter pickles and they REALLY liked that.  This week's pickle roast will be a Bread & Butter roast.

Our lunches are always sandwiches or leftovers, sometimes on Sundays we will pick up lunch from CookOut if it is going to be late till we get home from church.  I usually let the girls have a snack at some point each afternoon. Sometimes it is a cookie and piece of fruit, sometimes a graham cracker with peanut butter, or occasionally a small amount of dry cereal, some pretzals, or animal crackers.

And that's the plan for this week!