Meal Plan For This Week

OK, I admit that last week I didn't come up with a meal plan, and I could really feel the difference! Things were much more chaotic at dinner time, but since we had a meeting Wednesday night and were heading out of town Friday, I slacked off and didn't come up with a plan. Thankfully I had done some cooking last weekend, and that saved us for many lunches and dinners during the week.

For more information on why I think meal planning is so great, check out this post and this post.  In fact, I am actually considering trying to plan out two weeks of dinners in advance, but because I am short on time tonight, I will stick with one week and start thinking about next week.

Here is my plan for the week:
Monday:  Leftover potato kale soup using potatoes from the farmers market and our kale, brats on homemade buns using this recipe and fresh ground flour from my new grain mill!
Tuesday:  Homemade baked beans and cornbread using bacon from our 1/4 pig and navy beans that I cooked and froze previously
Wednesday:  Experimental day - something with round steak from our 1/8 cow, a new carrot dish with my father-in-law's carrots and potatoes, possibly cooked in the crock pot and mashed
Thursday:  Another new recipe - a chicken simmered in a soy sauce brine and roasted, sauteed zucchini from the freezer and leftover potatoes
Friday:  Homemade pizza using this recipe for crust, veggies from the freezer, italian sausage from our 1/4 pig and anything else I can find that would be good on pizza

We'll see how cooking adventure Wednesday goes.  I am going to come up with a recipe for the round steak and my pressure cooker, which I have never used except for some canning a few years ago.  I am terrible about using some of the cuts of meat from our cow that I am less familiar with, so I'm trying to get motivated.  Perhaps the speed of the pressure cooker will be just what I need to light a little fire under me!  I am starting a new job too, so maybe my new schedule of working Mondays and Fridays will help me do a little more cooking during the week, which I have not been as good about lately.  Maybe my husband will start making his famous casseroles on Monday nights!  Hmmm... that's a lot of maybe's...  Eat well and enjoy your week!