Meal Plans

A few people have said they get inspiration from my meal plans so I will continue to share them. 

Amanda from The Fundamental Home has been a big inspiration to me and I use her method of planning. She has blog posts explaining her method in detail. Recently she also made a video series with detailed instructions. 

She spends $65 a week for her family of six. But... their family dynamics are not nearly like mine so I haven't been able to spend that little. It has been a tool for me to know how to shop for the best prices though. 

Amanda says to make yourself a menu, like restaurants have, to help you with meal planning. For myself, I've used Google Docs to create lists of many foods we enjoy. Separate documents for salads, breakfasts, main dishes, soups, and etc. Meal planning is a breeze when consulting these lists.

Check the pantry, freezer and fridge to see what your inventory is. Look at the menus to see what you might make with the ingredients you have. If you need any additional items to make these meals, add them to your grocery list. After purchasing these items, look for things on sale. Try to incorporate these into your weekly plan. 

Oh, just go visit Amanda. She explains it very well.

Here is the menu for Jan 9 -13, 2019.

Breakfast	Dinner
Sausage, salsa, fried eggs	Hearty hamburger soup Caesar salad
Baked supper omelet	Beef Roast Mashed potatoes Coleslaw
Pancakes	Tomato soup Hot dogs
------	Tuna salad Quinoa salad
------	Potato bar Lettuce Salad
Scrambled eggs	Chicken chowder Waldorf salad
Re-fried beans Fried eggs	Beans Cornbread Coleslaw

You might notice that about every other meal is a soup dinner. We like soup. Winter is a great time to eat soup. It is also a very frugal option. 

More eggs are coming in from our chickens. So exciting!

A few breakfasts are missing. Thomas & I plan to be gone this coming weekend to a seminar at Penn Valley. The boys will get their own breakfast. Breakfasts will likely include another item such as fruit and/or yogurt besides what is listed.

We'll be gone Friday eve through Sunday noon, Lord willing, so I'll leave some meals ready for the boys (or are they men?). They know how to cook but they don't choose to when I'm gone. 

This past weekend we were gone to a seminar as well. The Marriage Enrichment seminar. Four couples from here went, leaving behind 16 children. 

A basket of goodies we found on our bed at the Marriage Enrichment seminar

I think all but one of the children got together at my sister's house for Sunday lunch. Melvin decided to make a large pan (equivalent to two 9 x 13 pans) of rhubarb crunch to take along. My sister and husband were gone too, so this was a bunch of young people. The oldest was 21 and the youngest 4.

A number of the recipes are linked to the ones I use or something similar. To thicken soup I use cornstarch instead of flour. Pancakes are made with buckwheat flour. Bread for hot dogs and tuna salad is made with spelt flour.

For the potato bar- Bake potatoes. Fry burger and season it with taco seasoning. Make a cheese sauce. Then layer the potato, meat and sauce on your plate and enjoy.

I linked the Caesar salad to the dressing I make.

Have a blessed week, feeding your hungry family.

Ham & Cheese Omelet Roll

I have occasionally listed omelet roll in my breakfast menu. I thought you might enjoy some step by step photos to see how I do that with ease.

Here's the recipe I use-

12 large eggs

3/4 cup whole milk

4 oz cream cheese 

2 tbsp cornstarch

1 tsp salt 

Yellow mustard

2 cups shredded cheese

2 cups diced ham

Preheat the oven to 350° and line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper.

Put the first five ingredients in the blender pitcher and blend smooth. Pour into the pan

I use the butt end of a table knife to get the corners to square up in the pan. Put it in the oven and bake 20 minutes. Check to see if it's puffed and done. If so, remove it. If not, bake a little longer- not longer than ten more minutes.

I use any cut of ham. Sometimes I can find cubed or julienne cuts of ham at our thrift food store. Or I'll dice up leftover ham. Here's what I used this time. (You could use sausage or another meat if you wish.)

Cut the ham and shred the cheese while the eggs bake (if necessary.)

There! It's baked.

Squirt the desired amount of mustard over the top.

Sprinkle the ham over the top.

Then the cheese.

Starting on the short end, roll it up using the paper to help you.

There it is. Bake it a few minutes longer, then slice and enjoy.

One nice thing about this roll is that it can be made ahead and reheated in the morning.

This Week's Menu

Freezer meal

I wrote this on Thursday. Now I'm editing it on Monday.

This week's menu begins on Wednesday. 

Friday evening is full of question marks. The young folk have a Christmas banquet. I thought maybe the rest of us could go somewhere to eat also. If Thomas feels so inclined after another long day of work. We used gift cards to eat at Domino's pizza. This Mama ate BBQ'd wings and garden salad while the others ate pizza. 

On Saturday we are butchering our steer with another family. Some more meat for the freezer. Yes!! More about this later.

On Sunday we are the host family which means we are responsible to make sure any visitors at church have a place to go for lunch. Instead of potatoes and burger we ate rice and chicken. Also some leftover chicken and dressing that Stephen brought home from Penn Valley. And in place of pie I made cobblers.

Tuesday (the last day on the menu) is Christmas day. I didn't think about that when I was planning the menu. It may need to be revamped. We'll have something with potatoes and burger for lunch and switch the Mon & Tues evening menus. 

All meals written with color and a line underneath are linked to either the recipe I use or a similar one. 

For the enchiladas I use corn tortillas.

Oh my! It's almost time for another menu. Tell me how you keep up with this monumental task. If I wasn't so frugal I would purchase menu plans from Eat at Home. I did that for one month and we really liked it!

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Breakfast enchiladas Yogurt & fruit salad	Leftovers	Honey/Rosemary chicken Rice Lettuce salad Applesauce & cottage cheese
Scrambled eggs Bacon Yogurt & fruit salad Cereal	Leftovers	Taco soup Lettuce salad
Scrambled eggs Biscuits Tomato gravy	Leftovers	???
Overnight apple-stuffed French toast	Lebanese chicken stew Cornbread Applesauce & cottage cheese	Pizza Lettuce salad
Baked oatmeal	Potato/hamburger casserole Mixed veggies Lettuce salad Apple pie	Black bean dip Apples Popcorn
Pancakes Sausage gravy PB & syrup		Chicken tortilla soup Spinach salad
Potato/meat quiche		Beans Cornbread Coleslaw

Menu Plan

Another week of menus. You're welcome.

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Potato quiche Yogurt	Leftovers	Cheesy chicken (turkey) chowder Lettuce salad
Scrambled eggs & sausage Grits Yogurt	Leftovers	Pork chops Fried cabbage Scalloped potatoes Waldorf salad
Granola Yogurt	Turkey Potatoes/sweet potatoes Salads Dessert	Tomato soup Hot dogs
Cheesy baked supper omelet Fruit salad	Leftovers	Chili soup Veggies and dip
Pancakes Sausage gravy	Leftovers	Chicken patty sandwiches French fries Rhubarb crunch
Apple nut muffins Yogurt	Haystacks Baked apples	Popcorn Apples
Scrambled eggs & sausage Biscuits Tomato gravy	Leftovers	Black bean soup Cornbread Apple crisp

Simple Fruit Salad

This is such a simple recipe that it almost doesn't need to be written down. 

Ingredients:
Canned and/or fresh fruit
Plain yogurt
Vanilla
Sweetener if desired

Directions:
Put as much fruit in a bowl as you will eat in one sitting. Cut it in bite size pieces. Add about half as much yogurt as fruit. Add a tsp (more or less) of vanilla and add some sweetener if you desire. Mix well and enjoy.

This can be made with any variety of fruit. It is especially good with raw apples, canned pineapple, sliced bananas and grapes. One morning recently I made it with home-canned pears, peaches and pineapple along with store-bought mandarin oranges canned in fruit juice. 

All my fruit is canned without sweetener. Peaches get canned in apple juice, straight from the can. Pears are canned with diluted pineapple juice. My sweet sister (in TX) canned fresh pineapple for me with just plain water.

We generally don't add sweetener to this salad but we have our taste buds trained to enjoy the natural sweetness of the fruit. And I use homemade yogurt which is milder than your store-bought plain yogurt.

This is simple breakfast (or anytime) food.

Do you have a simple recipe that is almost too simple to record?

Will you share it?

Simple Yummy Breakfast

Would you like a new recipe? Yeah, me too. This one has been a recent hit with our family.

1 lb sausage (or other burger)
1 cup salsa
6 (or more) eggs

This is a very adjustable recipe. The main idea is to brown the sausage in a skillet, stir in the salsa, crack the eggs over the mess, put a lid on and let it cook about three minutes. You've got yourself a delicious breakfast just like that!

I found this recipe at Lexi's Clean Kitchen and I'm certain you are welcome to go there to find many more yummy things. She has lots of recipes for people with diet restrictions.

Thought for the day- Choose to love housework because that is God's gift to you!

Picture for the day- the mug I painted at Polka Dot Pot.