Prepping for Thanksgiving!
I start out each menu planning session by checking the grocery stores for the best meat deals. I found that Winn Dixie had shank hams for $1.99/lb and Boston Butt for $1.77/lb. Ground beef was $3.99/lb on sale. Sigh!
I much prefer beef and poultry to pork. I read a couple books several years ago about the clean and unclean meats. I didn't believe that it was necessarily a sin to eat pork. But I felt that Peter's vision had more to do with Gentiles than meat and God didn't make up rules for the Israelites just to jump through hoops. The science backed up that the unclean meats are absolutely more toxic. Pigs are scavengers. Shrimp will purify the water. I grew up going to Red Lobster. Now I can't stand the smell of shrimp.
But I've backed off pork a bit. I still often get beef brisket at a bbq place. I will take a roast on sale over a ham if available. But I decided that refusing pork wasn't worth breaking fellowship over and let's face it, pork is served a lot in the south. And buying a ham over a roast when it's on sale is the difference between my growing boys getting second helpings or not. And let's face it, we're pretty maxed out on poultry.
So anyhow, this week I went over budget to purchase some holiday baking ingredients at Sam's + 2 Boston Butts and 2 shank hams at Winn Dixie. I also bought a bucket load of sweet potatoes that were $0.48/lb. The grand total reached $270. So I made out a plan to use 1 big cut of meat a week along with some things in the pantry and freezer. My budget for the next six weeks will be $50 per week for milk, produce, etc excluding the ingredients for Christmas dinner (but we already have our ham!) and our Jesse tea.
I also needed a little more predictability to my schedule. The sourdough schedule changing from day to day is confusing and I've lost track a couple times. So I'm going to make a code like FS#1 for Feed Starter #1 and MD for mix dough. And put the menu plan on the white board in the kitchen. So I can see at a glance what I need to do and when I need to do it.
Sunday will be our big meat day with the exception of the Sunday after Thanksgiving and Christmas when we'll probably not have room in the fridge to cook another big meat.
Monday will be soup day.
Tuesday will be eggs (omelets, frittatas, quiches, breakfast burritoes). Tuesdays are one of the later nights at Taekwondo so a quick egg meal will be helpful to getting a meal on the table quick.
Wednesday will be homemade sourdough pizza night. Everybody loves it. This is a great meal that doesn't add leftovers to the fridge and breaks up the leftovers a bit.
Thursday will be a bean dish(red beans and rice, chili, Cuban black beans and white bean and kale soup). Thursday is our latest night at Taekwondo so something simple in the crockpot is essential. Since both Thanksgiving and Christmas is on Thursday, the bean dish will be moved to Tuesday on those weeks.
Friday will be salmon or pancakes. I've been wanting to do the blender pancakes for breakfast but I can't seem to remember to start it the night before and it really doesn't work with our habit of everyone getting up at different times. I really should start waking up early but as we're recovering from this latest cold, I figure that sleep is more important than a particular breakfast.
My plans for breakfast are not always coming together. So I think I'm going to simplify for all breakfast except Sunday (and Christmas) which will either be cinnamon rolls or pomegranate oatmeal. *Tip- definitely buy pomegranates at Sams. Some grocery stores have them at 3.99 each. Sams has them in a pack of four for less than $8. 50% savings!* The rest of the week, we will have options of cereal, fruit and hard boiled eggs. My growing kids need plenty of protein. Hard boiled eggs keeps it easy for them to grab as they wake up.
Lunch will pretty much always be leftovers. This uses up the odds and ends in the fridge and it keeps us from disrupting our school day.
Snacks will be kefir and/or fruit in the mornings and yogurt/fruit/smoothies/maybe a few holiday cookies in the afternoon
So my plan today will only be suppers with the exception of Thursday which will probably be served at lunch with leftovers for supper.
Sunday
BBQ/Baked Beans/roasted asparagus - I dry rubbed the pork last night and put it in the slow cooker this morning on a bed of onions. Asparagus has been on sale a lot lately. I get the skinny stems and roast them in a 9x13 pan with a splash of red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. James eats them like candy!
Monday
Chicken soup - I bought a whole chicken that will go in the slow cooker Sunday evening as soon as we get the BBQ out. I will save some of the shredded chicken for tacos on Saturday.
Bloomin' Baked Apples I usually don't get too hung up on a particular brand of apple but this recipe called for Honeycrisp and wouldn't you know, they had them on sale at Sams plus a tasting cart for us to try them out before buying them. Totally looking forward to this!
Tuesday
Red Beans and Rice with cornbread
Wednesday
Pizza with salad (maybe Broccoli Grape Slaw)
Thursday
Turkey
cranberry sauce
sourdough rolls
brussel sprouts
sweet potato casserole
Ritz crackers and peanut butter sandwiches covered in white almond bark (Totally not healthy but it's tradition from my grandmother. When I talked to my husband about my ideas for healthier eating and my plan to not make any extremely restrictive plans til after the holidays, he said, "Oh good, so I can still have almond bark candy!")
Friday
Supposed to be at a family get-together but it's still up in the air with a couple of us still coughing and sniffling. If we end up having to stay home, we'll have crabby patties (salmon croquettes), mac and cheese and biscuits. Mike hates this meal (and the smell) because he dislikes most fish but it's Black Friday and he's a retail manager so he's probably working late this day anyhow.
Saturday
Chicken tacos with refried beans (If I do make it to MS, I'll need to remember to leave the beans dry in the crockpot and ask Mike to cover them with water and start them on low before he leaves for work)
Sunday
Turkey cornbread dressing
and Sourdough beignets for supper
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