Week 5

Well, I finally got to the butcher and the grocery store this week and just sort of bought what looked good, so the menu plan this week is a lot of working with what I got. I generally don't recommend shopping without a list or plan in place, I find that I either over buy, under buy, or end up having to make multiple trips for missed ingredients. Even if you aren't following my menu plan, I still recommend making a list of what your family needs for the week and just making one shopping trip for the week, or if you are really organized, two weeks.

Yesterday we had a family day so I made a special treat for my hubby, he LOVES country fried steak, so I did an easy at home version of steak fingers and gravy served alongside biscuits. Was it the most nutritionally balanced meal? Probably not. Was it tasty? Yep! Did my hubby love it? You betcha!

Today we are having brunch, we are gone for church from about 1:30 in the afternoon until 6:00 in the evening, it makes meals and naps and such a little tricky on Sundays, so we are alleviating some of that with brunch. Just like breakfast for dinner, it can look like anything you want it to, but for us it will be this buttermilk coffee cake made with fresh apples instead of blueberries, along with some bacon and eggs and fruit salad.

My butcher had a sale on pork this week so I got a rolled pork roast and plan to use the crock pot to make this country style pork roast, by putting potatoes and carrots in the crock pot you really have your whole meal done by dinner time. You could add bread or rolls if you would like, but realistically you have veggies and meat with a great pan gravy and that should satisfy the whole family.

Well, I decided that I haven't had my fill of turkey yet and my butcher had some turkey breasts left from Thanksgiving, so I am going to cook a breast in my crock pot this week. It will be pretty simple,  I am going to thaw and season my breast with my go to blend, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika. After I season, I am going to pan sear the breast on all sides and then put into my crockpot with some turkey stock and a little butter and cook on low while I am at work (about 6-8 hours). It will be easy to make gravy out of the liquid in the crock, just transfer to a pot on the stove and bring to a boil, when boiling whisk in a slurry of water and flour or cornstarch (just like we did with the pork roast), and bring to a boil. I'm going to serve this with some hearty bread to sop up that gravy and some fresh veggies. I know it seems like I don't put a lot of effort into side dishes, you certainly could kick these meals up a notch with your favorite sides, I just find that after working all day and picking my son up, I'm not left with a lot of time to make dinner so I try to make it as easy as possible with salads or simple fresh veggies.

I have some chicken cutlets that I want to use so I am going to sub them for chicken thighs in this delicious Southern baked chicken recipe, in hopes that it will bake up a little more quickly for a week night meal. My plan is to put them in the brine before I leave for work in the morning, then I can just bread and bake when i get home. And in case you are wondering about the fish sauce 1) you can find it in the Asian section of your grocery 2) it is what makes the brine, so use it! I am going to simply serve this up with a side of homemade creamed corn, and if you have never made your own creamed corn you should, it's delicious and SO much better than the canned stuff. Oh, and by the way, don't feel like you have to cut corn off of the cob (can you even get it on the cob right now?), just use frozen corn.

Grocery List;
buttermilk
butter
flour
salt
cubed steak
eggs
milk
apples or blueberries (for coffee cake)
sugar
bacon
fresh fruit of your choice (for fruit salad)
pork roast
potatoes
carrots
chicken stock
seasoned salt
onion powder
ground mustard
olive oil
cornstarch
dried oregano
turkey breast
turkey stock
paprika
garlic powder
bread or rolls
fresh veggies/salad mix/lettuce
chicken cutlets or thighs
fish sauce
kosher salt
bread crumbs
dried sage
white pepper
heavy cream
frozen corn

Hope these recipes warm you up as the weather cools down and make day to day life a little easier with easy meals! Happy Eating!