Monday Menus September 15-19
I bled money this weekend after the purchase of a new laptop. This week's menu is my attempt to recoup some of my losses!
Monday: Leftovers!
Giordano’s Stuffed Pizza
Whole Wheat linguine
Roasted veggies and salad
Tuesday: Lentil and Vegetable Soup
Bread rolls, bread ends and butter
Wednesday: Renata’s Frittata (eggs baked with remaining leftover veggies, cheeses)
Jake’s Country Meats Uncured (free range) Bacon
Thursday: Renata’s Marinara (frozen from weekend) with De Cecco mezzi rigatoni,
Maria Martucci’s Kale Salad with leftover Jake’s Country Meats Bacon
Friday: The Eating Well’s Daniel 1:8 Veggie Burgers
Sweet Potato Tots
Tightening the old belt usually means a legume laden week. Not a lot of meat here for my carnivore pals, sorry. I love organic, free range, and Amish meats, and they are just not in the budget after Apple took a bite out of me.
This week’s menu is dedicated to everyone who is trying to save a buck.
In fact, every menu I plan has this goal in mind. When I plan menus, I am surprised by how much money it saves me, and how much waste it prevents. I scour fridge, freezer and cupboards before planning, and use the ends and remains to create five menus (even if I end up caving by Friday it helps).
Menu planning forces me to use up all those loose vegetables at the bottom of the drawer and throw them into a soup where their tired little cells will be welcomed by olive oil, onion, garlic, tomatoes, beans, whatever is in the cupboard, to give them new life.
Soups are also a great way to camouflage anything my kids don’t like. Nobody will notice a portobello mushroom once I blitz it with the hand held immersion blender. (Immersion blender detaches for easy clean up too! A blender works well too. ). A nice hunk of bread with butter is a great sponge to mop up all those nutrients and can really fill up a hungry teenage boy, too.
Early last week I was feeling rich and bought a dozen organic, free range eggs. I am going to spend that impulse purchase on a Renata Fritatta, which is also a great dish for throwing in leftover bits of veggies, different cheese hunks that have seen better days, and a few herbs from the flower pot give it new life. I think there are even a couple of red tomatoes I can throw in the oven with the eggs that have not frozen on the vine in my back garden, but I planted them too close to the house, and so I am embarrassed to admit I am not getting much yield this year.
If I do make it to Friday without going to the grocery store, it will be a miracle!
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