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Friday, July 16, 2021

Cheap & Cheerful Menus for a July Week

This has been my breakfast every morning
 for the last 10 days -- plain yogurt,
fresh raspberries, and honey. Yum!

Another week of all home-cooked meals.  I feel like this may sound dull to someone else. However, I've discovered that I really like our own home-cooking.

In the garden this week, we've been harvesting lots of raspberries, some blueberries, the rest of the cherries and strawberries, some red and black currants, salad greens, kale, turnips, garlic scapes, chives, Swiss chard, beet greens, grape leaves, lavender, oregano, and zucchini.

Cheap and cheerful pretty much describes this past week's meals. Here's what we ate:

Breakfasts
homemade plain yogurt with raspberries and honey, toasted o's cereal,  toasted homemade bread, eggs, cheese, peanut butter, dried fruit, bananas, milk, juice, coffee, tea

Lunches
hummus, crackers, mixed garden green salads, cheese sandwiches, peanut butter sandwiches, berries, carrots sticks, celery sticks, bananas, juice, lemonade, cookies

Dinners
Friday
homemade pepperoni pizza, stuffed grape leaves, strawberries, sorbet

Saturday
sandwiches, canned green beans, cookies

Sunday
bean and cheese enchiladas, pickled beet salad, watermelon, cookies

Monday
eggs with chives, brown rice and chicken stock gravy, sautéed zucchini, roasted turnips, sautéed turnip greens and garlic scapes, watermelon

Tuesday
hummus, crackers, raw veggies, sautéed Swiss chard, watermelon, cookies

Wednesday
hotdog cookout, mixed vegetable salad, pasta salad, watermelon

Thursday
beef, beet green, cabbage, chives and sesame stir fry, brown rice, fruit cup of blueberries, raspberries, and banana slices, cookies


It was a busy week for me, so meals were simplified as much as possible. It's Friday, so tonight's dinner has been predetermined -- homemade pizza and a movie.

How about you? What's was on your menu this past week?

11 comments:

  1. I'm not sure what's on our menu except zucchini. The influx has started!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I had to smile, Live and Learn. Zucchini doesn't grow as well, here, but I can imagine what it must be like to have zucchini mature faster than you can eat them. Best of luck to you keeping up with it all!

      Delete
  2. Your meals always sound so good. We had chili dogs, corned beef and cabbage, chicken I cooked in the air fryer, breakfast for dinner (eggs, hashbrowns, bacon and ham), and last nite I made spicy Parmesan scallops with pasta. I think tonite is going to be something with ground elk. I am attempting to use stuff from my freezer-I have a long ways to go lol. I have way too much meat in them for just two people. My oldest dd is taking a few things this weekend. That will help both of us out!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Diane,
      That's really nice that you can gift some of your freezer contents to your daughter. Yes, I see how this benefits both of you.
      Yum, my family would be envious of your chili dogs. I need to put those on our menu sometime soon.
      Have a wonderful weekend!

      Delete
  3. I find that I tend to simplify summer meals--it's sort of a mental break for me. Last night was baked potato bar, we had a breakfast casserole and blueberries Wednesday, Tuesday was this chicken bowl recipe https://www.budgetbytes.com/taco-chicken-bowls/ (LOVE this recipe--easy, tasty, frugal, easily adapted), and Monday was tangy mustard basil chicken with baked potatoes. We are leaving on vacation where we will be staying at a VRBO rental so I'm working on making meals ahead that I can easily reheat.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Kris,
      Thanks for the link to the taco chicken bowls. Those look yummy and easy!
      Good job on being organized, making meals to heat and eat for your trip. I hope you and your family have a fabulous time! When you get a chance, could you post a description of how you make the mustard basil chicken? I know you're busy right now, but maybe after your vacation. Enjoy your time away!

      Delete
    2. Here you go!

      Tangy Mustard Basil Chicken

      3/4 cup buttermilk
      1/3 cup plain yogurt
      1/4 cup honey
      3 Tbsp Dijon mustard
      1 tsp basil (dry)
      1/8 tsp pepper
      3 whole skinless chicken breasts, split (I use any cut of chicken I get on sale).

      Combine the first 6 ingredients in a 2 quart rectangular baking dish. Mix will. Place chicken in marinade, coating both sides. Cover dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate several hours or overnight, turning chicken occasionally. Preheat oven to 375*. Bake 45 to 60 minutes (check temp with thermometer).

      This is a good recipe for keeping chicken breasts tender and moist (something I have struggled with).

      Delete
    3. Thank you, Kris. I'll see what I can do with what I have. Sounds delicious!

      Delete
  4. We have had simple meals as well. With only two of us now, it is challenging to figure out meals that aren't on repeat day after day. I made a loose version of pasta fagole/vegetable soup, ham fried rice with ham from the freezer, grilled chicken over lettuce, beans and avocado, and leftovers from our daughter's Cafe Rio lunch (my kids don't eat leftovers, but they know we do!) We have also been enjoying watermelon that I bought for 2.99 at Sam's. About once a month, I make a batch of cookies that we love and keep them in the freezer. Each night we have a couple for our dessert. Our breakfasts are simple as well. Almost every day for the past 50 years, hubs eats Corn Flakes. I don't understand it and I've tried breaking him of that. I do make a big breakfast once a week with pancakes/waffles, etc., but other than that he is happy with his cereal. I love soaked oats with whatever fruit I can scrounge. For his lunches, I send him with leftovers typically and I have a similar lunch to Lili. I love hummus and crackers with a few veggies or salad and fruit.
    Kris - I will look up the chicken bowl recipe. Sounds good! Have a good weekend!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ruthie, I hope you enjoy the chicken bowl recipe. I can't believe I never knew about it till recently. I find that many crockpot recipes aren't great if I'm going to be gone all day at work--soups and stews work for that purpose, but not many others. They tend to dry out and I don't care for the texture. The chicken bowl one is the exception to that "rule".

      Delete
  5. We smoked a chicken and some steak and the leftovers turned into beef stir fry, chicken rollups, chicken and noodles after having just plain chicken the first night. We made a homemade deep dish pizza that we had two nights and a cheeseburger casserole. Several nights there were big salads to go with the meals. Tonight will be a pork lo mein dinner and either peaches or sweet cherries. I want to smoke a pork roast but I don't have a big one so we'll be on the look out for decently priced pork roasts.

    ReplyDelete

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