Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for Early January

Tuesday's Quick and Easy Dinner

I'm taking shortcuts, where I can and enlisting help from family, each week. I'm busy with other pursuits for the time being. Besides, it was time for a break from intensive meal preparations, ongoing since 1987.

Friday

• lentil, vegetable and ham soup
• pumpkin muffins with cream cheese

Saturday
My husband cooked dinner for us tonight. He doesn't cook very often, but has agreed to help out once per week, for the time being. He did a good job, too.

• rice and lentils
• carrot and celery sticks, with Bleu Cheese dressing as dip
• cranberry, pecan and oatmeal cookies that I baked earlier

Sunday

• chicken, black beans and vegetables, over
• brown rice
• steamed broccoli
• cookies

Pumpkin, Ham and Sage Cream Sauce for Pasta

Monday
I usually make this dish with sausage. Ham was what I had, so ham it was. And it was still yummy. This is an excellent pasta sauce for an alternative to traditional tomato or cheese-based sauces.

• pumpkin, ham and sage cream sauce, over
• whole wheat penne pasta
• tangerines
• cookies

Tuesday

• chicken fried rice with veggies (chicken leftover from the legs on Sunday, rice leftover from Sunday's dinner, too -- relatively quick to prepare)
• grilled canned pineapple slices
• cookies

Wednesday

Last Friday, I made double the amount needed for dinner that night. I froze half for use tonight, Wednesday. I'll be doing this every week, for my current menu plan (next 8 weeks). Wednesday is one of 3 easy nights per week for me, now. Okay, who am I kidding, they're all easy nights, these days!!

• leftover lentil and vegetable soup
• leftover pumpkin muffins and cream cheese
• rhubarb-blackberry sauce (from end of summer, and in freezer)

Thursday

I have a meeting tonight, so it shall be a quick and easy meal -- breakfast for dinner.

• turkey bacon (bought on markdown 2 weeks ago and kept in freezer)
• pancakes
• stewed prunes (prunes from the freezer, last summer's harvest)

So far, I've only made a couple of adjustments to the meal plan that I made at the beginning of the year. I substituted canned pineapple for the blackberry-rhubarb sauce, on Tuesday, as the sauce wasn't thawed completely, yet, and I thought grilled pineapple would go well with the Asian inspired dish. And I served steamed broccoli on Sunday, in place of canned green beans. Something fresh is nice in a winter of canned vegetables.

Cooking is going well. I get enough of a break from preparing dinners on several nights per week, that when I do have to cook the full deal in the afternoon, it's not such a burden. And none of the changes that I've made are costing us anything extra.

How was your week? Anything special on your menu this past week? Who else does breakfast for dinner on a regular basis? What do you serve besides pancakes or waffles, when you make breakfast for an evening meal?

Have a wonderful weekend, all!