Tuesday, January 19, 2016

All it took was 2 hours.........

and I made enough meals to last us all week:
I made a cheese, onion and mushroom quiche, some baked potatoes, two shepherd's pie and a bean lasagna. 

I had a lot of mushrooms, and a few onions that needed to be used up, along with a lump of Harvati Cheese, so all that was saying made me into a quiche.  Of course put potatoes onto bake at the same time.

The Bean Lasagna recipe is from here.  The recipe says it feeds 12, I think more realistically 6.   Here is a Iink to the Pulse Pledge Site with more recipes on it. I took out a pound of ground beef (mince) and used half a pound for that recipe.  With the rest I used it to make two meals of shepherd's pies by bulking it up with veggies and we will also have pickled beets with them.  I love pickled beets with shepherd's pie.

So our menu plan this week will consist of:

Quiche with baked potatoes and ceaser salad.
Quiche with fries and baked beans
Shepherd's pie with pickled beets x 2
Bean Lasagna with garlic bread probably twice and I'll freeze one meal for next week.

I am quite proud of myself for actually doing a menu plan and a batch cook all in one day!!!  That is really good for me, as I do not like menu planning for some reason. 

You may have noticed there are only six meals there, I want to see what I have in leftovers and make a meal out of them later in the week.

Did you menu plan this week?  Also I have a big bag of cornmeal.  I need some ideas on what to do with it?

20 comments:

Betsy said...

Wow! I'm impressed. The qiche sounds particularly good to me right now. I always say I'm going to plan meals for a week at a time and then I don't. I don't know why it is so hard for me. Way to go!
Blessings,
Betsy

thrift deluxe said...

That's what I love about batch cooking, it's easy to produce so much food, far quicker than preparing each dish individually.

angela said...

It so hot here right now that we are using the BBQ nearly every day. making a salad to go with whatever is cooking and using up what's from the garden. I do meal planning more in the winter it all looks good though. Enjoy

mamasmercantile said...

It all looks wonderful and will save you the time later on in the week. During busy periods I do that and always have a few prepared meals in the freezer for emergencies.

Evelyn said...

yummy! you always make such delicious meals. I always laugh at what the recipe claims to serve, unless you are a toddler there is no way you can get 12 servings from that.

Maggie said...

Welcome back Gill!
Well done on the batch cooking, i don't much like cooking so I try to do the same.

I start out with good intentions of meal planning but it rarely works out, having said that
i did shop from recipes this week :-) So hopefully i can stay on track.

Have a good week

Jenn Jilks said...

Good for you! We're pretty loosey-goosey around here!

Linda aka Crafty Gardener said...

I frequently cook ahead, did it more when I was working. In fact for dinner tonight I'm having turkey pot pie that I made with the leftover turkey from Christmas. I usually cook 4 to 6 of the same thing and stock the freezer, over the past while with the turkey pot pies I've also made bean soup, chili, and cabbage casserole.

Boyett-Brinkley said...

I don't like meal planning either! I don't know why but when I sit down to plan a weeks worth of meals I can't think of a thing to cook!I would like to try my hand at batch cooking but for right now I am trying to do some crockpot things so that in the evening when we come home from babysitting starving it will be ready!

Anonymous said...

wow, you truly well prepared for the week, I'm going to look up that lasagna recipe, I've never heard of that,,

slugmama said...

Looks yummy except the thought of baked beans in a lasagna is quite foreign to me and my Italian descent Hubs. lolz
As for the cornmeal there is always cornbread, also you can make a pizza and sprinkle one side with cornmeal, turn it over so that that side is on the pizza stone(this makes for a crisper crust bottom), make a risotto or polenta, or try my variation on shepherd's pie....top with corn muffin mix(using your cornmeal to make that)instead of mashed taters.
You could also make a corn casserole(I use a recipe from Paula Deen online-corn bread mix, sour cream, 1 can corn, 1 can creamed corn, melted butter--and take out the cheese component and add half of the canned corn water so it's runnier before you bake it).

Lots of things to do with corn meal! Have fun. 8-)

Jackie said...

I do menu plan for at least two weeks at a time. I think this is the result of living so far from the city that we only traveled in to grocery shop every second week. I have tried menu planning for a month and sometimes it works and sometimes it gets changed way more than I would like.

God bless.

William Kendall said...

That is a lot of food!

Anne in the kitchen said...

Good for you with all the batch cooking.

If you have a huge bag of cornmeal, make cornbread. You can add bits of meats (pork is super) cheese, chilis, onions and corn for an almost complete meal.

Martha said...

That is great! I sometimes do this as well; make a whole bunch of meals that I freeze for future dates. It makes meal times so much easier.

Linda said...

I found the link to your blog on "everyday life" blog. In looking back at your posts from last fall it was fun to read your observations on Lancaster Co, PA, USA. I live nearby in York Co. and blog at The Puddle Pond.

Cat Lover said...

Everything looks delicious! Good for you Gill. I would make cornbread if I had a huge bag of cornmeal. Goes with everything,

EG CameraGirl said...

You are amazing that it took you only two hours to make these! I LOVE pickled beets and must add beets to this week's grocery list

Living Alone in Your 60's said...

All the dishes look great Gill. It saves money and time. Plus you can sit back and relax a bit as dinner time is sorted. I don't like meal planning but I find it is a necessary evil to saving me money.

Rose said...

I went and checked the bean recipe...it sounds good. No, I do not do menus, even in my head. I wish I could get back to doing that. Now if I even thought of one, I would have to write it down...

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