Menu for Feb 16 -20

I had participated once long ago in Menu Plan Monday and decided to go back to it. This time it is a flexible menu. I have the items nailed down to what I will serve during the week.

I had made the plan on Saturday and then modified it a bit today after the shopping trip, what I have on hand and the time I have.

The Menu

Breakfast Options
Bread upma
Bread and egg
Cereal
Breakfast sandwich

Lunch Options
Pasta with veggies and chicken
Chicken stir fry with veggies and rice
Potato Curry with rice, yoghurt
Calzones
Broccoli soup

Dinner Options
Rice with Sambar and yoghurt. (staples)
Potato curry
Chicken stir fry with veggies and rice
Pasta with veggies and chicken
Homemade Pizza
Broccoli Soup

Dessert Options
Whole wheat biscuits with berry syrup ( mixed berry shortcake)
Carrot halwa

To make ahead
Cook chicken for pizza and pasta dish
Make marinara sauce for pasta and pizza
Pre cut chicken for stir fry
Make the biscuit dough and refregerate
Grate Carrot for Halwa  

I have managed to do most of the pre-prep except for the dessert options. Today I made the Marinara sauce, the broccoli soup, potato curry and baked the chicken. I also cut the chicken for the stirfry and froze it in two portions. I shredded the baked chicken and divided it into 3 portions. Two I froze for later in the week and one is in the fridge for tuesday.  

I mostly work from home on monday, wednesday and friday. I work late on Tuesday and Thursday and usually don’t get back before 7:00 pm. DH needs to eat by 7:00 pm or usually skip’s it if it’s late. So here is how it might work out. The potato curry  was dinner tonight along with the broccoli soup. I need to go in to work for some time on Monday so  the curry will be lunch for monday. The kids will probably have the soup too for lunch.

For monday dinner I will make Sambar and will make the stirfy for tuesday lunch/dinner. Wednesday we can have the pasta for lunch and Pizza for dinner (the Marinara sauce and chicken are done) . Will make the Pizza dough in the bread machine on wednesday. Will refregerate the remaining dough for friday dinner or make calzones for a saturday picnic. 

Wednesday night will make a fresh batch of soup and sambar. Leftover pasta along with the soup and sambar should tide us over thursday.

Friday is again leftovers for lunch and Pizza for dinner. Can make a stirfry or pasta easily for lunch, if there are no leftovers.

Also have tofu in the fridge and will most probably substitute it for chicken in the pasta or stirfry.

The pasta is also pre cooked. DS has the week off from school so no lunch box plans for the week.

My goal was to have most of the stuff pre-prepped, so that I can have the dinner ready with minimum amount of effort on the week days. The sambar involves just throwing everything into the pressure cooker, which will take less tha 10 min in prep work and about half hour to cook. Plain youghurt is a constant staple and I don’t need to worry too much about that.

The only thing I was unable to pre-prep was the dessert items and I might make some quick substitutes for those by making Suji halwa and a cake to go with the berry syrup. I will make the halwa and syrup tomorrow so that I will only have to make the cake on wednesday.

That should get the dessert covered too.

Looks a bit ambitious for me, but lets see how things go. It’s better than flying blind and trying to whip up thing’s in the n^th minute. Atleast now I know what I have on hand and what to cook. We usually don’t eat dessert everyday but DH has been requesting them recently, so I have worked them into the plan.

Will try and post recieps during the week if I can stick to the plan.

For more menu plans chek out I’m an Organizing Junkie site.