Eclectic Living: Weekly Menu

What's Cookin'?

Usually if I can get dinners in order then the other meals fall into place or sort of coast into working... sort of :). After being gone all weekend and being sick for 2 weeks it feels nice to actually be thinking about meals! Albertsons had some sales a bit ago on Sanderson chicken so you'll see mostly chicken meals. I only have 1 pound of stew meat until the end of the month so I'll be very stingy with that! I was able to get free-range organic eggs for $1.75/dozen. I couldn't be more thrilled - really!

Breakfasts:

- Muffins (pumpkin or savory from the freezer)
- Cottage cheese/fruit
- Eggs: scrambled with toast and cream cheese
- Eggs: egg salad on toast and applesauce
- Eggs: breakfast casserole
- Bean/cheese melts
- Honey Goodness Breakfast Bars (for St. Francis de Sales on Thursday)(this may be for snack instead)

Lunches:

- chicken sandwiches with mayo and Bubbies live sauerkraut [I'm trying Laura's overnight no knead recipe tonight/tomorrow]
- cereal (yes, we had cereal today for lunch and it was such a treat! Cascadian Farm Fruit and Nut Granola ) and fresh apples with some healthy pumpkin cookies from the freezer.
- Bean/cheese melts
- Taquitos or echiladas (depends on whether I have some frozen corn tortillas or if I'm making flour ones).

Snacks:
- Trail mix (raisins, almonds, chocolate chips )
- Cottage cheese/fruit
- Muffins
- Animal Crackers (made from scratch - already on cooling rack)
- Crackers and cream cheese (crackers from scratch)
- Celery and carrot sticks with dip related to St. Paul's Conversion (I know it's a stretch, but they are treats for horses and oral tradition and paintings have St. Paul falling off of his horse). If I'm really feeling productive or looking for something to fill my time (not!) we might make horseshoe-shaped pretzels or bread sticks or even cookies.

Dinners:

- Chicken sandwich spread on mini-pitas; oranges; cupcakes (white cupcakes with cream cheese frosting decorated like lamb faces for St. Agnes' feast day - a 4th century martyr who died in 304 under Diocletian)
- Chicken Spaghetti
- Tortilla soup
- Chili (with 1/2 lb of that precious stew meat and rice added in to stretch it more); corn bread
- Chicken pot pie or baked chicken and rice
- Beef stew with lots of potatoes and carrots
- Quiche
- Bean burritos

Things to get prepped ahead:

- Beans (already in crock pot!)
- Soak tortillas and make ahead
- Crackers
- Pre-cook other 1/2 stew meat when I make the beef stew.
- Hard boil eggs [wash a bunch of eggs ahead of time if not washed]
- Bread
- Soak/dehydrate almonds (already in dehydrator!)
- Crack a bunch of pecans...

Okay, I am so bummed! Tonight was going to be the chicken sandwich spread on mini pitas. Store-bought pitas. A break. An easy dinner. The reason why I've been able to take time to think and post this menu. Well, the ones I got, that I thought were safe, have L-cysteine. Argh! (envision Charlie Brown saying it!). Now I need to hurry up and make some (or probably naan bread) and it's already dinner time!