Since we weren't at home for more than a week at a time during most of November or December, I sorta-kinda slacked off on my meal planning.
I know, I know... *shakes head in shame*
But one of my goals for 2013 is to be more organized in an on-the-ball fashion, so let's get to it.
To start off your new meal-planning binder for the year, you'll need a free printable calendar, right? :) This great lady has several to choose from. I picked this one here: Free 2013 Calendar Printable
For those who are new to my method of meal planning, here's a basic run-down:
- I make one list of meals to make for the month, using mostly things I have on hand but with a few things we need to shop for. For us this is about 10-15 meals, and we eat leftovers the other nights.
- Each night, I pick what I'll make for dinner the next day. In the morning I'll know what sort of prep I'll need to do for it, etc.
- I keep my meal list and a printed calendar in a binder along with recipes I have printed out. Keeping everything together saves time and fuss.
- Throughout the month, I cross off what I've made off of the list and jot it down on the calendar. It helps me keep track of how many "leftover" nights we get off of certain dishes.
This month I made sure to clean out my binder. It had become overrun with print-outs of new recipes I had tried, and then haphazardly shoved into a pocket somewhere. Not very OCD of me, eh? So I pitched all the recipes I never EVER wanted to try again, saved the "keepers," and thought really hard about what we would actually eat this month. I get tired of throwing out leftovers, so I came up with things that we would eat well the first/second/third time through. So, here goes:
Meals:
- Baked Macaroni & Cheese
- Tacos or Taco Salads
- Mexican Stuffed Shells
- Venison & Mushroom Gravy over Mashed Potatoes
- Venison Roast (Seasoned with Onion Soup Mix) & Scalloped Potatoes
- Venison Fajitas
- Venison Roast (Seasoned with Homemade Italian Seasoning) & Green Bean Casserole
- Homemade Pizza
- Hamburger Soup & Rolls (Rhode's Frozen Rolls)
- Breakfast Night - French Toast, Sausage, Scrambled Eggs
Extras:
- Easy Mint Fudge
- French Breakfast Muffins
- Banana Bread
Now let's talk about a few things from this list. The first thing that probably caught your attention is the amount of VENISON on that list. The Hubby is a hunter. His family hunts. So this year we have been blessed with a freezer-full of roasts, steaks, tenderloin, and stew meat. I would never be able to pull the trigger myself, but deer meat is actually very delicious when cooked properly, and it is very good for you (very lean!). Plus, now I don't have to buy beef (or much chicken) for a good long while. :)
The second thing - anywhere you see "hamburger" or recipes that call for ground beef, you can automatically assume I'll be using ground turkey. Again, it's better for you, and it is SUPER CHEAP at Aldi. We don't have one in town, but whenever we drive through a place that has one, we bring our cooler and stock up.
Thirdly, I have three words for you... HOMEMADE SPICE MIXES.
I have been using homemade Taco mix for a while now, and we like it much better than the store-bought packets. I've also found Italian Dressing and Fajita Seasoning mixes that we really like. Here are the recipes I've found online for a few homemade mixes:
Taco Seasoning
Use
2 T and 1 cup water per pound of ground meat
2
T chili powder
½
t garlic powder
½
t onion powder
½
t red pepper flakes
½
t oregano
1
t paprika
1
T cumin
2
½ t salt
2
t pepper
Onion Soup Mix
Use
¼ cup instead of one packet
4
t beef bouillon
8
t onion flakes
1
t onion powder
¼
t pepper
½
t parsley
½
t salt
Fajita
Seasoning
Use
2 T to replace one packet
1
T cornstarch
2
t chili powder
1
t salt
1
t paprika
1
t sugar
¾
t chicken bouillon
½
t onion powder
¼
t garlic powder
¼
t cayenne pepper
¼
t cumin
¼
t crushed pepper
Ranch Dressing
Mix
Use
1 T per cup of sour cream
5
t onion flakes
7
t parsley
4
t salt
1
t garlic
Italian Seasoning
Mix
1
½ tsp garlic powder
1
T onion powder
2
T oregano
1
T parsley
1
T sugar
2
T salt
1
tsp pepper
1
tsp basil
¼
tsp thyme
½
tsp celery leaves (or ¼ tsp celery seed)
I made my sister a set of spice mixes for Christmas. Don't they look so much cuter than those paper packets from the store? I simply doubled or tripled the recipe and put them in half-pint canning jars. The labels were just printed on brown cardstock (in a free font I found online that looks like an old typewriter!), and cut out in an oval shape. A dab of hot glue, and voila! Adorable spice mix jars. :)
Well, that's all for today. Please leave comments or questions you have about anything!
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