Midweek meal planning 1/14/16
Welcome back to Midweek Meal Planning for the week of 1/14/16! It’s more traditional to meal plan on the weekend, but since our Chicago grocery deals mostly flip on Wednesdays and since midweek is when many of us start running out of steam, we buck the trend here. In Midweek Meal Planning, we plan dinners for the rest of the week while also looking back to see how we’ve done so far.
Somehow MashupDad and Mr. 8 started talking about Tater Tot Casserole this weekend. I haven't had this in ... 20 years? 25 years? and haven't really missed it, but Mr. 8 was all gung ho on the idea and really wanted to see what it was all about. So, he and MashupDad cooked one up on Sunday -- ta-da!
Turns out I still hate Tater Tot Casserole, lol, but the kids both adored it. (MashupDad also grilled up some chicken for the low carb and casserole hating adult contingent.)
Midweek meal planning
- Sunday: Tater Tot Casserole for the kids, grilled chicken for the grownups, salad, fruit.
- Monday: Leftovers.
- Tuesday: Rotisserie chicken from Costco with roasted broccoli, Yukon Gold potatoes, & onions.
- Wednesday: Slow Cooker Tuscan Chicken Soup, made with the other half of the rotisserie chicken.
- Thursday: Leftover soup.
- Friday: I'm going to try something bean-y & cheese-y with the $.30 Creamette noodles from Jewel -- stay tuned!
- Saturday: MashupDad is itching to grill again, so we'll pull something out of the freezer depending on the mood of the day.
Your turn
How’s your week of meal planning going? Are you cooking mostly out of your pantry, or are you taking advantage of this week’s grocery sales? Let’s inspire each other! And if you’re looking for additional inspiration, read all the Midweek Meal Planning posts (and others’ comments) here.
I second the dislike on tater tot casserole. How did you go about cooking up your Yukon potatoes and onions?
I just used a roasting pan and threw in some potatoes (cut in fairly small pieces) and a cut up onion, then in about 1/4 of the pan I added broccoli florets for Mr. Low Carb here. Threw on some olive oil, a bunch of minced garlic, paprika, sea salt, pepper, and a little shredded Parmesan and tossed to coat, then baked at 400 for... about 45 minutes, stirring once.
If I can remember correctly:
Sunday:
Monday: Leftovers
Tuesday: chicken and cheese enchiladas with Mexican rice and flan for dessert
Wednesday: Kahlua pork on rolls with Asian coleslaw and tater tots (not in casserole form)
Thursday: pork sausage and cabbage on a bed of mashed potatoes
Friday: homemade sausage and pepperoni pizzas
Saturday: Breaded pork chops, noodles, gravy and saurkraut
How do you make the Kahlua pork?
It's a recipe on OurBestBites.com. It's a basic slow cooker recipe for pork. We put bbq sauce on for sandwiches and taco seasonings for tacos. It's basically pink salt and liquid smoke. It's heavenly. 🙂
I forgot that unlike the recipe on the website I put my pork butt on a bed of onions. Also, I used Himalayan pink salt and not Hawaiin Pink Salt; I figure it's close enough.
There's no color in your Tater Tot casserole! 🙂 I I recently came back to this recipe too, but mine is called Tater Tot Pizza Casserole. It has pepperoni, pizza sauce and green peppers in it. Yum! This is the recipe I use:
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/tater-tot-pizza-casserole/06eeb7da-d2ca-4dd8-955b-c29eda37270a
LOL -- I didn't make it, MashupDad and Mr. 8 did from the recipe that his mom used to make. It did need... something! But both kids did love it as is.
I love tater tot casserole! Way more than I should! I use spicy shredded cheese though to give it some more flavor.
I stocked my freezer with meat from Butera last week.
Sun - stuffed peppers
Mon - Leftover cream of mushroom soup chicken with rice
Tues - t-bone steak with green beans
Wed - hamburgers
Thurs - chicken tacos
Fri - I'm making Mississippi Roast on rolls with smash potaoes
Sat -a chicken dish tbd
Tater tot casserole? Never had it, unless it was a brunch item with eggs. I am certain my kid would love it.
Sunday: Had lunch with friends and brought chicken parm leftovers, roast veggies home for dinner
Mon: Wendy's because we were running everywhere!
Tues: Corn chowder with shrimp(Jewel) I've made better soup. This was kind of gross. If anyone has a good corn chowder please share.
Wed: Baked chicken thighs (Caputo's $1.89) with lemon, garlic and mushrooms and pasta from Nerdswithknives.com So good! This will become a part of my dinner rotation.
Thurs: Ate at Costco while shopping and have to say Costco pizza makes me physically sick.
Fri: Making these bacon,cracker, parm cheese concoctions from Pioneer Woman right now. They are appetizers. Roast chicken from Costco with mashed potatoes and green beans.
Sat: Out for pizza and basketball games.
There's a similar recipe here -- there are 10,000 variations http://www.cooks.com/recipe/b75u99i7/tater-tots-casserole.html but they just made the basic one without any of the add-ins or cheese. It would probably be better with add-ins, lol, but...