October 21 - 27, 2018
I’m really enjoying posting these meal plans. Like I mentioned before, I am definitely a fan of making my own meal plans and reading others peoples'. I guess that goes along with my fascination with recipes in general.
If you don’t have access to the recipes mentioned in my meal plans, hopefully you can find a satisfactory substitute in your repertoire. And I’d love if you would share your meal plans with me or make suggestions for other recipes I should try.
We are finding that Dad is struggling to keep his appetite these days. It is so important that his meals have lots of calories and lots of flavour. We are also finding that almost everything needs to be ground up now, and there aren’t a lot of foods that are the right consistency in their natural state. That makes cooking (and eating!) a challenge, but we keep on trying.
Photographing food has been a bit challenging of late, especially since it is dark so early now, and the days have been so grey. Thanks for bearing with me!
Meal Planning
This week featured a classic Sunday dinner, a couple of soups, breakfast for dinner, a chicken dish and a ground beef and pasta family favourite.
Here’s my meal plan for last week (October 21 – 27):
Sunday: Roast beef dinner with oven roasted potatoes, carrots and gravy.
This is pretty simple and a classic at our house. I make this at least once a month.
Put a roast (we like eye of the round) in a roasting pan with about 1 1/2 inches of water in the bottom and a beef bouillon cube. Add two peeled, whole onions. Roast at 325 F, covered, for 3 hours. After 1 1/2 hours add washed potatoes and peeled whole carrots to the roasting pan. Use the drippings to make gravy.
Dad enjoys leftover roast beef ground up with mustard, pickle relish and mayonnaise.
Monday: Cabbage Patch Soup from the "Crazy Plates" cookbook by Janet and Greta Podleski. Sadly this cookbook is now out of print, but perhaps you can find a copy at your local library or a used bookstore. And happily copies are still available on Amazon!
Tuesday: Chicken Divan, Lightened Up with brown rice.
This is one of my favourite dishes. I make it with a cut up rotisserie chicken instead of chicken breasts and use regular Cheddar cheese instead of Swiss. I also omit the sherry.
Wednesday: Breakfast for dinner.
I like to fry up leftover roasted potatoes (from Sunday's roast beef dinner) and serve alongside scrambled eggs, bacon and toast. One of our favourite things is Scrambled Egg Sandwiches – just scrambled eggs topped with ketchup and served on toasty white bread. Okay, not the healthiest of meals, but yummy and comforting!
Thursday: Crispy Potatoes and Sausage with fried onions, carrots and squash. Delicious and different!
Dad especially enjoyed the potatoes. Mom had cooked a sweet potato for him, but he kept stealing her potatoes as well! I used PC 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese on the potatoes, but I think fresh would give a more cheesy flavour.
My favourite sausage is Hayter’s Farm Honey Garlic sausage which is made with turkey. There are only 4/pkg and next time I would definitely use two packages so that we have some leftovers. It's a great-tasting, lean sausage and very flavourful. If you live in Huron County, you can find Hayter’s Farm products at Shanahan’s Quality Meats in Goderich. If you can't find those, any honey garlic-flavoured sausage would work.
In order to make the sausage more palatable for Dad since it did not have any sauce, Mom baked an apple and combined it with some maple syrup and sweet potato cooking water. She then ground up the sausage with the apple and liquids, and Dad was looking for more the next day.
Friday: Mom’s Corn Chowder and biscuits (recipe to come).
Saturday: Uncomplicated Lasagne with Caesar salad.
Verdict
I liked the variety of meals we had this week. I love Chicken Divan and forgot what an easy dish that is. The Crispy Potatoes and Sausage were a surprise hit, and I'm so glad that my dad enjoyed them so much. As for the lasagne, it's been way too long since I made it and that was a treat as well. Note: It is even better on Day 2.
I hope you'll comment and let me know your family's favourite dishes!
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