Weekly Menu Plan

Last week's plan was good, at least what I made of it. L's work hours + me having the worst headache ever made for a couple of days at the end of the week where we winged it rather than cooking what was planned.

Laura has a theme this week of family favorites, so I tried to cut back on the new recipes and concentrate on some favs.

Sunday - Pioneer Woman's Lasagna. We've had this once and it was fantastic. But I still am counting it as a family favorite because lasagna in general certainly is one and this is probably L's favorite of all the versions I've made. I like mine with less meat and more mushrooms, something like this double mushroom one but made with a white sauce instead of the cream soup.

Monday - Skillet meatloaf with mashed potatoes and peas. Because, according to L, peas must always be served with mashed potatoes. I had no idea there were such strict rules about such things. This is definitely a family favorite. The recipe is from Desperation Dinners but the concept is simple - make your regular meatloaf, but instead of forming it into a loaf, make it into patties and cook them on the stovetop. After cooking them on one side, flip them and pour some ketchup/tomato sauce/glaze of your choice over the top and allow to finish cooking. One pound of meat makes 6 nicely-sized patties and they get a delicious sear which is my favorite part.

Tuesday - Veggie pizza. I'm going to try and make my own pizza crust for the first time ever, but I do have some pitas that can be used in a pinch if the crust doesn't look like it's going to work. I'm using a recipe from Marcy Goldman's A Passion for Baking. She gives instructions for using a stand mixer so I'm going to give that a try. You don't have to have the book though - this version is available for free from her site, BetterBaking.com. Toppings will be whatever veggies I can find in the fridge - most likely peppers and mushrooms.

Wednesday - Leftovers - I think we'll have a lot from the previous nights. If we don't, we'll probably have sandwiches.

Thursday - Chicken fingers. If we're not pasta'd out from the lasagna, most likely we'll have them with macaroni and cheese and broccoli, our usual sides. This is a favorite, but I may try a different version of the chicken just to get some variety in the week's menu - I'm very tempted by the firecracker chicken from America's Test Kitchen, but it sounds like it may be too much work for a weeknight.

Friday - Black bean quesadillas. Because they keep getting bumped off our menu and they truly are the perfect end-of-the-week meal as far as I'm concerned; ingredients mostly from the pantry, quick and easy to make, and not too much cleanup.