Fall Menu Plan 2

Fall Soups and more…

Tomato soup, beef barley soup, a roast chicken, stir fries, and salads.

Welcome to Week Two of menu planning. Our goal is to have seasonal, chef-quality food. Done right, meals should be time-efficient, healthy, tastyand not break the bank.

Fall Menu Week 2

Best Way to Use This

This is a one-week plan. There are more plans here.  You can:
  • Follow the plan exactly, cook just enough and never think about dinner this week
  • Look at the recipes and choose one on a night you’re not inspired (though you still risk trips to the store!)
  • Overcook, and freeze. You’ll have a bunch of meals stockpiled for a really busy week.  This is how you can stockpile meals when ingredients are on sale.  More on “stockpiling vs hoarding” later.

Week Two Basic Ingredients:

Many of these should be staples in your pantry or freezer. When you see meats on sale, grab them and freeze them in sizes you’ll be likely to use. Keep rices, onions, and veggies on hand. You can also freeze things like tortillas and bread.

  • stew beef
  • one thawed roasted chicken
  • 1 cans or jar of tomatoes
  • eggs
  • Lettuce
  • Produce:
    • salad veggies (a tomato, cucumber, lettuce)
    • cabbage
    • Potatoes
    • green beans
    • Carrots
    • celery
    • onions
    • Mushrooms (optional)
  • Arborio and regular rice
  • Kalamata olives
  • Parm cheese
  • Cream (or some milk substitute)
  • Butter
  • barley (or sub out some tiny pasta)
  • Homemade or store bought salsa (optional for quesadilla night)
  • cheese
    • cheddar or other for quesadillas
    • parm for risotto
    • optional: mozzarella or gruyere for tomato soup

Food prep

On shopping day: Slice the mushrooms. Dice three large onions. Dice celery and carrots (about a cup each).

Recipes:

Tomato soup
Beef & Barley soup
Stir-fried rice
Quesadillas (I’m linking to Grilled Cheese here–this is a sneaky substitute. There is very little different between the two other than the outside shell. Use the same principles in “grilled cheese” to mix up your quesadilla night. It doesn’t have to be cheddar cheese and salsa).