My Latest Plan of Attack

There must be something with the season changes that makes us women go into a nesting mode at this time of year. Either that or the thought of 8 weeks of football practice and starting another year of home school has me scrambling to make life easier on myself. My grande plan of attack is in creating, yet again and hopefully actually using, a menu for our school days. In past years we have used a 4 day 2 week rotating lunch menu that we use during the school year. I usually buy my groceries in bulk at Aldis, normally 1-2 months at a time, so I am used to stocking up. We have designated a big Rubbermaid tote as our "school tote" and keep our school food in there and not for general use. The theory is that the kids can rotate making lunches as I finish working with the others. We have very simple meals.

Week 1:

Monday~Baked ham and cheese sandwich, tomato soup, fruit

Tuesday~ Mac and Cheese with hot dogs and a veggie

Wednesday~ Egg and tortilla wrap, summer sausage, yogurt and fruit

Thursday~ Sloppy joes, baked beans, pudding
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Week 2:

Monday~ Cold sandwich, fruit

Tuesday~ Homemade pizza

Wednesday~ Ramen noodles, summer sausage, veggie

Thursday~ Kalua Pork (recipe below), pasta salad

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All of the ingredients can be easily stored in our tote or in the freezer for a couple of months at a time. Eggs are normally aplenty around here, as is pork for the Kalua Pork. We freeze the sloppy joes ahead of time and take out enough to double as lunches (as well as the Kalua pork) on Friday. So, being the plan seems to work so well we decided to come up with a 4 day 2 week rotating supper menu that we could make ahead and freeze. Our school schedule only runs Monday thru Thursday since Rob is home every Friday. The beauty of this plan is that I still have 3 days a week that I can cook whatever I want to but during the school days I don't have to worry about what to cook. If we get tired of the current menu we can always come up with a different 2 week menu. Today was the big cook off day. Our supper menu this time around is as follows (click on the links for the recipes):

Week 1:

Monday~Roast with veggies

Tuesday~ Chicken and Broccoli hotdish (recipe below) with Rice

Wednesday~Cheese and olive stuffed meatloaf (recipe below), Scalloped potatoes

Thursday~ Baked Pork chops, applesauce, veggie

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Week 2:

Monday~ Baked Spaghetti (recipe below) and veggie

Tuesday~ Tator Tot Hotdish, (not your traditional tomato based hot dish, this one has brats, cheese and sour cream~ yummy!) veggie

Wednesday~Still trying to figure out this day

Thursday~ Chili or Taco Soup

We started by thawing pounds and pounds of hamburger and getting out all of the cooking supplies. Trent likes to make the tator tot hotdish so I started him with cutting up brats.

I boiled a bag of chicken breasts in a pot of water and chicken bouillon cubes then let them cool and cut them up for the start of the Chicken and Broccoli hotdish. Grace and Micah helped layer the cheese.

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Chicken and Broccoli Hotdish

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3#'s Chicken breast, cooked and cut into bite size pieces

1 package of frozen broccoli

1 can sliced water chestnuts

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1/2 can milk

1/2 cup mayonnaise

8 slices american cheese

1 pkg dried onion rings

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Layer chicken, broccoli and water chestnuts in a 9x13 pan. Cover with cheese slices. Combine cream of mushroom soup, milk and mayonnaise and pour over hotdish. Cover and bake for 40 mn at 350 degrees. Sprinkle dried onion rings on top and bake uncovered another 10 mn. Serve over white rice.

Cole manned the stove and kept us supplied with browned hamburger so we could make chili, taco soup and sloppy joes.

Grace and Micah sliced olives for our Baked Spaghetti hotdishes. Rather than making a traditional Lasagna I just lay cooked spaghetti noodles in a 9x13 pan, cover with hamburger and spaghetti sauce, then sprinkle with shredded mozzarella, shredded cheddar and Parmesan and then top with black olives. Bake until cooked through.

Cheese and Olive stuffed Meatloaf

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Make your favorite meatloaf recipe~ I always make mine a bit different depending on what I have on hand, but traditionally 2# hamburger, broken up saltines, (or dried bread crumbs or even oatmeal), a couple of eggs, ketchup, chopped onions or dry onion soup mix and seasonings. Roll your meatloaf on a piece of tinfoil into a rectangle and then top with shredded cheddar cheese and black olives. Roll your meatloaf up, jelly roll style, tucking in the ends. Seal the tinfoil around the meatloaf roll and bake in a bread pan. 350 for about 40 minutes or until cooked through, drain grease off after 20 mn.

We froze 3 pans of chicken and broccoli hotdish, 3 pans of baked spaghetti, 3 pans of tator tot hotdish, 2 generous batches of chili, 1 generous batch of taco soup, and 3 gallon bags of sloppy joes. 3 servings of meatloaf is in the plans for tonight to get ready for the freezer. Between the crock pot meals and all the frozen dishes I should have about 6 weeks of school day suppers in the freezer ready to make my life easier. Oh yes, and that Kalua Pork recipe:

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Kalua Pork (A delicious pulled pork sandwich recipe)

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3# pork roast

1 bottle liquid smoke

1/2 cup water

1 tsp salt

1 Tblsp garlic powder

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Cook in a crockpot for 4-8 hours. Pull pork apart and serve on buns. Enjoy!

And since I was freezing so much ahead I made up a double batch of Rhubarb Slushies. Whew! Now what's for supper tonight??

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