Menu for Week Starting 7/25/2016

Normally, the weekends are ‘fluid’ and we don’t really have menus planned this past week though we did. Well that backfired a little. This past week we ended up with a really busy weekend. We have friends who are moving (sadness) and helped them pack up. As a result a couple of our menu items have been shifted around from what was originally planned for.

We had planned to ‘bulk’ grill Friday night and carry several of those items forward during the week. We will instead be doing the grilling Monday evening. As a result we shifted the meal we had planned for last Friday to Monday. That is why you won’t see any items for those dishes in the shopping list below.

Here is what we have to look forward too:

Menu for Week Starting 7/17/2016

This week we have a full week of dinner menus. Normally, the weekends are ‘fluid’ and we don’t really have anything planned. That means we usually end up eating out at least one meal. Usually Sunday.

Well this week summer is forecast to be hitting hard and that means the A/C will be running full tilt. So we need to start planning now for that huge electric bill that will be coming shortly.

So this week we have several new crock pot (or slow cooker) meals at the beginning of the week and we will end the week by grilling, in fact we will be ‘batch’ grilling the meat for several meals for the weekend and next week come Friday.

Here is what we have to look forward too:

Menu for Week Starting 7/11/2016

We found a great deal on a ham this week. Even though it does require using the oven to prep it the first day we will be able to use it for several dishes later in the week. Additionally we will help make up for it with several ‘no cook’ and crock pot meals during the week..

Menu for Week Starting 7/4/2016

With the 4th of July holiday this week I have a vacation day so I thought it would be a great day to smoke a brisket. It also fits in with trying to save electricity by cooking out. The brisket will also come up later in the week. This week we will be doing some slow cooker meals.

This last week we actually began to see our efforts to save electricity reflected in our bill. Yay 🙂

Menu for Week Starting 6/27/2016

This week is also one of our “Theme Weeks.”

This week is Eastern Asian theme week. A good number of our dishes ended up hailing from Thailand.

As before our menu consists of several slow cooker meals and some quick stove top dishes so that we don’t heat the house during peak electric rates.

Menu for Week Starting 6/27/2016

This week is also one of our “Theme Weeks.”

This week is Eastern Asian theme week. A good number of our dishes ended up hailing from Thailand.

As before our menu consists of several slow cooker meals and some quick stove top dishes so that we don’t heat the house during peak electric rates.

Menu for Week Starting 6/20/2016

This week is our first “Theme Week.”

We would like to thank Natascha, a Canadian English teacher living in Spain, for her submission. The theme is Latin food. It includes recipes from Latin America (Mexico, Central and South America). We also are trying to limit these recipes to energy efficient cooking methods to fit into our “summer rates” menu planning.

Natascha gave us our dinner for Wednesday night, Fish escabeche (Hot marinated fish).

Natascha also has her own blog that we follow, Natascha’s Palace, where she posts many other delicious recipes. It’s a site well worth visiting.

This week we will be making several slow cooker meals so that we don’t heat the house during peak electric rates. The Fish escabeche (Hot marinated fish) isn’t one of those meals. However, fish cooks extremely quick on the stove top and the vegetables are only lightly cooked so that they still maintain their fresh crunchiness. So it qualifies as a quick stove top meal. It sounds delicious. I’m personally very excited to give it a try.

Menu for Week Starting 6/13/2016

This week we really start trying to work with our “summer rates” menu planning. This week we will be doing several slow cooker meals and grilling so that we don’t heat the house during peak electric rates. I hope we can keep it up. Hopefully we will get some help with our Theme Week submissions 🙂

Menu for Week Starting 6/6/2016

With the electric company starting their summer rates we have started altering our menu plans to use lower energy cooking methods as mentioned in our Theme Week post. This week we will be doing several slow cooker meals. We are still making some oven cooked (we do have a gas oven but it still heats the house some) meals but next week we will doing even more energy efficient cooking.

Menu for Week Starting 5/29/2016

Last week we took a little winery trip to Stable Ridge Winery located on old route 66. There, as you may remember, we discovered a new wine, a lemon wine, called Soleil . So this week I am going to try and  use our Lemon Spaghetti with Chicken recipe as a basis for a new recipe using this wine. We will be trying that on Monday. Since it is a holiday here I should have time to think about it. Then on Friday we are going to try a recipe for Swedish Baked Potatoes the description given on the site My Extended Weekend just sounded irresistible.