What's for Dinner - Week of 3/21/11

The craziness has begun . . . we are officially in baseball season!  Patrick is playing for his high school JV team.  Conor is on his school team as well as a travel team.  And Aidan is officially giving it a go this year on his school team.  Mark is only coaching two of those teams this year!  But not to forget that both Liam and Rowan are playing soccer this spring, which also starts this week.  Crazy!

Between the scads of laundry from all of the practices and games, the driving around to all of the aforementioned practices and games, and then attending the games; dinners are next to impossible to pull off much less achieve a quorum for.  Food is thrown at the boys as they are walking out or in the door.  My goal for the next couple of months is to try to cut down on, as much as possible, the fallback of fast food.  Difficult as it may seem, it simply requires a different level of planning.  Food that can last on the stove top or in the oven, or food that can be cooked quickly and in shifts is needed.  We will see!

I am still in the midst of cleaning out the freezer of food.  It never fails . . . those items that I didn't label, because I was sure I wouldn't forget what it was, has been forgotten.  Ugh!  I hate when that happens!  Mystery meals are never a winner and certainly hard to plan for.  I am making good headway in the freezer though.

For the meals . . .

Monday:  General Tso's Chicken, brown rice, edamame
                  I have some popcorn chicken in the freezer.  The General Tso's was a big hit a couple of weeks ago, so I am giving it another go with a mix I picked up at the store.

Tuesday:  Potato Leek Soup, salad, biscuits
                  I have the soup from the freezer along with the biscuits.  I also have some odds and ends to round out the meal for the non-soup eaters (a pot pie here, a individual pizza there).

Wednesday:  Turkey Stuffing Roll-ups, salad
                  I found a container of left-over stuffing and some turkey gravy in the freezer that I will combine with store-bought turkey slices.  This will hold well for the crazy night of practices and running.

Thursday:  Pork Tenderloin, cheesy potatoes, green beans
                  Everything from the freezer for this meal!  The cheesy potatoes were one of the unlabeled containers.  Thankfully the cornflakes on top gave it away!

Friday:  Fish Fry at Church
                  Love those Lenten fish frys!

Saturday:  Conor's Birthday Dinner, cake
                  As yet undecided.  Most likely of the Mexican variety.

Sunday:  Homemade Italian Meatballs and Spaghetti, salad, bread
                  I have Johnsville Italian sausage to review and it is in the freezer (so it counts!).  Bread is from the freezer as well.

I am really surprising myself with how much I have been able to make just centered around things I already have in my freezer.  I am going to need to be a little more creative next week as I wind this challenge down.

Enjoy your week!

I am participating in Menu Plan Monday over at http://www.orgjunkie.com/!