Meals of the Week, November 3rd - November 9th, 2024

  

Hello everyone and welcome to my Sunday Meals of the Week post!  At the end of each week, I like to do a round-up post of the main meals which I have cooked, eaten and enjoyed from the seven days previous.  These posts contain all of the recipes, plus menu suggestions.  

Some are recipes I have tried for the first time this week, and others are recipes that I have cooked and enjoyed previously.  In some cases, I have eaten out at a restaurant or at a family or friend's place.  In those instances, I have provided a suitable substitute recipe.

This has been something which I have enjoyed doing and which you seem to have enjoyed me sharing.  I have always loved meal and menu planning and have been doing it since my children were small. It helped me when it came to budgeting for my weekly meal expenses, and it also has helped me through the years to be more accountable and to make things interesting for those I am feeding.  

Now that I am a Senior, living on my lonesome and on a fixed budget, I find it really helpful to help to keep me on track and eating properly. When you live on your own it can be really tempting to want to eat frozen dinners, or from a can, or a takeaway.  Most of the time those foods are highly processed and filled with fat, sugar and salt.   When I cook for myself, I can control those things.

Not that it is wrong to enjoy a meal like that on occasion, because it isn't, but a steady diet of them is not very good for you. I like to cook, and I like to eat.  I also hate waste, so most of the time I cut my recipes down drastically to make a more suitable amount for just myself. In the instances where I have not been able to, I try to freeze the excess for another day, or I will share it with my next-door neighbor Sheila who is always appreciative.

In any case, here are my meals of the week for the past seven days. I hope you enjoy reading about them and that you will be inspired to want to cook one or two of them for yourself!  I promise you everything is simple and delicious! (Not to mention budget friendly!)

SUNDAY, November 3rd, 2024 - Sunday Dinner with the family

On Sundays I usually have dinner with my sister, brother-in-law, and father at my sister's house.  I love that she includes me each week. When I was in the U.K. I missed my family very much and having dinner together like this was only a dream, so it really means a lot for me to be included now.

This week she cooked a slap-up Chicken Dinner. All of her dinners are fabulous really. My sister is a great cook. With roasted veggies, mashed spuds and gravy. Sugar free jelly and whippy cream for dessert. Delicious as always. You really cannot beat a good roast chicken dinner!

In it's place I am sharing my recipe for Another Roast Chicken.  For this one you simply spatchcock a whole chicken and then roast it on a bed of vegetables. Garlic, lemon and thyme are used to flavor the chicken, and the vegetables underneath get all nicely flavored from the chicken juices. 

MONDAY, November 4th - Cauliflower Chowder

 Monday felt like a soup kind of day!  I had a lot of running around to do and was in and out all day. I also had a cauliflower in the refrigerator that I wanted to use up. This is a hearty supper soup that always goes down a real treat.  Filled with lovely chunks of celery, carrot, cauliflower and potato, bits of crispy bacon and creamy Pepper Boursin cheese. Rich, filling and very satisfying it is one of my favorite soups.

You could enjoy this with crusty bread if you wish, but I always like to enjoy it with some buttery crackers crumbled over top. I also enjoyed a nice, tossed salad on the side. Soup and a Salad. A brilliant combination.

TUESDAY, November 5th - Garlic Butter Pineapple Chicken

A quick and easy supper was on the menu for me. Garlic Butter Pineapple Chicken. I love this stuff.  It's a beautiful stir fry filled with bags of lovely flavors. Sweet and savory with just a tiny bit of heat.  (I don't like my food to be overly spicy these days. The old stomach can't take it!) I enjoyed this meal with some steamed rice and broccoli.  

Have you ever tried the ready cooked rice in the pouches?  It's perfect for the smaller family. Just the right size with no waste. It's also great for making fried rice.

WEDNESDAY, November 6th - Dinner with Dad, French Canadian Salmon Pie

We did not go out for supper this Wednesday night as is our usual practice.  Instead, dad came here to my place for his supper, and I treated him to a lovely homemade French-Canadian Salmon Pie. My father loves Salmon Pie and so do I.  This is a simple enough pie to make with an easy filling made from flaked salmon, mashed potato, onion and a few herbs, etc.  I always use my Butter Lard Pastry to make it and it just melts in the mouth.  My father really enjoyed it.

I served it with some homemade coleslaw, green beans and pickled beets. We had his favorite sugar free Jello with whippy cream for dessert.  Dad was a very happy camper.

THURSDAY, November 7th - Lasagna Roll Ups

I had a lot of running around to do, again and so I took some of these out of the freezer.  It is my small batch recipe for Lasagna Roll Ups. The recipe makes only four roll ups, which is just enough to enjoy on the day for just myself, and then another serving to freeze.  The recipe feeds two people generously.  I had some in the freezer which I thawed out. I will have to make some more to stick in the freezer as I really love them.

They are rich and delicious. Nice and compact.  They don't slide all over the plate. Everything is tucked into a nice neat little package.  I enjoyed with some crusty bread and a salad on the side. Tasty tasty!

FRIDAY, October 8th - Skillet Sausage & Vegetable Dinner

No fish for me this Friday as I had already had fish earlier in the week. Instead, I made myself a nice skillet meal. I love skillet meals where everything cooks in the one skillet. No fuss and no muss. You can actually vary the vegetables if you wish, but usually I will have a nice meaty sausage, some golden-brown fried potatoes, cabbage and carrots. 

My sister and I make our own sausage from scratch most of the time. This was an apple one that we had made which is lovely. You really don't need anything else with this meal. I like to serve a grainy mustard on the side for dipping that tasty sausage in.  Lovely jubbly.

SATURDAY, November 9th - Pan Seared Steak with Garlic Butter

I picked up a nice steak for 50% off at the grocery store, so I thought I would enjoy that simply cooked, along with some mushrooms and garlic butter.  A few vegetables on the side. I was skipping the carbs!  I figured I had done enough of those this week, plus I had attended a funeral in the morning and enjoyed snacking on a few bits there that I shouldn't have.

This is a great steak recipe. Simple and filled with flavor. Tender and juicy, it is a perfectly seared, cooked and flavored steak. The garlic butter goes perfectly. A cast iron skillet works best, but if you don't have one you can use any skillet with a heavy bottom that can handle a high heat well.

I enjoyed this simply with some steamed beans and broccoli.  It was perfect. You could add a baked potato or some oven chips for the carb lover in your life!

And there you have it.  My Meals of the week for the past seven days. I hope that you will agree that I ate very well and that you will want to try to cook a few of these meals for yourself! You know you are worth it!

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