So, planning menus has not been easy lately. My husband, on a hunch, cut out dairy from his diet and, guess what? He hasn't been having near the stomach problems. Do you have any idea how many recipes use some form of dairy? Even butter bothers him. We are in the process of trying some of those Lactaid pills (or whatever they are) along with some other vitamin based on the recommendation of someone else who has been through a dairy "allergy".
I decided to go back and look at last years menu plan for the last week of the year/first week of the new year because, honestly, I'm out of ideas. I should do this more often :-) Here is our plan for the coming week.
Friday - leftovers we have LOTS
Saturday - Today we celebrate Christmas with Darryl's family. We are just doing a cookie exchange so I am going to make Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies - they are loved by everyone, easy, and the recipe makes more than enough cookies. As far as dinner - we will stop and get something on the way home from the Nursing Home (where we have Christmas since his Grandma lives there). Depending on the time, we'll either get something to eat in the truck or make a quick stop for something good.
Sunday - Roast, Carrots, Potatoes, and rolls. A typical winter Sunday Dinner!
Monday - we'll have a pantry meal tonight
Tuesday - New Years Eve! Last year I started a tradition that I want to continue and that is doing soups for dinner. This year, I'm going to make Chicken Noodle Soup and Old Fashion Veggie Soup. I'll add a nice loaf of bread (so the kids will eat HA!). We plan on doing a few fun things with the kids and maybe even letting them stay up until like 8:30 (a whole hour later!) which should be fun. After they go to bed, Darryl and I like to have our traditional snacks. What we will have? I have no idea yet. I'm waiting, at this writing, to see how those pills work since 99% of our favorite snacks have cheese in them HA! IF life is good, we'll have Bacon Crescent Wraps, Nachos, Fruit (because it makes me feel healthy hehehe), and shrimp cocktail. I'm really working on not going over board on our snacks ;-)
Wednesday - New Years Day! In the past I've planned these big dinners that we never end of eating. So, lets keep it real. I'm going to take a pork loin out and make pulled pork BBQ, Cole Slaw, The Best Baked Beans, and some chips. I can prep it all on Tuesday so I just have to cook it all today. With young kids, we tend to still eat at "normal" times so for lunch I'm thinking breakfast (i.e brunch) so maybe eggs, bacon, toast, tater tots and fruit.
Thursday - Leftovers! I know we will have left over soup and most likely, left over pork from earlier in the week so . .. we'll clean out the fridge tonight for dinner so I have room to put new groceries!
