The One in Which Denise Posts The Fall Menu

I so enjoyed having my dinners taken care of for the whole summer that I want to do it again for fall.

I've changed the menu so that we have seasonally appropriate dishes and also so that we get some variety.

My husband is used to me cooking something different all the time. He says it's been an adjustment to switch to having the same 14 meals for 3 months. Realistically, however, most families do eat the same 15 meals again and again.

I love to try out new recipes and will watch the cooking network and get excited to try out new stuff. The problem with it is that it gets expensive. You have to go buy all new spices and veggies and whatnot for that one particular dish. There are a few things that I can make with the staples I already keep on hand, but it's unlikely that the new recipe that inspires me happens to have it's fixins already in my pantry and freezer.

Certainly, instead of making 6 each of the seasonal meals, you could come up with twice as many recipes (or combine the summer and fall menus) and only make 3 of each. Also, you could change around the spices on your basic dishes to change the flavor. Week One's beef kabobs could be mediterranean flavored and Week Three's could have asian inspired seasonings.

So, with our teeny grocery budget, the fall menu will rotate the following 13 meals(Sundays stay the same):


Monday:
Week One and Three - spaghetti
Week Two and Four - baked ziti

Tuesday:
Week One and Three - pizza roll ups
Week Two and Four - cheeseburger roll ups

Wednesday:
Week One and Three - beef stew
Week Two and Four - chicken and dumplings

Thursday:
Week One and Three - chicken noodle soup
Week Two and Four - mini meatball soup (also called wedding soup)

Friday:
Week One and Three - meatball subs
Week Two and Four - steak sandwiches

Saturday:
Week One and Three - beef kabobs and rice
Week Two and Four - chicken kabobs and rice

Sundays:
meatloaf


This menu contains a lot more crockpot meals than the summer menu mostly because I don't plan to be infirmed during the fall months like I had for the summer months. I can put a little more time into the prep on the day of the meal -- although I still want to keep it really simple.

KABOBS


For the kabobs, I'd like to try getting them all cooked and grilled in advance and cook the seasoned rice also and put it all into a disposable casserole dish to be heated in the oven before serving. I'll do a sample on this and make sure it doesn't turn out too tough. If it does, then I'll just get the seasonings prepped for the rice, get the kabobs skewered and marinated and then freeze the raw kabobs so they are ready to defrost and put on the indoor grill or under the broiler.


MEATLOAF



I plan to shape the meatloaves in advance and wrap them in saran (so they can keep their shape until frozen) and place them in a freezer bag with chopped stew vegetables. Then I'll put the whole thing frozen (minus the saran wrap) into the crockpot on Saturday night and place it in the fridge. On Sunday morning we need only place the crockpot into the base and turn it on before church. I think some frozen cornbread muffins defrosting on the counter would be delicious with this if I have the freezer space for that.

SPAGHETTI AND ZITI:



The ziti instructions are in the summer menus. It was a favorite so we're keeping it. The spaghetti we make new on the night we're serving it, with boxed pasta and canned sauce and meat. I might make up meatballs to toss in it if I have freezer space and time. Spaghetti is something my family loves so we have it often. I prefer to make my own sauce but it's more fuss and I'm not sure the family cares enough to make it worth the effort of doing it that way every time. Last night I stirred in a block of cream cheese that I'd purchased and frozen when it was on sale for $1. I cut off the foil wrap, defrosted and warmed it in the microwave while the pasta was cooking and then stirred it in with the spaghetti sauce to make creamy tomato pasta. The kids really liked it. The consistency of the cream cheese was not affected by freezing it.

MINI MEATBALL AND CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP:



I think for this I will get everything ready and cooked in broth so that the meatballs and chicken and veggies are already cooked through. Then I'll put it into a freezer bag, freeze it and warm it through with cooked rice or noodles to serve. I think if I added the rice or noodles in advance they would just get mushy soaking up all the sauce. This could be put in the crockpot to warm also and let the rice or noodles cook during the warming process.

STEW AND CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS:



These will get set up raw with seasonings and put into freezer bags. On the day of cooking, I'll dump the frozen contents into the crockpot, and add the broth. The dumplings will get added to the chicken and dumplings at the end. I make them from the bisquick recipe or you could use canned biscuits which keep in the fridge for a long time.

MEATBALL SUBS AND STEAK SANDWICH:




I'll make the meatballs up, cook them and freeze them in a freezer bag. I'll also freeze some well wrapped hoagie rolls for both sandwiches and cheese for both sandwiches. For the meatball subs, I'll pour jarred spaghetti sauce over the top and broil them with the cheese to melt.

For the steak sandwiches, I'll either prepare some strip steak on the grill and slice it and freeze it with onions and peppers, or I'll just freeze some roast beef lunch meat in the package and defrost it to assemble the sandwiches.

ROLL UPS:



The roll ups recipe is in the summer menu.


I think the fall menu will take up less space than the summer menu because it includes more freezer bags and fewer casserole dishes. This means a little more prep and clean up -- you need to put it into your crockpot instead of just sticking the whole casserole dish into your oven and then you need to clean your crockpot afterwards. Since I'm not using so many disposable casserole dishes this season, I could probably afford crockpot liners, but I'm also not nauseous this season so there's no reason to not be able to wash out a crockpot.

I do have breakfasts, lunches and snacks planned also, but have tried to make those from shelf items and not freezer items. If there is room, it'd be great to have muffins and cinnamon rolls in the freezer. The kids know that every afternoon they can open a package of cookies or a package of crackers as a snack. I try to keep snacks at $1 per pack and definitely not more than $2. My kids will eat a whole package of whatever I get in one afternoon.

This is a really lengthy post but I hope it might be useful to someone. It has been HEAVENLY to have dinners all done for the summer and it took me only a few little pockets of time over 3 weeks to get 3 months of meals prepared. The kids have had much peace knowing in advance what is for dinner. I KNOW this will be very handy when we're out having fun enjoying the fallidays and can come home to a hot meal in the crockpot. Makes me feel like I have a personal chef! :)