Dinner this Week - 01.04.15

I am so excited to be back to a schedule this week! While the holidays and some time off have been fabulous, it will be nice for life to return to normal, whatever that is.

One of the big adventures of the week was the death of our downstairs chest freezer. A morning of cold sorting, discarding and rearranging ensued. The bright side is I now have a very clear idea of what we have to move forward planning the coming week's meals to utilize stores and cut the grocery budget for awhile. Since we have a smaller chest freezer on the main level, we have opted to not replace it at this time. All in all, the process made me feel a bit like a hoarder. Replacing the storage space will just allow for storing more food than we really need to have on hand at one time. I like to preserve fresh produce, especially fruit for pies, crisps and smoothies, as well as summer's sweet corn and tomatoes whenever said things are fresh and available affordably, but I've maybe gotten a bit carried away the last few years. How much freezer storage do you have? How full is it? We were lucky, my in-laws were only using about a quarter of their freezer so my three laundry tubs of frozen fruits and veggies are hanging out there until we can get our food supply under control.

One last note on the freezer thing ... fortunately G was in the basement when the freezer made the clunky sound of death. We were able to respond immediately without any concern for the safety of the food in the freezer. If this happens to you, only food that is still firm is safe to return to the freezer. Food that is 40° or colder can be refrigerated and used within standard refrigeration time frames. Food that has thawed and been warmer than 40° should be discarded. Your safety is more important than whatever the value of the food lost.

Finally, you'll notice we eat a lot of oranges these days. Not only are they in season, but we have a half a case to work through. It is a common fundraiser for local FFA chapters to sell fruit and this year we got oranges plus a few apples. Luckily, I knew that I had plenty of apples from a summer pick and freeze and had not ordered a case of apples to freeze as I have the last few years. :)

Sunday

Garlic Butter Baked Crab Legs

Farro with Pistachios and Herbs (I used a wild rice blend and a dried herb blend as they were in my pantry.)

Steamed Cauliflower

Oranges

Monday

Chili and Cornbread

Oranges

Tuesday

Leftover Chili and Cornbread

Oranges

Wednesday

Pork Chops with Mushroom Pan Gravy

Leftover Rice with Pistachios

Steamed Broccoli

Apple Wedges

Thursday

Breakfast for Dinner

Scrambled Eggs

Bacon

Toast

Oranges

Friday

Chicken Fajitas

Oranges

Saturday

Dinner out or takeout

Have a great week!