Monday Meal Plan April 25

You might have noticed that I didn't post a meal plan last week. I started one but I was sick on Monday and never quite got around to finishing it. Bad idea. Very bad idea. No meal plan = too much money spent. We ate out a couple of times and went to the store one might just to buy supplies for subs. (That wasn't so bad...we got both dinner and lunch out of those.)

We had a lovely Easter dinner. The last few years we've gone away for Easter but I have a busy schedule in May and just wanted to spend it at home. We didn't want to do a big family meal but we wanted to have a special meal for the two of us. So we bought a rack of lamb. I hadn't the foggiest clue how to properly cook lamb. It's not something I grew up eating but I do like it. (I have very, very fond memories of some lamb chops in Paris.) Food blogs to the rescue! I more or less followed this Spring Lamb with Rosemary recipe from Leite's Culinaria. I really hadn't quite found it yet by the time I had already smeared the lamb with a mixture of garlic and rosemary, it just seemed like the right thing to do. I did follow the cooking directions though...mostly. After 20 minutes the temperature of the lamb wasn't quite where I wanted it to be so I stuck it back in for another 4 minutes. It was cooked perfectly for us -- more medium rare than rare -- and melted in your mouth. (Note: our lamb might not have been totally at room temp. It had been out for over an hour but still was a bit cool to the touch. I'd still check it after 20 minutes next time.) Yum! The fake husband was smitten with it. Best part? We won't be eating leftovers for the next week. It was just enough for the two of us. I don't think we'll be buying lamb racks (or shanks) except for special occasions but I do think chops will show up on our menu more often.

I also made babka for the first time in years and as I was making it I was reminded that I'm not really crazy about the recipe I use. It's good but not great ... and makes way more than the recipes says it will. There is no way a bread recipe that uses eight cups of flour is going to fit into two 9x5 loaf pans. I used three. I possibly should have used four (it rose a LOT). The two extra enormous loaves are in the freezer.

But all that was last week. Let's talk this week shall we?

Monday: We have quite a few grape tomatoes that are looking rather sad. I'll give them a quick roast and make a roasted tomato sauce and serve it on top of some frozen pasta. I have some kind of cheese-stuffed frozen pasta in the freezer (tortellini maybe?).

Tuesday: Tacos. Kits were on sale and we had a coupon. I'll be dumping the seasoning packet though and spicing the meal myself. It's tastier and has way less salt and other crap that way.

Wednesday: Pork chops and sweet potatoes. Anyone got something they really love to do with pork? We're getting a bit blah on our usuals. Also looking for pork tenderloin ideas. We have a few of those in the freezer.

Thursday: Just me for dinner. I'll scrounge.

Friday: It's gonna be a long day. Up early to watch the royal wedding, which I wasn't going to do. I was going to watch the primetime coverage but then I remembered I'm not going to be home at primetime because we have ballet tickets. (And yes, I'm serious about watching. William's face is going to be on my money some day you know.) It's gonna be a loonnnggg day (I need to figure out how to sneak in a nap). So I'm thinking something quick and easy like chicken breasts pounded thin, breaded and thrown into the over for 15 minutes. Salad or broccoli on the side.

Saturday: Pizza night. Maybe we'll do grilled pizza.

Sunday: I believe we're inviting my in-laws over (including BIL and SIL) for a late lunch/early dinner so it will be burger and sausages on the grill. Need to figure out sides. I'm thinking potato salad... possibly Jamie Oliver's evolution potato salad. I love it.

Extras: We're plum out of bread and butter jalapenos and that will simply not do if we're having people over for burgers so I must make those. (The trick is to put them on the burgers while they are on the grill, place the slice of cheese over it and let the cheese melt down over the jalapenos. They don't slide around when you're trying to eat your burger that way.) I might also need to make some "regular" bread because I'm not sure we can eat three loaves of babka in a row. I'm considering making a batch of Neely's barbecue sauce (hmm the recipe in their book is different...interesting) because in their book it says it stores in the fridge for two months. Most bbq sauce recipe I see seem to only last a couple of days in the fridge. But I'm undecided on that. I might just pull some of the Dr. Pepper bbq sauce out of the freezer but that probably has more kick to it than my in-laws can handle.

What are you cooking this week?

Contributing Editor Karen Ballum also blogs at Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.