Changing Things

I have decided I am going to start posting my menu and food plan on Sundays because I am trying something a little different.

While watching a Youtube video I recently heard the term cascading menu and the vlogger explained what she meant. (I wish I could remember who she was and I would share the link) She makes her menu based on what she will have left over from her meals, cooks or preps items to be used for more than one meal. I thought I would give it a try and plan 2 weeks of meals as a test.

I do not know of any song about cascading anything but I have heard of The Cascades before.

I think I will like the idea of doing this as long as I can make sure we have very different meals using whatever is left, cooked, or prepped at the same time.

I can eat leftovers, but I have to reform them for TheHub. And honestly neither of us love monotonous meals.

Yep, I guess time will tell.

Planned for this week:

1. Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, green beans, cucumber salad

2. BBQ cheeseburger waffles, cauliflower side dish TBD

3. Chicken divan (ton of broccoli left over from Sunday's dinner to use)

4. Hot and sour soup, spring rolls

5. Big salad meal TBD

6. Potential celebration meal at a restaurant

7.Spaghetti w/ meat sauce, tossed salad

How this cascading thing actually worked:

Monday:

Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, green beans, cucumber salad - scratched the green beans and used spinach leftover from egg bites made and frozen for breakfasts. Instead of mashed potatoes, I served my meatballs on caulirice.

Tuesday:

Chicken divan over rice - used broccoli left over from Sunday's dinner, and cauliflower rice from the Swedish meatball meal. While I was poaching the chicken for for the divan, I cooked enough for the cheesesteak casserole (planned for next week) figuring I might as well kill two birds with one stone. I fortified the poaching liquid with a little Better than Bouillon, because I needed about 2 tablespoons of rich stock for the chicken divan. The rest of the liquid was saved as a base for the hot and sour soup. While slicing the mushrooms for the chicken divan I also sliced them for the soup meal. 

Wednesday:

Hot and sour soup, spring rolls - Used mushrooms and chicken broth from chicken divan night. The hot and sour soup was not vegetarian because it had chicken broth as it's base, but it had no meat or fish in it. In addition to the white mushrooms sliced while making the chicken divan, I added baby bellas. They have a slightly different flavor and a meatier texture. After they were prepped I realized I did not need all the white mushrooms I sliced. I put the extras in some seasoned vinegar and oil to use in the salad meal. 

The spring rolls were just matchstick slices of red onion, carrot, cucumber, celery, radish, cabbage and red pepper. While the red onion was out, I cut several slices to make a quick pickled onion for the chef's salad meal and chopped some for the cheeseburger waffle meal. I also sliced red pepper for the salad and chopped a little for the waffle meal.

Thursday:

Out to eat at The Electric. Flatbread for TheHub, pimento cheese BLT for me

Friday:

Out to eat at Baumhower's . Hot Lips salad for me (very hot sauce brushed on the chicken that tops the salad) Shrimp Po boy for TheHub.

Saturday:

Lunch:

Italian chef's salad (moved to Saturday's lunch) - Used the marinated mushrooms  and pickled onions prepped when making the soup meal. Also used the marinade liquid to make the salad dressing. This was much smaller than it would have been as a dinner meal. I have lots of marinated mushrooms and pickled onion leftover for salad lunches next week.

Dinner:

BBQ cheeseburger waffles, coleslaw (booted cauliflower side dish and opted for coleslaw) - Used the chopped onion from soup night. Cooked ground chuck for next week's cottage pie while cooking for this meal.

Sunday: 

Spaghetti w/ meat sauce, tossed salad - Though we will not have eaten before this is posted, it really does not matter. Nothing was used from any other meals. 

I made and froze then sauce Monday morning  before I ever heard the term cascading menu.  But that does not exclude the possibility of something from this moving into next weeks menu.

The first week was pretty easy to do. I guess the true test will be to see what happens the second week.

 

Week 2 plans:

Chicken cheesesteak casserole, green beans

Grilled tuna steaks, mashed potatoes, tossed salad

Chicken cacciatore, spinach salad, spaghetti

Cottage pie, coleslaw

Grilled steak/w cowboy butter, baked potato, tossed salad

Vegetable "crab" cakes, fries, hushpuppies, coleslaw

out to eat

Have a great week staying on plan, going off plan, or with no plan at all!