Welcome to the first installment of Monday Meals!  I’ll be sharing eats from the previous week and also creating a meal plan for the upcoming week.  Meal plans are a new thing for me so and I will definitely be learning as I go.  At the end of this post I will also be sharing where I purchased some of the items.

A perfectly roasted a gorgeous looking chicken provided many meals for us last week.  It was huge!  And also tasty.  I rubbed the chicken down with lard (you can use grassfed butter instead) and sprinkled that with:

• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic
• All Purpose Seasoning (Made by Simply Organic, it’s similar to poultry seasoning)
• Dried Tarragon

I added probably a cup of chicken stock to the cast iron and let the chicken roast at 375 until it was done.  Took close to two hours for this large bird.  I also roasted some carrots and potatoes to go with the chicken.  I tossed those in olive oil and the same seasonings.   A roast chicken will make it’s own sauce and it’s delightful so do not toss those juices away.  Remove the chicken to a cutting board and bring the juices up to a simmer and reduce by half.  You’ll have lovely pan sauce to go with your meal.

We had leftovers the next day (chicken/roast veggies) and there was still chicken left!  The next day I made curry chicken salad out of the remaining chicken and served that over mixed greens.

It’s a mayo based salad with lots of goodies inside!  I will be sharing this as an upcoming recipe.  We also had this for two lunches.  I told you it was a big bird!

For breakfast one morning we had fried eggs that were topped with sauteed red peppers, onions, and diced tomatoes.  Those were sauteed in ghee and sprinkled with salt and pepper.  Half an avocado sliced on the side.  This was delicious!  I love avocado and eggs paired together!

I had some leftover taco meat (beef)  in the freezer from a previous taco night so I pulled that out and made us tacos.  On the side was frozen corn and frozen chopped green sauteed up in some ghee and sprinkled with salt, pepper, and garlic.  Just before serving I added in the leftover peppers/onion mixture from breakfast.

There wasn’t enough taco meat left to have another taco night but I wasn’t about to toss the leftovers.  By adding in some scrambled eggs and combining the meat with the leftover greens/corn, I was able to make breakfast tacos!  You can easily extend tacos by adding in extras like corn, beans, rice, lentils, and always more veggies.  Chopped greens and shredded carrots blend in with the taco meat really well and go unnoticed.

Breakfast tacos were a hit! And I have a feeling I’ll be making these more often.

Last item to share is breakfast from yesterday which used up leftovers from Saturday’s breakfast.  On Saturday we had roasted potatoes, scrambled eggs, and kielbasa.  There was left over sausage and potatoes which makes a great combo for soup! Sunday morning into a pot they went with some onions and chopped kale.  I sauteed up the onions, sausage, and potatoes in the pot first with a little bit of lard, salt, and pepper.  Added in chicken stock and brought that up to a simmer.  Then added in some finely chopped kale.  The soup simmered on the stove for about 40 minutes to give the kale some time to cook down a bit.  Perfect breakfast for a chilly and gloomy morning.

We are having leftovers of that soup this morning!

I know it’s unconventional but once you get past the notion of “American Breakfast”, (eggs, grains, pastries, yogurt) and are open to trying out new things, then you realize you can have anything for breakfast!

PRODUCTS FOR THE LOCALS:

All chicken and eggs were bought from Jodar Farms.

Beef was grassfed from Whole Foods.

PRODUCTS EVERYONE CAN PURCHASE:

Tortilla shells were 365 Brand, they have minimal ingredients.

Greens were from Whole Foods (I can find the best greens at my local WF).

All other veggies were store bought.

 

UPCOMING WEEK MEAL PLAN:

Monday: Dinner out (rare for us, we don’t go out often)

Tues: Pork chops

Wed: Chicken Legs

Thurs: Leftovers

Friday: Burgers

Sat: Leftovers

Sun: Still deciding

You can see that meal planning is a work in progress for me.  As I get more used to creating one, I’m sure it will become more detailed and possibly more attractive.

That was our week!  How was your eats last week?