The menu plan for week #34 will require more shopping and meal preparation than the past several weeks which enjoyed relatively easy cooking.  I even skipped a week of grocery shopping last week!  The only additional trip to the grocery required a game day run to pick up fresh buns for the sloppy joes and beer.  Week #34, however, calls for not only a lengthy grocery list, but more time in the kitchen.  I will say that because of so many cook once/eat twice meals over the past weeks, I did have time to devout to several projects that have been on the back burner for months.  You would think that the retired life would afford all kinds of time for projects.  Not so.

Week #34 requires no need for any additional meat purchases, since I am trying to clear one of my freezers for my daughter’s use.  Previously frozen meats will provide the basis for most of the meals planned this week.  I have the thick pork chops, thinly sliced flank steak, chicken tenders, precooked cubed chicken, and salmon all waiting in the freezer.  Since mushrooms are on sale this week and I have had a craving for them, they will be incorporated into several meals.

I have a “carry over” recipe for risotto that has gone untried from past menu plans, the stroganoff and chicken a la king are ‘Ole Buckeye favorites and incorporate the mushrooms I crave.  The pork chops and salmon are new untried recipes but look to be exciting experiments.

The grocery list is prepared and the week ahead awaits.

Bon Appetit!