Pinterest Round-Up: Menu Planning, Week 2

Time for the second week of menu planning!  So, I said I would post on Friday, but time got away from me...As I have said, I tend to binge--well by mid-week I was certainly binging--I had a reasonably large order I was working on for the Anderson Ranch gift shop out in Colorado, but instead of buckling down to finish that ASAP, I decided to start a new cleaning project for myself, which turned out to involve a whole lot of thinking, tossing, and rearranging our little office space and my daughter's craft supplies (which is still not complete).  I also committed to baking a cake, participating in a cardboard challenge at my daughter's school, and riding my bike through the city for Ciclovia (it was much different riding my bike on the streets this time, since all the roads we were on were shut down to car traffic).  Anyway, better late than never.

I forgot to mention something in my last menu plan post--when I cook for a week with only three meals, there is some improvisation that has to happen in order for things to stay interesting and to use up any extra ingredients.  For example, with the Vegetarian Kale soup, I also made a simple rice dish.  It was brown and black rice, with some garlic and carrots.  I was happy with the colors of this--Happy Autumn :)  The next night, I made those Denver Sandwiches to go with the tortellini soup (which I froze most of).  When I went to reheat the soup for dinner the next night, some improv cooking was in order: in order to use up the ham, peppers, and half an onion from the sandwich, I made fried rice with the leftover carrot rice I had made two nights prior. YUM.

This week, the meals are getting a bit heartier--it's cooler, and the produce I have just lends itself to comfort food.  So, here it is:

This is so autumnal it's not even funny; just look at all that warm comfort, emanating from these Pork Chops and Squash with Pumpkin Seed Vinaigrette.  I will probably serve this with some raw spinach that I picked up over the weekend, while getting some cake ingredients to remake a mistake.

This Lentil Chili is made in a crockpot--I LOVE my crockpot in the colder months.  I will be serving this with brown rice, and some raw veggies--keeping it simple, so while my food cooks, I can do a laundry list of other things!

This is another beautiful looking dish--Individual Pot Roasts with Thyme glazed carrots.

I may wind up freezing some lentil chili, but in the third week, these frozen leftovers are very helpful, since improvisation becomes key...when it's mostly about eating up leftovers and using up straggler ingredients.