After a little (okay, summer-long) hiatus, the weekly meal plan is back! Thanks to the readers who pushed me to get this back up and running. It's nice to have routine again with the start of a new school year -- and I think even parents who don't yet have school-age kids or who do year-round/homeschool will agree.
Monday: Pork, Apples and Sweet Potato Crockpot. A recipe born of having a ton of apples from the cider mill and a bunch of sweet potatoes from the Farmers Market. I picked up a pork loin from Trader Joe's to add to the mix. Directions: chop one onion into quarters, chop two small sweet potatoes into chunks, and chop one apple into chunks. Add 1/2 the onion and all of the potatoes and apples to the bottom of a greased crockpot. Rub salt, pepper and herbs (like basil, thyme, cinnamon) into the pork loin (pork roast works also) and place on top of the onion/potato/apple chunks. Pour 1 c apple cider over the top. Add in the other onion half and another potato or two and another apple or two, chopped up. Cook on low approx 6 hours, or on high approx 4 hours (give or take.) Mash sweet potatoes with apples. My kids LOVED this.
Tuesday: Chicken stirfry. Chicken with pad thai sauce, a squeeze of fresh orange, and a bunch of veggies served with brown rice.
Wednesday: Crockpot. In August, I made what I now consider a brilliant decision to scrounge the Internet for crockpot recipes that don't require day-of prep beyond dumping the Ziplock bag of ingredients into the Crockpot and taking them back out in cooked form at the end of the day. My other criterion was deliciousness -- recipes that wouldn't totally fall apart into a salty, stewy mess. This is what I found, and I highly highly HIGHLY recommend it. This week's recipe was Hawaiian chicken.
Thursday: Vegetarian chili. Using butternut squash cubes adds nice bulk without needing to add meat.
Friday: Breakfast for dinner! Apple pancakes, scrambled eggs with chopped peppers, and fruit salad. Yum!
