Weekly Meal Plan #54

Sharing our Weekly Meal Plan with make-ahead tips, freezer instructions, and ways to make supper even easier!

Saturday: Sweet and Sour Meatballs with Zucchini  (from the Add a Pinch Cookbook) (Freezer Friendly)

Sunday: New Years Eve! Make Ahead Appetizers + Skillet Steaks + Perfect Baked Potato + House Salad + Best Chocolate Cake Ever  (Make Ahead)

Monday: New Year’s Day! (New Year’s Day Menu) (Make Ahead, Slow Cooker,  Add a Pinch Cookbook )

Tuesday: Leftovers from New Year’s Meal

Wednesday: Skinny Orange Chicken + Broccoli  (30 Minutes)

Thursday: Pot Likker Soup + Southern Cornbread (Make Ahead, 30 Minutes)

Friday: Eat Out

MEAL PLAN TIPS:

Saturday:
Sweet and Sour Meatballs with Zucchini: My family has always loved this recipe of my Mama’s – so of course it had to go in my cookbook! It can also be served over rice, but I like to serve over zucchini because it adds another vegetable to supper.

I make my applesauce used in the recipe ahead and refrigerate (just a bit of advice – make extra – because it’s so delicious you may just eat the first batch!) You can make your meatballs ahead and refrigerate if you wish. I will go ahead and prepare the sauce  ahead of time and refrigerate so that at supper time, I put it all together and cook. This is a great meal to make a Leftover Makeover on another night and is also Freezer Friendly!

Sunday:
Make Ahead Appetizers: I’ve given complete details in the linked post about making all of these delicious appetizers ahead! These are great to make for any holiday or special event!

Skillet Steaks: These steaks are ready in 25 minutes from start to finish! We’d wait longer at a restaurant than this! They are so full of flavor too!

Perfect Baked Potato: You can always make these ahead and simply reheat or if you prefer, you can use the slow cooker method instead.

Best Chocolate Cake Ever: What a perfect dessert to enjoy as we bid 2016 farewell! It is delicious made a day ahead of serving if you want. Just cover with your cake dome until ready to serve. It’s also so easy to make, so you can whip this up earlier in the day too.

Monday:
Southern New Year’s Menu: So many of these dishes are make ahead dishes and slow cooker dishes, which makes them easy as can be! I will have multiple slow cookers out and ready to go early this morning (and the Pork Roast will be already cooking from the night before). I am making my Slow Cooker Ham from my cookbook too because we enjoy both (plus I’m using some of the ham for Thursday’s supper!) I will make the deviled eggs ahead and refrigerate. The Lemon Pound Cake can be made ahead as well!

This meal is such a tradition in our family as well as many other Southern families – and it’s a delicious one at that!

Tuesday: Leftovers

Wednesday:
Skinny Orange Chicken with Broccoli: It’s so easy to go ahead and make the sauce for this delicious favorite dish and cut up my chicken breasts and pop back in fridge until ready to cook. I love this homemade fresh version of this popular take out dish – and I certainly don’t want take out after eating this!

Thursday:
Pot Likker Soup: Be sure to save those vitamin-rich juices from your greens you cook on New Year’s, as well as some of the ham for this delicious, satisfying soup! If I have some greens left from my New Year’s meal, I will add them and reduce cooking time as noted in recipe. If not, I’ll just cook more greens according to this super simple recipe.

Southern Cornbread: This is an easy family favorite that only takes 30 minutes to bake – and I love it hot right out of the oven!

Best wishes for a Happy New Year!

Love ya!
Robyn xo