Yesterday we celebrated my husband’s 40th birthday. I threw him a party with a bunch of his friends from way back in the day – it was a blast to see everyone. They brought their wives and kids as well so everybody had people to play with 
I have to say it was quite the accomplishment to have 11 kids in my house and nobody needing to leave to get stitches. Lots of fun!
Of course I decided to be the overachiever and make everything (appetizers, main entrees, and cake) homemade. It made me smile to see everyone enjoy the food I put together. However, while the food was delicious and everybody was impressed (naturally) my legs were ready to fall off. I spent Friday night, all day Saturday and Sunday morning cooking and cleaning for the party. It was a lot of work but worth it because birthday boy was ear to ear smiles all day. I must say next time I will probably buy the cake
Since I was planning for the party all weekend I did not have any time to prepare foods for the next week. I do have off today (Monday) so I am going to try to get some meals organized.
This week is going to be leftover week because we have tons of leftovers! Matt insisted on getting a deli tray. I assured him we will have enough food but what do I know. Anyway, lets just say we will be eating a lot of smoked turkey, roast beef, and ham all week. I usually stay away from deli meat because it does not fall within my clean eating plans but this week I need to make an exception because I am not throwing it out. We did spend more money to get quality deli meat so that makes me feel a little better.
Of course, at the end of the night Matt says “you were right honey, we did not need the deli tray” and I say “I know”. I really need to have my voice recorder ready for moment like these.
Here is our menu plan for this week.
Breakfast
Eggs and toast
Kashi cereal
Make ahead tips
No make ahead breakfast this week everything will be made morning of.
Lunch
Deli Stromboli or homemade hot pockets
Leftover pasta salad
Peanut butter and jelly
Cheese and crackers
Yogurt
Apples
Make ahead tips
- I will be a pizza dough making fool today! My goal is to get at least 3 batches of dough made so I can put together and freeze a bunch of strombolis and homemade hot pockets.
- A loaf of freezer Pb & J’s will be put together today or tomorrow.
- Cheese was cut up for the party.
Dinner
Chicken cacciatore
Melts
Chicken noodle bake
Pantry meal
Make ahead tips
- The chicken cacciatore was made for the party – this is my husband’s grandma’s recipe. We have just enough leftover for dinner tonight.
- The melts are easy and will be made night of.
- Pizza dough will made today or some time this week after work.
- For the bread bowl salads I bought prepackaged salad and we have tons of rolls leftover from the party.
- For the noodle bake I have the chicken already cut up and in the freezer. I just need to cook it and put the rest of the meal together. I might cook the chicken the night before so it makes this meal easier to get together during the week.
- Hamburger Mac and cheese I made Saturday. We ate half then I stuck the other half in the freezer so it is ready to eat.
That is our menu plan for the week. Not very fancy but makes do with all the leftovers from the party. Have a great week everyone!
Skinny Mom’s Kitchen participates in Menu Plan Mondays hosted by The Organizing Junkie.
We are trying to clean out some of our leftovers this week too, specifically from the freezer. I love the clean out week but yet the grocery bill doesn’t always reflect it!
Here is our meal plan for the week: http://bit.ly/XPf1m0
You can freeze deli meat – really! My parents served it at my high school graduation party (several years ago!), and there was a ton leftover. It froze and thawed just fine, as I recall. I almost never buy it anymore, so I haven’t tried to freeze it in, oh, probably 15 years. But it worked great then!