Meals of the Week, September 8th to 14th, 2024

  

How can it be Sunday all over again!  Haven’t the weeks been whipping by super quickly?   I cannot believe how fast the days are going and here we are already into the middle of September. It seems impossible, but there you go, it’s quite true. September is halfway over already!

On Sundays I like to share with you, my sweet readers, my Meals of the Week.  That is everything delicious I have enjoyed as my main meals over the past seven days, plus any pertaining recipes and suggestions for delicious sides.

I do normally eat at my sister’s on Sundays for Sunday Dinner with the family and most Wednesday nights I go out to eat at a local diner with my father and his friend Hazel.  I always provide “like” recipes as a substitution for those days.

As a person who lives on their own I try to always cook for myself rather than submit to the temptation of heating up ready meals or frozen dinners.  I know that cooking for yourself can often seem like a lot of work when you have nobody to feed but yourself, but I think it is worth the trade-off in eating healthier meals.

Ready meals and frozen dinners are loaded with fat, sugar and salt, and they are never even half as tasty as the photographs on their covers would lead us to believe!  They cost a lot of  money as well. I would rather cook myself a meal and then freeze the extra for another time if it is a full sized meal. Mostly these days, however, I am cooking downsized meals for just one or two people. There is less waste that way.  

All of my recipes can be either multiplied to feed more, or downsized to feed less. Just ask me how if you are needing any help with that!

For breakfast most days I will enjoy a protein smoothie.  As a person who lives on their own it can be a struggle also to get in the amount of protein etc. that your body needs. I find a protein smoothie fits the bill and they are simple to make. I buy a protein powder online and then just shake it together with milk, or oat milk.  Delicious and simple. 

Generally speaking, unless I am eating elsewhere, my main meals are enjoyed in the early afternoon, about one-ish  I don’t do well eating larger meals later in the day. My old digestive system is not what it used to be so I try not to put anything too heavy into my stomach later in the day.

Supper will usually be something light for me, such as a bowl of soup, or a sandwich, often toast, a bowl of cereal, and sometimes fruit.  This is what works for me and my digestion.

I try for the most part to keep my meals fairly healthy and economical as well. I live on a small pension plus what I can earn on this page, so I need to watch my pennies.  I do eat a lot of chicken however. Red meat is not something I eat very often, unless I am eating out.  I try to have fish at least once a week, or eggs if I can.  It is a challenge to get in all the fruits and vegetables that we are recommended to eat. 

When I was raising my children we always had at least two vegetables on the side every day with our supper.  That is much harder I find when it is just me, so usually I will keep baby carrots and cucumber sticks, celery, in the fridge to eat just raw as a snack, so I am not binging on cookies and things that I shouldn’t be eating!

And so without any further blah blah blah, here are my meals of the week for the past seven days!  I hope you are inspired by them and will want to cook at least some of them for yourself!

SUNDAY, September 8th – Sunday Dinner at My sister’s place

Generally speaking most Sundays I have dinner with the family at my sister’s place.  This Sunday was no different.  Cindy usually likes to do a roast on Sundays.  Everyone enjoys her roast dinners. 

 It will be either a roast Chicken, or a roast of Beef or even Pork or ham.  We like them all.  This week was a roast of beef.  The photograph is of my Instant Pot Roast of Beef.

Only very occasionally will it be something else.  We had roast beef with an assortment of vegetables and then for dessert we had sugar free jello with whippy cream. Since Dad is a diabetic (and so am I), and we will have eaten a lot of carbs with the potatoes and stuff, sugar free jello pleases everyone.

MONDAY, September 9th – Chicken Margherita (small batch) 

Perfect for the smaller family but very easy to double or triple.  This delicious dish uses chicken breasts which are baked with juicy cherry tomatoes tomatoes and flavorful pesto on top of the chicken. Once the chicken is baked a layer of Provolone cheese was added and the chicken popped back into the oven to melt. A final butter, parsley and garlic drizzle is flicked over top just prior to serving.  With only a few steps needed to prepare it,  it’s a delicious and easy meal that looks impressive and like you worked a lot harder than you did. I would serve this to company it is that good.

I enjoyed some steamed rice and broccoli on the side.  The chicken had such fabulous flavors, I didn’t need to do anything but simple on the side.

TUESDAY, September 10th - Cheesy Tater Tot Meat Loaf Casserole 

What you have here is a casserole with a tasty base of meatloaf, topped with a BBQ glaze. This gets topped with frozen tater tots and baked. Then you top the tater tots with some grated cheese and crispy fried onions and bake it some more until the meatloaf is bubbling and baked through the tater tots are crispy and the cheese all ooey gooey.

A recipe sized for the smaller family, I had a serving of this already in my freezer from a past date, ready to thaw, reheat and enjoy. On this occasion I served it with a nice tossed salad on the side and was quite content.

THURSDAY, September 12th – Crunchy Hot Honey Chicken Cutlets

Tender juicy pieces of chicken breast, coated in a light panko bread crumb and fried to perfection. Ready to serve cut on the angle and drizzled with that Hot Honey sauce.  Oh boy, but this was some good.  Make sure you serve extra sauce on the side for dipping.

I made a tomato mac and cheese with this and cooked some runner beans. The beans went really well, but the mac and cheese was a bit over the top. If I did it again I would have served it with rice, noodles or potatoes, not the mac and cheese.

FRIDAY, September 13th – Bread and Cheese Omelet - I didn’t really fancy anything special on Friday as I was really tired, having only gotten about 3 hours sleep the night before. Simple and quick was just the ticket for me.  I made myself a Bread and Cheese Omelet. This was simple and just hearty enough to be filling without needing anything else.  A salad would go very nicely. I had some sliced tomatoes on the side that needed eating up.

Eggs for supper are always a great option. They are not that expensive.  They are nutritious and they are very adaptable to a huge variety of ways of cooking them.  I only ever very rarely will have eggs for breakfast, but eggs for supper?  That is a most welcome supper  for me! Quick, easy and delicious.

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Source: https://www.theenglishkitchen.co/2024/09/meals-of-week-september-8th-to-14th-2024.html