Meal Planning Monday

Late last week, the husband took it upon himself to clean the fridge.  I mean, really CLEAN the fridge.  So when I came home from work, I could clearly see all the food that was on the verge of growing legs and running out the back door. 

Which of course inspired me to take on a challenge to use up all the remaining odds and ends that have been setting up shop in my fridge like they are the phlem family in the Mucinex commercials.

So, here's my cast of characters...

• 1/2lb raw Italian sausage
• 3/4 of a pint of heavy cream
• 1 grilled chicken breast
• 1 mango
• 3 2 kiwis (1 just wasn't salvagable)
• about 1 cup of leftover shredded roast beef
• 1/2 head of cabbage
• about 2 cups of tomato sauce
• most of a can of pumpkin puree
• about a 1/4 cup of pesto
• 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth (It's actually just the juice from a crock pot chicken...  Does that count as stock?)

The challenge: Create a meal plan that uses up all these ingredients before the HAZMAT team is called in to remove them from my kitchen.

*Disclaimer:  I swear I am not feeding my family rotten food.  These are just items that have been sitting around without a plan for a little too long.  Well, except for the pesto.  I'll have to check on that one...  But it's not like I'd be able to tell if it's moldy anyways...

Monday:  Spicy Penne with Tomato Cream Sauce, Homemade "French" Bread

• Uses sausage, cream, & tomato sauce

Tuesday:  Stuffed Pork Chops, Roasted Cabbage, Cornbread

• Uses cabbage

Wednesday:  Roast Beef Hash, Eggs (over medium), Toast, Fruit

• Uses roast beef

Thursday:  Chicken and Pumpkin Lasagna

• Uses chicken breast, pumpkin puree, cream, & tomato sauce

Friday:  Second attempt at having a weekly date-night.  Leftovers for the kiddo and maybe take-out for us grown-ups.

The pesto (if it's still good) will probably be portioned out and frozen since the hubs isn't really a fan.  But the monkey loves it and it's great for when dad's at work and it's just the two of us for dinner.  Same story for the chicken juice.  I pulled a recipe for making cream of chicken soup, so if I get ambitious this week, I might make that for the freezer.  We'll see.