Dinner recipes, Winter Meal Plan #2

What to cook for dinner this week:

1.) Slow Cooker Pot Roast with Roasted Potatoes, Green Beans, and Sautéed Vegetables, 2.) Perfect Roast Chicken with Vegetable Rice Pilaf, 3.) French Onion Soup, 4.)  Pot Roast Sandwiches, 5.) Creamy Chicken and Rice

If you’re not familiar with this blog, here’s the basic idea behind each weekly meal plan: A little advance planning and meal prep work every day is the key to getting delicious, wholesome, good for you, home cooked meals on the table several nights of the week. A little = a lot.

On this page, you’ll find a meal plan for the week. Each meal is designed to build on the previous night’s efforts by using leftover ingredients. You’ll also find a preparation schedule and grocery list.

Your Meal Plan for This Week:

1. 5-Ingredient Slow Cooker Pot Roast with Roasted Potatoes and Microwave Green Beans with Bacon
2. Perfect Roast Chicken with Vegetable Rice Pilaf
3. French Onion Soup
4. Open Face Pot Roast Sandwiches
5. Free-Style Creamy Chicken and Rice

Individual Recipes:

(A shopping list for this week’s meals is at the bottom of this page)

• 5-Ingredient Slow Cooker Pot Roast
• Roasted Potatoes
• Microwave Green Beans with Bacon
• Perfect Roast Chicken
• Vegetable Rice Pilaf
• Ultra Simple Chicken Broth
• French Onion Soup
• Open Face Pot Roast Sandwiches
• Free-Style Creamy Chicken and Rice

Meal Prep, Day by Day

Day #1

What’s for Dinner Tonight: 5-Ingredient Slow Cooker Pot Roast with Roasted Potatoes and Microwave Green Beans with Bacon

For me, “Day #1” is usually a Sunday, and it’s the day with the most heavy lifting when it comes to meal prep for the rest of the week. I am always so grateful to myself for taking a couple of hours on Sunday to make getting dinner on the table that much easier the rest of the week.

Whatever day of the week you choose as your “Day #1”, here’s your meal prep task list:

• Early in the day, follow the pot roast recipe instructions to add the roast to the slow cooker and let it cook for about 8 hours.
• Make Roasted Potatoes. Reserve leftovers to serve alongside roast chicken tomorrow.
• Make 1 and ½ recipes of both Green Beans with Bacon and Perfect Sautéed Vegetables. Reserve whatever's leftover for Vegetable Rice Pilaf on Day 2. (Double the recipe of each if you want extra vegetable leftovers.)
• Make some croutons to top French Onion Soup on Day 3 and Creamy Chicken and Rice on Day 5. You'll need a total of 2 cups of croutons (1 cup for each dish), but homemade croutons are so delicious, you might consider making more so that you have them on hand. They'll keep in a zip top bag or air tight container in the pantry for up to 1 month.
• If you really want to get a jump on the week: 1. ) Peel and slice the onions for French Onion Soup, put them in zip top bags and store in the refrigerator, 2.) Cook 1 ½ cups of rice and store in a covered container in the refrigerator for Creamy Chicken and Rice on Day 5.
• If you really, really want to get a jump on the week: Everything for tomorrow night's dinner can be prepared in advance. Roast the chickens, pull the meat from the bones and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Use chicken bones to make ultra simple chicken broth, letting it simmer on the stovetop overnight. (You'll need a total of 12 cups of broth, so be sure to use at least 14 cups of water to make the broth.) Make Vegetable and Rice Pilaf using the Green Beans with Bacon and Perfect Sautéed Vegetables left over from tonight's dinner.

Day #2

What's for dinner tonight: Perfect Roast Chicken, Vegetable Rice Pilaf, Leftover Roast Potatoes

• Roast one, two, or more chickens, depending on how many people you’re cooking for this week. For a family of four, roast 2 chickens. Eat one for dinner tonight and save the meat from the second chicken for Creamy Chicken and Rice later in the week.
• Make Vegetable and Rice Pilaf using the leftover Green Beans with Bacon and Perfect Sautéed Vegetables you reserved from last night's dinner.
• Lay leftover potatoes from last night's dinner on a baking sheet or ovenproof plate and reheat under the broiler in your oven, for 4-5 minutes, until heated through.
• After dinner, pick all leftover chicken from the bones and store in an air tight container in the refrigerator. Use chicken bones to make ultra simple chicken broth, letting it simmer on the stovetop overnight.  (You'll need a total of 12 cups of broth, so be sure to use at least 14 cups of water to make the broth.) NOTE: Cooked chicken will keep in the refrigerator for 3 days. If you don't end up making creamy chicken and rice for 4 or 5 days after roasting the chicken, store the leftover meat in the freezer.

Day #3

What's for dinner tonight: Slow Cooker French Onion Soup

• Early in the morning, follow the recipe instructions to get the onions in the slow cooker. The onions need to cook in the slow cooker for 10 hours, so plan accordingly. If you sliced and peeled the onions earlier in the week, this will be as easy as dumping them in the slow cooker, dotting the surface with butter, sprinkling them with salt, and turning the slow cooker on.
• In the evening, when preparing the French Onion Soup, reserve 1 ½ cups of the onions that have been cooking in the slow cooker all day for later. You'll need ¾ cup of onions for Pot Roast Sandwiches and ¾ cup for Creamy Chicken and Rice.

Day #4

What's for dinner tonight: Open Face Pot Roast Sandwiches

• Tonight's dinner will come together in a flash, thanks to the leftover pot roast and stewed onions you stowed away in your refrigerator earlier this week. If you still have leftover veggies from the nights you made pot roast and roast chicken, tonight is a good opportunity to use them up. Otherwise, I like to serve these pot roast sandwiches with a salad or French fries.

Day #5

What's for dinner tonight: Free-Style Creamy Chicken and Rice

• Tonight's dinner will make use of the reserved croutons, chicken broth, roast chicken, and stewed onions you reserved earlier in the week, and will come together quickly. This dish is also a great opportunity to use up any other leftover vegetables or meats you happen to have hanging around in your refrigerator.

Suggested Recipes for the Baker:

• Cherry Turnovers with Cream Cheese and almonds
• Apple Slab Pie
• Giant Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
• Blueberry Crumb Cake

Shopping List, Weekly Winter Meal Plan #2

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*Does not include ingredients for suggested baked goods.

• 5 – 7 lbs beef chuck roast
• One 2-4 lb whole roasting chicken
• 6-9 slices thick cut bacon, chopped into 1-inch pieces. Add the bacon and sauté, stirring often, until crisp. Remove to a plate covered with a couple of paper towels to drain.
• 3 lbs potatoes – I like to use Yukon Gold, but red potatoes or russet potatoes will also work
• 18 oz (1 ½ lbs) cut green beans, fresh or frozen
• Any kind of vegetable that can be sliced and sautéed: asparagus, peppers, green beans, carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, etc. Purchase enough for about 1 ½ cups of vegetables per person.
• 2 Lemons (optional - to squeeze over sautéed vegetables and creamy chicken and rice)
• 4 cups dark leafy greens, like spinach or kale
• 8 lbs yellow onions + 1 small yellow onion
• 12 - 16 cloves of garlic
• 1 cup chopped fresh parsley
• ⅓ cup fresh cilantro
• French, Italian, or Sourdough bread: enough for 2 cups of croutons plus 4 thick slices for Pot Roast Open Face Sandwiches (if you’re serving 4 people)
• ¾ cup mayonnaise
• 1-oz packet dry ranch dressing mix
• Three 1-oz packets dry onion soup mix
• 25-oz jar mild pepperoncinis
• 12 cups chicken broth (*only purchase if not making it from the roast chicken)
• 4 cups beef broth
• 5 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 ½ cups long grain rice, uncooked
• ½ cup chopped dry roasted almonds (optional, to top Vegetable and Rice Pilaf)
• 16 oz grated gruyere cheese (alternatives: Swiss, Asiago, Mozzarella, or Pecorino Romano)
• 1 cup cream or half and half
• 2 eggs
• 10 tablespoon butter
• ½ cup dry white wine
• Flour (2 tsp)
• salt and pepper