Meals for a week

This is going to be a very busy week for me. I am doing some special training and will be out of the house Tue-Sat and not getting home each night until 6:30 or later. That wreaks havoc on our schedule. In order to be able to have dinner on the table at any sort of reasonable time each evening, I decided to cook the entire week's worth of meals all at once and then just need to re-heat each evening. 

I looked through lots of recipes, made my choices and printed them. Then I made a list for the grocery store, pulled out all the matching coupons and headed out to shop on Saturday evening. The first meal I had planned was a slow cooker pork roast. The directions were to cook 8-10 hours, so I popped everything in the ol' crockpot and turned it on just as I headed for bed. This morning I put the roast and veggies into a pan with all the juices, sealed it up and popped it into the fridge. The meat was falling apart just from moving it to the pan. 

 Of course I had lots of help today in the kitchen. The boyz floated in and out helping when they could and making comments on everything. Mmm, that smells good Mom. Oooh, what is this? When can I use a sharp knife? Although they slow me down some, I still love having them cooking with me. Seth is the boy who helps me the most. He is my little velcro boy! Stuck to me all the time.

 The boyz also provided much kitchen comedy. More and more they remind me of the Three Stooges.

 As soon as one dish cameout of the slow cooker, another went right in. After the pork I did marinated chicken breasts for a chicken pasta dish. Once the chicken was done (it was a quickie 2 hours) I made a venison roast and it is cooking away right now. This is a new recipe (a lot of the ones I tried today are new to us) but I like the idea of doing it in the slow cooker. Venison can be tough and dry, so this method seems like a perfect match.

 One new recipe I tried is Adobo Chicken. I had never heard of it before but the recipe I read about on Taste and Tell sounded so yummy I had to try it. When it came out of the oven the bones fell out of the chicken. I tried a bite and I don't think I have ever tasted chicken so full of flavor and so incredibly moist.  The crockpot was busy so I had to roast this in a big iron roaster in the oven. Two hours at 350F and the results were amazing. The sauce reduced to a sticky glaze consistency and so rich in color. I had gotten a deal on chicken. Thigh quarters at 74 cents a pound. I used four large quarters, skinned, instead of one whole chicken cut up. Hey, cheap meat can't be beat! I also tried the Chicken and Bacon Pasta from Taste and Tell. That is another winner. Of course it has heavy cream, butter and bacon in it so it couldn't go wrong.

 Ahren helping assemble the venison in the crockpot. He kept asking me over and over again what venison was......I don't think he could fathom that we were going to eat Bambi. LOL!

All in all, I made 8 meals. Some recipes made enough to freeze away a complete second meal. Bonus! Here is the list of the meals I made:

Saucy Meatloaf 

Pork Roast

Chicken Fajitas

Creamy Mushroom Venison Roast

Chicken and Bacon Pasta

Italian Meatballs

Buffalo Chicken Wraps

Chicken Adobo