Menu Planning

I started to write a post about our dinner tonight (venison roast, carrots, and roasted potatoes) and then realized that several of the posts I have written involve many of the same ingredients and that people might be tired of carrots and potatoes!  So instead, I thought I would just say that I meant to cook things with the same ingredients lately.  I cannot stand to waste food, so when I am trying to decide what to cook for the week, I try to make several dishes that contain some of the same ingredients so that I can use up those veggies before they spoil.  Since it is primarily Chris and I who eat dinner, we usually have 1 or 2 nights worth of leftovers.  I don't mind eating the same thing a couple of days in a row, but I sure don't want the same thing every night for 2 weeks... So the problem I run into is coming up with meals that contain similar ingredients but have very different tastes.  The solution for using up a bag of potatoes and a 2 lb bag of carrots this time was: chicken pot pie, minestrone, and roast.  I was pretty pleased because all of these dishes have rather distinct flavors and I haven't grown "dinner weary."  Another bonus to the minestrone: the recipe called for 1/2 head cabbage!  When we make bierox (more on this later!), I always wonder what to do with the leftover 1/2 head of cabbage because cabbage isn't something I use very often.  So tomorrow we will be making bierox to use up that cabbage before it goes bad...and I am pretty excited!  There's nothing like the smell of homemade bread on the weekends!