Meals of the Week, July 27th - August 2nd, 2025

 

Hello everyone and welcome to my Sunday Meals of the Week post for this the last week of July beginning of August 2025.  On Sundays I like to share with you, my dear readers, all of the deliciousness that I have enjoyed as my main meals over the past seven days.  As I am fond of saying, "That's a whole lot of tasty!"

I am a person who likes to cook for themselves as much as possible. I do live on my own and am a senior so I also have a limited budget, so I try to keep my meals healthy, easy to make, and economical.  I had enough of complicated food when I was cooking at the Manor. Now, in my retirement, I like to keep things pretty simple.

Simple and economical doesn't mean that you can't enjoy delicious meals!

What I share on Sundays are only my main meals, along with any pertinent recipes and menu suggestions. I do not share my breakfasts/lunch/suppers.

For breakfast most days I will enjoy some homemade granola and yogurt, or a protein shake, sometimes cereal and occasionally toast.  I eat my main meal mid-day or early afternoon, unless I am entertaining or eating out at my sister's, etc. I usually eat at her place once a week.  Supper is usually just a light lunch of sorts.  Sometimes a salad or some fruit.  Maybe occasionally a sandwich.  Sometimes a bowl of soup or on the very rare occasion, a bowl of cereal. (When I am really tired or pressed for time.) I like to have all of my eating for the day done by 6:30 if possible. One of the joys of old age is indigestion and I try never to go to bed with anything much on my stomach.

Like my mother, who spent much of her older years on her own, I am determined to cook for myself. Occasionally I will resort to a frozen dinner when I am really pressed and I did have to do so once this week, but that is a very rare occurrence.  I normally do all of my own cooking unless I am eating out.

Simple, economical, fairly healthy, and from scratch . . .  that's how I like to eat.

Here is what I enjoyed over the past seven days. I hope you will be inspired to want to cook some of these things for yourself! I promise you they are all delicious!

SUNDAY, July 27th - Sunday Dinner at Cindy's

On Sunday I had my usual family dinner at my sister's place.  She did her pot roast with veggies and a sour cherry pie for dessert. It was all delicious as always.

I am sharing my recipe for Crock Pot Mongolian Beef, which you see above.  This is lovely as is, served with some steamed rice and maybe some stir fried veggies. The leftovers make delicious wraps or fried rice.

I am also sharing my recipe for Homemade Cherry Pie Filling. It is really very easy to make and tastes so much better than the canned stuff, which is pretty hard to believe, I know. I could eat canned cherry pie filling by the spoonful, without even putting it in a pie.  So, if I think this is better than that you just know it's really good!

MONDAY, July 28th - Supper with Dad

My sister and Dan wanted to take a trip down to Kejimkujik Park here in Nova Scotia to do some hiking, so I said I would have dad over here for supper. It was a rare treat for me to be able to spend some one on time with my father. It doesn't happen very often at all.

He is a man with very simple tastes and so I thought a soup and sandwich supper would suit him very well and I was right. It did. We dined on homemade Hearty Split Pea Soup (which I had in the freezer) and grilled cheese sandwiches. Simple and yet very filling. My father enjoyed it very much.  For dessert I heated him up a Mrs. Dunster's plain donut.  He was more than happy with that.

We had a very enjoyable afternoon together. It was a real gift.

TUESDAY, July 29th - Crispy Air Fryer Chicken Legs

I took a chicken leg quarter out of my freezer on Tuesday and cooked it in the air fryer. It turned out really lovely with a crisp and flavor filled skin and the meat was moist and tender, which was nice. I do love chicken thighs, but the leg portions are never my favorites.  This was the perfect way to cook this piece of chicken.

I enjoyed it with some canned green beans and fried potatoes. I had some boiled potatoes left in the refrigerator and cut them up. I fried them in butter with some onion and grated carrot. Very delicious!

WEDNESDAY, July 30th - Sweet & Crunchy Corn Chip Salad.

It was stinking hot and humid on Wednesday. I didn't feel much like cooking, so I enjoyed a bit of a cold plate with some sliced ham, a bit of potato salad and this Sweet & Crunchy Corn Chip Salad. This is a real favorite salad of mine and I don't know why I don't make it more often than what I do!

I love this simple salad. It is the perfect mix of crisp lettuce, smoky bacon, rich cheese and crunchy corn chips.  Tossed together and drizzled with a sweet poppyseed dressing. Oh, there are dried cranberries in it as well. To be honest I would have been happy just eating a big bowl of this!

THURSDAY, July 31st - Amish Country Casserole

I spent most of Thursday at the Vets with my male cat Nutmeg who was very poorly. He had been vomiting all day and I was able to get an emergency appointment.  That meant a long wait however to be fitted in. It was quite late by the time I got home with him. 

I didn't have a lot of time to cook, but I did have a container of this in the freezer that I had saved from the last time I cooked it. Amish Country Casserole is a simple and delicious casserole using ordinary store cupboard ingredients put together in the tastiest way. It's just pasta, ground beef, seasoning and tinned soups . . .  condensed tomato and mushroom. There is also cheese and some seasonings, etc. It really is delicious.  I enjoyed this with some salad on the side.

Why does sitting around waiting make you so tired?  Also, the stress from my poor baby being ill didn't help.  

FRIDAY, August 1st - frozen dinner

I ended up back at the Vets on Friday as Nutmeg was not doing very well at all. They decided to sedate him and run a bunch of tests. His white cell count was down so they gave him a really strong injection of anti-biotics that will last two weeks, etc. He was in there for most of the day. I didn't get him back home here until after 6 p.m.  So a long and stress-filled day for both of us.

I did resort to a frozen dinner. I do keep a few in the freezer for times like this.  I chose M&M Cabbage Rolls. They do have single serving packages and that is what I have in the freezer.  They are actually pretty good.  The filling is generous and has a nice flavor as does the sauce. I just had a package of these and nothing else, but rice goes very well with them if you have the time.

SATURDAY, August 2nd - Quick & Easy Baked Chicken Tacos for Two

I had to poach some chicken for Nutmeg, who was feeling quite a bit better today. I felt that it was best to keep his diet simple however, and so just did him some poached chicken which for him was a real treat.  I used some of the chicken to make myself some Baked Chicken Tacos.  I adore these. They are hard tacos, filled with refried beans and a delicious lightly spiced chicken mixture and then cheese. These get baked to perfection, ready to top with your favorite taco toppings.

I topped mine with the usual suspects today, lettuce, tomato, some spring onions and sour cream. I also splashed them liberally with Green Tabasco Sauce. I love that stuff.

If you wanted to you could serve these with some Tex Mex spiced rice and or a salad. I just enjoyed two of the tacos and was very happy!

And there you have it, my meals of the week for this, the last week of July and beginning of August. Not a usual week by any stretch because of all the Vet visits, but I think I did very well regardless!  I have had enough excitement for the time being and so am hoping for a less exciting August!  I started off July having to take my female cat Cinnamon to the Vet where she had emergency surgery for having eaten a ribbon! Let's hope that nothing like that happens in August! I am wanting a quiet month with not too much expense!

Have a great Sunday!

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