Meals of the Week, January 4th - January 10th, 2026

 

Hello everyone and welcome to my weekly Meals of the Week post!  On Sundays I like to share with you all of the delicious (most of the time) things that I have enjoyed for my main meals over the past seven days! 

I like to cook, and I like to eat. As a Senior and as a person who lives alone and on a fixed income this can be somewhat of a challenge.  I never want to be the person who eats out of tins and packets, and from frozen dinners and takeaways.  They are usually loaded with fat, salt, sugar and calories.

As much as possible I like to cook and eat my own food. At the end of each week, I like to share with you all the things which I have enjoyed over the past 7 days.  This round-up does not include any meals aside from my main meals.

For breakfast each morning I will usually have either some homemade granola with yogurt, fruit or date syrup or I often have a protein shake that I make from this powder that I buy. It all depends on how busy my morning is.

Generally speaking, unless I am eating with other people, I will eat my main meal of the day in early afternoon and then for supper or in the evening I will have either a salad, or some cereal, maybe toast.  This week has been busy as always, plus with nasty weather at times I have been digging into my store cupboard a bit more.

I try to keep my main meals as healthy as I can, with an assortment of veggies if possible. Sometimes that is not possible, but I do try. I also try to keep things within a reasonable budget.  So, I cook small, much of the time and I freeze whatever extra I can to take out and enjoy at other times. That habit came in very handy for me this week! 

I try not to waste anything. If there is something that I cannot freeze I will share it with my next-door neighbor, who is always most appreciative.

I share these meals, recipes, menu suggestions with you here each Sunday hoping that you will be likewise inspired to want to cook for yourself. I know we can get stuck in a rut sometimes and it can be very helpful to have fresh ideas on what to cook.  

So, having said all that, here are my meals of the week for the past seven days.  I hope that you will find something of interest here and something that will inspire you to want to cook for yourself!

 

SUNDAY, January 4th - Golden Cracker Chicken 

Usually on Sundays I will have Sunday Dinner at my sister's place, but I had already eaten there three times in the previous week so I decided to stay home this week. For my supper I made Golden Cracker Chicken, which I enjoyed with some mashed potatoes and tinned green beans. (I happen to like tinned green beans.)

For this recipe chicken breasts are dipped in butter and then in a herbed cracker mixture. They are then baked to crisp, tender, golden perfection. This is one of my favorite ways to cook chicken breasts and something my family also enjoyed. This is a small batch recipe which makes two portions of chicken.

MONDAY, January 5th - Butterbean Soup

On Tuesday I made a delicious pot of Butterbean Soup.  We were having perfectly storm, blustery, cold weather which is the perfect weather for a hot pot of soup.  I love this soup. It is simple and nourishing and goes together really quickly.  Made with tender butter beans, fresh vegetables, and a handful of everyday pantry ingredients, it’s a hearty, wholesome soup that comes together with very little effort. 

I enjoyed a hearty bowl of this along with some hot buttered toast.  I also had a serving of soup leftover to freeze for a meal sometime in the future!

TUESDAY, January 6th - Leftover cracker chicken, Cauliflower Cheese Jacket Potatoes, Salad

I had some chicken leftover from Sunday and decided to enjoy it on Tuesday. Waste not want not as my mother always said. I enjoyed it with a delicious Cauliflower Cheese Jacket Potato and some salad.  I really love jacket potatoes and twice stuffed ones are an absolute favorite.

In this case they are stuffed with another one of my favorite things. Cauliflower Cheese.These are quite simply delicious. A fabulous way to get in a few of your five a day. If you like cauliflower cheese and you like baked potatoes, then this is the best of both worlds.  

WEDNESDAY, January 7th - Dinner out with Dad and Cindy

On Wednesday I went out for supper with my sister and father. We went to the same place we always do, The Big Scoop. That is where dad likes to go.  My sister and I both had fish and chips. Dad had fish and clams and chips.  That is a picture of my plate there. It comes with a large piece of battered haddock, chips and some coleslaw on the side. This week it was not too greasy and I enjoyed it very much. 

In it's place I am sharing my recipe for Beer Battered Fish. The fish for this always comes out perfectly cooked and the batter is light and fluffy. Its how I learned to make battered fish when I was living in the U.K. They are known for great fish and chips.  Its the national dish!

THURSDAY, January 8th - Sheet Pan Chicken Thighs and Veggies

I had some boneless, skinless chicken thighs thawed out and I decided to do a sheet pan supper with them. An all in one that takes very little effort. You end up with perfectly cooked and seasoned chicken thighs, some crispy potato wedges and roasted vegetables, which you can vary according to whatever it is you have on hand.

I used very simple seasonings for my vegetables and my chicken. You could vary on these of course.  If you want a Tex Mex kind of a result, use typical spices such as cumin, coriander and chili. A squeeze of lime juice would be lovely squeezed over the chicken at the end in this case. On this day I used only onion and garlic powders. (Make sure you use powders not salts.)  I also used some dried thyme on the vegetables and my own homemade Bell's poultry seasoning mix on the chicken. It was simple and delicious.

FRIDAY, January 5th - Chicken and Corn Chowder

I was out shopping for most of the day with my sister so I took some of this that I had made previously out of the freezer to heat up when I got home. Chicken and Corn Chowder is the perfect meal for a  cold Winter's Day.  This is hearty and delicious and very simple to make. This is something I have been making my family for years and something which they love.

I enjoyed a hot bowl of it with some crusty bread and butter on the side. I also enjoyed a cheeky dessert of low sugar jelly with some whippy cream on it for afterwards.

SATURDAY, January 10th - Macaroni Cheese & Tomato Bake 

This is one of my favorite versions of Macaroni Cheese. What you have here is a simple tomato sauced macaroni base, topped with a rich cheesy bechamel sauce and baked.  The tomato sauce bubbles up through the cheese sauce, the flavors mingling in the most delicious way! I always like to enjoy this with a salad. The link is to a small batch recipe but it can very easily be doubled.

I did enjoy it with a salad and some Honey Cornbread Muffins that I had in the freezer. They were near to their use-by date so why not! This was a homey comforting meal that really hit the spot!

And there you have it, my Meals of the Week for the past week. I think I ate pretty well.  What do you think? Delicious meals, budget friendly.

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