Menu Monday -- January 24, 2011

*Sigh*  I'm bored.  Perhaps I should go back to planning a month at a time instead of a week...I like getting a global perspective then getting down to specifics.  Hmmm...I think I'm going to make a spreadsheet...yes, really!  That way I can see what we've had the last month or two at a glance and keep things better spread out.  I'll get back to you when it's all finished.  :-) 

Ok, spreadsheet's finished, and it's been confirmed, I'm in a rut.  *sigh*  I would LOVE for you to post in a comment some of your easy favorite dinner recipes for no other reason that my brain needs a jump start.  I thank you with great gratitude in advance!

Here's what we're doing, and yes, there are duplicates from last week.  However, keep in mind, that if it's on this week's menu again, we probably didn't have it last week.  :-)  There's a bit of a difference this week -- I'm putting in all meals this week.  Yep, you read it right -- all.  It's for me -- I was getting to breakfast & lunch and saying, "What in the world are we going to eat???"  Not a good place to be.  This will help me stay on track.

Happy Week!

• Monday -- Toad in the Hole
• Breakfast -- Cereal
• Lunch -- Leftover Layered Enchiladas
• Tuesday -- Spaghetti & Breadsticks (Artisan Bread in 5!)
• Breakfast -- Breakfast Cookies
• I've made the changes that are listed in the recipe.  I really like them!  I think this time we'll put Craisins in -- W likes Craisins!
• Lunch -- Leftover Layered Enchiladas
• Wednesday -- Burritos
• Breakfast -- Breakfast Cookies
• Lunch -- Homemade Calzone
• Thursday -- Shepherd's Pie
• Breakfast -- Breakfast Cookies
• Lunch -- Leftover Calzone
• Friday -- Cheeseburger Potato Soup
• Breakfast -- Breakfast cookies
• Lunch -- Leftover Shepherd's Pie
• Saturday -- Dinner with Extended Family.  Happy Birthday, Mama!  I miss you so!
• Breakfast -- Oatmeal
• I make my oatmeal a little different, ok, a lot different from most people.  I'm not a fan of traditional oatmeal, and I wanted to make it without sugar, so here's how I do it. 
• 1/4 c. rolled oats, 1T of wheat germ, pinch of salt, cinnamon & cloves to taste -- stir this all together
• Add in raisins or craisins (or both if you're feeling wild & crazy) and about 1/3 c. of applesauce.  (I like mine pretty stiff, add more if you like.)
• Nuke for 1 minute, then stir in 1T of peanut butter (and chopped walnuts, if you're so inclined).  Yummy! 
• For the munchkins, I use quick cook oats and add enough milk to cover the top of their oatmeal after it's cooked to stir in and help it cool.
• Lunch -- Tortilla Pizzas
• Sunday -- Waffles, Bacon & Eggs
• Breakfast -- Breakfast Cookies
• Lunch -- Red Beans & Rice with Kielbasa

Menu Monday

Good Monday to y'all!  This week, my goal is to NOT get any groceries besides milk and fruit.  Let's see how I do.  Y'all have a great week! 

• Monday -- Stroganoff
• Tuesday -- Twice Baked Potatoes
• Wednesday -- Toad in the Hole
• This is a fun little breakfast meal that we use for dinner.  Hubby requested it, so it will be nice to have it again! 
• You will need bacon, eggs, and bread.  Fry up however much bacon your family will eat, then leave some of the bacon grease in the skillet.  For each toad in the hole, you will use a biscuit cutter/cup/sharp knife/whatever to make a large hole in the center of the bread.  Place the slice of hole-y bread in the skillet and break an egg into the hole.  When the egg has cooked as long as you like, flip it to finish the job.  Toast the bread rounds in the skillet as well.  Serve with butter & jelly.  Yummy, yummy!  :-)
• Thursday -- Eating with Extended Family, so must confer...
• Friday -- Chili (didn't happen last week because the Potato Soup lasted longer than I expected.  Woohoo!)
• Saturday -- Chili for lunch & Apples and Popcorn for dinner
• Sunday -- Crockpot Enchilada Bake for lunch & Waffles for dinner

Menu Monday

Menu Monday again?  Whatever happened to last week?  :-)  I hope that someone was inspired to try something new or at least fill in a slot with an old favorite that they had forgotten about! 

In spite of it "already" being time for Menu Monday again, I must confess that things didn't completely go as planned last week.  Friday afternoon, my wonderful husband took the munchkins out on an errand giving me some quiet time alone.  Aaaahhh.  I do appreciate moments where I hear only the background sounds -- the heater coming on and going off, a car door slamming across the street, the idiot who has the bass turned up so loud in his car it rattles my windows....  Needless to say, I did not take that time to cook, clean, organize.  No, no, no.  I caught up online with a few things and grabbed a catnap while they were gone.  Lovely.  So...the kids had oatmeal ("eat"meal as W has called it since he first put a word with it.  *smile*), Hubby had leftovers, and I had popcorn and apple slices. 

Popcorn and apple slices -- that's a blast from the past!  We used to have that growing up when we watched movies on our blue and white TV with the VHS player we had rented along with the movie from the movie rental store.  The Man from Snowy River, Star Trek (could the docking and undocking scenes have taken any longer????), The North Avenue Irregulars (I must find this movie!  It's a classic Disney film that still makes me laugh out loud, and made my aunt wet her pants in the theater she was laughing so hard!  Sorry, Aunt Kathy -- you have been sold out!), The Apple Dumpling Gang...I believe I hear feint strains of Memories...I digress...again!  My most humble apologies.  Chalk it up to the late hour I'm "penning" this and pregger hormones!  :-)

Here we go -- let's see if I get any wild hairs and expound on any menu choices for the week!  :-)

• Monday -- BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches (Finally!)
• Tuesday -- Potato Soup & Cornbread (because other things got moved, this did, too.)
• The high here is only supposed to be in the 20s (yikes!) -- perfect day for potato soup!
• Wednesday -- Chili & Crackers
• Thursday -- Chili & Crackers
• I'm tempted to try & make homemade crackers, but don't hold your breath on that one.  :-)  I did, however, make homemade soft pretzels last week!  Funny thing?  So did my sister!  Great minds....
• Friday -- Spaghetti & Homemade Artisan Bread
• You had to know that spaghetti was on the menu for this week!  We didn't have it last week, and I don't think Hubby could handle it if I made him go another week without it.  :-)
• I really want to try my hand at homemade artisan bread, and this seems like the perfect day for it.  Hubby gets Backwoods Home magazine, and a while back they had an article on making it from scratch.  I just have to find the magazine now.  Oh, boy.  At least I have a few days since I'm writing this on Sunday/Monday and not Thursday!  I'll see if it's on their website, and if I can share it.  You know I love y'all, but I'm not sure I'm up to typing up a full bread recipe in here! 
• Saturday -- Leftover Lunch, & Dinner Waffles
• Sunday -- Leftover Lunch & Breakfast Casserole  (I use that term loosely...maybe Breakfast Hash would be more appropriate.) 
• Cook up a skillet full of hashbrowns til they're crisp and pull them out of the skillet to drain. 
• Cook 1 cup(-ish) of chopped ham in the leftover oil with some garlic powder & onion powder (to taste).
• To the ham add about 8 eggs beaten with about 1/4 c of water & scramble it all together. 
• Just before the eggs are finished, add the hashbrowns back in and mix them together.
• Once the eggs are fully cooked, top with shredded cheddar cheese or American cheese slices.  Cover & cook til the cheese is bubbly.
• Serve with salsa or ketchup (my preference & favorite!).
• Enjoy!

Happy week!  Stay warm!   :-)

Menu Monday

I know!  Three posts in one day!  Really, this is more for me than for anything else -- it's a written place I can come back to and say, "Oh yes!  That's how I did it!"  :-)  And...it's Monday, and I'm posting the Menu.  Yeah me!  *smile*

I've already written myself out this morning, so on to the menu!

• Monday -- Shepherd's pie
• Tuesday -- Crockpot 10 Bean Soup with Kielbasa
• Wednesday -- Baked Burritos with Chips & Salsa
• Thursday -- Potato Soup with Homemade Cornbread
• Friday -- Crockpot Pork Loin with Potatoes, Onions & Carrots
• Saturday -- Shredded Pork Loin BBQ Sandwiches
• Sunday -- Pancakes & Eggs 

I'm tuckered out, so I won't be writing any explanations or anything like that.  If you have a question about something, make a comment and I'll get back with you!  Y'all have a wonderful week!!!

Menu...Thursday or is it Friday?

My apologies for missing a couple of Mondays already!  We were in Phoenix at my in-laws for an early Christmas on the 20th and then the 27th...I was still recovering from the previous week and a half.  We drove, yes, drove to Phoenix the 17th & 18th...with two toddlers...and then turned around and came back on the 22nd, straight.  It wouldn't have been too bad if we hadn't had projectile vomit during the first hour and a half...in the middle of NOWHERE.  Of course, being six months pregnant meant we had to stop every two hours and walk about 20 minutes.  It worked out well, though.  We managed to cram a 12 hour drive into 14.5.  Not to bad, all things considered!

But...I digress.  :-)

I'll give you the menu for this week, even though it's Thursday (woops!  now it's Friday!).  Maybe it will give you inspiration for a questionable night!  :-)

• Monday -- Turkey Spaghetti
• I tried to make this as close to my mom's recipe as I could.  It's been so long since I was home, and she was making it.  Unfortunately, I can't ask her now.  I'll give you the best rendition that I can.  Overall, I was really pleased with the outcome.  :-)
• Saute 1 chopped onion and 5-6 stalks of celery in a couple of tablespoons of butter and some salt until they're translucent.  Add 1 pound of chopped turkey, 1 can low sodium chicken broth, 1 family-sized can of cream of mushroom soup, and 1/4 a block of Velveeta chopped.  Stir occasionally to help Velveeta melt.  Season to taste.  Cook 1/2-3/4 pound of angel hair pasta according to the package directions and drain.  Grease a 9x13 casserole dish.  Place cooked pasta in the casserole dish, top with turkey mixture and combine.  (I used tongs.  I don't think it would stir well.)  Top with shredded cheddar and bake at 350 for 20 minutes, then broil for 2-3 minutes to brown the cheddar.  Enjoy!
• Tuesday -- leftovers  :-)
• Wednesday -- Layered Cheesy Salsa Enchiladas from the Heavenly Homemakers blog
• (http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/high-five-recipes-layered-cheesy-salsa-enchiladas)  Yes, you're going to have to click the link to see the whole recipe.  :-)  I did make some adjustments, so it became a little more than 5 ingredients.  I sauteed half an onion and cooked my ground beef with that.  (I cooked enough to do Thursdays dinner, too!)  Then I added a can of seasoned black beans in with the ground beef, 1/2-ish cup of grated cheddar and 2 cups of salsa (1 cup medium Pace and 1 cup of my brother-in-law's homemade salsa -- yummy!).  I cut my tortillas into 1-ish" squares instead of using whole tortillas.  I think that made it easier for the kids to manage.  When I layered everything, I did a layer of tortillas, meat mixture, glopped (what a word!) on my homemade plain yogurt, and a light layer of cheese, then repeated.  I probably added more cheese than she called for in her recipe -- love that cheddar!  I was so encouraged that my husband and kids all really liked this recipe!  And, there's enough leftover to do lunch on Thursday!
• Thursday -- Spaghetti & Cream Cheese Whole Wheat French Bread (yep, traditional spaghetti, again!  The bread recipe is on the first or second Menu Monday.)
• Friday -- Grilled Chicken Breast & Twice Baked Potatoes
• I am so very thankful for my George Foreman grill in the winter time!  It makes cooking the chicken so very quick and keeps it nice and juicy.  For my Twice Baked Potatoes I bake my clean, pierced potatoes in a 400 degree oven for about 40 minutes -- or until they're fork tender.  I know I could do it more quickly in the microwave, but the skins aren't quite the same.  Once they're out and cooled, I halve them lengthwise, then scoop out the innards.  To the innards I add cream cheese, sour cream/plain yogurt, cheddar cheese, chopped bacon, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder...if I'm feeling spicy, I might add a couple dashes of hot sauce.  :-)  This is really a "til it looks right" recipe.  Unless you get it to a liquid stage (which would be super hard to do), I don't think you can go wrong.  *happy sigh*  Once that's all mixed together, I refill the shells and top with more cheddar.  Into a 350 degree oven they go for about 20 minutes.  I'll probably broil them for just a couple of minutes to brown the top -- there's just something about browned cheddar that's so very yummy.  And, no, this is NOT a low calorie, low fat recipe, but you will enjoy every single mouthful.  Honest.  :-) 
• Saturday -- Shredded Chicken Quesadillas for lunch & Waffles for dinner
• Friday I'll cook more chicken than we need so I'll have some to shred and use in chicken quesadillas.  I'm loving the cooking ahead!  It doesn't take any extra time and saves so very much.  :-) 
• Saturday night we'll have breakfast for dinner -- one of my favorites!  I'll probably fry up some eggs...maybe some bacon I have in the freezer.  Waffles will be the central focus, of course!
• Sunday -- Pizza (homemade or Papa Murphy's?)
• We'll have to see how the day goes.  We have a gift card for Papa Murphy's, but I have everything to make homemade pizza.  Usually, I use tortillas for the crust, but with the quesadillas and the layered enchiladas, I think I'll need to make pizza crust.  If I do and I like it, I'll post the recipe that I use.  I've not made homemade pizza crust yet, but I'm excited to try!

I'm looking forward to being on point Monday with Menu Monday as well as making more yogurt as well as homemade applesauce.  We go through applesauce so quickly that I have to figure out if it's cheaper to make my own or continue buying it.

Happy New Year!  Here's to a year of new experiences and healthier, more economical living!  :-)
May the Lord bless each of you!

Menu Monday -- please ignore the calendar! :-)

It's Menu Monday on Tuesday!  A feverish 2 year old adjusts all plans, so we'll just roll with it.  In my last Menu Monday post, I talked about planning for a month, this week it's all about being flexible!  The lovely roast for Sunday didn't get done for a variety of reasons, so that adjusts the menu a bit, and ground beef that was in the fridge nicely "aged" in the refrigerator, so it HAD to be cooked yesterday.  It was 3+ pounds of ground beef, so we're going to adjust the menu to fit with that.  The beautiful thing is that I have a skillet that's large enough to cook it all up together!  And, since the only way I cook ground beef as a base is with onion, garlic and S&P, it worked out famously.  I'll just pull out what I need for each meal.  (I LOVE time savers like that!)

• Monday -- Beef Stroganoff 
• We grew up knowing this as stroganoff...kind of a poor man's stroganoff, I guess.  It's ground beef with Cream of Mushroom soup & milk with sour cream stirred in at the end all over rice.  I have no idea why my mom called it stroganoff...whatever it should be called, it is the BEST comfort food in the world...let me just wipe my mouth.  Too bad there were no leftovers.   *sigh*
• Tuesday -- Spaghetti & french bread
• My husband would eat this every day!  I, on the other hand, eat it to live, I don't live to eat it.  *smile*  If I can make it to the grocery store this morning, I might make an amazing french bread to go with it.  Mix together 1 stick butter softened, 1 brick cream cheese softened, garlic powder to taste and slather on the loaf of french bread cut longways.  Place on a cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes.  I like to throw the broiler on for just a bit at the end if it has not browned up nicely.  Figure friendly?  Not a chance!  But super duper yummy!!!
• Wednesday -- Cheeseburger Soup & sourdough bread 
• I've been wanting to try this after a friend posted she was making some.  However, I haven't seen her recipe yet, so I found a crockpot recipe online.  Crockpot -- oh yes!  Here's the link for the recipe.  http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/09/crockpot-cheeseburger-soup-recipe.html  I'll probably tweak it a bit...and I probably WON'T use 24 oz of Velveeta!  That's a lot of Velveeta.  I feel my arteries clogging up as we speak....
• Thursday -- Waffles & Eggs
• I love doing breakfast for dinner.  It's an easy go-to meal for us, particularly since, when I find eggs at 99c a dozen, I stock up!  I think we only have 3.5 dozen in the fridge right now, and I'm feeling like we're getting low!  Oh, that we could have our own chickens!  Dadgum city ordinance, but that's another post....
• Friday -- Out
• As much as it pains me to type it, we'll be eating out.  I'd much rather be cooking, but it will just make life a lot easier.
• Saturday & Sunday -- Eating with the Fam, so I don't have to plan!  :-)

May y'all have a wonderful week!  I'm off to read a book to my munchkins and then head for the grocery store for a few items.  I think I'll be making some yogurt today...  It's a good day for yogurt.

Menu Monday

I've been inspired by other bloggers to make this a Monday staple.  For the last couple of months I've done my menu plan for the entire month -- I know, rather crazy, but it was a chore that just took sooooo much time each week that I quit doing it.  5:00 would roll around and A would look at me and say, "What's for dinner?"  Then I'd get offended because, after all, wasn't he capable of cooking as well?  Craziness, I know.  Actually, it was me just being defensive because I hadn't done what I felt my job was. 

So, in November, after looking at our finances, I decided that I was going to give myself a challenge -- how little could I spend for the three weeks that we would be home?  My goal was to keep it under $100 for our family of 4+.  I did it, too, in a matter of speaking.  I kind of forgot that we were spending $15-$20 a week JUST on milk and yogurt.  So, outside of that dairy, I was successful!  ;-)  (Notice the were spending, that's a post for another day, and I'm so very excited to share it!)  After the success of having those three weeks planned, I decided to do it again in December.

All of that to say, here's my menu for the week.  I can't believe how much stress it's taken off of me to have the whole month planned out!  (I make my menu based on what's in the pantry, and I still buy what's on sale at the grocery store - so I have it in my pantry for the next month's planning!)  Right now, I'm only going to share my dinner menu -- lunches are a variety of things since I'm staying home with the munchkins and A takes his lunch to work.  Maybe this will help someone else to conquer this area...or at least give you some different ideas for dinner!

Monday -- Crockpot Chili with cheese & tortilla chips
Tuesday -- Chili with cornbread (The recipe on the Aunt Jemima's cornmeal package is super yummy, especially when you make it in two pie plates that have hot shortening in them when you pour in the batter!!!)
Wednesday -- BBQ bone-in Chicken Bake with hashbrowns
Thursday -- Chicken Quesadillas (made with the leftover chicken from Wednesday)
Friday -- Crockpot Potato Soup & cornbread
Saturday -- leftovers
Sunday -- Crockpot Roast & Potatoes & Carrots & Onions (excuse me while I wipe my mouth...)

Y'all have a blessed week!