Weekly Menu 4/30+

Saturday		Slow Cooked Baked Beans Corn Bread Carrot Sticks Brown Butter Apple Pie
Sunday		Oven Fried Chicken with Peaches and Biscuits Green Beans
Monday		Meatloaf Mashed Potatoes Corn
Tuesday		Ranchero Pork
Wednesday		Skillet Lasagna Garlic Bread
Thursday		Frito Pie w/ avocado Grapes & Sliced Oranges
Friday		Leftover Round-Up or Grilled Cheese

Saturday

1. Clayton sent two recipes this week from their Easter dinner last week. Then I got a follow up from Janet with a few extra steps they took based on watching Alton Brown. Those instructions are in [] below.
2. I modified the store-bought pie crust with this crust recipe from Pearl Heckman (she's now in heaven with Jesus), but it is a VERY easy crust to make without a great deal of mess.

Slow Cooked BBQ Baked Beans

• ½ lb bacon, cut into 1/2” pieces
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 c ketchup
• ½ c packed brown sugar (decrease to ¼ c if you want them less sweet)
• ¼ c mild-flavored BBQ sauce
• 1T cider vinegar
• 1 heaping tsp ground mustard
• 2 cans great northern beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed

Cook bacon and onion in skillet. Transfer to greased crock pot add remaining ingredients. Cook 4-5 hours on low.

Corn Bread

Carrot Sticks

 

Brown Butter Apple Pie

• 1 c flour
• 7 T melted butter
• ½ tsp salt

Melt butter in glass pie plate, add flour and salt mix around until well blended, then use fingers to press up the sides of pie plate and along bottom until all areas are covered. Flute edges as desired.

Filling:

• ¼ c butter
• ½ c sugar
• 1 egg
• 2T flour
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3-4 large apples, peeled and cut into 1/2” wedges

[Mix apples and sugar together and let sit for at least an hour before combining remaining ingredients]. Mix together in large bowl until apples are well coated. Pour into crust in pie plate.

Streusel:

• ½ c flour
• ¼ c sugar
• ¼ c brown sugar
• ¾ tsp cinnamon
• ¼ c butter

Mix dry ingredients and then cut in butter using a pastry blender, two knives or a fork. Sprinkle over top.

Topping:

• ½ c whipping cream
• 1T powdered sugar
• ¼ tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp vanilla

Whip cream in a cold grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed.

Sunday

1. Instead of a fruited meat, this ends up tasting more like a main dish with dessert on the side. You can even put the peaches on top of the biscuits instead of on top of the chicken, if you want.

 

Oven Fried Chicken w/ Peaches and Biscuits (365 Ways to Cook Chicken)

• ¼ c shortening
• 4T butter
• 1 c flour
• 2 tsp paprika
• ¼ tsp salt
• pepper
• 3lb chicken pieces
• 6oz can biscuits
• 30oz can cling peach halves, drained (in hmm hmm syrup)
• whole cloves (optional)
• 1 ½ c hot milk

Preheat oven to 425. Place shortening and butter in 9x13 pan and set in oven until melted. In bag, combine flour, paprika, salt and pepper. Add chicken, a few pieces at a time, and shake to coat thoroughly. Place chicken skin side down in hot shortening. Bake 45 minutes, then turn.

Push chicken to one end of pan. At the other end, arrange uncooked biscuits in a single layer, without draining off shortening. Stick each peach half with a clove and place on top of chicken. Bake 15 minutes.

To make gravy, remove chicken, biscuits and peaches to a serving platter. Pour pan drippings into a medium saucepan and place over medium heat. Whisk in 2T flour and cook for 1 min without browning. Whisk in mile, bring to a boil, and cook until thick and smooth.

 

Green Beans

 

Monday

Meatloaf

Mashed Potatoes

Corn

 

Tuesday

1. I wrote this recipe idea down last week, but now I cant find what cookbook or article I was look at to now type out the recipe. Hmmm. This is what happens when you clean your work space; things get put away and out of sight, out of mind. This recipe comes from Woman's Day, and based on the dates on the internet is appears they recycle the recipe every two years or so. Must be a good one.

Ranchero Pork (Woman's Day)

• 1 can (14 oz) Mild Red Enchilada Sauce (Old El Paso)
• 1 can (4 oz) diced green chiles
• 3 1/2 lb bone-in pork shoulder roast, well trimmed
• 1 medium red onion, sliced
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Mix enchilada sauce and chiles in a 4-qt or larger slow-cooker. Add pork; spoon sauce over top. Cover and cook on low 8 to 10 hours until pork is very tender. At least 20 minutes before serving, toss onion slices with lime juice in a medium bowl. Let stand, tossing once or twice until slightly wilted. Remove pork to a cutting board. Stir cilantro into mixture in slow-cooker. Break pork into bite-size chunks with a wooden spoon and return to cooker; stir to combine. To serve: Spoon pork mixture on warmed tortillas, top with marinated onions, fold and eat.

 

Wednesday

1. This is another recipe I wrote down last week to include in this week's menu. The trick is that I cant find WHERE I saw these recipes so I turned to the internet. I made some modifications from the Food Network recipe, to make the recipe more economical.
2. If your family wont tolerate a meat-free meal, you can add in 1-2c cooked ground beef into the sauce.

 

Skillet Lasagna (Food Network)

• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 28 oz can tomato puree
• 4 tablespoons chopped fresh basil and/or parsley, plus more for garnish
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 cup cottage cheese
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish
• 6 sheets no-bake lasagna noodles
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• 1 zucchini, finely chopped
• 3 1/2 cups baby spinach
• 1/3 pound mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced

Heat the 1/4 cup olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic; cook until golden, 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, 1 tablespoon herbs, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste; cook until saucy, about 5 minutes. Remove all but 1 cup of the sauce to the skillet and reduce the heat to low; reserve the remaining sauce.

 

Meanwhile, mix the cottage cheese, egg, parmesan, the remaining 3 tablespoons herbs, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste in a bowl.

 

Place 2 lasagna noodles over the sauce in the skillet. Layer half of the carrot and zucchini on top; drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Cover with half of the spinach, half of the cottage cheese mixture, a few pieces of mozzarella and 2 to 3 tablespoons of the reserved tomato sauce. Repeat the layers, ending with noodles. Top with the remaining sauce and mozzarella. Cover and simmer until the lasagna is cooked and the cheese melts, 20 to 25 minutes.

 Let rest for a few minutes before slicing. Garnish with more parmesan and fresh herbs.

 

Thursday (Cinco de Mayo)

1. Tonight if you have any leftover meatloaf you can chop it up for the frito pie.
2. If you want this to be a super easy supper, feel free to use canned chili.
3. Cinco de mayo holds the record for largest volume of avocados consumed in America, can you name the second most popular day? First one to email me back wins a very special prize....bragging rights at knowing the same useless information I do. 

Frito Pie

• 2c cooked ground beef (or leftover meatloaf)
• 1 can diced tomatoes or Rotel (depending on your heat tolerance)
• 2-3T chili powder
• ½ c chopped onion
• ½ tsp cumin
• ½ tsp oregano
• salt and pepper
• ½ tsp baking soda (it will foam like crazy when you add it thanks to the acid in the tomatoes)
• Fritos
• grated cheese
• chopped onions (optional)
• sliced avocado (optional)

Combine all ingredients though baking soda in a medium saucepan and simmer 15-20 min. Add Fritos to a bowl, top with chili and cheese. This should remind you of a baseball game; well it does for me.

Grapes & sliced Oranges 

 

Friday

 

Tonight is clean out the fridge night.  If you dont have any leftovers, I recommend grilled cheese sandwiches.  I used up my 'easy' Friday dinner on Thursday because it was cinco de mayo.