Weekly Menu 12/31+

Saturday		oven fried chicken green beans biscuits
Sunday		ham blackeyed peas pineapple corn bread
Monday		chicken with creamy gravy fine egg noodles spinach
Tuesday		tamale meatloaf citrus salad
Wednesday		red beans & rice w/ sausage
Thursday		filet-o-fish tater tots green beans
Friday		italian roast parslied rice broccoli

Saturday

1.       This is a good night to get some extra boneless chicken into the freezer that is already batterd/breaded up.  Then the next time you want fried chicken it will come together a lot quicker. 

2.       If you soak your chicken pieces in buttermilk for at least 2 hours you will get a moister chicken.

3.       Cook extra chicken for Monday.

4.       These biscuits can be mixed ahead of time and frozen. 

Oven Fried Chicken

§  Boneless chicken pieces

§  Buttermilk, for soaking and or dredging

§  1-2 Eggs

§  1 sleeve saltines, crushed (do the crushing before you unseal the crackers)

§  Flour

§  Seasonings (onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, dry mustard)

§  Oil

Preheat oven to 400.  Soak chicken in buttermilk.  When ready to bread chicken, beat egg(s) into buttermilk mixture.  Combine flour, crackers and seasonings into shallow dish.  Heat oil in large skillet, remove chicken from buttermilk and then into flour mix.  From there they take a dip in hot oil in a skillet.  They should only brown slightly.  Remove to a wire rack placed inside a rimmed baking sheet.  The chicken will drain and when all pieces are browned, place in oven for 10-15 minutes (or until cooked through—a great time to use your thermometer in the biggest piece). 

Green Beans

Biscuits

§  2 c self-rising flour

§  ¼ c butter

§  ¾ c buttermilk

Cut butter and flour together with a fork or two knives.  Stir in buttermilk.  Adding more flour or buttermilk to create a rolling consistency, knead a few times and turn out onto a floured surface.  Roll and cut with a biscuit cutter or into squares.  Bake on a cookie sheet at 475 until brown.  Serve with more butter.

Sunday Happy New Year—2012!!!

Ham

Black-eyed peas

Pineapple

Cornbread

Monday

Chicken with creamy gravy

Fine Egg Noodles with butter

Spinach

Tuesday

1.       This one is a triple decker of goodness.  The meat is cooked prior to creating the layers. 

2.       You could shorten the recipe by using boxed cornbread mix, and a packet of taco seasoning mix for the ground meat and top it off with a little picante sauce.

Tamale Sandwich Meatloaf

Meat Mixture

§  ½ chopped onion

§  1 clove garlic, chopped

§  1 ½ lb ground meat or 2c cooked ground meat

§  ½ tsp oregano

§  ½ tsp chili powder

§  ½ tsp salt

§  ¼ tsp cayenne

§  1/8 tsp ground cumin

§  3T flour

§  2T water

§  3T tomato paste

§  4T parmesan cheese

CORNBREAD

§  1 c sifted flour

§  1 c sifted cornmeal

§  1T baking powder

§  2 tsp sugar

§  ½ tsp salt

§  ¼ tsp cayenne pepper

§  1T parmesan cheese

§  1 c milk

§  1 egg, slightly beaten

§  5T oil

TOMATO SAUCE

§  ½ c chopped onion

§  ¼ c chopped green pepper

§  2T butter

§  ¼ tsp oregano

§  1/8 tsp cumin

§  16 oz tomato sauce

Grease 9x5x3 loaf pan. Heat oven to 350.  Sauté onion and garlic with beef or if using pre-cooked beef sauté your onion and garlic separately.  Drain meat and add remaining ingredients.  Prepare cornbread by combining dry ingredients first and then wet ingredients separately.  Combine the dry and wet ingredients just until mixed.  Batter should still be lumpy.  Over-mixing creates a tough cornbread.  Spoon half batter into bottom of prepared pan; top with meat, spreading meat to all edges and corners.  Spread remaining batter over top of meat to fill corners and edges.  Bake for 35 minutes or until lightly browned on top.  While loaf bakes, prepare tomato sauce in medium sized sauce pan.  Sauté onion and pepper in butter.  Add remaining ingredients and simmer over low heat for 8 minutes to blend flavors.  Cover; keep warm.  Remove loaf from oven; let stand 15 minutes. 

Citrus Salad

Combine grapefruit and oranges.  If you peel and de-membrane the grapefruit, do the same with the oranges.  Looks to be a great year for grapefruit!

Wednesday

1.        Put beans on to soak the night before

Red Beans & Rice w/ Sausage

§  1 c dry red beans

§  ½ tsp of: paprika, dry mustard, garlic powder, salt, pepper, cayenne (to taste)

§  2 stalks of celery

§  ½ c chopped onion

§  ½ c chopped bell pepper

§  1 bay leaf

§  Sausage slices

Soak beans overnight.  Combine seasonings in small bowl the night before.  In the morning add veggies, seasonings, and sausage (if uncooked).  Cook all day in the crock pot.  If sausage is cooked already, wait to mix in until just before serving to reheat.

Serve with Rice. 

Thursday

Filet-o-Fish

Tater Tots

Green Beans

Friday

Italian Roast

§  2-3lb roast

§  1 packet Good Seasons Italian Dressing mix

§  1 bottle beer

§  ½ onion chopped

§  1 c carrots

Place carrots and onions in bottom of crock pot, add roast, then beer, top with dry seasoning mix. 

Parslied Rice

Add parsley (fresh if you have it) and butter to rice as it cooks.

Steamed Broccoli