Weekly Menu 9/1+

Saturday		lasagna garlic bread
Sunday		smoked chicken grilled okra grilled corn
Labor Day		chicken alfredo pasta broccoli salad
Tuesday		skillet pork chops rice-a-roni green beans applesauce
Wednesday		smoked chicken enchiladas guacamole
Thursday		ez veggie beef stew panko noodles brownies
Friday		egg salad sandwiches carrot sticks cantaloupe

Saturday

This is for double the recipe.  It’s really good so I always double it, plus doubling the recipe doesn’t add any significant amount to the prep time. 

Lasagna (from Better Homes & Gardens)

2lb ground meat (beef/pork/italian sausage)

1 c chopped onion

2 cloves garlic

2-16oz whole tomatoes crushed or 28oz can crushed + 14 oz can diced

2-8oz tomato sauce

2-6oz tomato paste

4t basil

1t salt

no boil lasagna noodles

4 eggs

5c cottage cheese (24oz + 16 oz container)

1 ½ c parmesan cheese

4T parsley

2lb sliced provolone

Cook meat, onion and garlic till meat is browned (or use frozen meat); drain.  Stir in the tomatoes, basil and salt.  Cover and simmer 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, beat eggs; add cottage cheese, parmesan cheese and parsley.  In a 9x13 pan put ~1/2 c sauce down on bottom of pan since we are using no boil noodles.  They need a little moisture to get them started.  Then layer, noodles, cottage cheese mixture, provolone slices, red sauce.  Repeat.  End with red sauce on top; add a little extra parmesan on top if you’d like.  Bake at 375 for 45 minutes.  Let sit 10 minutes before serving.

If you double the recipe, for your freezer pan use glass or corningware if you have it.  The acid in the tomato sauce will slowly eat through the pan and you can be left with a metallic taste also, be sure to top with plastic wrap first and then foil for the same reason. 

You can assemble the night before and bake the next day, just increase baking time to 55 minutes.  If you have teenage boys in your house, you might want to put a note on there that it is not baked; trust me I speak from experience.  J

Garlic Bread

Spread softened butter and sprinkle with garlic powder.  Top with any leftover provolone cheese, or a sprinkle of parmesan and finally a little parsley on top.  Put in oven as you take out the lasagna and bake for 5-10 minutes.  Time will depend on the thickness of your bread so just keep an eye on it. 

Sunday

Smoked Chicken (cook extra for Tuesday)

Grilled Okra or Corn

Monday

This cooks up very quickly and is SO good.  Plus we’ve already had cream in our pie this week, so why not have cream again!  Also if you only used half cup of cream in your pie, you’ll have just enough cream to use up the pint within the week. 

Creamy Chicken Alfredo

¼ c flour

6 boneless chicken

1t salt

2T olive oil

3 cloves garlic

1T minced onion

1 ½ c whipping cream

1/3 c parmesan cheese

½ t pepper

1T chopped parsley

Sprinkle chicken with salt and dredge chicken through flour in shallow dish.  Heat 2T oil in large skillet.  Add chicken and cook, turning once until golden; about 2-4 minutes per side.  Chicken does not need to be fully cooked.  Place chicken in a 9x13 pan.  Heat remaining oil in skillet add garlic and onion; cook until garlic is fragrant and onion is tender about 1-2 minutes.  Increase heat to medium-high; add whipping cream, parmesan and pepper.  Cook until sauce is bubbly and slightly thickened; about 2-3 minutes.  Spoon sauce over chicken in dish.  Bake about 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees or until chicken reaches 180 degrees. 

Pasta

Broccoli Salad

2c chopped broccoli

½ c cheese cubes

¼ c slivered almonds

½ -1 c chopped strawberries (or another berry if the strawberries don’t look good at your store)

½ c mayonnaise

½ t apple cider vinegar

2T sugar

Combine broccoli, almonds and cheese.  In a separate bowl mix mayo, vinegar and sugar until combined.  Mix with broccoli.  Chill (if you have time).  Just before serving add strawberries.

Tuesday

--I’ve made these chops twice now and really like the tenderness they get from the extra simmer they get in the covered skillet. 

Skillet Pork Chops

4-5 pork chops

Flour

Salt & pepper

2-3 T Oil

Salt and pepper chops and dredge through flour.  Heat oil in skillet and brown chops about 4-5 minutes per side.  Remove any excess oil from pan and then cover and simmer on very low heat for ~20 minutes. 

Rice-a-roni

1 c rice

¼ c vermicelli, crushed

¼ c butter

2 ½ c chicken or beef stock

2T parsley

Sauté rice and vermicelli in butter until vermicelli starts to brown.  Add stock, stir and cover.  Cook for 20 minutes until rice is tender.  Add parsley and fluff with a fork. 

Green Beans

Applesauce

Wednesday

--When selecting avocados look for slightly firm fruits with the stem end still in place.  This actually keeps the fruit from starting to turn bad. 

--If you didn’t get to smoke your chicken over the weekend, use any other already cooked chicken you might have. 

--This is great to assemble the night before or over the weekend right after you pull your chicken from the bone. 

Smoked Chicken Enchiladas(from Better Homes & Gardens)

1c chopped onion

½ c chopped green pepper

½ c chopped medium heat pepper (more or less to your liking)

2T butter

2c chopped cooked chicken or turkey

4oz (small) can diced green chilies

3T butter

¼ c flour

1t coriander seed or ground cumin

¾ t salt

2 ½ c chicken broth

1c sour cream

1 ½ c Monterey jack cheese shredded

12-14 corn tortillas

In large saucepan cook onion and peppers in the 2T butter till tender.  Combine onion mixture with chicken and canned green chilies.  Set aside in a bowl.  In same saucepan melt 3T butter.  Stir in flour, coriander/cumin, salt; allow to brown slightly.  Stir in chicken broth all at once; cook and stir till thickened and bubbly.  Cook and stir 1-2 minutes more.  Remove from heat.  Stir in sour cream and ½ c cheese.  Stir ½ c sauce into the chicken mixture.  Dip each tortilla into remaining sauce to soften; fill each with about ¼ c of chicken mixture.  Roll up.  Arrange rolls in 9x13 pan; pour remaining sauce over top.  Sprinkle with remaining cheese.  Bake, uncovered at 350 for 25 minutes. 

Guacamole

1-2 avocados

¼ c diced tomatoes

2T minced onion

1t garlic salt

1t diced jalapeno (optional)

Cut avocados in half long-way around the seed and twist to release the seed.  Remove seed from other side by puncturing with knife and twisting.  Score avocado in a grid pattern.  Use a large tablespoon (from your silverware drawer) to scoop out the meat of the avocado.  Mash in a bowl, add other ingredients and stir.  Serve with blue corn tortilla chips.  Place pits back in the guac and it will keep it from turning brown. 

Thursday

--Tonight’s dinner cooks in the crockpot so feel free to get this ready the night before. 

This recipe is VERY flexible because you can start with cooked ground beef or start with raw cubed beef based on what you have in the freezer, what’s on sale or how ‘fancy’ you want to make this. 

--Friday night we are having egg salad sandwiches, hard boil your eggs early in the week so that you can mix up your salad Thursday night and you won't have to do anything on Friday except add it onto some bread. 

--Once you hard boil your eggs, write an ‘H’ on them with a pencil and you won't have to guess which ones are the right ones to crack. 

--Don’t know how to boil an egg?  Put them in the pot, cover with cold water, turn on high, bring to a boil for 3 minutes (use your timer).  Remove from heat, cover and let sit for 8 more minutes (use that timer again).  Then run with cool water or add ice.  You won't get a green yolk with this method. 

Easy Veggie Beef Stew (Sandy’s recipe)

·         Cooked ground beef or cut up raw beef

·         16oz frozen mixed veggies

·         1 can cream of celery

·         1 packet brown gravy mix

·         1 ½ c water/broth or wine

Combine all ingredients in crockpot and let it cook for the day. 

Panko Noodles

Cook noodles according to regular method.  In a small skillet melt 2-3 T butter and add ¼-1/3 c of panko to skillet and allow crumbs to brown.  Mix in with noodles. 

Brownies

Friday

Egg salad sandwiches

Boiled eggs

Mayo

Mustard

Celery & onion chopped fine

Salt/pepper

Pimento (optional)

Your favorite add in

Paprika

Fancy bread of your choice

Peel and chop eggs, add in extras and serve on whatever bread you decided on. 

Carrot sticks

Cantaloupe