Meals for the week of...January 4, 2010

Welcome to 2010! Happy New Year!

Before I get into the meals for this week, I want to THANK YOU for visiting! I'm so excited about this site and after a few practice rounds I think I'm set to roll for the new year. I hope you enjoy the meals and menus planned.

I start back to work on Monday and am easing back into the routine of work and cooking with a pretty simple menu for this week. To save some time on Tuesday night I'm going to be doing a little work on Sunday. I am planning on making the chicken tetrazini Sunday, but this is not essential. The chicken tetrazini is not too hard or time consuming that it would need to be made ahead of time but it will simplify the week somewhat. This tetrazini is great and makes lots so you will have enough for leftovers during the week (my husband loves this for lunch) or save for Friday dinner. I will be using the Rotisserie Chicken bought at the store for the chicken in the pasta and then using what is leftover for dinner Monday night. I recommend using about 1/2 of the chicken in the tetrazini and save the other half for dinner Monday. If you have a larger family, you may need 2 Rotisserie Chickens, one for each night! To help with the weekly grocery budget the Wednesday Chili is inexpensive and the leftovers are used the next night on the Chili Dogs and the leftover hot dog buns are used to make garlic bread on Friday!

Monday: Rotisserie chicken with Au Gratin Potatoes and Vegetables

Tuesday: Pre-made Chicken Tetrazini

Wednesday: Chili and Golden Cornbread

Thursday: Chili Dogs/Hot Dogs and French Fries or Sweet Potato Fries

Friday: Spaghetti and Hot Dog Bun Garlic Bread (if you have leftover Tetrazini you could use this instead of spaghetti)

Rotisserie Chicken with Au Gratin Potatoes and Steamed Vegetables

1 store bought pre-cooked rotisserie chicken

1 box Au Gratin Potatoes

1 bag Microwaveable Steamable Vegetables

I love a meal like this as it is quick! Reheat the chicken in the microwave following directions on bag. I cut the chicken up on Sunday when I pre-made the chicken tetrazini so my family will be using that leftover chicken. Make the Au Gratin Potatoes and vegetables follo

wing package directions.

Chicken Tetrazini

½ c butter

½ c flour

1 tsp salt

½ t pepper

1 tsp minced garlic (I use minced garlic from a jar)

2 c chicken broth (veggie broth also works)

2 c whipping cream (I use milk instead- low fat is fine)

12 oz. thin spaghetti

4 c chicken (cooked, cubed or shredded) (I buy a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store)

grated Parmesan Cheese

Cook spaghetti and chicken (if using a rotisserie chicken cut up the chicken while sauce and spaghetti cook). Melt butter in a saucepan. Blend in four and seasoning. Cook, stirring until mixture is smooth and bubbly. Remove from heat. Stir in broth and cream. Heat to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil 1 minute. Add spaghetti and chicken. Pour into a 9 x 13 inch greased pan and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake uncovered at 350 for 30 mins.

If making ahead of time and planning to reheat during the week, top with cheese but do not bake in oven. When you are ready to reheat, heat oven to 350 and heat until warmed throughout. It may take a little more than 30 mins to heat. I will assume around 45 mins at 350.

Optional idea: You could add frozen peas or mushrooms to the recipe as well.

Here is my pre-made tetrazini waiting to be cooked:

Chili with Golden Cornbread

Chili:

1 large can of chili beans or 2 regular sized cans of chili beans

1 can kidney beans, drained

1 or 2 cans diced tomatoes (depends how many you like) (not drained)

optional - 1 can corn

Heat all ingredients on the stove until hot. You can add chili powder if needed. To make more chili just add more chili beans. This is a very quick and easy chili. It doesn't have all the fancy bits of a normal chili, but it only takes 15 minutes to put together and heat.

Golden Cornbread: (Thanks Lindsay for this recipe)

1 cup yellow corn meal

1 cup all-purpose flour

4 T sugar

4 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

1 cup milk

1 egg

1/4 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine corn meal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add milk, egg and oil. Beat until fairly smooth, about 1 minute. Bake in a greased or sprayed 8-inch square baking pan 20 to 23 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Chili Dogs (or Hot Dogs) and Fries

1 package hot dogs

1 package hot dog buns

leftover chili from yesterday (optional)

French fries or sweet potato fries

Cook hot dogs as desired and bake french fries following package directions. I've found sweet potato fries at our local grocery store as well as at Costco. They are a nice change from typical french fries.

Spaghetti or Leftover Chicken Tetrazini and Garlic Bread

Make you favorite spaghetti with jarred sauce of choice or reheat leftover chicken tetrazini in microwave or oven and use the leftover hot dog buns to make garlic bread.

Garlic Bread:

Hot dog buns

butter

Garlic Garlic from Tastefully Simple or your favorite garlic (powder, salt, minced)

Parmesan Cheese (optional for topping)

Butter buns and add garlic topping and cheese. Bake in oven or toaster oven until butter and bread is slightly browned.

I've bought Garlic Garlic from Tastefully Simple and LOVE it as a topper to garlic bread. My sister-in-law sells Tastefully Simple products if you want to get some so leave me a comment and I'll give you her information. You can also look at the product on the Tastefully Simple website.

Meals for the week of...December 13, 2009

The meals this week should produce enough leftovers to have some for lunch. My husband is great about eating leftovers so frequently I make a large meal to start with so there is plenty for lunches too. Having the Chicken Patties on a Bun last week gave me some leftover hamburger buns so I planned a meal to use up the remaining buns.

Several of the recipes this week come from a site I follow called realmomrecipes.com. I haven't tried too many recipes from here but the handful that I have are great.

This week's meals will have you cooking some BBQ pork and then using the cooked pork again for BBQ quesadillas later in the week. I heard that Safeway has bone-in pork shoulder blade roasts on sale this week for $0.88 per pound or you can buy the boneless pork should blade roast for a little more at $1.29. They also have their shredded or chunk cheese on sale for $0.99 each (limit 3). We use lots of cheese, especially parmesan so I stock up each chance to get. If you use King Soopers they have a USDA choice Boneless Bottom Chuck Round Roast for $2.97 per pound which saves you over $1.50 with your Sooper Card.

Monday: BBQ Pork Sandwiches with Corn

Tuesday: Sesame Chicken with Veggies -realmomkitchen.com

Wednesday: Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup

Thursday: BBQ Quesadillas and Steamed Veggies - realmomkitchen.com

Friday: Pita Pizzas


BBQ Pork Sandwiches with Corn
1/2 cup red onion, diced
pork roast (the size doesn't really matter - depends on how much you want for leftovers but plan on using leftovers for Thursdays dinner)
1 bottle BBQ sauce (or more depending on the size of the pork or the size of the BBQ sauce bottle)
Hamburger buns
Canned Corn

Put onion in the bottom of the crock pot or slow cooker. Add pork and bottle of BBQ sauce. Depending on how much BBQ sauce you like you may want to add a little more so the pork has enough moisture and flavor. Cook on low 6-8 hours until pork is done. When cooked through shred the pork and serve on hamburger buns as sandwiches.

Sesame Chicken
I found this recipe on a blog site I follow and was a little unsure at first, but it was really easy and really good. I baked the popcorn chicken instead of deep frying. I bought my popcorn chicken at the grocery store and it was somewhat expensive in my opinion. The website this came from said that buying at Costco/Sam's is cheaper for the popcorn chicken. I'm going to try that next time. I also cooked a bag of Steamable Asian vegetables and added to the sauce with the chicken and served this over rice.

Rice - white or brown
1 1/2 to 2 pounds of frozen popcorn chicken
6 tablespoons honey
4 tablespoons sugar
Salt (to taste)
4 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoon white distilled vinegar
a sprinkle of ground black pepper
diced green onion, optional
sesame seeds, optional

Deep fry your popcorn chicken and drain on a plate lined with a paper towel or bake in the oven according to package directions. In a wok or sauce pan, combine the remaining ingredients and warm over medium heat. Bring to a boil while stirring and simmer until sauce slightly thickens. In the wok or in a serving dish coat chicken with the sauce. Serve over cooked rice and garnish with diced green and sesame seeds.

Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup
Sliced cheese
Sandwich bread
Tomato Soup

Sometimes I cook our grilled cheese using a skillet and buttering each side of the bread, but if I want a lighter and even quicker meal I will use our toaster oven to have a toasted cheese sandwich. When I make a toasted cheese sandwich I typically use the processed cheese slices as they melt more quickly and I do not butter the bread. I am sure you could use the oven instead of a toaster oven to do this as well. The biggest difference is that the bread becomes toaster and dryer instead of moist like a typical grilled cheese.

BBQ Quesadillas with Steamed Vegetables
The original recipe for this uses chicken but since I cooked the BBQ pork earlier in the week I am going to use the leftovers from that meal in place of the chicken. I am pretty sure it's going to taste very similar to the chicken. These quesadillas were great! A family member sent this recipe to me and she too found it on realmomkitchen.com.

2 Tablespoons melted butter
6 flour tortillas
shredded cheddar cheese (or whatever cheese you like)
diced red onion (can use green onion in it's place)
leftover slow cooker barbecue chicken or your own bbq chicken

Brush one side of the tortilla with melted butter. Place butter side down in frying pan. Sprinkle the entire tortilla with a light layer of cheddar cheese and sprinkle on some red onion. Cook over medium heat until under side is browned and crisp and cheese is melted. Top half the tortilla with warmed bbq chicken and fold tortilla in half, then cut in half so you have two triangles. Enjoy.

Pita Pizzas
1 package pita bread
1 jar pizza sauce
toppings for your pizza that your family will enjoy

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Make individual pizzas on pita bread as desired and cook in the oven until cheese is fully melted.

Meals for the week of...December 6, 2009

The meals this week use several of the ingredients for multiple meals. The leftover hoagie buns from Monday become garlic bread served with spaghetti on Tuesday. The leftover shredded chicken from the tacos is used to top the BBQ chicken pizza on Thursday. I try to plan meals around those items I know I will have leftovers of. This way very little food goes to waste while saving money too!

I have become of huge fan of the steam in a bag vegetables as they are quick, easy, and healthy!

Monday: Turkey Cranberry Open Faced Sandwiches and Green Beans

Tuesday: Spaghetti and Garlic Bread

Wednesday: Chicken Soft Tacos

Thursday: BBQ Chicken Pizza from www.recipegirl.com

Friday: Chicken Patties on a Bun with Steamed Veggies (I love the new steam in a bag types)

Turkey Cranberry Open Faced Sandwiches

1 package thinly sliced deli turkey

Sliced pepper-jack cheese

Jellied Cranberry Sauce

1 small jar Apricot or Peach Jam/Jelly (or something similar)

Hoagie Buns

Preheat the oven or toaster oven to 350 degrees. Mix 1/2 jelly jar and 1/2 can cranberry sauce together in a bowl. Cut the hoagie buns in half lengthwise. On each half, layer with cranberry sauce mixture, sliced turkey, and top with pepper-jack cheese. Place all open faced sandwiches on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil in the oven to warm and melt the cheese - approximately 10 minutes.

Spaghetti and Garlic Bread

1 package thin spaghetti noodles

1 jar favorite spaghetti sauce

Leftover hoagie buns, butter, garlic seasoning, and cheese

Cook your favorite spaghetti noodles and sauce. Use the leftover hoagie buns to make garlic bread.

Chicken Soft Tacos

Chicken tenderloins (10-12) frozen or chicken breasts (4-5)

1 16 oz jar salsa (2 cups)

1 package taco seasoning

Flour tortillas

cilantro (optional - I'm using the cilantro tonight and tomorrow night)

Place thawed chicken tenderloins in a crockpot with one jar of salsa and one package taco seasoning. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Shred chicken and make tacos with desired toppings.

BBQ Chicken Pizza

1/2 cup barbecue sauce

1 cup cooked chicken, diced (use leftover chicken from previous night)

1 premade pizza crust such as Boboli

2 tbsp olive oil

1 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup red onions

2 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped

Mix BBQ sauce and chicken and allow to marinate for a few minutes or up to 24 hours. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Top pizza crust with olive oil, mozzarella cheese, and BBQ chicken. Top with red onions and cilantro. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until cheese it fully melted.

Chicken Patties on a Bun

1 box breaded chicken patties

hamburger buns

desired toppings

1 bag of steamable vegetables as a side

Cook chicken patties according to directions on box and top with desired toppings.