My Menu Plan Monday.

Busy week ahead. Paul's working tons of hours. Double shifts and all. And quite honestly, I've got so much going on with Carly and the school. The very last thing I want to do, or have time to do, is spend hours in the kitchen. Therefore, I'm going to take a break from cooking actual meals every day. What I call meals, that is!

Monday: Tacos & corn fritters
(I'll be frying up my meat today for both Mon & Tues dinner)

Tuesday: Chili and grilled cheese

Wednesday: Baked spaghetti w/meatballs, salad and garlic bread

Thursday: Chicken, mashed potatoes/gravy

Friday: Pizza night

Saturday: Out to eat

Sunday: crock pot meal



Thought I'd share a simple recipe today. These are called, Snack Bars.

1 1/4 package of Graham crackers
1 C chocolate chips
1 can sweetened condensed milk



Spray a 9x9 baking dish with cooking spray. Break graham crackers into bit size pieces. Place in a small mixing bowl. Add chocolate chips then pour in sweetened condensed milk. Mix gently. Pour mixture into 9x9 pan and bake for 30min @ 350.
Allow to cool completely before cutting.


See those graham cracker pieces? You want them a tad bit smaller than that. Not crumbs though. You could even slack on the chocolate chips. It's a bit of a chocolate chip overload. For some reason, the chips on the top of the snack bars, don't melt up nicely. Not sure why that is. So don't leave this in the oven waiting chips on the top to melt. Aint gonna happen!
Also, make sure this is cooled completely. Carly insisted on having some before it cooled and it was a MESS! Good, but a mess.

I may not be blogging much. Several things going on this week. Many of these things involve Carly. I'm waiting to hear from the Special Ed Director, who rudely SLAMMED the phone down in my ear on Friday afternoon. I hadn't even gotten into a conversation yet. The only thing I was able to say, was "Hi K, this is Joany" SLAM! I did call back immediately and left a not so nice voice mail, telling K, "I certainly hope that wasn't an intentional hang up on me". I never did hear back from her. The acting Superintendent and the Board President both received calls from me that afternoon. Neither were too happy that a school administrator hung up on a parent. I will also be checking out a couple of other schools this week. I have to place a couple calls first.

If you feel it in your heart, please say a prayer for us to get through this mess with the school. All we want, is what's best for Carly. We are suppose to be going into an emergency IEP meeting this week. Although no one has set that up yet.

Have a good week everyone.

My Menu Plan Monday.

I realize this is going to be late posting today. Oops. I mistakenly posted my previous post ahead of this one. Guess I should pay closer attention to my scheduled posts!

I missed last week's menu plan. Trust me. I didn't do much, if any cooking. Paul worked late a couple nights. So we just winged it. Ate soup,,,out of the can! And, Paul brought home take out a couple of times. Very unlike dinner time for us, but I was just too dizzy and extremely weak. I felt like I was walking on a cloud...sideways. If that makes any sense!

Here is this weeks menu plan:

Monday Tuna noodle casserole, dinner rolls & peas

Tuesday Sloppy Jo's, homemade mac and cheese & cheesy broccoli

Wednesday Oven fried chicken, roasted potatoes and veggies

Thursday Meatloaf, scalloped potatoes & green beans

Friday Pizza night

Saturday Steaks on the grill, baked potatoes & tossed salad

Sunday Crock pot dinner. Roast with veggies, rolls

**********

Today's recipe is a very simple way to make really yummy chicken.

Oven Fried Chicken

3 - 4lbs chicken pieces (breasts, drumstick, things)
1 c. corn flake crumbs
1 c. skim milk
Seasoning (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove all skin from the chicken, rinse and dry the pieces. Season. Dip in milk, shake off excess, and roll in the crumbs. Let stand briefly so coating will sticks. Place chicken in an oiled baking pan. ( I line my pan with foil for easy clean-up.) Do no crowd you don't want the pieces to touch. Bake 45 minutes or more. Corn Flake crumbs will get crispy!

My Menu Plan Monday

Okay...back at it. I'm finally over the crud that I had last week. I've passed it on to Brad and Paul. Although, they are both doing better this afternoon.

This week our menu includes some grilling out. We're suppose to be in the mid 70's!!

Monday: Grilled Steak, rice and toss salad

Tuesday: Grilled Burgers, fries and macaroni salad

Wednesday: Grilled Chicken, baby potatoes and veggies

Thursday: Lasagna, broccoli with cheese sauce and garlic bread

Friday: Pizza night

Saturday: Left over night

Sunday: Ham with all the fixin's


My recipe is just a helpful hint really.

I dice up red baby potatoes and toss with olive oil. Then place on a sheet of tin foil. Add garlic, spices, salt and pepper. Drizzle more olive oil over the potatoes. Then place a second sheet of tin foil over the top and close all sides up tight; forming a packet. Poke holes in the top of the 'packet'. Place on grill for about 30 minutes. Delicious!!

I also add sliced onions. I've been known to add zucchini, when they are in season. Sometimes I even throw in green beans. I only use fresh ones from the garden.

We make this quite often during the summer months.

My Menu Plan.

Last week, Paul worked a very late night. So, I changed up my menu from last week just a bit. Oh, and Ashleigh didn't end up coming home last weekend. Carly was kind of sad about that. She will be home this weekend though.

This weeks menu is including the grill. It's suppose to be in the mid 40's!! That means, I'm taking advantage of grilling out! It's yummy and saves a mess in my kitchen!

I've switched our Friday night pizza night to Saturday for this week. Per Ashleigh's request. She wants it ordered from her favorite pizza shop in our town. Which is okay by me, as I've been making homemade pizza the last three weeks! It's cheaper and tastes pretty darn good too! Plus, Carly eats homemade pizza way better than take out!


Monday: Grilled burgers, french fries and toss salad

Tuesday: Grilled pork chops, grilled potatoes and veggies

Wednesday: Crock pot meal...roast, carrots and potatoes

Thursday: Crock pot chili and corn bread

Friday: Chopped steak sandwiches with coleslaw

Saturday: Pizza night (Ashleigh wants to be home for pizza night)

Sunday: Ashleigh's choice

I'm leaving you with this recipe, that I got from The Pioneer Woman herself! Love her blog. Love this easy, yummy sandwich. Although, I don't make this often, it's a hit here and it was requested for this week's menu!

My Menu Plan.

This weekend Ashleigh will be coming home. So, I'm leaving Saturday and Sunday open as of now...and I'm letting her choose what she would like.


Monday: Chicken stir fry w/ rice

Tuesday: Steaks on the grill, baked potatoes and veggies

Wednesday: Pork loin in the crock pot, noodles and veggies

Thursday: Soup and grilled cheese

Friday: Pizza night.

Saturday: ?

Sunday: ?


Recipe for today:

Quick and easy Broccoli Cheese Soup

1 small onion, chopped
1/2C butter
1 package (16oz) frozen chopped broccoli
4 cans (14.5 oz) chicken broth
1lb Velveeta cheese (cut into cubes)
2 C milk
1T garlic powder
2/3C cornstarch

Saute onions in butter. Add broccoli to the chicken broth, boil till tender. Lower heat and add cheese cubes. Stir well until cheese is melted. Add garlic pwdr and milk. Mix cornstarch w/water until dissolved and add to the soup. Cook on low to desired thickness. Stir frequently.

My Menu Plan.

I completely miss last weeks menu plan. I wasn't feeling well. Carly was still home, not feeling well. It was just a crazy week. No worries...we still ate. I still planned (in my head) all of our meals. Most often I schedule these ahead of time, but last week and the week before had my head spinning. Funny how a sick kid throws a monkey wrench in everything!!

This weeks menu plan:

Monday: Sloppy Jo's and french fries

Tuesday: Lasagna, garlic bread and salad

Wednesday: Pierogies, and veggies

Thursday: Meatloaf, mac and cheese and veggies

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: Tacos, Spanish rice and corn cake casserole

Sunday: Roasted chicken and potatoes with veggies


Last week I baked a ton of chicken breasts for one of our meals. That way, I had plenty of left overs for another meal. I thought I'd share my Cheaters Chicken and Dumplings. This is every bit as good as making them with biscuit mix. Less messy. Less time consuming. Easy and yummy.

Cheaters Chicken and Dumplings:

2 large cans of Swanson chicken broth (I think the cans are 32oz)
2 cans of Pillsbury biscuits. (I used Grands)
4 cups of chicken, de-boned and chunked or diced. I did mine kind of small and chunky.
1/4 - 1/2 cups of sliced carrots. (you can add more or less or none!)
1/4 cup flour and water...for thickening. ( I never measure the flour & water) More or less, depending on how thick you want your broth to get.

Boil chicken broth in large pot. Take biscuits out of tubes. Cut in half and then quarter each half.
Once broth is boiling good. Add the biscuits. Add thickening and stir quickly add chicken and carrots. Cover and boil for 10 minutes.
Quick, easy and tasty too!

My Menu Plan.

Kicking off another week of menu planning. Last week Paul worked some crazy hours, causing a bump in my menu planning. That's the reason the potato burgers are on this weeks menu too!
By the time this posts, we will have already eaten our yummy meal for today!

Monday: chicken fried chicken w/country gravy, mashed potatoes, rolls and veggies

Tuesday: potato burgers w/shredded hash browns, veggies and rolls

Wednesday: Spaghetti w/meatballs, broccoli w/cheese sauce, garlic toast

Thursday: Oven baked pork chops, wild grain rice and veggies

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: left overs

Sunday: Chili and corn cake casserole.



Chicken Fried Chicken

Today, I'm sharing my very easy version of Chicken fried chicken. It's so good and so easy. I get my chicken patties from Aldi's. The best, in my opinion. But, you can use whatever you want. You can even make them homemade - I have, but this is quicker. At any rate, they are a breaded boneless chicken breast. I make homemade country gravy. Or you can buy it in a package. This week, mine is coming from a package!!

Take thawed chicken patties and place in skillet with about 2T of oil (I use Olive oil) and cook until crisp on each side. Now, you could bake these if you want. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. Mix gravy, or make it yourself..(I don't' follow an actual recipe for the homemade stuff, I mix milk, flour, a bit of margarine and some sort of fat drippings or in this case it would be chicken stock..it's for flavor) . Guess I normally do this step first. Oops! Boil up a pan of potatoes (or you could use instant potatoes. We don't' care for the instant ones tho) Once potatoes are tender, drain and mash. We place our chicken patties and potatoes on our plates and spoon our country gravy over top of each. Every bit as good as Cracker Barrel and much more inexpensive. Plus, it's quick and easy!

My Menu Plan.

Back at it again this week. Planning for meals makes my life so much easier. Grocery shopping cheaper. If you can believe it! Actually, I make my meal plan out, head to the store and purchase just what I need. Plus some other necessities. Such as, milk, bread, cereal, juice..that type of stuff. Beats the heck out of walking around trying to plan meals while shopping.

This weeks menu:

Monday: Canned beef and noodles with green bean casserole.

Tuesday: Baked herb chicken, rice with a veggie.

Wednesday: Scalloped potatoes w/ham salad and rolls

Thursday: Goulash, fried potatoes w/veggies (didn't end up having this last week)

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: Left overs

Sunday: Potato burgers, shredded hash browns, green beans and rolls

The following recipe is a new one. I haven't even tried it yet. I found it in a magazine and thought it sounded really good.



Baked Herb Chicken:

8 skinless drumsticks
Juice of large lemon
2 cloves garlic (minced)
2 T rosemary
2 T thyme
2 tsp olive oil
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes

Preheat oven to 425. Spray large rimmed baking sheet with nonstick spray. Place drumsticks on baking sheet. Mix juice from lemon, garlic, rosemary, thyme, oil, mustard, salt and pepper in small bowl; pour over drumsticks and toss to coat. Add tomatoes. Cook about 40 minutes, until drumsticks are cooked through & tomatoes are tender. Be sure to turn drumsticks halfway through roasting time.

My menu Plan.

I had a change in lasts weeks menu plan. Ashleigh came home unexpectedly. She always seem to request something different that what I had planned. This week, you'll see a couple meals that resemble last weeks menu.

Monday: Boiled dinner~kielbasa, cabbage, potatoes & carrots

Tuesday: Crock pot spare ribs, mashed potatoes & broccoli w/cheese sauce

Wednesday: Hamburgers and fries

Thursday: Goulash, fried potatoes & green beans

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: Out for Chinese food

Sunday: Tacos, Spanish rice and corn cake casserole


This weeks recipe:

Corn cake casserole. ( We love this stuff )

1 package Jiffy corn muffin mix
1 egg
1 can cream style corn
1 can regular corn
1 stick melted margarine or butter

Mix all ingredients together. Place in greased pan. I use a pan that's 7"x11". Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. Or until it is firm to the touch. Good stuff!

My Menu Plan.

Now that the holiday's are behind us...maybe, just maybe, I can get back at it with my menu plans. We'll see :o)

Monday: Chicken pockets, roasted potatoes

Tuesday: Potato soup, salad & rolls

Wednesday: Ham & provolone panini's & coleslaw

Thursday: Chili & corn cake casserole

Friday: Pizza Night!!

Saturday: Hamburgers & french fries

Sunday: Crock pot spare ribs, mashed potatoes & broccoli w/cheese sauce



Chicken Pockets:

Tin foil
Boneless skinless chicken breasts
Sliced onion*
Sliced Carrots*
Sliced Celery*
Sliced Zucchini*
Season with Lawry's season salt
1/4 tsp of margarine (per pocket)
(*optional)
Use tin foil for each breast. You'll want it large enough to fold into a pocket. Place 1 breast per each foil pocket. Add veggies ~ really you can do what ever veggies you would like. I've even diced up potatoes) Sprinkle desired amount of seasoning. Add 1/4tsp of margarine to each pocket. Fold tin foil into the form of a tent..sort of...be sure all edges are sealed up tightly. Place each foil pocket on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Simple and good!

Note: I've made these with just BBQ sauce and the chicken. Yum!

Back into the swing of things. And My menu plan, returns!

It's Monday. Time to get back into the groove of things. We had a great time enjoying our family. My mom and dad did Thanksgiving dinner at their house. As my kids feel is a "tradition". Which it is. But, my parents are getting older. They wear out very easily. Not sure how much longer we can keep this "tradition" up. You know that old saying, "Everything tastes better at Grandma's house". My kids believe that 100%! And I'm a good cook!

The run down of our weekend went something like this: We ate too much. Did some laundry. Watched too much TV. Went shopping on Black Friday. Did TONS of Ashleigh's laundry. Did some online shopping. Did some more of Ashleigh's laundry. Made a couple of batches of Christmas cookies. They weren't the homemade kind though. Paul saw the Pillsbury Sugar Cookies at the store. The one's that have imprints of a Christmas tree and a reindeer and he just knew Carly would love them! She did. But, daddy loved them more! Long weekends are great. But man they really throw me off.

On Saturday, I made a turkey. Paul's boss gave his guys each a turkey the day before Thanksgiving. He purchased them from a turkey farm. So it was a fresh turkey, not frozen. I decided to just to go ahead and make it. That way, Ashleigh would have plenty of left overs to take back to school with her. I must say, that turkey was delicious. The stuffing was yummy. The gravy so tasty. We even had cranberry/orange relish...Mmm! The only real difference in our turkey dinner, and the one we had at my mom and dad's, was in terms of potatoes. My kids requested that I make Hash brown Casserole.

Carly is home from school today. Actually, she was home on Wednesday of last week too. I had gotten a note from her teacher, last Monday, that Carly had been pulling her right ear quite a bit. She also told the teacher it hurt. Although, she didn't seem to be bothered too much by it on Monday night. I sent her to school Tuesday and already had planned on taking her to the doctor Wednesday. By Wednesday Carly had developed a nasty sounding cough with runny nose...Sure enough, she had an ear infection and junky sounding lungs. The doc put her on Omnicef for 10 days. She is doing much better. Still has a nasty sounding deep cough, but the coughing isn't coming as often. I expect she'll be back to school tomorrow.

Now that things are beginning to settle down a bit with the school. I can get back to my menu planning. It really is so much easier to have a menu in place. I've missed it. Although, through the next month, I will only be doing it weekly. Too much going on to plan out that far ahead.

This weeks menu:

Monday Chili and corn muffins

Tuesday Pork chops, wild rice & candied carrots

Wednesday Hot turkey sandwiches

Thursday Potato soup, rolls & salad

Friday PIZZA!!

Saturday Baked beans with franks (hot dogs), fried potatoes & veggies

Sunday Crock pot chicken, oven roasted potatoes & veggies

I leave you with this recipe of my roasted potatoes. Keep in mind. This is my version of roasted potatoes. Meaning it's totally made up, by me. Oh, but it's so good!

Get out your 9X13 baking dish. Spray with Pam, or whatever cooking spray you use. (you can, and I do quite often, use EVOO to 'grease' the baking dish. In stead of cooking spray).Wash several (like I said, I made this up) red baby potatoes. Leaving skins on. Sometimes, I chunk these up. Other times, I leave them be. Dump some EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil) into a large plastic Ziploc storage bag. I sprinkle in quite a bit of Sea Salt, (We love the taste of the Sea Salt and EVOO combo) Pepper and Italian seasoning. (I use McCormick) Seal the plastic bag. Shake up contents. Pour into baking dish Sprinkle a bit more Sea Salt, Pepper and Italian seasoning. Place in oven at 325 bake until potatoes are tender. You will need to drizzle a tad bit more EVOO on the potatoes during the baking process. I usually do it a couple of times. Being these are baby potatoes, it doesn't take long for them to bake. These are delicious. I came up with this due to the abundance of these yummy little red potatoes from our garden.

Have a great Monday!

My Menu Plan.

It's that time again. In more ways than one! Time to plan for another couple of weeks worth of meals for the family. This time is a rough one though. I haven't felt all that great the last couple of days. Not sick, just that time of the month thing going on. With that being said, it's been tough to get my menu planned out. Altho., I did, and here it is.

This weeks menu:

• Mon - fried egg sandwiches & fruit (yep, I was slacking)
• Tue - goulash, potatoes & green beans
• Wed - crock pot roast w/noodles & veggies (didn't have last week)
• Thu - baked spaghetti, toss salad & garlic bread
  
• Fri - PIZZA night
• Sat - burgers & fries
• Sun - hot beef sandwiches, mashed taters & gravy w/veggies (left over beef from Wed)
  

Menu for the week of 10/19:

• Mon - chicken broccoli casserole & brown rice
• Tue - homemade potato soup, tossed salad & rolls
• Wed - tacos, corn cake casserole
• Thu - meatloaf, homemade mac & cheese & veggies
• Fri - PIZZA night
• Sat - left overs
• Sun - chili

Today, I'm giving you a recipe for the potato soup that I make. I've been making this for several years. We all LOVE it. It's easy and it's very good. Great for a chilly fall day. I got this off of the site All Recipes.com It's actually called Chunky Cheese Soup, but we just call it Potato Soup!

2 C Water
2 C Diced potatoes (peeled)
1/2 C Diced carrots
1/2 C Chopped celery
1/2 C Chopped onions
1 & 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 C Cooked cubed ham
1/4 C Butter
1/4 C Flour
2 C Milk
2 C shredded Cheddar cheese

In a large pan, add water, potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, salt & pepper. Bring them to a boil. Reduce heat & simmer 30 minutes, or until veggies are tender. Add ham to the pot of veggies.

In a medium pan, melt butter. Then stir in the flour until smooth. Slowly pour/stir in the milk. Bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes, or until thickened. Stir in Cheddar cheese. Pour this mixture into the veggie/ham mixture and serve.

I always double and sometimes even triple this recipe. When I do, I use a large stock pan for my veggies and ham. It's really good and super easy to make.
Hope you give it a try. Enjoy!

My menu plan...

I've gotten a jump start on my menu planning today. Normally, I have it set in my mind, but not actually written down until at least Tuesday.

This weeks menu as follows:

• Mon. - Chili and corn bread muffins
• Tues. - Meatloaf, boiled potatoes & veggies
• Wed. - Pulled pork sandwiches-(leftovers from this menu plan) & coleslaw
• Thur. - Soup with ham and provolone cheese paninis
• Fri. - Pizza night
• Sat. - Bratwursts & potato salad (made with xtra potatoes from Tuesdays meal)
• Sun. - Roast chicken & roasted potatoes with green beans

Menu for week of 10/5:

• Mon. - goulash, potatoes & veggies
• Tue. - stuffed ravioli, salad & garlic bread
• Wed. - baked pork chops, mashed potatoes, gravy & veggies
• Thur. - burgers, baked beans & fries
• Fri. - Pizza night
• Sat. - BLT's
• Sun. - roast in the crock pot, noodles and veggies

I'm sharing my recipe for the beef stew that we had last week. It's really good and really easy to make. Just click here for the 5 hour beef stew recipe. You wont be disappointed if you choose to make it!!

My Menu Plan.

I'm off to a late start with my menu plan for the next couple of weeks. Last week's accident at Paul's job site really threw a monkey wrench in my menu plan. So, you may see a bit of a repeat from last weeks menu.

I gotta tell you. This menu plan thing is great! I love it. I plan out our meals for two weeks...as you know! I take my list to the store. Check things off of it as I shop and I'm back out the door, through the checkout line and in my car with groceries loaded in the back of the van in approximately an hour and 1/4. Boom, bam. Done. Love it!

Ashleigh called last night. She is coming home for the weekend and had a couple of requests. Her favorite meals of course. She asked for homemade mac & cheese and chicken fried chicken. Knowing her, once she sees next weeks menu ~ lasagna ~ she'll want that instead of the mac & cheese. So, we may switch that up a bit, but no big deal.

I was really thrown off last week. Not following my menu. I was lost. I did manage a couple of days as planned. It did make for a bit of an easier time figuring out the next couple of weeks menu plan.

Here's my menu for this week:

• Mon - tacos

• Tue - baked beans and franks, fried potatoes and applesauce

• Wed - marinated crock pot pork loin, baked potatoes and veggies

• Thur - homemade cheesy potato soup, dinner rolls & salad

• Fri - PIZZA night!

• Sat - homemade Mac&cheese, sloppy jo's and veggies

• Sun - chicken fried chicken, mashed potatoes and veggies

Next week:

• Mon -lasagna, zucchini and garlic bread

• Tue - chicken chimmichangas and corn cake

• Wed - left overs night.
  

• Thur - corn beef brisket (per Brads request) potatoes and veggies

• Fri - PIZZA night!

• Sat - beef stew with homemade bread

• Sun - chicken and stuffing bake and broccoli w/cheese

Now for a recipe. This is the Potato burger recipe that someone asked me about a couple of weeks ago. It's very good and easy to make. It's a something my mom made quite often for us when I was living at home. I love it. My kids and Paul love it too. I've never actually seen a recipe for this. We just throw it together.

Potato burgers:

1 - 2 lbs ground beef
1 egg
small chopped onion (optional)
salt and pepper
1 package of shredded Bob Evans Hash browns
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 1/2 - 2 cans of milk (I use 1/2 water & 1/2 milk)

Beat your egg and mix it into the ground beef. Add salt and pepper and onion if you choose. Mix in the package of hash browns (we sometimes shred our own raw potatoes for this) until nicely incorporated into the ground beef. Form into patties ( I usually make my patties more plump than a regular hamburger patty) and place into preheated lightly oiled skillet. (I use a large electric skillet) Brown patties on both sides. You'll want to flip them carefully so they don't fall apart. In a separate bowl, mix your soup along with your milk. Pour soup mixture into the skillet and continue to heat. I cook it for about 30 minutes after I've add the soup mixture.

That's it. It's very yummy. I usually make it with green beans and even extra shredded potatoes, if I have any. If you give it a try, let me know. We think its very good!

My Menu Plan.

It's Monday again. Time to get my menu plan posted on the fridge. I've decided that I really like this idea. I'm able to check my menu and pull what I need out of the freezer each night, in order to be have whatever it is thawed by the next day.

I followed the menu pretty closely for the most part. Only two days that I needed to change it up a little. One, because Paul didn't feel good last week (still doesn't) and he wanted soup and grilled cheese. The other day was the day of Carly's disaster dental appointment day. I was too riled up to think straight. That night, everyone ate left overs.

Anyway, grocery shopping was a breeze. I was in and out of the store in 1 hour and 15 minutes. I made a list of items that I would need over the course of my two week menu plan. I did, of course have to add other items to the list. Items of necessity, such as snacks, fruit, paper goods, etc... And I only forgot to write one item down on my list the first go 'round. It was brown rice. We eat a lot of that around here!

Here's my menu plan for the next two weeks:

• Tonight - Hot beef sandwiches (beef was left over from last weeks roast) mashed potatoes & green beans-from the garden.
• Tue - Chicken breasts, couscous & veggies.
• Wed - Spare ribs, sweet corn and roasted potatoes-from the garden.
• Thur - Homemade Macaroni & Cheese, burgers on the grill & veggies.
• Fri - Pizza night.
• Sat - no cooking. We have a 50th Anniversary party to go to.
• Sun - Shredded pork sandwiches (left overs from Wed) & salad.

Next week:

• Mon - Brats on the grill, macaroni salad & sweet corn.
• Tue - Crock pot pork loin, baked potatoes along with veggies.
• Wed - Lasagna, zucchini (from the garden) and garlic bread.
• Thur - Chicken chimmichangas and Spanish rice.
• Fri - Pizza night.
• Sat - Baked beans and hot dogs, fried potatoes, crescent rolls.
• Sun - Scalloped potatoes and ham, green beans and rolls.

Now for a yummy recipe from last week. This is what we call Chicken Broccoli Casserole. Our neighbor made this for us just after the birth of Brad. We loved it. I've made it ever since and it's a big hit in our home. My parents love it too.

3-4 Chicken breasts
1 package frozen broccoli
1 can cream of chicken soup
3/8 C. of mayo
1 T. lemon juice
Shredded cheddar cheese
1 stick of margarine
5 slices of bread (cubed)

Bake chicken and de-bone. Cook broccoli and drain. Chop up chicken and broccoli. Mix mayo, soup & lemon juice together, mix in the chicken and broccoli. Put into a greased casserole dish (2 qt works fine) Then sprinkle with desired amount of cheddar cheese. Melt stick of margarine in a skillet. Toss in cubed bread and toss until covered. (sometimes I add a bit more margarine). Cover the top of the casserole. Bake @350 for 45 minutes. Uncovered.

This is delicious. I serve it with brown rice and dinner rolls.

Sorry, I tried to add a photo but for some reason, blogger isn't allowing it tonight :o(

My menu plan...

I sat down today and worked out a menu plan for our family for the next two weeks. I'm hoping this will help me out while I'm doing that dreaded grocery shopping. I really don't like to get groceries. Never have. I swear, some times I wander around and around the stupid stores. Yes, I do make lists...however, I always forget to write down several things that we really need. My hopes with this menu plan is to buy up for two weeks at a time. Although I do realize that I will have to buy many other items to fulfill our other meals, snacks and so on. I'm really just hoping this helps me out big time.

Again, I got this idea from Here. Mine is a bit different. Although I love to read her Menu Plan Monday posts each week. I'm not looking to copy her in any way. Just looking to simplify my life a bit more. Thanks to her Menu Plan Monday posts...I'm inspired to try.

Here's my menu plan for the next two weeks:

• Tonight - Tuna noodle casserole with cheesy topping and peas.
• Tue - Stuffed green peppers (from the garden) and rice.
• Wed - Roasted chicken with red potatoes and zucchini (both from the garden).
• Thur - Burgers on the grill and homemade coleslaw (cabbage from the garden).
• Fri - Pizza night. Sometimes I make homemade, but usually we order in.
• Sat - Baked beans and hot dogs with fried potatoes (shredded hash browns)
• Sun - Chicken and broccoli casserole with rice.(w/left over chicken from Wed)

Next week:

• Mon - Potato burgers and green beans (from the garden).
• Tue - Chicken Parmesan with spaghetti and veggies.
• Wed - Mexican lasagna with black beans and corn cakes.
• Thur - Roast beef in the crock pot with noodles and veggies.
• Fri - Pizza night again!
• Sat - Left over night
• Sun - Hot beef and gravy over mashed potatoes. (left over beef from Thurs.)

I'll try to share recipes from each week as I go along. I know there are a few some of you will really love. They're simple too. First, I need to get a feel for how exactly this is going to work out. Hopefully, it all goes smoothly. My husband says he feels like he's back in elementary school with a menu hanging in the kitchen! Although, he also says, he looks forward to tomorrows meal!