Menu plan for the week

We really need to eat out of the freezer ~ it needs defrosting badly.

Saturday: Cheese and Crackers
Sunday: Chicken
Monday: Tacos
Tuesday: Bean Soup
Wednesday: Shrimp
Thursday: Pasta
Friday: dinner out for karate

Menu planning for next week

http://www.southernliving.com/food/whats-for-supper/five-days-five-dinner-recipes-august-11-15

I have to say, these recipes don't really do anything for me - but they do let me work on things my own way :)

Monday - grilled chicken (no salsa)
Tuesday - tortellini - without the chicken, tomatoes, etc. - sauce and garlic bread and salad :)
Wednesday - shrimp, whether or not we have asparagus depends on what's in the grocery
Thursday - pizza - last time out, I used pita rounds as the base, and the Small Man was NOT impressed. He requested "regular" pizza dough the next time we made pizza!
Friday - steak, with burgers for the boys. Unless we go out.
Saturday - the Karate Kid's birthday; he's requested French Toast
Sunday - starts a week away, taking The Lovely Daughter back to college. The boys will be batching it for almost a week.

Beef stew

With biscuits-from-a-can and grapes.

Yesterday was pita pizza ~ yummy!

Shrimp pasta

I used a recipe for Garlic-Srirachia Shrimp ~ but of course I had to change it a little. Less than usual on purpose - we didn't have shallots so I used chives from the garden - but also accidentally - we actually had cilantro sprouting, but forgot to sprinkle it on top at the end! It was still good and I'll be making it again. We had it over thin spaghetti. Garlic bread from Wegmans from the freezer finished it off.

I kind of need to clean out the freezer so I can defrost it.
Menu this week:
Monday: burgers and hotdogs
Tuesday: Look for a crockpot recipe
Wednesday: Homemade pizzas - on pita bread?
Thursday: Soup from the freezer
Friday: karate night; dinner out
Saturday: Shrimp
Sunday: roast chicken, good rolls

Grilled cihcken

I marinated some chicken thighs in Italian dressing, then grilled them. I'm never sure with bone-in thighs if they're going to be cooked all the way, but these were fine.

We also had O'Brien potatoes, biscuits, broccoli, fresh pineapple, and a fresh watermelon (from my hometown of Clewiston, FL!!).

Overall, a very nice dinner.

Fried chicken tenders last night

I don't fry often - not so much a health concern as a having-to-clean-up-the-grease-afterward laziness.

But they were good - all got eaten; the Small Man really liked them, and the karate kid allowed they were "OK - tasted like chicken." [He had fish filets - good thing, otherwise, we might not've had enough meat.]

Sides of oven-roasted fries, asparagus, corn, and refrigerator biscuits.

Home-made pizza

The karate kid came up with this idea on the way home from the museum.

I use a pizza dough recipe that was published a loooong time ago in the Washington Post - except it calls for whole wheat flour, and I just use regular unbleached.

We all have a different "style" of pizza! Mine is kind of thick crust with light sauce, TMOTH's is stretched thin and cooked on the baking stone in the bottom of the oven, the karate kid uses no sauce and a LOT of cheese and mounds up the edges, and the Small Man made a stromboli tonight.

I need to go shopping tomorrow - we're almost out of dog food and I have very little in the way of things to put in an Easter basket.

Weekly menu

Monday: Greek Chicken in crockpot - not likely since I don't think we have any more chicken. Some kind of pasta most likely.
Tuesday: hopefully we still have power with the cold front. Soup! and grilled cheese sandwiches ~ or boys can fend, since I have to take The Lovely Daughter to the airport to go back to school.
Wednesday: Chicken of some sort
Thursday: Lamb Shanks in the crockpot
Friday: karate night
Saturday:  Fish
Sunday:  Omelettes

Tonight was pancakes, with bacon and more of the Dale City strawberries and Indian River orange slices.

Mojo grilled chicken

Nothing like a little mojo marinade :)

Actually, it was a great supper. The Lovely Daughter requested asparagus, and it was actually on sale at the Giant. We also had steamed broccoli and scalloped potatoes. Leftover champagne to drink doesn't hurt either!

New Year goals

No-junk crockpot recipes: 100 Days of NO Processed Meals

I don't really have anything against processed food - there is a place in the world for Velveeta - but I don't really like the flavor of canned "cream of whatever" soups.

TMOTH bought a big chunk of ground beef the other day, so I suspect burgers are on the menu fairly soon. Although since we don't have buns for today, it's likely to be tomorrow.

As always, the years starts off with menu planning :)
Wednesday: Hoppin' John and collards for lunch; freezer diving for dinner [edit -TMOTH got buns, so we had burgers]
Thursday: Burgers [edit - chicken from the freezer]
Friday: likely pizza night in Damascus
Saturday: lamb shanks [or chili?] in the crockpot, "good rolls"
Sunday: pancakes
Monday: Greek chicken in crockpot

Quiche!

Today was clean-out-the-fridge day ~ anything that look it had been in the fridge too long got cooked up.

Soft bananas -> banana nut muffins for breakfast

Old pizza & leftover bruschetta -> lunch

Spring onions, leftover ham, and cheese threatening to mold -> quiche for dinner.
I also cooked the corn that had been in the fridge for a week, and carrots for me that doesn't like corn. Two pints of oldish strawberries gave us a few each, and unripe and too-ripe peaches and apples are now a peach-apple crisp for dessert.

And now I have room in the fridge to move things around and FIND stuff!

The quiche was really good - my Betty Crocker recipe calls for 4 eggs and 2 cups of half-and-half (!). Not going to happen, but it hasn't turned out as well as I'd like when I fiddled with it in the past
Tonight I used 6 eggs and whizzed them up with the immersion blender, then added 1 cup of milk (of which about 1/3 was half-and-half) and whizzed again. Added the lightly browned onions, diced ham, and shredded Swiss cheese and whizzed again. I unplugged the immersion blender and pulled out the cheese stuck in the holes, poured it in the pie shell, and baked at ~350 until it was nice and brown, starting at ~400 because I was cooked the leftover pie crust as a snack. mmmmmmmm...pie crust.

Father's Day

The Small Man and I went out this morning for Father's Day donuts - only to discover [yet again] that Donut King is closed on Sunday. Oh well - something to look forward to next Saturday. Instead, we went to the Dunkin' Donuts; the bonus there is that it's a combined DD/Baskin Robbins, so we could get TMOTH a quart of his favorite ice cream.

We had a late lunch at Red Robin yesterday after the Small Man's karate belt test (now a purple belt!). Good burgers, but not really in a mood for a big dinner. TMOTH and I had leftover chicken pot pie and the boys grilled hot dogs outside - then s'mores for dessert.

Last day of school was Friday, so now I have to make sure there's enough food in the house during the day for two ravenous boys. Oy. Boys also need to go to karate during the week in the summer.

Menus for this week:

Tonight: Steak, potatoes, etc. (Dad food!)
Monday: Pasta
Tuesday:Soup (bean soup from the freezer, tomato soup for kids)
Wednesday: Chicken
Thursday: Pork chops
Friday: karate night
Saturday: find a crockpot recipe

menu plan - an interesting week

Last night we had sandwiches - with yummy 7-grain bread from the farmers market. I'll be buying that bread again.

There is lots going on this week - Small Man has cub scouts Monday night, but TMOTH and The Lovely Daughter need to be about an hour away from home at 7 for an awards ceremony. It may be a soup night. The Lovely Daughter has another awards ceremony (at least closer to home) on Wednesday night.


Tonight: possibly quiche
Monday: something easy to work around timewise - maybe a casserole TMOTH can put in the oven? Cheese enchiladas?
Tuesday:Spaghetti and meatballs, salad
Wednesday: pork, rice
Thursday: Farmers market veg, fish or chicken
Friday: Karate night
Saturday: Bean soup

An odd dinner tonight

Sunday we did have chicken - thighs roasted with garlic - and last night we did have lasagna.

Tonight, I stopped by the Grand Mart, but no fresh fish/seafood caught my fancy. I did buy some frozen monkfish for tomorrow.

I also bought some wonton wrappers to make this awesome appetizer: Wonton Wrapped Mozzarella.
I cut my string cheese into quarters and wrapped mine a bit differently - but they were AWESOME.

For actual "dinner", TMOTH went and got Chinese food. Yum.

Two days without cooking dinner

Last night was karate night, and we were able to get a table at the pizza joint. Plenty of leftovers for lunches as well.

Tonight is the Cub Scout Blue & Gold banquet, and all I have to provide is some dessert to share. I'll be making cupcakes later today. I *KNOW* we have cupcake liners in the house, because The Lovely Daughter and I bought about 3 packages at Michaels last weekend. But can I find them? Of course not. So a trip to the grocery is also in order.

Menus for next week:

Sunday: Chicken
Monday: Lasagna (as long as I remember to take it out of the freezer!)
Tuesday: Shrimp, rice
Wednesday: Steak
Thursday:  Pork tenderloin

Burgers

Thankfully, TMOTH formed the burgers. I hate handling hamburger :)

pancakes

According to the Karate Kid, this week is "butter week" in Russia, and pancakes are eaten to celebrate the coming of spring. So tonight - pancakes!

Lots of eating out

It's been so busy - we've eaten out quite a bit.

Thursday I was home with a migraine, but had recovered quite a bit by supper-time, so made a lovely cracker-crusted cod with broccoli on the side.

Friday - karate night - and our regular pizza place was PACKED. They recently passed a referendum in that little town that allowed restaurants to serve beer and wine, and they just started. Hopefully the novelty will die down and we can eat there again soon. Since we had to have the middle kid through dinner in time for karate, and The Lovely Daughter was with us, we split up. The boys all went to McDonalds (TMOTH took one for the team there) and TLD and I went to the Chinese restaurant down the strip mall from the pizza place. It was absolutely AWESOME. The Chinese place near karate that had gotten rave reviews was just awful the one time we had takeout, so I wasn't expecting much, but this place was really good. TLD and I shared some General Tso's tofu, and it was just right.

Saturday night TLD's boyfriend was around, and we had leftover lamb stew (and TLD had leftover tofu).

Tonight was a dog-and-pony show for Tulane in Tyson's Corner, VA, and TLD and I wound up eating Mexican food for dinner. I think those leftovers are still in the car - the only bonus I can think of for weather this cold is that I don't have to worry about them going bad because it's so dang cold.

Not planning the menu for last week really put a kink in the process. Not a good idea. So for next week:

Monday: Beef shish-kebab [it's quilt guild night for me]
Tuesday: Pasta
Wednesday: Grilled chicken [we may have snow :(]
Thursday: Burgers, maybe - TMOTH may have to cook since I have to take TLD to the airport, plus it's woodturning night for TMOTH
Friday: Karate night

Tacos

The Lovely Daughter had veggie crumbles; ground beef for us.

It's a day late on the menu plan - last night we had whatever-you-could-find, since we were eating on different schedules because of Boy Scouts and karate.

Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches

TMOTH cooked tonight!
He used this recipe, which has some history as well: Pork Tenderloin Sandwich

I'd gone to the grocery and gotten ingredients for tacos, and when I went to put the ground beef away found the pork and asked about TMOTH's plans for it. He stepped up to the plate, and wow, they were great!

For the rest of the week:

Monday: Tacos
Tuesday: Omelettes
Wednesday: Lasagna
Thursday: Soup of some sort, sandwiches
Friday: Karate, but maybe not for the Karate Kid, so might actually not have to have pizza