How to Menu Plan - Side Dishes

My method of menu planning is to have a list of possible dishes to choose from that we like and that I have ingredients on hand for.  Before going to the grocery store this week, I did a little inventory of what I had on hand and made a list of ALL the possible things I could make for side dishes.

Butter Beans Cooked With Ham Bits

I was surprised at how long the list was and I could have thought of more, but was in a hurry to get out the door.

Here's what I came up with:

Green Beans cooked with ham bits
Butter Beans (Lima) cooked with ham bits
Corn
Three Bean Salad
Fruit with cottage cheese
Black Eyed Peas
Great Northern or Pinto Beans
Chips and Salsa
Broccoli and cheese
Baked Sweet Potatoes
Sweet Potato Casserole
Deviled eggs
Fruit Salad
Broccoli, rice and cheese casserole
Brown Rice cooked in chicken broth
Tomato Sandwich
Sliced Tomatoes
Fried Okra

Sweet Potato Casserole

Just having things to choose from makes menu planning so much easier.  I put this list to good use for our lunch yesterday.  We had butter beans cooked with ham bits, sweet potato casserole and beef kabobs.  I found the sirloin steak for the kabobs at Food Lion marked down.




Okra, Cherry Tomatoes, Regular Tomatoes

I've been trying to use our fresh vegetables from our small garden as much as possible.  This includes vegetable soup, fried okra, BLTs, tomato sandwiches and more.

Tips:

I buy the little vacuum sealed packages of ham bits, which I call seasoning meat.  Once the package is opened, I separate it into little packs the size needed for one pot of beans and then freeze them.  I wrap each pack in plastic wrap and put them in a freezer bag.

I usually have some pecans in the freezer and can take out just enough needed for the top of the sweet potato casserole.

For menu planning I don't assign a certain food for a certain day.  I just have a list of things that I could cook.  Usually on Sunday I try to cook a little bit a head for the upcoming work week for suppers and also things to take for lunch.

And I'm always open to that unexpected offer by hubby to go out to eat!  We don't do this too much because its so much cheaper to eat at home, but we do eat out occasionally.

What side dishes do you like to cook?

Weekly Menu Plan!

We have really been in a rut with our meals lately.  Do you ever get that way?  Nothing sounds good and we struggle to come up with an idea for our supper meal almost every single day.  So, I made a trip to the grocery store and tried to come up with some new ideas.

Here's this week's menu:

Saturday:  Stuffed Pork Chops, Rosemary Potatoes and Broccoli and Cheese

This is the first time I have made stuffed pork chops and THIS is the recipe I used.  I bought six thick pork chops and already had all the other ingredients on hand, except for the celery.  Although I think the celery would have been good in the recipe, I just omitted it and the end result was delicious.


The Rosemary Potatoes recipe can be found HERE.  These were really good!  My only change is that I wouldn't bother with lining the cookie sheet with aluminum foil.  Even though I sprayed the foil with cooking spray, the potatoes still stuck to it a little and when I tried to turn them the foil tore.    So, my feeling is that it would be easier to just cook the potatoes directly on the pan.


Since we were only feeding my hubby and I, we now have 4 pork chops left to eat this week!  Maybe I should freeze two of them? 


Sunday:


Fried chicken tenders, butterbeans, leftover mashed potatoes and rosemary potatoes.


Monday:

Meatloaf, Seasoned Green beans and rice.


Tuesday:

Leftover Stuffed Pork chops, Leftover green beans and/or butterbeans, and leftover rice.


Wednesday:

Hotdogs, Great Northern Beans


Thursday:  Italian Meatball Soup


Friday:

Small (less than 8 ounces) chuck eye steaks cooked in the frying pan, baked potatoes and what ever leftover veggies are on hand.  We are trying to stop food waste.


Have you planned any meals this week?

Some Yummy Comfort Food For Eli's First Visit

I made some BBQ meatballs and my daughter's favorite mashed potatoes in honor of her first visit to our house with the new baby.

The meatballs are very similar to meatloaf, containing oats and finely chopped onion.  After forming the meatballs, they are placed on a cookie sheet in the freezer for a few minutes to make them easier to handle.  Then you dredge them in flour and brown them on both sides.

I mixed up the sauce in one of my vintage mushroom themed bowls.

This is what they looked like before being baked.  I didn't get a picture of them after being baked, because there was too much excitement going on.

My girl loves potatoes anyway you cook them.  These were very rich with lots of butter, cream cheese, milk and seasoned salt.

The recipes can be found at the Pioneer Woman's website.  POTATOES HERE. and  MEATBALLS HERE.

Here is what my almost six year old grandson's food looked like.  He didn't care for the meat and potatoes, but he ate all the grape tomatoes and the grilled cheese sandwich.   

I always make sure I have things like tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelon and pickles on hand for him!

A New Cooking Adventure

I've been trying lots of new recipes lately.  I've stocked up my spice and baking supplies.  I've made new recipes for old favorites, as well as some I've never made before. 

I used a different recipe for some old and new favorites like:

Sloppy Joes
Patty Melts
BBQed Meatballs
Beef Stew
Blueberry Crumb Cake
Mashed Potatoes
and Key Lime Pie:

Pies... I'm not too experienced at making them.  I plan to make more as summer ends and fall and winter arrive.   There are lots of areas of cooking that I'd like to become more proficient in! 

This Key Lime Pie was delicious!  But as you can see the crust was a little crumbly and if you look reeeeally close, you will see little chunks of lime rind.  I don't have a zesting thingie.  When you try to zest a lime with a cheese grater, you get larger pieces!  But, you know what, it was still delicious!

So, on my shopping list is a zesting thingie.....

I want to make a coffee cake next.  But, all the recipes call for chopped pecans.  Have you seen the prices of pecans at the grocery store?  Zowie!  This fall, we may be able to get some from around here, since lots of people have pecan trees.  But, until then, I'll just omit the pecans.

The "What To Wear" List and the "Menu Planning" List

I am a list maker.  I have a list for just about everything.  I can't keep all that stuff in my brain, so I let the lists do the work for me.  I make a CVS list, Food Lion list, daily to do list,   There's a list of sewing projects.  If company's coming for a meal, there's a list of each item of food and what needs to be done to it.

I guess I inherited this list making tendency because I have found dozens of scraps of paper at my mother's house with grocery lists, Christmas lists, recipe lists, what to cook for dinner lists, etc. on them.

My favorite lists in recent times are my "Menu Planning" list and my "What To Wear" list. 

A favorite "go to" outfit for summer.

I don't have that many clothes, but I mix and match things to make several outfits for work or church.  I don't want to have to think about this too much.  So I wrote down what I wore each day for a couple of weeks on a list which is on the shelf in the closet. 

Now all I have to do is see what's next on the list.  Its kind of the same idea as the menu planning list.  I just wrote down everything that was available and then choose from that each day.  Its just one less thing to think about in the morning. 

If only all those pants still fit.....

This means I can get ready for work in a flash, if I have spent too much time sewing or blogging!

The menu planning list is working and I finally feel like a success at menu planning!  Its just a list of available foods or dishes.  I bought some cheese, so on the list went "grilled cheese sandwiches".  Over abundance of tomatoes equals:  pasta salad, green salad, tomato sandwiches, BLTs.

I did a quick inventory of the freezer, pantry and fridge.  I add to it as new foods come in the house and mark off those that have been eaten.  Some foods stay on the list indefinitely because we keep them on hand and eat them regularly, such as hamburgers, chicken, pork chops, etc.

Here are our menus for this week, thanks to the list: 

Sunday:  Sauteed chicken breast, peas, corn on the cob

Monday:  Chef's salad

Tuesday:  BLTs, (Almost free turkey bacon from Walgreens, tomatoes from garden) corn on the cob (gift). 

Wednesday:  Veggie burgers (freezer), boiled and fried new potatoes (from the garden), field peas seasoned with country ham (gift), peeled and sliced cucumbers in vinegar (garden) 

Thursday:  Grilled cheese sandwiches, butterbeans cooked with turkey smoked sausage.

Friday:  Spaghetti, salad

Next week's plan will include the BBQed or roasted chicken that I froze a couple of weeks ago, some of the frozen sausage and all the fresh vegetables that are coming into the house faster than we can eat them.

My Frugal Plans For the Week:

1.  Frugal Meals:

I purchased 2 packs of chicken breasts that were 99 cents per pound at Food Lion, which ended up being six large pieces.  On Sunday afternoon I put them all into the oven.  Three in one pan were barbecued and the other three in another pan were roasted.   I used 1/2 bottle of Kraft BBQ sauce bought on sale for 99 cents, with a 50 cent coupon, so this added about 25 cents to the cost.

The pieces are so large that I cut each one in half and, after its all said and done, there will be twelve servings of chicken.  That's not bad for about $7.00.   Cooking all of it at one time saved electricity and time.  So I think this qualifies as a very frugal thing.

As one more frugal use of this chicken, I poured the broth and drippings from the roasted chicken pan in to a saucepan and added water.  I cooked some rice in this and made a delicious side dish for the chicken.   Last night's supper was roast chicken, rice and I opened a can of "Grillin Beans" bought on sale with coupon.

Very rich chicken broth, too good to pour down the drain!

I put enough of the BBQ chicken in the fridge for one more meal this week and froze the rest.  The date and kind of chicken was written down on my list of possible meals that lays on the counter.  It'll be wonderful to simply take out a couple pieces of chicken, and make a couple of simple side dishes on a busy night after work.

2.  CVS:

The best deals I see will cost me $1.70 out of pocket and earn $12.00 extrabucks for next week:

Dial Soap, 3 pk, $2.00 Buy 2, Use $1.00 coupon off two (earns $2.00 extrabucks)

Planters Peanuts 16 oz,  $3.00, Less $1.00 coupon (earns $1.00 extrabucks)

Renu Contact Lens Solution:  $7.99, Less $2.00 coupon, less $2.00 off Any Contact Lens Solution (printed at CVS machine) (earns $5.00 extrabucks)

Schick Hydro 5 Razor, $9.99, Less $10 off any Schick Hydro 5 Razor  (printed at CVS machine)  (earns $4.00 extrabucks)

2 bottles of Kraft BBQ sauce = $2.00, less $1.00 off two, makes them both $1.00

2 boxes of Nabisco crackers at 99 cents, less $1.00 off two, makes them both 98 cents.

1 2 ltr Diet Pepsi 99 cents, less 25 cents coupon (print out at CVS machine) makes it 74 cents.

Total = $11.70, Less $10.00 extra bucks left from last week= $1.70 out of pocket.

Get back $12.00 extrabucks for next week!!!

3.  Storing the stock pile:

From our CVS/FoodLion stock pile, we were able to give our son a care package over the weekend.  This consisted of a large bottle of laundry detergent, a full size toothpaste, a travel size toothpaste, floss, large bottle of body wash and 2 rolls of toilet paper.  I'm sure that if he bought these things at full price they would have cost at least $20.00.   I think our cost was around $4.00.

CVS stash stored among the pickles!

I have a little story about my CVS stockpile.  When we first moved to the farmhouse in 2010, I stored some of the shampoos and body washes that I bought, free standing on the shelf above the washer and dryer.  Right beside the dryer is the hot water heater.  Some of the bottles were knocked over and they fell behind the water heater.  I COULD NOT GET THEM OUT!  So a large bottle of Men's Nivea Body Wash and a large bottle of Head and Shoulders shampoo have been stuck back there for 3 years.  Friday afternoon I just couldn't stand it any more, and I decided to try to get them out, just one more time.  It was a very hard job, but I finally got them out!   I now make sure that anything that could fall behind the hot water heater is stored in a plastic bin so that they can't be knocked over!

Kitchen Frugalness

I've been on a mission to use up what we have on hand. Grocery prices are so high and I'm tired of spending big bucks there and still not feeling like there's anything to eat.  I've decided this is my own fault! The fridge, freezer and pantry are full, but it takes some thought and work to get it on the table. Especially after working away from home all day!

So, this is my current menu planning method.  Number 435th try. (grin)  I made a list of all the possible main dishes and all the possible side dishes that were available in the kitchen.  The list is left laying out on the kitchen counter.  There are so many possibilities when you open those  pantry and fridge doors and stare.  ESPECIALLY those that need to be eaten soon before they disintegrate.  My list included some squash and cucumbers that were given to us.  Much too tasty to let go to waste.

Then the night before, or in the morning if I forget, we check to see what we want or need to eat the next night.  Frozen meat can be put in the fridge to thaw and will be ready to cook by the next afternoon.  An on going grocery list can be made when I realize we are out of something or that some item is needed to complete a particular dish. 

Its helpful that Hubby can look at the list and help with the decisions!  In fact while I was typing this post, he was looking at the list and asking what we are having tonight.  I stopped what I was doing, joined him in the kitchen and we made the decision together.  Tonight we will have leftover pork chops, banana sandwiches, and pasta salad.  The bananas are getting ripe and there are a couple of tomatoes that need to be eaten and would be good chopped up in the pasta salad.  It is so good to stop the waste and save money at the same time!  I won't even get started on how frugal it is to take leftovers for lunches while at work.

This time of year we start to get lots of fresh vegetables and nothing is better!  Here is my first picking of green beans.

 

I stocked up on potatoes recently at the grocery store that were on the produce manager's sale.  They are delicious, but as you know, you have to be on a mission to eat them because they will start to deteriorate quickly.  I combined some of them with the green beans and some onions, cooked in chicken broth.  It was delicious and made a great side for several meals.

In the fridge were a couple of cucumbers and some fresh broccoli that I had left from making some pasta salad last week.  So these became our fresh vegetable appetisers to munch on while the real food was cooking.  Not only did it keep them from going to waste, they were delicious and helped to curb our appetite some so as to not eat as many calories.

I added a few sunflowers cut from the yard in a vase and that completed our frugal and delicious meal.

We have already put to good and delicious use some items from the freezer that seemed to sink to the bottom of the abyss.  My grocery bill was about half what it had been the week before and this week is looking very frugal too. 

Still eating chili...

We don't typically eat things like chili and soups on a regular basis after the weather warms up, which normally happens in April or May.  The exception would be homemade vegetable soup using home grown tomatoes and vegetables.  But, the weather has certainly been conducive to eating these things, even though the calendar says its May!

This delicious chili and toasted homemade bread were our lunch on Saturday.  It was soooo good.

CHILI AND HOMEMADE TOASTED BREAD

My hubby and I were listening to the radio on the way home from church and the grocery store on Sunday, when the song "My Girl" came on.  Remember the line in there that says "When its cold outside, I've got the month of May"?  I wondered if maybe the song should have said June, July or August... 

This is the day the Lord has made.  We will be glad and rejoice in it! 

A Delicious and Hearty Week Night Meal

Here's a meal we had Monday night.  Lasagna and garlic toast.   I browned a little bit of hamburger Sunday afternoon.  Then when I got home Monday I put together the lasagna, which baked while I was outside "gardening".   LOL  In the future, I will also serve salad, to make the meal more healthy.  Eating the salad would have also reduced the amount of lasagna and bread eaten and as a result, less calories!

This garlic toast was amazing, but I can't take credit for it!  My sister in law brought us some of her homemade "Ma Ma Bread" and after slicing, buttering, garlic powdering and toasting, it was perfect!

Hubby and I were starving, so this meal really hit the spot.  If I plan and think ahead, its easy to have a nice meal after working away from home all day.

Country Eating!

Some recent good ole country eating took place at our house!

Cabbage soup with small pieces of air dried sausage:

There is a country store in town that sells country foods like collards, turnips, and air dried sausage.  When you go in, the sausage is hanging on a rack, not refrigerated.  I bought 2 pounds.

Cabbage is on sale this time of year so we bought one and I made my cabbage soup.  This is so healthy and good for you because its made up mostly of cabbage and tomatoes. 

I also bought some raw peanuts there that we parched in the oven.  These sat on the counter all week.  Very convenient for someone to snack on.  You just put your peanut hulls at one end to keep them separate.

The only thing missing from this country food was some hoop cheese.  Maybe next time.

Menu Planning in Reverse

This week was the week for CABBAGE! Cabbage is such a versatile vegetable and one cabbage can go a long way! On a recent trip to the grocery store, when I scanned my store card at the kiosk, I received a coupon for $1.00 off $5.00 worth of produce. I felt I should use the coupon since produce coupons are few and far between. With my coupon I purchased a cabbage, celery, carrots and bananas.

  Another highlight from my cooking this week was this peach cobbler made from canned peaches:



Here are some meals from this past week:

Meal One: BBQed chicken breasts, cabbage cooked with ham bits, field peas, noodles. The chicken was from the freezer bought when it was 99 cents a pound. The peas were in the freezer from last summer. The cabbage was bought with the coupon.

Meal Two: A family size frozen lasagna. This was bought on sale for $5.99, less a $2.00 coupon. It might not be as good as home made lasagna, but you can't beat the price. Making homemade lasagna is pricey since it contains so much cheese. For the two of us this lasagna was more than enough for a meal and there were leftovers for lunches. There were left over veggies that went well with it also.

Meal Three: Sloppy Joes and Slaw. I love Manwhich sloppy joes and the cans were on sale for a dollar each. Ground chuck was on sale for $1.99 a pound. I used some more of the cabbage to make the slaw. I also bought hamburger buns on sale and with a coupon. This made a hearty meal and again there were leftovers for lunches.

Meal Four: Cabbage Soup. This was absolutely delicious. I had some cabbage pieces left that wouldn't shred when I was making the slaw. Instead of throwing them out I put them back in the fridge just in case I came up with another use for them. Saturday I decided to throw them in the crockpot with a few other veggies bought with the coupon as well as tomatoes from the freezer. The ingredients included celery, onion, cabbage, tomatoes and about 1/2 pound of browned hamburger. We loved this and will be making it in the future. The thing that makes cabbage soup so delicious is using plenty of black pepper.

Our Menus For This Week

Wow, what a busy weekend with all the freezer cooking I did! I want to direct your attention to a new blog on the blog list on my side bar. Cutting Back Kitchen is a great blog if you are interested in freezer cooking and saving money in the kitchen. Katie writes very informative articles containing recipes, money saving ideas all from a Christian point of view.

Here are my menus for this week, some of which have already been eaten. I tend to plan my menus from Saturday through Friday, since I usually buy groceries on Friday.

Saturday: Chicken Pot Pie, Dressing

Sunday: "Planned Over" Chicken Pot Pie, Dressing, Cranberry Sauce and Brownies.



Monday: We celebrated a family member's birthday with Lasagna, Broccoli and Cheese, Garlic Bread and Cheese cake with 25 candles on top!



Tuesday: Oven Barbecued Chicken with Carolina Treet BBQ sauce, Potatoes Au Gratin, Green Beans



Wednesday:Fried Bologna Sandwiches, Chips/and or leftovers

Thursday: Eggplant Parmesan. There are at least a dozen eggplants on the one plant in our garden! I may change this to some other kind of way to cook eggplant. I don't really like them, but its a shame not to use them. I will be looking for homes for the eggplants because I'm sure there are some egg plant lovers around here somewhere!

Friday:BBQ Meatballs, Macaroni and Cheese.

Happy Tuesday!

Happy August and Menu Plan Monday

Its always nice when a new month begins. Its like a new year, just on a smaller scale. Its like turning over a new leaf and a chance to start over again. I'm excited that August is here, because it means we are getting closer to Autumn!

Here are some things on our menu this week:

BLTs made with our home grown tomatoes



Cream Cheese and broccoli Chicken
Pasta
Peas


Spaghetti
green beans
Homemade bread (Thanks MJW)

Vegetable beef soup
Grilled cheese sandwiches

I Hope your August is great. It'll be in the upper nineties here this week, actually flirting with 100, but that's ok. It won't belong before we'll be experiencing some football weather.

This post is linked to Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday.

This Week's Menu Plan and Deal of the Week!

Saturday morning is turning out to be my best time for menu planning. I gather up my menu planning Recipe Binder and lay it on the kitchen counter. I look in the refrigerator and cabinets to see what I have on hand I usually buy groceries on Friday afternoon, so I already have a few meals in mind using what I bought.

Look! Two whole weeks have been filled in on my menu planning sheet for January!



Here's the menu for this week:

Saturday: Veal Stew with potatoes, carrots and onions made in the crockpot.

Sunday: Lunch eaten out; banana and peanut butter sandwiches and chips for supper

Monday: BBQ Chicken Legs; macaroni and cheese; garden peas

Tuesday: Grilled bologna and cheese sandwiches and chips

Wednesday: Baked pasta with pasta sauce and cheese; green beans cooked with ham

Thursday: Roast Chicken Breasts, mashed potatoes and corn on the cob

Friday: Pan Fried Steak, potatoes, leftover veggies

I have really enjoyed this small crock pot I received as a Christmas gift. Its just the right size to cook for two people, which is what I need to learn to do.



My deal of the week:



4 Boxes of Special K Cereal and a gallon of orange juice for $3.42.

Food Lion has Special K Cereal on sale for $2.50 a box. If you buy 4 boxes you get a gallon of orange juice free. I printed out 2 buy one get one free Special K Coupons by going TO THIS SPECIAL K WEBSITE. You have to register, but at the end you can print out the coupons. After you print out the first one, hit the "back" button a couple of times to print the second coupon.

At Food Lion, when you use a buy one get one free coupon, the cash register deducts the regular price of the item and not the sales price. I didn't realize this until I got home and saw it on the receipt. So the 4 boxes of cereal were a total of $3.42, after the coupons were deducted, and I also got the free gallon of orange juice.

This deal is good through tomorrow.

What's Cooking This Week?

Well, its time to get into the swing of things with our brand new year 2011. I've been talking about all kinds of things I plan to do in 2011 and my hope to be more consistent in doing them. So, here's where the rubber meets the road!

The new menu plan work sheet is available by Crystal at the Family Homestead blog HERE. I printed mine out last week and have filled out the first week. Crystal is so organized that she as posted her menus for the entire month HERE.

If you are having trouble coming up with ideas for meals, checkout her list. There are links to her recipes on many of the meals and it would be very helpful if you are having a menu planning mental block. I noted that on the 7th she is making split pea soup from the frozen ham bone from Christmas. I have one in the freezer too! I will need to check her recipe out!

I am really loving my menu planning recipe binder! Its still in progress, but is so helpful. The secret is only having recipes and a list of the meals that your family actually likes in there. I am adding recipes and also just plain old instructions for making the meals we eat all the time.

For example, on New Years Eve morning, hubby requested french toast. I don't make it that often and there's really no recipe, just eggs and bread, but I took note of how many eggs, how much oil, etc. I used and then wrote down the instructions in the book. Now if my kids or hubby ever want to know how I made french toast, they will know. Its also there for inspiration when I am searching for meals when menu planning. By the way, the French Toast was yummy!

On New Year's Day I made ham and potato soup, using the last little bit of leftover Christmas ham and it was wonderful. So I made sure the recipe was in the binder and even made a note on it that read, "A winner on 1-1-11." I can see this dish becoming a New Year's Day tradition at our house.

I plan to make a section in the back of the binder that has my menus for special occasions, such as Christmas, 2010, New Year's Day, 2011, family members' birthdays, etc. These would be inspiration for future celebrations. No more wondering what I cooked "last time". When I am cooking a meal for company, I make a list of everything, which lays on the counter so that I can refer to it while cooking. This helps me to stay on track and to not forget anything. So I could just save this list and file it in the binder.

Here are the meals I have written down for this week:

Saturday: (New Year's Day Smorgasbord) Ham, Potato and Corn Soup, Black Eyed Peas, Pigs in Blankies, Sweet and Sour Meatballs, Chex Party Mix, Cheeseball and Crackers, Fried Cornbread and chocolate chip cookies.

Sunday: Hamburger Stroganoff, Noodles, Garden Peas, leftover Black Eyed Peas. (A little chopped onion is wonderful on top of Black Eyed Peas)

Monday: Chicken Fried Rice, leftover veggies. (I will make extra rice for Tuesday night)

Tuesday: Crock pot roast, Rice and Gravy, Green Beans

Wednesday: Pork Chops, Mashed Potatoes, leftover veggies. I will be using the Cooks Magazine method of pan frying pork chops. This is supposed to produce juicy, tasty pork chops, even on a week night.

Thursday: Chili, crackers

Friday: Pizza

So.... I have planned our menus for the first week of 2011. One week down and 51 to go! Yikes!

Farm House Menus and Cooking ahead for the week of December 4-9, 2010

Here's what cooking at the farmhouse this week:

Friday:

Pan fried steak, baked potatoes, fruit and veggie salad.

Chuck eye steaks were on sale at Food Lion this week. These are a relatively tender steak and when on sale are just a couple of dollars each. I bought a packagge of 5 for $10.00, cooked two for hubby and me and froze the remaining three.

Our grill was in the storage building, it was dark outside and it was cold, so I opted for pan frying the steaks. I just heated a small amount of oil in a pan, seasoned the steaks and threw them in. I turned them once, cooking each side until brown and then let them sit for about 5 minutes.

Saturday:

Southern style chicken and pastry; chicken salad

No, I don't roll out pastry the way my mother and grandmother did. You can buy this stuff at the grocery store in the frozen section in my part of the South. All you have to do is boil the chicken and then cook the pastry in the broth. I made chicken salad from the boiled chicken.

Sunday:

Stew beef with vegetables served over rice; fruit and veggie salad

This is the best beef stew I ever made! The meat was so tender that it almost melted in our mouths. I used THIS RECIPE found on the Family Homestead blog.

As most of you know, the secret is cooking the stew on a very low temperature for several hours. I cooked mine at 300 degrees for 3 hours and then for about 1` hour at 200 degrees and then cut the oven off and let it sit for a little while longer in the wam oven. Dusting the ingredients with flour help the liquid to thicken into a wonderful gravy.

The recipe says to use chuck roast instead of stew beef. This worked out well, since chuck roasts were also on sale this week at Food Lion. I cut the roast into bite size pieces. I put the fatty pieces in a pot of water to boil. This made a pot of beef broth to be used in vegetable soup later on in the week. I pulled the lean bits of beef from the fat and then discarded the fat.

I also cooked extra rice to be used in another recipe this week.

The fruit and veggie salad is made up of whatever you have on hand. This version contained banana, apple, raisins, broccoli, bell pepper, cheese, grated carrot and a heaping tablespoon of light mayo. Mix it all up and its a really good way to get some servings of fruits and vegetables in


Monday:

Lasagna, Green beans.

I browned the ground beef on Saturday to be used in this. I plan to put the lasagana together in the morning before going to work, then pop it into the oven as soon as I walk inthe door from work.

Tuesday:

Chicken Fried Rice with garden peas

I will use boneless chicken from the freezer that was bought on sale. This is where the extra rice cooked on Sunday will come in handy!

Wednesday: Shephard's Pie

I plan to make the mashed potatoes that are spread on top ahead of time, either the night before or Wednesday morning.

Thursday: Vegetable Beef Soup

I will use the beef broth with beef bits with vegetables added.

Friday: Chicken Potatoe Soup

Another Family Homestead r ecipe found HERE:

Menu and Schedule Revamping and the Front Log

Sometimes I get my priorities out of order and must confess that even with the broken screen, my laptop has been my first priority in the mornings for a while now. My new self-imposed rule is that the first thing I will do in the morning is to read my Bible. I am telling you this, not to pat myself on the back, but to let you know that I must do first things first! I am constantly seeking the best form of Bible study for myself, but the important thing is that I do something every morning and if I don't do it first, it usually doesn't get done.

And sometimes.. well in fact lots of times, I do not cook what was on the menu that I posted here! I hope that doesn't shock you, but there are times when the posted menu just doesn't work out, there are leftovers that need to be eaten or what I planned doesn't sound good.

This happened last night. I ended up cooking oven baked pork chops AND meatloaf. I decided that while I was in the kitchen and the oven was hot, I would make two meals. The reason I changed the menu was the fact that the date on both packages of meat were about to expire. It didn't make sense to freeze them since I was going to cook them in a couple of days. Macaroni and Cheese and French Cut Green Beans rounded out the meal. Hubby and I took a small portion of each meat. He couldn't decide which was better, since he loves meatloaf and pork chops.

It also occurred to me that this was a very efficient way of cooking. I'm still not a freezer cooking fan, but I keep tweaking the kinds of meals I can freeze. What works best for me is to cook ahead for the week. With leftovers from my meal last night in the fridge, I won't have to cook at all for a day or two.

I also wanted to let you know that cooking pork chops in the oven with those french fried onions sprinkled on top is delicious! They were some of the best pork chops I have every eaten.

This post is being categorized under time management. One of my favorite time management tips is keeping a "front log" instead of a back log. Anything that you can do ahead of time is a front log. What can you do today that would help you keep a front log? Its the same thing as "don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today". This tip is amazingly helpful at my workplace and also at home.

Around The Kitchen

Its that time of week for planning our menus. I am continuing with cooking from the pantry as much as possible. We still have potatoes, but they are dwindling!

No, I didn't make this sweet potato pie. Ms. Smith's Sweet Potato Pies were on close out at Food Lion for $1.99. I doubt I could purchase the ingredients for less than that, so this was a Sunday treat, served with vanilla ice cream. My hubby said he felt like it was time to go Christmas Shopping or something, since sweet potato pies are a Thanksgiving and Christmas time dessert.



Also on Sunday's menu was what I call Ruby's chicken. Do you remember what Ruby said on the movie, "Cold Mountain", when Ada told her the rooster was a devil? "PUT HIM IN A POT!" I made my version of chicken in a pot. I cooked a whole chicken (or as the label said, a whole bird) in the crock pot until tender. I then removed the chicken to a plate to cool. I added potatoes, carrots, onions and bell pepper to the pot, added a small amount of water to the broth that came from the chicken, covered it and cooked the veggies until tender. Then I deboned the chicken and added the meat back to the crock pot on top of the veggies. For seasonings I used salt, pepper and dried basil.



Monday: Beef and Biscuit Casserole, green beams



Wednesday:

Oven baked porkchops, sweet potato chips, rice



Thursday:

Hotdogs, corn on the cob, leftover green beans



Friday Night: Veggie Tray, crackers and cheese,tortilla chips (scoops) Nacho Cheese Dip and Salsa, deli meat on sandwich thins.

Another Simple Country Meal

I've been doing menu planning by the seat of my pants this week! In other words, at the last minute. So far this week we've had the following meals:

Sunday: BBQ country style ribs, Au Gratin Potatoes, corn on the cob

Monday: Chicken Salad, rice cooked in broth

Tuesday: Sloppy Joes and Pinto Beans

We ate the Sloppy Joes in an open face sandwich style using plain bread. Of course these had to be eaten with a fork. :o)

Here's how I made them: I browned a pound of ground beef with a chopped green pepper and onion, and drained it. Then I added about a cup of ketchup, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, 2 tablespoons maple syrup, 1 tablespoon mustard, half a cup of bbq sauce, and salt and pepper to taste. I let this simmer for a few minutes.

The pinto bean side dish went great with the Sloppy Joes

For supper tonight? I don't know!! What are you having? I need some inspiration!