Way late, but I do have a plan

At least I have a menu plan this week! Just finding the time to post it seems to be difficult.

We are still working on the finer points of eating big on a small budget, but I am getting better at it. I did the shopping by myself this week and bought the basics with a few meals in mind and figured we could get creative and make something up from what we have on hand. I am actually hoping to stretch my last shopping trip into next week, we'll see how that goes.

So the weather is HOT, HOT, HOT and we are cooking accordingly. Most of what I have planned will be cooked outside on the grill or baked in the roaster downstairs.

Did you know: If you have one of those big electric roasters you can use it as a small oven to bake in. I plug mine in down in the basement or sometimes outside and then we don't have to heat up the kitchen while we bake.


And now it seems that we have grown to a 3 grill family! With 8 people here we just didn't have enough room on the big grill so we sometimes have to fire up the gas grill and another small Weber to get a meal together. At least we have enough cooks to man/woman all the grills anyway!

For breakfast: waffles, cereal, bagels and cream cheese or eggs and toast
Lunch: ham, turkey, cheese or PB&J sandwiches, or hot dogs and mac and cheese

Sunday: Chicken under a brick, grilled corn on the cob, grilled potatoes, salad

Monday: Grilled pizza (recipe below)

Tuesday: (leftover chicken) Fiesta Salad with black beans and corn salsa and salsa ranch dressing

Wednesday: (beach day) chicken salad sandwiches, chips, fruit, brownies

Thursday: grilled steak, baked potatoes, salad

Friday: chicken enchiladas, refried beans, lettuce and tomatoes

Saturday: grilled chicken with penne pasta and alfredo sauce, garlic bread

How to Throw a Grilled Pizza Party!

Prepare dough:

In food processor or electric mixer:
3-3 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 package rapid rise yeast (or 1 Tablespoon dry yeast dissolve in 110 degree water)
1 cup very hot (120 degree) water
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp sugar
1 Tablespoon olive oil

Mix all ingredient to form a ball. Knead about 10 times on floured board. Shape into ball and drizzle a little olive oil in bowl to prevent sticking. Cover and let rise about 30 - 40 minutes

Divide dough into 6 portions. Roll out each portion on well floured board to make a thin circle about 8" diameter.

Move hot coals to one side of grill and place one or two pizza doughs on opposite side of grill for indirect heat. Allow crust to bake slightly, then spoon sauce on, add any desired toppings then top with mozzerella cheese, fontina and parmesan. Cover grill and bake for 5 minutes, rotate the pizza and bake a few minutes more until crust is browned and crisp and cheese is melted.

We always make a party of this, let everyone pick their own toppings from a topping bar and serve them up to order.

I am linking this post to:

Organizing Junkie Menu plan Monday

Menu Plan Monday is Back!

We are on a learning curve here going from a family of 2 to 5 and now 8! Yikes! I have never lived with 7 other people before in my life so there is a lot to learn. Of course food is a central theme for every family and blending 3 families into one can present some challenges. Luckily we have 3 good cooks here and it is just going to require some coordination.

The kids were a little disappointed that we had to cancel "Sunday Fun-day" due to the lousy weather today. I just couldn't bring myself to hang out on the deck and cook brats and s'mores when it is only 32 degrees and raining again. {{{sigh}}} Praying for next week to finally bring us some sunshine and heat so we can put the Fun back into Fun-day.

I tried to pin everyone down for ideas for the menu this week and we all agreed that menu planning is going to be key to keeping everything functioning. We also need to use what we have on hand to make as many meals as possible before going out and buying more. There seems to be a problem with people buying whatever they like but not planning on what we are going to use it for. LOL So I decided to get back to posting our menu plans with orgjunkie.com to keep us motivated.

Monday-
Spaghetti and meatballs, salad, garlic bread (cook extra pasta for Thursday)

Tuesday-
Pork Tenderloin with black beans and yellow rice

Wednesday-
Enchiladas, salad

Thursday- Recipe below
Chicken/shrimp scampi with noodles alfredo, peas, garlic bread

Friday-
Homemade Pizza

Saturday- Recipe below
Pepper Steak Sandwiches, oven roasted potatoes

Sunday-
Bratwurst with grilled peppers and onions, baked beans, grilled potatoes and S'Mores!

Recipes:
Quick and Easy Alfredo Noodles and Scampi

Cook fettuccine noodles, while hot add one tablespoon butter, 1/2 cup whipped cream cheese and season with garlic salt. Stir to melt butter and cream cheese. Top with 1/2 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese. Stir in 1/2 cup cooked frozen peas.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter in hot skillet with one clove garlic smashed. Add 1 pound diced chicken or peeled raw shrimp to skillet and cook until done, 3-5 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and a pinch of red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper. Squeeze juice of 1/2 lemon over meat and add another tablespoon of butter to make a sauce. Serve with pasta.


Pepper Steak Sandwiches

Finely chop: 1 lb sirloin steak, 1/2 red pepper, 1/2 green pepper, 1/2 onion, 4 ounces mushrooms, (1 jalapeno pepper *optional.) I usually add the fresh jalapeno and then add diced nacho sliced jalapenos after cooking because we like a lot of heat.

Season diced steak with Monterey Steak Seasoning

Heat one tablespoon vegetable oil in large skillet on high heat, add the meat and saute for 1-2 minutes until brown, add vegetables and saute until the juices start to reduce. Serve meat mixture on toasted buns, sprinkled with grated cheese or cover with cheese slice.

Menu Plan Monday

I missed a week here somewhere. I got off to a slow start in getting back to work on my online sales, but now I am up and running again. So time to get back to some of my resolutions for organizing and saving money this year.

I am not planning on shopping this week, as I have a lot of food stocked up from my last trip to sam's club.

I am planning on challenging myself to use what I have on hand and come up with as many creative meals as I can before I go shopping again.

Here is what I came up with for this week.

Monday: Mexican Pork Chops and Rice, black beans, chopped romaine

Tuesday: Grilled ham and cheese sandwich, chips

Wednesday: Three Bean Soup, corn muffins

Thursday: Chicken Parmesan, noodles, salad, bread

Friday: Homemade Pizza

Saturday: Asian Spinach Salad with Chicken Strips

Sunday: Thin NY Strip Steaks, Grilled Shrimp, baked sweet potato, salad, Wine!

Recipe: Mexican Pork Chops and Rice

I just made this up tonight and it turned out very well, so thought I would share it.

In large skillet heat a little cooking oil, brown 4 seasoned (salt, pepper) pork chops in oil on medium heat. Add one can roasted diced green chiles, 1/4 cup diced onion, one rough chopped garlic clove, 2 cups chicken broth, 1 cup canned crushed tomotoes, and one cup of uncooked rice to pan. Stir well and bring up to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cover pan tightly. Simmer for 20 minutes before uncovering. Check to see if rice is tender, it may take another 5 minutes or so. When rice is done set aside to stand for about 5 minutes. Serve with black beans.

Note:
If you like more heat you can add a tablespoon of jalapenos or other hot roasted chiles to taste. We buy our chiles by the bushel from the chile roasters in the fall and freeze them for the winter, so I used serrano's which were pretty hot.

Don't forget to check out more great menu plans over at Organizing Junkie's! I am number 496 this week, WOW!