Menu Monday!

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Good morning! As I was planning this week's menu I realized that as much as I like having a menu planned I also know menus have to be flexible. Last week was an example of that. On Wednesday I purchased a rotisserie chicken from Costco when I was in town. It was more convenient for me for that night. That ended up feeding us chicken dinner for 2 nights and I also had 2 nights from the fried pork chops I had made. I had plenty of leftovers and did not make the rest of the weeks menu.

On Sunday we both had enough chicken, at least for a few days, so instead of my planned fried chicken I made a casserole. I've made it in the past and my hubby really enjoys it. I mix together a bag of hash browns (2lb bag), 1lb of cooked ground beef, 1lb of cooked and crumbled bacon and some cheese. I add a can of cream of mushroom soup that has been thinned with a little milk, combine it all and bake it until it hot, bubbly and nicely browned.

That meal fed us Sunday night and I'll be serving it again tonight. The rest will be frozen in individual servings for hubby to take to work.

Bottom line, with any menu plan, plan to also be flexible! :) 
 

Monday: Hamburger/bacon hash brown casserole, salad

Tuesday: Soup & sandwiches: Tomato soup and sandwiches along with a salad and some chips will make a simple dinner.

Wednesday: Out for dinner: We'll be celebrating our son's birthday (a few days early). We like to take our adult kids out to dinner on their birthdays.


Thursday: Leftovers


Friday: Taco soup (the soup we didn't have last week :) If you'd like to see the recipe for that you can see it in last weeks post HERE.


Saturday: Leftover Taco Soup


Sunday: Italian sausage & peppers (crockpot meal). I use to make this recipe a lot when I would do freezer cooking. It's one of those meals you can easily put everything in a ziplock bag and freeze. On serving day, pull it out, put it in the crockpot and cook it. Easy peasy.. :)

Here is my original recipe:

Italian Sausage and Peppers (Crockpot)
**This recipe will make 2 freezer meals.

3 lbs sausages (these are kielbasa type or they could be turkey, chicken, organic.. your choice), sliced
4 red peppers, sliced
2 large onion, sliced
6 medium sized mushrooms, sliced
2 jars spaghetti sauce
2T Italian spices

Divide ingredients into 2 gallon size zip type freezer bags. Seal the bag closed and squish it around to mix it all up.

On serving day dump contents of bag into crockpot and cook on low for 6 hours.

To serve: you can serve this over brown rice or add 8 to 10 ounces of cooked pasta of your choice.

In the old days this would have been 2 meals for my family. Now ½ of the above recipe will last 2 meals and I'll have some for the freezer. I will be cutting this in half so we can have it on Sunday and Monday.

I'll serve this meal with a salad and french bread.


That should do it for us. Hope you have a great week!

Crystal

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