Do you guys know about the Yahoo group called Moms Menu Plan? Awesome! Everyone posts their weekly menus, along with some recipes. It's a great place to get new ideas.I find right now I need to have at least one night be a "fridge cleaning" night. With two toddlers, we often have leftovers, so this is sort of a neccessity. I like to plan a simple meal for one night (spaghetti, for example) and then if there are no leftovers, we'll have that.Here's my plan for the week:Sunday – Pizza (Kaylee’s ½ birthday choice) -not free, unfortunately. It was her choice and she wanted plain cheese, which can't be used for secret shopping.
Monday – Salami and Provolone Sandwiches with chex mix and carrot sticks These are pretty simple, but I will grill them in the foreman. Stack the ingredients and slather the bread with thousand island dressing. The Salami and Provolone are left over from a cooking class I do with little bitties, so it's paid for! $ - Costs me just 1000 island dressing and bread. Probably will serve up with Chex Mix- got a great deal on this at Kroger today ($.19 for two packages. How? Loadable coupons on Cellfire, Clipped coupon from inserts and the 10 mega deal at Kroger. These combined for a whopping $.19 for two packages.
Tuesday – Crock Pot Corned Beef, cabbage, potatoes, green milk Corned beed is on sale this week at TOM THUMB (Safeway) for $1.79 a pund! Use all those Super coupons for this week that require a $10 additional purchase. The coupon items plus the corned beed will put you over $10. Here's an easy way to cook it- thanks to About.com If you forget to start it, use the pressure cooker instead.It will cook this in about 25 minutes.
Ingredients:
· 6 to 8 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into thick (about 1/2-inch) slices
· 3 medium carrots, thinly sliced
· 2 ribs celery, thinly sliced
· 1 corned beef brisket, about 3 pounds
· 1 cabbage, about 2 pounds
· 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
· 1 1/2 cups water
Preparation:
Lightly butter or spray a 5 to 6-quart crockpot; layer potato slices over bottom of pot with carrots. Place corned beef on vegetables. Slice cabbage into 8 wedges and arrange around meat. Sprinkle with the pepper and add water. Cover and cook on LOW setting for 7 to 8 hours, until meat and vegetables are tender.
Remove meat to a platter; cover with foil and rest for 10 to 15 minutes before slicing.Corned beef and cabbage recipe serves 8.
Wednesday –Spaghetti, garlic bread, salad
Thursday- Family day trip- evening birthday dinner out
Friday – Shrimp with Rice, Broccoli cuts
Nothing fancy here. I have some frozen shrimp (cooked) that I will serve over plain rice. I will spice up DH's and mine with a little Cajun Spice to make it interesting. The broccoli cuts are just steamed in the microwave.
Saturday – Chicken Enchiladas, black beans, rice This recipe is from Simply recipes. You can use any cooked chicken, or substitute turkey if you have it in your Freezer. I have chicken left from the B1G1 at Kroger 2 weeks ago.
Ingredients
· 1 small onion, chopped (about a cup)
· Vegetable oil - grapeseed or olive
· 2 small cloves garlic, minced
· 1 14.5-ounce can tomatoes, preferably fire-roasted if you can get it
· 2 Tbsp red chili powder
· 1 teaspoon sugar
· 1/2 cup to a cup of water
· 12 corn tortillas
· Grapeseed oil, peanut oil or canola oil - a high smoke point vegetable oil
· 2-3 cups of cooked chicken, shredded or chopped
· Salt
· 2 cups grated cheese (about 1/3 lb)
Method
1 Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2 Prepare the sauce. Coat a large skillet with oil and sauté the onions on medium heat until translucent, a few minutes. Add the garlic for a minute more. While the onions are cooking, purée the canned tomatoes in a blender. Add the tomatoes to the onions and garlic. Bring to a low simmer. Start adding the chili powder, one teaspoon at a time, tasting after each addition, until you get to the desired level of heat and chili flavor. For us that's around 2 Tablespoons. But it depends on your taste and how strong the chili powder is that you are using. Note that the tortillas and chicken will absorb some of the heat, so allow for that and let it be a little bit spicier than what you want in the finished dish. Add a teaspoon of sugar if necessary to cut down on the acid from the tomatoes. You want more of the taste of the chili and less of the tomatoes for this sauce. As the sauce simmers, dilute it with water to keep it from getting to thick as it simmers. Remove from heat.
Alternatively, use a prepared canned enchilada sauce, which can be perfectly fine.
3 Mix in 1/4 cup of the sauce with the cooked chicken, and a 1/4 cup of the cheese. Sprinkle with a little salt. Set aside.
4 Prepare the tortillas. There are 2 basic ways to prepare the tortillas - the traditional way of dipping them in the sauce and heating them individually, and my mom's way when she is trying to cut down on the fat.
