Weekly Meal Plan and a great rice dish

Well, this week's meal plan should be easy since Thursday we celebrate with the Kellys and Friday we will spend with the Pearsons eating our weight in good food.

Due to lots of cooking and baking for our Thanksgiving meals, plus an unbelievable amount or prep time for our upcoming meal parties, dinners this week will be EASY!

Monday: PF Changs frozen beef and broccoli meal (Nick picked it up at Kroger last night- we'll see if it is any good)

Tuesday: Breakfast: sausage, biscuits, and scrambled eggs.

Wednesday: Merlot Chicken and Rice (this was on the menu for last week, but never made it to our table- still in the freezer, which means no effort involved)

The following recipes is one of my favorite rice dishes. Perfect with a roast! Nick is not a huge fan but I don't understand why. I think it is wonderful with very minimal work.

Rice Casserole

2 cans beef consume

2 cans beef broth/bullion

2 cups rice

2 sticks butter

Melt butter in oven, pour 2 soups in and spread rice around.

Bake @ 350 for 45 minutes

Meal Plan- The beauty of Freezer Cooking and an easy Fall Recipe!!

This week's menu is going to be the food from our October meal party meals. What does that mean? Homemade dinner on the table every night this week with very minimal effort. Due to trying out so many new recipes for our upcoming parties, I haven't made a dent in the meals from last months menu. Here's what we are having...

Sunday: Potato Soup and pigs in a blanket **

Monday: Baked Jambalaya and rolls

Tuesady: Merlot Chicken over Rice and green beens

Wednesday: Fall Cranberry Chicken and mac and cheese

Thursday: leftovers

**Kroger sells a brand of soup called "Bear Creek". While not all of the soups are good, the Potato soup is great. We eat it often. It's a great Sunday Lunch food. Simply add water, and top with cheese and bacon. Yummy!

Fall Cranberry Chicken

1 pkg dry onion soup mix

1 can cranberry sauce

1 cup Kraft french dressing

Place 4 chicken breasts in a pyrex dish. Mix soup mix, cranberry sauce, and dressing in a bowl. Pour over chicken.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes covered and 15 minutes uncovered.

Weekly Meal Plan and a simple Pot Pie recipe

Although I have not slacked in my weeknight cooking, I have not been diligent about meal planning ahead of time. I am going to attempt to set a weekly menu each weekend for the following week. This prevents middle of the week grocery runs.

Weekend: Chili and Cornbread

Monday: Spaghetti and Baked apples

Tuesady: Chicken Pot Pie

Wednesday: Fusia Honey Orange Chicken over rice (one of the reasons I LOVE Aldi)

Thursday: leftovers

I typically appreciate a recipe where everything is completely from scratch, but chicken pot pie is not one of them. I've yet to be too overwhelmed with a chicken pot pie that takes hours to make. My oppinion...it's not necessary.

Here is a very simple, no-fail yummy and cozy meal.

Chicken Pot Pie

1 refrigerated pie crust (I prefer kroger over pillsbury for pot pies)

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can cream of potato soup

1/8 cup sour cream

1 can del monte mixed vegetables, drained

salt and pepper to taste

1-2 cups of cooked and shredded chicken

Allow pie crust to come to room temperature and line pie plate with 1 crust.

Mix remainder of ingredients, and pour in pie crust. Top with 2nd crust. Pinch edges, and make a few slits in the top of the crust. Bake at 350 for about an hour, or until crust is nice and golden brown. Enjoy!

Weekly Meal Plan, recipes, and Product rave

Nick recently gave me a new cast iron grill pan for my birthday. I love to grill indoors, but my old pan was a tremendous pain to clean! This pan is wonderful! If you haven't discovered the ease and yumminess of indoor grilling, go out and get yourself one of these 10" Emeril Grill pans from B, B, and Beyond for $25. You will fire up the outdoor grill a little less often.

Monterey Chicken

2-4 chicken breasts (pounded thin- this is pretty important anytime you use a grill pan)

BBQ Sauce- I always use Corky's when using a bottled sauce.

shredded cheddar cheese

crumbled bacon- I purchase the pre-cooked crumbled bacon found in little bags near the salad toppings at Kroger. Kroger brand works just fine, too. Feel free to cook your own bacon, but to me it's just a waste of time for a recipe like this.

A couple of hours before gilling, allow pounded chicken breasts to marinate in the fridge in BBQ Sauce. Just make sure both sides are coated well.

When ready to cook, preheat grill pan to med-high heat. Spray with a non-stick spray for easier clean up, and place your chicken on the grill. Wait until the edges turn white before attempting to flip or your chicken will stick. You will grill chicken until it is no longer pink in the center. Transfer grilled chicken to an oven-safe dish and top each piece of chicken with 1-2 TBSP of BBQ Sauce, shredded cheese, and bacon crumbles. Broil in the oven until cheese is slightly brown.

You can garnish with chopped tomatoes and lettuce if you would like. This would also make for a delicious sandwich on a toasted bun.

Green Beans and Sliced New Potatoes-

effortless side dish that is really quite good. **not a low sodium recipe :)

1 can of cut green beans

1 can of sliced new potatoes, rinsed and drained

enough water to cover beans and potatoes

1 1/2 TBP olive oil

4 beef bullion cubes

generous amounts of cracked pepper

Combine the above ingredients, bring to a boil, reduce heat, and allow to simmer for about 40 minutes.

Weekly Meal Plan

My cooking is definitely winding down to to the ever growing belly. However here is what's on the menu this week.

Monday: Germantown Commissary BBQ and potato salad

Tuesday: Ladies Night Out with friends @ American Cafe (BBQ leftovers for Nick)

Wednesday: Chicken Casserole and Green Beans

Thursday: Chicken Parmesan over Angel Hair Pasta

Weekly Meal Plan and recipes

I will never strive to be a gourmet cook. I do, however, want to be a wife and mom who consistently has dinner on the table , no matter how fancy. I hope to share some of my recipes that are easy to follow and are not intimidating in any way. When posting my weekly meal plan, I will try to post at least one or two of my favorite recipes from the previous week.

Easy Creamy Crockpot Chicken (this is an old faithful around our house)

2-4 chicken breasts

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1/2 pkg dried lipton onion soup mix

1 8 oz sour cream

1/4 cup milk

Place chicken breasts in the crockpot. Combine the remainder of the ingredients and pour over chicken. Cook on low about 4 hours. You can place frozen chicken in the crockpot if you intend to leave in the crockpot longer than 4 hours.

Serve chicken and gravy over rice.

Weekly Meal Plan

Monday: Chili's Monterey Chicken (copykat recipe: BBQ chicken topped with cheese and crumbled bacon) and mashed potatoes

Tuesday: Beef and Cheese Manicotti and Green Beans

Wednesday: Salisbury Steak and Twice Baked Potatoes

Thursday: Leftovers

Weekly Meal Plan

I've decided to post my weekly dinner menus. Mainly so I can keep up with what we've had recently. We grocery shop every Sunday as a family and plan what meals we will cook for the week, in hopes that I do not have to make a second Kroger run during the week. I typically cook 4 nights of the week and the weekends are usually take-out or pizza.

Monday: Chili and Homemade Gourmet Apple Cobbler for dessert.

Tuesday: Grilled Marinated Chicken, mashed potatoes, and rolls.

Wednesday: Leftovers (Taco Salad for me using Monday night's chili)

Thursday: Creamy Crockpot Chicken over Rice and a Green salad.