Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween! Week One Meal Ideas...

Monday-Ghoul-ash
Tuesday-Hamburger Helper w/Salad
Wednesday Grilled Lemon Herb Pork Chops
Thursday-Asian Barbecue Chicken
Friday-Grands Mini Pizzas

If you see this * it simply means this is an item I always keep handy in my pantry.

Items needed from the grocery store-
*2lbs. Ground Beef ($5.98)
* 1 15oz. can Corn, drained (.99)
French Bread ($1.49)
Bagged Salad (.99)*
*1 28oz. can Spaghetti Sauce (.99)
* 1 8oz. bag elbow macaroni (.59)
*1 8oz. bag shredded cheddar cheese ($2.99)
*1 box Hamburger Helper (.99)
3 Pork chops ($3.44)
1 box of scalloped potatoes (.49)
6 Chicken Drumsticks ($1.19)
Grands Biscuits (.99)
*Lemon juice (.99)
*Olive or Vegetable Oil ($2.99-5.99)
*Garlic Cloves (.99)-I use dried garlic
*Garlic Salt (.99)
*Lemon Pepper (.99)
*Dried Oregano (.99)
*Ketchup (4.99)
*Brown Sugar (.99)
*Soy Sauce (.99)
*Rice Vinegar (.99)
*Onion and Garlic Powder ($1.98)
Pizza Toppings of your choice: Olives (.99), Pepperoni (.99) or whatever you like.

Monday: Ghoul-ash
Brown one pound ground beef in a large skillet until browned completely through. Drain. Meanwhile cook the elbow macaroni according to package instructions. Drain. To the meat add the can of drained corn, the cooked and drained macaroni and the can of spaghetti sauce. I use half of the can and reserve the rest for Friday’s Fun Pizzas.

Stir together and heat to boiling over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Once heated through top with shredded cheese if desired and serve with French bread. 

Tuesday-Hamburger Helper
This is going to be easy because tonight we’re going to prep our Lemon Herb Pork Chops. I’ll eventually give you my homemade hamburger helper recipe, but for tonight we’ll keep it quick and easy.

Brown one pound of ground beef and follow the instructions on the Hamburger Helper package. Serve this with the bagged salad.

Prep the pork chops: In a large resealable gallon bag place the following ingredients: ¼ cup lemon juice, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 4 garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon garlic salt, ¼ teaspoon lemon pepper (regular ground pepper will do in a pinch), and ¼ teaspoon dried oregano. Mix well. Add the pork chops, seal the bag and rub marinade into the pork chops. Refrigerate overnight.

Wednesday-Grilled Lemon Herb Pork Chops

Get the grill ready! Don’t forget to prep the Asian Barbecue Chicken for tomorrow’s dinner. You’ll grill those tonight along with your pork chops.

For the Asian Barbecue Sauce combine these ingredients in a medium bowl:
½ cup ketchup, ½ cup packed brown sugar, 4 Tablespoons soy sauce, 4 tablespoons rice vinegar and one tablespoon each of onion & garlic powder.
Mix well. Once your chicken drumsticks go on the grill, you’ll baste them with this sauce, grilling the chicken over medium-high heat, turning often for about 20 minutes. Cool and refrigerate.

Lemon Herb Pork Chops: grill these over medium-high flame-if they’re one inch thick, cook for 7 minutes one side, 5 minutes the other side. If they’re not as thick, start at 4 minutes one side, 3 for the other side until they are white and juicy inside. You do not want to see any pink in pork.

Let them rest for 5-10 minutes and serve with the scalloped potatoes cooked according to the package directions.

Thursday-Asian Barbecue Chicken

Serve these cold with whatever you’d like. I keep frozen vegetables and canned vegetables handy so I can just heat and serve. I also love to find great deals on veggies at Farmer’s Markets and grill those when I grill my meat. This works for zucchini, corn, squash, baked potatoes, bell peppers, etc.

Friday-Fun Pizzas

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Open your Grands Biscuits and separate each biscuit. Press each biscuit into a 4”round. This makes a nice thick crust for each mini pizza. Place each mini pizza onto two large greased baking sheets. Top each pizza with 1 tsp. spaghetti sauce left over from Monday’s dinner, shredded cheese (also left over from Monday’s dinner), and two pepperonis. I also add sliced olives to mine.

Bake for 17-20 minutes until the bottoms are browned and the cheese is nice and melty. For thinner crusts, press each biscuit into a 6” round reduce bake time to 10-15 minutes. 

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Frightfully Easy Dips for Football Sunday!

Who wants to slave in a kitchen on the weekend before Halloween? Not I! So here are two quick dip recipes sure to please. They’re time and budget friendly. Below are the prices I paid. If you see * this simply means I always keep this handy in my pantry.

Items needed from the store:
*2 10oz. Condensed Nacho Cheese Soup ($1.98)
*1 10oz. can Rotel Diced Tomatoes & Green Chiles ($1.25)
*1 10oz. can Chili with Beans (.99)
1 13oz. Bag Tortilla Chips ($2.99)

In a medium saucepan, combine one can Condensed Nacho Cheese Soup and one can Rotel Diced Tomatoes. Simmer over low heat and mix well. Serve with tortilla chips.

One of my favorites: In a medium saucepan, combine one can of the Nacho Cheese Soup and one can of the Chili. Simmer over low heat until heated through. Mix well and serve. You can also throw this bad-boy into a crock-pot on low setting. Just add an extra can of chili. Serve with tortilla chips.

Optional-after heated through, sprinkle some shredded cheddar cheese over the top of your chili dip. An 8oz. bag costs me $2.99.

Happy Halloween and go Packers!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

A Dose of Reality

I've just realized that I'm in a time crunch. Though I'm newly laid off from work, I just don't have the time I always think I have. Having just bought a house, I've realized I'll be dealing with paperwork, inspectors, appraisers and whatever else comes my way. Not to mention packing and moving. I dread the moving part. Anyhoo, I don't know how faithful I can be to this blog and realize it's not worth stressing about. There are far bigger things to worry about in life. However, I will do my best to update with meals and recipes from my own collection-tried and true and delicious and whatever other little tidbits pop into my head. But for now I'm off and running....

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Welcome everybody!

Beginning Monday October 31st I intend to post weekly meals to help take the stress out of weekly meal planning. These will be meals for the workweek. You're on your own for the weekend, though I do recommend leftovers and/or grilling, weather permitting. Better yet, go eat out, money permitting.

These will be easy meals, super-easy meals, healthy meals, not-so-healthy meals, I-thought-you-said-this-was-easy-but-it's-not-so-easy-for-me meals. A plethora of meals just to give the average person a basic idea of what to make for dinner for the week and how much it will cost at the grocery store.

This blog is just for Lindsey who claims she'll be my biggest fan. We shall see, but I welcome everyone, especially Lindsey, especially Packer fans and most especially you!