Menu Monday

Okay, I'm going to "borrow" an idea from my friend, Tracy, and start posting our weekly menus on Monday. My reasons are many, but mostly - it's fun for me to share with you something I have come to enjoy greatly - cooking. Also, while I'm planning our menus, I find it helpful to check other sites and blogs when I feel like I need some inspiration. Who knows, maybe our menu will spark your imagination and give some motivation to insert something new into your menu. Here goes:

Monday: Shredded Pork Tacos
Actually leftovers from last week. We've already eaten on this one recipe three times, and I think we've got one more in us. I love meals that I can make once and stretch throughout the week - I got the pork roast on sale, and this one has been a real budget saver. We'll probably forgo the slaw and do chips and salsa instead! :)

Tuesday: Vegetable Soup and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
The soup is from a friend's recipe. It's pretty much any kind of veggie you want to throw in with some tomato juice, beef broth, seasonings and water. You can add meat if you want, but we're trying to limit our meat consumption, plus stretch our wallet, so the vegetarian variety suits us just fine. Check out Phil's recipe below:

2 bags frozen soup veggies
1 bag gumbo veggies
1 Lg. bottle of tomato juice
2 cans of low sodium beef broth plus 2 cans of water
½ cup of rice or macaroni
1 can of dark kidney beans
1 Lg. can of diced tomatoes
½ tsp of red ground pepper
¼ cup of Worchester sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp. of ground cumin
10 dashes of hot pepper sauce/Tabasco
2 tbl. Of dry parsley

We also learned that if you shread your cheese before putting it on the grilled cheese, it melts better. (For those of you who don't know, Trevor is a cheese snob who doesn't like the "fake" Kraft singles cheese.) We buy block cheese that is harder to melt, thus, the shredding idea was a revelation for us.

Wednesday: Baked Manicotti
From America's Test Kitchen. The link won't work because it requires a password, but I'll give you a little run-down. If you'd like the full recipe, let me know and I'll email you. What makes this manicotti dish so much easier is the fact that you use no-cook lasagna noodles instead of those hard-to-stuff manicotti shells. You pour boiling-hot water over the noodles in a baking dish (making sure they don't stick) until plyable. Then you just spread your cheese mixture on the flat noodle and roll it up. SO much easier and SO much faster than stuffing those other noodles. MMMM!

Thursday: Buffalo Chicken Strips with Blue Cheese Salad
We may just put the chicken strips on the salad and do a little copycat version of our favorite salad from Chili's.

Friday: Spaghetti with red sauce
Basic Spaghetti. If I have some hamburger meat left over from the manicotti, I may throw some in the sauce. If not, I've got some frozen peppers and onions that I think I'll put in there. A little garlic bread and some green beans, I'd say we'll have ourselves a meal. :)

Saturday: night out - WooHoo!

Sunday Lunch: Chicken Roll-ups with Spinach and Feta I'm differing from the recipe a little because I don't have Arugula or goat cheese, and I need to work with what I've got. I think the Spinach and Feta will work just fine, and I may cook these in the crockpot with a little homemade tomato sauce just for fun. Let's hope it works!

Sunday Dinner: Leftovers (we're bound to have some somewhere) Otherwise, it will be peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for all.

Okay, so that's what we're eating this week. I'd love to know what's on your menu. Please, feel free to share.