Menu Monday-ish

Okay, I know...I'm TERRIBLE...I said that I wanted to write 3 times a week and I haven't. I want to - but I haven't. So much has been going on in our lives lately and someday I'll write a post all about it. For now though, all you get is our menu. Here it goes:

Monday: Chicken quesadillas

Tuesday: Grilled Tilapia with rice and garlic butter green beans

I'm not crazy about fish, but I'm eager to learn. Good thing Trevor is both motivated - if I like fish then we will eat it more often - and good in the kitchen. I'm excited to try

Wednesday: Dinner at church (maybe the last Wednesday that we'll have to do this)

Thursday: Pressed ham, spinach and mozzarella sandwiches

Basically a neolithic panini. I can't call it a panini because we don't have a press. What we do have however, is two cookie sheets and two 28 oz cans of tomatoes. They oughta do the trick just fine. We'll brush a little olive oil on the top, press it for awhile - encourage it physically if need be - and Viola! Pressed sandwiches! (served with dill pickles and chips, of course)

Friday: Steak and potatoes

Thee quintessential American dinner. We have some Omaha steaks left over from our Valentines Day feast a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to fix our BBQ Grill yet, so we'll probably pan sear them again this time. The potatoes are Yukon Golds, so I may oven-roast them or do garlic mashed...guess it will depend what mood we're in.

Saturday: eggs, turkey bacon and country hash browns for breakfast/brunch; sandwiches for lunch; homemade deep dish pizzas and buffalo wings for dinner; heart attacks all around for dessert. :)

We love making our own deep dish pizzas and one of our favorite shows, America's Test Kitchen (PBS Saturday mornings), has the best deep dish pizza recipe. One secret I can share with you is this: microwave your pepperonis, out flat between two paper towels on a plate for 30 seconds to one minute before you put them on your pizza. This will let the pepperonis start to cook, and also release some of their grease to be absorbed by the paper towels. This has made a HUGE difference in our pizzas, and also makes Turkey pepperoni look and taste more like the real thing.

Sunday: grilled chicken and rice for lunch; leftovers for dinner

If there are no leftovers, which almost never happens, we'll revert to an old standby and quite possibly our favorite snack ever: popcorn, apple slices, and cheddar cheese. MMMM...thanks to T-rev for introducing me to the wonder...

I'm pretty excited about our menu this week. Most exciting though is the fact that my trip to the grocery store only put me $0.50 over budget for the week. I am stubborn and even though food prices are still rising, I refuse to think that two people cannot eat for under $50/week. So instead of raising my budget, I'm trying to fix meals that are nutritious and yummy, but don't cost a fortune. I was able to buy a few things in bulk, a.k.a. Buy-One-Get-One-Free, so this $50 should stretch into next week as well. Lord knows that right now we need all the stretching we can handle...but more about that in another post.

Happy cooking!