Menu Plan Monday

Happy Monday, y’all. It’s a rainy one here today, but I’m not complaining because we had an absolutely beautiful weekend weather-wise and the rain we’re getting may put the tree pollen down a little bit – which would be a good thing since I am suffering seriously from the pollen. Like multiple antihistamines, inhalers, etc. seriously. It’s the time of year, but I sure hate it… the pollen anyway. LOVE the flowers, not the pollen!!

I’m on the ball this week with the menu plan and I have to say I’m glad to be back into the routine. It is amazing how much stress/anxiety it relieves to know what is going to be dinner for the day and to be able to plan your day (and weekly shopping) around your meal plans. I highly recommend you try it out if you haven’t yet.

If you’ve never tried menu planning, you might be interested in reading how I approach the process –

Part 1 is here and Part 2 is here. Here’s another post I had with some tips as well.

Here’s what we’ve got on the docket for the week this week:

Monday: Beef Stew (trying something new, will let you know how the troops like it)

Tuesday: SuperMan is going to grill some chicken I got Sunday for 99 cents a pound (!) – BBQ Chicken anyone?

Wednesday: Salisbury Steaks (SuperMan’s request)

Thursday: Breakfast for dinner

Friday: BBQ Chicken pizza (if there’s any chicken left)

I also thought I’d share a little video with you today – this is my sweet Little Bit doing her sign language performance with her club at the Exceptional Child Week last week. She did such a great job and we are so proud of her!!

(she is on the left – purple tennis shoes)

Menu Plan Monday (thoughtsalonglifeshighway.com)
Menu Plan Monday (on Tuesday) (thoughtsalonglifeshighway.com)
Menu Plan Monday: Trying new things (thoughtsalonglifeshighway.com)

O.M.G. Salisbury Steak

Y’all, I made the BEST Salisbury Steak the other night.

Totally by accident.

It was so good, I don’t even have a picture of the finished meal to share with you. My family devoured it before I could take one!

O.M.G. Salisbury Steaks in the pan — goodness in progress

So, I can’t SHOW you how yummy it was. But I can certainly TELL you. And SHARE the recipe so that you can try it out yourself. And it is so easy to make. What you need most is a little time. Not Thyme – Time. I think the secret to this dish is cooking is slowly and letting the flavors really “percolate” in the dish. The longer you can let it simmer, the better it will be.

Seriously. I wanted to DRINK the gravy it was so good… oh.my.goodness.

There’s nothing fancy you need for this recipe. It’s pretty much all basic ingredients. Unless, of course, you consider mushrooms or brown gravy mix “fancy” ingredients? Those are the only two things I don’t always keep stocked in my pantry. But they’re worth the shopping trip to purchase.

I made the patties from ground beef – almost exactly like I make my meatloaf – and then browned them in my cast iron skillet, adding the onion & mushrooms to brown alongside the steaks.

O.M.G. Salisbury Steak & Gravy

2 pounds ground beef
~1/2 cup milk
~1/2 cup bread crumbs
Houston House Seasoning
2 eggs
2 tbsp dried minced onion
1 tbsp minced garlic

~1 cup mushrooms,diced
1 onions sliced

1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 package Brown Gravy Mix
1 bouillon cube (beef)
about 2 cups of HOT water

In a large bowl, combine the milk & bread crumbs to make a paste.
Add the beef, eggs, onion & garlic. Add seasoning & mix well with your hands to combine.
Form into patties – about 3/4 of an inch thick.
In a large skillet, heat some oil and add the patties.
Let them cook on one side for 5-7 minutes on medium heat. Don’t move or mess with them. Once they’ve cooked enough, they’ll release from the pan and you can turn them and cook on the other side.
After you’ve flipped them, drop the onions and mushrooms in the pan with the patties – cover.
In another bowl, whisk the soup, gravy mix, bouillon and hot water.
Pour the gravy over the steaks. Re-cover and cook on low for about an hour. You may need to add more water (I added close to a cup) to keep the right consistency of the gravy. It will get dark brown and delicious.
You can also run a wooden spoon across the bottom of the pan to get the brown bits off the bottom to get mixed in the gravy for even more goodness.
Serve with mashed potatoes and die of happiness.

You can also do this with cubed steaks – I’ve done that before, too.

Cast Iron Skillet “Shepherd’s Pie” (thoughtsalonglifeshighway.com)

It’s Monday… again.

Hello, all, and happy Monday (I think – it is probably too early to tell just yet)

After a happy, but busy, weekend, we’re kicking off the week with a countdown to spring break… the girls and I can hardly wait. Not waking up at 5 AM is certainly something to look forward to! We have not finalized our plans yet… they have changed several times in the past week or so and so I’ve just about decided to not worry about PLANS and just roll with the tide. Maybe we’ll stay home, maybe we’ll go somewhere. Just not sure yet.

Planning some grill cooking this week – the weather is so beautiful, it is hard to resist dinner on the grill. On Saturday, we cooked our entire meal on the grill. I made these yummy three-cheese potato pockets. They were so good. Although, next time I make them, I’ll probably only put the onion in the pocket for SuperMan. Too much onion for the girls and me. But yummy nonetheless.

We grilled ribs, corn (wrapped in foil and slathered with butter) and the potato pockets. It was a yummy, yummy dinner. Made especially good because there were very few dirty pots to wash. (my dishwasher is dead)

Sunday night we had guests for dinner – our friends from our Bible Study group at church. I made a nacho bar. I have to say that this is a terrific idea when you are feeding a crowd. I would think it would be great for a bunch of teens, too.

I made shredded “taco” chicken in the crock pot on Saturday and then browned ground beef on Sunday for a second crock pot-full. We had toppings galore – cilantro, onion, lettuce, olives, cheese, jalapeños, three kinds of salsa, and on and on and on. I also made a cheese dip with some Velveeta and salsa. Yeah, not the healthiest, but it sure was good.

I served this warm bean dip as a side item, but most of us just put it on our nachos. It was a huge hit (another one of my finds from Pinterest)

Everyone was able to fix their own plate of nachos to their liking. I have to say, there were very few leftovers and I like it that way!

This week I’m still working out my menu plan – so far I know we’ll be doing the following:

Monday: Creamy chicken & rice (crock pot)

Tuesday: Leftovers from Sunday – probably turned into quesadillas

Wednesday: Asian Chicken Salad (new recipe for us) – I’ll share this recipe later this week. It’s a yummy salad recipe shared by a friend. After I’ve made it, I’ll let you know all about it!

Thursday: Slow Cooker Salisbury Steak (new recipe for us) Big Girl has a doctor’s appt for her tummy so we will go with slow cooker recipes to make it easier for mama.

Friday: Pizza night

Saturday: Grilled goodness (not sure what yet)