Well, this is the final posted menu. With all of these menus, you basically have a years-worth of choices and ideas. This is also the last couple of weeks of my summer break before heading back to work. The first menu I did started at the beginning of my school year, so this one takes it full circle. For as long as I have been in education, my new year starts in August, not January! I hope you have found some inspiration and help with meal planning and will continue to visit the site. My plan is to post new recipes every couple of weeks that I come across that I am trying or that I think others will like to try. Keep managing your mundane.
Brisket Stroganoff, green beans
If you have been following this blog at all, you know that I am all about freezing food and using it later, especially when my husband uses the smoker. That is where the brisket for this recipes comes from. He cooked a large brisket and we portioned it out. I found this recipe to use some of the brisket. I will say that this is not my favorite stroganoff recipe that I have, but it is pretty good, especially if you like a little base of tomato flavor in your stroganoff. Give it a try and see what you think! It is from apleasantlittlekitchen.com. Add some green beans or your favorite side to round out the meal.
Rotisserie chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, purple hull peas
The chicken is exactly as it sounds. I will thaw out rotisserie chicken pieces that I have in the freezer and reheat them in the oven at about 275 degrees for about 30 minutes or so. You can also just get a rotisserie chicken from the store.
You can make homemade mashed potatoes, which I do most of the time, or you “cheat”. You can make instant potatoes, but if you aren’t going to make them from scratch, I recommend that you either get some Bob Evans mashed potatoes or some Member’s Mark Yukon Gold mashed potatoes from Sam’s. I am planning on using some gravy that I have in the freezer. If I didn’t already have some, I would use the Pioneer white gravy mix.
I also have some frozen purple hull peas in the freezer that I am going to thaw out. I love fresh peas but they are hard to fine. Most of the time I have to find them frozen now, but I look for some that are flash frozen. Usually Pictweet has pretty good ones. I do my purple hull peas in the Instantpot. That helps as well with meal prep since I can get those going ahead of time.They come out perfect every time!
Smoked pork loin, Garlic Butter Noodles, zucchini and mushrooms
This is a pork loin that my husband smoked previously and we froze it. When I say that we do a lot of different meats when he uses the smoker, I mean it! Obviously not everyone is going to have smoked pork loin in their freezer. You can always buy a seasoned pork loin to bake or grill. We actually bought seasoned pork loins for him to smoke and then cut them up into portions for freeze. I have cajun, teriyaki, and jalapeno. I’m just going to thaw a piece and reheat it in the oven at about 285 degrees F for about 25 to 30 minutes.
The noodles are a quick and easy side from saltandlavender.com. The recipe calls for egg noodles, but you can make them with any kind of pasta. They are a nice change from pasta that is loaded down with sauce. Do be sure to grate your own parmesan. It makes all the difference.
For the veggies, just cut up some zucchini and fresh mushrooms and saute them in little olive oil and butter until they are the consistency that you like. You will have a delicious and easy summer meal.
Cajun Chicken, rice, asparagus
You know we love our Cajun flavors, and this chicken recipe from thecozycook.com does not disappoint. It has just the right amount of heat – at least for us. You can adjust the heat for your taste. And it cooks up in a single skillet with a yummy cream sauce. Some rice cooked in chicken broth and some roasted asparagus make this a yummy meal for any night of the week. The chicken does require a little prep and cooking time, so make sure you plan accordingly.
Garlic Chicken with Broccoli and Spinach, fried rice
I found several new recipes to try, and this is another one of them. It is from clairoliviawayman.com. We really like stir-fry, and I thought I would treat this recipe as a stir-fry. It does not call for any Asian seasonings, but I have found that if you add a little bottled or home-made teriyaki seasoning to the chicken, it becomes more of a stir-fry recipe. Because I have some leftover asparagus and some mushrooms, I am adding those in as well!
As you know, I don’t quite have a “real” recipe for the fried rice. I have a modified recipe that I use. I have linked one from therecipecritic.com that is similar to mine. I usually don’t put veggies in it when I am cooking the stir fry. I also add some white pepper and sesame seeds in mine. As far as the soy sauce goes, I don’t measure it out. I pour it in until it gets the color and consistency I want. Start small and work up. The biggest key to good fried rice, in my opinion, is cold rice. I cook mine the morning of and put it in the refrigerator until I am ready to cook it that evening. Trust me – it will make all the difference.
Cajun Shrimp and Sausage Pasta, salad
I found another recipe that caters to the cajun flavors that we enjoy. This is a fairly easy recipe from skinnyspatula.com that mostly cooks in one pot. You do have to cook the pasta separately, but everything else cooks in the same pot. It is a creamy and flavorful pasta dish. Just be sure to use a good brand of sausage. Add a nice green salad to this and you have a yummy meal.
Chicken Spaghetti, peas
This is an old recipe that I have used for years that comes out of an old church cookbook from Central Baptist Church in Carthage, Texas, called Bless This Food. The recipe was submitted by Mr. Eldon Edge, who was a dear older gentleman in the church when I was growing up. In fact, his wife was my elementary school principal! Anyway, this is a creamy, cheesy chicken casserole that makes a large portion. My family requests this fairly regularly for Sunday dinner. Just realize, while it is delicious, it is not necessarily very good for you! Also, I like to make mine a day ahead and store it in the fridge after it cools. Then I heat it up either on the stove or in the oven the next day. This gives it time for all the liquid to be absorbed and the flavors to meld.
Here is the recipe, with a few adjustments that I have learned and made along the way:
1 large whole chicken or several pieces of white and dark meat
1 stick of butter
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 16 oz. pkg. thin spaghetti
2 cans Ro-Tel tomatoes with green chilis
1 lb. Velveeta cheese, cut into chunks
Cut up the whole chicken, if using. Place chicken pieces in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, lower heat, and cover. Cook until done. Let cool in broth enough to handle. Remove and debone, saving broth. (This is why it is important to use some dark meat, so that you have some flavorful broth.) While the chicken is cooking, saute the onions and pepper in the melted butter until very soft, about 15 to 20 minutes. Do not brown them. Bring the broth to a boil and add in the spaghetti. Add water is necessary, but don’t have it be too much liquid. If it is, your chicken and spaghetti will be runny. Do not drain the pasta once it is done. Add the cooked onions and peppers to the pot. Add in the chicken. Mix well. Add the canned tomatoes, including the liquid, and the Velveeta. Mix lightly over low heat until the cheese melts and everything is incorporated.
You can also mix in a couple of cans of green peas, but I like to serve mine on the side.
Meatloaf, lemon-pepper potatoes, green beans
This has been on the menu a few times.This is a recipe that I have used for probably 20+ years. My family loves it! It is on an old recipe card from Great American Recipes. The linked one is the exact recipe. It is from justapinch.com. I have a few tips for it and I have made a few adjustments to it over the years. I like to mix up everything the night before. I think having that time for the flavors to meld makes it so much better. It also makes it easier to get it cooked since I have done all the prep work already. I mix up the meat portion in one container and the topping in another and store them in the fridge. I also like to make a double batch of the topping. We like ours extra saucy. I have also found that I like to make little individual meatloaves instead of one large one. They cook up faster, and each person gets their own little meatloaf. I have some little oval dishes that I portion the meat into and I place all of them on a cookie sheet to cook.
For the potatoes, I peel and cut up some russet potatoes and boil them while the meatloaf is cooking. Once the potatoes are tender, I drain them and then add butter or margarine and mix it around. Then I sprinkle them generously with lemon pepper seasoning.
The green beans are canned green beans that I season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. You can also use frozen green beans or whatever vegetable you like.
French bread pizza, salad
This meal came about because I have some leftover french bread that I need to use before it goes bad. We usually make homemade pizzas on the individual pizza crusts, but this time we are doing it on french bread. This recipe from favfamilyrecipes.com gives you the basic idea of how to create this. Add whatever ingredients you like. I plan to do my usual mushrooms and black olives. You can create whatever you like since you can cut up the bread into individual servings before you cook it. Everybody in the family can have exactly what they want. Fix a green salad for your side and you are good to go!
Boiled shrimp with red potatoes and corn
We used to love to go to or host crawfish boils when we lived in Louisiana. My husband was reminiscing about this one day. Crawfish are very high where we live and harder to come by, but it’s pretty easy to get shrimp, especially frozen ones, so we decided to have a small shrimp boil instead. All you need is a big pot, some crab boil, and some shrimp, small red potatoes, and small frozen ears of corn.
Fill a large pot about two-thirds full with water. Add in some crab boil seasoning. How much you use will depend on how big your pot is and how spicy you like your food. Go light on the seasoning as it doesn’t take too much. Bring that to a boil and add in the red potatoes. Be sure they are small so that they cook fairly quickly and evenly. When the potatoes are about half-way cooked (stick them with a fork to see how done they are), add in your frozen ears of corn. Right before the potatoes and corn are completely cooked, add in your shrimp. If they are frozen, be sure that you have thawed them so that they cook quicker. It will only take four or five minutes for the shrimp to cook. Once everything is done, scoop out some for each person and enjoy. Or better yet, if you want to to be like a “real” shrimp boil, put out some butcher paper, drain everything, and pour it out on the the butcher paper for everyone to dig in!
Breakfast
There is no recipe for this one. We just like to have breakfast items for dinner sometimes, especially on a Sunday evening. We usually have bacon or sausage, eggs (I like scrambled and my husband likes fried), sometimes hashbrowns, and either pancakes or waffles. I use a mix for the pancakes and waffles. My favorite is Hungry Jack, and I really like the kind where you add your own milk, eggs, and oil. I’m not a fan of the mix where you only add water. You use what you like best.
Managing the Mundane 