week 5 menus

 Menu Plans for the week of February 1-7

Day 1- EASY PEASY POT ROAST freezable

This is an easy crock pot meal- Just put your roast (chuck, round) in the crock pot. Mix 1 envelope of ranch dressing mix, 1 envelope of Italian dressing mix and 1 envelope of brown gravy mix with 1/2 C of water. Pour over the roast, and cook on low for 7-8 hours. If you want, you could add some baby carrots or red skinned potatoes. The broth makes a wonderful gravy, or soup base for later. 

For gravy, remove the roast, Pour broth into a saucepan. Bring to a boil. In a small boil, combine 1/2 C flour and 1 C water. Mix. Whisk slowly into the boiling broth until thickened. Salt and pepper to taste.

You  can freeze leftover roast, or cut it up for stew, or season and shred it for taquitos or burritos

Day 2- Jambalaya (Taste of Home)

Dice meats- whatever is on hand- chicken, smoked sausage and ham are my favorites. In a skillet, saute 1 finely chopped onion, bell pepper, 4 cloves minced garlic, 2T oil, until vegetables are tender. Add meats, cook for 5 minutes. Stir in 1-28 oz can diced tomatoes undrained, 1 C uncooked long-grain rice, 1 can chicken broth (or bone broth) 3T parsley, 1t salt, 1/2t pepper 3/4t dried thyme. Pour into 9x13 baking dish. Cover and bake at 350* for 1 hour, untl rice is tender and liquid absorbed.

Day 3-Green Chili Flautas (Taste of Home)

In large skillet, brown 1 1/2 lbs ground beef, drain. Add 1 C shredded cheddar cheese, 1 r oz can chopped green chilies, drained, and 1/2 tsp cumin. Warm 10- 6inch flour tortillas. brush both sides with melted butter. Spoon beef mixture down the center of each tortilla. Roll up tightly; place seam side down in a greased 9x13 baking dish. Bake at 500* for 5-7 minutes or until golden brown. Brush once with remaining butter. Serve with toppings of your choice.

Day 4- Cheeseburger soup

One of our favorites. This is another one of those dinners for cold and blustery evenings. It has meat, cheese, vegetable and potatoes, so it is a complete meal in one pot. In a large saucepan, brown 1 1/2 lbs hamburger. drain, and set aside. In same pan, melt 1T butter. add 1 chopped onion, 3/4 C shredded carrots, 1 tsp of basil and parsley for about 10 minutes. Remove vegetables, melt 3T butter and 1/4 C flour, mix together for about 3 minutes.  Add 3 C chicken broth, 4 C chopped red skin-on potatoes, meat 1 bag frozen corn (or 1 can drained corn), and veggies. Stir, deglazing pan. (scraping the good stuff that was stuck to the bottom of the pan to flavor the broth) bring to a boil. Reduce heat. Cook 10-12 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Add 8 oz of cubed velveeta cheese, 1 1/2 C milk, 3/4t salt, 1/4t pepper. Stir until cheese is melted, remove from heat and blend in 1/4 C sour cream. Serve hot.

Day 5- Dinner pancakes.  (freezable)

Best advice when in a hurry, use a mix! haha However, if you don't have a mix and want to make pancakes, here's a good recipe from my Brides Book of Ideas. Combine 2C flour, 5t baking powder, 1/2t salt, 2 1/2T sugar, 2 eggs, 2C milk and 5T melted shortening. Heat griddle to 350* (hot) grease lightly. Pour batter on griddle. When the top is full of holes, turn and bake until golden...turn only once!  Serve with syrup and butter. Brown some sausage, ham or bacon to serve as a side. These are good with fruit, whipped cream, or try adding chopped fruit or chocolate chips to the batter before cooking. Use a metal cookie cutter to make shapes on the griddle. Kids enjoy this.

Day 6- Chicken Bacon Ranch Croissant Ring- 

This is one of those fancy looking, easy to make, and tastes really good, meals. Open 2 Cans of croissant dough. Lay dough on a round pizza pan sprayed with cooking spray, fat sides overlapping toward the middle, and points facing out.  In a bowl, mix 1 C sour cream, 2T chives, 1T onion powder, 1/4C milk, 1T ranch dressing mix (1 packet). Mix together and microwave 30-60 seconds. mix thoroughly. Add 2 C chicken, 1 C shredded cheddar, 1/2C crumbled bacon, 1/4C chopped green onion. Mix, and place on fat part of croissant ring. Wrap ends over the top, and tuck underneath. Melt 2T butter. Add 1t garlic powder. Mix. With pastry brush, brush the top of croissant dough with the butter mix. Bake at 375* for 20-25 minutes, or until dough turns golden. Let stand 10 minutes, slice and serve.

Here are some options for other fillings.

• Taco meat mixed with cheddar
• Scrambled eggs, bacon and cheese
• Ham and swiss
• Chicken with broccoli and cheddar
• Pizza topping filled croissants with mozzarella
• Apple or cherry pie filling
• Strawberries and cream cheese
• Chocolate s'mores
• Hawaiian BBQ chicken
• Leftover turkey dinner croissant
• Create your own!

As you see, the way you can use this is endless. You can adjust the fillings and do what suits your family's taste. This one would be fun to include the kids in the building process. They will be so excited to see the beautiful golden ring that you pull out of the oven, and for kids, it always tastes better when they made it! 

Day 7- Fried fish

Beat 2 eggs in a bowl. In separate bowl, crush 1 1/2 C Saltine crackers. Rinse 2 lbs whitefish fillets, pat dry, salt and pepper both sides. Heat oil (med High heat) in skillet till sizzling hot. (test with cracker crumb) Dip fish in egg, then roll in cracker crumbs. Carefully place fillet in oil, a few at a time. Brown for about 2 minutes on each side. It should flake easily with a fork. Place on paper towel to drain. This is excellent with a hash brown casserole or scalloped potatoes and a side of broccoli! By the way, if you want a tartar sauce, mix 1 C mayonnaise, 2T sweet pickle relish and 1T finely chopped onion. 

BREAD RECIPE OF THE WEEK:

Pumpkin chip muffins  (freezable)

·         4 eggs, 2 C. sugar, 1- 16 oz can pumpkin , 1 ½ C vegetable oil, 3 C. flour,  2 tsp. baking soda, 2 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. ground cinnamon, 2 tsp. salt, 1 ½ C chocolate chips                                              In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar, pumpkin and oil until smooth. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Fold in chocolate chips. Fill greased muffin cups ¾ full. Bake 16-20 minutes at 400. Cool on rack.

      DESSERT OF THE WEEK: 

Layered chocolate pudding dessert:

You can make a graham cracker or pie crust. If using a pie crust, spread into 9x13 pan, and bake at 350 until edges are golden. Cool completely. Graham cracker crust: 1 1/2C finely ground graham cracker crumbs, 1/3 C white sugar, 6T melted butter... mix and press into 9x13 pan. Bake at 375* for 7 minutes. Cool completely.

Fillings- 

mix- 8 oz cream cheese, 1C powdered sugar, 1 C Cool Whip

Spread over cooled crust

Mix- 4 1/2 oz box chocolate pudding mix with 1 3/4C milk. 

Spread over cream cheese mix

Spread remaining cool whip over the top. Cover and refrigerate

Use any pudding flavor you desire. 

Parenting tip:  Making mealtime count:

Parenting goals are so important. Look to the future of your child. What is important? Education? Marriage? Career? Yes, but nothing is more important than the spiritual growth. It forms who they are before God, and before others. It is their moral compass for every decision. It guides their future, and makes them into the person they will become. It may not seem significant at the time, but mealtime is one of the best times to instill and influence the spiritual areas. 1. Memorize scripture- this will be with them for the rest of their lives, even when you are not there to give them guidance anymore, God's Word will guide them in truth-if they know it. 2. Talk about what concerns them, and point them to scripture and what it says about that thing. 3. Discuss the events of their day. Help them to see how God used each difficulty, situation and relationship to build His character in their lives, and to minister to the needs of others. Maybe talk about what we "could have done" instead that would have been better. Build into their lives. Give them an understanding of how God works in lives. When they hit the "REALLY" tough situations in life (and they will), these things will be there to guide them through. Mealtime is a most important time of the day. Use it. Pray together, learn to encourage one another. When else do we get the opportunity to have a captive audience with our kids. Develop this habit now, and when they become teenagers, the communication will already be established. I call this "Mealtime with a purpose". 

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