Menu Plan Monday...A Little Late

Please check out http://www.orgjunkie.com/ for many other great menus and organizing tips.

I know I am late, but I am actually sticking to my plan this week. I am relying heavily on Homemade Gourmet and on my trusty crock pot (CP by each that used the Crock Pot) to pull me through while we pack and move. We aren't doing all the moving this week, but we are making several trips. {We have a trailer we can pull behind our Chevy Tracker. It is amazing what we can haul in that. In one load, we got two adult-sized bikes, 3 lawn mowers, a weed eater, a park bench, and a rototiller on it.}
So, anyways, back to my menu. We save leftovers for lunch the following day, if we have any. I also try to do COST cooking - that is Cook Once, Serve Twice. I will do more COST in the future. That is where you make extra of something and change it up to make a new meal a couple days later. It saves a lot of time and effort in the kitchen and leftovers are not just the same old meal again.

Monday: Homemade Gourmet Garlic Basil Italian Sausage and Peppers, (CP) green beans, cheddar broccoli rice, applesauce

Tuesday: Homemade Gourmet Skillet Fried Rice (used ground turkey), carrots, chocolate chip cookies for dessert

Wednesday: German Pork Chops (CP), applesauce, Apple Cheddar Walnut Bread, peas

Thursday: Homemade Gourmet Sunday Roast Chicken (CP) (should be on HG website, but I will put it below), green beans, Easy & Elegant Twice Baked Potatoes

Friday: Homemade Gourmet Cheeseburger Mushroom Pie (using HG Taco Soup Mix seasoned ground beef that I cooked and froze), baked potatoes, steamed broccoli, peaches

Saturday: Asian Pork Tenderloin (CP), rice, mixed vegetables

Sunday: Lunch - Turkey Tetrazzini (CP) (from freezer, using leftovers from a turkey baked), dinner rolls, green beans

Dinner - Garlic Lemon Tilapia, carrots, oven baked fries

* For Breakfast: We will probably have bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits on Sat. morning. The remaining days will have a simple breakfast of some of the following: oatmeal, banana, yogurt, cereal, milk, fruit smoothie, or juice.

*Lunches: leftovers, lunchmeat or PB&J sanwiches w/ fruit and milk.

Wheely Special Cake

I found a great cake in Parents magazine to make a that looks like a ferris wheel. All you need is a cake mix (I did 2), frosting, food coloring (they recommended paste for more vibrant colors, but I used what I had), Runts candy (2 boxes), gum drops, Rainbow Twizzlers, 20 Dum Dums suckers, 7 C. Rice Krispy Cereal, 4 Tbsp. butter, 1 c. melted white chocolate chips, 10 oz. marshmallows, 4 wooden skewers, 4 blue paper cupcake liners, a 9 inch round cake pan, and pyrex bowl to bake the cake in. I placed the domed cake on top of a 9x13 cake for extra stability & more servings.

So, put wax paper in the bottom of the round cake pan & grease the sides well. Melt the butter & marshmallows on low heat in large pan. Remove from heat. Color orange w/ food coloring and stir in. Add 1/2 c. melted white choc. chips & 7 c. Rice Krispies Cereal. Stir well. Put into cake pan, pressing firmly to make a solid wheel. Refrigerate at least 30 min. to set up.

Bake cake in greased & floured bowl - I used 2 qt. Pyrex. Must be ovensafe. Bake in 350 preheated oven for 40 - 50 min. Test w/ cake tester or toothpick to make sure it is done. Let cool in bowl several min. Run rubber spatula around edges to loosen from bowl. Place cooling rack on top of bowl & flip them both together. I also make a 9x13 at the same time. Baked 9x13 according to directions on the box.

Remove cereal treat from pan and put on a plate. Cut Twizzlers into 12 4 1/2 inch strips. Melt remaining white choc. chips (1/2 c.) and put into sandwich zipper bag. Snip sm. piece of bag at corner. Use it to attach Twizzlers into spokes. Place a gum drop (I used Dots candy) in center of wheel. Pipe white choc. dots on edge to attach Runts. Put in fridge to set up for 5 min. Carefully, flip & repeat on other side.

Tint vanilla frosting w/ red food coloring. It will come out pink unless you use paste food coloring. DD's favorite color, so I didn't mind the pink. Frost cake on cake plate or serving platter. I frosted the 9x13 first, then transfered the dome cake to the top using a spatula. Before transferring the dome cake, cut a notch out of the top to hold the wheel 2 inches wide by 3 inches long by 1 inch deep. Frost cake. Arrange runts around the edges. The sample in the magazine only had orange and green pieces around the base of the cake and had red, yellow, and blue around edge of the wheel. DH only found Tropical flavors, so we made do w/ different colors.

While wheel is on plate, attach 4 cupcake liners w/ dum dums suckers (5 per cup). We attached the cupcake liners w/ a small pieces of wooden skewer first, since it is tapered at the end. It was much easier to attach. After you get your people in their seats, attach 4 skewers in bottom of wheel about 1/2 inch apart from each other. Leave 3 inches of the skewers showing. Stand wheel into cake notch. Frost any imperfections around the wheel if your notch is a bit too big.

Attach wheel to cake. I recommend you do this after your guests arrive, since the humidity or wind in our case, may make it hard to stay up more than 30 min. Oh, walk very slowly w/ cake to the display table, because it feels like it will fall off.

Sausage Veggie Casserole

4-5 potatoes, peeled & sliced
sm. onion, diced
can corn, undrained
can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 lb. breakfast sausage, sliced

Grease 13x9 casserole dish. Place potatoes in bottom, add onion, pour cans over. Slice sausage and add to the top. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees F for 1 hr.

Crock pot Pizza

The quantities are up to you, so use as little or as much as you like to suit your family size and taste buds. Omit or add something if you prefer.

1 lb. lean ground beef or ground turkey, browned and drained (add onion and bell peppers to skillet and cook together, if you like)
1 pkg. pepperoni slices, separte each piece
can mushrooms, drained
spaghetti, cooked and drained ( I break into sm. pieces to make it easier to eat)
2 c. mozzarella (we love cheese and use more)
1 t. (or more) Homemade Gourmet Garlic Basil
jar of favorite spaghetti sauce or make HG Homestyle Spaghetti Sauce

Dump all ingredients into large crockpot. Stir to combine. Cover and cook on low 4-6 hours.

Harvest Pork Chops

I have a simple recipe for you. It is not Homemade Gourmet, because I realize you may not have anything from HG to make the recipe. All you need are 3 ingredients and a crock pot!! I buy boneless chops and put them in the crock pot. Pour 2 c. apple juice (no added sugar like Juicy Juice) and a dash of cinnamon. Cook on low 4-6 hours. I got this recipe from a church cookbook. Serve w/ applesauce or apple cobbler for dessert to tie the flavors together nicely. Even my picky DD eats this up.