Weekly Menu October 19-25

Sunday: Beef Stroganoff (not really, but that's what I called it)
Monday: Baked potatoes with chili and cheese
Tuesday: Meatballs with rice
Wednesday: Shepherd's Pie
Thursday: Baked pork chops with acorn squash
Friday: Honey-Ginger chicken and fries
Saturday: Sandwiches

Shepherd's Pie

1 lb. ground beef
1 can condensed Tomato Soup
1 can green beans, drained
Mashed potatoes (best if you use real mashed, but instant ones work too)
Cheese, optional
Paprika, optional

Brown ground beef and season with a little salt and a lot of pepper. Add tomato soup and beans and let simmer for about 10 minutes. Pour into a casserole dish and top with mounds of mashed potatoes. Top with grated cheese, if desired, or paprika. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

This is good for a cool evening and is also easy to prepare ahead of time and chill until ready to bake. (If you do that, add about 10-15 minutes to the baking time, and cover it so the potatoes don't dry out.) Tastes great with a nice crisp green salad on the side. Or, if you don't mind the carbs, it's also good with rolls or bread.

Easy Beef Stroganoff

This is a very untraditional and much more simplified version, but it's a hit with our family.

1 lb ground beef
1 can Cream of Mushroom soup
1 can Condensed French Onion soup
1/2 cup Sour Cream

Egg noodles

Brown beef and salt and pepper to taste. Add soups and sour cream and let simmer on low heat while cooking egg noodles. Serve when noodles are hot.

Weekly Menu September 22-27

Here's a treat: Breakfast, lunch and dinner!

Monday: Grilled hot dogs (choose Nathans!)
Tuesday: Breakfast: Pancakes Lunch: Chicken Salad Sandwiches, chips and carrots Dinner: Fresh Mex
Wednesday: Breakfast: Egg and Ham in English Muffins Lunch: Sloppy Joes Dinner: Lasagna
Thursday: Breakfast: Toaster streudels and bagels with cream cheese Lunch: BBQ Beef Sandwiches Dinner: Beef and Bean Burritos
Friday: Breakfast: Muffins Lunch: Ham and Cheese Wraps Dinner: Ham and Ham Casserole
Saturday: Breakfast: Sausage and Pancakes Lunch: Steak Tacos Dinner: Hawaiian Haystacks

These are the menus we had for our week at the lake. It worked out great to have each family in charge of all the food on one day: breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and drinks. It definitely made less work for all of us, and most of this stuff we were able to prepare ahead of time and freeze it. It was simple to warm things up and throw it all together.

Weekly Menu September 14-20

Sunday: Pork chops with gravy, baked potatoes, zucchini
Monday: Baked fish, pita crisps, fruit
Tuesday: Spaghetti
Wednesday: Sweet & Sour Meatballs with rice
Thursday: Jemma's choice
Friday: Tacos
Saturday: Leftovers - clean out the fridge

Weekly Menu August 31-September 6

We had some things come up last week and ended up skipping some of our original dinner plans - that's why there's a little overlap between last week and this week.

Michelle sent me a new cookbook for my birthday. I'm loving it, and will include some ideas from it here - although I can't really publish the recipes since they're copyrighted. If I end up making any adaptations, I'll post them that way. Thanks Michelle!

Sunday: Roast Beef + Yorkshire Pudding, potatoes, brussel sprouts
Monday: Sweet Chicken and Rice
Tuesday: Chicken with angel hair pasta, alfredo sauce and vegetables
Wednesday: BBQ Ribs
Thursday: Roast Beef Pitas
Friday: Steak Sandwiches
Saturday: Fried Chicken

Baked Chimichangas

This is so easy to double or triple and make for a crowd!

*2-3 cups Shredded Chicken
1/2 jar Salsa
1 can Refried Beans
2 cups Shredded Cheese
**Tortillas

Combine chicken, salsa, beans and cheese in a pan over medium-low heat until well combined. Fill tortillas and bake 20 minutes.

*To make this even faster and easier, use a cooked rotisserie chicken.

**I like to use the uncooked tortillas (from Costco) - cook them before filling, although they work well with any type of flour tortilla.

You could also make these "enchilada style" by topping with enchilada sauce and more cheese before baking.