Planning ahead...month 2

I didn't like the format of the calendar last time (for month 1)....or rather, I liked the calendar, I just couldn't get it to fit correctly without running through the right sidebar, so I'm doing it this way this time!

Basic Weekly Schedule:

Sundays
-Easy breakfast
-Eat out for lunch
-Dinner at the in-laws'

Mondays
(During the week, I only plan dinners ahead of time)
Breakfast for Dinner

Tuesdays
Italian Dinner (I use the category loosely, as *IANACAH)
If baseball is happening that night, soup or crock pot dinner!

Wednesdays
Pizza-ish meal (baseball night)

Thursdays
Mexican Dinner (again, loosely :) )

Fridays
All the other categories the rest of my food fits under besides Mexican, Italian, and breakfast. Sadly, it's not a long list of categories!!

Saturdays
Typically, leftovers are nice when available. If not, I try to use up whatever wasn't used up during the week...which can mean quite a hodgepodge of a dinner!

*I AM NOT A COOK AT HEART! ;)
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Here goes Month 2 of Meals!!

WEEK ONE::
Monday- Oven Baked Fritatta, blueberry muffins, smoothies
Tuesday- Mario's Chicken and Noodles (and I call that a "whole meal!!")
Wednesday- Stromboli, cucumber slices and carrots with French onion dip
Thursday- Burritos, rice, corn, and chips (with some queso and salsa, OF COURSE!)
Friday- Sloppy Joes, Hashbrown Casserole, brownies for dessert
Saturday- Leftovers/Hot Hoagies or Philly Cheesesteaks/BBQ Chicken Sandwiches

WEEK TWO::
Monday- Pancakes, Bacon, Eggs, and Smoothies
Tuesday- Chicken Tortilla Soup
Wednesday- Make-your-own English muffin pizzas, raw veggies with Ranch dressing
Thursday- Beef Enchiladas, refried and black beans, rice
Friday- Crock Pot Stew, French bread, Apple crumble and ice cream for dessert
Saturday- Leftovers/Soft tacos

WEEK THREE::
Monday-Omelets, smoothies
Tuesday- Baked Ziti, Salad, Garlic Bread
Wednesday- Frozen pizza
Thursday- Southwestern Chicken, avocado slices, rice
Friday- Ronald Reagan macaroni, milkshakes for dessert
Saturday- Leftovers

WEEK FOUR::
Monday- Breakfast Burritos (scrambled eggs, sausage, and cheese rolled up in a soft tortilla shell), fruit salad
Tuesday- Cheesy Chicken Casserole, rolls
Wednesday- Homemade cheese pizza, tossed salad
Thursday-Taco night!!
Friday- Chuck Roast BBQ Sandwiches, mashed potatoes, Tomato Basil Asparagus Pasta Salad, mini monster cookies for dessert
Saturday-Leftovers/Taco salad/Mexican pizzas

WEEK FIVE::
Monday- Biscuits and honey/jelly, bacon, and eggs, Smoothies
Tuesday- Shepherd's Pie
Wednesday-Chicken and Ranch pizza, raw veggies
Thursday- White Chicken Chili with fritos
Friday- Sausage-Stuffed French Loaf, Cucumber slices, Microwaved S'mores for dessert
Saturday- Leftovers

Tomato Basil Asparagus Pasta Salad

Ingredients:
16 oz. penne pasta
1 lb. asparagus, cut into 2" pieces
Lemon Garlic and Herb Vinaigrette dressing
1 oz. fresh basil, chopped
Grape tomatoes, halved

Instructions:
1. Cook pasta. Add asparagus during last 2 minutes of cooking.
2. Drain and rinse in cold water.
3. Stir in 1 c dressing and basil
4. Pour 3/4 c dressing over pasta.
5. Stir in grape tomatoes.
6. Chill for 1 hour.
7. Toss with rest of dressing and serve!

Ronald Reagan Macaroni

Don't ask...I have no idea why this is named after Ronald Reagan. I just know it's easy, and it's basically like homemade mac and cheese with diced ham and ritz crackers. The kids love it :)
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Ronald Reagan Macaroni

Ingredients:
8 oz. hot cooked macaroni noodles
shredded cheddar cheese to your liking
diced ham
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups milk (See instructions below before you pour the whole 2 cups in!)
Ritz crackers, crushed

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In a greased casserole dish, layer cooked macaroni, cheese, salt, pepper, and ham.
3. Pour milk over all...JUST until you can see the milk rising up through the pasta. 2 cups is often too much in my opinion.
4. Spread crackers over top and bake 40 minutes or until crackers are turning light brown.

Crock Pot Stew

Ingredients:
1/2 lb. beef
1 can creamed corn
1 can DelMonte Original Recipe Stewed Tomatoes
1/2 c ketchup
loaf of French bread

Instructions:
1. Brown and drain beef.
2. Combine all (except bread) in crock pot. Cook on low for 8 hours.
3. Serve with (or even ON slices of toasted bread)

Southwestern Chicken in the Crock Pot

Ingredients:
2 cans (15 1/4 oz.) whole kernel sweet corn, drained
1 can (15 oz.) black beans, drained
1 jar (16 oz.) chunky salsa, divided
6 chicken breasts*
1 c shredded cheddar cheese

Instructions:
1. Combine corn, beans, and 1/2 c salsa in crock pot.
2. Top with chicken.
3. Pour remaining salsa over chicken.
4. Cook on low 7-8 hours.
5. Sprinkle with cheese and replace lid until cheese melts.

*This is REALLY good with Pilgrim's Pride "Eat Well, Stay Healthy" Frozen chicken fillets!!

Baked Ziti

Ingredients:
1 pkg ziti or penne noodles
1 large container cottage cheese
2 large bags shredded mozzarella cheese
1 large jar spaghetti sauce
Beef

Instructions:
1. Boil noodles and brown beef.
2. Layer noodles, beef, sauce, and cottage cheese in greased casserole dish.
3. Top with shredded mozzarella.
4. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.
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Throw some bagged salad and garlic bread on the plate, and call it dinner!! :)

Hashbrown Casserole

I don't usually MAKE side dishes. It takes enough planning and time and effort to make a main dish, so I typically just throw on some veggies and bread to complete our meals around here. This one is so simple, though, and it's a good "make ahead of time" dish, too, so you can put it in the fridge the night before.
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Hashbrown Casserole

Ingredients:
2 lb. bag of frozen, shredded hashbrown potatoes (I don't use the entire bag)
1/4 c melted butter
10.75 oz can of condensed cream of chicken soup
8 oz. sour cream
1 c shredded cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste
crushed cornflakes (I don't crush mine very much...do as you wish :) )

Instructions:
1. Let the hashbrowns sit out for about 30 minutes before you're ready to work with them. Throw them on the floor like you would a bag of ice if they still feel hard. You need them to be easy to mix with other ingredients.
2. Combine all ingredients but hashbrowns and cornflakes into a large!! bowl.
3. Mix in hashbrowns a little at a time.
4. Pour all into very lightly greased baking pan.
5. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.
6. Add cornflakes on top for last 10 minutes of baking.

Stromboli

Ingredients:
Refrigerated pizza dough
Pizza Sauce (I use Ragu in a jar)
Shredded cheeses (cheddar, mozzarella, any you prefer)
Any pizza toppings you like (sausage, pepperonis...mini work best, etc.)
*This is also really yummy with deli meat ham rolled up right into the dough!*

Instructions:
1. Roll out dough onto ungreased cookie sheet in the shape of a rectangle.
2. Spoon pizza sauce onto dough, not too close to the edges.
3. Layer on cheese then toppings then more cheese.
4. Roll it all up so that you are rolling the long side of the rectangle over to the other long side.
5. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.
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I serve this with some raw veggies and Ranch dressing and call it DINNER!!!!!

I name recipes after the people who share them with me

Kind of like "Dawn's Chicken Casserole"...I'm sure she didn't invent the recipe for that dish, but she made it for me, I loved it, and therefore I dubbed it HERS!! Our friend, Mario, made us this once, and I think we have requested it every single dinner get-together since. (He even came to our house to make it once! ha!) Anyway, even with the instructions he gives me, the lessons I have been through while watching him make it, and every tip I have written down on my recipe card, mine still doesn't turn out as wonderful as his. Nevertheless, I continue attempting this recipe, and it's going on my month of meals this month...so here goes!
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Mario's Chicken and Noodles

Ingredients:
Olive oil
spaghetti noodles
chicken
bread crumbs
paprika
Chicken breasts
eggs

Instructions:
1. Begin boiling a pot of water.
2. Scramble the eggs and set aside.
3. Saute onions and set aside.
4. Pound the chicken breasts between two sheets of wax paper until they are thin.
5. Coat the chicken in bread crumbs. (Paprika is to your liking, I suppose.)
6. Pound the chicken a little more to get the crumbs "set." Set chicken aside, close by and ready to roll if you get stressed out easily while cooking like I do.
7. Once the water is boiling on the stove, heat a little olive oil on the stove, and throw in the spaghetti noodles to give them a light brown color. (Note: This is where I usually make my first mistake...and I think the toasted noodles are the best part.)
8. When the noodles look light brown in color, put them immediately into the pot of boiling water.
9. Fry chicken in olive oil (add more oil as needed.)
10. While chicken is frying, drain noodles and mix scrambled eggs and sauteed onions in with noodles in the hot pot to heat all throughout.
11. Serve fried chicken on top of noodles
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YES!! It is complicated, at least for me it was and still is!! It stresses me out a little bit just typing all of that out. Here's the thing, though (since the point of this blog is supposed to be EASY cooking!): the only reason I think it's stressful is because I never do the steps in the right order. Things get burnt or cold because I am always a step (or 2!) behind. Hopefully with it all written out this way, I will do better this month. It really shouldn't be that hard...I mean, seriously!!!!!!

Oven Baked Fritatta

Ingredients:
8 eggs
3/4 c milk
dash of pepper and garlic powder
1 c shredded cheese
2 c diced ham
(any other omelet-type ingredients: sausage, spinach, etc.)

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Mix 8 eggs, milk, pepper, and garlic powder in a bowl. Whisk together.
3. Layer other ingredients in a greased 9" pie dish.
4. Pour egg mixture over layered ingredients.
5. Bake for 40 minutes to 1 hour.

Helps:
Once the eggs start to "puff up" in the baking process, you might need to press down the "toppings" lightly with a fork.
::The top of the fritatta should be a nice brown color. Stick a knife/fork down the center and make sure it comes out clean.

Cinnamon Rolls for dinner...no one complained :)

I don't know if cinnamon rolls are actually difficult to make from scratch or not, but I can tell you that this recipe below is VERY easy. I don't like nuts on almost anything, so I left those off (probably another reason my kids didn't complain about dinner....bread, sugar, cinnamon. I mean, it was basically like a dessert on your dinner plate as the main course.)

The Meal:
Pull-Apart Sticky Buns
Bacon
Eggs
*(Smoothies)
Blueberries and Grapes

*We almost always have smoothies whenever we have breakfast for dinner, but I totally forgot about them. PLUS, tomorrow is grocery day for me this week, and we needed to finish off the grapes and blueberries from the produce drawer...so it all worked out :)
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Pull-Apart Sticky Buns

Ingredients:
1/4 c chopped pecans
1/2 c sugar
1 t ground cinnamon
1 (11 oz) package refrigerated breadsticks
3T butter

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Melt butter
3. Combine pecans, sugar, and cinnamon in mixing bowl and mix.
4. Unroll dough and separate into 8 strips.
5. Dip strips in butter and then coat with pecan mixture.
6. Roll dough up into spiral roll shape and place in greased baking dish.
7. Sprinkle any leftover pecan mixture over top of rolls.
8. Bake 20-25 minutes.

Breakfast...it's what's for dinner!

Tonight...

Sausage Egg Casserole

Blueberry Muffins

Smoothies: 1 banana (sliced), bag of frozen mixed fruit, 1 cup apple juice

A recipe with one step!

Just in case, for some crazy reason, you don't have this recipe...
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Taco Soup

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef, browned
28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
15 1/4 oz. can corn, undrained
15 oz. can black beans, undrained
15 1/2 oz. can red kidney beans, undrained
1 envelope dry Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix
1 envelope dry taco seasoning
*Fritos, cheddar cheese, and sour cream

Instructions:
1. Combine and cook on low in crock pot for 4-6 hours.
2. That's it!!!!! :)