I love finding new recipes and getting meal ideas from others, so if you do a weekly blog post with menu planning, please feel free to link up below and share! 🙂

Sunday:

Breakfast – Sausage Breakfast Casserole – I made breakfast for my husband for Father’s Day – this recipe is relatively easy and is also the one we use for Christmas morning (I substitute diced potatoes for the bread)

Lunch – leftovers

Dinner – dinner at my parent’s house – I am bringing dessert:

Philadelphia 3 step cheesecake
Ingredients:
2 packages (8 ounces each) Philadelphia Cream Cheese (I use the 1/3 less fat and it works fine)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 T fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp grated lemon peel
1 Honey Maid graham cracker pie crust

Beat cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended. Stir in fresh lemon juice and grated lemon peel. Pour into crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool and refrigerate 3 hours (or overnight). I add a can of cherry pie filling on top.

MONDAY:

Breakfast – cereal

Lunch – lunch out with friends

Dinner – dinner out (it’s my anniversary!)

TUESDAY:

Breakfast – waffles

Lunch – Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup

Dinner – Cilantro Lime Chicken – I saw this recipe on my friend Melissa’s blog and it looked SO good that I decided to try it this week! (plus, I’ve got lots of free salsa from the Target deal last week, so this will help me put it to good use)

Ingredients:
2 T lime juice
2 T vegetable oil
1 T honey
4 chicken breasts
1 C finely crushed tortilla chips
16 oz. thick-n-chunky salsa
2 T minced fresh cilantro
1 C shredded Monterey Jack Cheese

Combine lime juice, honey, and oil. Dip chicken in lime juice mixture then coat with crushed chips. Place in ungreased 9 x 13 baking dish. Bake uncovered @ 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until juices run clear. Combine Salsa and Cilantro. Pour over and sprinkle with Cheese, bake for 20 more minutes or until the cheese melts. (they also added avocado to theirs which looked yummy, so I’m going to try that!)

WEDNESDAY:

Breakfast – Scrambled eggs

Lunch – Turkey cheese roll-ups

Dinner – Pizza rigatoni (slow cooker) – This is a Taste of Home recipe that sounded interesting, so I thought I’d try it out

Ingredients:
1-1/2 pounds bulk Italian sausage
3 cups uncooked rigatoni or large tube pasta
4 cups (16 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1 can (10-3/4 ounces) condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
1 small onion, chopped
2 cans (one 15 ounces, one 8 ounces) pizza sauce
1 package (3-1/2 ounces) sliced pepperoni
1 can (6 ounces) pitted ripe olives, drained and halved

Directions:
In a skillet, cook sausage until no longer pink; drain. Cook pasta according to package directions; drain.

In a 5-qt. slow cooker, layer half of the sausage, pasta, cheese, soup, onion, pizza sauce, pepperoni and olives. Repeat layers. Cover and cook on low for 4 hours. Yield: 6-8 servings.

THURSDAY:

Breakfast – Baked Apple French Toast – I found this recipe on the Cooking for Your Family board on Babycenter.com. I’m not a big french toast fan, but this one sounded pretty good, so I thought we’d give it a try.

Baked Apple French Toast:
Julia (bcHOSTBeanSproutnLemon)

Ingredients:
1 16 oz. loaf of French bread
8 eggs
2 cups of milk
3/4 cup sugar (divided)
1 T vanilla extract
4 Granny Smith Apples
2 t cinnamon
3 T butter

Spray a 9 X 13 in. pan with cooking spray. Cut bread into 1 in. cubes. Pack bread into pan tightly. Beat eggs, and milk, vanilla and 1/4 cup sugar. Pour 1/2 of the egg mixture over bread. Peel and slice apples and place over the bread. Pour the rest of the egg mixture over the apples. Combine 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle over the top and dot with butter. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight. Remove from refrigerator 1/2 hour before baking.

Preheat oven to 350/180. Bake the French toast for 25 minutes (covered). Remove foil and bake for 20 minutes more (or until golden brown and knife inserted in center comes out clean). Cool 10 minutes before cutting. Serve with warm maple syrup.

Lunch – shells & cheese

Dinner – Chops with gravy – This recipe also came from the Cooking for Your Family board on Babycenter. My family has been enjoying pork chops lately, and I’ve gotten some great deals on them at Target, so it works out!

Chops with Gravy
~*~Sandy~*~

4 pork chops (6 thin boneless pork loin chops)
1 T olive oil
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
1/4 tsp pepper
1 can (10.75 oz.) cream of potato soup

Place pork chops in a skillet with oil. Sprinkle with seasonings and brown both sides. Pour undiluted soup over pork chops; cover and cook over low heat 15 – 20 minutes until heated through.

Sandy’s notes: Use garlic powder instead to reduce sodium. Brown pork chops before adding soup. Coat the chops with the soup. When soup starts to bubble, mash the potato chunks and add a bit of water or milk to desired consistency.

FRIDAY:

Breakfast – Eggs florentine – I saw this recipe on Marci’s blog awhile ago, but we haven’t had a chance to try it yet…so, this wil be our chance!

Lunch – mini pizzas – top English Muffins with sauce, cheese, and toppings of choice

Dinner – Crockpot chicken and rice

Ingredients:
2-3 frozen chicken breasts
1 pkg McCormick Zesty Herb chicken seasoning blend
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 c. hot cooked rice
Grated cheese
Tomatoes
Celery
Bell peppers

Place frozen chicken breasts in the bottom of the crockpot. Mix ingredients for McCormick seasoning according to directions on the packet and pour over the top of chicken. Cook on low for five hours. Shred chicken in crock pot using a knife and fork. Add cream of chicken soup. Let cook for one more hour. Service over rice with additional toppings as desired (we add cheese, celery, tomatoes, bell peppers, etc. depending on what we have on hand).

SATURDAY:

Breakfast – Pancakes

Lunch – quesadillas

Dinner – Beef tenderloin with mushroom gravy – I also found this recipe on the Babycenter Cooking for Your Family board

Beef Tenderloin with Mushroom Gravy
Amy – amyls
From Cooking Light

Cooking spray
4 (4-ounce) beef tenderloin steaks, trimmed (1/2 inch thick)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup presliced mushrooms
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 teaspoon bottled minced garlic
1/2 cup low-salt beef broth
1/3 cup fat-free sour cream
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Sprinkle steaks with pepper and salt. Add steaks to pan; cook 3 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness. Remove from pan.
Add mushrooms, onion, and garlic to pan; sauté 5 minutes. Stir in broth; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 3 minutes. Place sour cream in a medium bowl. Gradually add mushroom mixture to sour cream, stirring constantly with a whisk. Stir in minced parsley. Serve gravy with steak.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 steak and 1/4 cup gravy)

CALORIES 210 (33% from fat); FAT 7.8g (sat 2.9g,mono 2.9g,poly 0.4g); PROTEIN 26.2g; CHOLESTEROL 75mg; CALCIUM 45mg; SODIUM 237mg; FIBER 0.7g; IRON 3.6mg; CARBOHYDRATE 6.7g

Cooking Light, NOVEMBER 2002