Sunday, February 19, 2012

My weeky meal plan!

Dale is off to a week of LONG drives to and from Casa Grande
for work each night. We decided to do a “light” dinner and a bigger lunch, just for the weekend. It has been yummy and I even tried a new recipe this week. Most of the stuff I make is the same thing week after week.
I saw on Pinterest a cute meal planning board, thanks Lauren for “Pining” it!
Look at it here:
http://thecreativemama.com/the-end-of-reinventing-the-meal-menu-planning-and-the-ultimate-menu-board/
I don’t think that I need something this elaborate! But I am going to work on a way to keep track
of what we had and if we liked it and then I will have a selection of meals to pull from and a way to rotate them.
So here is my meal plan:
Friday: Homemade pizza, salad
Saturday: Grilled Chicken with Orzo & Spinach Salad for Lunch and French Toast for Dinner
Sunday: Bowties with Sausage cream sauce, added veggies
Monday: Meatloaf with Mashed Potatoes and Carrots
Tuesday: Dinner out at Fuddruckers!
Wednesday: Spaghetti with Sausage and fresh baked garlic knots, new recipe
Thursday: Country Fried cube Steaks with Mashed pots and Cream Corn

I'll start with my recipe from today, don't worry, I will get back to the other recipes this week too!


This is a recipe that I first made when I was pregnant with Ashlyn. It was yummy. I have made some modifications to it since we (Dale & Brian) do not like tomatoes.
I sub sliced grape tomatoes, Ashlyn sliced them for me today, for the canned tomatoes.
Today I added a BUNCH of veggies to it too. I put them on the side since my kids (Brian) are picky about what veggies they will eat.
After cooking the sausage, I removed it from the pan, I added the veggies to the pan and cooked them.
I then removed the veggies and did the same with the tomatoes. I then added the sausage and continued from there.
Oh, I didn't use the fresh basil since I was not willing to spend $3 on a package of it for one dish. I think I will try and grow some herbs for cooking!

Here is my grocery breakdown:
(~means about, I am not sure how much it cost for sure but it sounds like a reasonable cost!)
5 sausage links $3.57, Wal-mart, box of 12 sausages for $8.58
~Cream, left-over from another recipe,~ $1.50
~Garlic~ $0.30
Red Onion $0.40
~Olive Oil ~$0.25
Bow-tie pasta $0.88, stock-up sale at Fry's 3 weeks ago.
My 99cent store finds:
Grape tomatoes, 1 zucchini (2/$1), asparagus, 1 red bell pepper (2/$1)
~Total~ $9.65!!!


Bowties with Sausage Cream Sauce
~by Cherie (dnvrmama)
Ingredients
1 pkg bowtie pasta
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 lb sweet or hot (your choice) Italian sausage, casings removed and crumbled
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup diced onion
1 (28 oz) can Italian-style plum tomatoes, drained and coarsely chopped
1 1/2 cups heavy cream (I've also used half & half)
1/2 tsp salt
3 tablespoons minced fresh basil

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook pasta in
boiling water for 8 to
10 minutes, or until al dente; drain and set aside.
Heat oil in a large, skillet over medium heat. Cook sausage and
pepper flakes until sausage is evenly brown. Stir in onion and garlic, cook
until onion is tender.
Add
tomatoes, half & half, and salt. Simmer until sauce thickens, about 10
minutes. Stir cooked pasta into sauce, and heat through. Sprinkle with basil
and serve.

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