Please post on the message board if you have questions or comments about these recipes.
Swiss Chicken
Creamed Corn
Green Beans
Fruit of Your Choice
Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Potato Chips
Raw Vegetables and Dip
Pinto Beans and Cornbread
Succotash
Salad
Fried Rice
Edamame
Watermelon
Greek Pizza
Fruit Salad
Grocery List
This week's Grocery List can be downloaded here:
Grocery List for September 18-22, 2006 - PDF
Shopping List Software format (download shopping list free Windows software)
Before using Menus4Moms for the first time, please browse the Menu Plan Basics (links are to the left).
Monday Recipes
Notes for Monday:
- For quicker prep time in the afternoon, Swiss Chicken can be prepared in the morning and refrigerated until time to bake.
- Today's creamed corn is not the sweet yellow kind that you get in a can, it is a southern-style savory white creamed corn that is delicious.
Swiss Chicken
- 6 boneless chicken breasts (raw)
- 6 slices Swiss cheese
- 1 can cream of chicken soup (substitutions)
- 1/4 cup white cooking wine (substitutes)
- 1 cup stuffing mix
- 1/4 cup melted butter
Place chicken breasts in a baking dish. Cover each with cheese. Mix soup and wine; pour over chicken. Cover with stuffing. Drizzle 1/4 cup butter over stuffing. Bake 40-45 minutes at 350°.
Creamed Corn
- 12 oz. bag frozen white shoepeg corn
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tsp. sugar
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 tsp. cornstarch
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. pepper
Thaw corn. Melt butter and in a blender, combine corn, butter, water, and sugar. Blend until creamy with bits of corn left in the mix. In a frypan over medium heat, mix milk, cornstarch, salt, and pepper, stirring constantly with a whisk to get rid of any lumps. Add corn mixture and heat, stirring occasionally, until thick and bubbly.
Green Beans
Fruit of Your Choice
Tuesday Recipes
Notes for Tuesday:
- If you make your own whole grain bread, this is a good meal to have the night you bake your bread. If you have a breadmaker, use it to make a loaf for tonight (add ingredients to your grocery list).
- If your family prefers all meals to include meat, add some sliced deli ham to your grilled cheese for ham and cheese sandwiches.
- Any veggies are that your family likes raw can be used with the dip; our family likes sliced red bell peppers, celery sticks, carrot sticks, and broccoli.
- Start your pinto beans soaking tonight for tomorrow's dinner.
Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
- bread
- American cheese slices
- butter
Put 1-2 slices of cheese between two bread slices and butter the outside on both sides. Grill on a flat griddle until both sides are golden brown and crispy.
Potato Chips
Raw Vegetables and Dip
Wednesday Recipes
Notes for Wednesday:
- Pinto beans over cornbread are a southern staple. We will cook the beans using some of the leftover frozen ham from a couple of weeks ago. If you don't have any left, you can be ambitious and cook another ham (gives you more drippings and stock to use in your beans) or you can get some precooked diced ham at the store. Be sure to add this to your grocery list if you need it.
- You can either soak the beans overnight (plan ahead) or use the quick soak method described below. The beans need to start cooking in the morning.
- I don't recommend using a freezer onion for this recipe.
Pinto Beans and Cornbread
- 1 bag dry pinto beans
- water as needed
- reserved ham juices (from last week)
- 1 large onion, chopped (reserve 2 Tbsp. for garnish)
- 1 1/2 cups diced ham (from last week)
- Adobo seasoning
- Liquid smoke (opt.)
- shredded cheddar cheese (for garnish)
Rinse beans in a colander and check to be sure there are no stones or other debris. Place beans in a dutch oven and cover with water so that the water is twice as deep as the beans. Overnight soak: Leave beans in water overnight. Quick soak: Heat to boiling and boil for 2 minutes. Turn heat off and cover, let sit for 1 hour.
Drain beans in colander and rinse pot. Place beans in slow cooker and add ham juices if you don't have ham juices, you can use a can of chicken broth). Add water until the liquid is twice as deep as the beans. Add diced ham, a couple of drops of liquid smoke, and onions. Cook on Hi for 6 hours or Low for 8-10 hours. Season with Adobo seasoning to taste. Serve over cornbread in a bowl with bean juices. Top with fresh chopped onion and shredded cheddar cheese.
Salad
Succotash
Thursday Recipes
Notes for Thursday:
- Tonight we will have some of the last watermelon of the season. If watermelon is no longer available in your area, substitute any other available melon.
- This is an authentic Japanese fried rice recipe and is delicious. I took cooking lessons when I lived in Japan and this is one of the recipes we learned. Calrose rice is not the same as white rice. Look for it with the white rice in your grocery store.
- You may not have heard of tamari. It is a premium soy sauce that has the wonderful rich flavor of soy sauce but does not taste as salty. It can be quite expensive at health food stores, but the Food Lion in my area carries it for $.99/bottle. It is definitely worth trying; it is all we use except for marinades that require large quantities of soy sauce.
- Cook your rice at least an hour before you plan to start your fried rice. It works better if it is still slightly warm when you fry it.
- Edamame are soy beans salted and boiled in the pod. They are a popular Japanese snack that is sold frozen. If your local grocer, health food store, or oriental food store sells them, definitely give them a try. They are very popular with children since they are a finger food and kids like popping the beans from the pod into their mouths. If you can't find them, serve Snow Peas with dip.
- Today we need to put together the Frozen Fruit Salad so it can freeze overnight.
Fried Rice
- Calrose rice, cooked (about 2-3 cups)
- 1 egg
- 1 onion, chopped
- frozen peas and carrots, thawed
- corn if you like it
- chicken* or shrimp (optional, I am using cooked chicken from the freezer)
- soy sauce or tamari
Cook calrose rice according to directions. Heat some oil in wok or deep fry pan (I use about a tablespoon) and scramble one egg in it. Remove egg and add some more oil (I add about 3 tbsp) to the pan, heating. Add chopped onion, some thawed peas & carrots (and corn if you like), and anything else you like in your rice. We sometimes add leftover chicken or canned baby shrimp. When the onions are tender, add the rice and add soy sauce to taste and stir with a big flat wooden spoon or large cooking chopsticks, if you have them (mine are about 18" long). Add the cooked egg near the end of cooking time and stir well. When the rice is heated through and a bit crispy, it is ready to serve.
Edamame
Boil 1 bag of frozen edamame in salted water until they float. Drain in a colander, rinse with cold water, and sprinkle with coarse salt. Serve at room temperature by holding the pod to your mouth and squeezing until the beans pop into your mouth. Discard the pod.
Watermelon
Frozen Fruit Salad
- 2 T. sugar
- 3 oz. cream cheese, softened
- 2 T. milk
- 2 T. lemon juice
- 1 can mandarin oranges
- 1/2 cup pecans (optional)
- 1 cup maraschino cherries, quartered
- 1 can crushed pineapple, drained
- 1/3 cup mayonnaise
- 1 cup whipping cream, whipped
- lettuce leaves
Mix cream cheese and milk. Add mayonnaise, lemon juice, dash salt, pineapple, pecans, cherries, and sugar. Fold in whipped cream (do not stir). Freeze.
Friday Recipes
Notes for Friday:
- I recommend periodically making a double (or triple) pizza dough recipe in your bread machine or large mixer and freezing the extra dough for an easy lunch or dinner another day. The Urban Homemaker has a double pizza dough recipe that is very good. It has variations for garlic, herbed, or seeded dough.
- If you are using a bread machine to make dough, time it so that it is ready just before you want to cook the pizza. If you are using a frozen pizza dough, be sure to allow enough time for it to thaw. I like to thaw it for several hours in the refrigerator.
- Thanks to Paula for tonight's pizza recipe!
Greek Pizza
- Your favorite pizza dough recipe (see notes above)
- Olive Oil
- Oregano
- Basil
- Garlic Salt or Adobo
- 1 Bag Baby Spinach
- 2 Ripe Tomatoes, thinly sliced
- 1 Onion, thinly sliced
- 4 oz. Feta Cheese
- 2 cups Mozzarella Cheese
Arrange ingredients on pizza crust in the order listed. Bake at 450° until hot and bubbly.
Frozen Fruit Salad
- 2 T. sugar
- 3 oz. cream cheese, softened
- 2 T. milk
- 2 T. lemon juice
- 1 can mandarin oranges
- 1/2 cup pecans (optional)
- 1 cup maraschino cherries, quartered
- 1 can crushed pineapple, drained
- 1/3 cup mayonnaise
- 1 cup whipping cream, whipped
- lettuce leaves
Mix cream cheese and milk. Add mayonnaise, lemon juice, dash salt, pineapple, pecans, cherries, and sugar. Fold in whipped cream (do not stir). Freeze. Remove from freezer about 45-60 minutes before serving to soften. Slice into squares and serve on a lettuce leaf.
* Indicates that of the options listed, this item is the one on the grocery list.