You are here:  Home / Weekly Menu / Archive / August 27-31, 2007

Sign up to get the weekly dinner menus by email each week.

Monday - Recipes

• Spaghetti with Meatballs
• Cucumber and Tomato Salad
• Italian Bread

Tuesday - Recipes

• Poppy Seed Chicken
• Lemon Parmesan Broccoli
• Apple, Grape and Walnut Salad

Wednesday - Recipes

• Enchiladas
• Spanish Rice
• Fried Ice Cream

Thursday - Recipes

• Baked Ziti
• Buttered Corn
• Apple Slices

Friday - Recipes

• Baked Potato Bar
• Salad
• Smoothies

 

 

Monday Recipes

Notes for Monday:

1. Today's Cucumber and Tomato Salad can be made fresh in the morning.
   
   
2. We are going to use the leftover sauce from tonight's spaghetti on Thursday with our Baked Ziti.
   
   
3. The spaghetti sauce can be made early and simmered on the stove or in the slow cooker for 2-3 hours.
   
   

  Spaghetti

• 2 (28-oz.) cans crushed tomatoes
• 1 6-oz. can tomato paste
• 2-3 Tbsp. Italian seasoning, to taste
• Garlic salt, to taste
• 1/4 cup red cooking wine, optional
• 1 lb. ground beef, cooked (from freezer)
• 2 4-oz. cans mushrooms, drained, or 1 pkg. fresh sliced mushrooms, sauteed in butter*
• Spaghetti, cooked according to directions
• Parmesan cheese

Combine all ingredients except pasta and simmer for 2-3 hours. Serve over pasta with Parmesan cheese. Save leftover sauce for Baked Ziti on Thursday.

 

Cucumber and Tomato Salad

• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1-2 ripe tomatoes, minced
• 1-2 cucumbers, minced
• 1 lg. red pepper, minced
• 1 lg. red onion , minced
• basil, oregano, tarragon, and parsley (fresh if available, dried if necessary) to taste
• Lots of fresh ground pepper
• 1/2 squeeze lemon

Stir in olive oil - enough to "coat" everything. Serve chilled.

Italian Bread

 

Tuesday Recipes

Notes for Tuesday:

1. Save some broccoli aside when cooking tonight for the Baked Potato Bar on Friday.
   
   
   

 Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole

• 2 cups cooked chicken (from freezer)
• 2 cans cream of chicken soup
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 sleeve round buttery crackers
• 1 Tbsp. poppy seed

Topping

• 1 sleeve round buttery crackers
• 2 Tbsp. butter, melted
• poppy seed for garnish

Combine chicken, soups, sour cream, 1 sleeve crackers, and 1 Tbsp. poppy seed in a large bowl. Mix well and transfer to a greased casserole dish. Mix together remaining crackers and melted butter and sprinkle on top. Garnish with poppy seed. Bake at 325° for 25 minutes.

 

  Lemon Parmesan Broccoli

• Family pack (32 oz.) frozen broccoli
• lemon juice
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Steam or boil broccoli according to instructions. Drain. Set aside a small amount for the Baked Potato bar on Friday. Place the broccoli you will eat tonight in a serving bowl and sprinkle with 1 Tbsp. lemon juice (or more to taste). Toss to distribute evenly and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Serve warm.

  Apple, Grape, and Walnut Salad

• 3 sliced and cored Granny Smith apples
• 1 bunch red grapes, pulled from the stems
• chopped walnuts
• 8 oz. vanilla yogurt
• 3 oz. cream cheese

Combine fruit and nuts and serve with vanilla yogurt mixed with cream cheese (use a mixer for a smooth blend).

 

 

Wednesday Recipes

Notes for Wednesday:

1. Instead of sauteing one onion for these enchiladas, we are going to buy a whole bag of onions and chop and saute them, putting all of the extras in freezer baggies and freezing them. Next time you need an onion sauteed for a recipe, it is so easy to just thaw a bag instead of chopping and sauteing, dirtying up all those dishes again.

Chicken Enchiladas

• 2 cups shredded or chopped cooked chicken (from freezer)
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 can chicken broth
• 8 oz. sour cream
• 1 onion, chopped & sauteed
• 1 bell pepper, chopped & sauteed
• cilantro
• cumin
• Adobo or garlic salt
• 6 whole wheat flour tortillas (if you can't find them, get regular ones)
• 2 cups Mexican blend cheese

Combine soup, 3/4 can chicken broth, and sour cream. Set aside 1 cup of this mixture. To the remaining mixture, add chicken, onion, pepper, and spices to taste. Add 1 cup of the cheese.

Place 2-3 T. of mixture onto each tortilla, roll up, and place the tortillas in a 9x12 pan. Add the remaining chicken broth to the reserved soup mixture and pour over enchiladas. Sprinkle remaining cheese over enchiladas. Cook at 350° until bubbly.

Spanish Rice

• 3 T. olive oil
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 1 green pepper chopped, seeded
• 1 c. long grain rice (or brown rice* for healthier version)
• 2 c. chicken broth (if you are using brown rice add extra water)
• 2 T. tomato paste
• 1/2 t. cumin

Saute onion, garlic, and green pepper in oil until transparent. Add rice and brown until lightly browned. Mix the rest of the ingredients and add to pan. Cover and cook 20-25 minutes (longer, closer to 45 minutes, for brown rice).

 

 

Fried Ice Cream

• 1 sheet of pie pastry from the refrigerator section
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 qt. ice cream (preferably vanilla)
• oil for deep frying
• 2/3 cup honey

In a large, ungreased baking dish, place the unrolled pie pastry flat on the bottom. Combine the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the pastry. Prick whole surface with fork and bake at 400°F for 10 - 12 minutes or until pastry is lightly browned. cool on a wire rack for 5 - 10 minutes.

In a large, resealable plastic bag, place the cooked pastry and coarsely crush. Transfer "crumbs" to a shallow bowl. Using a small ice cream scoop, form about 8 scoops of ice cream and roll each scoop in the pastry "crumbs". cover and freeze for 2 hours or until firm.

In an electric skillet or deep-fryer, heat oil to 375° F. Fry frozen ice cream balls for 8-10 seconds on until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Place immediately into chilled bowls and drizzle with honey. Serve.

 

 

 

Thursday Recipes

Notes for Thursday:

1. This Baked Ziti recipe was recently shared on the Menus4Moms Yahoo group compliments of group member, Kelli Cole. Thanks, Kelli! I have copied the recipe as Kelli posted it along with her notes**.
   
   
2. Please note one change from Kelli's recipe...if you made the spaghetti sauce on Monday, omit the ground beef and Prego from the recipe here and instead use the spaghetti sauce that we made on Monday night.Your grocery list WILL NOT have the ground beef and Prego for this recipe.

 

 

   Baked Ziti

• 12 oz. uncooked ziti (or small tube pasta)
• 2 lb. cooked ground beef (from freezer)
• 28 oz jar of Prego with meat
• 2 eggs
• 15 oz Ricotta
• 2 1/2 C Mozzarella, divided
• 1/2 c Parmesan

Kelli's notes:
Cook pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile brown ground beef, drain, and stir in Prego. (Instead of the Prego and meat, I use my regular homemade spaghetti sauce). In a bowl, combine eggs, ricotta, 1 1/2 cups mozzarella and the parmesan. Drain pasta and add it to the cheese mixture and stir to coat. Spoon 1/3 of the meat sauce into a greased 13 x 9 x 2 baking pan then top with 1/2 of the pasta and cheese mixture. Repeat layers ending with sauce on top. Cover and bake at 350° for 40 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake 5 more minutes or until melted. Let stand 5 minutes or so before serving.

**This recipe makes a ton so you can either make it and eat leftovers the next day or two or divide into two or three pans and freeze what you don't want to make that night before baking. (If you plan to freeze some, cook your noodles just 2 or 3 minutes less than you normally would.) Then when you want to use it, just thaw and bake as normal.

**Last week, I made a big batch of crockpot spaghetti sauce. We had spaghetti that night and then I made two pans of this recipe with the rest of the sauce (which was one recipe divided into 2 pans for my family of 4) and froze it. I have done it before and it works great.

Buttered Corn

Apple Slices

 

Friday Recipes

Notes for Friday: none

 Baked Potato Bar

• 6 baking potatoes
• shredded cheddar cheese
• steamed broccoli (from Tuesday; reheat in microwave for about 2 minutes)
• sour cream
• bacon bits
• butter
• any additional toppings your family may like

Spray potatoes with olive oil spray. Coat with coarsely ground salt and pepper. Poke several times with a fork and cook in microwave until centers are hot and tender (start with 6 minutes and go from there). Cut open and mash insides (leave insides in potato). Top with preferred toppings from above or serve plain and let each person top their own from your "toppings bar".

 

Salad

 Smoothies

• 1/2 quart vanilla yogurt
• 1 cup frozen strawberries* (or in-season fresh fruit of your choice)
• 1 banana
• 1 cup orange juice

Combine all ingredients in a blender and serve cold. If you prefer a more slushy effect, add crushed ice (if your blender can handle it). If your blender doesn't have a strong motor, thaw the strawberries before blending.

 

* Indicates that of the options listed, this item is the one on the grocery list.

Back to Menus 4 Moms archive

Back to Kitchen Helps