Basic Weekly Menu Plan

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Get the meal makeovers, nutrition data, dietary exchanges and point values for the menus.

 

Monday Recipes

Notes for Monday:

1. I often recommend making pizza dough in your bread machine or large mixer and freezing the extra dough for an easy lunch or dinner another day. Hopefully you have some in the freezer for tonight's pizza. If not, the Urban Homemaker has a double pizza dough recipe that is very good. It has variations for garlic, herbed, or seeded dough. The ingredients are not on the grocery list.
   
   
   
   

Vegetarian Pizza

• Your favorite pizza dough recipe (see notes above)
• 28 oz. can spaghetti sauce
• 2 cups mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• Sliced onions, peppers, black olives, mushrooms, and any other veggies you like on pizza

Make pizza dough according to recipe and roll out on a pizza stone or pan. Layer remaining ingredients. Cook at 400°F until brown and bubbly.

 

Salad

Fruit Of Your Choice

 

Microwave S'mores

• Graham crackers
• Hershey's Chocolate Bars (1/2 for each s'more)
• Large marshmallows

Break graham cracker sheets in half and place a marshmallow on one side. Heat for 30 seconds in the microwave (until marshmallow expands to 2 times its original size), then top with 1/2 half Hershey bar and the other half of the graham cracker. Enjoy!

 

 

Tuesday Recipes

Notes for Tuesday:

1. Make the black bean salad ahead of time so it can chill. I have doubled the recipe so that we can have leftover Black Bean Salad with our Tacos on Wednesday night. If you aren't planning on having this salad with your tacos, just 1/2 the recipe.
   
   
2. We are going to restock our freezer with chicken tonight, so buy as much chicken as you can find on sale, (extra chicken is reflected in the grocery list) or if you have been buying chicken on sale each time you shop, thaw your uncooked chicken from the freezer, and bake it all tonight along with your Easy Chicken Feta Bake. You not only save time because you will end up with cooked meat in your freezer for quick mealtime preparation, but you will also save money in two ways...by purchasing meat only when it is on sale, and only turning your oven on once! (Buying meat on sale should be a goal of every shopping trip. Every time I go to the store I always check out the sale items and the items that are due to expire. I buy only what is on sale and I buy as much as I can afford for that shopping trip. I put everything in the freezer until a night like tonight when it's easy to cook extra and freeze.)
   
   
3. Bake the chicken that you need for tonight's recipe and cook any extra meat you can in a separate dish with whatever seasoning you like. Serve tonight's chicken and allow the extra chicken to cool during dinner time. After your meal, cut up the extra chicken and place in individual freezer bags in portion sizes that are appropriate for you family. I usually freeze in one pound portions.
   
   
   
   
   

 Easy Chicken and Feta Bake

• 3 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breast halves
• 2 tbsp lemon juice, divided
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 pkg. (4 oz.) crumbled Feta Cheese (we like the one seasoned with Basil and Tomato)
• 1/4 cup each finely chopped red pepper and fresh parsley

Arrange chicken in 13 x 9-inch baking dish. Drizzle with 1 Tbsp. lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper. Top with feta cheese. Drizzle with remaining 1 tbsp. lemon juice. Bake at 350°F for 35-40 minutes or until cooked through. Sprinkle with red pepper and parsley.

 

 

Steamed Broccoli (fresh* or frozen)

 

 

 

  Black Bean Salad

• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• 4 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 tsp. lemon juice
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 tsp. sugar
• 4 cups black beans (from freezer*, thawed & rinsed, or 1 can, rinsed)
• 2 cups cut corn, drained
• 2 cups chopped red bell pepper
• 4 Tbsp. dried parsley

Combine vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and sugar. Mix well and combine with remaining ingredients. Toss before serving. Save half of the salad for Thursday night.

 

 

 

Wednesday Recipes

Notes for Wednesday:

1. You can make soft or hard tacos, whichever your family prefers.
   
   
2. Use the leftover Black Bean Salad from Tuesday night.
   
   
3. Many of you have been looking for ideas for what to serve on the weekends. Think about making extra "fixins" tonight and using the extras to create a big Taco Salad with Tortilla chips this weekend. (This is not on your grocery list...just an idea for the weekend slump.)
   
   
4. Use taco seasoned browned ground beef from your freezer. If you don't already have this in your freezer, be sure to add ground beef and taco seasoning to your grocery list.
   
   
   

Tacos

• tortillas or taco shells*
• 1 lb. cooked taco seasoned ground beef (from freezer)
• shredded lettuce
• diced tomatoes
• grated cheese
• sour cream
• salsa

Prepare taco meat according to package directions. For softer tacos that don't bread when you bite them, preheat oven to 300°F. Fill each taco with meat and grated cheese and place on cookie sheet. Bake for 5 minutes. Serve with lettuce, tomato, cheese, sour cream, and salsa.

Mexican Corn

Mix a can of cut corn with a can of Rotel tomatoes and green chiles for a spicier version of canned corn.

Leftover Black Bean Salad

Churros

• Pillsbury refrigerated bread sticks* (or homemade bread stick dough that is ready to be baked)
• cinnamon & sugar mixture

This easy recipe is a kid pleaser. Twist the bread sticks by holding each end and twisting in opposite directions. Roll gently in cinnamon and sugar mixture and bake as usual.

 

 

Thursday Recipes

Notes for Thursday:

1. Use leftover pork from a few weeks ago to make this a super speedy meal. If you do not have any pork left in your freezer, add this to your grocery list. We will be restocking cooked pork next week.

 

 Quick Pork "Lo Mein"

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 lb. cooked pork roast, cubed (from freezer)
• 2-3 (3 oz.) pkg. pork flavored Ramen Noodles
• 1 1/2 cups water (may need more water if you use 3 pkg. of noodles)
• 1 red* or yellow pepper, cut into strips
• 2 cups broccoli florets* or cauliflower, thawed
• 3 med. green onions, chopped
• 2 tsp parsley
• 1 1/4 tbsp soy sauce

Heat oil in skillet or wok over medium high heat. Add pork and stir fry until reheated, about 2 minutes. Break apart Ramen Noodles and add to skillet with water, seasoning packet and remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil and cook 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally until noodles are soft.

 

 

Egg Drop Soup

• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1 green onion with part of green top, chopped
• 1 tsp salt
• dash of pepper
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• frozen wanton sheets (optional)

Heat chicken broth, salt and pepper to boiling in saucepan. Stir green onions into eggs. Pour egg mixture slowly into boiling broth, stirring constantly with fork to form shreds of egg.

If you want to add fried wantons to your soup, you can buy frozen wanton sheets (wrappers - not on the grocery list), thaw them and slice them into strips. Deep fry the strips and serve on top of soup.

Mandarin Pineapple Salad

• 1 (15 oz.) can Mandarin Oranges
• 1 (20 oz.) can Pineapple Tidbits

Drain fruit in both cans and gently toss together. Serve.

 

Friday Recipes

Notes for Friday:

1. Vegetables thicken the rich sauce-like gravy which smothers fork-tender steak in this Swiss steak recipe. Double or triple as needed to serve a crowd.
   
   
   

Savory Swiss Steak

• 1-1/2 lbs. round steak, approx. 1 inch thick
• 2 carrots, peeled and grated
• 2 stalks celery, finely chopped
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2 tsp. dry mustard
• 1 can (14.5 oz.) diced tomatoes
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 TB Worcestershire sauce
• 2 TB butter
• 2 TB oil
• 2 tsp. brown sugar or SUCANAT

Cut round steak into 6 or more serving- size pieces. Coat with a mixture of flour, mustard, salt and pepper. Using a large frying pan, brown the meat in 1 TB butter and 1 TB oil. Transfer to a slow cooker. Heat remaining butter and oil in frying pan. Saute onion, carrots, and celery until glazed. Add tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce and brown sugar. Heat, scraping up drippings. Pour over meat. Cover. Cook on low 6-8 hours, or until tender. Serve meat with vegetable sauce spooned over. Sprinkle with freshly chopped parsley for garnish, if desired.

Compliments of Marilyn Moll of www.UrbanHomemaker.com

 

Collard Greens

Brown Rice

 

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

This week's Grocery List can be downloaded here:

Grocery List for September 28 - October 2, 2009 - PDF

Grocery List for September 28 - October 2 , 2009 - TXT (for PDAs or text editing)

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Find sale prices on the grocery list items with our new Grocery Deals feature (brought to you in partnership with MyGroceryDeals)

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