Ok, kids, with all of our fun posts lately, I forgot about posting our menu. Let me assure we have yet to go hungry! And we’ve had a few fun/interesting things.
Last week we didn’t have Pecan Crusted Salmon as planned, but rather Asian Salmon Burgers which were delicious. You can read about that on our Father’s Day post if you missed them. So we will likely have pecan crusted salmon next week! But here’s what we’ve already had so far this week:
Cobb Salad Wraps that you can read about here.
Pasta – Farfelle with red sauce, some spicy sausage (cheating from Ansen’s mom. Thanks Lila!) and veggies.
Baked Potatoes – with cheese, the free bacon from Walgreens, and butter. Not a lot of exciting stuff on it, but Ansen made some yummy fried okra from the okra I picked from the church community garden, an egg, some flour, some corn meal and a few seasonings. And we have more in the freezer, so maybe we’ll have to try that again next week!
Quiche – I had planned to make quiche because we have eggs and veggies and eggs are cheap. The problem was that I didn’t have any butter or oleo to make crust… so I improvised. I had Bisquick, so I mixed some with milk in the bottom of a pan and baked it for just long enough that it wouldn’t be super doughy under the egg, then I beat some eggs, added some veggies and a little bit of bacon and milk and poured it over the biscuit bottom and baked. It made for a fairly suitable crust. And since we’re running low on shredded cheese, I branched out and cut up some American cheese slices to put in it. I hate American cheese, but it wasn’t too bad. I guess I could have forgone the cheese altogether, but Ansen liked it.
Baked Pasta – Friday Ansen “had” to use up a vacation day, so he stayed home and we had some family time. During the afternoon, he helped me prepare some baked pasta in 2 different dishes so that we could have one that night and one next week. We used a box of penne, a jar of white sauce, veggies, and a few pieces of bacon. We topped them with some mozzarella cheese and a bread crumb/parmesan and butter crumble mixture so it would bake up nice and crisp.
Grilled Pizza – To celebrate some accomplishments in the “out-laws” lives we invited Ansen’s sister and brother-in-law over for dinner. We decided to try our hand at grilling pizza! I made french bread dough in the bread maker in the late afternoon. Then we rolled them out into 3 different pizzas that we would split (so we each got some of each kind!). Getting the dough on the grill was an adventure, but after my poor try, we decided that I was actually the best at it! Anyways, you grill the dough first (lightly, for about 3 minutes per side on low), then you add the toppings and grill until everything is warm and cheese is melty. We made pesto with tomato, artichoke and provolone. (The pesto, artichoke and cheese are mine.) We made a Hawaiian. (They provided the ham and pineapple.) And we made a “regular” one with sausage (theirs), peppers and onions (ours). This also used up some of our last jar of red sauce, but they brought the cheese (and left it with us). I was planning to do this next week sometime, but it worked out better this way. It’s always more fun to combine ingredients that you both have to make something neither could make on their own!
BBQ Pork Chops – Sunday evening, our small group is having a BBQ in the park. We decided each family would bring their own meat and a side to share. We are marinading 2 of our last 3 pork chops to grill and then I made a jello cake from items we’ve had in the pantry for a while. (It’s my favorite summer time dessert!!) Another example of the benefit of coming together with other families. We’ll each have more than we would otherwise have for dinner.
One week left and I have quite a few things already planned out. This should be fun, since I have $10 left! If I end the month with the $10, I may have to splurge and buy something crazy, like steak or a tub of ice cream! But I think I’m going to have to make a few purchases next week to make everything work out, so we’ll see!
What have you had for dinner this week? What was your favorite thing? Did you try something new?