Meal Plan Monday April 13th Edition

Last week's menu pretty much held as written last Monday.....except for the CRABCAKES! Seriously, these crabcakes are becoming the running joke around this house. The family is now accusing me of not even having crab in the house! It's all just a cruel joke I am pulling on them, getting their hopes up for yummy crabcakes every week.lolol

I scaled back on Easter Dinner yesterday, having everything except the made from scratch beans, creamed spinach and salad. It was just the right amount of food. I sent 2 plates home with the relatives and we had just a small amount of leftovers....some of which were finished today or tonight.
I cooked Chili on saturday-2 pots of it....1 w/ground turkey for daughter and the other crockpot was regular ground beef chili. Late saturday night I plopped the ham in one of the crockpots and cooked it overnight. The only thing I had to run the oven for was the sweet potatoes, rolls & cake and pie. I should have put the sweet potatoes in the other crockpot when I put the ham on instead. That would have saved energy, as the swt. pots. take a long while to cook. The rolls and cake/pie went into the oven as soon as the swt. pots. came out. Doing all your oven baking at once saves electricity/gas as the oven is hot already, so you save all that preheating energy.

I cooked ahead the boiled eggs(for deviled eggs)and made the macaroni salad on saturday too. The veggies(asparagus & summer squash)were simply grilled outside. I placed a layer of foil on the grill, sprinkled some EVOO and placed the veggies on the foil. The squash got a few shakes of seasoning while grilling and the asparagus got some sea salt sprinkled on after plating.
So simple but so good and refreshing. No drowning of veggies in sauces this year! ;-)
While I grilled, hubby baked the rolls and sliced the ham, putting the pie and cake in when the rolls came out and we sat down to feast.
Oh well.....there is always next time to plan better.

The only Food Waste this week was a small lime. It somehow got hidden under the red leaf lettuce at the bottom of the produce drawer. I found it Sunday morning when I was rummaging around in the fridge for veggies to put in the macaroni salad.

Still eating mostly from the stockpile/freezer this week.
Since I picked up that 10lbs. of chicken unexpectedly last week, the only items needed for this menu that we don't have in the house are Ricotta Cheese, Pepperoni, Salad Greens, Carrot, Cuke, Sour Cream and I might need more flour(have to check that). I'll be baking Bread for the Garlic Bread and French Toast & making the Calzone Dough from scratch on thursday.

Here's what is on the Menu at Sluggy's house this week.

MONDAY-Kielbasa on Rolls, Onions, leftover Corn
TUESDAY-Crab Cakes, Fries, Harvard Beets
WEDNESDAY-Homemade Burritos, leftover Homemade Chili, leftover Grilled Asparagus/Squash
THURSDAY-Homemade Chicken Parmesan, Tossed Salad, Garlic Bread
FRIDAY-Breakfast for Dinner....Capn Crunch French Toast, Veggie Frittata, Sausage
SATURDAY-Mystery Meal (This keeps the family guessing and let's me use something up from deep in the recesses of the freezer.)
SUNDAY-Homemade Calzones-like I use to buy when I worked in Brooklyn

DESSERTS FOR THE WEEK-Brownie, Brownies & more Brownies, Grapes, Mandarin Oranges, Ice Cream

My Bargain Meal this week is the Kielbasa on Rolls w/side dishes.
Ingredients....
2lb. Kielbasa BOGO 2 for $3.99 (Cut into 3 pieces each.)
2 Large Onions sauteed $.50
1 pack of Steak Rolls $1.50
Mustard $.30
2 tablespoons Butter $.06
Corn(leftover) $.00
Macaroni Salad(leftover) $.00
Ingredients Total...$6.35

Serving Cost....$1.06 each for 6 Generous Servings.

Organizing Junkie is the home to Menu Plan Monday.
Go see what's on her and many other Home Cooks' Menus for the week at Organizing Junkie's website.

Sluggy

Boston Baked Beans Recipe

Finally, here is the Boston Baked Beans recipe. I have made this in the traditional way, in the oven, and in a crockpot, with equal success. I have an older crockpot, so I use the high setting. Your crockpot temp. may work for this on a lower setting.
If preparing in a crockpot, I find you don't need as much of the reserved bean water poured over the beans before baking/simmering either, as the oven dries out food & a crockpot doesn't.
This recipe is great as a side dish or can stand alone as a main dish, especially on those cold, cold days of winter. Serve with fresh homemade bread, biscuits or rolls.

Boston Baked Beans

Ingredients
2 cups navy beans(can use other similar type beans-navy, great northern)
1/2 lb. bacon
1 onion, diced
3 Tablespoons molasses
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 cup ketchup
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar

Directions
*Soak beans overnight in cold water. Simmer beans in the same water until tender, approx. 1-2 hrs. Drain and reserve the liquid. (For a shortcut, you can use canned beans too. If doing so, skip this soaking & simmering step but still reserve the "juice" from the cans for later.)
*Preheat overn the 325 degrees F.
*Brown bacon. Remove from pan. Add diced onions to the bacon grease & cook about 3 min., until soft.
*Arrange the beans in a 2 Quart bean pot/casserole/dutch oven(or crockpot if using a crockpot)by placing a portion of the beans in the bottom of dish, and layering them with bacon and onion.(I cut or tear the bacon into 1 inch pieces.)
*In a saucepan, combine molasses, salt, pepper, dry mustard, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce & brown sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil and pour over the beans.
*Pour in just enough of the reserved bean water to cover the beans.(If using a crockpot, pour about 1/2 cup of that water in.) Cover the dish/pot with a lid(or aluminum foil if it has no lid).
*Bake for 3-4 hours in the oven, until beans are tender(the crockpot may take longer). Remove the lid about halfway through cooking & add more liquid if necessary to prevent the beans from getting too dry.
*Serve & enjoy. Makes 6 generous main dish portions. This dish can be doubled.