Menu Plan Monday...something old, something new

I really knocked it out of the park on Saturday & Sunday this week...I hope that doesn't mean it can only go downhill from here!

Saturday: fish fry--yummy,lightly breaded talapia, fresh-cut fries, and coleslaw

Sunday: Chicken Manicotti (my friend's recipe...actually, it's more a process than a recipe--see below for more info) salad with feta cheese & homemade vinaigrette, toasted garlic baguette

Monday: I'm tired of being in the kitchen. There are 15 pounds of chicken pasta in the fridge. Help yourself.

Tuesday: I'm working, and The President has karate at 6:15. I'll put a pot roast with veggies in the crock pot, so dinner will be ready when we get home.

Wednesday: (Unless I change my mind) baked pork chops, rice pilaf, green beans...zzzzz

Thursday: Chicken Enchiladas...maybe

Friday: Something fun & easy, preferably not cooked by me!


Chicken Manicotti

Manicotti is a pain in the butt to stuff, so my friend just uses bow tie or spiral pasta instead...unless she's really trying to impress someone. I used rotini noodles, and it worked great!

*Fry & crumble 6-7 slices bacon, set aside
*Slice 5-6 chicken breasts in strips/ bite size pieces. Season with salt & pepper, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, etc. Saute in olive oil until browned. (I minced two cloves of fresh garlic and added that to the pan, as well.
*Boil noodles and drain.
*When chicken is cooked through, remove from pan. Melt down the following ingredients (in the pan with the chicken juices) until it "looks right." I didn't measure a single thing:
*1 can cream of chicken soup
*1 block cream cheese
*sour cream (some)
*shredded parmesan cheese
*thin and smooth with half & half, if needed

*Mix everything together, put in a casserole dish and top with more cheese. Even for my family of 5, we ate less than half of this. It's nice to have left-overs for tonight & lunch for work tomorrow.

We may save the chicken enchiladas for next week. Here's the recipe anyway:


· 1 ½ lb. flank steak OR 1 lb. Shrimp OR 3 c. shredded cooked chicken
· 2 c. shredded cheese (we use a Mexican blend)
· 1 8-oz. Can diced green chiles
· 1 c. sour cream
· ½ c. sliced green onions
· 1 small can sliced black olives (optional)
· 1 19-oz. Can enchilada sauce
· 1 package large corn or flour tortillas
Season flank steak to taste with salt & pepper. Bake in oven at 250° for 30 minutes (until thermometer reads 160°). Let stand for a few minutes, then slice across the grain into strips. (For shrimp enchiladas, we buy the shrimp steamed, then just peel & add to dish.) Combine beef, chicken, or shrimp with sour cream, diced chiles, onion, black olives, and 1 ½ c. of shredded cheese. Mix well. Place about 1/3 c. of the meat mixture down the center of each tortilla. Roll to enclose filling and place enchiladas seam side down in 9x13 dish (sprayed with non-stick cooking spray). Pour sauce over the enchiladas. Cover the pan with foil and bake covered at 350° for 30 minutes. Remove cover, sprinkle with remaining cheese, and bake uncovered until cheese melts.

Don't forget to visit Organizing Junkie for more menus!

Menu Plan Monday, Football & Labor Day...feels like fall!

I've been doing weekly menu planning for a few months now, and I'm amazed at how much time and money I end up saving by just taking time to plan. I love to make one major grocery shopping trip each week, and to know what's on hand for the evening meal...even if I sometimes have to modify the plan if something comes up.

Here's what's cooking this week:

Saturday: grilled ribeye steaks, homemade steak fries, salad with balsamic vinaigrette and feta cheese, strawberry shortcake

(Doesn't that sound like a holiday meal? Hellooooo...it's the opening day of SEC football! Roll Tide, y'all. *Notice I made a dessert in our team's colors in honor of the first game of the season)

Sunday: slacker day--hot dogs & smoked sausage on the grill, chips, pickles, I might open a can of baked beans

Monday: Labor Day barbecue--ribs, corn on the cob, coleslaw, potato salad

Tuesday: baked chicken, macaroni & cheese, cucumber salad

Wednesday: breakfast for dinner--biscuits, gravy, thick cut peppered bacon, tomatoes, scrambled eggs

Thursday: fried cube steak, green beans, new potatoes

Friday: pizza night or dinner out

I'm getting in a rut! Help! I'd love some new ideas for dinner...I feel like we have the same things over & over again. I'll be checking out Organizing Junkie, and so should you!

Menu Plan Monday...already?

Well, at least the fact that I've committed to participate in Menu Plan Monday keeps me posting once a week. I really intended to put up another post before now, but it's been a long and challenging week. I can feel the funny coming, though...I promise!

Here's what we're eating this week. If you're looking for inspiration, there are hundreds of menu planners on Organizing Junkie.

Saturday: Thanks to Tropical Storm Fay, we enjoyed a cozy, rainy day at home...and Pop cooked his legendary beef stew. Not only is this a taste of my childhood, but it is just perfection in a bowl. If anyone from the Campbell's soup corporation is reading...we might be willing to negotiate a deal, for the right price! He also made corn bread.

Sunday: Church and more rain...finished the stew left-overs, and my "Oh, Boy Cheesecake" (recipe below)with cherry topping for dessert.

Monday: Sausage and Wild Rice Casserole (recipe below), green beans.

Tuesday: Spaghetti with meat sauce, salad.

Wednesday: Oven-baked chicken or pork chops (I have both in the freezer), macaroni & cheese (we were supposed to have last week, had stewed potatoes instead), steamed broccoli.

Thursday: Steak fajitas, refried beans, rice.

Friday: Dinner out or pizza night.

Sausage & Wild Rice Casserole
· 1 pound sausage (mild)
· 1 can cream of chicken soup
· 1 carton sour cream
· 1 box Uncle Ben’s long grain wild rice
· 1 can sliced water chestnuts

Cook rice according to directions. Crumble and brown sausage and drain. Add soup, sour cream, and chestnuts (I usually cut them in half). Pour over rice in a buttered (I use non-stick spray) casserole dish. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes.


Oh Boy, Cheesecake!
This is a crowd-pleasing, award-winning, deceptively easy recipe. Even though I share the recipe freely, my friends always want me to make it. And, about the name...
When we were teen-agers, my friend (sweet girl, but a real airhead) was over at my house. We were in the kitchen when my sister & her future husband (now her ex-husband) came in. They opened the refrigerator & saw that Mom had made this dessert. The future ex-brother-in-law said, “Oh boy, cheesecake!” Months later sweet airhead friend asked me, “When is your Mom going to make another one of those Oh Boy Cheesecakes?” That has been the name of this dessert ever since!

· 1 8 oz. Cream cheese
· 1/3 c. sugar
· 1 8 oz. Sour cream
· 1 8 oz. Cool whip
· 1 Tbs. Lemon juice (optional-I use fresh lemon juice)
· 1 tsp. Vanilla flavoring
Combine cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add sour cream, mix. Fold in cool whip, add lemon juice and vanilla. Pour in large graham cracker crust. Chill. Top with blueberry or cherry pie filling, if desired.

Back to School & Menus

I wish I had the hours of free time I had envisioned when school started to keep you entertained with one funny and compelling post after another...but, yeah, I'm not there yet. So, for now all I have to offer is Menu Plan Monday (hosted by Organizing Junkie). And the only reason it's done, is because I had to do the grocery shopping anyway.



Here goes:

Saturday: My mom, sister, and family visited. In honor of my birthday, we had a feast of various home-grown vegetables including my favorite FRIED GREEN TOMATOES! There was also a four-layer chocolate dessert thing that was absolutely sinful.

Sunday: Mom brought tomatoes from my grandmother's garden. Try as I might, there was no way to eat them all before they went bad. So...Pop & I made homemade vegetable soup. We had it for dinner Sunday night & now have 8 more quarts in the freezer for the winter. It was my first time to do it, and I am very proud of the results. I may post pictures, because you know everything is a scrapbook opportunity! (The President loved helping, too!)

Monday: barbecue ribs (buy one-get one free @ Winn-Dixie), corn casserole, coleslaw

Tuesday: tacos

Wednesday: poppy seed chicken, rice, salad

Thursday: salmon croquettes, English peas, mac & cheese

Friday: grilled hot dogs or pizza take-out

Menu Plan Monday

Well, it's already that time again...and we have a very busy week (as usual) coming up! Here's what's for dinner this week:

Saturday: hand-patted burgers with melted blue cheese, corn, marinated cucumber salad

Sunday: grilled smoked sausage dogs, chips

Monday: chuck roast, mashed potatoes, fresh field peas, fried okra (Pop's favorite food of the week last week!), cornbread

Tuesday: baseball team party @ local pizza buffet (that was easy!)

Wednesday: grilled pork chops, roasted rosemary new potatoes, steamed asparagus

Edited to add: when I went shopping I found lamb chops (one of my family's favorites) on sale, so we're having them instead...I am so looking forward to Wednesday!

Thursday: spaghetti with meat sauce, salad

Friday: pizza night or dinner out

Check out Organizing Junkie for more great dinner ideas!

Menu Plan Monday

I actually plan my meals and shop on Saturday morning, so that's why my menu plan is Saturday-Friday. (This will most likely change when school starts back and I can shop alone(!) through the week.) This is my first "official" Menu Plan Monday post. (Hi, Organizing Junkie readers!) One of these days, I'll make something totally fabulous & share the recipe(s). If you see something here that you don't know how to make, e-mail me and I'll send you recipes/ instructions. Here's what we're eating at the Southern Fried House of Fun this week:

Saturday: steak, baked potatoes, salad

Sunday: veggie dinner--we were hoping to score some great produce at a local farmer's market, but ended up with our usual produce stand's offerings--fried okra, mashed new potatoes, coleslaw, cornbread, sliced onion & tomatoes, cucumbers marinated in olive oil & vinegar, meat totally not missed!

Desert of the week: Sunday night--homemade peach pie with fresh, locally grown peaches...yum!

Monday: teriyaki pork kabobs, rice pilaf (left-overs for my lunch work on Tuesday)

Tuesday: tacos with homemade guacamole & pico de gallo

Wednesday: the boys & mom will be at an amusement/ water park all day, and could be late getting home...dinner on your own night!

Thursday: crispy oven-baked chicken, mac & cheese, green beans

Friday: probably dinner out or pizza night

Cheap and Easy

My new lifestyle make-over is going great. It takes my type-A tendencies, love of lists, planning, and organization and smooshes it all together with saving money (a new concept, no?), quality family time, and stress reduction. I am still on board.

It took a pretty good chunk of time Saturday, but I planned my menu for the week, and then reviewed all the sale flyers, to see where I should shop for the best deals. I ended up with three grocery stops, but after spending $175.55 total, I saved $66.31!

Here's the scoop...I shopped Wal-Mart for probably 75% of my items. Paper towels, snack foods, and basic canned goods and other staple items will be cheaper there most of the time. But my local W-M store's produce and meat are horrible. I won't buy either there. I only saved a little $$ at Wal-Mart with coupons (try coupons.com) so my biggest savings was $1.50 off swim diapers. (Tell me about it...Fat Baby should totally not even need them any more...but you try to tell him not to poop in the YMCA pool & see how that works out for you!)

Then, I hit Winn-Dixie for my meat and produce needs. I bought two chuck roasts at $23 and change...buy one get one free. They were GINORMOUS--so, I made the investment, cut them in half, and have one for this week (recipe below) and now have THREE MORE servings in the freezer. I also bought country style ribs on buy one-get one, (more freezer stocking) which Pop will barbecue to sheer perfection!

Finally, Food World has 12-pack cans of coke products, 4 for $11. They also had a coupon in their flyer for $2 off milk (huge score!) when you buy two boxes of poptarts (2 for $5). Now, I'm stocked up with "emergency" breakfast-on-the-go food, and cheap milk.

I told My Baby's Daddy that it seemed kooky to go to three different grocery stores like some crazy coupon freak. He reminded me of the Dave Ramsey motto, "Live like no one else, so you can live like no one else." True that. Besides, all the stores are close to home and each other. I didn't really go out of my way. And by shopping on a Saturday---no kids to schlep in and out, it was pretty quick. I also had a really good list.

Here's the menu for the week, with a great easy recipe.

Sunday: grilled pork chops, rice pilaf, green beans
Monday: spaghetti with meat sauce, salad
Tuesday: country style ribs, cole slaw, corn
Wednesday: crock pot barbecue sandwiches, chips
Thursday: BLTs or gumbo (in freezer from great restaurant at the beach)
Friday: beef brisket (barbecued by Pop...yum-already in freezer) or dinner out




Crock Pot Barbecue
· 3 c. chopped celery
· 1 c. chopped onion
· 1 c. ketchup
· 1 c. barbecue sauce
· 1 c. water
· 2 Tbsp. vinegar
· 2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
· 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
· 1 tsp. chili powder
· 1 tsp. salt
· ½ tsp. pepper
· ½ tsp. garlic powder
· 3-4 lb. boneless chuck roast

Combine all ingredients except roast in slow cooker. Mix well and add roast to mixture. Cover. Cook on high 6-7 hours. Remove roast, cool and shred meat. Return to sauce and heat well. Serve on hamburger buns.

This is so very easy and yummy. It's great for a group, and always gets rave reviews.

Edited to add: This is a great website with unlimited resources for organizing your world!

Back...by popular demand

Kind of. My friend Amy e-mailed to say she missed the blog. Only then did I realize another month had passed without a post. I am constantly blogging in my head. Too bad I didn't get it on here, y'all have missed some great stuff!

Indulge me a little while I catch you up with all the latest Southern Fried Family happenings.

I traveled out of state alone with the boys for the first time the 4th of July. My Baby's Daddy had some previous work commitments that kept him from being able to attend a great holiday weekend at my aunt's house on the lake. The road trip was pretty smooth, but being the only parent on hand with Fat Baby loose on an open body of water...not so much fun. I did get some great photos & memories...which I've been scrapbooking in my head. (I've accomplished a lot in my head, if not in real life!)

My Baby's Daddy & I enjoyed mindless appointment television by watching The Bachelorette this season. As long as creepy, stalker Jeremy didn't win I was okay with any other choice she made in the final three. I was relieved when she sent Graham home, too. She was so trying to make him be something he wasn't just because he was smokin' hot-a-licious. Eye candy does not a relationship make. I was rooting for Jason, but I'm okay with Jesse, especially since they did a little something with his hair.

In light of the recent sucky economy, I've been really paying attention to our spending and wasteful or unnecessary habits this summer. I sacrificed monthly pedicures in the name of economizing, and My Baby's Daddy gave up our lawn treatment service. I know I watch way too much Jon & Kate Plus 8, but I think that anything that works for a family of 10 could also benefit my family of 5. She feeds her family organic foods as much as possible, and takes a little time & effort to not just give them cheap crap.

One thing that really makes things easier for me is planning menus. I found a template on this website for simple menu planning. It makes shopping more efficient & helps my week flow more smoothly. I write any scheduled events on that day's grid (baseball 6:00 p.m., picnic lunch at pool, etc.) So I can look over the week & see that dinner should be easy & early on Tuesday, and I need to have sandwich ingredients on hand for Monday and Wednesday. Since I usually work on Tuesdays, I try to plan a dinner with left-overs Monday night to take for lunch. I've also been concentrating on using the perishable items I purchase each week. I actually made banana bread on Sunday rather than letting some fruit go bad & throwing it away.

I really feel good about making things fresh for my family instead of buying the quickest (and almost always less healthy) alternatives. It did occur to me in thinking about this lifestyle make-over....Kate is kind of forced to be at home all the darn time. Not the Southern Fried boys & me...if we get the house clean, we've gotta hit the door before somebody (or two somebodies) trashes it again. We like to get out & do things together. It's very do-able to participate in lots of fun activities with only two boys. If it took half the day to load my brood of kids in the car, I'd probably find more fun things to do with them at home. (They'd probably get more hot breakfasts & home-made treats, too....Monkey Munch anyone?)

Finally, we just celebrated The President's 8th birthday. We hosted a sleep-over with 6 boys. It was great! Even though my outdoor activities were rained out, they still had a blast. There was a karaoke talent show, movies, and lots of video games. I had the cutest red & white striped popcorn boxes for movie time...and the biggest hit of the evening was the make-your-own trail mix. I labeled red plastic cups with each boy's name & they could fill it with their choice of cereal, marshmallows, goldfish, raisins, gummy worms, milk duds, m&ms, etc. We all had so much fun. After a pancake breakfast, all the boys were picked up by 10:00 a.m.

On his actual birthday, The Pres wanted to make a new Build-a-Bear for his gift from us. So, we did that & had lunch at a Japanese steakhouse (also his choice). We were seated with a couple of older ladies who were less than thrilled to be sharing our festivities. One of them said, "Cute kids." Just like that. That was the extent of their enthusiasm. Even after Fat Baby walked in & said, "Excuse me wadies....it's the President's birthday!" How could they resist?