Menu Monday!

I haven't done this in awhile so I thought I'd actually share our menu this week. I ALWAYS menu plan. It makes my life sooo much easier and helps us not to eat out very often. I also loosely plan our breakfasts and lunches but I'm just posting dinners for now.

Here's a picture of one of our homemade pizzas. I change it up a lot depending on what we have on hand.



Monday- shepherd's pie
Tuesday- homemade pizza - dough recipe here
Wednesday- turkey enchiladas, beans (see recipe below) and rice (I'm just going to use canned sauce for the enchiladas. I might try to make my own tortillas, though.)
Thursday- potato soup and homemade rolls (new recipe!)
Friday- tuna casserole (or some sort of pasta...not really sure yet)
Saturday- crock pot Mexican chicken soup (see recipe below!)
Sunday- lentil stew

Mexican Chicken Soup
–from my friend Jayne

1 lb chicken breast
1 can black beans
1 can corn
2 cans Rotel or Mexican stewed tomatoes
1 can 14oz tomato sauce
1 cup salsa
~Cook in crock-pot 6-8 hours. Shred chicken and enjoy.
1 cup = 2 WW points

Pinto Beans
Dried pinto beans (I usually use about 2-4 cups worth to have lots of leftovers)
Water
Salt and pepper
Fajita Seasoning (or you can use a combo of your favorite seasonings such as cumin, chili powder, pinto bean seasoning, etc.)
(I’ve seen lots of recipes that add a couple of strips of bacon to the beans at the beginning which I am sure is really tasty…I just don’t do that.)

1. Rinse and sort your beans. Pull out any that look funky.
2. Dump beans into a large pot and cover with cold water. Fill it up to about 2 inches above the top of the beans.
3. Cover pot and bring it to a boil on the stove.
4. Turn to low and let simmer for about 2 hours stirring occasionally. Sometimes, you’ll need to add a bit more water if you didn’t add enough to start with.
5. Add your seasonings. I add about 1 tsp of black pepper, 1 tsp of fajita seasoning, and ½ tsp salt for every 2 cups of dried beans. Stir it up really well and let simmer for awhile longer until most of the liquid is absorbed. At this point, I am usually getting hungry and try the beans several times, sometimes adding more seasonings if I feel like it.

With the leftovers, I put about 2 cups into a freezer bag and freeze several bags for use at another time. I push the air out and stack them flat on top of something flat until frozen.

Check out http://orgjunkie.com/ for more menu ideas.