Menu Plan Monday - July 26th

I'm trying to be on the ball this week and plan ahead. I worked on my menu plan all weekend. Honestly it takes longer than you think.... there's just too much choice out there! And I'm trying to make meals that use a lot of things from our pantry, so with that in mind, here's what I came up with for this week:

Monday - Taco Meat (may make tacos or taco pizza?) refried beans (I made my own using our dried pinto beans), and spanish rice.

Tuesday - Dinner Time Quesadillas

Wednesday - Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

Thursday - Spaghetti and Meatballs, garlic bread

Friday - Crockpot Salsa Chicken (I can't remember where I saw this recipe this week, but I made a note of it, you simply add 4 chicken breasts, 8oz tomato sauce, 1 cup of salsa, 1pk Taco seasoning and 1 tsp cumin to your crockpot - cook on low for 4 hours. Shred the chicken once cooked and serve in tacos or tortillas etc. I thought I'd give this a go and freeze some for another dish later).

Saturday - hot dogs on the grill, potato salad, bbq beans

Sunday - Chicken N Biscuits

A few of the recipes this week are from the Kraftfoods website and I haven't tried some of them before. I'll let you know how they turn out.

Last week I mentioned making Yakisoba for Jason (using our stored spaghetti instead of soba noodles)... there are lots of recipes on the web for this using chicken or pork, I didn't really use any one in particular but followed a couple and kind of 'improvised' a little too. Here's how mine turned out. . . .

It's quite a simple dish to make really, you just boil your noodles and while they are cooking I sauted one small onion and some garlic, then added half a bag of grated cabbage, some grated carrots and a red bell pepper thinly sliced. The cabbage cooks down a lot, then add 1/2 cup of soy sauce and a little chili garlic paste (more if you like it hot) .... drain the spaghetti noodles and through everything together - oh and of course I had precooked some thin strips of pork and added that back to the pan at the end too. It's kinda like a chow mein, really tasty and I'll definitely make this again as a change from our spaghetti and meatballs.

It's so hot outside, we just walked round to the pool only to discover it's closed? And there's no sigh up saying why. I'm sure we've been on other Mondays and it's not closed for cleaning or anything. In fact the pool guy was there last week adding 'safe stuff' to it (he said) while everyone was in the water! I'm so annoyed, and so very hot now after walking round there and back. I think I'll have to go take a cool shower!!!! Urghhhhh Mondays!