Menus 1/11/10 - 1/17/10

See tons more menu plans at www.orgjunkie.com! 

Second week of the Pantry Challenge; things are going okay! Read about our progress here.

1/11 Mon: CostCo Meatball Bakes (inherited from Mom's freezer), Lemon Parmesan Penne, green salad.

1/12 Tues: I teach university class - Chicken Enchilada Soup (CrockPot), green salad.


1/13 Wed: Mr. Mamie has class; I monitor an online class - Beef and Bean Cornbread Casserole, green salad. I am missing the link on the casserole recipe - I posted the recipe here, and if anyone knows what the origin is, I would love to have the information!

1/14 Thurs: Mr. Mamie has class - Honey Hoisin Chicken (CrockPot), Never-Mushy Homemade Rice, green salad.

1/15 Fri:  Ginger Beef, Sesame Noodles, green salad.

1/16 Sat: Kids here - Breaded Chicken Patties (inherited from Mom's freezer - served as sandwiches on buns), macaroni and cheese (homemade or from a box will depend on time and energy), jello.

1/17 Sun: Kids here - Enchilada Casserole (just layers of flour tortillas, ground beef,  enchilada sauce, and shredded cheese baked to gooey perfection!), corn bread, green salad.

EVERYTHING we're cooking this week comes from our pantry/freezer, in keeping with the eat From the Pantry Challenge hosted by Life as Mom and Money Saving Mom.

Some notes about last week's menu:

We spent WAY too much money eating out while out of town on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. We DID have some yummy dinners, and tried two new-to-us places in the the Salt Lake Valley (Tres Hombres Mexican Grill and Cantina in Salt Lake City, and Fratelli Ristorante in Sandy), as well as enjoying our Fratelli dinner in the company of Mr. Mamie's cousin and the cousin's fiancee.  BUT - those dinners plus lunch at Winger's cut into the budget for the month! We definitely be relying on our well-stocked pantries and freezers for the next couple of weeks.

The Bacon Cheeseburger Soup was a TOTAL HIT! We absolutely loved it, and gobbled up the leftovers before they ever made it to the freezer.  This soup will definitely become a regular on our menu!

We happened to have three pounds of ground turkey in the freezer, so the BBQ Turkey Meatloaf is probably the first of several similar recipes that we'll have this month.  We liked this - I think I was more of a fan than GrandmaT or Mr. Mamie, but we all concluded that we'd have it again.  I used the organic carrot/green bean/corn mix from CostCo, and twice the amount of cheese.  Yummy and serviceable.


Green Chili Chicken and Noodle Bake was a recipe I found in my mom's computer files. It sounded easy, used ingredients I already had, and made plenty for three adults and two kids.  Click on the link for the recipe and more notes.  We'll be having left-overs for lunch today!

Baking and other stuff:
On Saturday Niece and I made another batch of The Best Birthday Cupcakes that we had on Christmas Eve. This is a very yummy recipe, and again, we had everything we needed (ingredient-wise) on-hand.

We also made, per GrandmaT's request, a batch of Fiber One Blueberry Muffins from the boxed mix. They're not bad; not as good as homemade multi-grain muffins, but not terrible. It's a better snack to have around when the kids are here this weekend than chips or whatever.

For breakfast this morning we had buttermilk-blueberry waffles. They were quite yummy, though we all (even the kids!) decided that we now prefer our waffles and pancakes to have oatmeal in them - especially Coach's Oats (thanks to GolfDad for giving us a big ol' bag of the Coach's!).

Have a great week, and happy munching!