Menu Update

Well we haven't done so great on following our menus for the past couple of week. I have been making up the menu, purchasing the groceries and then we end up either going out or making something else. The menu I did from two weeks ago, we made 3 out of 5 items. We made the pizza calzones, beef stroganoff and the fried fish. This is my review of each of the items.

Pizza Calzones - they were a little frustrating to make to me only because I was making the crust from scratch and I was having a hard time making the dough after a long day at work. I finally found a recipe that said I could stick it into the fridge over night. The crust was pretty good. Not spectacular, but good. When rolling it out it did not seem like a lot of dough so I went a little skimpy on the fillings....well they puffed and baked up pretty well. So, next time I will double the batch, if not triple and then roll it out super flat and fill it to the gills.

Beef Stroganoff - It was an okay recipe, we used beef stew chunks and I don't think I would do that again or I would put in into the crock pot to sit overnight to get tender. The sauce was very different from the usual flavor and I personally did not care for it. It did not make alot of sauce either. I would not make this recipe again.

Fried Fish - This was an intimidating dish to make, not because of complexity but because I am definately not a seafood person. I could probably count on one hand they kinds and ways I eat seafood. (Hmm -- fried catfish, fried shrimp, grilled shrimp, two other kinds of fried white fish, whiting and brim I think they are called....can't think of anything else) It has only been since I have moved to the south that I am even this open. Before, my seafood was square on a bun from McDonalds - sad, but true. I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, but I have to say that this will become a regular in my house. It was super easy to make and it was not greasy like the kind from the restaurants. My camera wasn't working, but I promise to make it again and take pics to show everyone. (I also loved the hush puppy mix that I made to go with it, YUM!)

On Sunday afternoon when I was trying to find all the ingredients to do the fish I got so frustrated because I couldn't find in in our pantry. So I cleared it out and organized it. We had four boxes of spaghetti, yikes! We also had countless packets of taco seasoning. We are going to try to shop in our pantry first and use up what we have. Our over the fridge freezer and our chest frezzer are slam packed....Guess we better use what we got. We are also trying to organize our laundry/pantry room. Will talk pics to show. Wish us luck.

Menu Plan Monday/And Follow-up

Well things didn't go according to plan last week. I went to a discount grocery store to do my shopping. (I am hoping to take the reciepts from both stores to do a comparison on the pricing to make sure that I am acually saving money) They were out of brown gravy and there chese was more expensive than Walmart's so I decided to go by Walmart later in the day....well that never happened so I did not have the ingredients to make a few of the items on my menu from last week. (We have decided to shop only one day a week to prevent us from overspending, it has been working so far) We had the missionaries over for dinner on Saturday so we ended up roasting a leg of lamb, which we had been given, in our rotisserie. We served yummy greek potatoes, and greek green beans which didn't turn out so well. Along with Fresh baked bread. For dessert we had Luscious Cream Puff which were excellent.

For this week we have:

(from last week)

Taco Bake

Red Beans and Rice

Sheppards Pie

Adding:

Lamb Gyros - from left overs

Pancakes, Bacon, Eggs

Chicken Pot Pie

Emilia and I had fun "taping" segments of her making Orange-Wheat Scones....as soon as I can edit the video clips I will post them. She is so cute in her pj's, with her apron and her kool-aid mustashe. I was origionally just going to post pictures of us making them together, but she wanted to do a cooking show....and since I was still in my pj...I graciously let her be the Star!!

For more Menu Ideas pleas go here.

Menu Planning

Ok so far, we haven't followed the Menu plan. However, it is because both my husband and I work and so Monday and Wednesday he cooked dinner, but he mostly used items from around the pantry. Monday was Hamburger Helper and Wed was Sloppy Joes. He got hamburger buns from the store because he knows I don't like it on plain bread and he picked up sliced cheese because he likes it....and being a cheesy kind of girl I like it too!!
Tonight we are having the Taco's because I forgot about a ladies church event on last Tuesday. I am going to be making homemade tortillas, hopefully they will turn out.