Monday Menu Plan

This is my menu plan. Because of budget issues and trying to prepare for our new little baby, I am on an experiement to find very inexpensive meals that are also that my family will eat. So far my family is loving all of the recipes I have found that fit into my criteria.

Sunday: Hash Brown Casserole
Monday: Bacon Pasta
Tuesday: Chicken Pot Pie
Wednesday: Pizza Mac and Cheese
Thursday: Easy Hamburger Soup
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Creamy Chicken noodles w/ Mushrooms


Hash Brown Casserole Recipe

Ingredients

* 1 package frozen shredded hashbrowns
* 1 can cream of chicken soup
* 1 can cream of mushroom soup
* 8 oz. cheese, grated or to taste


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. Spray 9x13 baking pan with Pam. (I lined the pan with foil for easy clean-up)
3. Combine soup and hash browns.
4. Pour into prepared pan.
5. Bake for 35 - 40 minutes, taking pan out 10 minutes before the end to spread the grated cheese over top and placing it back in the oven to finish cooking and melt cheese.

Quick Bacon Pasta

1/2 pack bacon
2 cups Any Dry Pasta like Macaroni
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (I'll use cheddar as it is what I have on hand)
Olive oil
Butter (I'll probably just use oil and some of the grease from the bacon)
1 cup Milk
1 cup Chicken Stock
1 Onion
Salt / pepper — to taste

Get a large pot of water going on the stove. Meanwhile, cut up the bacon into bite sized pieces. Fry the bacon in a skillet at low heat until extra crispy, remove to a paper lined plate and blot the oil. Set that aside for now, in the oven if you want. Taking it out of the pan and then adding it back only at the very end keeps the bacon more crispy. If you don’t care about that, you can leave the bacon in the pan and continue.

Drain off all but 1 tbsp or so of fat. Add 1/2 tbsp of olive oil. Add onion and brown. Turn up heat to high and deglaze the pan with chicken stock and milk, scraping it well. Reduce heat and simmer mixture for 5-10 minutes. You want it to thicken a bit. (I added a little cornstarch) Watch out for the mixture foaming over though. You might need to add a bit of water and reduce heat.

When water boils, salt it and add macaroni. Cook till al dente then drain (don’t rinse or sauce won’t stick to pasta). Add pasta to skillet and toss well. Add parm cheese. Cook for about 1-2 minutes more. Off heat add salt and pepper to taste. Add the reserved bacon, mix and serve.

Quick and Easy Chicken Pot Pie

* a few cooked boneless chicken breasts (or for less money and prep time buy canned chicken breasts and cut into cubes)
* one can of chicken broth (or use water and chicken boullion)
* two small cans cream of mushroom soup
* one bag of frozen soup mix vegetables
* Pillsbury homestyle biscuits

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Mix vegetables, cream of mushroom soup, chicken broth, and chicken breasts and put in a casserole dish.
2. Place uncooked Pillsbury homestyle biscuits on top, and bake for about 35 minutes at (or per package instructions, if you're using a different variety of biscuits). Ffter about 30 minutes, carefully check the bottom of a biscuit to see if it's still raw. If so, separate biscuits and place them on their sides, leaning against each other (you can form little pyramids) to finish cooking for 15 minutes more. However, if you like the texture of a boiled dumpling, don't do a darn thing to the biscuits - the flaky biscuit will have a dumpling like bottom.

Pizza Mac and Cheese

Take 2 pkg. (225 g) Kraft Dinner Macaroni and Cheese cook according to directions on package. add:
1/4 lb./125 g pepperoni, sliced (about 1 cup)
1 cup chopped green peppers (about 1 medium),
2 cups chopped tomatoes (about 2 medium)

Heat through.

Easy Hamburger Soup

1 pound hamburger
1 onion, chopped
1 (16 oz) can pork and beans
1 (15 oz) can mixed vegetables drained (like Veg-All)
1/2 (46 oz) can vegetable juice
1 (14 1/2 oz) can stewed tomatoes

Brown hamburger and onion together. Add remaining ingredients and heat thoroughly. Enjoy!

Creamy Chicken Noodles w/ Mushrooms

2 package chicken ramen noodles
4 cups water
2 can cream of chicken soup
2 can chicken
1 3oz. can mushrooms

What to do:
Cook noodles according to package directions and drain. Heat soup concentrate, mushrooms and 1/4 seasoning packet and can of chicken flaked over medium heat for five minutes. Top noodles with sauce.

pizza

2 Store bought pizza crust mix for $0.99 each
grated cheese
pepperoni
2 Store bought pizza sauce for $0.99 each

Simple supper. Make crust according to directions. Spread pizza sauce over crust. Sprinkle with grated cheese and top with pepperoni. Cook for time on package of pizza crust.