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 experiment to find very inexpensive meals that are also that my family will eat. So far my family is loving most of the recipes I have found that fit into my criteria.

Sunday: Beef Stew with french fries and cheese.
Monday: Loco Moco Mini
Tuesday: Bacon Pasta
Wednesday: Fried Bologna Meal
Thursday: Mix-in-the-Pan Dinner Strata
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Hot Dog Casserole

pizza

pizza crust mix
cheese
pepperoni


Loco Moco Mini

6 cups cooked sticky rice
3 egg
1 lb hamburger meat
1 onion, sliced
mushrooms, sliced
3/4 cup flour
1 can chicken stock
3 tbsp Bread crumbs
Dash soy sauce
6 tbsp oil
Salt / pepper / water

Warm up the rice in microwave if cold. Spread out the rice fairly thinly on a large plate and set aside. Heat a small pan on high. Mix the hamburger meat, bread crumbs, soy sauce, and salt and pepper to taste in a small bowl. Form a “patty” that is not round like a hamburger but elongated, like a Salisbury Steak almost. It should be very thin, so it will cook fast.

When pan is hot, add 1/2 tbsp of oil and sizzle that hamburger patty, about 1 minute on either side. It should be nice and chared. Remove to the plate on top of the rice and put it in the oven to rest. Now, DON’T wash the pan… add 1 tbsp of the oil in the pan and throw in the sliced onions and mushrooms. Sizzle that for about 5 minutes on medium or until onions are soft.

Meanwhile, get another small non-stick pan going with 1/2 tbsp of oil. Crack an egg in there and fry it, turning once through the cooking, until done as desired. Put that egg on top of the hamburger patty and put it back in the oven.

Returning to the onions and mushrooms - reduce heat to low and sprinkle flour evenly over mixture. DON’T mix it yet; let it stand there for about 3-5 minutes. This will cook the flour, preventing the gravy from tasting flour-ey. Now increase the heat to medium and slowly add chicken stock in thin stream, stirring frequently with wooden spoon. You may need more or less liquid to get the desired thickness. When gravy is done, add some black pepper to it, pour it over the hamburger/egg and you have a mini loco moco!


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.


Mix-in-the-Pan Dinner Strata

What You Need
4 eggs
1-1/2 cups milk
1 box (120 g) STOVE TOP Stuffing Mix, any flavour
1 cup chopped ham
1 cup chopped vegetables, such as green peppers and onions, or frozen mixed vegetables
1 cup KRAFT Double Cheddar Shredded Cheese
Make It

PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Mix eggs with milk in a 9-inch. greased square baking dish.

STIR IN dry stuffing mix and remaining ingredients.

BAKE 40 min.

Best of Season
Use any combination of chopped fresh vegetables that you have on hand, such as peppers, asparagus, green onions and broccoli.


Fried Bologna Meal

* pound of German bologna
* potatoes
* can of corn

Cook potatoes so that you have mashed potatoes and warm up the corn. Then fry the bologna in a pan, don't worry they will curl up like a bowl and that's what you want. Fry up two or three per person. Then on a plate put the fried bologna, in the middle of the bologna put some mashed potatoes and put on some of the corn on top of that, enjoy. Now that us kids are out of the house, my mom told me the other day that instead of frying the bologna in a pan, she puts it in a muffin pan just like she would on a plate and then adds cheese to it. I haven't tried it yet but it sounds real good to me.


QUICK & CHEAP HOT DOG CASSEROLE

1 pkg. hot dogs (sliced crosswise)
1 med. onion
1 pkg. frozen mixed vegetables
2 tbsp. butter
1 1/2 c. minute rice
1 (16 oz.) can stewed tomatoes
Salt & pepper to taste

Saute onions and hot dogs in butter. While they saute, cook the vegetables (in 1 1/2 cups of water). Add stewed tomatoes to the onions and hot dogs. Add rice to the hot dogs. Add vegetables and water to the hot dogs. Simmer 15 to 20 minutes. Serve with biscuits.