Menu 10/25-10/30

This weekend was a crazy weekend. I didn't get to go shopping at all like I had hoped for groceries. Saturday I was out and about at the farmers market and then I picked up my friend's kids to take them to the non scary night of the Haunted Trail. And then Sunday it was such a whirlwind. I got home from church to find my mom and dad both had called me to tell me my brother was in a car accident. So I played driver for my dad as we drove back and forth. It was a very long day. So this week I'm going to be making some simple stuff in hopes that I find time to go grocery shopping. If not, we'll be eating homemade bread and ketchup sandwiches :) You can check out more at Orgjunkie.com

Monday - frozen tortilleni (I have to take dad home from work and have therapy)

Tuesday - chicken legs in the crockpot with cream of chicken soup and rice *hopefully I can go to the store tonight*

Wednesday - spaghetti

Thursday - veggie soup with homemade bread

Friday - Pizza

Saturday - depends on if we are home or somewhere else.

Kittencal's Italian Melt in Your Mouth Meatballs

This post is more of a review of the recipe. I don't have pictures of the meatballs themselves because they are in the previous post as my meatball sub :) LOVE this recipe. You can find it here at Food.com.

I must say I was a little concerned about making them at first only because I never knew what it would take to make homemade meatballs. I found the one that seemed easy and had ingredients that I could pronounce. This fit the cake! The instructions were so easy! I made mine by baking them like a suggestion at the end of the directions instead of simmering them in sauce. Much easier if you ask me. The other changes I made were I used garlic powder instead of minced garlic. I omitted the oregano only because I didn't have any. And I only used 1 teaspoon of the seasoned salt. And I made my own breadcrumbs with my food processor. Needless to say after all that work I am never buying frozen ones again! I will make more of these as they were so easy! I am going to see how some of the leftover ones fair when I freeze them. I'll update when I use them next and we'll see how they taste. So the following is what I used and did, but feel free to use the original recipe.

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 large egg, slightly beaten
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/3 cup breadcrumbs
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/3 cup milk
2 tablespoons dried parsley

In large bowl combine all ingredients. I used my hands to mix. Shape into small meatballs and place on baking sheet. Cook at 350F for 25 minutes or until cooked through. Enjoy!


****UPDATE*****
The frozen ones were just as delicious as the fresh out of the oven! I will be making these come my next freezer food day!

Meatball Subs

Meatball Subs

First of all let me tell you that this was the MOST amazing thing I have made in a while. I must give credit where credit is due tho. My meatballs were made from this recipe. And wow...this was amazing! These were probably the best meatballs ever! I love them! This was my first attempt at them and so I did what was suggested by baking them instead of just simmering them in sauce because I was hungry.

Ingredients

Meatballs (I used the recipe from my comments)
1 jar spaghetti sauce
hoagie or sub buns (I used bratwurst buns from Wal-Mart)
shredded mozzarella cheese

Add the meatballs to the spaghetti sauce and allow to cook until warmed all the way thru. I would suggest if you use frozen that you cook them until they are done. Could be during the day in the crockpot or however you want. Spoon meatballs and sauce into your buns. Garnish with cheese. Enjoy!

Lentil and Sausage Soup

Sausage and Lentil Soup

I found this on one of the sites I frequent and can't for the life of me think where it was from now. I just know that on the bottom of my print out it says BHG.com and I guess that's where it came from :) It ended up quite yummy. I didn't have any crackers but they would have tasted yummy.

Ingredients

2-14 oz cans low sodium chicken broth (I used a 32 oz box from Dollar Tree)
1 1/2 cup water (Just added a cup since I had extra chicken broth)
1 cup brown lentils, rinsed and drained
1 cup sliced celery
1 cup sliced carrot
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon snipped fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme (I just used dried)
1 /8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (Omitted this)
2 cloves garlic minced (or smushed in my case)
6 oz cooked smoked sausage quartered and sliced (I used the little cocktail wieners and sliced them up)

In a large sauce pan combine chicken broth, water, lentils, celery, carrot, onion, dried thyme, cayenne pepper and garlic. Bring to boiling, reduce heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until vegetables and lentils are tender. Stir in sausage and fresh thyme if using. Heat through. Enjoy!

Posting for Menu Plan Monday from Orgjunkie.com. Go see her site for more awesome menus!

This past week's menu worked out fairly well except my calzones looked bad and didn't cook right, and Friday I tried to make the homemade pizza dough in my bread maker and came home to flour in the bread maker :( And it was such a bad day that we just ended up having egg salad sandwiches. Saturday we went out to eat with our friends at Applebee's for the 1/2 price appetizers after 9pm! So we are going to get back on track with our menu. I've made it a goal of mine to stay under $75/week for groceries. So far it didn't work when I went to Sam's :)

Monday - Lentil and Sausage Soup *Attempting again

Tuesday - Meatball Subs *new recipe, will post after making

Wednesday - Turkey, mashed taters and gravy

Thursday - CrockPot Chicken Pot Pie Stew *new recipe, will post after making

Friday - Spaghetti and garlic bread

Saturday - homemade pizza or calzones.