Changes To This Week's Menu And A Yummy Dessert

I have decided that I am a Plan B(or C or D) kind of gal! I have good intentions of being organized and keeping it all together, but life in veritably gets in the way!  I had every intention of following my menu to the letter, and it went pretty well until Monday night when I discovered someone had eaten the sausage that I had left in the fridge to put together the Sausage Biscuit Casserole. I threw frozen chicken breasts in the Crock pot for Tuesday's dinner (I did cook extra for Thursday's meal. Score a bonus point for me!), but that robbed Wednesdays mashed potatoes, causing another last minute substitution (are you starting to see a pattern here?).Making one substitution has led to a major Trickle Down effect. Therefore, the revised menu for this week's menu will be as follows ( Hopefully!):

Monday:

Went off without a hitch

Tuesday:

Chicken Fricasee

Mashed Potatoes

Steamed peas

Pineapple slices

Wednesday:

Meatloaf 

Cheesy scalloped potatoes(recipe coming soon!)

Green Beans

Pumpkin Pie Dessert (a new recipe I needed to try out before Thanksgiving!)

Thursday:

BBQ chicken sandwiches

Leftover cheesy scalloped potatoes

Lime jello with pears

Leftover Pumpkin Pie Dessert

Friday:

Hopefully Date Night

Kid's are eating Corndogs and Macaroni and Cheese (still from a blue box)

Saturday:

Spaghetti with meat sauce (cubing up the leftover meatloaf in the sauce)

Garlic Bread (we ate biscuits with the soup on Monday, so that I could make extra for the casserole that I didn't get to make. GRRR!)

Green Salad

One good thing came out of this, though. I tried a really fabulous pumpkin recipe! I have a family party next weekend that I need to make a dessert for. I found this recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks, Better Homes and Garden's 9x13 The Pan That Can. This dessert also made great use of a lot of basic pantry staples. It tastes very similar to Pumpkin Pie without the work of rolling out a crust; plus it feeds a crowd with little effort. Just half the recipe if you don't need to feed an Army. The family gave it a two thumbs up!

Pumpkin Pie Dessert

1 (29 oz) can of pumpkin (or 2 1/2 cups)

1 cup of sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 

(I substituted 2 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice for the above)

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 eggs, beaten

1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk 

1 package (2 layer size) yellow cake mix

1 cup chopped nuts (I used chopped almonds)

3/4 cup melted butter or margarine

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl combine pumpkin, sugar, spices, and salt. Mix until combined. Add in beaten egg and mix until just combined. Gradually stir in the evaporated milk. Mix until it is thoroughly blended. Pour pumpkin mixture into a greased 9x13 cake pan. Sprinkle dry cake mix evenly over pumpkin mixture. Evenly sprinkle nuts over dry cake mix. Drizzle melted butter evenly over cake mix and nuts. Bake for 50 minutes until edges are firm and top is golden brown. Cool completely on a wire rack, and then chill for at least two hours before serving. Store leftovers in the refrigerator. You could easily omit the nuts if they are an issue.