This Week's Menu

This week starts the second week of Around My Family's Table  Pantry Challenge. I did end up going to the grocery store for milk and sour cream (what I thought was extra sour cream in the garage fridge was actually cottage cheese. Oops!). I did split my usual Bountiful Basket with my friend. I have to admit that I enjoyed having a menu planned last week, and once I worked out the bugs, it did help keep me organized in the kitchen!

My menu for this week will be:

Sunday

Soft Tacos

Refried Beans

Lettuce and Tomatoes

Monday

French Dip Sandwich

Jello Salad

Fresh Green Beans

Tuesday

Leftover Roast with Brown Gravy

Mashed Potatoes

Carrots

 Pumpkin Apple Muffins from One Crazy Cookie(using up some leftover pumpkin and an abundance of apples)

Wednesday

Chili Cheese Baked Potatoes

Leftover Muffins

Home canned peached

Thursday

Baked Potato Soup from The Frugal Girl

Green Salad

Potato Rolls (recipe coming soon!)

Friday

Pigs In Blankets

Assorted Leftovers

Saturday

We are having an early Thanksgiving dinner with my family

I have been assigned a salad and dessert (I'll be making Easy Pumpkin Pie and macaroni salad)

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.

Eat From Your Pantry Challenge And This Weeks Menu

Wendy over at Around My Family Table has issued an Eat From Your Pantry Challenge. When I first read about it I thought it was a great idea! What is more frugal than using up what you already have? Always being the type of gal who is up for a challenge I thought I would participate. It will be a great way for me to use up some of the stock pile in my storage room, freezers, and pantry. Here are the rules:

1. The challenge will begin November 1st and end on November 15th.
2. Prepare all meals with items found in your pantry, freezer, etc.
3. You may purchase minimal dairy and fresh produce.
4. Be creative with your menu.
5. Post about your experiences and link back to the Eat From Your Pantry Challenge.
6. Include the Challenge button in your post or side bar.
7. All participant who follow the rules will be entered for a giveaway!

If you are up for the challenge CLICK HERE for all the details!

I decide if  I was going to cook from my pantry I had better plan out my menu for the week (Yes! Miracles really do happen!)  I have dutifully inventoried (and cleaned out) my pantry and freezer (See this is good for me already...... three miracles in one day!). Here is this weeks menu:

 Sunday

Baked potatoes

Steamed broccoli

Cheese sauce

Baked butternut squash

Monday

Potato broccoli soup

Garlic bread

Green salad

(Sunday's leftover potatoes, brocolli, and cheese sauce will be used in the soup. Leftover hoagie buns will be turned into garlic bread.)

Tuesday

Sausage Biscuit Casserole(from Losing It Here)

Cubed pineapple

Wednesday 

Meatloaf

Mashed potatoes w/ brown gravy

Green peas

Crustless pumpkin pie (from The Frugal Girl)

(Leftover squash will be used to make crustless pumpkin pie.)

Thursday

BBQ Chicken sandwiches

Sweet potato fries 

Jello with cubed pears(the kiddos love jello w/ fruit in it)

Friday

Date Night (Woo Hoo!)

Kiddos get  Corn Dogs and Macaroni and Cheese(from a blue box)

Saturday

Leftover Night 

The goal this week is to use up all the odds and ends of fresh produce from my Bountiful Basket. If you notice potatoes on the menu quite frequently, it's because I do live in Idaho (we are famous for potatoes!) and my father in law brought us 100 pounds of free potatoes (straight from the fields....WOO HOO!). So, all you brave souls out there in blog land, come join me in my two week challenge! Our pantries and freezers will get cleaned out before the holidays, and our groceries budgets will see a little relief, too!