Monday Menu

Brown rice ... a new summer fare for me.

Usually when I cooked it on the stove top it was either a bit underdone and I would continue to cook and then it would be somewhat mushy.  So, doing a search I came upon this supereasy way to make it.  Perfect Brown Rice
1 cup short, medium, or long-grain brown rice
Kosher salt, to taste
1. Rinse rice in a strainer under cold running water for 30 seconds. Bring 12 cups water to a boil in a large pot with a tight-fitting lid over high heat. Add the rice, stir it once, and boil, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Pour the rice into a strainer over the sink.
2. Let the rice drain for 10 seconds, then return it to the pot, off the heat. Cover the pot and set it aside to allow the rice to steam for 10 minutes. Uncover the rice, fluff with a fork, and season with salt

MAKES 2 CUPS

I only used about 5 cups of water and it came out fluffy and delicious.

To the rice I added:

a green pepper and onion, diced

chopped cilantro

oil and lime juice

A wonderful, refreshing and healthy side dish.

As the rice freezes very well, I measured one cup portions and froze to have ready.

Enjoy...

Monday Menu, Sunday Prep

Such beautiful fall weather that's calling for a nice stew, my son's favorite. Tomorrow night's fare:

Addictive Mexican Stew
Salad
Corn Muffins (from my leaf and pumpkin mold) ... how fallish...lol
Dessert TBD!

A super easy recipe which I'm making today as a full schedule is in view for tomorrow, plus the 2nd day taste is even better.
This is a keeper recipe in our household.


1 cup diced onion
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil
3 cups cooked chicken, diced or shredded
1 package taco seasoning mix
2 cans (14 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 (15 oz) can black beans or kidney beans, drained (I used a can of both)
1 can corn, drained
1 (4 oz) can diced green chilies, drained
1 cup chicken broth (I used 2 cups)
1/2 tablespoon cornstarch (I don't use)

1. Cook onion and garlic in olive oil until tender.
2. Add cooked chicken, taco seasoning, tomatoes, beans, corn and chilies
3. If using the cornstarch blend with chicken broth and add
4. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes.
5. Serve with cornbread.

Found this at Recipezaar, http://www.recipezaar.com, Recipe #114558.

Monday Menu

Starting the week with a super easy, yet tasty dinner is needed for Monday. So here goes ...

Pasta & Vegetables

Romaine Salad

Fruit

Chocolate Pudding

1 pound of penne pasta

1 pkg 16 oz. frozen Italian Vegetables

1 can chic peas

1 large onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

olive oil

1 cup chicken broth

pecorino romano cheese

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil

Add vegetables and chic peas, cook till vegetables have thawed

Add chicken broth, simmer for about 10 or 15 minutes or at least

while pasta is cooking.

Spoon vegetable mixture over pasta, sprinkle cheese, salt and pepper to taste and

enjoy.

This is so very simple, quick and tasty. A good way to start the week.

Picnic Fare - Bean Salad

Bean Salad

supereasy, refreshing, very tasty!

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can small white beans, drained and rinsed

1 can corn, drained and rinsed

1 green pepper, diced

1 stalk celery, diced

1 red onion, diced

1/4 cup fresh cilantra, chopped

drizzle with Olive Oil

Splash some Vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

Perfect accompaniment to grilling and hot weather.

Hot Day, Cool Salad

My mother gave me this recipe many years ago. Its supereasy and it is always a refreshing salad during summer.

I don't really know the name of it, we always called it

Health Salad

1/2 green cabbage - chopped

1/2 red cabbage - chopped

Green pepper - diced

Onion - diced

Grated Carrots

*

Dressing:

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp White Vinegar

1/3 cup oil

6 tsp sugar - I do not use the sugar

but some people like it in -

your choice

salt and pepper to tast

*

Mix, chill well and dig in.

Its a wonderful crunchy cool me down treat,

great for picnics and barbeques or

just for a snack by itself.

Enjoy!

Great Side Dish for Dinner

Found this oh so simple, super easy, side dish at All Recipes and made it last night to go along side some pork chops. It was really, really good. I can see that this is going to be a summer favorite.

I didn't have the beans it called for and used a can of butter beans, a yellow pepper and red onion. I cooked the pepper and onions just a bit so they still had a bit of a crunch to them.


White Beans and Peppers

Ingredients

1 teaspoon olive oil
1/4 large onion, chopped
1 yellow gypsy (bull horn) sweet pepper, chopped
1 (15 ounce) can great Northern beans, drained
1 pinch dried oregano
ground cayenne pepper to taste
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste

Directions

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in onion and sweet pepper, and cook until tender. Mix in beans. Season with oregano, cayenne pepper, salt, and black pepper. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until beans are heated through.

White Beans and Peppers Recipe - Allrecipes.com

Mmmm, mmmm good! There were no leftovers, makes for a keeper recipe.

Have a great day!

Holiday Fare

I usually only make this for holidays or at some special occasion and not sure why as its about as simple as you can get and exceptionally easy to prepare and very well liked.

Starting the holiday preparations, a day or two ahead I make what we call pepper salad.

==========================================

Two Jars of B&G Whole Sweet Peppers

One Jar B&G Hot Cherry Peppers -

(I only use three hot peppers, as I do

not like this too hot)

1 large onion, diced

5-6 stalks of celery, diced

3-4 large cloves garlic, minced

olive oil

Remove the stems and seeds from the peppers, rinse.

(note: keep the jars the peppers came so that you can return the pepper mixture to the jar to marinate in)

Dice the peppers, add the onion, celery and garlic, mix well.

Spoon mixture into the jars, add 3/4 cup of olive oil to each jar.Cap tightly and turn jar upside down, place in a bowl.

Every so often turn the jar over letting the olive oil

flow through the mixture.

A great hors d'oeuvre if you can keep it long enough to get to the table, in my house, that's a feat if it can be done. Very simple but so very tasty.

Serve with your favorite crackers.

This is best made at least a day ahead.

Falls into the s u p e r e a s y category.

Sunday Nite Planning for Monday Menu

and its a s u p e r e a s y but tasty one.


Chicken Casserole
Green salad
Pudding and/or fruit

Chicken Casserole

4 chicken thighs or leg quarters, skin removed
16 oz. frozen mixed vegetables
1 onion, diced
1 can cream of celery or chicken soup
2-3 stalks celery, diced
5 ladels chicken stock
2 cup cooked white rice
1/4 cup Bread crumbs

Cover chicken with water and bring to boil, simmer until chicken is cooked.
Remove chicken and shred, cool and refrigerate chicken stock to "gel" ... this brings any fat to the surface which you then scrape off and discard.

Into a pot put 5 ladels of chicken stock
cream of celery soup
onions, celery, and mixed vegetables.
Simmer for about 30-40 minutes.

Put rice, chicken and simmered vegetables mixture into a 10 x 14 baking dish.
Gently mix and top with bread crumbs.
Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

This is a winter favorite. I have already cooked and shredded the chicken, cooked the rice and vegetable/soup mixture and refrigerated (all in separate containers). When I get home tomorrow I just have to mix them into the pan and pop in the oven and serve it up!

Sunday Nite Monday Menu Plan

Its that time already again ... Sunday evening. Gosh, the weeks are flying by! As I usually do I like to know what dinner will be for Monday night as I like to start the week off on a slowed down pace especially if I have work which tomorrow I do! So a semi-Fall Fare is going on the table tomorrow ... so very s u p e r e a s y.

I was given two butternut squash. One was cooked up today, the other ... probably next week or so. Dinner tomorrow night will be exceptionally easy and not a really cool weather one but everything is tasty and should be more then enough to fill us up. The soup has cooled, the chicken and salad ingredients prepared and all refrigerated. All I have to do is heat up the soup, mix in mayo to the chicken salad and we're ready.

Buttnernut Squash Soup

Chicken Salad over a bed of green leaf lettuce

Club Crackers

Sliced Fresh Fruit

Apple Cake

Butternut Squash Soup

2 Tbl olive oil

1 large onion, diced

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

2 potatoes, cubed

2 stalks of celery, diced

4 cups water

2 chicken bouillon cubes

Saute onions and garlic in oil, add the rest of the ingredients, bring to a full boil and then simmer for three hours. I like the soup chunky as it is, but if you want it smooth just put in the blender.

Oh so simple Monday Menu

Tomorrow is a fully scheduled day so dinner has been started, and is a s u p e r e a s y one. Good and tasty and healthy and tastes even better the next day (tomorrow!).

Vegetarian Chili
Corn Bread
Salad
Sliced Canteloup with Strawberries


Vegetarian Chili
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 28 oz. can petite cut tomatoes
1/2 can water
1 red pepper, cut in 1 inch squares
1 green pepper, cut in 1 inch squares
2 stalks of celery, sliced
1 can 15 oz. red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can 15 oz. black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can 15 oz. corn, drained and rinsed
3-4 Tablespoons Chili Powder
2-3 Tablespoons Cumin

Saute onions and garlic in oil, throw everything else into the pot, stir well. Bring to a boil then simmer for about 3 hours. Doesn't get more simple then this! I'm not a fan of hot and spicy but you can always spice this up to suit your tastes if this is too mild.

Monday Menu today

Its that time of the week again (already, how quickly these weeks are going by!), preparing what Monday's Menu will be ... this cooler air leads me to soups and stews and taking what I have on hand tomorrow night we will be having stew! A very simple dish, simple ingredients, quite tasty!

A Very Simple Beef Stew

2 tbls. oil
1 lb. stew meat (cut into smaller pieces)
1 onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
16 oz. bag of mixed vegetables
handful of baby carrots, chopped
celery stalk, sliced
4 potatoes, peeled and cubed
8-9 cups of water
3 chicken bouillon cube

Brown stew meat in oil in pot.
Add onion and garlic, saute
add remaining ingredients, bring to boil, cook about 3 hours till water has reduced. Very flavorful and doesn't get much easier then this. This is a s u p e r e a s y one.

Serve with bread and a salad. Weather perfect.

Monday Menu

Had picked up a few packages of Chicken Tenderloins when they were on sale and searched for some recipes. Found this one which sounds so very good and certainly keeps with the
s u p e r e a s y style.

Grilled Chicken Tenderloins (without the grill!)
Rice
Green beans with garlic, oil and chick peas
Salad with garden tomatoes

I've included the recipe here but the link is below. I'm sure you would enjoy a lot of the other recipes as well. They are well written and illustrated. Take a look.


Grilled Chicken Tenderloins
(Like Cracker Barrel's)
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips.
1 cup zesty Italian dressing
2 tsp lime juice
3 tsp honey

Place chicken in gallon ziplock bag.
Combine all other ingredients and pour over.
Seal and marinate for at least an hour.

Pour all ingredients into a large skillet and cook over medium heat until liquid evaporates and remaining marinade becomes thick and caramelized. Coat each piece of chicken in marinade by rubbing it around on the bottom of the pan before removing it.

Grilled Chicken Tenderloins (Without The Grill!) - Southern Plate - al.com

Monday Menu for hot weather

Summer has finally made its appearance in all its splendor. Over the weekend to today the temps has been inching up little by little. We're at 98 today. There's still a breeze moving, its so bright, sunny and cheerful ... and as long as I'm not moving too quickly, tolerable!

The monday menu is again a simple s u p e r e a s y dinner... actually love these no matter the weather and temperatures!

Chicken Salad over a bed of lettuce
Club Crackers
Tomatoes, Cukes and Onions, basil, oil and vinegar
Watermelon and Honeydew Cubes

The Chicken Salad is from the Atkins Diet which I had tried several years ago. This is the best tasting chicken salad I have ever had, everyone loves it ...

2 cups of cooked chicken, chopped
1 onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
6-10 green olives, minced (if I don't have olives, I used dill pickle relish)
1/4 tsp. Lawry's seasoned salt (or to taste)
pepper to taste
2-3 tbl. light mayonnaise

I think the "magic" to this is the Lawry's. I normally do not cook or prepare foods with salt of any kind but for this salad I do make the exception to use Lawry's.

Monday Menu .... not really

Normally would be working today, but schedule was changed ... so what we have is a super lazy day, following some restful time away ... and (finally) a typical summer day, warm, sunny and a breeze rustling the leaves.

Simple, very simple is the thought for dinner and must be

oh so s u p e r e a s y. No planning, no fuss, no muss,

just plain good old summer fare, garden fresh!

Chicken on the grill, tomatoes, cukes, onion, basil with oil and vinegar, broccoli and whole wheat baguette

Actually the tomato salad and bread for dipping could be a meal in itself.

Monday Menu Planning ... or

rummaging through the fridge and freezer ...
looking for what to put on the table tomorrow night for dinner.

I think we'll do another s u p e r e a s y to gently coast into the week with the following:

Basil Pork Chops
Chick Pea, Cucumber, Yellow Pepper, Tomato and Onion Salad
Green Beans
Rice
Sliced Fresh Peaches with Strawberries


Basil Pork Chops

4 lean center cut pork chops
1 cup V8 juice (I'm using vegetable bouillon)
1 tsp dried basil (I have fresh so using 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil)
1 onion diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
salt and ground pepper

brown pork chops in skillet, add remaining ingredients,
cover and simmer 40 minutes!

Think I will do these now, when I get home tomorrow, just pop in the microwave. Can you remember when there weren't microwaves???? We really are quite fortunate with all that we have now ... does help to simplify life...(sometimes!).

Sunday Nite Monday Menu Prep

For some reason I have gotten into the habit of making some (or all) of Monday's Menu on Sunday evening. Seems that it makes the week go smoother in trying to plan for meals. In the cooler and winter weather I usually plan Monday thru Thursday (with Friday being anything from leftovers to take-out, Saturday is always steak night and spaghetti/macaroni and sauce (who said gravy???) on Sunday. but with summer hot weather after Monday its a "depends on the humidity/temperature" type of decision for dinner. So for tomorrow's

Monday Menu

barbecued chicken thighs (skinless)
rice pilaf (that's done too, just a few minutes in the micro and good to go)
corn salad
lemonade
watermelon slices



Corn Salad

2 15 oz. cans corn drained and rinsed well
3 tomatoes, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
1 large red onion, diced
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup olive oil
4-6 tablespoons white vinegar (to taste)
salt and pepper to taste