Picture Perfect Cooking

Good Monday morning to everyone!  I hope that all of my readers had a great week and weekend.  We did here in our neck of the woods…just busy and hot as usual!

Again this week, I have four meals and one dessert planned.  Last week’s plan went really well.  There was only one change since the taco ring recipe makes enough for two nights, I decided to skip the shredded bbq and save it for another week. 

Grilled steak or fish fillets with grilled potatoes and salad

Tacos with fruit salad

BLTs and chips

Beefy pizza casserole-new recipe coming soon

Chocolate chip bundt cake-another new recipe coming soon

Happy Monday and happy meal planning!

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Good Monday morning to everyone in the blog-o-sphere!  Another week has flown right by us and it is time again for my weekly supper menu.  I have learned about another little glitch with my supper planning so I am changing it a little.  Instead of assigning a certain meal to a certain night, I am going to list the meals for the week.  That way if I have more time to fix a bigger or more elaborate meal on a different night of the week, the plan will be flexible. 

C & I have a couple of things going on this week in the evenings, so I plan on cooking supper four nights.  Here is this week’s list:

1.  Grilled pork chops with homegrown grilled potatoes, fresh cucumbers, & grilled Texas toast

2.  Taco ring with fresh fruit

3.  Cinnamon bun pancakes (recipe from The Tasty Kitchen website) with bacon

4.  Shredded pork bbq sandwiches with potato wedges and fresh cucumbers

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I have fallen off the wagon when it comes to menu planning and the reason is pure laziness.  Well, starting today, back to the routine.  I don’t know why I let it slide since it makes supper time so much easier to deal with when I know what I am fixing.  This time I hope to stick to it much better, but I will list a few quirks of my menu.  Sunday and Monday are spent eating with family so there won’t be anything on those days except maybe dessert or a side dish.  My menu will be Tuesday through Saturday because of that.  Here goes…

Monday: pecan pie (Strike that-really, really bad recipe.)

Tuesday: cheesy steak sandwiches, homemade baked fries, and sliced homegrown cucumbers

Wednesday: leftover sandwiches, chips, and cucumbers

Thursday: grilled pork chops, grilled potato wedges, and cucumbers

Friday: pizza night

Saturday: grilled hot dogs and chips

I am trying to keep the Saturday meals pretty simple because I have a home improvement project going on that I do on Saturdays.  When we built our house four years ago, we finished our upstairs just enough to pass our appraisal, and I had the inspiration to finish it this summer.  There are two bedrooms, a bath and a hallway to work on.  I have painted one bedroom, the bath, and the hallway already.  This Saturday I hope to do the touch-up painting in those areas and move a bedroom suite from the unpainted bedroom to the painted one.  Wish me luck!  I will have before and after photos when the project is nearer completion.

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It’s Sunday again, folks, and you know what that means…another menu plan.  Woo hoo!  Here it is:

Sunday & Monday: eat with family-I will probably take a dessert of some kind.  I haven’t been very organized this week.

Tuesday: banana pancakes & bacon-I changed this to baked ham slices, roasted potatoes, and salad.

Wednesday: BBQ meatballs, roasted potatoes & salad

Thursday: Pineapple pork roast, roasted potatoes & salad (We have a lot of lettuce to use!)

Friday: grilled hot dogs & chips-Pizza Night

Saturday: cheesy steak sandwiches & oven baked fries-I didn’t make it to the grocery to get the ingredients that I needed for this, so we had grilled hot dogs and chips tonight.

I would love to hear comments from some of you that plan ahead as well.  It is always interesting to read other people’s recipes and get ideas from them.

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Another week has flown by and it is time again for another menu plan.  We have a few after-work trips to make this week so I am not assigning a meal to a certain night.  Here is the list I have decided on for this week:

Tonight and tomorrow, I am taking a frozen peanut butter turtle pie to eat with our families.  I am also planning on making a taco ring, baked ham slices with roasted potatoes and salad (with greens fresh out of my garden), and sausage bake sometime this week.  Pizza might be thrown in the mix, too, if there are some time constraints.

If I get my evenings planned out better, I will update my list, but this is as close as I can get right now.  I hope everyone has a wonderful and blessed week!

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Another week has gone by so it is time for another supper menu.  To update you from this previous menu, I did try to make homemade pizza dough using Alton Brown’s recipe.  I didn’t have great success with it.  I made it exactly by the recipe and the crust was WAY too doughy.  For some reason, I don’t have a lot of luck with yeast dough.  There is something about yeast that eludes me and I wish I knew what it was.

I had high hopes for this dough recipe and I am disappointed that it did not turn out well.  We live too far in the country for pizza delivery and I was hoping for a good homemade alternative.  In my opinion, most refrigerated grocery store doughs have an “off” flavor to them, as do frozen pizzas.  They will do in a pinch, but they don’t have that good authentic taste.  Oh, well.

Here is my plan for the upcoming week:

Monday: dinner with C’s parents

Tuesday: grilled pork chops, roasted potatoes, and salad

Wednesday: grilled hot dogs, oven baked fries, and fruit salad

Thursday: steak & cheese sandwiches with oven baked fries

Friday: leftover steak sandwiches

Saturday: pizza night

Also, our county extension service is sponsoring a “Biggest Loser” contest and my office is participating.  None of us need to lose a huge amount of weight, but we thought it would be a fun way to lose a few winter pounds and get in shape.  It starts tomorrow with the dreaded weigh-in and goes from there.  Wish us luck!!!

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It’s Sunday again!  I think the weeks just get shorter and shorter.  We are still fighting winter weather here in the good ol’ central Kentucky area, and our cupboards are starting to get a little bare.  Hopefully, I will be able to make it to the grocery sometime this week, but if not, I have enough meals planned to make it through a few more days.  I will just use more of my frozen food and more pantry items.

Before we get to the menu, I want to wish everyone a very Happy Valentine’s Day, especially to my wonderful husband C!  Love you, babe!!!  He knows me so well and surprised me on Friday with 2 beautiful Valentine’s Day gifts.  Just look…

C is just the greatest! 

Now, let’s get back to the subject of FOOD!!  Here is what I have planned for this week:

Sunday: eat at my Nanny’s.  I am taking a Mississippi mud cake for dessert.

Monday: eat next door at C’s parents.  Again, I am taking Mississippi mud cake.

Tuesday: Taco salads

Wednesday: tomato soup and grilled cheese

Thursday: chopped steaks with roasted potatoes

Friday: sausage bake with fruit salad

Saturday: homemade pizza-I have been wanting to try my hand at making homemade pizza dough.  If it flops, I may have to order out!!

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