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Easy Dinners for the Whole Week!

Earlier I posted about some meal planning services and a book that can help you out when you are just too busy to create your own. I am still a little frustrated with those options due to them either taking too long to make or just not being very tasty. So I decided to make a menu and shopping list of my own to share with you. I sure hope it helps you out! I’ve made all of these recipes multiple times for my family and we love them all.

These are super-easy meals with the only thing that could be remotely difficult being the crepes. But you need a little challenge in your life, right?! They are so yummy that it is worth trying to make them. Here are the 5 meals for the week:

• Homemade Macaroni and Cheese / Asparagus
• Your choice of Meat / Frozen Vegetables / Mashed Potatoes
• Homemade Broccoli Soup / Bread
• Spinach and Cream Crepes
• Grilled Ham and Cheese / Spinach

SHOPPING LIST:

Meat (buy whatever is on sale, whatever cut: beef, chicken, or pork)

1 bunch of asparagus

2 onions

1 head of garlic

4 baking potatoes

1 bag or box of frozen vegetables – whatever you like to eat

2 boxes of frozen spinach (10 oz each)

16 oz. fresh or frozen broccoli

Optional: frozen fruit like peaches or strawberries

1 lb cheddar cheese

Butter, unsalted

5 cups of milk

Whipping cream (small)

Sour cream (small)

3 eggs

Flour

8 oz. of noodles like macaroni or penne (buy a wheat blend to be healthy!)

Seasoned breadcrumbs (only if you bought chicken on sale)

Brown sugar (only buy if you bought pork on sale)

3 cups of low-sodium chicken stock

Olive oil

Vegetable oil

Bread

Sliced deli ham

RECIPES:

1. Homemade Macaroni and Cheese / Asparagus

Man N Cheese: This is from McCall’s Cookbook and is absolutely wonderful! It has been a staple in my family for a LONG time.

Set oven to 375 degrees.

Cook 8 oz of noodles using package directions.

Melt 1/4 cup butter in a small saucepan (don’t burn it!), remove from heat and use a whisk to blend in 1/4 cup of flour, when all the lumps are out return it to the heat and gradually add in 2 cups of milk, just a little bit at a time at first while you whisk it in. Add all the milk and bring to a boil while stirring and boil for 1 minute. You can raise to med-high or high heat if you stir it constantly to get it to boil faster. That’s the white sauce.

Drain the noodles and put half of them in an 8″ square baking dish.

Grate 2 cups of cheddar cheese.

Put 1 cup of cheddar on the noodles, then put the other half of the noodles on top of that, then put the rest of the cheddar on those. Pour the white sauce you just made all over the noodles and cheese.

Bake 15-20 minutes.

Asparagus: This is in season right now so get it while it is good and relatively cheap! Wash it and cut off the thick ends a few inches up. Boil them in 6 cups of water for 5-10 minutes, 5 if you like them crisp and 10 if you like them rubbery. We like ‘em done for 8 minutes. Take them out, serve, and eat.

2. Your choice of Meat / Frozen Vegetables / Mashed Potatoes

Meat: you’ve purchased whatever was on sale. If chicken, dip it in a milk/egg bath, then dip in seasoned breadcrumbs (add cumin and/or garlic powder to the breadcrumbs if you like), then bake. If beef, season simply with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, then bake or grill. If pork, smear a crushed garlic (one or 2 cloves) and brown sugar (1 cup) mixture over the pork and then bake.

Mashed potatoes: Peel 4 baking potatoes, cut them into quarters, then boil them in water until they are quite soft. Dump the potatoes into a kitchen aid and beat them with some butter (2 tablespoons), 1/2 cup milk, some cut-up chives, cut-up parsley, or any combination of those ingredients if you have them on hand. If you don’t have a kitchen aid mash them up with a potato masher or back of a ladle. Only serve 1/2 of the mashed potatoes! Save the rest for tomorrow night.

Veggies: take out of freezer and prep as per package directions. 

3. Homemade Broccoli Soup / Bread

Put a tablespoon of olive oil in a big pot, heat it up w/ medium heat, then put in a few cloves of crushed garlic for a few seconds. Then put in 1/2 cup of chopped onion. Saute the onion and garlic for about 6-7 minutes. Then add 3 cups of chicken stock and 3 cups of water. Add the left-over mashed potatoes from last night and broccoli (if fresh broccoli, wash and cut it into pieces first). Raise the heat, bring to boil, simmer for about 10 minutes. You can eat it like this if you don’t have an immersion blender (I wouldn’t fuss with putting it into a regular blender - too much trouble!), just add a few cups of grated cheddar cheese, stir it in until melted, and eat. If you do have an immersion blender, blend the soup first, then add the cheese, stir, and enjoy! Serve with bread.

4. Spinach and Cream Crepes

Use the recipe found here, it is delicious! For the spinach filling: heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a medium saucepan. Add 1 cup of chopped onion, saute for about 6-7 minutes until translucent. Add 2 boxes (10 oz each) of spinach and stir until the spinach is soft. If there is a lot of liquid in the pot then you can drain some of it out into the sink. Stir in 1 tablespoon of salt and maybe 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg if you like it. That’s the filling! For the cream, combine 1/4 cup of whipping cream with 1/4 cup of sour cream. Dot some of the cream mixture on top of spinach filling before wrapping the crepe up. (Use the cream sparingly!)

Only use 1/2 of the spinach filling for tonight’s dinner! Save the rest for tomorrow night’s dinner.

If you get crazy, make sweet crepes for dessert. Heat up a bag of frozen fruit in a pot with a few tablespoons of butter and about 1/2 cup of sugar. Heat until the fruit is syrupy and very soft. Put in crepes. Whip the left over whipping cream with a whisk in a Kitchen Aid or other mixer and then add some sugar, to taste (start with like 1/4 cup sugar). That’s your whipped cream to put on top of the dessert crepes!

5. Grilled Ham and Cheese / Spinach

Soften some butter in the microwave (just 10 - 20 seconds will do, don’t melt it), then spread the butter on one side of a bunch of pieces of bread. Put a slice or two of cheddar cheese on one slice and a slice of deli ham on that. Keep the butter facing out. Put another slice of bread on top, butter side out. Heat skillet to medium and put the sandwich on it. Let it brown on one side, then flip and brown on the other side. Make as many as you need and serve them with the spinach from last night, heated up in the microwave, as a side dish. Tell the kids that this is like eating a fancy breakfast - except for dinner!