Meal Plan Monday

Hello friends, Happy Monday!  I hope your week is getting off to a good start. How are your meal plans coming for this week?

Here is the meal plan that I have prepared for my family for this week:

Sunday - Beef Stew

Monday - Leftovers (Beef Stew, Homemade Hamburger Helper, Broccoli and Cheddar Soup)

Tuesday - Zesty Broccoli and Shrimp

Wednesday - Spaghetti

Thursday - Leftovers

Friday - Freezer Clean Out

Saturday - Grilled Chicken (with Lemon Pepper Seasoning) and Grilled Vegetables

I hope you enjoy!

Meal Plan Monday

Welcome back to Meal Plan Monday!  I hope that the ideas posted last week helped you in your meal planning!  Here is my plan for my family this week:

Sunday: Lasagne (making tomato sauce using tomatoes from our garden!), Salad and Garlic Bread
(This week's muffins are Peach Shortcake Muffins)

Monday - Leftovers

Tuesday - Chicken Vegetable Noodle Soup and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Wednesday - Tacos

Thursday - Leftovers

Friday - Homemade Hamburger Helper

Saturday - Leftovers

Don't forget, I do have a few other fun things happening on Addicted to Recipes, a GIVEAWAY for my Canadian friends, my weekly Scrumptious Sunday recipe link party, and this month's Keep Calm and Cook On - Apple edition! Please pop over and check these out!

See you next Monday with a new meal plan!

Recipe Recap #24

Welcome back to this week's recipe recap!  I love this stroll back through my recipes, I always seem to find one that I have forgotten about, even though we loved it!  Here are the recipes from July 14-20, 2012 (link to recipe in titles):

Homemade Hamburger Helper

Funny, hubs and I were just watching Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, and someone was talking about their pulled pork recipe, which sounded very similar to mine! This one is very popular at our house:
Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Homemade Hamburger Helper

Last month I wrote a guest post over at Everyday Mom's Meals.  Krista was so kind to host me as part of her Weekend Company series.  If you happened to miss my post, I wanted to share it with you here today!  Here it is:

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Today I had my LAST duty day of the school year at preschool.  I cannot believe that the school year is nearly OVER.  Where did that year go?  Our oldest will be starting KINDERGARTEN in September!  Didn't I just have him?  Seems like yesterday, not 5 years ago!

Today also happened to be a dreadfully dreary day.  We're caught in some wicked weather system that is dumping rain, rain, rain on us.  It was a homemade chicken noodle soup kind of day, but with my necessity to be at school, I didn't have the time to put it together.  So it became spaghetti night, or so I thought.

Once school was over, I had NO DESIRE to make spaghetti.  But what could I do with the ground beef that I had laid out?  Meatloaf? My boys would LOVE that...me, not so much.  What to do, what to do.  I thought about my Dad's "Hash" recipe (which essentially is a whole bunch of stuff hashed together...with a ground beef base and add in all the leftovers from the fridge) - but we are all out of leftovers.  So then I thought about Hamburger Helper.  I've seen it on TV many times, never tried making it on my own.  A quick little google search, read through some recipes, and found one to base dinner on.  The recipe I used was found at Food.com, and modified to include more vegetables.  Here is the recipe:

Homemade Hamburger Helper

1/2 lb ground beef
1 lb macaroni
1/2 cup onion, diced
1/4 cup green pepper, diced
1 cup frozen peas
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup flour
2 cups milk
2 cups tomato sauce
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Cook the pasta according to the box directions.  Drain and set aside.

While the pasta is cooking, cook the ground beef over medium in a large skillet.  Cook until the meat is browned.  Add in all the dry seasonings (including the flour) and stir until combined.

Add in the milk, tomato sauce and peas.  Bring to a boil, stirring frequently.

Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 2 minutes.

Add in the cream cheese, cheddar cheese, stir until melted.  Add in the macaroni, stir to combine.  Serve immediately.

VERDICT:
This was an absolute HIT.  Our five year old had THREE helpings.  And my husband loved it too.  he didn't want to share the leftovers for tomorrow's lunch, he wanted them all to himself. This could easily be a new go-to recpe for us in place of spaghetti!  Yay!!

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