Menu Monday

Okay, so posting that I was going to actually cook my meals for the week did hold me accountable.  Mental note: must do this with other aspects of my life.

Here is my menu for this week:

And since my own mother has trouble reading my handwriting, the menu says:

Sunday: Chicken Burgers with Roasted Garlic Cauliflower via Megan’s cooking blog

Monday: Lasagna Rollups & Salad

Tuesday: Enchiladas and corn

Wednesday: Lemon Shrimp with Zucchini Bites

Thursday: Chicken Macaroni & Cheese with Broccoli

Not all meals I premade – like Sunday’s dinner was just made on the fly. But Monday’s, I made and had plenty to freeze for another time. I love those nights-where I just take something out of the freezer and put it in the oven.  Those are my favorites.

I have never tried these lasagna rolls before, but I saw them on Pinterest and they looked good and freezable. (I can only hope.) I will give you a review later.

Ingredients:

3 cups chopped cooked chicken
1/4 cup milk

1 cup Ricotta cheese
1/8 teaspoon white pepper

1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
8 lasagna noodles, cooked and drained

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups Prego Spaghetti Sauce

In medium bowl, combine chicken, cheeses, milk, and pepper

Spread 1/2 cup mixture on each lasagna noodle; roll jelly-roll fashion

In a 13 by 9-inch baking dish, spread 1 cup spaghetti sauce

Arrange lasagna rolls, seam-side down in sauce in baking dish

Top with remaining spaghetti sauce

Cover

Bake at 375 degrees F for 30 minutes or until hot

Serve, if desired, with additional Parmesan cheese.

Note, on this recipe the filling wasn’t nearly enough for 8 rolls. I had make more of it. So you might just double everything but the chicken.

With the substitutions above, this was enough for 8 rolls. I am making three for dinner tonight and froze the other five. 

Tuesday:

Megan made these enchiladas a few months  ago when we had dinner at her house and they were beyond amazing.  This recipe says it will make 20 enchiladas…enough for 10 servings. However, I was able to freeze two extra dishes in addition to the one we will have this week…so I guess it made 25 enchiladas.

Spinach Sauce:

1 package of frozen spinach, thawed

3-4 chopped green onions

2 jalapenos chopped and seeds removed

1 can of cream of chicken soup

2 cups low fat sour cream

salt & pepper to taste

Drain the spinach and remove excess moisture.  Combine all ingredients (except the sour cream) in the blender until well mixed. Add the sour cream and blend until smooth.

Enchiladas:

20 6” tortillas

4 cups of monterey jack cheese shredded

1 onion chopped

shredded cooked chicken

3 cups of cheese for topping (I didn’t use this much)

Combine cheese, onion and chicken and spoon into the center of the steamed tortillas. Roll up and place seam side down in the greased pan. Pour spinach mixture over the enchiladas and top with additional cheese.

Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes or until bubbly.

Here are the tortillas I used. Very authentico.

My last meal that I premade was a macaroni and cheese shown on Katie Lately’s blog.

What you Need:
1 (10.75 oz) can of Condensed Cheddar Cheese Soup
1/2 (10.75) can milk
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cups of hot cooked corkscrew-shaped pasta (or shells)
1 tablespoon of dry bread crumbs
2 teaspoons of butter
1 cup of Cheddar Cheese

Instructions:
1. Mix soup, milk, black pepper, cheddar cheese and pasta in 1-qt baking dish
2. Mix bread crumbs and butter and sprinkle over pasta mixture (I always end up adding more bread crumbs to the mixture...you just have to play with it until it's sprinkle-able) I also like to add more shredded cheese to the top...you can never have too much cheese!
3. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes...or until HOT!

Notes, I added chicken and broccoli to this.  I was going to just do the broccoli on the side, but everyone loves it better cheesy, right?

For each meal that I froze, I put the instructions on the top, along with the baking time.

In total, I yielded 7 meals in two hours!

As a timesaver, it would be easier to buy rotisserie chickens and just use the breast meat. I decided to just boil chicken for use. I have done this before and it works well and probably saves about $10.