Monday – Loaded twice-baked potatoes

Tuesday – Pork chop skillet with baked acorn squash

Wednesday – Grilled steak with roasted broccoli and carrots, applesauce + rolls

Thursday – Grilled cheese sandwiches with Tuscan chick pea & tomato soup (V-Mix recipe)

Friday – Deep dish pepperoni pizza

Saturday – leftovers and/or sandwiches

Sunday – Tacos!

May the force be with you!

eggs in purgatory, originally uploaded by magowank.

I always save leftover mashed potatoes. There are loads of things that you can make with them, and this dish is a particular favorite.

First you spoon some marinara sauce on the bottom of your plate. Then, using said leftover mashed potatoes, you make some potato croquettes. I had about 2 cups of mashed potatoes, one egg, some salt and a bit of flour, mixed it all together and formed into patties. Fry in a combo of oil and butter until browned. Place on top of the sauce while hot. Then fry an egg and add it on top. Serve with toast. Easy peasy, and delightfully comforting, especially when paired with hot cocoa or coffee.

Monday – Eggs in Purgatory with toast and hot cocoa

Tuesday – Pizza at Bill and Kate’s house – Go Celtics!

Wednesday – Spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread

Thursday – Pork chop and apple skillet with baked acorn squash and cornbread

Friday – Toasted sub sandwiches and oven fries

Saturday – Spider pizza

Sunday – Assorted snacks to accompany football (mozzarella sticks, nachos, baked chicken wings)

I made this sandwich for dinner last week, and wow. We were in Rhode Island last weekend at our favorite bagel shop, and Adrian saw this sandwich on the menu. I happened to have some chicken leftover so I made a quick chicken salad with apples. I layered it on a bagel from said favorite shop with fresh greens, cranberry sauce and some homemade honey mustard dressing. Such a great autumn-ish meal!

Last week was a bit crazy, getting ready for a weekend away from home. I managed to stick with the menu, and we had a couple of new dinners that we really liked so I thought I would share.

The lasagna with spinach and prosciutto was quite good. I got the recipe from the October 2008 issue of Everyday Food. It was very easy to throw together, but I will say that I do not like using no-boil noodles. They never seem to work for me. All you need to do for this recipe is defrost a couple of boxes of frozen spinach and mix them with some ricotta cheese. Then chop up some prosciutto (about 1/4 lb.) and mix it with your sauce. Layer as you would normally. I used a ball of fresh mozzarella that I sliced to top it off. So good!

I found a super quick dinner roll recipe from Paula Deen. I love her recipes – they are always so easy and turn out great. They were nice with the lasagna.

Later in the week, I decided to use up some frozen chicken breasts that I had in the freezer. They were bone-in, so I decided to roast them in the oven and then use them in a soup. I pretty much made my basic potato leek soup recipe, then added in the chicken and a can of creamed corn. I made some cheese-topped garlic bread as a side. This soup would be great with all kinds of veggies added in, so I’ll probably make it again with some variation. It was a short week in terms of cooking, but these meals will definitely be revisited this winter!

Monday – Fried eggs over beans and rice with guacamole and chips

Tuesday – Oven-fried chicken and baked mac and cheese

Wednesday – Pork chops with apples, onions and rice

Thursday – Take-out

Friday – Deep dish veggie pizza

Saturday – Braciole with roasted cherry tomatoes, acorn squash and Italian bread

Sunday – Leftovers

Saturday afternoon at Hick’s. Olive enjoyed feeding the goats. I enjoyed the impromptu wine tasting. And we all savored the insanely good doughnuts. It was a nice day for a drive, and we had a nice late lunch at AJ’s on the way home. Now…to get with the apple baking…

Monday – Spinach and prosciutto lasagna, fresh greens salad, biscuits

Tuesday – Italian subs + oven fries

Wednesday – Roasted chicken and potato soup

Thursday – Leftovers

Friday – Albany

Saturday – Rhode Island

Sunday – (probably something light in Albany)

This weekend we ended up having a late lunch on Saturday, and after a lot of work around the house on Sunday, Adrian decided to make some sandwiches for dinner. So our weekend menu gets bumped to the beginning of this week! Easy for me! Also, we’ll be traveling this coming weekend – even easier!

So. I was good this week. I made a menu. I made a grocery list. I was on top of things. But when I got ready to make dinner last night, I realized that I was short a few ingredients for this new recipe. I had to do a bit of improvisation, which worried me. I thought for sure that this would turn out weird, but thankfully, it was actually quite good. A quick and easy one-skillet meal is always a nice option to have for weeknights when you don’t really feel like cooking. I had to do a little prep for tonight’s dinner along with this meal, so it took a few minutes longer than it normally would, but in the end it’s going to save me time tonight, so SCORE. The original recipe is from an advertisement for The Pampered Chef in a back issue of Everyday Food, which is where I will be getting my weekend recipes from this week. Below is what I actually did last night – similar, but different enough that I feel comfortable calling it my own. I hope that everyone has a great, relaxing weekend! I’ll be spending time in the kitchen, and hopefully getting some work done on the kids’ Halloween costumes!

Asian Pork and Noodle Skillet
makes 2-4 servings, depending on how hungry you are

1 lb. pork tenderloin (ours was about 1.5lb, but I used part of it for tonight’s pizza)
2 tbs. sesame oil
2 tbs. Asian five spice powder
1 tsp. garlic powder
2 tbs. soy sauce
1 medium red bell pepper
2 small carrots
1 scallion (green onion)
1 package chicken flavored ramen noodles
2 c. egg noodles
2 c. water

Prepare the pork by trimming off any fat. Cut pork in half lengthwise, then again so that you have 4 strips. Place in a bowl and add sesame oil, Asian five-spice, garlic powder, soy sauce and seasoning packet from the ramen noodles. Toss pork and let sit while you prepare the veggies.

Heat your skillet over medium heat with a bit of oil.

Slice red pepper and carrots and chop into smaller pieces. Set aside.

Cook pork in the hot skillet for about 5 minutes on each side or until browned and nearly cooked through. Set aside on a plate. Fry veggies in the skillet, adding a bit more oil if necessary. Once they are slightly soft, add water, ramen noodles and egg noodles. Cover with a lid (or tinfoil if you don’t have a lid that fits) until water is boiling, then remove lid and stir everything around to get pork bits up from the bottom of the skillet. Let sit over medium heat until noodles are soft. Add the pork back in for a couple of minuted and then remove from heat. Let it stand for a few minutes before serving. Add chopped scallions for garnish.