Menu Plan Monday

This was a tough week to come up with a menu for, since it just works out that The Mister and I have completely opposite schedules this week and there are a few weird quirks. There is one night I have to go speak to a Methodist church ladies group on behalf of the library, and then there is also this big snow storm we are supposed to get. So it's starting to look like:

Sunday: Beef Noodle Skillet Supper*
Monday: Our Favorite Burrito Pie (always lots of leftovers!)
Tuesday: leftovers
Wednesday: Cheeseburgers, baked beans
Thursday: Three Cheese Baked Ziti
Friday: leftovers
Saturday: Shrimp Creole in the crock pot
As always, served with a green salad and/or pickle relish

*The skillet supper is one of my easy go-to meals for a cold day. I just put some olive oil in the pan and layer some ground beef, seasoning, thinly sliced potatoes, small or medium (uncooked) pasta shells, peas, and top it off with some cheese. I pour in about a cup of milk, put on the cover, and let it simmer for an hour. The little shells cook during the simmer and everything is delightfully moist and delicious. Yay for skillet suppers!

My scrumptious three-cheese baked Ziti is as follows:

1 pound pasta

1 quart Pasta Sauce

• 1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 cup Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Preheat oven to 350. Cook pasta and allow to cool. Combine 1 and 1/2 cups pasta sauce with ricotta, parmesan, and fresh basil in a large bowl. Add salt and pepper. Toss the pasta with the cheese and sauce mixture. Spread 1/2 cup pasta on the bottom of the baking dish. Pour the pasta mixture into the dish and drizzle the remainig sauce over the top. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and bake uncovered for about 30 minutes. Easy and delicious.

There are dozens of recipes online that mirror my crock pot shrimp creole, but my version has two exceptions. The first, I add okra, usually frozen. The other exception is that I cook the shrimp separate and stir it in at the very end. That way you won't take a chance on getting over-cooked rubbery shrimp. Serve it over rice, and it's an easy meal that my husband loves.

On Saturday I made baked oatmeal for breakfast, started the laundry, played with the dogs, baked a cherry pie, cleaned off my desk, ran two errands, came home and cooked supper, sent the Mister off to work, kept the laundry going, ironed, tackled the mending pile, started on Sunday's dinner, did some minor scrapbooking, folded some laundry, filled up all the bird feeders. and then finally started some of our garden seeds. Somewhere in there I managed some phone calls. Yes, I was tired. Can you say day of rest? Sunday never felt so good.