Menu Plan Monday!

Here's this week's dinners, in no particular order:

Lazy Mom Goulash with Peasant Bread
Salmon Croquettes with Mashed Potatoes and Peas
Hot Dogs with buns and Corn on the Cob
Baked chicken with country-fried potatoes and boiled baby carrots
Broccoli Beef with Oyster Sauce over Rice (And fortune cookies for dessert!)

Please note, this is the amount that I make for 2 adults and 4-5 children, sometimes with leftovers. If you have a smaller family, feel free to cut down the amounts! When we were a family of 3-4, I usually made about half of these amounts (like 1 can of salmon compared to two, etc.)

Lazy Mom Goulash
1.5 lbs hamburger
1 jar spaghetti sauce
2 cans of corn
2 cups long grain rice

Boil 2 cups of rice with 4 cups of water. Brown hamburger and drain fat. Pour in the jar of spaghetti sauce, and add in 2 drained cans of corn. Mix together and bring to a simmer. Serve hamburger sauce over rice.

Salmon Croquettes
2 cans of pink salmon, drained, skin and bones removed
2 eggs
1 sleeve of fat-free saltine crackers, crushed
Ketchup
1 TBS Colman's prepared mustard
Oil

Mix the salmon with the eggs and cracker crumbs. Form into small patties and fry until golden brown on either side. Drain on paper towels. Serve with ketchup and Colman's mustard for dipping (the Colman's mustard is a hot, spicy mustard, so the kids just use ketchup). When they were younger, I called these "Crabby Patties" like in Spongebob so that they would eat them. ;)

Mom's Country Fried Potatoes
Also known as "camp potatoes", this is my family's favorite way of eating potatoes! It's not the healthiest, but it's definitely hearty!

10 medium potatoes
Oil
1 tbs butter
Seasoned Salt
Fresh ground black pepper

Scrub the potatoes, and then dice them into roughly evenly sized chunks. Rinse and drain well, patting to dry (so they don't make the oil splatter). Melt 1 tbs butter in a skillet with 2-3 tbs canola oil. Add the potatoes, and sprinkle liberally with seasoned salt and black pepper. Let cook over medium for 8 minutes, then give them a flip. Season again if desired. Let cook for another 8 minutes over medium low, stir. Cook another 5 minutes over low heat. Test the biggest chunk to make sure it's cooked through (I hate finding a hard potato piece!), and then serve.

Broccoli Beef with Oyster Sauce

1 lb of steak, cut into thin slices (I'm using top sirloin that I bought a couple of weeks ago, sliced and froze)
1 lb of fresh broccoli crowns
1 bunch green onions
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp canola oil
1/3 cup water
3 TBS Soy Sauce
3 TBS Oyster Sauce (find one without the HFCS! I like Lee Kum Kee. It has a panda on the label and is available at Walmart even.)
1 tsp corn starch
1-inch slice of fresh ginger root, peeled and minced fine
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced fine

I have always made my Broccoli Beef with oyster sauce, and I was really grossed out by some of the recipes for Broccoli Beef that I came across online. I just can't imagine using cream of broccoli soup or something like that! I'm sorry if that is the way that your family enjoys it, but I simply can't wrap my head around it. And I have nothing against cream of broccoli either!

Heat canola and sesame oil in a large skillet over high heat. Quickly brown your steak strips (let cook for a minute, then flip over - don't stir unless you like gray icky looking meat!). In a bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, oyster sauce, corn starch, ginger, and garlic. Add 1/3 cup water, your soy sauce mix, green onions sliced into 1" pieces, and your broccoli crowns (cut down into large bite size pieces) to the steak. Cover and let it cook over medium for about 4 minutes, until the broccoli is tender. Serve over hot rice. I'll be serving mine with Sriracha and chili paste for the grownups. In the bulk section of WinCo, I also found fortune cookies for 6 cents each - how fun!

Don't forget to check out The Grocery Cart challenge for more great recipe ideas to add to your menus!