This weeks menus are made, and I thought I would share. Sometimes I get to it too late to post! We’ll be having

• fried chicken
• chicken and rice casserole
• chicken and pastry
• manicotti
• pork roast
• BBQ sandwiches
• sloppy joes

Lots of quick and easy, because, HEY, football!

Yes, I said morning! I’m posting in the morning again, because I think I am wittier and more entertaining then. I’m still going to be short and sweet, because, HI! it’s Monday, and Monday is just so dang Monday-ish. Of course, at a fluffy five foot nothin’, I am short and sweet all the time 😉

Ok, today was the day I had planned to give away A Fine Fleece. I think I really messed that up by pulling an old entry and updating it and adjusting the time stamp. I know a lot of you read on the feed, and I think the feed readers disregarded that since in “cyber speak” it was not a new post. There were only 4 entries, and I feel like it’s a discredit to the publisher to complete the give away today when I usually get over 50. I know knitters still love books, so I know I must have messed up something somehow. Please look over in the sidebar, and you’ll see “Enter Here” over a picture of the book. That link takes you to the contest entry post. I will close the contest next Monday, abundant entries or not, and I am updating that post to reflect same. Or, if you don’t need to see a picture of the book, you can just click here.

Now for Menu Plan Monday. You will recognize these items. I just got to the grocery store Friday night. (No wonder I feel hard pressed if it takes a major maneuver just to get out to buy food, LOL). I now have the ingredients for the food I planned for last week, and so that’s what we will be having.

Corny bites (I’ll talk more about these after we try them) with refried beans and some sort of Mexican rice.
Chili with Cornbread
Beef Stroganoff
Tacos

And that’s all I am planning for now. You can participate in Menu Plan Monday by clicking on this banner, but don’t go yet, there’s more from me underneath it!

Ghandi: I put this movie in my BlockBuster Q awhile back, and it has been sitting here on my desk for a couple of weeks. I spent the weekend pretty much unplugged, as I indicated in my that post on Friday. That means that I did not get the lesson plans made. I realized that late yesterday evening, and then I realized that this made today a perfect day for watching Ghandi. I went to see it when I was in school, and I wanted to share it with my kids. FWIW, I also saw the Hobbit as a school field trip. Yes, I had one extremely cool teacher. I’ll work on the lesson plans while we watch. Then I’ll probably finish Skimmer AND read a book. Ok, maybe not all that, but it is over three hours. We’ll start right after lunch, and I’ll try to remember to let you know how it went when I post tomorrow.

This has been an intense weekend. There is so very much to say, and I just don’t know how to say any of it. I guess the safest way to handle that would be just to stick with the facts. My Papa died Friday night. He was buried yesterday. He was without a doubt the laughingest man I have ever known. I will never hear a cuckoo clock again without remembering that laugh.

Don’t think the irony is lost on me that just Thursday (?? was it Thursday??) (I think it was Thursday.) I said I missed my Grandmother, and I still do. And if people know each other in heaven, then without a doubt, those two are talking today, and there are no misunderstandings or miscommunications and there is only love. I have been blessed in my life to see the love of Jesus flowing out of a handful of people. (They are rare, these ones that will take in the love from God, and push it all right back out onto those around them, most of us are selfish and hold it in once we receive it. I happen to think that they are the smart ones, they know that love shared is love multiplied, you can’t out love God any more than you can out give him.) I’ve been doubly blessed that of those handful of people, two of them were my Grandparents: my mother’s mother and my dad’s dad. There is no way to doubt that there is a God when you have seen Him look out at you from a Grandparent’s face. Lord, I want to love people like that.

For the most part, I try to keep this blog light-hearted, and I relegate serious stuff to Midlife Musings, but it is hard to be light hearted today. I am sad. I don’t know what else to do but to do the next thing. It’s Monday, so that must mean it’s time to post a menu, yk? Good thing I wrote it out on an index card in teh middle of last week, because I haven’t been worth a flip since Saturday morning. But here is what we will be eating, once I get to the grocery store.

Corny bites (I’ll talk more about these after we try them) with refried beans and some sort of Mexican rice.
Lasagna
Chili with Cornbread
Beef Stroganoff
Tacos
Stuffed Peppers

Click here to participate in Menu Plan Monday.

What for dinner around here this week?

Roasted Chicken stuffed with rice, veggie
Fried chicken, potatoes and veggie
Enchiladas
Steak with salad and potatoes
Hamburgers and fixin’s
Beef Roast with rice and veggie

And on Thursday, we will have Re-Runs

No recipes for you today, but there will be one on Thursday. I made homemade granola last week, so I will be sharing that recipe. While you are here, don’t forget to enter the book drawing–click right there in the sidebar for details.

Click here to participate in Menu Plan Monday.

This week’s menu mostly contains items left over from the previous 2 weeks. Not quite sure how that happened, because we did eat. And we ate well. We are going to have, in no particular order…

Fried chicken with mashed potatoes and a veggie
Pork chops with homemade mac and cheese (expect this recipe Thursday)
Cheesy brat stew
Beef roast with rice and veggie
Seven layer dip with chips

And on Thursday, we will have Re-Runs

Click here to participate in Menu Plan Monday.

Well, happy St. Patrick’s Day to ya! Like half of the world, we’ll be having corned beef for supper, and I plan to put that in the crockpot shortly. I’ll fry cabbage to go with it tonight, and mos of us will love it. Can you believe I have a child who doesn’t like corned beef? The mind boggles, really.

On to the menu! In addition to the afore mentioned corned beef and cabbage, we’ll be having:
pork chops with potatoes and veggie
cheesy brat stew (I posted this recipe here)
beef roast with rice and veggie
seven layer dip and chips

And Thursday will be left over night. I don’t assign any other nights, because I like to be flexible, and I just cook what seems most appealing off the list. Or what we already have the ingredients for if I am late going to the grocery store, like I am this week.

Say, while you are here thinking about food, don’t forget to enter the giveaway I’m having. Details here.

Click here to participate in Menu Plan Monday.

Chicken Parmigiana over Spaghetti Noodles with a veggie
Hamburger Casserole with a veggie
Cheese Quesadillas with refried beans and green chili
Hunter’s Chicken with ShortCut SourDough Bread
Fried Chicken with mashed potatoes and a veggie
Enchiladas with green chili
[tag]Lemon Pepper Salmon[/tag] with couscous and veggie

Is there a blogger on the planet who doesn’t know about Menu Plan Monday? Since I am always the last to know anything, and I found out about it months ago, I am going to assume not. But if you don’t know about it or you want to participate, click here to do so.

Now for the Recipe!

Lemon Pepper Salmon

This is like the easiest recipe ever, but it is so good!! In fact, it is so easy that I wouldn’t actually call it a [tag]recipe[/tag] except for the fact that I have pictures! You’ll need:

1. olive oil
2. lemon pepper
3. salmon

Now, my baking sheets are ancient, so I start by pouring a little puddle of EVOO onto a large baking sheet. Then I spread it out with a basting brush. The I place the salmon skin side down in the pan (you can see in the pictures that I was cooking two fillets when I took these shots), and use the basting brush to put EVOO on the fillets. I do this to ensure the fish stays moist. Then I sprinkle it with lemon pepper seasoning. When it’s ready to go in the oven, it looks like this:

Bake it at about 400 degrees for 20ish minutes. Then it will look like this, you will salivate and your family will think you are one awesome cook. Ok, maybe not that last part, by my fam really likes it

Thank you to my sponsor, who allowed me to speak of fish instead of HDMI splitters this morning.