Monday, September 25, 2006

Monday Menu Plan

Ack! I left my menu at home, and now ... I'm flying by the seat of my pants ... HATE THAT! Anyway ... you can scoot on over to Laura's at I'm An Organizing Junkie to see some more menu plans!

Okay -- last week, I planned several meals that got put on hold because we ended up going out to dinner with my in-laws at the last minute... so guess what we're eating THIS week?! YUP! Last week meals, and a few others.

Monday: Crock-pot Pork Tenderloin and Sweet 'n Sauerkraut* with scalloped potatoes
Tuesday: Salad with Balsamic Chicken and Pistachios
Wednesday: Pasta with peas and ham (white sauce), salad
Thursday: Grilled chicken caesar salads
Friday: Homemade Pizza
Saturday: Eat out
Sunday: Soup/Chilie/Stew (I have home made harvest chili and beef stew both frozen ready to thaw, heat and eat depending on the weather)

On another note ... my boy is zooming around the house! He is walking... fast... while holding on to stuff, and taking about 10 steps (half way across the room) without holding on to anything! He gets so excited when he realizes that he can walk, and he starts jumping up and down and then ... falls. And laughs. So cute!

Sigh ... He is getting big and growing up so fast! Sob!

*Recipe for Pork Tenderloin and Sweet 'n Sauerkraut
Servings: 4

1 Pork Tenderloin (enough to feed 4)
1 2-lb bag of fresh sauerkraut (usually in the meat aisle)
1 cup dried cranberries or 1 can of the chunky cranberry sauce (or you can substitute the cranberries with a couple of apples, peeled, and diced)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon Season-All Salt for sauerkraut, plus enough to season pork tenderloin
1 Tablespoon Soy Sauce

Place sauerkraut into crock pot. Add cranberries (or diced apples), brown sugar, 1 Tbsp of Season-All Salt, and soy sauce. Mix well. Sprinkle pork tenderloin liberally with Season-All Salt, and place on top of sauerkraut. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.


Why I love to use Season-All Salt: I use the "blue-lid" Season-All by McCormick in many of my dishes as a substitute for regular salt, because it has extra goodness mixed into it... not only does it have salt, but it has chili pepper, black pepper, celery seed, onion, paprika and garlic.

Several uses: sprinkle on steaks or burgers before you grill (cook) them; use in home-made vinaigrette; sprinkle on fish or chicken; use in fried potatoes; use on roasts of all kind, including roasted chicken; sprinkle on potato salad before adding mayonnaise.

Basically, sprinkle it on whatever you have that tastes plain-Jane or needs a bit of color. It will give it a great boost of flavor. If you have problems with sodium, you may not want to use this, as it does contain a lot of sodium. Also, even though this spice contains chili pepper, I don't find it to be spicy.

6 comments:

Jada said...

I'll be over for dinner all this week! LOL The Pork Tenderloin & Sweet 'N Sauerkraut sounds deee-licious! I wrote down the recipe to make someday for friends and family, since I don't cook much for just myself. Thanks for providing the recipe!

I enjoy your reading your blog!

Have a blessed day!

~Jada

Beck said...

I love Laura's weekly menu planning thing - even though I've always planned my meals, posting them publically has made me a lot more responsible in sticking to them! And your week sounds yummy, too.

Susanne said...

This all sounds yummy! Better invest in a good pair of running shoes and take your vitamins to keep up with that boy now!

Anonymous said...

Sounds delicious! The Balsamic Chicken and Pistachios sounds yummy. Do you marinade your chicken in the balsamic vinegar?

Shalee said...

I loves me some kraut! I'd doing that recipe!

And you thought you were tired before? Now that Hunter is mobile, you are going to learn a thing or two about being exhausted at the end of the day!

tootlepip said...

Your menu sounds yummy! I have a balsamic chicken recipe that I need to make - hmm. maybe next week