Menu Plan Monday 04/23/12 and Enjoying Spring

Welcome to another week of my menu! We have been enjoying some Spring activities lately ... one of them is taking care of our birds. Since we have established bird feeders and have noticed babies around in the past years, we decided this year to put out some nesting material. I got the idea from the Birds and Blooms website to use an old suet feeder. We filled it with all different kinds of yarn (cut up into 3-4 inch pieces) along with Poly-fil from my craft supplies. No birds have found it yet ... but it's fun to keep watch!!

I've also been busy preparing our garden areas in the back yard. We just have a condo, but I've been able to carve out a nice area to plant some vegetables, flowers and herbs. This year, I'm going to grow an herb garden in our wine barrel, an idea I found here on Pinterest. Below is a picture of the cute little basil seedlings which will be ready for planting soon. I have a bunch of other seeds that I have to get going too.

Here's what's cooking at our home this week:

Monday 

Oven-Baked Frito Pie

I always like to have some good old comfort food in my menu rotation, and this sounded good to make this week. I have seen a few recipes for Frito pie, but this looks like the best one I've found so far. I tweeked it a bit using Mexican cheese instead of cheddar, dark kidney beans instead of pinto beans and Pato sauce replacing the taco seasoning and tomato sauce. It turned out well!

Tuesday

Tuna Noodle Casserole

I haven't made something with fish in awhile, so I decided on a tuna casserole. This one is from Skinny Taste so it will be a little lighter.

Wednesday

Stuffed Cabbage Casserole

This will be my third try making a ground beef meal that calls for cabbage. I love cooked cabbage, but find it hard to find good recipes that use it. I have yet to find one my husband likes and this one (also from Skinny Taste) looks good.

Thursday

Leftovers 

Friday

Simmered "Fried" Chicken with Oven Potatoes and Broccoli

This recipe from Window on the Prairie calls it "Fried chicken", but I renamed it. The "frying" part is done for the first few minutes, but then you simmer it in chicken stock for 45 minutes or so. The chicken comes out so nice and tender that way. 

Saturday

Possible Date Night!

Sunday
Always my night off!


P.S. Ididn't get a chance to make the Parsnip Cake yet, so I hope to comment about that next week!

Click on the links below to see what others are making this week!

Linking Up To:

On the Menu Monday At Stone Gable

SusieQTpies Scraps of Life

Thanks for visiting!