May Meal Plan

To begin, yes I know it is the end of July. The past few months have been jammed packed busy! I will share more about all the details in the future but here is a quick recap. May was full of work trips, company in town, kayaking, and tornados! June brought much of the same, except thankfully no tornados, plus I was out of town and we had more people in town than May. Then July included going out of town, more company in town, more kayaking, Tim’s birthday and even more!! I wont be posting a meal plan for those months because we were probably only at home for a third of the summer.

Now, back to the meal plan! Here is a link to my first meal plan post that will explain things in more detail if you are interested!

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This is the list of meals for the month of May:

• Chicken Alfredo
• Breakfast
• Steak
• Italian chicken
• Grilled chicken salad
• Leek and potato soup
• Fajitas
• Lemon chicken with asparagus
• Spaghetti
• Teriyaki chicken
• Pork chops
• Caesar wraps
• Pork roast
• Chicken penne pasta bake
• Wings
• Beef tips and broccoli
• Ribs
• Poppy seed chicken
• Beef stew and dumplings
• Pizza zucchini boats
• Cube steak
• Kielbasa and veggies
• Nachos
• BBQ chicken

On my first meal plan post I listed out everything I had purchased but for this month I thought I’d start adding some of the recipes so you can make your own shopping list if you’d like. I didn’t include some of the recipes, like steak for instants but if you’re interested in anything I didn’t include just let me know! There is a separate post for the pizza zucchini boats here. All of the chicken recipes are in another post here, so I won’t put those on this page either. You’ll notice I tend to use the word “about” as some form of measurement, that’s because I don’t typically use a recipe so things change a little every time something is made.

Breakfast:

Breakfast for dinner at our house typically consists of bacon and/or sausage, eggs, biscuits and gravy( or chocolate gravy, my favorite!), and maybe some fruit. Since you don’t actually need a recipe for “breakfast” I thought I’d share the recipe my family uses for chocolate gravy.

3/4 cup of sugar, 2 Tablespoons of hershey’s cocoa powder, 2 and 1/2 cups of milk, and 2 Tablespoons of flour. Stir all ingredients together over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil. Stir constantly as to avoid sticking and burning. Then pour into a serving dish so it doesn’t begin to burn and so that it will start cooling down so you can eat it. Finally, in the words of my mother “soak that pan in hot soapy water!”

Leak and potato soup:

I had this soup on my first trip to Ireland and I absolutely loved it. I’ve found a tried a few different recipes over the years and have used bits and pieces from them to make a recipe that turns out as close as I can get to the one I tasted in Ireland. So here is what you’ll need. One “bunch” of leeks (about 4 or 5 stalks) washed and finely sliced(you only use the white and light green parts), one half of a medium onion, 4 large potatoes peeled and diced, 4 cups of chicken stock, 6 Tablespoons on butter, 1 cup of heavy whipping cream (half and half or milk will work as well).

In a large pot briefly soften leeks and onions in butter then add potatoes to the mix and continue cooking about 5 more minutes. Then add in chicken broth and bring to a boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Next add the cream or milk but do not bring to a boil just allow cream to get to the same temperature. Now enjoy!

Beef stew and dumplings:

Yet another super simple meal! I know chicken is healthier but I’m more of a red meat kind of girl. So this is just a new take on chicken in dumplings. I made a standard beef broth with this bouillon (about 6 cups worth), bring to a boil and add 1 or 2 large potatoes (washed and diced), and about 2 cups of diced or baby carrots. Boil about 15 minutes or until veggies are soft. (I’ve also added some sautéed celery and onions to this before) Then cook a small package of beef tips in a separate pan and add them to the broth.

The last step is to grab a can of biscuits (I used to always make homemade dumplings but I’m older and more tired now so canned biscuits make me just as happy.) Try to avoid using the “flaky” type of biscuits. Cut each biscuit into about 6 pieces, they will swell a good bit so don’t worry about a piece being too small. Then once they are all cut quickly start to drop them into your boiling pot of broth. Avoid dropping them close together as they will stick to each other. They will cook fast, once you have the last ones dropped in the first ones will be close to being down. It usually only takes 6-10 minutes for them to all be cooked through but feel free to have a sample or two, just to double check of course!

Cube steak:

Mal’s favorite cube steak recipe: For this recipe you’ll need cube steak (duh), 1 package of Lipton beefy onion soup mix, one 10 ounce can of cream of mushroom soup, and 3/4 cup of water. All you do is place everything in the crockpot for 6 hours. I recommend (always) using a crock pot liner. You can also do this one as a freezer meal by placing and freezing all the ingredients in a gallon bag then placing straight in the crockpot to cook from frozen for 6-8 hours.

Tim’s favorite cube steak recipe: This one is even more simple but messier. Grab a plate (I like to use a paper one for easy clean up) and spread a good layer of plain flour and whatever seasonings you like (we use garlic and onion powder). Gently mix the flour and seasonings together and then completely cover the front and back of every piece of cube steak. Meanwhile, melt some butter in your skillet on medium to low heat and once you have flour coated cube steak ready cook it 4-6 minutes on each side or until cooked through.

I hope this helps you in your own meal planning, enjoy!