Menu Monday

Last week was a good menu week!  Everyone liked the dinners I had planned.  The sweet and sour meatballs was a huge hit.  I had a friend request the recipe so I'll just share it here.  I actually got the sauce recipe from a friend in a "freezer meals swap."  We got together with 5 other couples and each of us made our recipe for all the other couples.   So the meatballs and sauce are freezable, but make the rice fresh.  The meatball recipe I used is just a simple recipe from All Recipes.

Sweet & Sour Meatballs
Ingredients for meatballs:
2 T. Olive Oil
1 (20oz package) ground turkey
1 egg beaten
1/3 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs

1.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish with the olive oil, and place it in the oven while preheating.

2.In a medium bowl, mix together the ground turkey, egg, and bread crumbs using your hands. Using an ice cream scoop if possible, form the meat into golf ball sized meatballs. Place about 1 inch apart in the hot baking dish. Press down to flatten the bottom just slightly.

3.Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven, then turn them over, and continue baking for about 5 more minutes, or until somewhat crispy on the outside. 

Ingredients for sauce:
1 (20oz) can pineapple chunks
3 T. vinegar
1/2 cup brown sugar
approx. 1/3 cup water
1 T. soy sauce
3 T. Cornstarch
1 large green pepper cut into 1 inch pieces
1 onion cut into chunks
1 clove garlic

In a large skillet saute onion and garlic. Add the green pepper and cook for a few minutes.  In a bowl, combine the pineapple juice with enough water to make 1 1/2 cups. Stir in the vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce and cornstarch. Add to the skillet and stir till thickened. Add the meatballs and pineapple. Simmer until the meatballs are hot and the green peppers are tender-crisp.  Serve over rice.

If you are going to freeze this, cool sauce completely and then just store it in a gallon freezer bag or a freezer safe container.  When you are ready to eat it, I recommend thawing it in the fridge over night.  I have never tried putting it directly from the freezer into the skillet.

And now, on with this week's menu!
Monday: Parmesan Chicken with rice and veggies
Tuesday: Italian sausage skillet with Penne Pasta
Wednesday: BBQ Chicken sandwiches (from last week because my in-laws surprised us with pizza one night)
Thursday: Turkey bacon paninis
Friday: Spaghetti
Saturday: Breakfast
Sunday: Leftovers!

Sometimes I end up doing leftovers mid week if our fridge is starting to fill up.  It's just nice to have a menu in place so I know that I have the ingredients and I don't have to think about what I have in the cupboard come dinner time.

I'm going to have to make some banana bread (oh darn...) this week because we didn't eat all our bananas in time.  I might even add a few mini chocolate chips if I'm feeling like a sweet treat.  There are also a lot of pumpkin recipes floating around out there this time of year that I wouldn't mind trying. :)

Have a good week everybody!

~Melissa