Menu Planning Monday

Menu planning is something my mom taught me when I was really young. She planned our meals then made her shopping list. I'm thankful for her example in that way because it makes my life much more manageable. Being realistic is important in menu planning. If you know you are going to have a screaming busy couple of days, don't plan meals that include homemade bread or complicated recipes. If it's a frozen pizza night, then plan for it and make sure you have what you need to cook before that day or the drive through might tempt you. Here is this week's menu for us:

Monday - Ground beef fried rice (see recipe below)
Tuesday - Crockpot potato soup and homemade bread
Wednesday - Ravioli, salad and bread
Thursday - Bean and cheese quesadillas and corn
Friday - Football game (eat out with the team after)
Saturday - Grilled Buffalo chicken with celery sticks, homemade potato skins, brownies
Sunday - BBQ pork, beans and cornbread

So Tuesdays and Thursdays are consistently my busiest days. My son has a class at 5, followed immediately by football practice. If I waited until I was home from all that, it would be really hard to start dinner from scratch at that point, so it has to be either a crockpot recipe or something that is thrown together fast. The homemade bread part is easy, from a book that I will review soon. Yes, it's on the menu a lot, but remember that I'm feeding three teenagers :)

Ground Beef Fried Rice (for a crowd)
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 med. onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
3 eggs, beaten
2 c. frozen peas and carrots, thawed
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
Soy sauce, salt and pepper to taste
5 c. cooked white or brown rice

In a large pan, brown your ground beef, drain and wipe the pan out. Return the cooked beef to the pan, and add onion, cooking until transparent over medium high heat. Scrape the beef and onions to the outsides of the pan, leaving an empty space in the center. Pour beaten eggs in this area and cook quickly, scraping with a metal spatula as needed. When the eggs are cooked, use your spatula to chop them up in the pan. Stir eggs together with beef and onion, then add minced garlic and stir. Next add the Worcestershire sauce and peas and carrots. Stir in cooked rice and add salt, pepper and lots of soy sauce to taste. Add some crushed red pepper flakes too if you like. You pretty much can't go wrong with this recipe, use whatever veggies and meat you have in a pinch. This makes a large amount, but makes for great leftovers the next day with a little extra soy sauce.