Weekly Menu 1/23/2012

This is my second week of menu sharing. Trying to come up with the menu this week was a little tricky, because we have already spent the majority of our grocery budget. I tried to stick to buying things that were a good deal and would make a cheap meal based off of ingredients I already have.

• Monday - Zatarain's mix with turkey sausage and salad
• Tuesday - Burgers with pretzel buns, "baked" sweet potato, and veggies
• Wednesday - Ziti with Portobello Mushrooms, Carmelized Onions and Goat Cheese
• Thursday - Breakfast casserole with oranges
• Friday - Jalapeno Popper Stuffed Chicken with veggies forgot Tampa Blogger Meet up! Hubby is on his own. Maybe Sunday this will get made.
• Saturday - Spaghetti and salad

I usually only plan one of our dishes for dinner and the sides come together based on what veggies were on sale at the produce stand and what we have in our pantry. I try to keep some frozen veggies on hand in case of emergency, but there is something about frozen veggies that I just don't like. I guess I have my mom to thank for always cooking with fresh ingredients.

For Tuesday's dinner you will see I have "baked" sweet potato on the menu. Here is my easy way to prepare a sweet potato:

Wash the potato thoroughly. Pierce with a fork a few times. Wrap in a damp paper towel. Depending on the size (I buy 1 large potato for both of us and split it) microwave for about 5 minutes. Turn over and microwave for another 5 minutes. If the potato is on the smaller side maybe try 3 minutes on each side. Cut in half, add butter and brown sugar and serve. We love potatoes this way and they make such an easy and pretty healthy (don't go crazy with the butter and brown sugar) side dish.