I’m making the most out of my pantry items this week! This week’s menu consists of a lot of make-ahead meals not just for dinner but breakfast and lunch too. Join me this week as I share some simple make-ahead meals that your family is sure to enjoy!

Sunday: Grilled Hot dogs, Loaded Potato Salad, Corn, Watermelon,

Monday: Cheese Ravioli, Salad, Garlic bread

Tuesday: Hamburgers and Fresh Veggie Platter

Wednesday: Grilled Chicken, Corn and Black Bean Enchiladas (posting recipe soon), Rice, Salad

Thursday: Scrambled Eggs, Sausage and Homemade English muffins, Applesauce

Friday: Homemade Pizza

Saturday: Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes with gravy, green beans, French bread

Lunches: Zucchini waffles, Macaroni and cheese, leftover pizza, pasta salad, hardbolied eggs with fresh fruit, snacky lunch (cheese slices, fresh fruit, veggie sticks)

Breakfasts: Blueberry muffins, Cinnamon rolls, Oatmeal, Bread and Jam, Applesauce, Strawberry smoothies, Greek yogurt

Beverages: Orange juice, milk, sun tea, iced coffee, fruit juice and lemonade

What’s Cooking in your kitchen this week?

Don’t throw out your leftovers! Check out this recipe using leftover Taco meat and you can make your family a whole other delicious meal using the slow cooker!

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It’s been an easy week so far cooking from our pantry, fridge and freezer. Over the weekend, I had put together a few ground beef freezer meals to prepare ahead of time for the week. This recipe is by far, one of the easiest when your a busy mom. Today, I’m sharing a Meatball Sandwich recipe. You could easily do the same thing with leftover meatloaf. However, with these meatballs, I specifically made them for a sandwich. Normally, they are about the size of a large ice cream scoop, I made these just a bit smaller to fit inside of the bun without breaking it.

A meatloaf or meatball sandwich is basically a hamburger just in a different shape so you can add anything to it. But it’s the sauce and toppings that transforms it into something much better.

Meatball Sandwich

Ingredients:

• 8-12 medium size cooked meatballs
• Individual sandwich rolls ot hot dog buns (could also used a loaf of french bread)
• 2 10-ounce jar spaghetti sauce (or use homemade sauce)approximately 2-3 cups of sauce (reserve leftover sauce and freeze for later use)
• 2 cups Mozzarella or Provolone cheese, shredded

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 dgrees. Toast buns or french bread loaf lightly.
• In a large skillet, add sauce and meatballs to heat. Once heated, add to buns or french bread loaf.
• Spoon a little extra sauce on the top of meatballs.
• Sprinkle shredded cheese over the top and serve.

We’ve had a few slow cooker meals for dinner these past couple of weeks.  You all know how I love to use it all year round to create those easy delicious meals for my family. Now I have to say that I don’t usually cook ribs, one because the hubby complains they don’t have a lot of meat on them, and two they are rather expensive for a family meal and budget. I usually stear away from them.   

A few weeks ago, the grocery store had a great BOGO deal on ribs. It was such a great deal, I couldn’t pass it up, so I picked up a couple. We grilled the first package on the BBQ and the second one I made in the slow cooker. The meat just falls off the bone with this recipe and it has some great flavors.

Fall Off The Bone Slow Cooker BBQ Ribs

Ingredients:

4 pounds pork baby back ribs
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups ketchup
1 cup chili sauce
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
4 tablespoons vinegar
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 dash hot sauce
Salt and Pepper
Pampered Chef Smoky Barbecue Rub

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Season ribs with salt, pepper and Pampered Chef Smoky Barbecue Rub. Place in a shallow baking pan. Brown in oven 15 minutes. Turn over, and brown another 15 minutes; drain fat.
3. In a medium bowl, mix together the ketchup, chili sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, oregano, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, and salt and pepper. Place ribs in slow cooker. Pour sauce over ribs, and turn to coat.
4. Cover, and cook on Low 6 to 8 hours, or until ribs are tender.
5. Serve with corn on the cob and watermelon.

I didn’t get as much done this week as I had planned, but that’s okay. Life happens. This is going to be one of our frugal weekends where we spend time on the farm catching up on all the work that has to be done…mowing lawns, cleaning the chicken coop, tending to the garden, finishing cleaning the garage (to make room for that extra fridge/freezer) and of course I’ll be spending some time cooking up some new recipes.

I can’t say that we’ll spend the weekend doing all work and having no play. There will be plenty of time for swimming in the pool or watching a family movie. I’m even getting back into the luxury of making time to read a good book. Even when my schedule doesn’t allow for it, I’m going to try sneaking in a few pages of reading, if not a chapter. Awhile back, I mentioned it would be kind of fun to start a Family Meals Book Club. I hope that you’ve taken a little bit of time out of your busy schedules to enjoy a good book. I made a few summer reading suggestions for July and I found another great book that I just started by Kathryn Stockett, called The Help. So far, I’ve read the first chapter and I’m already enjoying it.

As far as recipes go, I’ve got a few ideas for this weekend. Tonight we’re starting off with Frugal Meatball Sandwiches, an easy frugal meal for any family. I’ll be posting the recipe later but until then…

Enjoy your weekend!