March Menus

 Although we are into the second week of March I do have menus put together for the month. This last week included a Pot Roast simmered in Tastefully Simple's Irish Stout Slow Cooker sauce and it was fabulously delicious. I highly recommend this sauce. The lady I purchased it from is a regular at a local weekly farmer's market. Needless to say I will be buying more. Along with the pot roast we had mashed potatoes and green beans. Monday I took off from my aftercare job to run a few errands I could not do on the weekend and which could wait until Friday which was a teacher inservice day. So I popped an eye round in the oven and we had herb crusted eye of round roast, buttered Amish egg noodles, and Brussels sprouts. Tuesday no one else was home for dinner so after work I just warmed up a plate of leftovers from Monday's dinner. Wednesday I tried a new recipe for slow cooker macaroni and cheese. Youngest son loved it but adult son and I didn't care much for it. Won't be trying it again. Thursday we had pizza. Friday GF and I grabbed fish sandwiches and went to the Auto Show. Last night GF and I had dinner with my oldest son and his wife at our favorite local Italian restaurant.
SO....the menus start with today's plan:

Irish Garlic Sausages
Mashed potatoes
candied carrots

The rest of the menus are in no particular order. I am still following my weeknight plan of alternating slow cooker recipes with quick recipes. We do have one more 'out to eat' planned for the last Friday of the month when we will give a local fish fry (not the one where I work) a try. And the two Fridays I work the GF is in charge of dinner. New recipes are marked with an *, slow cooker recipes are in bold, and quick recipes are in italics.

Country beef stew, crescent rolls

Grilled balsamic salmon*, white and wild rice, salad

Rustic Chicken stew*, Herb rolls

Grilled coffee encrusted steaks, butter crumb noodles, broccoli

Herb roasted pork tenderloin with apples*, roasted winter vegetables

Pork schnitzel, Mom's kniffles, cinnamon applesauce, green beans

Corned Beef and Cabbage, egg noodles, carrots

Pasta Carbonara Florentine, Caprese salad

Gail's Pork Adobo, steamed jasmine rice, lemon-garlic green beans

Moroccan Lamb chops, Sun dried tomato couscous

Spaghetti with Meatballs, salad

Hawaiian Short Ribs, steamed rice, Hawaiian coleslaw

Chicken Piccata, linguine with pesto, broccoli with garlic

Minestrone soup, Tuscan herb rolls

Chicken stir fry, steamed rice

Shepherd's Pie, Brussels sprouts

Italian Chicken and Pasta*, Italian blend veggies

Soft Tacos, Spanish rice

Better late than....

Never......Once again a large gap in time between blogging. And once again I must place the blame squarely on being busy. I celebrated my birthday with a lovely dinner out with several of my children as well as two of my grandsons.  And after that it was flat out working to get ready for my lunch programs state inspection for NSLP certification. That was completed last Tuesday and all went well. Yeah!! I have some follow up paperwork to do but it is really minor stuff.
And we are in to fish fry season as well. However this year I have very little to do beyond putting away their food delivery and clearing out of the way on Fridays.
Wednesday was the beginning of Lent and as practicing Catholics my family observes the dietary restrictions that go along with this. After much thought I chose this year to not only sacrifice something but to really try to set a meaningful spiritual goal as well. I will not be eating fast food, junk food, or soda pop. All good things for my body. My goal is from Matthew 5:44 "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you". Now I can't think of anyone as an 'enemy' per se and I try not to feel persecuted (despite it being fish fry season, lol) but there are those folks with whom I do not see eye to eye and who I may not care for and who may not care for me. I am making a conscious effort to include extra prayer every day and to remember those people. Doing something good for my soul.

Even though I have not had time to blog I have made March menus and done my March grocery shopping. Details to follow!