What's For Dinner? - 30-Minute Menus For 2009 - 17th Edition By Elizabeth Randall

Spring is (finally) here - yeah! The menus this week reflect the changing season with a much lighter fare which also helps the food budget. I don't think you or your family will feel deprived with these menus; there are many different flavors and nice touches to liven the meals.

May Day is this Friday so I have planned a light salad supper and invited a few friends over to celebrate the day. We will eat on the patio if the weather is nice. I'll serve an appetizer course using a quiche party plan. The quiche can be meatless to keep the meal vegetarian or mix-and-match to suit your family or guests. The appetizers will also include chevre logs with red pepper jam; fruit tray of strawberries, kiwi, and star fruit with bittersweet chocolate dipping sauce; roasted garlic onion jam; bread sticks, and sesame water crackers.

You will find that I use several cooking methods, mix and match, to get dinner on the table quickly! (The ingredients in parenthesis show some of my quick-prep steps.) You can always substitute your favorite made-from-scratch recipes when you have more time.

I hope you have a great week!

Sunday:
Grilled Salmon with Dill Butter
Long Grain and Wild Rice (boxed rice)
Snow Peas
Toss Salad (bottled salad dressing)
Lemon Affogato (purchased ice cream and lemoncello liqueur or lemon-flavored soft drink)

Monday
Easy Cheeseburger Pie (baking mix, shredded cheese)
Green Beans
Tomato Wedges with Blue Cheese
Sugar Cookie Apple Crisp (prepared cookie dough, canned apple pie filling)

Tuesday:
Pork Cutlets with Mushroom Sauce (sliced mushrooms; save some pork for Thursday)
Pasta of Choice
Steamed Squash Medley
Banana Pudding Tarts (purchased graham cracker tart shells, instant banana pudding mix)

Wednesday:
Speedy Chicken Divan (cooked chicken if available, frozen broccoli and cheese mix)
White Rice
Fruit Salad with Yogurt Dressing (purchased yogurt, canned Mandarin oranges, pear slices, and pineapple)
Apple Pie a la Mode (purchased apple pie and ice cream)

Thursday:
Pork Fried Rice (Pork from Tuesday; instant brown rice, sliced mushrooms)
Asian Veggie Wraps (flour tortillas, broccoli slaw mix; save some tortillas for Saturday)
Fruit Pizza Cookies (purchased sugar cookies, canned fruit, apricot jam)

Friday (May Day):
Baby Blue Salad (vegetarian; bagged salad greens, bottled vinaigrette)
Crusty Bread
Coconut Macaroons (shredded coconut, chocolate morsels)

Saturday:
Dilled Tilapia Bundles (puff pastry)
Asian Stir-Fry (frozen stir-fry veggie mix)
Cranberry-Apple Salad
Tuilles with Ice Cream (tortillas from Thursday, purchased ice cream)

I sincerely hope you have fun with your meal planning and preparation,
Elizabeth Randall and Family

These and other menu and party ideas can be found at http://www.MomsMealConnection.com The 30-Minute Menus give you instructions for preparing your complete meal in 30 minutes - flat! Party in a Bag offers ideas for 30-minute appetizer courses or cocktail parties.

MomsMealConnection is designed to help busy moms everywhere prepare meals - family meals, holiday celebrations, and special dinners plus entertaining. I am the mother of five grown children who are now starting families of their own so to say that I have 'been there, done that' is an understatement! My trick is to plan weekly menus and grocery shop only once per week. I am a firm believer that once-a-week meal planning and grocery shopping saves a lot of time and money! We can all use more of those commodities.

Old Fashion Casseroles Are Economical, Nutritious By Linda Carol Wilson

Most of us are looking for ways to stretch our food dollars without cutting back on nutrition and taste. Casseroles are the perfect solution. They usually use lesser expensive meats, combine ingredients into some very tasty combination's and they are easy for the busy cook to assemble. Here are a couple of recipes for some casseroles from my vintage recipe collection. I think you and your family will enjoy them. Phil's Mexacali Casserole combines ground beef and noodles. Hamburger-Onion Hash combines ground beef with rice.

PHIL'S MEXACALI CASSEROLE

This recipe is from an old Southern Indiana Fire Department cookbook.

1 lb ground beef
3/4 cup chopped green peppers and jalapeño peppers* mixed
3/4 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 can (17 oz) cream-style corn
1 can (16 oz) tomato sauce
1 can (4 oz) mushroom pieces
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 tsp chili powder
8 oz pkg noodles, cooked according to pkg directions and drained

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Brown the ground beef in a large skillet with the peppers and onion. When beef is browned, drain the fat. Stir in the remaining ingredients; mix together well. Turn into a buttered 2 1/2-quart casserole dish. Cover and bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

*When working with jalapeño peppers, it is a good idea to wear gloves. Do not touch hands to eyes when handling hot peppers. Remove the seeds unless you want your dish to be really hot. The heat is mostly in the seeds.

HAMBURGER-ONION HASH

1 lb lean ground beef
2 medium or 1 large yellow onions, sliced
1 medium white onion, sliced
1 can (16-oz) diced tomatoes
1 to 2 tsps chili powder, according to taste
1/2 cup uncooked regular rice
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large skillet, cook meat, onions, and bell pepper until meat is browned. Drain off excess fat. Stir in the tomatoes, rice, chili powder, salt and pepper. Pour mixture into an ungreased 2-quart casserole dish. Cover and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour until cooked through and rice is tender.

Enjoy!

For more of Linda's vintage recipes visit http://grandmasvintagerecipes.blogspot.com

For more of her recipes and diabetic information, go to http://diabeticenjoyingfood.squarespace.com