Menu Plan Monday

Monday - Hot Italian Meatball Sandwiches

Tuesday - Black Bean Soup

Wednesday - Macaroni & Cheese

Thursday - Beef Tacos

Friday - clean-out-the-fridge

Saturday - Hungarian Goulash

All the recipes this week are new (yes, even the mac & cheese recipe is a new version). If they turn out well, I'll type them up and post and add in some links from this post. I know that life would be easier if I would just stick with tried-and-true meals, but that's too boring for me - I love trying new things.

Update 1: Behind schedule, because L wanted to go out for lunch Monday and we were both pretty full from that so I didn't cook any dinner that night.  We snacked on cheese and crackers instead.  

Tuesday we had the meatball sandwiches.  I had never made meatballs before, believe it or not! I'm not really a fan of them, so I hadn't been motivated to try them, but L likes them so I finally made them.  They weren't too bad, but I think the first ones I made I didn't pack together tightly enough.  When I browned them in my saute pan they fell apart some.  I packed the second round much more tightly and they held together much better.

L thought the meatballs and sauce were great, but didn't like how the sandwich didn't hold together well enough to pick up & eat it.  It was definitely a knife-and-fork sandwich.  He'll have leftovers for lunch this week and things it may work better cold.

The recipe came from 150 Best Slow Cooker Recipes, which I have found to be a fantastic collection of recipes.  They tend to be a bit more work than some slow cooker (crock-pot) recipes, in that none of them have just had ingredients dumped into the cooker, but I don't mind spending more time prepping things and browning items first when the results are so much better than other recipes I've tried.  I checked the book out from the library and am loving it!

Update 2:
Black bean soup was delicious. Based on a recipe from the cookbook Desperation Dinners, I sauteed an onion, then added stewed tomatoes, two cans of black beans, frozen corn, chicken broth & lots of salsa. Seasonings included garlic, oregano & I don't remember what else I dumped in there. Chili powder maybe? Served it with corn bread & some sour cream or cheddar cheese as topper. It was fantastic. L loved it and said we need to have it again.

Didn't make any of the other three. L was gone one night, we had family visiting another night & they wanted to go out. We did keep the clean-out-the-fridge night though. :)