Quick & easy & rather mindless menu of meals -
Monday : Minute Steaks w/ Sweet Potatoes & beans
Tuesday: Taco Salad
Wednesday: Spaghetti w/ salad
Thursday: Smoked sausage & Black beans over rice
Friday: Fried Rice w/ Salad
Saturday: Cook Out or Free day
Sunday:Chicken & Dumplins
Ingredients:Lettuce, 2 onions, 2 bell peppers, 2 tomatoes, enough salad requirements for 2 meals, dried pinto beans, dried black beans, sweet potatoes, celery, corn tortilla chips, spaghetti noodles, rice, pack of flour tortillas, cream of chicken soup, tomato paste, taco seasoning, spaghetti seasoning, soy sauce, sour cream,shredded cheese,hot sauce, 2 or 3 eggs, chunked meat bits of choice, 2lbs ground beef, raw chicken, cube steaks, smoked sausage, sandwich bags & optional baked beans, potato chips, hamburger meat & fixins
Sunday night, put dried pinto beans and water in crockpot to soak.
Monday morning, turn the CP on low.
Monday evening grill minute steaks and bake sweet potatoes. Serve with part of the cooked pinto beans.
\\ - how I make minute steaks is I bring the steak to room temp while having it sit in seasonings and chopped onion & green pepper. I preheat the oven to 500 WITH my cast iron skillet(s) inside while it heats. I then remove them & immediately place steaks on the hot skillet now place on stove top on HIGH heat. Don't move them for 2mins. I have the onion & peppers in the skillet as well. After 2mins I flip them over & let sit for another 2mins undisturbed. I then place the skillet(s) with steaks in it into the oven for 3-5mins. I then flip the steaks & let sit in foil covered skillet for 5-10mins. The steak continues to cook during this time.\\
Add water to left over beans and let cook on low all night.
Tuesday- 1hr prep needed. Wash & shred lettuce, chop onion & bell pepper & dice a tomato. brown 2lbs of ground beef.Once browned, Put 1/2 (1lb) back in fridge in a plastic bag. Season other half with taco seasoning. Lay out sour cream, shredded cheese, hot sauce or salsa, corn chips, chopped veggies , the beans that are by this point now re-fried beans and the seasoned beef. Now build your own taco salads. Clean your CP.
Wednesday at around noon-ish put the other pound of cooked beef, along with some chopped & sauteed onions, some bell pepper chopped & diced celery into CP. turn to low or Med temp. Add crushed tomatoes, can of tomato paste & spaghetti seasonings. 1hr before dinner heat water for noodles and cook them. Check contents of CP and decide if you should raise or lower the temp. add noodles to crock-pot 10mins before eating . Serve with a salad.
Rinse out Crock-Pot and put in dried black beans to soak over night (add water too )
Thursday morning, turn CP on low. 2hrs before dinner add cut smoked sausage to beans. Cook enough rice for 2meals. Serve beans& sausage over rice and top with sour cream, chopped onion, diced tomato, grated cheese & any left over chopped bell pepper.
put left over rice in a bag and place in fridge to be used for Friday's dinner. Add water to left over black beans and throw in a handful of uncooked rice. Let simmer overnight and enjoy as Friday lunch.
clean crock pot.
Friday take leftover rice and place in pan & make fried rice [ oil & garlic in a skillet after they've cooked a little add cooked rice. add minced onions, salt & pepper as desired] chop up some onion and saute with your meat choice chunks. Scramble eggs. Add it all to rice now. If using meat add in some corn starch. add in soy sauce. Either serve with salad or add frozen stir fry or veggie medley of choice when adding in meat.
Saturday, Free day = Eat out /Date night/ have a picnic/ or Cook out. BBQ some hamburgers. Open a can of baked beans, Serve with potato chips and a cookie for dessert
Prepare/ cut up raw chicken into small portions to have it ready for Sunday morning.( Next meal is intended to be served at lunch time.)
Early Sunday morning put chicken, cut up stalk of celery either chopped or halved, and a can of cream of chicken soup into CP and season. cook on low. 2hrs before eating [or before leaving for church] cut up some flour tortillas into 2inch wide slices. drop them into CP.
This is just a meal idea so you'll have to adjust it to you & hubby's liking, and health requirements. Feel free to substitute with leaner meats and brown rice or whatever.
Re: Crock Pot Week (7days worth of meals that carry into the next)
My Husband complained about the amount of beans he had to consume in a week with this menu.
This was the menu I used my very first cooking ever. I have loved learning to cook ever since.