Menu Plan Monday October 11 - 17

HELP! I'm drowning in cucumbers! As I've mentioned before, we inherited a vegetable garden when we bought our house in June. Well, the wild bunnies ate the strawberries, the watermelon never happened, the tomatoes were teeny and the bell pepper break out in brown spots long before they mature. However peppers...cayenne, jalapeno and giant marconies are growing like crazy. We've frozen 3 freezer bags full so far and are harvesting more every day. But cucumbers are like bunnies..there are more every day! Did I mention I don't even really like cucumbers?! I like them in stuff but not alone (I like to forget that I ate them dipped in peanut butter when I was pregnant). I picked fourteen cucumbers just last week! so in an effort to not be wasteful, I have become a pickle and relish making fool ( I do love pickles!).  If you happen to be suffering from excessive cucumber syndrome as well, here is my fast and easy recipe for yummy garlic dill pickles.....

Easy Garlic Dill Pickles

4 quarts water
1 quart vinegar
3/4 teaspoon salt
Minced garlic (I used jarred)
Dill

6 cucumbers

Wash and slice cucumbers. I used a wavy cutter from Pampered Chef that made my pickles pretty.

Pack cucumber slices into jars...all the way to the top. Here's where it gets fun. You can add as little or as much of the garlic and dill as you want...it just depends on how bad you want your breath to be. I added 2 heaping tablespoons of minced garlic and a bunch of shakes of dries dill (probably 2 teaspoons worth) Bring the water, vinegar and salt to a boil. Pour over pickles and cold pack 5 to 10 minutes. The result is delicious crispy pickles that even my kids who hate pickles will eat!

 

Now, in spite of our cucumber abundance, we cannot exist on pickles alone. So here's my plan...

Monday:

Cheesy bacon dogs - an on the go dinner for busy Irish dancers!

Tuesday:

Apricot chicken

Rice

Peas

Wednesday:

Bracciole - held over from last week - darn that Irish dance! I'm just winging it this time. I making a bread stuffing, rolling it in pounded steak and tossing it in the crockpot with marinara sauce for 6 hours.

Spinach fettucini

Green beans

Thursday:

Cream cheese chicken - haven't tried this before but OMG does it sound good. there's pretty much nothing that cream cheese can't improve AND it's made in the crockpot. Can't get much better than that (unless someone else cleans it up...oh wait, sorry I was daydreaming)

Egg noodles

Glazed carrots

Friday:

Family Fun Night! 

Pizza and Teriyaki chicken nuggets

Saturday:

Boy's are having a sleepover so Build your own nachos (this didn't exactly get made last week either...we had pizza out instead), fizzy pineapple floats (Pineapple sherbet topped with pineapple soda) and peanut butter cup s'mores.

Sunday:

Extra Irish dance practice so I think we'll eat out...probably BBQ at Dickie's (great pork BBQ)

Have a great week and happy eating!

PS: Last week's surprise hit - Spinach pesto lasagne made in the crockpot (I love the recipes on A Year of Slow Cooking blog). My pickiest eater who hates eating anything green, snarfed it!

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