Last week we came up with 15 of our family’s favorite meals. This week’s challenge from The Happy Housewife was to add another 5 meals and list our favorite side dishes.
My first list of meals from last week included our absolute favorite main dishes. This week I’m adding a few meals that we like to splurge on once in a while:
- Taco Cheese Dip
- Breakfast for Dinner (eggs, potatoes, pancakes, homemade muffins, waffles, any combination of breakfasty foods)
- Big Chef Salad with veggies (uncooked sweet corn and raw carrots) and different meats (turkey or chicken, salami or pepperoni), shredded cheese, and fruit like raisins, craisins, pineapple bits, mandarin orange slices, apple chunks. Basically a mish-mash of an antipasto tray mixed into salad greens.
- Hot Dogs (I have a weakness, but I try to keep it in check and at least buy the quality hot dogs)
- Orange Chicken
We don’t really worry about too much variety in side dishes, we’ve got our favorites and stick to them:
- Carrots
- Mashed potatoes
- Rice
- A Simple Walk’s Simple Pull-Apart Rolls
- Potato Cheese Casserole
- Rice-a-Roni
- Corn on the cob
- Baked potatoes
- Green salad
- Tater tots
- Guacamole with chips
- Fruit cocktail
- Peaches
- Pears
- Pineapple
- Watermelon
Having our favorites lists written down really helps to make up our menu plans. Much easier than wracking my memory every week or looking back over months and months of menu plans. At least once a week I like to try a completely new recipe or a new version of something I already make just to shake things up. Sometimes I’ll find a turkey breast or spiral ham on sale or get a coupon and I surprise the family with a big deal instead of whatever mac-and-cheese with hot dogs night we had planned.
Kate’s pull apart rolls are so good! Looks like you have a great list to work from. I am still trying to get everyone (myself included) to like guacamole.
Toni
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Jen Reply:
August 27th, 2009 at 9:50 am
Thanks Toni. I just posted the recipe for my Monterey Chicken.
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We eat our fair share of hot dogs too. In fact one of our favorite meals that I didn’t even think to post is hot dogs baked in the oven with barbecue sauce on them served with mashed potatoes and spinach.
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Jen Reply:
August 27th, 2009 at 10:25 am
That sounds delicious Micha. I’ve never had a hot dog with barbeque sauce. My 3-year old would LOVE it!
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That taco cheese dip sounds amazing! I’ll definitely have to put that on my list of recipes to try! I’m also interested to try your potato cheese casserole. Thanks for the great ideas!
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Jen Reply:
August 28th, 2009 at 6:51 am
Thanks Allison! The taco dip is really great, serve it with strong chips or they’ll be sacrificed to the thick dip.
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Great list…I too have a weakness for hotdogs…we make them on the weekend for easy lunches!!
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