Weekly Menu, Recipes, Frugal Ham for meals

Back to real life... This week's menues were more difficult (and more costly) than normal, as my poor freezer is completely empty after we lost power in mid-September. I normally combine what I have in the freezer (including tomato and spaghetti sauces, vegetables) with what's on sale at Krogers to come up with my weekly menu. Yesterday I spent several hours "studying" the Kroger sale flyer to come up with meals at a reasonable cost. I'm not sure I realized how much I depended on my freezer!

Monday  Spaghetti with Italian Sausage (on sale) Salad  Tuesday  Meatloaf (made last week and frozen) with beef gravy (canned, on sale) Baked potatoes (cook extra for Wednesday) Corn  Wednesday  Sausage Biscuits (homemade biscuits, sausage on sale) Scrambled Eggs Home Fries Thursday - Meatless Meal  Indian food - On sale at local market - Includes: Samosa's - Small pastry triangles filled with potatoes and peas Dal Masala Curry - Lentils with tomatoes, onions and spices Palak Paneer - Cubes of cheese mixed with spicy spinach Garlic Naan - A wonderful spicy flat bread Friday  Crockpot Chicken Alfredo Cornbread Saturday  Leftovers from the week or possibly a homemade soup Sunday Plans to eat out Recipe - Crustless Quiche
I made a crustless quiche yesterday. It's one of those recipes I do "a little of this, a little that" based on what veggies and meats I have in the refrigerator to use up. We had it for dinner last night along with a fresh fruit salad (I had fruit going bad in the fridge, cut out the "spots", cubed up the fruit - kiwi, peaches, bananas and blueberries), and an English Muffin. Much to my surprise, Jeff said, "This is the best quiche you've ever made!" High praise, because he loves all my cooking (except fish). So I quickly wrote down what I put in the quiche, and here's what I came up with. Adjust kind of veggies and meats according to what you have leftover!

Leftovers: 1 to 2 cups diced veggies
10 ounces block swiss cheese, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 cup cubed meat
I used: Vegetables 1/2 cup diced celery 3/4 cup brocolli florets 1/4 cup diced onion Meat 3/4 cup diced ham* 1/4 cup diced pepperoni
Thoroughly Pam-Spray a pie baking dish. Place the cubed swiss cheese on the bottom so it is evenly distributed and almost covers the bottom of the dish. This will actually form a nice solid bottom layer to the quiche, almost like a bottom crust. Place your diced and cubed vegetables and meat on top of the swiss cheese. Then whisk the following in a small mixing bowl until thoroughly blended: 8 eggs 1/2 cup mayonnaise (I use Canola Mayo) 1/2 cup milk (I used half and half) 1/4 cup Ranch dressing 1/2 tsp celery salt 1/2 tsp black pepper 1/4 tsp salt (use 1/2 tsp if you're not worried about the salt content) 1/3 cup Bisquik Slowly and carefully pour egg mixture over your veggies and meats. Pour all around the edges first, then fill in the center. On top of the filled pie, sprinkle 1 to 2 cups of grated cheddar cheese (I've also used pepperjack and Colby). Bake in preheated oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, then turn your oven down to 325 degrees and bake about 30 more minutes or until you can stick a knife in middle of pie and it doesn't come out wet. Let cool for at least an hour. This quiche is best just slightly warm, and even better the next day!

With only two of us, we will get three meals -- our dinner last night, one breakfast and one lunch. Because it's not a "watery" quiche (thanks to the 1/3 cup Bisquick), it wraps up easily for a take-to-work lunch for Jeff. And by the way - I don't like eggs of any kind -- not scrambled, fried, poached, hard boiled - nadda. I haven't liked them since I was a kid. I do, however, love my quiche! It's the only egg-based dish I'll eat because it doesn't have a serious "eggy" flavor to it. Budget Buster Ham: In our area, at the deli counter you can buy "Cooked Ham" (in New England it's called "Boiled Ham") for under $3 a pound, often on sale for $1.99 lb. (compared to other lunchmeats at $6-$9 per pound). I ask the deli folks to give me ONE slice, between 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick, which is about one half pound. I take this home and cut it into small cubes. I can actually get three good meals out of this $1-$2 worth of ham -- In the summer I add it to salads for a Chef Salad. I also add it to cheese omelettes, macaroni and cheese, or canned baked beans, and in the winter I add it to corn chowder or cream of potato soup. Considering the price of meat these days, this is a good value and little goes a long way!