Thanks for visiting Values-Driven to check out our “Sample Simple Menu.” Not all of these ideas will work for everyone, but choose the ones the suit your family best, and simply be encouraged to simplify. I’ve linked to outside sites for some recipes, but often times I don’t actually use a recipe, so I’ve included all of my personal favorites on this page and you can “jump to” them by clicking on the linked text.
Monday:
Breakfast: Cornmeal Mush (regular or fried), with seasonal or available fruit
Lunch: Cream of Tomato Soup with Peanut-Butter Filled Celery
Dinner: Chef’s Salad with fresh bread
Tuesday:
Breakfast: Oatmeal with raisins and diced apples
Lunch: Homemade “no-bake” macaroni and cheese with carrot sticks
(You can also boil some frozen broccoli with your noodles and mix them together; you’ll just need more cheese & sour cream. You can also successfully substitute plain yogurt for sour cream.
Dinner: Baked or grilled chicken wings or drumsticks (BBQ or plain) with rice and vegetable
Wednesday:
Breakfast: Peanut butter and banana on toast
Lunch: Easy Grilled cheese sandwich with salad greens
Dinner: Easy Beef Stroganoff over Egg Noodles, with your choice of vegetable (for the record, I opt not to put the ketchup in the beef stroganoff)
Thursday:
Breakfast: Eggs, cooked any way you like them, with toast and/or fruit
Lunch: Quesadillas with fresh cucumber and tomato
Dinner: Spaghetti with easy homemade sauce and tossed salad and/or bread
Friday:
Breakfast: Cereal with milk and fruit
Lunch: Your favorite sandwich–PB & J, tuna salad, egg salad, or cold cuts (though personally, we use these sparingly)–with fresh fruit or vegetable
Dinner: Hamburger and Baked beans with cornbread (baked beans can be homemade in advance)
Saturday:
Breakfast: Buttermilk pancakes with syrup, and breakfast meat (if desired)–of course, if you don’t have buttermilk you can substitute sour milk (add 1 T of lemon juice or vinegar to 1 c. of milk and let it set a few minutes), or you can use plain yogurt.
Lunch: Bean soup or “Soup du jour”
Dinner: Leftovers
Sunday:
Breakfast: Apple salad with peanut butter toast
Lunch: Rice/Vegetable mix
Dinner: Crockpot meatloaf with potatoes and vegetable.
(I love this meatloaf recipe–but I don’t buy individual packets of brown gravy mix. I buy a bulk container of it at Sam’s and just add a few tablespoons or so to the mixture.)
Easy/Inexpensive Snacks:
Saltine crackers with American cheese slices (one slice can be quartered for 4 saltines)
Apple slices with plain yogurt dip
Plain or lightly salted popcorn
Dessert Ideas:
Pudding pie (Just make a nut crust or graham cracker crust and fill with 2 prepared boxes of your favorite pudding or the
equivalent of homemade pudding)
Custard pie (can you tell my husband likes pie?)
Recipes
My Favorite Cream of Tomato Soup
Whisk together in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat:
1, 6-oz. can of tomato paste
2 cups of evaporated milk (or you can substite regular or powdered milk)
approx. 1/8 c. of italian seasoned bread crumbs (or equivalent of plain bread crumbs plus 1 tsp. or so of italian seasoning)
salt to taste
Heat over medium low until warmed through; do not allow to boil. Serve plain or with cheese or chives as garnish.
I have read that leaf lettuce is more nutritious than head lettuce, so I get a 6-pack of romaine lettuce at Sam’s Club every month. This actually allows me to use the lettuce all month, with very little spoil (just don’t wash the lettuce until you’re ready to use it!). Instead of one head that gets brown and wilted once cut or ripped apart, the individual heads are each 1-2 meals, depending on whether salad is a main dish or a side. I also get a large bag of organic baby spinach at Sam’s, and this has remarkable longevity, as long as I pick through it every 3-4 days and fish out the leaves that are starting to look yucky.
For our Chef’s Salad, I toss together the following in a large bowl:
1 head of chopped romaine lettuce (or equivalent of iceberg lettuce)
about 2 c. of baby spinach or chopped spinach leaves
1/2 or 1 whole sliced cucumber (cutting it in 1/4 slices makes it seem like there’s more, and it’s
easier for little ones to eat)
Some kind of meat: bacon bits, pepperoni, cubed chicken…once I even crumbled in some leftover meatloaf, and it was yummy!
Cheese: cut in some of your favorite cheese or sprinkle on some shreds
2-3 peeled and sliced boiled eggs
Anything else you’d like: pine nuts, raisins, croutons, you name it! Get creative.
Note, of course you can put in tomatoes but I rarely purchase them. I only put them in if we have some fresh from the garden.
Sample Homemade Dressing
(Honey Mustard flavor)
I’ll be honest, I never measure, so just experiment with the flavor and add more of something if needed.
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small amount of apple cider vinegar (<1/8 c.)
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about 2 T. honey and 1 T. mustard
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a few tablepoons of olive oil (can substitute vegetable oil if desired)
Stir ingredients together and add in enough water to dilute it to a good taste–maybe 1/2 c.
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Add salt to taste
Stir before serving on salad.
I’d venture to say that almost everone knows how to make a traditional grilled cheese sandwich. For a super-easy sandwich, I load my toaster oven (not toaster, mind you, but toaster oven) with bread slices and put cheese (shredded or sliced) on half of them. After they’re toasted, I just match the cheese halves with the naked halves–and, voila! a modified grilled cheese sandwich. I sometimes spray it with a butter spray which I make myself using buttermilk, vegetable oil, melted butter, and a bit of salt (kind of like the butter spray you’d buy at the store, only cheaper!)
You will need:
- large flour tortillas (I learned the hard way that corn tortillas don’t work well–they break when you fold
them) - a small can of refried beans (enough to spread a light layer over 1/2 of each tortilla)
- shredded cheese of your choice
- oil
Spread 1/2 of each tortilla with a layer of refried beans–more or less to suit your taste. Sprinkle some shredded cheese on top and fold the tortilla over in half.
Once all tortillas are assembled, cover the bottom of a large frying pan with oil and heat over med/high heat. Fry the tortillas in batches–cook one side and turn over when lightly browned. Remove to paper towels and serve when all tortillas have been fried.
For added flavor, you can dip these in salsa at the table. For a little variety, mix refried beans and guacamole.
Chop 1/2 large green pepper and 1 small onion
In a large dutch oven brown the pepper and onion with approx. 1/2 lb. of your choice of meat: italian sausage or hamburger (if desired). Break up the meat as it cooks. You can also add minced garlic, garlic powder, or garlic salt.
Once meat is cooked and vegetables are tender, whisk in 2 small cans or 1 large can of
tomato paste and approximately 3-4 cups water. The usual ratio is 1 c. water per 6 oz. can of tomato paste, but I add 1-1/2 or even 2 cups of water and then thicken it further by adding small amounts of bread crumbs until the sauce is the desired consistency. Season to taste with italian seasoning, salt, and a small amount of sugar (if desired). Heat through and serve over cooked pasta.
(Note: I saw on a cooking show once that professional chefs make spaghetti sauce less watery for presentation purposes by adding some bread crumbs to the sauce–so I just apply that concept to stretch the amount of tomato paste I use, whether for tomato soup or tomato sauce.)
I remember “hamburger and beans” from my childhood. My mom just browned 3/4 poud or so of hamburger in a pan and added a few cans of baked beans. If they were plain, she’d put in a little ketchup and mustard and some brown sugar. Heat it through, and enjoy! I still use this recipe but I make my own baked beans. I have a favorite pressure cooker recipe, but here’s a traditional one.
If you’re making your own beans, don’t forget they should be soaked overnight prior to cooking–so be prepared by remembering to set them out in a pot of water the night before you’ll be making the beans.
I can put everything but the kitchen sink in a soup, and I don’t really follow a recipe, so you may have to modify it a bit–but you’ll get the idea.
Soak beans overnight in water (either a “bean soup mix” of beans or your own hodge-podge of kinds). Rinse and drain.
Cover beans with double their volume of water in a large dutch oven. Bring the water to a boil and then simmer for about an hour.
Chop 2-3 carrots, 1 large pepper and 1 small onion and add them to the pot. Continue cooking for another 45 minutes or so, until beans and vegetables are tender. You can put in 1/2 or 3/4 c. of rice during the last half-hour or so (less cook time if you’re using minute rice). Add seasoning to taste (salt and pepper, cumin is good, maybe some red pepper and parsley). Sometimes for flavor I add in a couple of chicken cubes. I’ve even been known to mix a cup or so of sour cream with a few tablespoons of flour and whisk it into the soup after everything has cooled a bit. Then bring it up to temperature again and continue to simmer and stir for a few minues–but don’t let it boil! You’ll have a nice creamy bean chowder.
“Soup du Jour” would be whatever you happen to have available (preferably not something in a can). Here’s a recipe for a good chicken stock to get you started.
In a pinch, I toss a few chicken bouillon cubes in a pot with a few cups of water, add some of my favorite seasonings, boil it with some chopped carrots, celery, onions, and a bit of rice, and add some leftover cubed chicken (I almost always have some in a Ziploc bag in the freezer). If I have time, the kids love it without the rice but with dumplings. Yum!
Likewise, I have used beef bouillon cubes to make a quick soup with leftover hamburger. I add frozen green beans or mixed vegetables and diced fresh potatoes, boiling over medium/high heat until the vegetables are tender (potatoes typically take less time to cook, so put them in a little later than the other veges.)
Chop enough apples to feed your crew (we use about 6 apples for 8 of us). Mix the apples with raisins and chopped walnuts or pecans (about 1/3 c.). Toss the apples with plain or vanilla-flavored yogurt or a mix of yogurt and sour cream. As a variation, mix about 1/2 c. honey with 1/2 c. melted peanut butter and toss the apple mixture to coat.