Menu Plan Monday — August 3

It's already time for another menu plan! Last week flew by with VBS and all the activities that go along with it, plus the girls had youth service activities in the afternoons the majority of the weekdays. It was a busy week.

It was also a little bit of a ditzy one for me. When I went to the store to buy all my big frozen bags of chicken breasts (and thank goodness I only got two of them), I got the kind with the bones still in them. I needed skinless, boneless. I don't really know what I was thinking, because it is extremely rare that I buy the kind with the bones. I actually got the first bag thawed and ready to go in a prepared marinade before I realized what I'd done, so I put the marinade in the refrigerator until the next day. The chicken, too — that way I could just boil it, and cut it up and freeze it for future casseroles.

Now there is a bit of a silver lining to all this chaos I created for myself last week. I have three recipes to bring over, which means less planning! Woo hoo!

Monday — Grilled Southwestern Pork Chops. I can highly recommend this marinade.

Tuesday — Deluxe Chicken Breasts. This is a free recipe card that I got in the mail years ago and have hung onto thinking I'd like to try it someday. I plan to double the recipe to have enough for my family.

Wednesday — I'm trying a copycat recipe for TGI Friday's Pecan-Crusted Chicken Salad, my favorite. There are at least two copycat recipes on RecipeZaar (nearly identical) and one I found somewhere else, so if the first one doesn't work I guess I can keep trying. Of course I leave off the bleu cheese crumbles.

Thursday — 5-Minute Southwest Layered Salad. Laura, The Organizing Junkie, had this a month or so ago on her menu and it looked so good and easy I just had to try it. I may have to make an alternate little something or other for a couple of picky boys.

Friday — Sloppy Joes for 8 dozen. This makes 96 servings, and I plan to cut it back to 16. I'd like it as an option for when I have to feed a large number of people at my home for a casual supper. If it works out, I'll share the recipe.

Saturday — We'll either be cleaning out the fridge and pantry, or I'll be making something with one of the bags of cut-up chicken breasts from the freezer.

Sunday — Eat out since we ate in all week!

Last week's recipe for Caribbean Chicken was very good. Since I had one of the large bags of boneless, skinless breasts from Sam's Club, we had a few pieces left over, and it was great on romaine lettuce with some balsamic vinaigrette dressing. Here's the recipe for the marinade, but keep in mind that I doubled it based on the number of chicken pieces I had.

Caribbean Chicken

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup honey
5 cloves garlic, pressed through garlic press or minced
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and coarsely chopped
2 tsp thyme
1 tsp rosemary

Place all ingredients except the chicken in a blender and pulsate until they are mixed well. It will be a nasty green color.

Pour into a Ziploc. Place chicken in the Ziploc. Close the bag, trying to get out as much air as possible. Move the chicken around in the bag to make sure it's all covered with marinade. Place in another Ziploc if you're paranoid that the first one will get a hole in it and spill in your refrigerator (like me) or place it in a shallow dish in case it does (if you have room in your refrigerator for a dish, not like me).

You can marinade this for a few hours, or most of the day for really good flavor, and then just grill it up outside on the grill. This was not spicy or hot at all. I think it's because all the jalapenos were seeded. The honey gives it a little bit of a sweet taste. We served it with pineapples and cantaloupe on the side.

This week Toni, The Happy Housewife, is hosting Menu Plan Monday for Laura. Go check the menu plans and recipes that people link up, and if you haven't visited Toni before, go check her site out too.