Weekly Menu on Monday er Wednesday

In an effort to be more organized and better prepared, I'm going to start trying to plan my weekly dinner menu on Mondays (We had some company the past couple of days, so I'm a little late this week, but I haven't had to cook at home yet!).

I will start this out by saying that I like flexibility and variety when it comes to dinner, and I doubt I'll ever be one of those folks that plans out exactly what we will be eating for dinner on every particular night of the week. Rather, I'm going to plan out 5-7 meals per week, and then make whatever sounds good each night! :) I'm planning on trying out lots of new recipes, so I'll have to report back on how they turn out.

1. Chicken Enchiladas (casserole)
• Layer corn tortillas, green chile enchilada sauce, cooked chicken, and Mexican shredded cheese twice. Top with an additional layer of corn tortillas, sauce, and cheese. Bake at 350° for about 30 minutes or until cheese is melted. Serve with tortilla chips. Super easy!
2. Chicken Pasta Bake with a green vegetable (either salad, green beans, or broccoli) - I'm not sure where this recipe came from so I can't give credit. I've never tried this recipe, but it looks good. I'll be substituting an Italian shredded cheese mix for the Monterey Jack cheese.
• 8 oz cooked bow tie pasta; 1 small onion, chopped; 1 Tbsp. butter; 2 eggs; 1-1/4 cups milk; 1 tsp. dried Italian seasoning, 1/4-1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper; 2 cups cooked chicken; 2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese; 1/4 grated Parmesan cheese; 1/2 cup bread crumbs; 1/2 tsp. paprika, 1 Tbsp. butter.
• Preheat oven to 350°. In a medium skillet cook onion in butter and garlic over medium heat until tender. Remove from heat and set aside. In a bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, seasoning, salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper. Stir in chicken Monterey Jack cheese, half of the grated Parmesan, cooked pasta, and onion. Transfer mixture to a baking dish. Bake, covered, 20 minutes. In a small bowl, combine remaining Parmesan, bread crumbs, paprika, and melted butter. Sprinkle mixture over pasta. Bake, uncovered, 10 minutes more until golden.
3. Chicken and Sausage with cornbread and black-eyed peas
4. "Quick" Lasagna - This is a Rachael Ray recipe, but I tweak it some (for instance, I use whatever pasta I have on hand, use all beef stock instead of red wine, and eliminate the panchetta or use bacon instead). I also plan to use ground turkey instead of ground beef.
5. Grilled chicken, potatoes (not sure how I'll cook them yet), and fried yellow squash

We don't normally eat that much chicken every week (I like variety in the proteins we use) but we got a lot of chicken at the store, so we're eating more chicken this week. I plan to start stockpiling more on my meats, but because we've been out of town so much lately most of my supply has completely diminished.

On a side note, due to Ella's milk allergy, I often have to prepare her alternative dinners or pull parts of our dinner out before I add anything with milk in it.