Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for late May

Chicken in curried peanut sauce

Friday

Chicken in curried peanut sauce, with radish greens and celery
Brown rice
Green salad, with mock bleu cheese dressing
Rhubarb custard pie

Saturday

Assorted sandwiches (freebie today)
Fresh grapes and cherry tomatoes (freebie today)
Cole slaw (freebie today, extended with extra cabbage)
mushrooms sauteed in butter (freebie today)
Layer cake (freebie today)

Green salad with dried cranberries, with Rhubarb dressing, from Tuesday

Sunday

Ham and cheddar green quiche
Brown rice
Honey-mustard glazed carrots
Leftover cake

Tomato-Florentine soup

Monday

Tomato-florentine soup
Toasted cheese sandwiches
Green salad
Leftover cake

Meatballs, mushrooms and celery in gravy over rice

Tuesday

Meatballs, mushrooms, and celery in gravy, over
Brown rice
Sauteed Swiss chard
Green salad with rhubarb dressing

Wednesday's hot dog wrap, with potato and garden greens hash

Wednesday

Hot dogs in bread wraps
Hashed potatoes and garden greens in bacon fat
Brownies

having-a-bad-day brownies -- see one is missing already

Thursday

Refried bean, rice and cheese tacos
Oven-roasted carrots
Green salad with rhubarb dressing
Leftover brownies



We had so many delicious items on this week's menu. Starting at the top, the chicken and radish greens in curried peanut sauce. This meal came about as a way to disguise a huge pile of radish greens (they cooked down quite a bit, so they don't look like a huge pile, here). A garlicky, curried peanut butter sauce completely camouflaged the sharp flavor of the radish greens.

Next favorite would have to be the meatballs and celery in gravy over rice. I love meatballs. I feel like I get a much more beefy flavor and texture by making meatballs, as opposed to just frying ground beef into crumbles. The mushrooms were given to us last weekend. I made a fantastic cream of mushroom soup, for Sunday's lunch, with about half of the mushrooms. With the other half, I sauteed some for Saturday's dinner, and then used the last in the gravy for these meatballs.

Also that night, I made a batch of this rhubarb salad dressing to top a simple salad of green leaf lettuce and dried cranberries. Very delicious. This particular salad has been repeated in lunches a couple of times this week.

The night that I made the hot dog wraps I was in a bit of a conundrum as to how to prepare a mixture of radish greens and the last of the fall Swiss chard. I thought of hashing them along with potatoes, in bacon fat. Very yummy. First I cooked the potato cubes in the bacon fat, until well-browned, then added the shredded garden greens. I added a bit of onion powder and salt towards the end of cooking. Completely masked the green-y taste of all of those greens.

And those brownies -- well, I had quite a day on Wednesday, complete with over-flowing washing machine, and a clogged shower drain to unclog. It just wasn't my day. So, I did the most logical next thing. I took a batch of brownies out of the freezer, and topped them with a really decadent mint-chocolate frosting, combining a cocoa buttercream with peppermint melting wafers (leftover from Christmas clearance). The end frosting is more like a ganache, firm, but not hard. Like a piece of fudge, but with a brownie attached. I'd say that's a Win. Win!

Have a great weekend!

Toasted hot dog wraps, using slices of bread

I had a super busy day, yesterday. I was scrubbing the deck, cleaning the bathrooms, organizing a closet and doing a little gardening. I don't know what got into me!

I had nothing planned for dinner. I had cooked some beans, but I didn't really want to do anything with them. I decided to save them for tonight. But that still left me with nothing planned for yesterday's dinner.

I do my best menu-planning while I'm busy working away at something else. I start to think of what all is in the kitchen, what could go with what, and how to make it all tasty.

I knew I had hot dogs in the fridge. But I didn't want to take the time to bake any buns or make biscuit dough. Enter this 1950s-1960s budget family favorite -- hot dog wraps, using bread slices. My mom made these when I was very young. It's how I thought hot dogs were always served, until our family's finances improved. Then we were livin' the high life -- we had buns!

Anyways, I made these last night, like my mom's, but a bit healthier (I used homemade whole wheat bread, and much less butter).

These wraps work best with soft bread, like commercial sandwich bread. However, I do it with homemade bread, either freshly baked, or 1 day old. If I use 1 day old bread, I microwave each slice (one at a time) for 13 seconds, then work quickly to wrap the slice around the dog and secure.

Hot dog wraps, using sliced bread

Generously butter a small baking dish. (For 5 wrapped hot dogs, I use an 8 X 8 inch pyrex baker.) Preheat oven to 375 F.

Lay 1 hot dog on 1 slice of bread, on the diagonal. Wrap the hot dog in the bread slice. Secure with 3 toothpicks, through the bread and the hot dog. Place in the buttered baking dish.

Bake for 15-17 minutes at 375 degrees F (less time if using commercial bread, 10-12 minutes total), until the outside dog-wraps are toasty, and the hot dog is hot. Remove the toothpicks before serving. The bread will hold its folded over shape, making a "bun".

Top with regular hot dog toppings.

Optional -- my mom used to add a slice of American cheese, and a smear of mustard, between the bread slice and the hot dog, before rolling up.

There you have it -- a busy afternoon. Need a quick, cheap and easy dinner. Hot dogs, but no buns.

I use my own whole wheat sandwich bread when I make these. But I think if you really want the full nostalgia factor, you've got to use fluffy, white sandwich bread, and butter each slice of bread before wrapping (just butter the outside of each slice), and the American cheese is practically mandatory!


Who, here, remembers these?