Menu for June 29th - July 5th

kind of a light week in meal planning this week with lots going on to take up dinnertime :)

Monday: Eggplant and Mushroom Strogonoff
Tuesday: dinner with small group
Wednesday: grilled cheese
Thursday: Cilantro Lime Chicken
Friday: quick bite before or at the Fourth of July festival
Saturday: grill at block party (make fruit salad and ??)
Sunday: Ginger Steak Salad (never made it last week)

keeping our cool- Menu for June 22nd - June 28th

We're in the midst of a little heat wave around here... upper ninety degree temps with the heat index up over 110. Yuck.

We've been spending most of the day at the pool, every day, and that's pretty much my plan for the week. Which means two things: When I finally drag the kids out of the water at the end of the day, I want to come home and have minimum prep for dinner... without turning on the stove or the oven.

A week of meals without (or minimal) cooking? Here's some of what I've come up with:

Monday: Cold Ham Sandwich Pizza with corn on the cob
Tuesday: Pepperoni Pasta Salad with bread and nice big green grapes
Wednesday: Sausage, cheese and cracker platter with fruits and veggies
Thursday: No-Cook Tomato Sauce and pasta with broccoli steamed in the microwave
Friday: pizza party with the neighbors at the pool
Saturday: Ginger Steak Salad
Sunday: Pulled Pork Sandwiches

No-Cook Pizza

I found this recipe after looking high and low for another no-cook main dish that wasn't all veggies and wraps hoping maybe my kids would eat it.


Cold Ham Sandwich Pizza

• 1/2 cup cream cheese with chives, softened
  
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 2 Tbsp. horseradish sauce
• 1 prepared Boboli® pizza crust
• 1-1/2 cups chopped cooked ham
• 1-1/2 cups chopped plum tomatoes
• 1/2 cup shredded lettuce
• 1/4 cup creamy Italian salad dressing

In small bowl, combine cream cheese, mayonnaise, and horseradish sauce and blend well. Spread over the pizza crust. Top with ham, plum tomatoes, and lettuce and drizzle with salad dressing. Cut into wedges and serve immediately. (6 servings)

I tweaked it a just a tad to fit what we had in our kitchen:
I used regular cream cheese and mixed it with the mayo and a little shot of dijon mustard since we're not a horseradish family.
I chopped up the deli ham I had, rather than cubed cooked ham, and made up my own pizza crust; I already had the oven on in the early morning making some quick breakfast bars, so I mixed up a Jiffy pizza crust (adding some garlic parmesan seasoning to the dough since I was going to be working with plain cream cheese) and popped it in the oven while it was on. Then I just left it out on the counter to cool and rest until we topped it cold at dinnertime.

Sawyer helped me spread the cheese mixture and sprinkle on the lettuce, tomatoes and ham. We threw some corn on the cob on the stove for a few minutes (so it wasn't a completely no-cook meal) and dinner was served.






























I had hoped Sawyer would be more likely to try it since he helped me make it; but notsomuch. He basically picked off a little ham off of his piece and called it good. Savannah did better, but didn't finish it. Ryan said he liked it but didn't seem blown away by it or anything. He did eat two pieces though...

I, on the other hand, loved this pizza! I was so nice and cool and refreshing. The cream cheese "sauce" was perfect and the fresh toppings were nice and light. I will definitely be coming back to this idea throughout the summer. I may pick up a Boboli or two to have on hand... or it would be really good on some focaccia bread or something similar.
Yum!!