Easter will be here soon! Do you have family or friends coming this week? My family will start arriving Friday night, so I’ve planned a simple dinner on Friday and a crab boil for Saturday. There is simply nothing easier or more fun than boiling a crab for a crowd!
You’ll find ‘cook once, eat twice’ menus with London Broil on Sunday followed by Black and Blue Salad later in the week. I’ve found that if the meals that use leftovers are quite different, everyone is happy and won’t say “Oh no, not leftovers again!” I’ve added hints of spring throughout the week just to get us ready for the Easter holidays.
The Crab Boil Saturday night menu has a couple of variations on the normal “boil” just to keep it interesting! If the weather is nice, we’ll spread newspapers on the picnic table and eat outside (How’s that for a fun night out?). To start, I’ll be serving the casual ‘Party in a Bag’ from At the Cheese Ball: cheese balls, summer sausage, pear and veggie platter, salsa, garlic mustard, crackers, and pecans. I will also be serving white wine and beer along with a variety of soft drinks.
You will find that I use various cooking methods, mix and match, to get dinner on the table fast! (Ingredients in parentheses show some of my quick prep steps.) You can always substitute your favorite made-from-scratch recipes when you have more time.
Hope you have a great week!
Sunday:
London Broil (save some meat for Wednesday)
Corn Tomato Blue Cheese Salad (canned corn, crumbled blue cheese; save some blue cheese for Wednesday)
Baked potatoes (microwaved and baked to finish)
Single Layer Chocolate Cake (Boxed Cake Mix)
Monday
Grilled Shrimp with Greek Vegetable Sauce (cleaned and deveined shrimp, canned tomatoes and ripe olives)
new potatoes
corn on the cob
Ice Cream with Apple Crunch Topper (purchased ice cream)
Tuesday:
BBQ Chicken Sandwiches (cooked chicken if available, bottled BBQ sauce)
Buns and condiments (store-bought buns, jarred condiments)
potato wedges
Cole Slaw (bagged salad mix, jarred salad dressing)
Fruit Pizza Cookies (store bought sugar cookie dough)
Wednesday:
Black and Blue Salad (Sunday Beef and Blue Cheese; Bagged Vegetable Salad)
Rolls (purchased rolls)
Strawberries with Sour Cream and Brown Sugar Dippers
Thursday:
Lemon Pork Chops
Angel hair pasta (boxed pasta)
fresh broccoli spears
Rice Krispy Treats (rice cereal, mini-marshmallows, chocolate bites)
Friday (Good Friday):
Quick Minestrone Soup (vegetarian; dried tortellini, canned tomatoes, mixed vegetables, and navy beans)
waldorf salad
Crunchy Bread (purchased bread)
Cherry Cobbler (puff pastry, canned cherry pie filling)
Saturday:
Boiled crab for a crowd
Potato salad (canned potatoes)
Spring Vegetable Salad (cherry tomatoes, bottled vinaigrette)
Individual Corn Puddings (canned corn)
Angel Food Torte (store bought angel food cake, instant pudding mix)
I sincerely hope you have fun planning and preparing your meals.
Elizabeth Randall and family