Meg's Meal Planning

lunch

Father’s Day Lunch

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What a beautiful day it ended up being for Father’s Day! Just like Mother’s Day Brunch, my husband and I hosted our families to celebrate our dads! This time we had 9 guests: my parents, two brothers, grandparents, uncle, and my mother and father in-law! Unfortunately, the early afternoon was super humid, so we all stayed inside, but it ended up working out nicely. We fit some extra chairs around our kitchen table and set the food up like a buffet.  Everyone served themselves! Here’s the menu.

Appetizers

  • Greek dip – This was a big hit!
  • Pineapple salsa
  • Pepperoni and broccoli bread- My Nannie makes the best stuffed bread! I’ve never attempted to make broccoli bread before, but I can make pepperoni bread. Of course, it never comes out as good as hers!

Pepperoni Bread

Ingredients 

  • Store-prepared pizza dough
  • 1 package of thinly sliced pepperoni
  • 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Steps

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
  2. Roll out dough on a sprayed cookie sheet
  3. When preparing, deal with the dough in thirds. Lay sliced pepperoni and cheese down on the top 1/3 of the dough, leaving enough dough to fold over the pepperoni and cheese
  4. Roll dough over the pepperoni and cheese and top with another layer. Now fold over the remaining dough on top of the second layer. Tuck excess dough in to seal pepperoni and cheese inside
  5. Bake for 30 minutes

 

 

Main dish

  • Pulled pork – My amazing hubby got up at 5:30 a.m. to put this in the crock pot! What a keeper!
  • Cornbread
  • Baked beans
  • Coleslaw – I was going to make the McCarrick Family Coleslaw (It’s amazing, my family loves it!), but my mom offered to buy coleslaw from a local restaurant-Shady Glen. When someone offers to bring you coleslaw from there, you don’t say no!
  • Baked squash and zucchini – We originally planned to grill them, but since it was supposed to rain, we decided to cook them in the oven.
    • For the veggies, we sliced them about an inch thick, layed them on a baking dish, drizzeled them with olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper and baked at 350 degrees for 40 minutes

 

Dessert

 

  
I love when our families get together. We had a great day and some delicious food!

Fried rice with leftover Mother’s Day ham

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Yesterday was an amazing day celebrating our moms with plenty of food!  For the Mother’s Day recap, click here. After everyone went back for seconds or thirds, there was still some leftovers, which I was secretly hoping for so it would give me a night off from cooking this week! So after packing up a to-go box for my brothers, I had about 6 slices of ham left over. Perfect!  That’s enough to reheat one night for dinner for the hubs and me, and it left me with just enough to make fried rice for lunch!

At first I thought ham in fried rice would be a little strange, but who cares! Fried rice is one of those great versatile meals that you can add just about any leftover protein – chicken, steak, shrimp, etc. – and make a full meal out of it.  It has all three components – protein, startch, and vegetables. If you use brown rice and low sodium soy sauce, it gets even healthier! YAY! I didn’t have any peas, so I used brocolli instead.

 

 

Chop garlic, carrots, and broccoli

 

 

Cook veggies in frying pan

 

 

Push veggies to side, add egg , and scramble

 

 

Add cooked rice and ham, heat through

 

Ingredients                            Serving size – 2      Prep time – 15 mins     Cook time – 20 mins

  • 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
  • Sesame oil
  • 1/2 cup carrots, shredded or chopped into tiny pieces
  • 1/2 cup raw broccoli, chopped into tiny pieces
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup brown rice
  • 2 slices cooked ham – or any type of protein

1. Cook rice according to packaged directions

2. While rice is cooking, heat large frying pan over medium-low heat. Add 1/2 tablespoon sesame oil to pan. Then add garlic, carrots, and broccoli. Cook until tender, about 5 mins, stirring frequently.

2. Push veggie mixture over to the side of the pan and add another 1/2 tablespoon sesame oil.  Add the egg and scramble it

3. Mix veggie mixture into eggs and add cooked rice, soy sauce, and ham. Turn heat to low and allow to cook until heated through.

Perfect lunch serving for me and hubby!