Weekly meal plan and Monday dinners

Here's the place to share your meal ideas for the evening, post where you bought the ingredients frugally and even share a recipe if you would like. If you need some inspiration for your own dinner tonight, this may give you some helpful ideas.

What's on your menu tonight?

* Monday: Al Fresco Smoked Andouille chicken sausage with sauteed onions and zucchini, corn on the cob, sunflower sourdough bread and honeycrisp apple slices.  The zucchini, corn, bread and apples all came from the Farmer's Market this morning. The chicken sausage was bought during HT super doubles for .50 after coupon.

Rest of the week:

* Breakfast for dinner with scrambled eggs (including spinach, mushrooms and onions for some of us), turkey bacon, pancakes and fresh fruit. Eggs and Krusteaz pancake mix on sale at HT lately. Turkey bacon in freezer from previous sale.

* Homemade vegetable soup with pasta shells and grilled cheese sandwiches (I'll probably serve this on Wednesday since it will only get up to 65 degrees that day). You can see my recipe below.

* Shrimp and veggies served on a bed of fettuccini with a light cream sauce, side salad

* Chicken teriyaki and stir fry veggies on rice with egg rolls

This vegetable soup includes some of my favorite vegetables. You can add any veggies you like (green beans, potatoes, cauliflower, etc)

2 cans (28 oz each) of diced tomatoes with liquid

4 - 6 cups chicken broth (I usually use 6 cups of water with 3 chicken bouillon cubes or 6 cups homemade chicken stock)

8 oz sliced mushrooms (although I often add 12 - 16 oz because I LOVE mushrooms!)

2 stalks celery, sliced

2 zucchini, sliced

2 yellow squash, sliced

2 carrots, sliced

1 onion, chopped

1 cup corn

1 tablespoon garlic, minced

1 bay leaf

Pepper to taste

Italian seasoning to taste (or fresh herbs at the end)

6 - 8 oz cooked pasta (I like to use medium shells)

Saute' the onions, celery and garlic in 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the rest of the veggies, canned tomatoes (including liquid in can) and chicken broth. Add any dry seasonings & pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer on low, covered, for 1 to 1.5 hours. Remove bay leaf and add in the cooked pasta. Garnish with Parmesan. Serve with crusty bread.