No, not really. As I’m beginning this post it’s really Thursday, but any day can be YOUR Monday, or New Year’s Day, the first day of school, or any other day of new beginnings. So, what do you want to do with your Monday?
It’s so easy for a good habit to be replaced by those bad ones. Sometimes the change is brought on by circumstances, but most of the time that negative habit is continued through plain old laziness. Let me give you and example: A couple of months ago Michael’s mother was hospitalized for a week. Since we are the only ones who live nearby, we spent our days shuttling back and forth from the hospital, starting very early in the morning so as not to miss the Doctor’s visit. Home cooking was virtually impossible. We fell into the habit of grabbing a breakfast biscuit at the hospital, then going out for dinner. Since then, the breakfast habit has ceased but we have eaten out way too often and paid too litte attention to nutrition. It’s time to change that bad habit. It’s my Monday.
This week I resolved to cook at home, which I did, but I still didn’t pay much attention to nutrtion. My favorite cut of meat, chuck roast, came on sale. Chuck roast is so versatile, especially if you have it ground. I never buy commercial ground beef. As I’ve said before, you never know where it’s come from. Any time chuck roast is on sale I jump on it. Sadly enough though, most of my beef recipes are not the highest on the health scale, but it was On Sale. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!
We started out the week with comfort food, Sunday Pot Roast. If you have a pot roast you have to have Mashed Potatoes and gravy on the side, right?

We did observe Meatless Monday with a bowl of Slow-Cooker Veggie Chili , but that was simply my laziness kicking in again. The chili came straight from the freezer.
Another reason we were happy to see chuck roast on sale was that Michael had run out of Krystal Style Sliders for lunch, and if I don’t make them he will buy them.

As long as I had the meat grinder out, Patty Melts sounded like a good idea. NOT! I didn’t sit down to write the recipe until after I had made them, and that was a big mistake. I didn’t expect Patty Melts to fall into the diet food catagory, but as made, each sandwich came in at 775 calories with 50 grams fo fat! I won’t be making them that way again, but I’ve included the recipe for those of you who are either trying to gain weight or want to get time off from work by having a heart attack. (Not funny) I have 6 more patties in the freezer, so expect a revised recipe to appear soon.
Remember those mashed potatoes we had to have with the pot roast? When I went to purchase potatoes, the sale monster raised his head again and forced a 15 pound bag of potatoes into my cart. Fifteen pounds bags were on sale for less than the 5 pounds I intended to buy. What else could I do? Now I have 15 pounds of potatoes to deal with, and mashed potatoes for two take maybe one pound. Here I go again.

Zesty Oven Roasted Potatoes went well with Patty Melts, and Cheesy Twice Baked Potatoes freeze fairly well, but now what am I going to do with the remaining 7 or so pounds?  Maybe another batch of Sausage and Potato Breakfast Bowls will help, but I guess I’ll just have to hope that the rest of the potatoes will last until Christmas.

Thursday I continued my effort to eat at home. I’ve also been trying to use up more of my freezer food, so I pulled out a Ham and Noodle Casserole. I was a little anxious about how our dinner would taste, because freezing ham can be tricky. It sometimes developes an odd aftertaste, but I was pleased that the ham in this casserole fared just fine. I suspect that if the ham is totally enveloped in sauce or broth the liquid protects the flavor.
Fishy Friday continued the trend of freezer food with clam chowder, still not so diet friendly, but home cooked.
I suppose next week I’ll have to work harder to cook not only what we like, but what likes us. My clothes are getting tight!
Be thankful for what life gives you.