Menu Plan 10/21-10/27/22: Feeding the Family

 Happy Monday!  We spent this past weekend at Family Weekend at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.  It was such a blessing to spend time with our two boys.  I miss them!  We had a really nice time.  They'll be home in a month for Thanksgiving and I can't wait. 

We stayed at the same place we stayed last year, Hueston Woods.  It's a state park and it isn't anything fancy, but the choices by the school are limited.  It's very nice and I highly recommend it.  It's a bit dated and has a 1970's vibe to it, but the boys describe it as "cozy" and I agree.  The restaurant there has decent food, and the best part is that they are able to cook for J and his food allergies.  We are hoping to stay there again next year.

This week's menu is bit thrown together, but we will still be feeding the family:

Friday:  Out at Hueston Woods (I shared fried pickle chips with M and M and had a Greek Flatbread)

Saturday:  Out at Hueston Woods (I ordered house made potato chips with pulled pork, but was still too full from tailgating so I ended up taking them to go and gave them to the hubby),

Sunday:  Dirty Rice

Monday:  Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Tuesday:  Turkey Tacos

Wednesday:  Cavatelli 

Thursday:  Clean up

Saturdays Tailgating Menu:

We have a Camp Stove (similar to Blackstone) and we made cheeseburgers, bacon wrapped footlongs, and loaded tater tots (which were the biggest hit).  I also made chili at home and brought it along with the slow cooker.  My car has a "plug" in it but we discovered that it only works when the car is ON and the car shuts itself off after a few minutes.  That part of the plan ended up being a bust.  We did heat the chili on top of the griddle, but I would skip the chili for future tailgating.  It was more of a pain that it was worth.

I brought the 5lb bag of tater tots and we cooked 1/2 a bag at a time.  Start cooking the tots first in a little oil.  While those are cooking, fry up the bacon (the tots will cook in some of the bacon grease, and it makes them even more delicious).  You have to keep flipping the tots to get them all crispy.  It also helps to smash them down a little bit once they are fairly cooked.  Add the bacon, cheese, and green onion to the top and cover to melt.  The boys have already requested these again for next year and I'll probably bring two 5 lb bags of tots.  

I bought all beef footlong hot dogs from Costco and wrapped those in bacon (1.5 slices per dog).  The boys LOVED these too.  And I made 16 quarter pound burgers using the easiest burger maker on the planet (will post that at a later date).  They boys were full when they left, and we sent them home with extra burgers and dogs.  

I hope you have a wonder week!!