Monday Aug. 1st!

Wow! I can't believe that it's already August. We'll be planning school menus very very soon. BUT, today we had a day at home. Monday, for us, is grocery and errand day and clean the house day.

Breakfast: donuts
Lunch: leftovers
Snack: fruit & yogurt
Dinner: BBQ pork chops and Pizza pasta salad

For breakfast we went to Shipley's for donuts. YUM!

Lunch was leftovers. I used to have leftovers Friday's, but realized that I always have a fridge full on Monday's so I moved it to Monday.

We ended up eating lunch late, so we didn't have fruit for a snack.

Dinner was so good! I ended up making the pasta salad a bit different from the recipe. I didn't want it to be pizza-y, so I turned it into a tom, motz, basil pasta salad and it turned out wonderful! Here's the recipies:

BBQ pork chops:
I didn't use a recipe, just grilled them

3 pork chops (or however many your family will eat)
Lowry's seasoning salt
KC Masterpiece steak seasoning
Garlic powder

Season both sides of the chops. Heat the grill on high and heat up. We have a 4 burner gas grill and I turned off the 2 side burners and the 2 middle to low. Grill them about 3 to 4 min per side. (I over grilled mine so they were a bit dry, but still really good)

Supreme Pizza Pasta Salad:
Rachael Ray 2 30 minute meals Pg. 29

Salad:
2 plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1/2 medium red onion, chopped
8 fresh white button mushrooms, sliced (I didn't use these)
1 small green (or red) bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 stick pepperoni, casing removed and diced (I didn't use, but got an ear-full that I should have, so I will next
           time)
1 pound fresh mozzerella cheese, diced
20 leaves fresh basil, thinly sliced
1 pound wagon wheel pasta, cooked al dente, cooled under cold water, then drained (I used tricolor
           corkscrew pasta)

Dressing:
1 tea. garlic salt
1 tea. dried oregano leaves
1 rounded Tbs. tomato paste (I didn't use this since I didn't want it to be pizza-y)
2 Tbs. red wine vinegar (I went a bit over since I didn't use the tom paste)
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil (again, I went a bit over)
fresh ground black pepper and some salt

Combine tomatoes, onion, mushrooms (if using), bell pepper, pepperoni, mozzerella, basil, and pasta in a big bowl. Whisk garlic salt, oregano, tomato paste (if using), and vinegar together. Stream in olive oil while continuing to whisk. When oil is incorporated, pour dressing over pasta, add a few grinds of pepper, then toss to evenly coat. This is soooo good!

EnJoY!