Since I've been blogging about food, I've realized that I make a lot of casseroles. They're usually inexpensive to make and don't require a lot of time to put together. It's either that or a hamburger (turkey burger) or a grilled ham and cheese sandwich and chips. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but it can get so boring that McDonald's starts sounding good and I really don't like McDonald's. That's part of the reason why I've been trying new things that are quick and easy and still fit my tight food budget.

Another thing I've realized is that I really need to get back in the habit of planning my weekly menu. Of course, with my work schedule always changing it's not always easy to stick to a menu. For the past couple of weeks I've been planning a few days in advance what I'll cook, but if I had a weeks worth planned, it could potentially give me two weeks worth of meals when you factor in the sandwich and Waffle House nights. So this weekend I'm going to try to put together a menu.

For those of you who don't know me, right now I'm a part-time Grill Operator/Waitress at Waffle House. I usually work four days a week so that leaves me three days to four days (depending on the shift I work) to cook meals at home.  I'm hoping that with next weeks menu I'll be able to incorporate recipes or suggestions from some of my readers and from the other food blogs I've been exploring.  So I'd like your help, if you have any suggestions for either something you've made and think I should try, something you'd like to see how to make, or something you've found on someone else's blog and want me to try, leave me a comment with the name of the dish and the link to it, if there is a link. Depending on how many comments I get, I'll select at least two dishes and one dessert.  If it turns out I get more comments, I'll take the ones I don't pick and use them the following week. I know my two readers won't let me down, right? :) Okay, on to the Salisbury Steak With A Kick!

After cracking open my 1968 Better Homes & Garden New Cook Book the other day and finding a fabulous recipe for Corn N' Chicken Scallop, I looked a little more and found a recipe called Burger Bundles. Of course, I changed the recipe a little to suit our tastes and came up with my own version.

First I turned the oven on 350 degrees so it could be preheating.

1 box Herb Stuffing Mix
1 cup Water
4 tablespoons Butter

I used Stove Top Herb Stuffing Mix and followed the directions on the package which was to bring the water and butter to a boil, mix in the stuffing mix, remove from the heat and cover.


1 pound Ground Turkey
1/3 cup Evaporated Milk

After I turned off the burner and put the lid on the pan of stuffing mix, I put my ground turkey in a bowl. I searched for my can opener, the kind that is about 2 inches long and puts the little triangle cut outs in the top of a can, but couldn't find it anywhere. I'm starting to wonder why my kitchen utensils are walking off! I knew of a quick solution so I did that instead to pour the milk out of the can. Take a regular can opener and put two small slits on opposite sides of the can. Then take a butter knife and stick it down in the slit and pull the top of the butter knife away from the can bending in the lid a little. Repeat on the other side of the can. You have to put two holes in the top of the can, otherwise you'll end up with a mess.


I measured out the milk and added it to the bowl with the ground turkey and used a spoon to mix it up.




I laid a sheet of wax paper on the counter to "pat out my patties" into 6 inch circles. See Peanut Butter Chocolate No Bakes for a tip for using wax paper. Using my spoon, I scooped out about 2 spoonfuls of meat and patted them out into a circle.  Normally I would guess, but I wanted to be sure, so I measured my patties to make sure they were 6 inches. It's a little bit bigger than a hamburger bun, about the size of a coffee cup saucer.



The next time I make this, I'll lay my patties out in one row instead of two so they will be easier to work with.
After the patties were all patted out, I took 1/4 cup of stuffing mix and put it on the left side of each patty, not quite all the way to the edge.






The next step I would have liked to photograph for you, but it took two hands. Again, using the wax paper, I rolled the patty into my hand, peeled the wax paper back and used my hands to seal the meat around the stuffing. I then laid the "bundle" in a baking dish.


1 packet Onion Gravy Mix
1 cup Water
1 tablespoon Steak Sauce
1 tablespoon Ketchup

In a small bowl I added the onion gravy mix, water, steak sauce and ketchup and whisked it all together.  The recipe called for a can of cream of mushroom soup, 1 tablespoon Worcestershire and 1 tablespoon catsup. It's really funny that spell check doesn't recognize "catsup" as a word. My how times have changed since 1968! I'm not big on cream of soups and onion gravy on top sounded better to me.