Reservations for Two at Your Marriott Villa

 Here we are with another Menu Monday adventure.  This however, isn't about which restaurant to eat out, this is an alternative.  Traveling can be expensive, eating out all the time even more so.  We like to stay in condo's where we have a kitchen and care prepare most of our meals in.  We picked up a delicious stuffed chicken breast from Whole Foods.  One was more then enough for a really good meal for the two of us.  We had left overs which came into play another night.  Nice dinner rolls, stuffed chicken breast baked in the oven, fresh green beans seasoned with fresh Pancetta, and nice bottle of wine.  A meal as nice as many out.  The chicken is easy, put it in the oven for about an hour while you're having cocktails.  Lightly brown a few pieces of Pancetta in a skillet (and you really only need a few pieces because it's so flavorable), then add the green beans after they've cook for a few minutes in the microwave.  A meal for about 12.00 without the cost of the wine.

 Skillet pasta.  Cook pasta as you normally would (I had Linguini), but drain it just a bit before it's done, as it will finish cooking in the skillet.  Brown some Pancetta, add onions, and peppers (I like red ones).  Have half a pound of shrimp washed (with or without tails, I prefer without), and toss those in along with a good handful of fresh spinach.  When it looks like the shrimp are almost there (almost pink), add your pasta.  Blend, turn off heat and add fresh cracked pepper.  Serve with dinner rolls and a nice bottle of wine, and freshly grated Romano or Parm. Cheese...Again a easy, affordable splendid meal.  

Not perhaps the best sounded name, but how bout left over stir fry?  This meal can abe done in a skillet on top of the stove, and or in a wire basket/pan with holes on top of a grill.  We have a small pan with holes that travels with us.  Even the handle folds.  Remember the left over chicken from the stuffed chicken....perfect as it's already cooked and will require time only to heat it through.  Cut up peppers (here I used yellow and red for color), onions.  About 1/4 pound of shrimp (again I prefer without tails as they're so much easier to eat).  Cook veggies first, add chicken, shortly there after add shrimp.  Naturally we're still serving nice dinner rolls and a bottle of wine.


**We have a shopping list we print and take on all trips.  We add add appropriate items based on where we are.  Hilton Head, we added shrimp.  We cook in, we cook on the grill.  Shopping well helps you save time and money.  We bought 1 pound of shrimp and got 2 meals plus I did a shrimp cocktail one evening with our cocktails.  We bought one stuffed chicken breast and got 2 nice meals from that.  Standards are always onion, peppers, fresh spinach.  I don't think it's possible to cook without those items.  A bag of dinner rolls, wrapping a few in foil to bake with each meal..you can't go wrong.


We had steak on the grill one night, typically we top that off with a foil pouch of cut up veggies...onions, mushrooms, and peppers and or fresh green beans.  Having items you can use for multiple meals is the way to go.