This tasty meal plan includes a yummy Italian French Dip Sandwiches Recipe! They taste something like pizza or meatball sandwiches and are a different twist on a French Dip style with the Italian flavor that you love! You’ll also find recipes for Easy Potato Salad, Cinnamon Carrots and an Easy No Bake Cheesecake.
Italian French Dip Sandwiches And Easy No-Bake Cheesecake
Tips:
- Cutting your salads or veggies into different shapes can quickly turn a “Ho hum” salad into an “Oh yum” salad.
- Slice your carrots into coins or grate them.
- Cut your peppers into strips instead of dicing them.
- Slice cucumbers into circles or if that’s what you usually do, try dicing them.
- If you normally tear your lettuce, try cutting it until it is finely shredded. I find that more people love my salad, which is very ordinary. I think they like it because I chop my lettuce very small and they enjoy eating it more because they don’t have to cut it or try stuffing huge pieces into their mouths.
- If your potato salad often seems dry, try mixing 2-4 Tbsp. of milk in with the mayo. You can do this with coleslaw or any salad that uses mayonnaise.
Menu:
Italian French Dip Sandwiches*
Easy Potato Salad*
Cinnamon Carrots*
Easy No Bake Cheesecake*
Recipes:
Italian French Dip Sandwiches Recipe
Dipping Sauce:
1 can (8 oz.) tomato sauce
1/4 tsp. dried basil
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
Combine and simmer about 15 minutes.
Sandwiches
1 lb bulk (ground) Italian or country sausage
1 med. onion, thinly sliced and separated
8 slices mozzarella cheese or a similar amount of Parmesan
8 pieces of French bread, sliced
Margarine
Shape sausage into patties and fry. Remove from pan and saute onions in drippings. Place a slice of cheese on each of 4 pieces of bread, top with patties, onions and another slice of cheese each. Then place another piece of bread on top of each one. Spread outside of bread with margarine and grill.
Serve and dip in dipping sauce.
*To save money, you can use less meat, make smaller patties and use only 1 slice of cheese for each sandwich.
Easy Potato Salad Recipe
2 or 3 cans white potatoes (I like Aldi’s canned potatoes.) – Open and drain each can. Then rinse each can under cold water at least 3 times. It is important to get the water from the cans rinsed off.
1/2 medium onion
4 ribs of celery
4 sweet pickles
3 boiled eggs
1 large tsp. yellow mustard
4 heaping Tbsp. Miracle Whip (bought on sale, of course)
Chop up the potatoes. Dice everything else. Mix in mustard and Miracle Whip. Cover and chill over night or all day.
Sometimes you run out of fresh potatoes and sometimes you’re snowed in. We all love this. Hope you will too!
From Linda C. in Ohio:
Cinnamon Carrots
1 1/2 cups water
2 lbs. carrots, sliced 1/2 inch thick
1-2 cinnamon sticks (3 inches each)
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground ginger
5-6 Tbsp. honey
4 tsp. lemon juice
Bring water to a boil. Add next 4 ingredients. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Add honey and lemon juice. Uncover and boil for a couple more minutes until water is evaporated and carrots are tender.
From Jane:
Easy No Bake Cheesecake Recipe
1- 8 oz pkg. cream cheese
1/3 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1- 8 oz. container whipped topping
Beat first 3 ingredients together. Fold in whipped topping. Spoon into a graham cracker crust and chill.
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A super easy summer(or winter) desert that everyone loves is–
1-8 oz. pkg. creme cheese,softened
1 box instant lemon pudding
2 cups cold milk, instant is fine
1 tsp. lemon flavoring if desired
Mix together for two minutes..will start to thicken. Serve in pudding dishes or pie shell. Top with fruit of choice. Often we use home canned strawberry/rhubarb sauce or jam/jelly.
Dee this sounds really good. There is something about lemon in the summer that is so refreshing and this sounds really easy too.
Regarding too dry potato salad: instead of adding a few Tbsp. of milk to the mayo, add a few spoons of the juice from the jar of sweet pickles. This is a fabulous trick my dear departed mother-in-law taught many years ago. It adds a lot of flavor, and uses up what may otherwise go down the drain in many kitchens.
That sandwich sounds so good. Can’t wait to try it.
Many years ago I worked at KFC and loved their potato salad and got the recipe, your recipe is very similar, except I use gherkin relish instead of pickle and use a seeded mustard as I like the ‘bits’. I’d never thought of tinned potatoes though, that would be brilliant on 40+ degree Celsius days
I have never used canned potatoes either. Is the secret to good flavor to make sure all the canned liquid is rinsed off?
Dee-that lemon desert does sound really great! A must try!
Jill-how are you? Does your CFS make you feel worse in the summer heat? Do you have to pace yourself?
Hey Barb I’m doing fine. You are always so sweet to remember and ask. The heat does make my CFS worse but it’s the humidity which kills me so most of our days have been a dry heat and that has helped.
I do pace myself and mostly stay in. I am so lucky because my really old house which doesn’t have quite the same insulation which new houses have stays cooler in the summer. This way I run my air all night (can’t sleep with my CFS) then in the morning I turn it off. I get all the “hot” house work done then then I come to the basement where my office and sewing room is and work. That way I don’t really have to turn my a/c on until almost 5. Really saves me a bunch.
A couple of days I had to do running around and that is what really kills me. Hope you are staying cool too. Tawra of course is calling me several times a day to tease me and let me know things like “I had to put a sweater on this morning or Our high for the day was your low” :) I did get pay back yesterday when I called and said “I am eating my $.99 strawberries from Alidas.” It is killing her because they don’t have one back there. :)
You are always inspiring and make everyone of us believe we can do whatever from getting out of debt to cooking a great meal with little effort, Thanks LT
the lemon desert sounds great, almost “cheese cake” flavor. Canned potatoes are great to have on hand. The trick is to drain and rinse really well. dry them on a towel. they make super home fries, and one Christmas when I didn’t realize my fresh potatoes had spoiled I used them to make mashed. Not quite as good as fresh, but not too bad! 1 15 oz can makes enough home fries for about 4 servings.
Our family’s recipe for dressing on either potato or macaroni salad is: mayo, mustard, pickle juice and apple cider vinegar mixed to taste and consistency.
Jill-I’m glad to hear you’re doing fine. We really all have to figure out what works for each of us, don’t we:) I do much the same-do errands in the morning when I’m fresh, laundry, etc. I have to have the house cool to sleep, too, so I splurge on AC pretty low at night.
I feel bad for Tawra-no Aldis!! Yikes-I wouldn’t know what to do. How is the cost of living in CO. now compared to Kansas? Anything cheaper or more expensive?
She is finding except for houses everything else is much cheaper. They are paying 1/3 the amount on taxes, almost nothing on utilities compared to here and groceries are either the same or better for most things.
So all in all it is better. The only thing is water is more but that is it.
I’m happy to hear that:) Moving is rough-glad it was the right decision for them!!
You can also add pickle juice sweet or dill to thin potato salad
Thank you for another wonderful, useful, newsletter. Keep up the good work. We all appreciate you so much! I bought Dining On A Dime Cookbook sometime back and am thoroughly enjoying it. I think everyone should have it in their kitchen. God Bless You! Anne
Thank you Anne. It is so nice of you to let us know and I am so glad you are enjoying Dining.
I made the potato salad over the weekend and it is very good. I would never know that it contained canned potatoes from the taste. The rinsing really does work.
My late mother-in-law had a “famous” no bake cheese cake, something my husband loves so I keep everything on hand and make one for him once in a while.
1 8oz brick of cream cheese
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 c lemon juice
1 t vanilla
Beat together and put in a graham cracker crust. Refrigerate for about 4 hours. Serve with your fav pie filling for topping or make your own. I love to make a topping with fresh or frozen huckleberries.
I love the website and daily emails. Keep up the great work!
Another thing about the canned potatos is that they are one of the cheaper canned vegetables at most stores :)
We keep them on hand for a fast , cheap side dish .
We drain them well , rinse , put in the skillet and add about 2 tbsp butter, salt and pepper and fry them . We are from TN . so we usually have them with beans and cornbread . I can’t wait to try them in potato salad .
That is one of my hubbys favorite dishes .
Thank you so much! Last time I used canned spuds they seemed horrible- now I know why and what to do about it.
I like to use sweet pickle juice in my potato salad too. But since I buy sliced dill pickles more often than I do sweet pickles I always have more dill juice than sweet juice. To make more sweet pickle juice I add about 1/2 cup of sugar to left over dill juice to make more sweet juice.
My neighbour is a mother of 8, and plants a big garden every year. A couple of years ago, she told me that she saves all those baby potatoes that show up when she digs her potato hills in the fall. I save mine, too, but just scrub them and eat them up first in the Fall. My neighbour told me that she takes the time to peel and can them all. She admits that it is a bit tedious, but well worth it for nights when you need a fast meal. I have never tried it, but it might be worth trying, if you grow your own potatoes anyway.
At our house, when the peas are ready to be picked from the garden, we just put them (still in the shell) in a big bowl and put them on the table. Fresh peas for dinner. Everyone can eat as much as they like. No cooking, and no prep aside from a quick rinse in the colander. We eat fresh as often as we can from the garden, but in the summer veggies can be served up fresh and plain from the supermarket. Just put them out…with or without a dip.