Menu Plan - 9.28.09 (recipe added)

Today is the first day that the weather really feels like fall. I want to put on a comfy sweatshirt, curl up under a blanket, sip some cider, and watch football. So, it works out perfectly that this week's plan includes chili and homemade bread. Mmmmm!

If you want more menu inspiration, visit orgjunkie.com.

Monday
Chili and homemade bread

Tuesday
Spaghetti and meatballs

Wednesday
Cheesy chicken and noodles*

Thursday
Breakfast for dinner

Friday
Leftovers

*The cheesy chicken and noodles casserole is one of our favorites, and is great for when you want to take a meal to someone. I just looked in my archives and I don't think I've ever posted the recipe, which I can't believe because it is such a favorite! I don't have it in front of me at the moment, but I'll return to post it later. It's a keeper!

***Here it is***

Cheesy Chicken & Noodles
16 oz noodles, cooked
4 cups chicken, cooked and cubed
2 cans cream of chicken soup
2 cups velveta cheese
2 cups milk

Mix all ingredients and pour into a baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes, stirring a few times to incorporate the ingredients.

This makes a lot so I usually freeze half of this or plan to have it twice in a week. (It's yummy enough that we'll eat twice in one week!)

Productive weekend in the kitchen

Before I get into my actual post, I must first say that my house is a mess. My bathrooms didn't get cleaned this weekend; the laundry is not done; I'm not sure when my kitchen floor was last mopped. I just don't want you to have any Martha Stewart illusions when you read this next part.

(As PW would say, "I'm just keepin' it real.")

Having said all of that, I did have a very productive weekend in the kitchen. We bought a chest freezer and I have officially run out of my current freezer stockpile, so it was definitely time to do some make-ahead-and-freeze meals.

Hamburger, chicken breasts, and pork loin were on sale this week, so I picked up about five pounds of each and made the following recipes this weekend:

Cajun Curry Chicken
Jerk Chicken
Chicken Sate
Sesame Chicken Bites
Porcupine Meatballs
Meatloaf
Sloppy Joes
Hamburger Patties

(This week I will also cook part of the pork loin in the crock pot and then shred it for BBQ sandwiches or pork tacos, and will cut the rest into pork chops and freeze them.)

This combination of chicken recipes seemed to work well because several ingredients overlapped. My kitchen smelled heavenly from the freshly grated ginger and lime zest, although this made me realize that I might want to invest in an actual zester instead of using the stand-up grater.

Most of these recipes made enough for two meals for us, so I currently have about 15 meals in the freezer. Woohoo!

In other news, the potty training has taken a step backwards. I'm not surprised, and won't let this discourage me. At least Kaitlyn understands all of the concepts - now it's just a matter of Mike and I being consistent and reinforcing the behavior.

The good news is that she has no problem going #1 or #2 on the potty, and she prefers to go on the big potty instead of her little one. That works for me - I prefer to not have to clean up the mess from the little one!

More good news: my mom is officially done with her chemo!!! Yay! She'll go on March 9 (which is also my niece's 13th birthday) for a CT scan. Please agree with us in prayer that they won't find any trace of cancer.

Another prayer request: my sister will have chemo treatment #3 on Tuesday. We are very thankful that her second treatment was oh so much better than her first one, and pray that this next one will also go well.

That's all for now... Have a great week!

My new favorite kitchen tools

I am finally participating in Alaina's Keeping Creative Kitchens! I've meant to have a post up for this for many, many weeks, and I'm so excited that my planned topic just happens to fit this week's theme perfectly. The theme is cookies and candy, which, of course, is extremely appropriate considering that Christmas is a week away.

One week! Where did the time time go??

Anyway, I want to share with you something that I bought for my birthday in November. I invested in two baking sheets that are basically the full size of my oven. I got the idea here, and here is where I found the right size cookie sheet.

FYI, I discovered that there are two (or three?) standard sizes for baking sheets - full, half, and I think I also saw a quarter-size. The full size is made to fit in a professional oven, and is just wee bit too big for a conventional home oven. This site has a size that is specific for conventional ovens, and is called the "home" size, which is what I ended up getting.


One of the things that I LOVE about having these is that I can maximize my time. On the day after Thanksgiving, I made shortbread cookies with Kaitlyn, and was able to make almost all of a double batch of cookies in one shot!

I also used parchment paper for the first time, and I fell in love with that, too. Easy clean up!

Here are both sheets of cookies in the oven:


After taking them out of the oven, I slid the whole sheet of parchment paper onto cooling racks. (Which is a lot easier to type than it is to do. For about 1.2 seconds I thought all of my cookies were going to slide right onto the floor. Hopefully I will get better at this technique.)


One of the things I've always hated about making cookies is the time it takes to bake them all. Put them on the cookie sheet, set the timer, wait 5-10 minutes, take them out, let them cool, take them off the cookie sheet, put new ones on the cookie sheet, repeat. It always seems to take FOREVER! But making them this way was so quick and easy. If you do a lot of baking, I would highly recommend investing in these sheets!

Of course, I can't end this post without showing some pictures of Kaitlyn. She had a blast "helping" me with the cookies. I gave her some dough and some little cookie cutters and let her do her own thing. She loved it!


Here are her cookies:



A happy girl! (With some crazy hair!)


I also want to share one of my favorite holiday cookie recipes, which comes from my mom. If we don't have these cookies, it just doesn't seem like Christmas!

Mom's Christmas Pastel Cookies

2 cups soft butter
2 cups sifted confectioner's sugar
4 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Mix butter, sugar and salt thoroughly. Add flour and blend into dough.

2. Divide dough into thirds, placing each third in a different bowl. Add a different food coloring and flavoring to each third. (1/2 to 1 teaspoon flavoring per third.) We traditionally use green/mint; red/cherry; and yellow/lemon. Use your hands to work the coloring and the flavoring throughout the dough, until it is a consistent color. (Use as much or as little coloring as you want, and expect to walk away with a lot of color on your hands!)

3. Mold each third into long, smooth rolls, about 2 inches in diameter. Roll in colored sugar or nuts. Wrap each roll in waxed paper or plastic wrap, and chill until stiff - several hours or overnight. (Can also be frozen.)

4. When you are ready to bake, slice cookies 1/8-inch thick, place on ungreased cookie sheets and bake at 375* for 7 to 9 minutes. Do not brown.

Yum!

Head over to Meant to Be for more creative kitchen ideas!

Good news (and chocolate)

Good News:
Monica and her husband have received some wonderful news regarding their finances. I'm not sure if I'm at liberty to talk specifics yet, so I'll just leave it at that. God is good!

Chocolate:
On Sunday, I made more of the Christmas treats I mentioned last week and wanted to finally share the recipe with you. I modified this from a recipe for "Crockpot Candy", but since I didn't use the Crockpot, I'm at a loss for how to title this. I guess I'll keep it simple...

Erin's Christmas Candy
1 lb. white chocolate (the stuff I used was called "candy coating")
8 oz. semi-sweet chocolate (either chocolate chips or baking chocolate squares)
1 oz. unsweetened chocolate
12 oz. salted peanuts
2 - 2 1/2 cups crushed cinnamon graham crackers*
2 - 2 1/2 cups mini marshmallows

Put all of the chocolate into a double-boiler to melt, or melt it in the microwave. (Or throw it in your crockpot on low, go do something else productive for a few hours, then come back and proceed.) After it is melted and smooth, add the peanuts and graham crackers, and stir well to make sure they are completely coated with chocolate. Then add the marshmallows, and again, stir well to make sure they are coated with chocolate.

Spread the mixture out on cookie sheets lined with foil, and allow to cool. (I put mine in the garage, since it cools more quickly out there.) When the candy has hardened, break it into pieces.
That's it!

*With the graham crackers, I don't crush them as fine as I would for a graham cracker crust - I try to leave them in fairly big chunks.

Other notes about this recipe...

• Last year I tried this with crushed pretzels and caramel. It turned out ok, but the caramel got really hard and it was a workout to eat it. :-) I might get ambitious and try it again this year, using only the pretzels.
• If you want the marshmallows to be more melty (I'm sure this is an official baking term, right?), just throw them into the chocolate before the peanuts and graham crackers. This will give them more time to heat up and get ooey and gooey in the chocolate.
• I used 12 oz of peanuts the first time, and it seemed like too many, so I used less on the second try. Adjust all of this to your own preferences and tastes.
• If you can think of any other variation for this, please let me know. This is so easy to throw together and it got rave reviews last year, so I would love to have lots of different ways to make it.

Mmmmmm. I also made candied popcorn using this recipe, and plan on trying this recipe for caramel corn. I don't know if I'll ever get around to making cookies this year, but even if I don't, I think I'll have plenty of yummy holiday treats!

Menu Plan Monday - Week of 10.13.08

Last week at our house didn't turn out how I thought. (Thankfully, there were no fires.)

We arrived home from church last Wednesday night and were about to put Kaitlyn to bed, when she got a wierd look on her face.

A face that made us say, "Uh Oh."

Yeah, she threw up.

Five or six times.

She was sick on Thursday, did fairly well on Friday, but then got sick again on Saturday. Sheesh!

Yesterday was a good day, so she went back to the sitter's house today.

So, that's why I haven't posted in a week. But, I'm back to post my menu plan. (I'm sure your appreciative that I've combined the subjects of menu planning and throwing up in the same post.)

I normally only post my weekday menu but this weekend we might be having friends over, so I will post the menu for that as well.

Monday
Pork roast and potatoes in the crock pot, with herb soup seasoning (mixed with water) on top

Tuesday
Erin's made up chicken casserole - this will be a cross between chicken pot pie (chicken and veggies mixed with cream of chicken soup and chicken broth) and shepherd's pie (w/ mashed potatoes on top)

Wednesday
Pork chops and scalloped potatoes

Thursday
Chicken stir fry with brown rice

Friday
Up for grabs

Weekend Entertaining
Sloppy joes - I made this yesterday and have it in the freezer for the weekend
Mac and cheese - I'm not sure if the kiddos will be too excited about sloppy joes, so I'm making this as an option for them. It's a new recipe for me, but it appealed to me because 1) I can make it in the crock pot and 2) it's Paula Deen - yum!
Veggies and dip
Chips
A modified version of these fruit bars - I pack a little of the mixture in the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish, top with sliced apples, then sprinkle the rest of the mixture* on top and bake as recommended. It makes a yummy apple crisp!

*When I say "the rest of the mixture" I really mean whatever is left over after I have "sampled" and "taste tested" it. I wonder how many Weight Watcher points are in this...

There you have it! Stop by orgjunkie.com for more menu ideas.

Just call me Betty

As in, Crocker.

Or, you might just call me crazy.

On Sunday I decided to make my own bread.

There were several motivating factors:

1) I now have a kitchen with enough space to do something like this
2) I now have a dishwasher
3) I enjoy making stuff from scratch
4) I wanted to see if this might be an occasional way to make something healthier and cheaper than what I buy at the store

I used this recipe for "Kid-Friendly Wheat Bread", but since I don't have a bread machine, or a mixer with a dough hook (or whatever it's called), I found these instructions to help me with the mixing/kneading part.

And yes, you read that right. I did everything by hand. It made me feel a little bit like a genuine pioneer woman.

Except that I have central air.

And a dishwasher.

And I wasn't wearing any form of a petticoat.

Isn't "petticoat" a funny word?

Ok, let's focus and get back on topic here. Where was I? Oh yes, the bread.

I was very pleased with the results. When it was warm out of the oven it was oh so very yummy! It wasn't quite as melt-in-your-mouth-yummy the next day, but it was still good.

I'm not sure if I'll be making my own bread on a regular basis, but at least I am no longer intimidated to try my hand at other yeast breads. The whole process was actually much easier than I thought it would be.

Here is a picture of the half-eaten results:



This success has spurred me on to try other recipes and to do more baking this year. Maybe I'll finally get around to making these. I've never tasted them, but they look absolutely delicious in Sara's picture and she has assured me that they taste as good (or better) than they look!

Poor Man's Steak, and how I almost poisoned my entire family

As promised, below is the recipe for Poor Man's Steak that I mentioned earlier this week. It is from the Fix It and Forget It Cookbook, which is full of wonderful recipes for the slow cooker.

This particular recipe only needs to cook for 2-3 hours on low, so it is perfect to throw in the crock pot on a Sunday morning before church.

It's also perfect for Saturday night guests, like we'll be having this weekend. I can mix it up a couple of days before, put it in the crock pot on Saturday afternoon, and know that I don't have to worry about my main course.

(Worrying about the bathrooms being clean and whether or not I've removed the layer of dust on my furniture, well, that's a different story.)

I do have three words of caution about the recipe.

First, it needs to be refrigerated for at least eight hours, so you need to plan ahead.

Second, don't accidentally mix the cream of mushroom soup and water in with the meat mixture. Yeah, I did this once (thankfully it wasn't for company) and I ended up with this mushy concoction that I had to finish baking in the oven. I baked it for 2+ extra hours because it was so mushy that I couldn't tell if it was done.

Third, use caution if you make this with lean ground turkey. The problem with this is that mixing lean ground turkey with the other ingredients and then dousing it in cream of mushroom soup makes it difficult to tell if it's completely done.

Plus, the time I made it with turkey, I must have done something extra to mess it up although I'm not sure what that was. All I know is that I pulled it out and thought it was done.

But it wasn't.

Unfortunately, I served this to my family.

It was quite comical. Eight of us were crammed into our small dining room - I think whoever sat at the end of the table was actually in the living room. After everyone got their serving, I noticed that they were looking intently at the meat and were sort of pushing it around on their plates.

I realized, with horror, that the meat was not completely cooked. I had almost inadvertently poisoned my entire family.

We didn't have a lot of room in our kitchen, so our microwave cart was out in the dining room. For the next ten or fifteen minutes the whole family passed their plates, one by one, around to me so I could pop them in the microwave and finish cooking the turkey.

I can just imagine, years from now, sitting around the Christmas tree with my family and recalling those treasured family memories.

"Do you remember the time Aunt Erin tried to poison us?"

"Yeah."

"Those were good times."

It makes me feel a little like Aunt Abby and Aunt Martha from Arsenic and Old Lace.

Anyway, here is the recipe. Please don't use it to poison anyone.

Poor Man's Steak
1.5 lbs ground beef
1 cup milk
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. salt
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 cup cracker crumbs
1 tsp. brown sugar
10 3/4 oz. can cream of mushroom soup
1 soup can water

1. Mix together all ingredients except soup and water. Shape into narrow loaf. Refrigerate for at least 8 hours.

2. Slice and fry until brown in skillet.

3. Mix soup and water together until smooth. Spread diluted soup on each piece. Place slices into cooker. Pour any remaining soup over slice in cooker.

4. Cover. Cook on low 2-3 hours.

Menu Planning

After a month of craziness, I am craving a return to routine and normalcy. I desperately need to plan a menu and go grocery shopping, but after so long of not doing this, I feel more than a little lost.

What is it that we like eat? I can't remember. Seriously. I'm sitting here at the end of the day at work, trying to remember what my go-to meals are.

And all I can think of is mac and cheese, Subway, and Chinese take-out.

I know I have frozen chicken of some sort in my freezer, and I know that I generally cook that kind of thing in the Crock Pot, but I don't remember how I cook it.

I think this must be some sort menu-planning/cooking atrophy.

I got on the "year of crockpotting" blog because I figured that I would at least find something good there, and I did, but the problem is that I found 200+ good things. I wandered aimlessly around the site for at least ten minutes before giving up.

Sometimes having too many choices leaves me feeling paralyzed to the point of not making any sort of decision.

Which is what led me to write my own blog post about my dilemma. Because, clearly, writing my own blog post will help me accomplish writing out a menu.

Right?

What will actually happen is that I'll probably go to Wal-Mart tonight after Kaitlyn goes to bed, and will wander the aisles for a while. I'll come home with an assortment of meat, vegetables, and other miscellaneous products that will hopefully turn into several edible meals over the course of the rest of the week.

By the way, I must pause to mention how much I love the Wal-Mart close to my new house. Seriously. I had previously written off Wal-Mart because I always walked out of there feeling like I had been through war.

But this new Wal-Mart is heavenly. It's clean. The workers are nice, and appear to actually be knowledgeable. Even the other shoppers were courteous, and I didn't catch one swear word from anyone. The whole experience was great.

Which is especially lovely since the store is five minutes from my house.

But I digress.

Menu planning.

Yes, my goal for tonight is to have some sort of plan in place. I can't guarantee that I'll have a chance to post it, but my goal for next week is to get back to participating in Menu Plan Monday.

(Which, as I've heard through the grapevine, should make Stacie happy.)

:-D

WFMW - Entertaining with Sloppy Joes

I am here to announce that I have found my signature "having people over" recipe. You know, the go-to recipe. The one that everyone likes and is easy to make. The one that I can practically recite from memory.

Drum roll please... It is this sloppy joe recipe from Rachael Ray.

(Thank you Sara for being the one to introduce me.)

You might be thinking, "Um... Sloppy Joes? Really? This is your go-to recipe?"

Yep.

I have made this recipe several times now and the three times I've made it for company it got rave reviews. In fact, I heard from a reliable source that a certain red-headed brother-in-law of mine had four sloppy joes the time I made it for my family.

What makes this recipe so special?

I'm glad you asked! First, it's delicious. It's a grown-up version of sloppy joes and is so much better than using a canned sauce.

Second, I can make it ahead of time and then reheat it just before serving it.

Third, it is very unpretentious and is a kid-friendly dish. Almost everyone can appreciate a good sloppy joe*. And for the stage of life that we're in, we have many years in our future where we'll need to have kid-friendly meals if we're going to have people over.

(*Side note: the recipe calls for a red bell pepper and an onion, which some people might not appreciate. I'm sure you can leave these out and it will still taste yummy. The last time I made them I left the onion out but kept the pepper in, and one of our guests, who isn't incredibly fond of peppers, asked what kind of tomatoes they were. :-) He was surprised to learn that he was eating peppers.)

Fourth, it's easy to find simple sides to go with it. French fries, chips, potato salad, and veggies with dip are all things that go great with this.

I also have to mention that these fruit bars from The Pioneer Woman make a great dessert to finish off the sloppy joe meal.

And another thing I have to mention is that if you struggle with having people over because you feel like everything has to be perfect, you must read this post by The Queen B. I've been trying to work on this and her post was a great encouragement.

Head over to Rocks in my Dryer for more Works for Me Wednesday ideas!

Menu Plan Monday - Week of 5/5/08

I didn't get a MPM post done last week, but I want to make sure and mention that I made these sloppy joes. (Thanks to Sara for sharing the recipe!) These are more work than opening up a can and mixing it with browned ground beef, but the work is sooooo worth it. The recipe makes enough for us to get several meals out of it.

Ok, now on to this week's meals:

Pork roast (made in the slow cooker, save half for pork BBQ later in the week) with au gratin potatoes
Chicken tacos (see this post for the recipe)
Breakfast for dinner - eggs, hash browns, sausage (maybe made into burritos using tortillas left over from the chicken tacos)
Pork BBQ sandwiches
Grilled chicken (marinated in Italian dressing) and grilled veggies

Visit orgjunkie.com for more meal ideas!

Menu Plan Monday - week of 3/24/08

This week's menu plan is rather optimistic because I'm planning to grill out. I don't know if we will actually be able to grill "out" - it might become grilling "in" on the Foreman grill, but a girl can dream, can't she? I definitely have spring fever and can't wait to start incorporating more grilling into my menu!! Oh, and a few of the days this week were planned in an effort to use up the Easter eggs. :-)

Here is the plan for the week:

Monday: Mexican lasagna (see below for recipe)

Tuesday: Chef salad (using some Easter eggs)

Wednesday: Left over Mexican lasagna

Thursday: Tuna melts (using some Easter eggs), low-fat chips, veggies

Friday: Teriyaki chicken (made in the Crock Pot), rice, green beans

Saturday: Up for grabs

Sunday: Grilled chicken, french fries, salad

Thanks to Laura at OrgJunkie.com for hosting MPM, and also for sharing the teriyaki chicken recipe!

Mexican Lasagna

1 lb gound beef, browned

1 can fat-free refried beans

2 tsp. dried oregano

1 tsp. ground cumin

3/4 tsp. garlic powder

12 uncooked lasagna noodles

2 1/2 cups water

2 1/2 cups salsa

2 cups sour cream

3/4 cup green onions, chopped

1 can black olives, chopped

4 oz shredded cheese

Combine beef, beans, oregano, cumin and garlic powder. Place four of the lasagna noodles in the bottom of a 13x9x2 baking pan. Spread half of the beef mixture over the noodles. Top with 4 more noodles and then the remaining beef mixture. Cover with the remaining 4 noodles. Combine water and salsa; pour over all. Cover tightly with foil and bake at 350 for 1 1/2 hours or until noodles are tender. Combine sour cream, onions and olives - spoon over casserole and top with cheese. Bake, uncovered, 5 more minutes or until cheese is melted.

This makes enough for us to eat for 3 or 4 meals and makes GREAT left overs!! I actually made this on Saturday and now it's sitting in my fridge waiting for dinner tonight. When I make it ahead I wait until I'm ready to serve it and do the last step with the sour cream and cheese while I'm warming it up in the oven. Or, I cut the cooked lasagna into individual portions, put it in containers in the fridge or freezer, and then put the sour cream, cheese, etc. on it and heat it up in the microwave.

Works for Me Wednesday - Awesome Fruit Dip!

This is my first week to participate in the Works for Me Wednesday carnival hosted by Rocks in my Dryer. I've received some pretty cool tips from checking out what other people have posted and decided that I should join in the fun.

This weekend I had my family over for dinner, since my sister who lives in California was home for a visit. (And by the way, I think she should move back. I mean, who wouldn't choose the never-ending winters of the midwest over the sunny beaches of SoCal?) For dessert I made an incredibly easy fruit dip. Here is the recipe:

Fruit Dip

Prepare one box of sugar-free butterscotch pudding.

Mix in fat-free Cool Whip, until you get a the consistency and taste that you like.
The end.

I told you is was easy! I also made a version where I mixed the pudding with whipped cream cheese. Mmmmmm. Everyone LOVED it. It's especially good with apples because the butterscotch gives it a caramel-like flavor. My sister brought chocolate chip cookies and everyone loved putting the fruit dip on the cookies, too. And it's good on graham crackers. And it's good all by itself. Mmmmmmm. And the Cool Whip version is FAT FREE. Woohoo! (Well, it's not fat free if you put it on cookies...)

Head on over to Rocks in my Dryer to see more WFMW tips!