Week of 1/30-2/5/2011 Meal Plan

This week in our basket we got lots of good stuff. I was excite to see pummelos. They are a sweeter version of grapefruit. I don't eat grapefruit because it is to sour for me but pummelos are just right. We already ate one for breakfast. The carton of strawberries were half gone after an hour. My boys were on those things the minute they were on the table.

Well, the rest of the fruit is snacks and on to what I am doing with the veggies.

Sunday- We'll be having Broccoli Cauliflower Salad. I'll be making it in the morning so it will be ready when we get back from church. I needs to cool in the fridge for awhile to let all the flavor be absorbed. We'll be having fruit as our side.

Monday- We will be having this tuna casserole. I don't have all the veggies that were added but I figure I could substitute some broccoli or whatever. I do this often, if I don't have all the exact veggies I put in something my kids will eat and that I have. We'll probably have a small side salad with this.

Tuesday- We will be doing grilled pork and grilled asparagus. All that yummyness with a yummy cantaloupe and guests!

Wednesday- We will be going light with a tuna salad. This isn't a very filling meal so I'll probably be having some bread or we might make it a special night and actually have a dessert. Who knows, I'll have to surprise my boys!

Thursday- I haven't figured out what kind of meat or bean dish I would be having but I know I will be having roasted ricotta Roma tomatoes. It looks delicious! We'll also be having cucumber salad. Hopefully 2 sides might make up for some lack of having a real good main dish.

Friday- I think we'll be having chicken tonight but for sure I am going to be trying lemon balsamic asparagus. This looks really good and I am excited to try it.

Saturday- You know it, its Leftovers!! This last week the only leftovers we had was pasta because everything was so good it was eaten. Actually if there was any leftovers my husband snuck the last of it for lunch!

Enjoy this weeks. Hopefully I'll figure out what will go with those tomatoes before Thursday. If there's any suggestions do tell. I am also open for new ideas. Bon apetit!

Review of Last Week

Last Sunday's soup was okay. My husband liked it but I wasn't terribly fond of it. When putting milk into a crockpot your supposed to put it in towards the last of cooking so that it doesn't cause scalding. I didn't and had a little of it burned. You would think I'd learned from past experience but no and I'm sure I'll make this same mistake again.

Monday was my made up sweet and sour sauce with pineapple and chicken. This was absolutly delicious and I will definetly be making this again. Thanks to this blog I will remember how I altered the recipe. Along with this we had some fried kale which was a disappointment. Don't know how I could have improved the kale but it just seemed to lack flavor.

This picture is the sweet and sour pineapple and chicken.

Wednesday we did the scrambled eggs with roasted asparagus. I loved the asparagus and it seemed to go well with the eggs too. We also had a fruit salad with this that made it a bit more filling. I would recommend doing this one again.

Thursday I couldn't find the fermented black beans so I just added a little extra soy sauce and served this over rice. It was DeYummy (as my 3 year old says). I will be adding this to my aspargus possibilities.

Hope this gives others ideas. If you had success with this or altered a recipe also do tell. I love to know.

Proof

Just so people know I am not crazy I found this article from last fall. It says that kids are less picky eaters of vegetables if they take part in growing them.

I bet you are wondering why I am writing about this in January. Well, one we live in a nice climate and will be planting are garden in another month. Two, you can start some plants inside now like peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers. Getting started now will cut back on the cost of getting starters too.

Enjoy starting your garden this year too.

Monday Night Family Activity

So I told you I would post what our activity was and how it applies to this blog. SO here are some pictures

We planted tomatoes and banana peppers. There have been multiple studies done showing that when kids help grow the food and see where it comes from they are more willing to eat their vegetables. This way they get to watch it slowly grow and then months later we will enjoy the bounty on the table. I can't wait for them to enjoy watching it grow.

Week of 1/23-1/29/11

This weeks menu was a bit more difficult. Mostly because I am sick and thinking of food while I have a cold is just unfair. But I am getting better so I hope to be able to enjoy some of this weeks food. Here we go

Sunday- Today is a mixture of a couple recipes. You'll also find that Sundays tend to be crock pot days. This is because I go to church this year from 1-4 and want dinner to be done when I get home. Here it is
Broccoli-Cheese Soup
2 16 oz.pkgs frozen chopped broccoli or about 4 cups of fresh broccoli
2 10 oz cans cream of celery
2 12 oz cans evaporated milk or 2 soup cans milk (you refill the cream of celery cans with milk)
2 cups grated American cheese (this means good old cheddar for us)
1/4 cup finely chopped onions
1/2 tsp seasoned salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1. Combine all ingredients in crock pot.
2. Cover. Cook on Low 8-10 hours.
As a personal side note you might want to make sure you make enough time to cook this on low. The milk in this is easily scalded and therefore if cooked on high will burn the sides of your pot and make the soup a little funny. After this post I will be running to make it myself so it has enough time to cook!

Monday- Today will be a sort of oriental night. In our basket we got purple kale. I decided it would be good fried up, so we are having stir fried kale with almonds. For this recipe I will be changing the olive oil to sesame oil which will give it more of an oriental flavor. I also don't have fresh ginger so I will change that to 1/2 tsp powder ginger. I don't have tamari so we are just going to leave that out. I might even add a pinch of red pepper flakes to add spice! Along with this I will be cooking up some chicken breasts in a sweet and sour sauce with chunks of fresh pineapple.
Sweet and sour Sauce
1/4 c brown sugar
1/2 c white sugar
1/4 c water
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1/4 c ketchup
2 Tbsp cornstarch
Put this all in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir continuously until you feel the mixture is thickened.
I am going to pout this over the chicken while it is cooking and put some pineapple chunks in it too. I have never done this sauce before so I hope it turns out okay. Here's to experimenting!!

Tuesday- Tonight is burrito night. I need to finish off the last of the spinach so I can use that instead of lettuce. I make my own refried beans by taking 2 cans of black beans in a skillet and using my pampered chef potato masher (and yes this one is better because it has little holes instead of metal wires which gets everything mashed no chunks). I then add a little garlic and onion powder. If we have taco sauce I add that too so that it thins out the beans and adds a little flavor. We'll probably have a fruit salad with this too.

Wednesday- I am excited to try a new way to cook my asparagus. We will be trying a breakfast version called scrambled eggs and roasted asparagus. It sounds easy and delicious which are mommies 2 favorite things for dinner.

Thursday- Asparagus Chicken with Black Bean Sauce
1 Tbsp Orange juice (ok it called for dry sherry but I don't have this so I substitute)
4 tsp. soy sauce, divided
5 tsp. cornstarch divided
1 tsp Oriental sesame oil
3 boneless skinless chicken breast halves , cut into bite-size pieces ( I'll just be using my canned chicken)
1 tablespoon fermented, salted black beans (these I learned are not black beans but soy beans, I haven't decided if I will be hunting these down or just replacing it will a little extra salt)
1 tsp minced fresh ginger (or 1/2 tsp powder ginger)
1 clove garlic minced
1/2 c chicken broth
1 Tbsp oyster sauce (ok I don't have this so we'll be leaving this out)
3 Tbsp vegetable oil, divided
1 pound fresh asparagus spears, trimmed and diagonally cut into 1-inch pieces
1 medium yellow onion, cut into 8 wedges and separated
2 Tbsp water
For marinade, combine orange juice (sherry), 2 tsp soy sauce, 2 tsp cornstarch and the sesame oil in large bowl: mix well. Add chicken and stir to coat well. Let stand 30 minutes.

Place black beans in sieve and rinse under cold running water. Coarsely chop beans. Combine beans, ginger and garlic; finely chop all three together. Combine chicken broth, remaining 2 tsp soy sauce, the oyster sauce and remaining 3 tsp. cornstarch in small bowl; mix well and set aside.

Heat 2 Tbsp vegetable oil in wok or large skillet over high heat. Add chicken and stir-fry about 3 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Remove and set aside. heat remaining 1 Tbsp vegetable oil in wok. Add asparagus and onion; stir fry 30 seconds. Add water; cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until asparagus is crisp-tender, about 2 minutes. Return chicken to wok. Stir chicken broth mixture and add to wok with bean mixture; cook and stir until sauce boils and thickens.
This recipe is thanks to Great Tasting Stir Fries and More.
I think with this intensive dinner we will be just having a salad.

Friday- This will actually be my leftover pasta night. This is where I take whatever vegetable is left in our fridge and make a sauce out of it and poor it over pasta. Hopefully this will clear out my fridge of some veggies we have not quit finished the last couple weeks. And this is another salad dinner. Due to the fact that I have 3 heads of lettuce in my fridge!

Saturday- This will be leftover night. If the weather is good like yesterday. We will be slaving away in our yard again.

Hopefully tomorrow night I will have time to post about our family activity. You will see how it applies to cooking and eating!
Hope you enjoy the menu, and bon appetit!

Review of last week

I thought I would put down some of my thoughts of a few of the recipes.
We already established the butternut squash soup was not a hit. The chickpeas are what got my husband. He doesn't like beans, funny cause I love beans!
On to the Stuffed Night (as we called it). The stuffed peppers were given one slight alteration. Nisha, the lady who writes Healthy Mom's Kitchen, commented on my post and said they were making it casserole style. Which let me tell you, was soooo much easier. You just cut the peppers in half and lay them open side up, then dish out the mixture on top. This recipe was a hit and it was so much easier than the last time I made it. I think I will be doing this one again but casserole style. Along with this we had the stuffed butternut squash. There was not enough of this. I can't believe I only had enough squash to half this recipe. I wish I had done all my butternut squashes from last week like this. It was as mouth watering as it sounded. And it was gone in less than 5 minutes.

On to the french toast pears. We actually had this for breakfast this morning. Between getting sick and dad being out of town our menu was all out of wack. But I really wanted to try this recipe in hope that I would find another way to eat pears. Unfortunately it was a flop. Actually the kids ate all of it but after I fixed it. After it came out of the oven I realized the bread was still soggy and had never got "toasted", which is why I like "french toast". So I stuck it back in the oven under the broiler for 2 minutes. That helped one side at least. The pears were still a little tough, I like my soft. Over all we will not be making this again. Actually I made a trade with my neighbor, her lettuce for my pears. Not really even, because I had more than a bag full of pears due to more today, but at least I know her family loves them and they will not be wasted.

Tonight we had our bbq. And ohhh how those grilled asparagus tasted soo good. It has been a while but me and asparagus got reacquainted. I was happy to see that we even got more in our basket today. I'll post more tomorrow morning on what I am to do with them.

I am off to bed. If there is anything I have learned about being the mother to boys it is that sleep is essential. It is one of the major building blocks of patience which is the most important thing about being a mother. So, tomorrow there will be pics and some recipes.

Week of 1/16-1/22/2011

Sorry this didn't get up yesterday. I enjoyed a day with the family in Zion National Park and then spent some time with my man on our 6th anniversary. So for this week I took a picture of our bounty. Just so you know I get all this for $15. If you go to the store and try and figure out how much this would really cost you it is probably around $30. I love Bountiful Basket cause it saves me money and we eat healthy!
On to the real reason anybody reads this post, Menu!

Sunday- I apologize tonight's dinner should have been on here earlier. But just in case you wanted to know what we had we used this crock pot Chickpea Butternut Squash Soup recipe. I made fresh bread today said we had it in mini-bread loaves and some salad on the side.
The verdict on the recipe is that it needed salt and even then it wasn't my favorite. I don't think we will be repeating this one again.

Monday- We are going to make pasta with a Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce. This recipe I altered a bit. I replaced the sage with rosemary and only put in 3 cloves of garlic which is plenty even for this garlic lover. I also didn't put in half in half, I just used the same measurement of milk and added 1 Tbsp of butter or margarine. After I made this I learned it needed a little salt and for substance my husband tried a little shredded chicken and said it was perfect. So, I am going to add shredded chicken about 1 1/2 c. worth. We'll probably have this with salad and if I am feeling extra good I will get out my frozen bread stick dough and make bread sticks too.

Tuesday- We are going to have stuffed peppers. The website I got this recipe from is awesome. I always look to see what she is planning for the week to see if I can get ideas. Anyways, the peppers I got this week our small so I am leaving out the couscous and just doing mostly ground beef. My boys will love that because they are little carnivores, me not so much! Since the peppers themselves are kind of small we will also be having Stuffed Butternut Squash, I'll be halving the recipe. For this recipe I'll be baking them in the oven covered to soften them instead of a crock pot, mostly cause I don't have a trivet and I can't think of anything else to use. I'll also be switching corn syrup to honey and walnuts to pecans because that is what we have. By the way we haven't had this recipe but I salivate every time I read it.

Wednesday- This day will be interesting. First off you have to understand that no one in my house likes the texture of pears. Yet we got an entire bag of them on Saturday, grrr. Because I don't want to waste so much food I went on a hunt for another possible recipe to use these pears in a way that my house will eat them. So here is the recipe, and I'll be tripling it too, French Toast with Spiced Pears. It looks pretty good and has the possibility for success. We will see! Since french toast isn't enough I'll probably make what my boys call a "special drink". It is really just a smoothie but it seems better when called "special" and then they don't know mom has hidden spinach or something in it. I'll probably take some frozen peaches, frozen banana, and milk and about 6-8 leaves of spinach (much more leaves and my cover is blown!). I have a vita-mix blender that will make this stuff silky smooth. The best part is the kids love it! If your wondering why my Wednesdays seem easy and never have much it because my husband works with boy scouts this night and comes home long enough to eat so I don't get much help with him watching the kids.

Thursday- By request my husband wanted Chicken Tortilla Soup. This one is located in my Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook, which is full of crock pot recipes. Love It! Anyways, the recipe:
4 chicken breast halves (since I already have shredded canned chicken I put in about 2 c.of that)
2 15 oz cans black beans, undrained
2 15 oz cans Mexican stewed tomatoes or Rotel Tomatoes ( I also have quart jars of canned tomatoes that I use for this, and if you do too use only 1 quart jar)
1 c. salsa (mild, medium, or hot, whichever you prefer)
4 oz can chopped green chilies ( I happen to have some fresh so chop a 1/2 c.)
14 1/2 oz can tomato sauce (I only buy 8 oz cans so just use 2 8oz cans instead)
tortilla chips
2 cups grated cheese

1. Combine all ingredients except chips and cheese in large slow cooker.
2. Cover. Cook on Low 8 hours.
3. Just before serving, remove chicken breasts and slice into bite-sized pieces. Stir into soup. (If you already put in shredded chicken you can skip this step)
4. To Serve, put a handful of chips in each individual soup bowl, Ladle soup over chips. Top with cheese.
Very Delicious! Usually there's not much leftovers!

Friday- Leftovers

Saturday- We will be having grilled pork chops and grilled asparagus. With the asparagus I just roll them in olive oil first then put seasoning on them, your choice, and grill them. Some websites will show you how to put them on skewers so they are easier to flip but I found it to much work to soak the skewers in water so they won't catch on fire and then put the asparagus on. We just roll them safely on the grill and its fine. The grilled asparagus is one of our families favorites, the first time we had them the kids each ate 8 and left only a few for mom and dad. Now we know to do alot!

So this is our week. In our basket we also got a bunch of spinach. If anyone is wondering what to do with it I added some of mine to our salad, which I make at the beginning of the week and then pull it out of the fridge whenever I want it. Also, just add a little to any smoothie. If you aren't quit sure how much, add a little at a time. I learned the hard way that too much spinach in a smoothie is disgusting.
Good Luck all and bon appetit!

Week 1/9-1/15 Meal Plan

As I said before I love to meal plan for the week. A week is an easy thing to plan for and it makes it so much easier not to eat out or waste food. I am just new at least so hopefully I will get a better format but for now I will write the recipes I have or make up and I'll provide links for the ones I get online.

Sunday- Sweet and sour chicken (in the crock pot!) over basmati rice, along with a home canned peaches.

Sweet and Sour Chicken
1 1/2 c. sliced carrots (I also added 1/2 c of celery)
1 large green pepper chopped
1 medium onion chopped (so I didn't have an onion and I put in dried onions, not the same)
2 Tbsp. quick-cooking tapioca (I put in cornstarch instead as its thickening agent)
2 1/2 - 3lb chicken cut into bite size pieces
8 oz can pineapple chunks in juice (I put in 1 c of fresh pineapple and then filled that cup with water around the pineapple, way better than canned)
1/3 c brown sugar
1/3 c vinegar
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp instant chicken bouillon
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp ground ginger or 1/2 tsp freshly grated ginger
1 tsp salt

1. Place vegetables in bottom of slow cooker. Sprinkle with tapioca. Add chicken.
2. In separate bowl, combine pineapple, brown sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, bouillon, garlic powder, ginger, and salt. Pour over chicken.
3. Cover. Cook on Low 8-10 hours.
4. Serve over rice.

After having this tonight I would also add 5 Tbsp of Ketchup to step 2. The sweet and sour was missing something and that seemed to be what it needed. White rice would be fine to serve this over I just like the different flavor that basmati rice gives.

Mon- Cream of Celery and for this recipe I would leave the vegetables in the soup or I might puree them. I also would have the recipe because it is rather large. We'll be having salad along with this and maybe some bread bowls I froze from last soup night.

Tues- Due to this night be a child's birthday we are having homemade pizza with bread sticks. If you want the pizza dough recipe you can leave a message. I will give you my sauce recipe. I always make it so everything is really to taste.
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1 6 oz can tomato paste(they are the little ones they might be 4 oz?)
Basil, Oregano, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Italian Seasoning, and 3 Tbsp Sugar
(Yes SUGAR. It helps with the acidity of the tomatoes and is found in some restaurant pizzas ( worked at Pizza Hut in my teen years)).
You just mix all these ingredients to taste. It will cover 2 medium sized pizzas.
I leave the toppings to you! Enjoy

Wed- Yellow Squash Casserole , this recipe only has one alteration and that is I used about 1 1/2 c of bread crumbs instead of the crushed crackers. This was a really good recipe, one I over filled on! This time I will also be adding a cup of canned chicken. I can my own chicken so if you buy it you can put one can in. We'll also be having this with salad and sauteed pears. The pears I slice thinly from top to bottom and then put them in a pan with apple juice and sprinkle them with cinnamon. I cook until they seem tender. This has been the only way we eat pears.

Thurs- This is pasta night. This means that whatever vegetables I have left over from the week get thrown into a frying pan then have some sort of sauce added to them be it be tomato or something I puree and then we serve it over pasta. I am also serving it with spicy Brussels sprouts and carrots recipe.

Fri- As I stated before these meals are meant to feed a lot yet my boys aren't eating that much yet. So tonight is LEFTOVERS! My favorite night!

Sat- Well this day is my 6Th wedding anniversary so I am having a candle light dinner of take out Chinese with my husband after the kids go to bed! So, there is no real meal tonight.

I'll post again if there is something with a new recipe I altered like the cream of celery ( haven't tried it yet). If nothing is wrong then I will post my bountiful basket menu next Saturday.

Why I am starting this Blog

Hello everyone out there. I have been debating starting this blog for quit a while. I am not an amazing cook so if that is what you are looking for, keep looking! My goal with this blog and in my home is to learn to feed my house of boys. I have 3 boys and a husband. I plan on having at least one more kid and am sure I'll have another boy, they are fun!
So the point of this blog is to share recipes and help others with a growing family learn to make feasts every night for those growing boys.
One thing you must know about me is that I am a planner and definetly a "Be prepared" kind of person. So I am learning how to feed my family now as if my boys were teenagers but they are only toddlers. I don't want to wait to figure this out. We end up with a lot of leftovers since they don't eat as much now but eventually they will and I will be prepared. I also like to meal plan for the week. Every Saturday I go and pick up a basket full of fruit and vegetables from a food co-op. (If you want to find out more about them they are at www.bountifulbaskets.org). I then meal plan for the rest of the week so that I use up all the food that week. That way we are eating healthy and not wasting food.
I plan on trying to share my meal plans for the weak, where I get my recipes from and if I alter the recipes showing you how. I alter recipes quit often since I hardly ever have everything in the house cause who really does!
So here's to a new blog and new goals.
Oh and my new years resolution is portion control because some of the food I make is so delicious I eat way to much!