Meal Plan Week 2/27-3/5/2011

I feel terrible for not meal planning last week. It seems to always make meals a little more hectic. This week I feel better and the cold seems to be leaving. We got a double wammy last 2 weeks with a stomach bug and then right after a cold.
Anyways, your not here to hear me complain. So, on to the food.
I have some leftover vegetables from last weeks basket and I got an Asian pack this week so I am doing some things from that too.

Sunday- Today we did a vegetable chow mein. It needs some work so I am not going to post the recipe. Hopefully I can find a good substitute for tofu because I just don't like it but this recipe needs some protein.

Monday- We will be having Honey Chicken. This recipe is so good. We one time ran out of chicken before the kids wanted to be done and had a mini riot in our house, no joke! This recipe is brought to you by Candee.
Honey Chicken
3-4 lbs chicken fryer (I use drumsticks)
1/4 c. butter, melted
1/2 c honey
1/4 c mustard
1 tsp salt
1 tsp curry powder

Place chicken in pan, skin side up (I actually skin the chicken before). Combine all ingredients, mix. Pour over chicken (not all of it because you will need to baste). Bake at 350* for 1 1/4 hr. Baste every 15 minutes. (I cook the chicken until the temperature of the meat thermometer reaches about 165* which sometimes is before the allotted time).

With the glaze left in the bottom of the pan we put that as a sauce over basmati rice. And to start the meal we will be having a salad. Still working on my portion control and that salad really helps!

Tuesday- Tonight is an Asian night. We will be having a chicken chow mein with stir fried bok choy.
Chicken Chow Mein
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 package (6 oz) frozen snow peas, thawed (I'll be using fresh!)
1 teaspoon vegetable oil, divided
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoon dry sherry (I sometimes leave this out since I don't have it or use orange juice)
3 large green onions, cut diagonally into 1 inch pieces
4 ounces uncooked Chinese egg noodles, or vermicelli cooked, drained and rinsed (I'll be using angel hair pasta)
1 teaspoon Oriental sesame oil

Cut chicken into 1 inch pieces. Toss with garlic in small bowl. Cut snow peas into halves. Heat 1/2 tsp vegetable oil in wok or large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add chicken mixture; stir fry 3 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Transfer to medium bowl; toss with soy sauce and sherry.
Heat remaining 1/2 tsp vegetable oil in wok. Add snow peas; stir fry 1 minute. Add onions; stir-fry 30 seconds. Add chicken mixture; stir-fry 1 minute. Add noddles to wok; stir-fry 2 minutes or until heated through. Stir in sesame oil. Garnish, if desired. (Brought to you by Great Tasting Stir-Fries and More).

The stir fried bok choy is just cut up and thrown into a skillet with sesame oil, garlic, and re pepper flakes. I fry it until it is tender. This makes a quick and easy oriental side dish.

Wednesday- Today we will be having something we have had before. My family likes it so it must be repeated. We will be having yellow squash casserole. The link to the recipe and alterations can be found here. Add a salad and we got one tasty meal.

Thursday- This is another Asian night. I am looking forward to trying this recipe, napa cabbage salad. We will be having this with grilled pork since this day is forcasted to be in the low 60's.

Friday- I have sunchoke left over from last week so we will be using them again. I found this sunchoke and potato gratin recipe. In the recipe I used mozzarella cheese because that's what I had. We already had it and everyone loved it so we will make it again. We also be having "shake and bake" chicken which is fun to have the kids help with. All this along with a side salad.

Saturday- Today usually is leftovers but I somehow doubt we will have leftovers this week. So tonight will be a pasta night. We will just try to use whatever we have left of vegies and throw them in with some tomato sauce and make it taste good!

I sure hope everyone else is finding wonderful ways to cook their vegies. This week we got a coconut. We have gotten one before and bombed and figuring out what to do with it. It didn't make good shakes, we couldn't get the meat off to eat. I really am at a loss as what to do. If anyone has any tricks I wouldn't mind.
And thanks Marla for the sunchoke recipe. I haven't tried it but I think I might just have to buy a few more just to try it.

Delay in meal planning

I thought I would warn people that this week the meal plan will be up late. I have been sick the last couple days. Interesting how my need to meal plan correlates with my need to eat and I really don't feel like eating right now.
I can tell you we got Jerusalem artichokes this week and I have never tried them. If anyone has ever had them or knows some recipes with them do tell, I am very interested.
So Hopefully by Monday I up to thinking about food. Hope all of you stay healthy and out of this nasty bug that is making its rounds.

Menu for 2/13-2/19/2011

The only thing I had to review for last week was the lasagna. After I got the noodles cooked all the way thru it was soooo good or maybe it just had been a long time since we had it that it was really good.

So on to this week. I was excited to see that we got lettuce this week. last week we only got spinach. I actually missed my starter salad for each meal. It helps me with my goal this year of portion control. To help me eat the salad I make the salad as soon as I come hope from picking up my basket. It assures me that all I have to do before dinner is pull out a bowl of already made salad and by the end of the week it is usually all gone. Hopefully that trick will help others use up their lettuce and eat more salad.
And sorry this was posted late, Sundays are so busy and I decided to go to bed early and get up and do this today.

Sunday- Yesterday we had chicken and foil dinners. This was pretty easy to prep before church and come home and do minimal work. What we did was cut up carrots, onions, mushrooms, celery, peppers, and potatoes and put them in some foil with salt and pepper (next time I'll add some cheese). You close up the foil and throw it on the grill. Keep it there until the carrots and potatoes are done. See super easy and delicious.
For the chicken we rubbed some evoo on them and then took a whole lemon and squeezed the juice over them and then rubbed some rosemary on it. If I hadn't have had the grill on high it would have been less dry. But none the less it was still really good. Put all this with a yummy salad and you have one satisfied tummy.

Monday-Happy Valentines Day! In honor of such a fun day we are going to have homemade pizza in the shape of a heart. The sauce is found under Tuesday here. Our toppings will be onions, peppers, and my favorite mushrooms. I thought this time I would post my pizza dough recipe since I had a few friends ask for them and I never did post it. So here it is:

Pizza Dough
1c. warm water
1 pkg. or Tbs. Dry yeast
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp sugar
1/4 c. cooking oil
about 3 c. flour

In medium bowl, put yeast and sugar in and pour water over it. Let the yeast dissolve. Add salt, oil, and half the flour to yeast. Beat vigorously till smooth (feel free to use a mixer!). Mix the rest of the flour in until the dough is firm. If the dough seems really dry add a little bit of oil. Knead on floured breadboard or counter until smooth approximately 5 minutes (I do this in my bosch for about 5 minutes). Roll out into 2 large circles (12 inches diameter). Brush pans lightly with oil first. Place dough on pans and add sauce, grated cheese, and various toppings of your choice.

Bake in 425* oven 15-30 minutes (depends on oven). Outside crust should be browned. Uncooked pizza may be frozen.

I double this recipe and split it in fourths. I make 2 pizzas and then use one section to make bread sticks like the ones at Olive Garden. I then freeze the other section of dough for another meal that will go well with bread sticks. So tonight, we will have salad, pizza, and bread sticks, DeYummy!

Tuesday- We are having potato soup again. last week we actually had frozen soup because I didn't feel like do a lot of cooking. When I make soup often I'll double the recipe because it doesn't take much energy to do that. Then I freeze some for when someone gets sick or when I don't feel like cooking and we don't want (or don't have the money) to eat out. So I need to freeze more so I figured we can do this again. My husband does not mind!

Wednesday- I haven't decided if we will have fajitas or burritos. Either way it is an easy night for mom and everyone will love it! This will help use up our spinach and peppers and maybe even a few mushrooms.

Thursday- I like having a breakfast night last week so much that this week when we got another cantaloupe I knew we would be doing it again. So tonight is french toast with cantaloupe or some kind of fruit salad.

Friday- We haven't had a basic throw it all together stir-fry in a couple weeks so that is what we are going to have tonight. We just take what ever is left over vegetable wise from this week and then we throw it in the wok and cook it up. Serve it over rice with some sort of sauce. I think I'll make that sweet and sour sauce again!

Saturday- Leftovers! We have been so busy the last couple of weeks that have leftovers on Saturday has been really nice so that I can focus on doing other things. I love early spring and being outside.

Enjoy your baskets and bon apetit!

Menu 2/6-2/12/2011

I have been one busy momma. Mostly my husband was putting a fan in my bathroom yesterday which meant no time for computer while I kept the kids from trying to climb on to the roof! Gotta love boys!

Sunday- I have to confess I handed this day off to my husband. As you can see you got a bag of red potatoes in our basket this week. He was sooo excited due to the fact that I have been doing potato bar nights less often, or more like they don't exist. So tonight he thru some chopped up in the crock pot with an 8 wedged onion, some baby carrots, worcesterchire sauce, chicken broth, and salt and pepper. It was pretty good. We also had some grilled chicken that was marinated in evoo (extra virgin olive oil) and sprinkled with garlic and herb seasoning. It was DeYummy!

Monday- This same amazing husband who made tonight's dinner will be having a birthday today.He has requested to have lasagna which I will accompany with french bread and a side salad made out of spinach leaves.
With the lasagna I make a spaghetti sauce with whatever I want in it. This week it will probably be made up of spinach, broccoli, carrots, and if I am nice I might add a few bits of shredded chicken too. I also combine 16 oz or 2 c. of cottage cheese and 2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese in a separate bowl. A trick I learned is that you don't' have to cook the noodles before hand but make sure each layer has enough sauce or the noodles won't cook. Anyways, I take a greased 9x13 pan and put a little sauce on the bottom. Then I put lasagna noodles on top of that, then a layer of the cheese mixture and then sauce. You repeat this process until there is sauce on top and you have run out. I cook it in 350 * for about 35-45 minutes or until you think the noodles are done and the cheese is melted.
I don't have a recipe for the french bread yet but I'll tell you if I find an easy good one.

Tuesday- It is supposed to be cold here again so we are doing my husbands favorite soup, Best Cream of Potato Soup. This time I might add more celery since I have a ton. I also don't have allspice or celery seed so I leave those out. I also don't have white wine so I'll be doing red wine vinegar instead. I have also switched from whole milk to skim and there wasn't much of a difference. If you need to you can add bacon or ham. It makes it really delicious.
We'll probably have some fruit with this meal to help round it out. And hopefully the cold will be gone fast.

Wednesday- We are going to do an easy breakfast dinner. We will be having blueberry pancakes and eggs with cantaloupe. Easy and very delicious.

Thursday- We are going to have a cauliflower sauce pasta day. This recipe I got from a friend.
Pasta Zucchini
2 Zucchini washed and diced - Also good with broccoli, cauliflower or white beans
1 clove garlic
1 tsp or cube of chicken broth granules
1 tsp salt
Pasta ( I prefer ditalini pasta but mostly you just want the small shaped pastas)
Parmesan cheese ( or orange cheese)
parsley (optional)
In large sauce pan heat EVOO and minced garlic clove. Add zucchini (or whatever you choose from the list above), saute for a few minutes on medium. Add water with chicken broth or no water and use stock. Let boil on medium for 10 minutes. Blend the zucchini in the sauce pan (I take the mixture and pour it into my Vita-Mix blender for a few seconds and then quickly pour it back into the pan but you can also use an immersion blender). Add 1 tsp. salt. Add pasta (I only put in how much my family will eat with a little leftover but you can do a whole 1 lb. bag). Important: Consistently stir the pasta while it cooks for 8 minutes ( or until done). This allows the flavor of the zucchini to absorb into the pasta. Also, the pasta will begin to absorb the mixture. Pour a little water in at a time to make sure the pasta has enough moisture to cook.
Top with Parmesan cheese, or use shredded orange cheese.
I Love this dish.

Friday- Burrito night. I'll use whatever spinach we have left over with some tomatoes too. It should help clear out our fridge of things.

Saturday- Leftovers!

Once again, another week to enjoy delicious healthy food. Now to get my kids to eat what I make is the new goal! Bon apetit.

Review of last week

Last weeks meals were all so good. We didn't have Wednesday's meal or Friday's. I think we had leftovers on Wed. and we went to Del Taco on Friday just because I didn't feel like cooking and we hadn't been out for a while.
I have to admit on the brocoli cauliflower salad that you can probably cut back a ton on the sugar. If you cut it out entirely it probably wouldn't taste to bad either. The way it was was Super good though. I will probably make this the next time we have bacon (we used the last of ours for this recipe).
The tuna casserole was good. It was different than what I have made in the past and I liked it.
The riocatta tomatoes ended up being cottage cheese and tasted pretty good. It definetly wasn't a main menu item and I don't know what I was thinking to try and leave it that way. I might have to have agian soon because we still have some roma tomatoes lingering in our fridge.
Well, there wasn't much to change this week.
Hope you all enjoyed the recipes as much as I did.

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.