Week of March 30, 2013

Sunday:

Easter dinner. Which meant the exact same thing we had for Christmas–Honey Baked Ham, green beans and scalloped potatoes, it’s what my mom wanted and she wins…but in case you are ever looking for something semi-easy and delicious, I highly recommend this recipe:

Prosciutto-Wrapped Pork With Sweet Potatoes and Pears Recipe

I seriously may throw a dinner party soon just to be able to make this again (I have made it 3 times in 3 years, I need more reasons to make it!)

Monday:

Chili, it was in the freezer. I make a HUUUUUUGGGGEEE batch at the beginning of the winter so I can just pull out of the freezer at will, with a summer around the corner, you are probably going to see this on our menu once a week until I can get it all out of the freezer. (You will have to beg for my recipe, it’s a family secret and could win prizes if we ever let the ingredients be known.)

We like to put some Fritos in a bowl, top with a bunch of chili and shredded cheese then a scoop of plain greek yogurt (I don’t buy sour cream, but that works too!).

Tuesday:

I had chili. Everyone else had a repeat of Easter dinner.

Wednesday:

Cheesy Ham and Hash Brown Casserole Recipe

I only had one can of cream of potato soup, but that’s ok because I have a giant tub of “Cream of Whatever”. This stuff is good. Here’s the recipe I followed to make it, this blogger calls it “Cream of…Soup”:

One Orange Giraffe: Anything You Wanna Call It Casserole.

I took a screen shot of the recipe and instructions and then printed it out as a photo to keep in the bin with my mix. (I like to call this the lazy man’s way of laminating.)

I once again substituted sour cream for non-fat plain greek yogurt.

Side note: I shred my own cheese. If you own a food processor this is the only way to go. It’s cheap and it’s quick to shred a couple blocks. Then put in 1 cup increments into baggies and toss in the fridge for later use.

Thursday:

Leftovers

Friday:

Pizza

Saturday:

Date night!! We went to Studio Movie Grill (had a gift card). Saw the new Oz movie…it was decent. I did not realize that this movie was intended to be 3D, we saw it in 2D. So I left with the beginnings of a migraine and by the time we were home had a full on migraine. It was also filled with cliche lines; but I get what they were trying to do, it just needed a little more tweaking. I do not feel this is a PG film, which of course led to a debate between Nate and I. But seriously, if this is our rating system, my kid is never going to the movies.

Week of March 24, 2013

Sunday:

I’m racking my brain and racking my brain…all I can remember is that it was served with a side of mixed veggies. Here’s your hint of the day: Always make extra veggies. Then make single “toddler ” portions to stick in the bottom drawer of your fridge. It’s amazing what a toddler will eat if he/she can get it on their own!

Monday:

I found some frozen meatballs in the back of the freezer (I always make a ginormous batch to freeze), spaghetti sauce and I have left over hoagie rolls from last weeks brats!

Meatball Subs, side of spaghetti (*hint* make a bunch of spaghetti for dinner later in the week**), and some steamed broccoli

Tuesday:

I found frozen taco meat! –yet again there are just certain things you should double or triple up on when you cook them so that you can freeze them–and black beans (I buy beans dry and then freeze them after I cook. (To learn to do this: How To Make Beans in a Slow Cooker + Freeze Them For Future Use.)

I thaw it first then stick in a sauce pan with about 1/8-1/4 cup of water to heat up.

Wednesday:

Braided Spaghetti Bread! You are about to carb overload and love every moment of it! (This is why we cooked extra spaghetti on Monday, so we wouldn’t have to do it today.

Original Recipe: ~My Recipe Book~: Braided Spaghetti Bread.

You have to remember to take your frozen bread dough out to thaw! I remembered around 10:30am, it was good to use by 5pm.

Tip–Roll your dough out on parchment paper and leave it there. It is so much easier to transfer to a baking sheet–in fact I roll out mine on my baking sheet. Also, spray your rolling pin down with pam too.

I did not have Mozzarella. but I did have an open container of Ricotta cheese, so I used about 2 heaping spoonfuls and spread that on the dough before adding the spaghetti. I also have a thing for pasta and fresh basil (A-because a plant costs $2 and I manage to keep them alive for about 8 months and B-tomato, basil and cheese is a classic, you can’t go wrong) so, I sprinkled some over the cheese.

Thursday:

Leftovers…By writing out my weekly meals, I’ve started noticing a pattern: Thursdays are Leftovers day. Huh? Who knew!

Friday:

Pizza–Shocker I know, but I wasn’t kidding when I said we have the exact same thing every Friday night (It’s an amazing thing once you learn to accept it! Sometimes taking away the simplest stress factor makes life more enjoyable!)

Saturday:

We decided to do family movie night and dinner as a picnic in the living room! We had some havarti and tomato grilled cheese sandwiches (if you have never had one of these, run! Go now, make yourself one!).

For a side we had these things:

I have no clue if these things are healthy at all or not, but for a “picnic” they are probably better than some Ruffles with Ridges.

Week of March 17, 2013

Sunday:

Brats! I found 3 brats in a baggie burried deep in the freezer as well as buns 🙂 Grilling it is.

(My husband grilled, which meant he had to cut them completely in half to know for sure that they were cooked…)

Served with Ranch Roasted Red Potatoes (http://www.food.com/recipe/hidden-valley-ranch-roasted-red-potatoes-371459)

and….mixed veggies. I almost made some baby carrots, but ran out of steam and just the thought.

Monday:

Stuffed Sole.

Don’t go getting all excited, once again this is not some fancy smancy recipe, you won’t get that from my “meal plans”. What you will get is possibly ideas…Anywho, people LOVE to send us Omaha Steaks food, and I encourage. I think these things came from my dad to celebrate football season with my husband, either that or it was my husband’s birthday. I’m not sure; but I highly encourage everyone to get their family into sending this. Apparently, when you make one order they call you constantly with deals which leads to purchasing more and gifting it!

God bless Omaha Steaks! I’ve only had to buy ground turkey, the occasional bag of frozen chicken, and pork for 2 years now.

Tuesday:

Pesto Meatball Stew 

I pulled mine out of the freezer. There are just certain things you should double the recipe for and then freeze in batches. This is one. (In fact most stews and chills you should do that for. Save yourself some time in the future, when it’s a slowcooker stew, you aren’t doing any more work when you double the recipe.)

Wednesday:

BBQ Pork sandwiches.

I pulled this out of the freezer too. Again, when you make it in a slow cooker, just double it and freeze.

If I had made it from scratch, it would have been:

1 pork tenderloin (I buy tenderloin in bulk at Costco, I choose not to buy shoulder etc and all that other stuff because a- I don’t have 5 freezers in my garage and b- I find tenderloin to be more flexible when it comes to making different meals.)

1 bottle of BB sauce of choice. (In my world, that usually means what ever Kroger had sitting in their random grocery cart of marked down marinades.)

1 can of coke. (You can do it without the coke, but it’s just not the same. I’ve heard of some people using root beer, and that sounds delicious, but I have absolutely no reason to buy a six pack of root beer or even a 20oz bottle–those are overpriced. I do however enjoy rum and cokes and so does my husband.)

Stick it in the slow cooker on low for the day. I don’t do times on my slow cooker so you won’t get that out of me unless I’m following a recipe.

Thursday:

SMORGASBORD

A.K.A. Left over night. We call it smorgasbord, when I have just a little bit of everything left and throw it all on a plate. My husband is a huge fan of this event.

Friday:

Pizza pizza pizza!

Saturday:

We got our taxes done Saturday. This necessitated Margaritas afterwards. This week I opted for a raspberry margarita. (I really don’t like original margaritas, the only when you will get me to drink lime is if you also put orang juice in it and a topper of Grand Marnier.)

Week of March 10, 2013

The next couple of weeks I am in the process of “Clean it out”. I am endeavoring to feed everyone without going to the grocery store until every last item in the freezer is gone. I only plan to run to the grocery store for vegetables, milk and diet coke.

Sunday:

Brown Sugar Glazed Turkey Meatloaf Recipe, Risotto Cake Bites and Asparagus

Meatloaf–How to Live Gluten-Free on a Budget: 10 Tips + 2 Recipes. Scroll towards the bottom. I made it in the slow cooker…I cooked it on low and then eventually turned it to warm. That’s just how I cook. I can’t remember the last time I set a timer for anything.

I used white onion, it’s what I had, and omitted any herbs and spices since I was using cornbread stuffing mix. No molasses so I didn’t use that either.

Risotto Cake Bites–Courtesy of Omaha Steaks. People just LOVE to send me Omaha Steak stuff…I think they fell into the trap of when you order once they call and give you a deal–but you won’t hear me complaining!

Asparagus–steam and then drizzle with lemon juice. (Truth be told, I hate asparagus. I put it on my plate to make my kid think I’m going to eat it, then when she’s not looking pass it across the table to my husband.)

Husband and I both went back for seconds.

Monday:

Mexican Spuds
I tried to find the recipe for y’all, but it doesn’t seem to exist anymore. I pulled these out of the freezer.

Did you know you can make an entire meal out of a potato? Did you know that you can then wrap the pre-made potato up and stick it in the freezer. You can thank me later for this bit of information.

Tuesday:

Sesame Ginger with madarin orange juice chicken and Thai rice noodles…and peas (Clara has adamant about not going grocery shopping, so I’m running low on vegetables and I think she knows this.)

Now don’t get all excited about this meal. It’s from a bottle. I actually bought the marinade for a friend who gave birth. My after-baby gift to the family was a bunch of pre-marinated meats for the freezer so she could have some go-to meals. I chose not to inform her that the marinades were from a bottle, I can’t help it if she thinks they were homemade and told me how wonderful they tasted.

Recipe:

Remember to take out frozen chicken tenderloins by 2:30pm (Take extra out to thaw in fridge for a meal later in the week.)

Dump marinade over them

At 5pm chop up and “fry” on the stove top in pan drizzled with oil (I only use EVOO for everything…except turkeys).

Add rice noodles that have been soaking in hot water for 25min.

Add leftover marinade and warm it all up.

Cook your peas how you want. Eat them how how want.

Wednesday:

In-a-Hurry Chicken Curry Recipe. Served over quinoa. I don’t use cilantro. I hate cilantro.

Thursday:

Look what’s in the fridge;

Must be a leftover night!

Friday:

Same yummy pizza every week!

Saturday:
I got out of the house! I got out of the house! Mango margarita, yummy!

Week of March 3, 2013

So I figured I need a way to keep me posting, and since I make dinner every night, the best way to do that is to post my weekly menu plan…after I’ve already cooked it. The fact is, sometimes I fail in the kitchen and would hate for you to cook my disasters. What I am good at is finding a way to make my meals use similar ingredients for the week…when I plan. Now the categories may not always offer a variety, but you know what: I’m cheap.
Ps–I forgot to plan this past week 😉

Sunday:
We always try to grill on Sundays (cuts down on our gas bill).
I had planned on burgers, but I apparently didn’t have hamburger buns in the freezer. Patty melts it was, since I had some sourdough bread.
I “fancied” it up by trying to make a ranch butter to toast on the bread…I couldn’t taste it.

Some slices of Havarti and tomato topped it off.
Served with corn on the cob and peas (which I added some ranch butter too–I mean if I went through the trouble of making it, might as well use it.)

Monday:
I am attempting to get my husband to agree to meatless Mondays. He’s not so thrilled with the idea, but the boon to our bank account convinced him to give it a go.

Thanks to the glory that is Pinterest, this is what I attempted to make:

Caprese Lasagna Roll Ups – Cooking Classy.

I really only needed Riccotta Cheese. So I sent Nate to the store. Everything else I had…except shredded mozzarella, and against Cooking Classy’s advice, I still used it.

It was okay. Not something to die for.

Tuesday:

um…Mac n’Cheese and frozen peas….it’a long story see: Tuesday, bloody Tuesday.

Wednesday:

Leftovers.

I have a 7pm meeting Monday nights with deadlines. I don’t cook, unless I was super organized that week and do something in the slow cooker.

I was less than organized this week.

Thursday:

Jambalaya with mixed veggies!

Now don’t go getting all impressed. It’s from a box…and it’s not Zatarans. Surprisingly, Aldi carries a very good (and very cheap) imitation brand. I use turkey kielbasa as the meat. It’s precooked, enough said.

Friday:
This is, and always will be semi homemade pizza. It’s cheap, we love it, and gives me a mental break.
I use Kroger brand pizza crust. It’s round and I don’t have to roll anything out. It comes in packages of 2 with a nice little bag to store the extra one in until the next week.
I make the sauce and freeze in baggies so I just have to thaw one the day of.
I do not use shredded mozzarella, I like the real stuff, and we aren’t big on a cheese covered pizza. (Plus it makes me feel like a chef to cook it.)

Saturday:

I picked up Taco Bell : /
Hey I was shopping, what can I say?!

I’ve promised myself I will do better this week…it will help that my husband works nights for this week, so I will have time and motivation. Usually when dinner is just me and a 3 year old I lack the drive to actually cook.