Meal plan for January 2013, Week 1

A new year means new goals, which of course include getting organized.  Organization with meals is something I'm always working toward, especially since everyone wants to eat!  Every day!  

Since I've resigned myself to the fact that I'll have to cook dinner every night, I've got the first couple weeks of menus made up, and even did some cooking for the freezer.  I also found this month's worth of menu and tips  on Smithlive.blogspot.com that has some recipes I may try later in the month.  

Crock Pot Northern Beans and Ham

A cheap and tasty meal to warm the tummies on these cold winter nights.

Cilantro Lime Chicken Tacos
A new recipe I found on pinterest! 

Homemade Tamales with Beans and Rice
My kids, niece and I made homemade tamales the Saturday before Christmas and I took some to a Christmas party.  They were our first try, and they were really good!  They took some prep time and some tips from an authentic tamale maker, and I used this recipe for the masa.  We cooked a pork roast in the oven, diced it finely, and added a sauce I made with some of the chilies from our garden.  I made up another batch of the meat filling so we can eat these on New Year's Eve and freeze the rest for another meal.

Homemade Pizza

Scroll down that post to the recipe on Friday's menu for pizza dough.

Beans, Cilantro Lime Rice, Homemade Tortillas and Salad

These really are the best tortillas.  Easy to make; I use my electric griddle and cook two at a time.

Mexican Tortilla Roll-ups, Chips and Salsa
Another pinterest find!  I'm going to use

Buffalo Chicken in the Crock Pot

Sounds so good!  

Simple Turkey One Pot

Serving this with rice or potatoes.

Ooey Gooey Rocky Road Cookies
The name says it all!  A good way to use up one of the several open bags of marshmallows.


I'm linking up here:

Menu Plan Monday at OrgJunki.com

Menu Planning Monday at SusieQTPies

Mealtime Monday at Couping and Cooking

What's for Dinner, March Week 2

Monday:
Snacking for Dinner
Macaroni Salad
Green Salad

Tuesday:
Hillbilly Ribs
Baked Potatoes
Spinach Salad

Wednesday:
Spicy Kale Lasagna
Green Salad

Thursday:
Ranch Chicken using this 3 ingredient recipe
Potatoes cubed and wrapped in foil and put in the crockpot on top of the chicken, so they cook separately.

Friday:
Corned Beef, Cabbage, Carrots, and Potatoes! Yay!

Saturday:
Relief Society Dinner for adults, Pizza for kids

Sunday:
Leftovers Soup and Bread in the bread machine

Linking Up Here:  Menu Plan Monday

What's for Dinner, March Week 1

Monday:
Roasted Chicken, brown rice pilaf, green beans, salad
* I'm roasting two chickens and will assemble the enchiladas for Wednesday when making dinner tonight.
Busy night, softball meeting and Jr. Class parent meeting, but prepping ahead of time really saves time in the long run!

Tuesday:  
Homemade Pizza, maybe taco or BBQ chicken pizza.
* I'm making the crust ahead of time on Monday because Tuesday is extra busy.

Wednesday:
Chicken Echiladas, corn, refried beans

Thursday:
Hamburgers and macaroni salad, green salad

Friday:
Taco Soup in the Crock Pot:  Here's a basic recipe

Saturday:
BLT's with turkey bacon, chips, and fruit

Sunday:
Salmon in the Crock Pot: I made this for last week's menu, but wanted to try it out before I posted how I made it.  Don't want to steer anyone wrong.  The salmon came out moist and flaky.

Salmon has been very inexpensive lately.  It's $3.99/lb for farm raised, and although I'd rather eat wild caught salmon, I figure a small amount of farm raised is better than nothing.


Salmon Packets in the Crock Pot
Prep a sheet of foil for each fillet by spraying with non-stick cooking spray.

Place salmon in middle of foil and drizzle with lemon juice and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Fold the foil around the salmon making a packet and stack them in the crock pot.

Cook on low for 4 hours.

Variations:  Sprinkle with any seasoning that sounds good; I'm going to try my favorite, Creole seasoning on this and serve with homemade spanish style rice and corn and black beans.

I'm linking up here:  Menu Plan Monday ,  Tasty Tuesdays

What's for Dinner, February Weeks 4

Monday:  Salmon, Risotto, Roasted Asparagus-Orange Salad
*The trick to frugally feeding a large family some fish is to make the portions small, keeping the cost low, and serve with something filling, in this case the risotto.

Tuesday:  Bean and Cheese Burritos made from homemade whole wheat tortillas and these pinto beans in the crockpot from the beginning of the month.  I froze them in 3 1/2 cup containers and labeled with masking tape.  I spooned out some regular pinto beans before mashing and cooking the remaining beans into "refried".
This recipe actually made 5 of these containers (I used one up for chili last week) which was over 15 cups of pinto beans for CHEAP!

Wednesday:  Fried rice made with leftover brown rice/wild rice/shiitake mushroom and carrot medley from last week that I froze with some leftover peas.  Eggs are an inexpensive protein, so making a large batch of fried rice and adding some egg rolls is something a little different than our usual dinners.

Thursday:  Gone All Day Stew, made like this Hamburger Stew, but using some roast instead of hamburger, and bread from the bread machine.  We have basketball and meetings tonight, so having something to eat that is ready when we are lessens the stress.

Friday:  Pizza.  Keeping it easy.  Might try these Mini Pizzas if there's time.

Saturday:  Apple Pie Pork Chops, salad and potatoes.   We do love our pork chops with apples.

And for a treat -- Chocolate Banana Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting.  Instead of the chocolate ganache that is used in the recipe, I made a peanut butter frosting using two ingredients:

1 cup of Peanut Butter and 1 cup of Marshmallow Cream
Beat together until combined and spread on the cake.

Now the cake can officially be called a Monkey cake.  This recipe was quick to put together and made a moist, chocolatey and not too banana-y cake.  Thumbs up from all of the tasters.

I'm linking here:  Menu Plan Monday,  Tasty Tuesdays

What's for dinner, January Week 5

Monday:

Vegetarian Divan~Just made this recipe pictured above, without the chicken, used just broccoli (filled the pan) spooned the sauce over and topped with cheese.  It was still yummy!

Tuesday:

Chicken Cordon Bleu Florentine Casserole
I'm going to trade out ham with turkey bacon and leave out the Gorgonzola cheese, since it's not something I keep in the fridge. :)

Wednesday:

Brian's Birthday!  He wants Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas, we'll have chips and salsa and salad, too.

Thursday:

Crock Pot night, trying out a new recipe~Mexican Lasagna using Morningstar crumbles instead of the chicken

Friday:  

Thai Beef Cabbage Rolls and Brown Rice

Saturday:

Birthday dinner for Brian and Mario

Sunday:

Super Bowl Sunday, so we'll have some Hot Wings, Layered Dip (maybe these individual cups?) and some fruit and veggies.

I couldn't find a BAKED recipe for the Hot Wings, so here is the loose-y goose-y way I make them.

Dump the wings into a 9x13 pan or two and bake in a 400 degree oven until halfway done.  Coat with 1 cup or so of hot wing sauce, like Franks, and bake until done.  We like ours more on the chewy side, less on the gooey side, so we bake for an hour or so total for fresh wings, longer if you're using frozen drumettes.

I'm linking here:  Menu Plan Monday

What's for Dinner, January Week 4

I know I usually do a dinner menu, and this is titled "What's for Dinner", but I thought I would throw in a breakfast that we've had lately.

Last Saturday we were at home for breakfast, and the older 2 kids were gone.  Joe requested crepes, which sounded fine to me once I realized I wouldn't be standing over the pan all morning since 2 out of the 6 of us were missing.  I love crepes (which Monkey calls "craps") and they are simple to mix up and really don't take long to cook, but with only one small pan they can only be made one at a time.

Quick and Easy Crepes

3 cups milk
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
2 Tablespoons oil or melted butter

Put all ingredients into a blender pitcher and blend for 30 seconds, scrape sides, and blend again.  This will make a nice smooth batter.

Heat and lightly grease (or spray) a 6-inch skillet on medium heat.  Pour in 1/4 cup of batter and lift and tilt the skillet to spread the batter.  Brown only on one side.  Crepe will usually slide right out of the pan when done.   Repeat with all remaining batter, re-greasing the pan as needed.  Will make 20-24 crepes.

Serve with whipped cream and strawberries, or even with plain maple syrup, or apple pie filling, or almost anything you please.

Dinner Menu:
 
Monday:
Creamy White Chili made with the turkey meat from last week's menu
Homemade bread in the bread machine

Tuesday:
Leftover Creamy White Chili and Cornbread, or clean out the fridge night!

Wednesday:
Pork chops baked with apples, red potatoes and sweet potatoes

Thursday:  This is a night filled with basketball, meetings and singing practice.  I'm leaving it open to sandwiches or picking up something on the go.

Friday:
Taco bar

Saturday:

Mario's birthday dinner, and he's requested homemade pizza.

Sunday:
Leftover Soup in the crockpot


Linking to:  Menu Plan Monday @ orgjunkie.com

What's for Dinner, January Week 3

I skipped week 2.  Just like that.  I was a little busy working on other projects and we flew by the seat of our pants as far as dinners went.  One of those projects was cleaning out the freezers and inventorying what was left. I made a list of what is in there and moved items I wouldn't be using up in the next few weeks into the larger extra freezer.  While I was at it, I prepped some things to make cooking a bit easier:

1. All of the bread crusts that were stashed were put in the food processor with some Italian seasoning and Parmesan cheese and then put it in a mason jar and popped it back into the freezer.  
2. Boneless/skinless chicken breasts: 1/2 were baked in the oven for a future meal and the other half I cut into 1/2 inch cubes and cooked in a pan on the stove then added taco seasoning.
3. Black beans were cooked, half of them made into refried beans, then frozen for burritos along with the chicken with taco seasoning.
4. Leftovers were consolidated and put into labeled containers for Crock Pot Leftover Stew.
5. Vegetable stock was made in the crock pot and frozen in quart sized bags.

My plan is to cook mainly from my pantry and freezer the rest of this month.  I'll have to shop for produce and dairy, but I've got meat/grains/pasta/canned covered.  This will be a great budget saver!  I'm even using the bread machine for bread, and I used up some open cereal and marshmallows to make some homemade cereal bars.  Mine were made using Kashi cereals and regular Cheerios with dried cranberries.

And here is what I threw together with a small piece of roast hidden in my freezer.

Easy Beef Stew in the Crock Pot

1 pound beef cut into 1/2-1 inch pieces

1/2 package onion soup mix 

2 cups frozen mixed vegetables

1 can diced tomatoes, undrained

 

2-3 tomato cans of water

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 large potatoes, or 4 smaller potatoes, peeled and diced

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 teaspoons Italian seasoning

Put all ingredients in the crock pot and cook on low for 8 -10 hours.  That's it!

Menu Plan for January, Week 3

Monday:  Tuna Casserole, Green Salad and Sweet Potato Fries
(I have peas, milk, and sweet potatoes to use up)

Tuesday:  Pasta, Broccoli, Salad, and Breadsticks
(Frozen pasta dish already stashed in the freezer.  Add cheese to the top and bake it with the breadsticks.)

Wednesday:  Roasted Turkey, Potatoes, Stuffing, Brussels Sprouts and Salad
(Yep, we've got a couple of turkeys in the freezer and bags of stuffing to use up)

Thursday:  Crock pot stew with homemade bread
(Natalia has back-to-back basketball games tonight so something easy that can be eaten when we're ready instead of when it's ready)

Friday:  Pizza!

Saturday:  Polenta and Stew with Salad
(Stew is in the freezer, polenta in the pantry)

I'm linking here:  Menu Plan Monday

Tasty Tuesday 

What's for Dinner, December Week 2

So, I called this "week 2", but technically I didn't post a "week 1".  This week is full of comfort foods, just perfect for the cooler weather we are now getting.  I'm trying to double cook a couple of the meals like the lasagna and polenta with stew so I have some meals on hand for next week.  I've already frozen some leftover spaghetti with sauce from lunch yesterday.

Monday:  BBQ chicken in the crockpot, Broccoli salad, roasted veggies.

Tuesday:  Almost Payday Lasagna, green salad, leftover broccoli salad

Wednesday: Slow Cooker Sweet Potato and Chicken Curry, brown rice

Source

Thursday:  Church Christmas Party...Yay, no cooking!  Just making toffee for dessert table.

Friday:  Homemade Pizza

Saturday:  Polenta with chicken stew, mozzarella cheese, green salad, french bread


Linking up here:  Menu Plan Monday  Check out the link, she has FREE Holiday Menu Planning and Baking printables.

Cherry Cream Pie

One more pie recipe.  This is easy, and rich, and scrumptious.  It's been a staple at Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations for years. It is lighter than cheesecake, which, though I enjoy, I can only eat a bite of.  Cherry Cream Pie, on the other hand, I can devour piece by piece.  I know this piece of pie looks a little bit, well, droopy, but that's because we couldn't wait for it to finish setting up before cutting into it!

Cherry Cream Pie

Stir Together until thick:

1 cup sweetened condensed milk

1/3 cup lemon juice

Whip:

1 cup whipping cream

Fold into milk and juice mixture.  Pile into baked pie shell.  

Top with:

1 can cherry pie filling mixed with

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Chill until set and serve with extra whipped cream if wanted.

 

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