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 

It's time for Pie

Thanksgiving Day (and turkey day!) are only 2 days away.  That means I've got to get my pie crusts made and the sherry cake baked.  Andy's requested a sherry cake, which is my grandmother's recipe, and which I usually make for Christmas.  I've also got a cherry cream pie in the works, which I will post later today, and a pumpkin pie (or two), and I may even try this Old Fashioned Honey-Apple Pie.

This Pear Crumble Pie is one of our favorite pies.  (There's a link to the original post here and on the recipes page above.)  It is similar to a Dutch Apple Pie, but made with pears.  Any variety will work, but I used some locally grown Bartletts for this pie.  The pears take on an almost buttery flavor and texture.  Of course, that might also be from the stick of bUtter in the crumble topping.

Pear Crumble Pie

Use your favorite pie crust recipe.  I used Sylvia's Perfect Pie Crust recipe from Pioneer Woman, and it got rave reviews from the pie testers.
I am obviously not a pie crust perfectionist.  I don't have the patience to expertly flute the edges, and I usually have to do some patching after lifting the crust in, but the pie tasters care not about the aesthetic appeal of the crust as they're wolfing it down.


Filling:

3 Tablespoons sugar
3 Tablespoons cornstarch
dash of salt
1 teaspoon of shredded lemon peel
3 Tablespoons lemon juice (basically the juice from one large lemon)
6 to 8 pears, peeled and cored, then thinly sliced

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Combine the sugar, cornstarch, salt, lemon peel and juice.  Toss with the pears and arrange in pie shell.

 

I do not spend my time arranging.  The pears are dumped in and shoved to fit.

Topping:

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)(I cube it up while it's cold and let it sit in the bowl til it is room temperature.)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I grate from a whole nutmeg and it's delish!)

1 cup flour

Combine the topping ingredients until it's crumbly.  Sprinkle over the pie filling.  Make sure you don't pat it down, it will make a crust and not a crumble.  Bake for 45 to 50 minutes at 425.  Wrap the crust edges in foil for the first 1/2 hour then remove and cover just the crumble for the last fifteen minutes to prevent overbrowning.  (This one got a little bit too brown, but it got eaten just as fast.)

 

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Come join Love the Pie with TidyMom  sponsored by Cherokee USA, Le Creuset, Wilton, Bags by Bloom,  Harvard Common Press and Pillsbury!