Menu plan September 20 - 25

Well, the weather here is a little mixed up this week. One day it's fall, the next we're back to summer again. So it's a little hard to know what to fix, but I think my kitchen is heading into fall regardless. I like cooking fall food so much more than summer food!

Sunday: Sweet & sour pork
Monday: creamed tuna on biscuits
Tuesday: stuffed peppers (the filling is in the freezer from the last time we made it)
Wednesday: chicken cacciatore (the sauce for this is also in the freezer from last time - love the whole "cook it once/eat it twice thing!)
Thursday: Slow cooker chicken soft tacos
Friday: thinking about chicken paprikash, but we'll see!

Always remember to head to orgjunkie.com for more great menu ideas!

Last week's menu

I didn't get my menu posted ahead of time last week, but let's see if I can remember what all we ate (this is important because I find myself looking back at these posts more and more when I'm trying to figure out what to make!).

Monday: BBQ pork sandwiches (didn't get them made the week before)
Tuesday: potstickers (I really need to make some potstickers and put them in the freezer. The frozen ones at the store are SO expensive and my recipe is really good!).
Wednesday: Chicken and noodles (I used this recipe, except I added onions, garlic, and celery to the cooking water, and stirred in sauteed mushrooms at the end).
Thursday: leftover chicken and noodles
Friday: tacos

Menu Plan September 7 - 11

Wow, I guess it's been a long time since I've posted a menu! Truth be told, I haven't been planning menus. I've missed them. But, for some reason, for the last few weeks I just haven't been able to wrap my head around a plan. I've decided I hate hot weather cooking - it's so much easier to think about casseroles and crockpots when you're cooking ahead, and they definitely don't lend themselves to hot weather!

Fall is in the air, and we're having a very busy week this week, so it's a simple, easing back to comfort food menu for me.

Tonight: grilled steak, baked potatoes, corn
Tomorrow: corned beef hash
Wednesday: chili dogs
Thursday: creamed tuna on biscuits
Friday: barbecue pork sandwiches (the meat for this is already cooked and in my freezer, and if I remember at some point what recipe I used (I made it a couple of months ago), I'll post it or post a link (if it was online) because it was REALLY good!).

Have a great week, everyone!

Menu Plan August 2 - 7

Ok, ok, so it's not Monday anymore. But I had my menu figured out by Monday, so I'm calling that close enough!

Sunday: we had my parents over for dinner - grilled pork tenderloin, smashed red potatoes, tomato & fresh mozzarella salad, steamed green beans

Monday: buttermilk chicken, rice, peas

Tuesday: chicken and black beans

Wednesday: spaghetti

Thursday: leftovers

Friday: turkey burgers (the same turkey burgers from last week - I didn't make them then).

As always, visit orgjunkie.com for more great ideas!

Menu Plan July 26 - 31

After about a three week hiatus, I'm back on track with menu planning. And it's a good thing, too - I've definitely missed it! Our schedule requires me to be super-organized about dinners, and lately I've been back to my old habit of standing in the middle of the kitchen thinking "uh.......uh......uh.....what are we going to eat tonight???" It's really frustrating.

Things have changed a smidge for us in the eating department lately. Hubby got his cholesterol level back from the doctor, and it wasn't good. Not terrible, but he needs to start exercising and change his diet. This is challenging - he's pretty picky and he likes what he likes. But I'm going to do my best to help him out by cooking a little better.

My plan to just buy the "orange tag" discount meat at the store has been working out well. Lately, between that and a couple of bags of frozen chicken tenderloins a month, we've been able to eat pretty well, and I can get the "natural" or organic meat for just a little bit more than I'd pay for the regular stuff.

With that, here's our menu plan for the week:

Sunday - BBQ chicken pizza

Monday - pork fried rice, steamed broccoli

Tuesday - grilled sausages (I found some chicken sausages with spinach and feta that I can't wait to try), oven fries, salad

Wednesday - taco salad

Thursday - turkey tenderloin (I got a great deal on a pre-marinated lemon pepper tenderloin, on sale plus it had an attached coupon!), boiled potatoes, steamed broccoli

Friday - turkey burgers, tater tots (tots aren't the healthiest but I'm not going to waste food!).

And remember, for tons of great menu ideas, visit orgjunkie.com!

Slow-cooker chicken soft tacos

Made these for dinner last week. They could easily be turned into enchiladas by using the sauce on top and baking them!

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
1 4-ounce can chopped green chilies
1/2 onion, chopped
2 T. Worchestershire sauce
2 T. chili powder
1 T. cumin
1 t. garlic powder
1/2 t. salt
flour tortillas
shredded cheddar
shredded lettuce
sliced olives
salsa
sour cream

Put the chicken in a small crock pot. In a bowl, mix the tomato sauce, chiles, onion, Worchestershire sauce, and spices. Pour over the chicken. Cook on low for three hours or until the chicken is cooked. Remove chicken from pot, chop or shred, return to pot and let rewarm for five minutes.

Serve on tortillas with toppings (these or your personal favorites!).

Getting up

I've decided to start getting up earlier. Up till now, unless we needed to be somewhere, I've basically been going to bed about 11:00 and getting up when Caitlyn does, usually between 7:00 and 7:30. This usually means I get a full night's sleep. But, it also means I'm not really getting much done around the house during the day, and believe me, there is stuff to be done!!!

So, I'm now setting my alarm for 6:00. You'd think that would mean that I would go to bed earlier, right? Uh, no...somehow, I just can't get myself there. So, I lose an hour of sleep. I can sleep in on the weekends! Of course, if Caitlyn starts getting up in the night again, things might change, but for now she's sleeping through so I'm ok.

Yesterday, I got up and got the dishes done and something else, which I can't remember. Today I spent way too much time on the internet (there's my problem right there!), and then got the diapers hung out on the line and called to exchange a pair of diaper pants that were sent in the wrong size. Not nearly what I wanted to accomplish but now that I got a bunch of internet time out of the way, hopefully I can focus more on the house while she naps today!

And, now she's awake...hello, new day!

Pizza Casserole

Made this for dinner tonight. Even hubby liked it. It's nice because it's the kind of thing you can easily personalize to suit your own tastes. I pulled a recipe out of Parenting magazine and made it my own.

1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 loaf good crusty bread, cubed
2 cups shredded mozzarella (about 8 ounces)
1/4 pound pork sausage, cooked
1/2 cup pepperoni, chopped
1 small can sliced olives
1 can diced tomatoes (I used fire roasted ones because I like the flavor)
5 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. dried oregano
fresh basil, shredded (optional)
grated parmesan cheese (optional)

Saute onion, garlic, and mushrooms until softened. Place in a bowl with bread, cheese, meats, olives, and tomatoes. Mix to combine. Place in a greased 9x12 casserole dish.

In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, sour cream, milk, basil, and oregano. Pour evenly over the bread mixture in the casserole dish. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours.

About 20 minutes before baking time, pull the pan out of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Remove the cover and bake for 45 minutes or until brown on top.

Serve with fresh basil and grated parmesan, if desired.

menu plan June 22 - 26

Here we are, another week already. The month is flying by!

Monday: Pizza casserole (from a recipe found in Parenting magazine)

Tuesday: Tamale Pie

Wednesday: Cranberry pork chops (in the crock pot)

Thursday: leftovers, if we have enough, otherwise I'm trying to find my recipe for cabbage roll casserole!

Friday: Either leftovers (if we didn't have it Thursday) or cabbage roll casserole (if we did!).

Don't forget to go to orgjunkie.com for many more menu ideas!

Pantry Challenge Update

Ok, first of all, someone needs to tell my grocery shopping brain that the whole point of a pantry challenge is to use stuff up, not replace it as quickly as you pull it off the shelf! Part of it is my hubby's fault, I think - he made me this awesome pantry inventory system, complete with a bar code scanner, so as soon as I use the last of something, it automatically adds it to my shopping list. And, well, if it's on my shopping list, I *must* buy it. Time to start leaving the list at home from time to time!

It's some weird psychological thing - you'd think I went hungry as a child or something (which I never did, except for the one night I got in trouble and Dad sent me to bed without dinner), because I have this almost compulsive need to fill the pantry and have four or five of everything on the shelves. Never mind that the grocery store is only a mile away!

I forgot that, right before I announced this pseudo-challenge, I gave my mom a Costco order (I'm not allowed to have a card because I'll spend too much (obviously), so she does my shopping for me), so we're well stocked up with tuna fish, Minute Rice, and ketchup, too!

At any rate, for the most part, I've been making stuff that doesn't require new purchases or special ingredients. This week, I didn't buy any meat at all except lunch meat, and last week, the only meat I bought was a package of chicken breasts that were on sale for $1.49 a pound.

And yet I've still managed to completely blow my budget for the month out of the water. I think I need to adjust my budget - now that Caitlyn is eating, I'm buying mostly organic produce (she eats mostly fruit), and I try to buy organic other stuff when there isn't too great a difference in price (so no dairy, yet, except yogurt, which is the exact same price as the regular stuff for some reason). That adds up fast.

In the meantime, we only ate out once this weekend, instead of our usual 2 - 3 times, and with all the menu planning I've been doing since I've been back at work, we rarely eat out during the week. So that helps the budget tremendously!

So I guess this pantry challenge update wasn't much of an update, more a bunch of ramblings from a woman who thinks too much about food and really should go to bed, huh? :-)