Sunday Night Supper..

Today has been a great day of lazy! I love days like that. Maia was off to her Nana's house, and Danny and I were home with the baby. After some house cleaning, coloring my hair, and a run to Target it was time to get dinner started. I planned 5 meals last week and we didn't eat one of them, so I decided to make it today. We had Thai Pork and Noodles. This is the first time I have made it. I changed a few things. The recipe called for 3 red jalapenos, and I only had 2 green. I didn't have a whole lime, so i zested 1/2 a lime and added some additional lime juice. I made it in the wok, and it was REALLY good. Jocelyn took one bite of the noodles, and decided it was time for some Cheerios and fruit instead. But she was being a little picky. Normally she will eat anything and everything. Voila! (Danny said right before making his plate "Do you need to take a picture of this?" HA! He laughs at me every time.)

This portion seems small, but it was a very big plate. I put the rest in a dish that I can put in the oven and covered it with foil. Then we'll have this for lunch tomorrow.

This week's meal plan: I kept it REALLY easy. I only planned 4 meals, and most of them I know off the top of my head. I didn't plan anything on Ziplist this week, since I made my shopping list in the grocery parking lot. I had every intention to make something new this week, but I ended up running to the store for milk and such, and decided at the last minute that I didn't want to come BACK with a new list and made one up on the spot, on the back of an envelope that was hanging out in my purse.


Monday - Leftovers - The whole family if off for the day and we will be running around. I decided to keep day 1 easy peasy.

Tuesday - Turkey Meatballs with whole wheat pasta. I am going to try to make this ahead so it will be ready Tuesday evening.

Wednesday - Momma's Chicken. Maia named this dish. I lightly pan fry chicken breaded in panko bread crumbs and seasoned salt. We'll have broccoli and mashed potatoes with it.

Thursday - Terriyaki Turkey Meatballs with brown rice. These were such a hit, I am going to make them again this week. Last week I used ground beef, this week turkey. I plan to cook these ahead too. Probably while I am making the spaghetti and meatballs for Tuesday.

Friday - Take-out - Could be pizza, Chinese or tacos. Who knows!

I guess I can start planning next week's menu just to be ahead of the game.

Delicious Weekly Menu...Week 2 of January

So I have fallen in love with a few websites lately. www.ziplist.com and Pinterest.

A little about Pinterest...I keep pinning EVERYTHING I love. I have to go back in there and organize it a bit more, but I have found several cute ideas that I want to do/make for various holidays birthdays etc. If you don't PIN...hop to it! I even heard some ladies gossiping about all the good pins they pinned lately at Maia's dance class the other night. Very fun.

Now Ziplist is just WONDERFUL! Thanks to my .....cousin-in-law in-law?? Well anyway something like that....Jill (and her sweet family) are GREAT. She recommended Ziplist through her blog (check out her blog @ Bottled Beauty) and I have been hooked ever since. What is it you ask? Well the best thing ever! I have done weekly menu plans for a long time. I started with meals we regularly had and just planned a shopping list with a good old-fashioned hand written list. Then I linked my Google calendar to my phone, and I always knew what we were going to have for dinner. I loved it. As I got used to weekly menu planning. I started to add a new recipe or two every week. Then I loved trying new things, and I ended up with 5 recipes every week. Sometimes I planned only 4, because we usually had a leftovers night or a take-out night. But somewhere between 4-5 meals a week. As my cooking skills grew and I used more and more recipes, naturally my shopping list grew too. I would search various websites, then copy and paste the menus or ingredients to an Excel spreadsheet or a word.doc. This got tedious and time-consuming due to how each website listed their stuff and eventually I slacked off. I still loved cooking, but the planning was taking too much time. At that time I had a new baby and time wasn't easy to come by. We went back to our old habits. Which weren't bad, but they got boring for me. We would do the family favorites or eat out. Whichever was easiest.

In comes ZIPLIST! Sometime back in December I started using Ziplist to plan a menu for Christmas. What's best is the website has various link sites for recipes. Such as marthastewart.com or allrecipes.com, etc. So you could search and click through what you wanted all at 1 site. Then you would add the recipes to your box, and then when you were ready to select your menu for the week, you add the ingredients to you shopping list. A pop-up box comes up and you can uncheck items you already have. I am starting to sound like a commercial...can you tell I love it? It takes me just a few minutes now vs. a long time of searching, copy/pasting etc.

This past week (what i call week 2 of January and named my menu that same thing) I planned my menu in just a few minutes. I didn't even print out the recipes. While I am cooking I just pulled the recipe up on my iPad. I guess some might say I am being environmentally friendly too. ;) Well, I know I am saving printing paper and ink! And most importantly time!  I work a full-time job, and of course I am a Mom of 2 kids...so time is precious. I want to spend my spare time with the kids and not hunting for recipes. There will be time for that when they start ignoring me for their friends. (Some day they will be teenagers....ugh.)

This week we had some delicious meals. I even added some healthy muffins that Maia and I ate for breakfast. She LOVED them. I forgot to take pictures of a few of my meals.

Breakfast for the week: Healthy Banana Blueberry Muffins - I added a touch of pumpkin pie spice and also added some milled flax seed. I was trying to make sure we were getting a good morning start, and these were a HIT!

Sunday - We had Quick Shrimp Po' Boy sandwiches! YUMMY! The adults had the real sandwiches and the kiddos (Ages 8 and 1) had a deconstructed version.

Here is what Maia had, and the baby ate all the same things, but just cut up in pieces, of course.

Monday - We had Quinoa With Broccoli, Cheese & Bacon. This was pretty good. Its the first time I have made quinoa. I have attempted to a few times before, but I never got around to it. This was a pretty easy transition. We do mac and cheese with broccoli too. The hubs loved it. He said it was great. Maia wasn't too sure and, well, the baby will eat anything. She is NOT picky about food. As long as its ready when she comes in the door. She's like a 1950s husband who needs dinner on the table when she walks in the door. If its not ready the night is ruined! (No lie!)

Tuesday - We had Grilled Steak And Potato with Salad. Everyone loved this! I don't often make steak. For a few reasons, its a big cut of expensive meat that if you mess up...you are eating charcoal. There are too many good steak cooks in the family. I am TOTALLY hit or miss. BUT...this was 1/2 and 1/2. Part of the grill was WAY too hot and charred 1-side of the steak. Oh well...the other one was perfect! This recipe came with a nice mustard vinaigrette recipe. I thought it was a little sour. Danny LOVED it!

Wednesday I was sick, and didn't feel like cooking. Maia offered to cook dinner. She mainly cooks with crescent rolls. She decided to make Pigs in A Blanket. She even made a few tiny ones for the baby.

Thursday Night we made Turkey Teriyaki Meatballs With Edamame and Snow Peas. This was SO fantastic we all agreed it would be a "regular" on the menu. The baby couldn't get enough of the shelled edamame. I actually ended up using ground beef instead of turkey because the store was totally out of ground turkey. It was still GREAT. I think ground pork, chicken, or turkey would all be GREAT. The sauce was so flavorful it made the normally bland brown rice FANTASTIC! I forgot to take a picture before I ate this meal, but here is one while it was cooking. I ended up cutting the meatballs 1/2 way through the cooking because they didn't' seem cooked enough for me.

Well tonight...we were supposed to have Thai Pork And Noodles, but Danny had a late lunch. The baby was starving, and Maia desperately needed sopapillas. Jocelyn had leftovers and Maia and I did take-out. So, I guess now I know what we are doing for lunch tomorrow.

I am off to plan January Week 3. I really enjoy cooking for my family. Maia can usually choose to "skip" one new meal if its a recipe we haven't had before. This week, she didn't even ask. I guess that's a good thing.

I am thinking about trying something else...but its seems a tad more complicated for planning. Someone told me that they cook all their meals on 1 day of the week. I think I will try this one time and see how its goes. I envision a sink full of dishes and the family (namely Danny) eating the food before the week is done. HA! If anyone has done this, do you have any tips?

I do TRY to make my meals with some ingredients I already have like brown rice or quinoa. Say, if I bought too much from the last recipe. My pantry is full. I really ought to go look in there before grocery shopping again. Now, if only I could find someone to organize my cabinets.....that would be FANTASTIC. I wonder if there is something on Pinterest for that? lol I am SURE there is.

Old-Fashioned Apple Pie

Danny's maternal grandmother, Nancy Buchanan, a.k.a. Maia's great grandmother, was a sweet, sweet lady. I think of her a lot around Thanksgiving. We used to go to her house every Thanksgiving and have a wonderful feast. We would leave her house with a bag of pecans that she shelled by hand. We would go out and hunt for them in the backyard in the days and weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. We miss her every year. I am so thankful for this little recipe book she wrote out for Danny. I make a few of his favorites, but of course they aren't as good as Grandma's. This past Sunday Maia and I decided to make her apple pie. This is honestly the BEST apple pie. It is SO good. Tons of cinnamon, try it out and enjoy.

Pie Crust:

1 1/2 C flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 C shortening

3T to 4T ice water

Filling:

6 medium sized apples peeled, cored and sliced

1 C sugar (if apples are tart use 1 1/2 C sugar)

1T of cinnamon

1T of butter (for dotting the pie)

Mix pie crust ingredients until it comes together. Try not to overwork it or allow your hands to warm the shortening too much. Keeping it cold will allow you to get nice flaky layers. If you over work the flour it will devolop more gluten and it will end up as a tough crust. Divide the dough in 1/2. Roll each 1/2 out to 1/4" crust. One for the top, and one for the bottom. Place the bottom crust in your pie plate.

Mix sliced apples, sugar and cinnamon. If the apples are very juicy, at 2T of flour. Mix until the sugar coats all the apples. Place in your pie plate. Next comes dotting the butter. This was Maia's favorite part. I have no idea why. She said it was "cute."

Slice the cold butter into small pieces and dot it all over the pie.

Then roll the second crust over the top, tuck in the ends and try to meet the seems up. Crimp the edges. There are many way to do this. We pinched our crust. You can use a fork, or flute the edge with your fingers. You decide. Then bake it for 45 minutes. You may want to wrap the edges in foil so they don't burn. I used a metal baking ring that covers the crust's edge and removed it for the last 10 minutes of baking. I got one as a gift a year or so ago, and I love it!!

My beautful pie.

We cut out 3 small stars using a tiny fondant cutter, and then made 3 lines to vent the pie to help the steam escape.

This pie was so fun to make. Maia peeled and sliced 3 of the 6 apples. She really enjoyed it. She's working on her knife skills and peeling skills and was so patient. While we were peeling the apples when she was done with 1 she would carry it out to Danny to inspect. She was so proud of her work. It was a lot of fun.

Note: I didn't seal my crust very well, and it overflowed a bit, but it was still amazing. I used Honeycrisp apples that my mother-in-law gave me. They are seriously the best! I used 1 C of sugare and added 2 TBL of flour since they were pretty juicy. We also cut into the pie while it was still VERY hot, and the filling ran out a bit. If you let it cool, it will congeal and actually stick together when you cut a slice. Mine didn't, therefore...no pretty slice of pie to show you. It was amazingly delicious. I had it for lunch. HA!  Enjoy.

Dedicated to Grandma Buchanan.

BBQ Pulled Pork Sammiches (Slow Cooker recipe)

There's nothing like a slow-cooker meal to make it feel like it is fall. Usually the food cooked in a slow cooker reminds me of "home." Comfort food. Warm. Filling. (I'll try to ignore that it was 70 degrees today.)

Ingredients:
3-5 lb pork roast
1 C apple juice
1 tart apple (any kind of apple will do, a Granny Smith is the best)
2 C water
1/2 C chopped onion
Hamburger Rolls
BBQ Sauce - Your favorite kind
salt and pepper to taste

Shopping list (copy and paste): pork roast, apple juice, apple, onion, hamburger rolls, BBQ sauce

Prep-time 5-10 minutes. Cook time 7-10 hrs.

I have started to do a slow cooker meal once a week. It makes the house smell great when you get in from work, and then your meal is all ready for you. It's kind of like having a built-in chef. Slow cooker meals are great on nights you have plans, but still need to eat a delicious meal at home. Today, we were home for most of the day, but we now have leftovers that I can turn into something else.

But first, here is the recipe: Cut apple into large chunks. Add apple and chopped onion to the slow cooker. Add water and apple juice, salt and pepper. Give it a quick stir. Then add the meat to the pot.

I usually cook the roast in 8-10 hours on medium heat. Today I cooked it for 7 on high heat. It was SO tender. After your time is up, remove the meat from the pot into a bowl. It should fall apart, but if it doesn't just pull apart with two forks. Serve on hamburger buns with a bit of BBQ sauce.


LEFTOVERS!
Since the meat is very tender you want to find a way to use the leftovers where it just heats up, and doesn't have to "cook" with other food again or it will completely lose its texture and feel like mush. I don't necessarily like leftovers, but I try not to be wasteful so I will turn it into another meal, and then it doesn't feel like leftovers to me.

Leftover idea #1: Tomorrow, I will use the same pork that was cooked, and make some steamed rice and a veggie and have another meal.

Leftover idea #2 Use the meat to make pork and cheese quesadillas. Find a sharp tasty cheese to compliment the soft flavors of the pork.

Leftover idea #3 - Make mashed potatoes and a gravy. Add the pork to the gravy and serve over the mashed potatoes.

Momma's Meat Pie in Minutes

This is a family favorite. It is very easy, and you can use almost anything you have to make it. I will tell you how I made it, but no Judgy Judgerson's! I used a pre-made pie crust, shhhhhhhhh! I also served dinner with a side of honey glazed carrots, but I was too excited to take the picture and forgot to put them in. Look for that easy recipe at the bottom. 

Time: 10 minutes to brown meat. 5 minutes of prep time to layer pie, and 25 minutes to bake. Total time: 40 minutes. The best part is the longest part is a no-brainer. You can be playing with the kids while your pie is baking.

Ingredients:
1 lb of ground beef
1 jar/can of your favorite spaghetti sauce
1 pkg of refrigerated pie crust (2 rolled pie crusts in each package)
1 C of shredded cheese

That's it! Just 4 ingredients!
Shopping List (copy and paste): ground beef, spaghetti sauce, refrigerated pie crust, shredded cheese.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Get out a pie plate and pull the pie crust out of the fridge. The crust needs to warm up in order to unroll perfectly without cracking or tearing.

Brown the ground beef in a skillet until cooked. Season to taste. I added a 1/2 tsp of seasoned salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of garlic salt, and dried basil. Once the meat is completely brown, add jar/can of sauce. Warm the sauce through, and remove the skillet from heat.

While allowing the meat and sauce to cool. Gently unroll one pie crust over the top of the pie plate. Lift and adjust the pie crust to mold against the pan carefully folding the edges under. Then add 1/2 the meat mixture to the pie crust. Sprinkle with 1/2 the shredded cheese. Add the remaining meat mixture and then the remaining cheese. Unroll the second crust over the pie plate and tuck the dough's edge underneath the first pie crust. Then crimp all the edges with a fork. Bake for 25 minutes until crust is a golden brown. Cool for 5-10 minutes. By allowing the pie to cool for a few minutes it allows you to get pretty slices of pie and easily remove them from the pan.

Some substitutes:

You can use ground turkey instead of beef.

Another option, instead of spaghetti sauce, use water and taco seasoning and make a taco pie.

Make it for breakfast and use ground sausage and serve with a side of maple syrup or white gravy.

Glazed Carrots:
1 1/2 C raw baby carrots
1 C water
1/4 C of honey

I almost never measure this recipe. The above list is a rough guesstimate. Pop all ingredients in a pot and cook on the stovetop for 15 minutes. Test softness of carrots. Voila! If you don't like cooked carrots you will LOVE these! TRUST!

Last thing: If you MUST make a crust, go on ahead. I just don't have that kind of time on a weeknight, but I won't hold it against you.

Momma's Chicken and Dumplin' Stew

My idea for this blog is to post meals that I make. I am not a chef. I enjoy cooking and reading about cooking and watch shows about cooking. If they are from a recipe I will link that recipe. If I just “wing it” I will let you know. This one I have been making for a really long time and I can’t remember if I started with a recipe or not. Sometimes I will switch out the veggies with corn and asparagus, but that doesn’t seem so traditional to me. When the air starts to cool, and the leaves start to fall this is a fantastic recipe that warms your belly.

Chicken and Dumplin’ Stew

Shopping list (cut and paste): 4 chicken thighs, olive oil, onion, carrot, potato, peas, mushrooms, chicken broth, Bisquick, milk

Prep time: 5-10 Minutes – chopping veggies, peeling and chopping potato

Cook time: 10 minutes to brown chicken, 20 minutes to cook stew, 20 minutes to cook dumplings.

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredient List:

4 chicken thighs

1 TBL of olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

¼ chopped onion

1 C chopped carrot

1 large chopped potato

½ frozen peas

1 C chopped fresh mushrooms

1 small can of chicken broth

2 C of water

Dumplings:

2 C of Bisquick

2/3 C of milk

1.       Season chicken with salt and pepper.

2.       Heat a heavy stock pot or Dutch oven on the stove top to medium-high. Add olive oil. When oil is hot, place chicken thighs skin-side down. Cook for 5 minutes. Flip. Cook for another 5 minutes. Remove from oil. Place on separate plate to cool.

3.       Add onion to hot pot. Cook for a minute until it starts to soften.

4.       Add can of chicken broth, and add 2 C of water.

5.       Add potatoes, carrots and mushrooms.

6.       Remove as much chicken from the chicken thigh as possible. Some still won’t be able to be removed. Add all the chicken back in. Pieces and bones.

7.       Cook for 20 minutes or until potatoes and carrots are soft.

8.       Remove 4 chicken bones again. Strip remaining chicken. Add the chicken back to pot, and discard bones. Stir. Taste, and season with salt if needed.

9.       Mix 2 C of Bisquick and 2/3 C milk until soft dough forms.

10.   Drop small nickel size balls into boiling water. Cook ten minutes with no lid.

11.   Cook another 10 minutes with lid on.

12.   Add frozen peas. No need to cook any longer. The peas warm so fast in the hot water.

13.   ENJOY! But let it cool first.

The sauce should end up thick like gravy and the potatoes and carrots should be soft. The chicken will be so tender. My family and I really enjoy having this meal when fall starts. While it’s cooking on the stove it fills the house with deliciousness. When it’s done it will be really hot. You will be tempted to take a bite because it smells so good. Wait for it to cool. Or, like me, you will be nursing a burnt tongue. I hope this becomes a family favorite for you too!