Tag: Cooking

Six New Recipes to Try Soon

 

The weather is changing, and so is my palate – out go the heavy soups and stews and in come the lighter foods – grilled fare and salads.

Here are a few recipes that are on my list of things to try out soon:

  1. Asian Chicken Salad – this one was served by a friend at a get-together last week. It was soooo good. We all enjoyed it and the guys went back for seconds! She serves it “buffet style” so that everyone can put the things they want in there and leave out the things they don’t.  I will definitely be adding this to our menu plan soon.
  2. White chicken enchiladas – this is another one a friend made and we fell in love with. I actually made this one for dinner last Saturday. The girls loved it – as did SuperMan and I.  However, the tortillas get gummy when warmed over so this is not one to plan for having tons of leftovers. Freshly cooked, it’s delicious, though. And super easy. Deutsch: Tortilla-Chips, salsa, und guacamole ...
  3. Warm Bean Dip – thinking I may try this one night for a meatless dinner option. The girls are not much for beans, so it will be interesting to see how they like it. But, smothered in cheese may make it worth trying. We will see. I may serve it with some type of salad or just make it a “dip” dinner and serve with some tortilla chips and salsa.
  4. Another easy dinner idea (and a favorite around here) is baked potatoes and salad.  Here’s a nifty baked potato idea I may try one night.
  5. Grill cooking means hamburgers at some point in the month, too, but I always have a hard time with the bun – breads like buns and I don’t get along anymore. So, when I found this recipe, I decided it is also a must-try-soon recipe – Hamburger Wraps – where the “bun” is a tortilla! I love, too, that we can fix each one to suit everyone’s tastes.
  6. The girls have recently discovered the chocolate-chip granola bars at the grocery store – I have let them have them as a treat but have been on the lookout for my own version of this treat so that I can better control the contents and (lack of) additives that they have. I stumbled across this recipe on Pinterest and think I’ll give it a go one day soon.

How about you? Have any good recipes you’ve been wanting to try – or that you have tried and would like to share?

A few recent recipe successes

I thought I’d share some recent recipe successes I’ve had – things that were new to us to try – and mostly stuff I’ve found on Pinterest. It’s my favorite new recipe site!

  • Super easy super yummy crock pot soup: can of rotel, can of corn, can of black beans (drained & rinsed), 2 frozen chicken breasts, 8 oz cream cheese, 1 packet dry ranch dressing, 1 tablespoon cumin, 1 teaspoon onion powder, 1 teaspoon chili powder. Put all ingredients in crock pot and cook 6-8 hours. Shred chicken, and enjoy! not sure this soup has a name, but if it did, it should most definitely have cheese in the name of it. It’s kinda like Chicken Tortilla soup met cheese dip and had a baby and this is the love child.  Very good and great on a cold winter day.
  • I made these biscuits for breakfast one morning.  The kids wouldn’t eat them (I think because they were both sick and I made them with whole wheat flour) but SuperMan and I loved them. (I made me-maw’s biscuits from this post)
  • I made these sausage balls a while back (for Christmas) and they were a huge hit. The secret is cream cheese in the mix. Makes them very moist. And heck, if you’re eating sausage balls, what’s a little cream cheese? It’s not exactly diet food. Smile

And here are some things I want to try but haven’t yet:

  • yumI was planning to make these cheesy garlic biscuits for dinner one night (or, rather, with dinner. Not for dinner, although I could certainly get on board with cheesy biscuits for dinner.)
  • And this pasta is called Angel Pasta. I’m thinking it looks an awful lot like an adulterated Alfredo, but I’m going to give it a try.
  • New and improved coconut and pineapple cakeAnd this cake just looks divine. I’ve already decided it’s going on the menu for the next get-together I have. Oh.my. I need an excuse to make it, have one piece and give the rest away.

What about you? Any recipes you’ve tried lately that your family has enjoyed? Any you have on the list of “to try soon?”

Join me on Pinterest for some fun!

But, I warn you… It is addictive.

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Holiday Baking

I’m still undecided about how much holiday baking I’m going to do this year.

I want to keep the traditions alive, but, honestly, I’m not feeling the motivation or desire to spend a lot of time in the kitchen baking right now. Maybe this will change as the holidays grow nearer, maybe not. I’m going to take it one day at a time. We certainly don’t  need a plethora of sweets in the house, although I want to have my usual holiday goodie bags for our friends (and the kids’ teachers) – it’s just so busy at work these days I’m not sure I’m going to have the energy or time to do the baking in the evenings like I’ve done in years’ past!

I have a back up plan, though, that I’m going to try out this weekend, just in case baking falls by the wayside for holiday gifts. After I try it out, I’ll let you know how it went.

I thought that today I’d share with you some of my favorite cookie recipes. Since this is the time of year when a lot of us are invited to holiday cookie swap parties, I thought it might be fun to share some of our favorites.

If you have a favorite cookie recipe, please share in the comments! I am sure the rest of us would love to try something new!

Here are some of our holiday standbys:

What about you? What cookies mean Christmas to you?

Oh, and I just discovered this new online magazine: FoodieCrush.  They have some beautiful food shots and some even yummier cookie recipes!

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Menu Plan Monday ~ 7 November

Happy Monday, y’all!

Hope you had a great weekend – we sure did. The weather was beautiful and it was so nice to just hang out together as a family.  We didn’t have anything special planned and just enjoyed a relaxing weekend at home – which is special in and of itself, I think.

I’m a homebody. I love to stay home. I love being here, with my family and people I love, just hanging out together and enjoying each other’s company.

Yesterday, we finished up Big Girl’s menu plan week.  I have one dish I didn’t make that will roll into this week’s menu and I’m going to work on cooking out of my pantry and freezer this week. I want to see how long I can go without going to the grocery store… challenge myself to see how creative I can get with what we have.

So, while I have a menu in place below, I may shift things around so that I can avoid the store this week.  That’s the plan, anyway.

Here’s what I’ll be cookin’ up this week:

Lunches for me for the week will include some veggie/taco soup and maybe a salad or two.  SuperMan usually has leftovers or whatever soup I make and the girls get some form of a bento box or sandwiches.

I’m also trying something new out this week… I’m trying out Plan to Eat, an online system in which you can store your recipes, build your menu plans and shopping lists all in one place.  I have a 30 Day free trial (and you can too, if you sign up) and I thought I’d give it a shot and see how it works.Simple Meal Planning - Plan to Eat

You may remember that my usual menu planning system involves index cards posted on my refrigerator door. This is way more high tech than that, but I’m willing to give it a shot. I want to see if it helps me to branch out from my “usual suspects” of dinner choices and find some new favorites.

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Once I get my menu plan made, I get a nifty shopping list. I can add to it, move thing off of the list (that I already have in my pantry) and edit as I need to.

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I am also curious about the option they have where you enter what you have in your pantry/fridge and it suggests menu choices for you. THAT will be way cool when I’m working on my “cook out of the pantry” challenge this week.

I’m also slowly moving my recipes over to the Plan to Eat website, so if you join (or are already a member) send me a friend invite and we can share recipes!

Anyhow, I’ll keep you posted as I fiddle around with the Plan to Eat software and let you know how I like it… and if you’ve used it before, I’d love to hear what you think, too! Please share!

For more menu plan ideas, check out orgjunkie.com.

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Menu Planning Tips & Thoughts

I’ve had so many of you say to me in conversation – “I don’t know HOW you do all that menu planning!” or something like “I just can’t do that menu planning like you do.”  And, usually, I smile and say something banal in response… but what I am really thinking and what I really want to shout at you is –

WHY NOT!?!?

It’s not like it is hard.  It is not complex.  It is actually SO VERY EASY and it makes SUCH a HUGE difference in your stress levels, your family’s schedule, your family’s eating habits and your budget!

It’s almost crazy NOT to menu plan.

Seriously.

I’m sorry, as I write this, my critic on my shoulder is telling me that I probably shouldn’t be so “in your face” with this as I am being. But this is truly how I feel. 

It seems daunting, I know.  Overwhelming, at times, I’m sure.

But it is SO WORTH IT to at least TRY it.

So, I have a challenge for you.  For the next three weeks, I want you to PLAN YOUR FAMILY’S MENU for dinners for the week. One menu per week for three weeks.

And to help you do that, I’m going to give you some suggestions – so that you will have a place to get started and to help you not feel so overwhelmed.

It’s not as hard as you think it is, I promise. If it was, I wouldn’t be doing it.

Let go of the notion that you have to plan meals for every single day of the week.

I never do.

I usually plan for 3-4 definite meals and then 1-2 “maybe” meals –

things I can cook if plans change or if something doesn’t appeal to me on the day I was planning to cook it.

I never adapted to the idea of specifying which day I would cook what.

It seems to rigid to me and I didn’t like the thought that I’d have to cook tacos on a night when I really wanted soup instead.  So, instead, I come up with my list of menu items and then I pick and choose what I will cook that day based on how I feel, what food needs to be cooked first, weather, kids’ requests, etc.  I have a general plan in mind, but I leave it open to the flexibility my life demands. You can too. Don’t feel stuck in having to cook exactly in the order you plan.IMG_0286

Pick at least one family favorite per week

– one sure thing that you know everyone will love and that you can fix easily.

Try to pick at least one crock pot or oven- type meal per week.

Make one day easy on yourself – pick something you can toss in the crock pot or oven and forget about until it’s time to eat. You will love this and it will free up time for you to do something else you might otherwise not get to do because you’re busy cooking – like spending some time with your kids – or taking a walk!

Another advantage is that these type of meals usually have leftovers and you can count on two meals from one preparation! (or some really good lunches if there isn’t enough for another family dinner)

Check your freezer and your pantry before you plan

What can you cook that you already have? Save some money and utilize what you have before you go shopping.

There are some great money saving ideas on this post over at Beauty and Bedlam regarding saving money for your groceries. I’m not a big coupon girl – too many of them are for processed foods and I’m trying to stay away from those things these days… but there are still some great ideas there beyond the coupon tricks.

Try to focus on cooking from scratch and not from “convenience” foods

This may sound counter-productive – why wouldn’t you utilize Hamburger Helper or Shake and Bake to make your dinnertime easier?  Well, for a couple reasons – one, they are more expensive, two, they usually are full of processed ingredients, preservatives and goodness-knows-what-else, and three, they usually don’t simplify things THAT much. I have found that it is just as easy to make my own homemade “shake and bake” when I need it than it is to pay for the already-made stuff. And I control what goes in there – making sure my family gets the healthiest, freshest ingredients I can buy.

It’s not really THAT much more difficult or challenging to cook from scratch – and the payoff is so much better for you.

Utilize websites to help you plan

Check out AllRecipes.com or Menu Plan Monday over on orgjunkie.com – there are lots and lots of websites with links to menus and recipes.  Don’t be afraid to pick one new thing each week to try out.  You will increase your repertoire of recipes to use and hopefully find some new family favorites!

Think about leftovers and include them in your plan.

This was something I didn’t learn for a long time. I would plan five or six meals, thinking we’d have one night to eat out or something and then I’d end up with all of these leftovers and no  idea what to do with them.

Now, I plan for at least one night where we’ll eat leftovers. Some nights that is just a “free for all” type meal where I put everything out and each person picks what they want and we warm it in the microwave. The girls like these “buffet-style” dinners (as I call them – it’s all about the marketing!) as they feel like they have control over what they eat.

Other nights, I plan for a ‘reinvented’ dinner – where I plan to utilize leftovers to make something entirely new – like using the grilled chicken leftovers from one night to make chicken & rice soup for dinner another night (something that wasn’t on my original menu this week, but soup that a rainy night called for)

Here are some other tips and tricks from some of my older posts:

And so, now, the challenge is out there for you – will you accept it?

Will you give menu planning a try?!?

YES – YOU! I’m talking to YOU!

Please do.

I really, sincerely, hope you will. It’s scary to start, but once you get in the groove, it is oh, so freeing. Liberating to have one less thing to worry about – to not have that 4PM panic of “oh, my gosh, WHAT am I going to cook for dinner?!?”

If you are going to join the menu planning bandwagon, let us know in the comments… I’d love to know how things go for you – and I’m HAPPY to help you get started – cheering you on as you go!!

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A day late and a dollar short

Well, maybe not a dollar short… but definitely a day late.

As I posted yesterday, I had a stomach bug thingy going on –  not sure if it was from something I ate or a virus, but I was pretty much horizontal and green most of the day.  Little Bit ended up coming home from school early with a virus of her own – of the snotty kind, not the tummy kind – so we spent the afternoon on the sofa together. Big Girl became our nurse and we had a quiet day.

I woke this morning feeling MUCH better (thankfully) and found that Little Bit was still under the weather. She’s spent most of the day on the sofa watching TV, playing on the computer and drawing pictures. I think it’s just a cold virus type of thing, so we’re holding off on the doctor for now.  No strep-like symptoms or fevers to be concerned about. She’s just puny. But she will be back to school tomorrow.

So, today, I was finally able to focus on figuring out what our menu for the remainder of the week without turning green.  Even though the thought of food was rather nauseating yesterday, it bugged the heck out of me that I had no menu plan in place. (Yes, I know, I’m a little uptight that way. I like my routines!)

I’m very happy to have my plan in place now… It frees my mind up so that I can worry about other things… (and trust me, there are a lot of other things to worry about!)

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  • Monday: BBQ Chicken tenders, homemade macaroni & cheese, grilled broccoli
  • Tuesday: homemade Salisbury steaks
  • Wednesday: Grilled pork chops, cous-cous and grilled veggies
  • Thursday: Beef Stew
  • Friday: Baked Potato bar w/ salad
  • Saturday: Homemade Mexican – tacos, nachos & fajitas
  • Sunday: Crock Pot “Baked” Chicken, mashed potatoes & salad
  • Monday: grilling out or Low Country Boil

I’m also craving my veggie chili, but it’s just been too darned hot for that yet. Hopefully it will cool off soon so we can enjoy some. I will eat it for lunch if nothing else. Winking smile

I guess I’m just going to be a day late all week – since today is Tuesday and I really should be posting my Project Life pictures today.  Oh well.

Hop on over to orgjunkie.com for some ideas for more menus.

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(we) just have to try this…

If you’re like me, you’re always looking for something new to try – and yet I always seem to stick to the same tried-and-true recipes. I think it is because it is easier on a busy week night to stick with what you know (and know your family will eat!) than to break out the new recipes.

It is more about getting people fed than it is about being creative and trying new things. (or at least it is for me)

But, there are days when I just want something new and fresh and different.

And Saturdays are usually my “experimental” cooking days – Saturdays or Mondays. Saturdays are good because I have all the time in the world and can experiment to my heart’s content. Mondays are good because I’m (relatively) rested from the weekend and (more importantly) everyone is out of the house and I have peace and quiet to craft, create and experiment with new recipes.

But I’m always on the hunt for things other people have tried and loved and today I thought I’d share with you another list of the recipes I’ve flagged lately as “must try this.”

Okay, that’s all for now – any recipes you are dying to try? Share them with the rest of us in the comments!

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Five on Friday

I thought I’d share with you five recent blog posts I’ve enjoyed – a couple are food-related (of course) and some are not. All are worth a click-over to see what they are about.

(all of the images are from the blog posts themselves)

Let’s start with some food ones:

1. Homemade Oreo Ice Cream. Uh, yeah, how could this not make it onto my top 5 list? It’s not the same recipe as the one I already have for Oreo Ice Cream, but it looks really, really good. Now that I have an ice cream maker, I’m going to have to give this one a try.

photo from the Mother Huddle

2. Here’s a terrific-looking salad I want to try one day – especially when I have some leftover grilled chicken to put on it. Fiesta Ranch Vinaigrette Spinach Salad. Yum.

3. Here’s an idea I am using to make my own back deck a little more home-y and welcoming – hanging baskets! Now, if you know me, you know that I generally DO NOT have a green thumb. I usually kill green things – not out of neglect, but more out of over-loving, I think. Anyway, I’ve got some ferns and impatiens growing on the deck this year, thanks to this inspirational post and we’ll see how long they live!

I’m trying really hard here to make this Five on Friday not just about food – wonder why all my bookmarked posts seem to be about food? Hmmm…

 

4. AH! Here’s a great craft idea to do with the kids… as a matter of fact, I’d forgotten about it – Maybe I’ll take them to the craft store today and they can get the stuff to make these. So cute. The folks over at Make and Takes always have such cute ideas.

Okay, here’s the final one… and it was difficult finding one that was just right to round out my top 5 today but I think this fits just perfectly. (and of course, it’s another food one)

5. Lemon Coconut Pound Cake. Doesn’t it just make your mouth water to look at the picture? I mean, really?  Yummy!  I think I’m going to whip this up for a little get-together I’m going to this weekend. I’ve got some lemons on the counter and most of the other ingredients in the pantry, so it will be a fun experiment.

Okay, so that’s my top five for the week. I’ve got about a hundred other to share with you, but I’ll stop here…

What about you? Any top pick posts you have read this week? Share with us in the comments!

 

 

 

Menu Plan Monday ~ 13 December

Oh, the weather outside is frightful…

…and that means I’m planning warm, hearty and filling meals for my family this week.  Especially SuperMan, as he recuperates from surgery and braves the frigid temps at work. Stubborn man refuses to stay home and rest.

So, I will keep the ‘home fires burning’ and have a hot meal waiting for him in the evenings.

Here is what’s on tap this week:

  • Sunday: Baked Chicken, fresh green beans with new potatoes, carrots, rice and gravy
  • Monday: Pork Butt BBQ, sticky rice, raspberry vinaigrette salad w/ pears & gorgonzola
  • Tuesday: Rotel Chicken Pasta bake (Big Girl’s request, made with leftover chicken)
  • Wednesday: Chili with all the fixins
  • Thursday: Beef Strognaoff w/ egg noodles
  • Friday: Rib Eye steaks, baked potato & salad (the steaks are on sale at Kroger this week!)
  • Saturday: leftovers or eat out

If you’d like the recipes, check out my Recipe page. They are all listed there.

Also, hop on over to orgjunkie.com for a whole bunch of other menu plans and recipe links.

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Menu Plan Monday ~ 29 November

Back to reality today.

After a week of lazing about at Mom’s house, it’s back to the regular routine.

I made a monster shopping trip on Sunday afternoon, restocking on all the perishables and produce/dairy that had gone bad while we were out of town. That necessitated a cleaning out of the refrigerator (thank you, SuperMan, for doing that for me!) and some planning for the week’s meals.

I put a crock pot on to cook with my beef vegetable soup – that will be lunches this week for SuperMan and me.

I also baked a Brown Sugar cake, but with a twist. I added a scoop of protein powder (and upped the water to 3/4 cup to compensate) and used a Spice Cake mix as the base instead of a yellow cake mix. YUMMINESS.

I am also planning to stick some oatmeal in the crock pot – trying out Alton Brown’s recipe for Overnight Oatmeal. It looks yummy.image

Here’s what I have planned so far this week:

Monday:  Spaghetti and meatballs, salad & garlic bread

Tuesday: I’m thinking of whipping up some sort of chicken/pasta dish

Wednesday: Meatball subs & salad

Thursday: not sure yet…I’m cooking dinner for a friend whose little one is having his tonsils out. Whatever I cook for her, I’ll just double and have some for us.

Friday: dinner out

Saturday: homemade chicken pot pies

Hope on over to orgjunkie.com for Menu Plan Monday ideas…

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