Meal Plan Monday.....November 2nd...Baking Recipes!

Last Week's Menu Postmortem...

We are averaging 5 out of 7 meals going as planned most weeks, it seems, on the menu.  Again, the Tacos and the Ham and Bean Soup didn't happen last week so they once again, carry over to this week.  Such is life with 1 child working and the other one in an active Band program most evenings.  The day falls apart right around 3pm and by 5pm, all bets are off!lolol

Here's what I will be serving our family of 4 this Week....

MONDAY--Tacos(freezer/stockpile-except for the lettuce)
TUESDAY--Date Night...Kids will fend for themselves or have leftovers
WEDNESDAY--Brioche French Toast w/Caramelized Bananas, Bacon and Fresh Fruit Salad
THURSDAY--Ham and Bean Soup(freezer), Cornbread
FRIDAY--Rigatoni with Meat Sauce(freezer/stockpile), Salad
SATURDAY--Italian Chicken(freezer),Baked Sweet Potatoes(Root Cellar), Green Beans(freezer)
SUNDAY--Dublin Coddle **A recipe from my friend McVal over at SEW NOT MY DAY!
SNACKS/DESSERTS--Fresh Fruit and the snacks as listed below.

I am taking part in the Tuesday Baking Day tomorrow.  Here is what I'll be making....
Pumpkin Bread(My variation on this recipe)double batch-will freeze half,
Pumpkin Roll(a friend's family recipe),
Scone Nibbles will freeze,
Old Fashioned Bread Pudding,
French Bread (this is similar to the recipe I use),
Brownies(from mix in stockpile)will freeze,
Brioche (This is my 1st time making this.)

I'll post recipes that aren't online on my blog later in the week or follow along on Twitter tomorrow at #BakingDay or check my blog for updates during the day.

Last week I spent $128.05(approx. $89 of that was food). I laid in some baking goods, an extra 3 dozen eggs, cheap chicken and hit a sale on sausage and a whole beef eye round. 

This week's menu shopping list.....weekly milk purchases, fresh produce(potatoes, carrots, lettuce), fresh fruit(bananas, grapes), some lunchmeat.  Shop-Rite had ground beef at rock bottom prices this week, so I might have to take a trip for that as I'm low. 

Food Waste Report....1 slice of bread at the end of the bag that molded up too badly to salvage any of it.  The rest of the loaf was fine. 8-)

Check out ORGANIZING JUNKIE to see what other Home Cooks are serving this week!

Sluggy

Meal Plan Monday....October 12th Edition Comfort Food for Cold Weather

Last Week's Menu Postmortem...

Everything was served as planned except we never got to the leftover Roasted Turkey or the Pork Chops.  #2 son had a sleepover so wasn't here for a meal and daughter didn't want dinner and had work so I will carry over the Chops to this week's menu.  The temperature here has dropped so I am in Cold Weather Cooking Mode!  If I get a day cleared out here, I plan on holding a Baking Day to fill the freezer with breads and muffins.

Here's what I will be serving our family of 4 this Week....it's a lot of comfort type filling foods & using up some leftovers and fresh local produce I picked up while selling my stockpile items at the flea market yesterday.

MONDAY--Turkey/Beef Burgers(freezer), Hot Dogs(freezer), Potato Salad(root cellar), Broccoli(local produce)
TUESDAY--Pork Chops(freezer) with Apricot Glaze, Mushroom Noodles(stockpile), Cauliflower(local produce)
WEDNESDAY--Turkey Enchiladas(using leftover turkey), Corn(freezer)
THURSDAY--Ham and Bean Soup(freezer/stockpile), Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
FRIDAY--Leftovers
SATURDAY--Brioche French Toast with Caramelized Bananas and Pecans(the weekly splurge!)
SUNDAY--Meatloaf stuffed with veggies(freezer), Mac&Cheese(stockpile), Peas
SNACKS/DESSERTS--fresh fruit, baked treats TBD(ie-What I feel like baking when the day arrives.lol)

The Potato Salad will use up some potatoes, the Enchiladas will use up the leftover roasted Turkey from last week, the Ham Soup with use up a Ham bone and a ham slice in the freezer, & the Meatloaf will use up some old grated zuke/squash/carrot once it's mixed into the meat mixture.


Be sure and check out the Ham and Bean Soup recipe link above.  I am NOT a fan of bean soups but with this one, even I want to lick the bowl clean!  It should be called the "Bean Soup for Bean Soup Haters" Soup.lol
The Brioche French Toast idea came from watching an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives last week.  The Dish, "Brioche French Toast with Caramelized Bananas and Pecans" was from a place Guy visited in Phoenix AZ.  Of course, I can't find that restaurant's recipe for this dish so I'll find a  similar recipe online & "wing it" with my less-than mad skillz. ;-)

Last week I spent $35.05($2.73 at Weis & $32.32 at the Grocery Outlet)on groceries.

This week's menu shopping list contains sliced cheese, lunchmeat for daughter, eggs and milk if I am going to attempt to bake brioche. I spent $17.25 at the flea market Sunday on fresh produce(red peppers, onions, sweet potatoes, beets, broccoli, cauliflower, a pie pumpkin & a gallon of cider). 1lb. of sliced cheese, bananas, some other fresh fruit, eggs and milk and stocking up on butter and flour(for the baking day) on sale this week should run me about $32 more.

Food Waste Report....a forgotten yellow squash from the garden "turned the corner" in the produce drawer and a helping of leftover spaghetti hit the garbage pail.

I attempted BEEF BOURGUIGNON a couple of weeks ago.  Go see my post HERE to see how it turned out.

Check out ORGANIZING JUNKIE to see what other Home Cooks are serving this week!

Sluggy

Meal Plan Monday.....July 20th Edition Leftovers Galore, 3 From-Scratch Meals

This is an easy week for me, as far as the Meal Planning goes. Lots of leftovers from cooking Double Batches last week.

Here's what our family of 3 will be eating this week...

Monday-Leftover Pork BBQ, Leftover Boston Baked Beans, Leftover Cornbread
Tuesday-Leftover Alfredo Primavera over fresh Rigatoni noodles, Tossed Salad(from the garden)
Wednesday-BLT Sandwiches, Clam Chowder(from scratch)
Thursday-BBQ Chicken Pizza(from scratch), Spinach Salad(from the garden)
Friday-Leftover Buffet(whatever is still leftover at this point)
Saturday-Chinese dining out for lunch, Grilled Cheese Sandwiches for dinner
Sunday-Fried Foods dinner--Fish, French Fries, Hush Puppies, Zuchinni or Squash(from the garden)
Desserts-Rice Krispy Treats(leftover), some kind of Cookies or Cake Balls(if I get ambitious and the weather doesn't get too hot to run the oven), Watermelon, Peaches

As for last week's menu....I didn't make the Pizza or Clam Chowder from scratch so I apologize for the lack of Recipe Updates in my blog during the week. We got Take-Out Chinese one night and we just ate leftovers again the other night. I've put both the chowder and the pizza on this week's menu and will attempt recipe updates for Wed., Thurs. & Sun.'s meals during the week. Those 2 meals and the Fish Fry on Sunday are the only real cooking I'm doing this week. Thank goodness for leftovers!lol
Don't write to me complaining about the Fried Food dinner & how unhealthy frying food is. We don't eat fried hardly at all(a sacrilege to my southern soul), so this is a rare treat. ;-)

Ingredients not-on-hand yet are....celery, potatoes(for chowder), red onions(for pizza), tomato(for BLTs), potatoes again(for french fries). Hopefully I'll have some yellow squash &/or zukes ready to pick by Sunday for that night's dinner.
So the shopping list is-1 bunch celery,1 bag of potatoes, 1 red onion, 1 tomato & a watermelon. There aren't any great deals in the local grocery stores that I can see(or I can use)so I'm going to try to just go to the Farm Market this week for my food shopping. I should be able to do this for about $12.

#1 son(who is off working near Lake Erie this summer) got a few days off and decided with 2 friends from work to take a trip to NYC & the NJ shore. They will be stopping here either tonight or tomorrow night to sleep a night before heading back to western PA. I'll be feeding them so I'm not sure how this will affect my Meal Plan this week. I have other proteins in the freezer so I'm hoping I can whip them up something good without having to go buy a ton of other groceries.
I'll report in next week on what I managed to do.

With all that free time I'll have NOT COOKING I'll be packing up from Saturday's Yard Sale and going through things to take to Salvation Army.

Food Waste Report.....about 1 cup of cauliflower that got pushed to the back of the fridge and became a penicillin experiment.

Check out Organizing Junkie's Website Here to see what other Home Cooks are serving this week!

Sluggy

Meal Plan Monday.....July 13th Edition some 'From Scratch' Cooking

Here's what our family of 3 will be eating this week...

Monday--Fettuccine Alfredo Primavera(using leftover squash), Tossed Salad(from garden)
Tuesday--Chicken Enchiladas(from scratch), Corn
Wednesday--Refrigerator Roulette-pick a leftover in the fridge ;-)
Thursday--Spaghetti & Meatballs, Garlic Bread, Greens(not sure which kind yet)
Friday--Pizza(either BBQ Chicken or Chicken Wing-from scratch)
Saturday--New England Clam Chowder (from scratch) & Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Sunday--Corned Beef, Cabbage, Potatoes in crockpot

You will notice that I am cooking for only 3 now. Daughter got a call on Friday that some one had not shown up to work at camp, so they asked her to come back to work 3 weeks earlier than she was suppose to. So hubby drove her out on Sat. That also explains why we never had the Fettuccine Alfredo last Saturday....it's back on the menu for this week.
I also didn't have time Sunday to get my Burrito making session finished, so it's on the schedule for today. While cooking for the burritos I'll also make the meatballs for Thursday's dinner and assemble the Chicken Enchiladas for Tuesday's meal. That way I get all these meals done in one shot, except for the heating them up part.

I'm doing a fair amount of Cooking from Scratch this week. I'll try to post photos and recipes the evening or the day after I serve that dish. Check back then for updates.

I had to run out Sunday afternoon to Weis for cabbage to make the coleslaw for the Pork BBQ we had that evening. While there I happened on 5 packages of Ground Beef marked down to .99¢ lb.(and it wasn't at the expiration date!). I spent an extra $8 of the grocery budget for those. 2 went into the freezer & 3 will be used for the meatballs and burrito filling for some of the burritos.
Even though I had Ground Beef in the freezer I could thaw, it was worth it to pick up these cheap packages of meat and use them instead. Ground Beef is not an item that stays too long in our freezer.

I am still cleaning out old foodstuffs to use up this week. So far, this morning I used some old frozen fruit up & dinner will include an older pantry item. Will report in on all that later tonight.

Food Waste Report.....part of a tasteless cantaloupe. Straight to the compost it went...yuck!lol
Daughter would often make her own dinner. Some of them were, let's call them "creative"....meaning, this is something no one else here wants to eat.lol She left quite a few in the fridge when she left Saturday. The dogs will enjoy finishing her handiwork for her this week.

Check out Organizing Junkie's Website Here to see what other Home Cooks are serving this week!

Sluggy

Lena's Lemon Pepper Chicken RECIPE

One of the long awaited Recipes I promised to share on my blog.
The family loves this Chicken dish. Even the ones who don't like zuchinni will eat it, so that's saying something, right?lol
It's also a great dish to make if you are overrun with zukes in your garden this summer. Another plus is you make this on the stovetop and don't need to run the oven for it. I am for any dish in the summer that doesn't involve heating up the kitchen with the oven.

One tip I have is to use a good quality Lemon Pepper seasoning mixture, not one where the 1st ingredient is salt. The $ store stuff is mostly salt, spend more and buy the good stuff for this dish or it will turn out too salty.

Lena's Lemon Pepper Chicken

Ingredients
1 cup Oil-olive or vegetable
8 chicken thighs
3 onions, chopped
8 zuchinni, sliced into small rounds
1 cup flour
3 Tablespoons lemon pepper seasoning
1 large can diced or crushed tomatoes

Heat oil in skillet large enough to fit the chicken.
Mix lemon pepper seasoning with flour in baggy.
Pat chicken dry & drop into baggy of seasoned flour to coat.
When pan is hot, put chicken pieces in oil to fry.
When chicken is golden brown, turn chicken to fry other side.
Remove chicken from pan when done.
Pour off all but 3 Tablespoons of oil from pan.
Add chopped onion & zuchinni to pan & saute until onions are soft.
Add can of tomatoes.
Add 2 Tablespoons of the leftover seasoned flour into pan and stir.
Place cooked chicken pieces on top of tomato/zuke/onion mixture in pan.
Place lid on pan and reduce heat to simmer. This will stick and burn if you don't lower the temp. so watch it.
Simmer for about 40 mins. or until zuchinni is soft. **You may need to check the pan after 20 min. and see if it needs water-sometimes the moisture from the tomatoes cooks down. If so, add about 1/2 cup. water or more tomatoes.

Serve over rice.

Makes 8 portions.

If anyone makes this please let me know how it turns out for you!

Sluggy