Menu Plan Monday Sept 25th

Happy Fall!  It's only 3 months till Christmas!!! Just wanted to throw that out there! :)

Here's my plan for the week...

Monday - Almond Stuffed Chicken
- I am really excited about this one! Every time I look at the recipe, I get hungry and want to make it right now!  I really hope it lives up to my expectations!
**Ok, update... this was amazing! And it really wasn't that hard either. The cheese I got for it was Alouette garlic and herb brie cheese - I kinda splurged on that cuz I love brie so much but oh my goodness this was great! and it looked so fancy! Served it with couscous with some italian seasonings.

Tuesday - Pomegranate Beef in the Crockpot
 - however, I plan on substituting honey for the maple syrup, and leaving out the golden raisins and the cinnamon

Wednesday - dinner with friends

Thursday - leftovers

Friday - Chicken Curry (crockpot)
 - this is one of my favorites!

Saturday - leftovers - whenever I make chicken curry I always have WAY too much!!

Sunday - Argentinian Pork
 - haven't decided if I'll cook this in the crock pot or on the grill... guess it depends on if we get our propane tank refilled! If cooking in the crockpot - cook on low for 4-6 hours, or until the temperature of the pork registers at least 145 degrees.

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Menu Plan Monday

This is one of those weeks were I feel like meal planning is HARD! I'm struggling for motivation. I know that when I do plan meals, everything is way way easier throughout the week, but I still have a hard time encouraging myself to do it!

So... here we go...

Monday - Hamburgers on the grill

Tuesday - Leftovers

Wednesday - Crockpot Baked Ziti - going to brown some italian sausage instead of ground beef, and add some chopped spinach or zucchini or whatever veggies I have laying around.

Thursday - Garlic Lime Chicken - serving with black beans and sweet corn

Friday - Jamaican Salmon

Saturday - Leftovers or dinner out!

PS Coffee buttercream frosting is amazing!!! I made some ghiardelli brownie cupcakes last night for a co-worker's birthday and frosted them with coffee flavored buttercream. YUM I am drooling just remembering them.

I still have a bowl full of the coffee frosting in the fridge... what else can I put it on? or should I just give in to my taste buds and have a few spoonfuls by itself? ;)










Have a great week!

Menu Plan Monday - First week of September!

Happy September! This Labor Day weekend has been a fun-filled and relaxing one! I am sad for it to end.

This will be a short menu this week since there has been a lot of cooking out and eating out this weekend and we have a lot of leftovers to use up in the fridge, but here we go...

Monday - cookout

Tuesday - leftovers & homemade blackberry ice cream for dessert!

Wednesday - Peanut butter chicken (crock pot) - we didn't get to this one last week

Thursday - Tequila Pork Tenderloin - with corn on the cob

Friday - leftovers

Saturday - going out for the day with a friend

Wow, I'm only planning to cook twice this week? I feel like a slacker! ;)

Have a great week!

~Becky~

Homemade Blackberry Ice Cream!

I just bought myself an ice cream maker this week. The end of summer seems like an appropriate time for that, doesn't it?? :-P

Well of course I had to try out my new ice cream maker as soon as it came. I ran across a recipe for blackberry ice cream, and remembered that earlier in the summer when blackberries were in season, I pureed a bunch of them to freeze them for later. I figured this was the perfect opportunity to use them!

Here is the recipe I used... It calls for a custard base, then you add in the blackberry juice/syrup. I didn't strain my puree when I made it, and I didn't feel like waiting for it to thaw before making my ice cream, so I just dumped the frozen blackberry yumminess into the custard base.

...and mixed it all together until it thawed...

...which had the additional effect of cooling off the ice cream mixture enough that I could put it in my ice cream maker and start churning!

It only needed about 20-30 mins of churning to look ready to eat!

We had some for sampling, and put the rest in the freezer to harden up and save for later.

Next time though, I probably will take the time to strain the seeds out of the blackberry puree. I didn't mind them being in there too much, but I think I would like it better without them. All in all, this was a VERY yummy recipe :)

I think I'm going to go pull it out of the freezer and have some for breakfast!

Here's my scaled recipe for my 1.5 qt ice cream maker:

• 3/4 cup half-and-half
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• approx 1 cup blackberry puree (see original link for using fresh blackberries!)

Heat half-and-half and sugar in a pan over low heat. Remove from heat when heated through, before mixture starts to boil so the half-and-half doesn't start to curdle.

Beat egg yolks until slightly thick. Slowly pour 1/4 cup of the hot half-and-half mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, to temper them. Then pour the egg yolk mixture into the pan with the rest of the half-and-half mixture.

Cook over low heat until thick, stirring constantly (between 5-10 minutes)

Pour heavy cream into a separate bowl. Pour custard through a fine mesh sieve and stir into the heavy cream. Add blackberry puree and stir.

Chill mixture completely. When cool, pour into ice cream maker and churn until frozen (20-40 mins)

Enjoy!