Help I'm buried and I can't get out!!

Menu Plan Oct 17th-22

2011-10-17T10:15:00.000-07:00

I've been home alone the last two weeks, so I haven't done much cooking. It's no fun cooking for yourself!! I've had lots of wonderful friends invite me over or go out somewhere with me, but the occasional night I've stayed in has consisted of really exciting dinners such as.... toasted english muffin with peanut butter! Stunning!

This week I'm finally getting back in the swing of things. I am so happy to have my hubby back home. It's been very lonely without him, especially since I could rarely have any communication with him. I don't know how people do it with their husbands gone for months or years at a time. I was going crazy without having him around, and it was only 2.5 weeks!

Ok, on to the menu for this week!

Monday - Lemon-Garlic Chicken with Pasta and Quick & Easy Alfredo Sauce
--I love this alfredo sauce! It's quick, it uses ingredients I almost always have around the house, and to me, it tastes amazing. It may not be *quite* as good as REAL alfredo sauce, but I love that it is so easy and pretty much fool-proof to throw together! I always add extra garlic... mmmm

Tuesday - Cheese Steak Sandwiches (crockpot)

Wednesday - Gumbo with Chicken & Italian Sausage (crockpot)
--I looked for a while to find a good gumbo recipe, and kinda pulled several together to create this one. I think it's exactly what I was looking for! dont' forget to add the roux at the end... gives it that something extra special!

Thursday - leftovers

Friday - Argentinian Pork Tenderloin (cooking the pork in the crockpot)

Saturday - leftovers again, or out to dinner with friends!

~~~~~~~

Menu Plan Monday Sept 25th

2011-09-25T16:17:00.000-07:00

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.

~~~~~~

Menu Plan Monday

2011-09-13T17:49:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-09-05T18:58:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-09-05T06:13:00.000-07:00

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!

Menu Plan Monday - Aug 29th

2011-08-30T10:39:00.000-07:00

Well now, how about that hurricane! We got hit pretty hard in our area. At my house, we had a window blow in, and just barely managed to keep the basement from flooding. We actually never lost power, and I am so thankful for that! Turns out we got to help out some family who didn't have power too, so all in all, not too bad of an experience with the hurricane! My thoughts go out to all those who had far worse damage than me!

Anyway, on to my meals for the week...

Monday - Spaghetti and homemade meat sauce, with fresh veggies from the farmers market

Tuesday - Brats with grilled peppers and onions (and maybe some mashed potatoes)

Wednesday - Leftovers

Thursday - Steak tacos - I will cook a beef roast in the crockpot all day for this

Friday - Peanut butter chicken (another crock pot one)

Saturday - Leftovers or eat out!

Happy *almost* September!!

Hurricane Irene's Indian butter chicken!

2011-08-27T14:24:00.001-07:00

I have been wanting to try making indian butter chicken (or chicken makhani as I guess it's actually called) for a while now, ever since I had it at the local indian restaurant.

Here's the recipe I used... it turned out really yummy! Although my little makeshift spice packet didn't really hold up too well. I tried to use a coffee filter tied with a piece of thread but it split open at the bottom, so I had to fish out the cardamom pods. It wasn't too difficult, although I may have missed one!

Served this over basmati rice. I forgot to add any salt so I had to add some to my dish when we sat down to eat. It was a tad on the spicy side, so next time I may cut down or leave out the cayenne pepper. Next time I make this, I will also be attempting to make some naan!

Key Lime Meltaways

2011-08-18T19:54:00.001-07:00

ok, I don't actually know what a meltaway cookie is.... but apparently I made some. They are nice and lime-y! (and buttery!)

Yum! Here is the recipe...

Menu plan August 8-12

2011-08-10T12:37:00.000-07:00

Menu Plan Monday (on Wednesday!)

Ok, first of all... how did it get to be August?? It's less than 5 months until Christmas! Hope you're getting ready! I still have garland up over my fireplace cuz it's such a pain to take down! Guess at this point I might as well leave it until December... and yes, I do realize how sad that is! LOL!

Lets see, food for the week...

Monday - French Dip sandwiches (Crockpot) - YUM one of my most favorite meals EVER!
I make a few tweaks to the recipe that's linked - usually only make half the amount it calls for unless we're having company, and the seasonings I use are as follows: 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 Worcestershire sauce, 1 cup beef broth, 2 cups water, ~3 cloves garlic, 1.5 tsp dried rosemary, 1/2 t dried thyme, 1 t dried onion flakes, & approx 2 bay leaves. Double this juice & seasonings if you're making the full recipe amount.

Tuesday - leftovers

Wednesday - Home made pizza

Thursday - Indian Butter Chicken (Crockpot) - this one is an experiment! I am excited!

Friday - leftovers again...

Saturday - Ziti with Sausage and Zucchini (also found this recipe - I may end up combining the two...)

Homemade pizza sauce

2011-08-10T10:20:00.000-07:00

Tonight is going to be homemade pizza for dinner! I like making my own dough, but this time I bought a ball of pizza dough from the store cuz it was barely $1 and that saves me the effort of making it! I had the dough in the freezer, so last night I pulled it out and stuck it in the fridge to thaw. This morning it seemed like it was already pretty much thawed, hooray! (I always worry about things not thawing enough in time.)

Pizza sauce is a big deal to me. It'll pretty much make or break a pizza for me. Especially using store bought dough that's probably very basic and not super flavorful. The last several times I made pizza, I used this basic pizza sauce recipe from food network, and I really liked it. Last time I made it though, I had to make a few tweaks because it calls for oregano and I had just run out and forgot to buy more. So I substituted half and half italian seasoning and thyme, and loved how it turned out! I'm trying my tweaked version again tonight (on purpose this time, haha!) and if I really like my re-creation, it just might be my new standard! So here goes:

Ingredients:

1 can (28-ounces) tomatoes (whole, diced, or crushed, depending on how chunky you want your sauce)

1 small white onion, finely diced

1-2 cloves garlic (I like garlic)

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon dried italian seasoning

1/2 teaspoon sugar (optional - I like my sauce a little sweet)

salt and pepper to taste

1 T olive oil

Directions:
Heat olive oil in a sauce pan. Saute onions for a couple minutes, mince garlic and add to onions. Saute for another minute. Add tomatoes and other spices. Mix well, and cover. Simmer at least 15 minutes until flavors are well blended, stirring often.

Makes about 3 cups of sauce... enough for 2-4 pizzas depending on how big & how saucy you like them! Spread sauce on dough, add your favorite toppings (and lots of cheese!), bake, and enjoy! I will probably bake the dough for a couple minutes before loading up the toppings. Makes it much easier to get it in and out of the oven, at least in my kitchen!

Yum! I am drooling in anticipation! How long until dinner??

Bagels! My first attempt ever

2011-07-29T20:40:00.001-07:00

Bread on the grill

2011-07-27T20:06:00.001-07:00

Yes, I totally made bread on my grill. Should have cooked it a little longer, I guess it was a little thicker than the example I followed, but still... I was excited! And *bonus* I didn't have to turn my oven on! Next time I will know better, and yes there will be a next time, cuz it was actually pretty simple! (Although it did take me two attempts to make my baguette shape... I should have taken a picture of the first complete flop! Stuck that hunk dough back in the bucket to try again next time)

Homemade seasoning mixes!

2011-07-26T11:48:00.000-07:00

I found these recipes today at $5 dinners and I wanted to share because I was very excited!

Homemade Taco Seasoning
Homemade Lemon Pepper Seasoning
Homemade Seasoning Salt
Homemade Ranch Dressing Mix

Enjoy!

Last minute summer veggie ideas

2011-07-20T13:03:00.000-07:00

Today is one of those days when I am running out of time to figure out what's for dinner, and all the meat we have is still in the freezer. (Those days happen a lot in my house!)

I have a bunch of veggies we picked up at the farmer's market this weekend so here's what I'm thinking...

Indian Summer Vegetable Stew
I don't have any eggplant so I will just leave that out and add some extra zucchini in it's place. Or perhaps just leave it out and halve all the spices and such. I think I already have the rest of the ingredients at the house. I will probably also leave out the cilantro, since I don't think I have any growing any longer.

Also...might save these for another day if the above idea works but if we need something more...
I saw this recipe for Zucchini-Riccotta fritters in a magazine yesterday but I don't think we have any ricotta cheese, and I wasn't planning on going to the store. So here's my plan B:

Zucchini fritters - I will probably add some corn kernels as well as the zucchini, since I had an extra cob of corn that was cooked yesterday.

Neither one of these should take too long, other than the chopping of the veggies.

Wish me luck! :)

April 25th thru 30th

2011-04-26T10:06:00.000-07:00

Well this is all I got so I might as well go ahead and post it!

Monday & Tuesday - hubby's got stuff going on and I need to finish up some leftovers

Wednesday - Black Bean and Veggie Quesadillas

Thursday - dinner at a friend's & making brownies :)

Friday - Indian Butter Chicken (Crock pot)
---except I can't find any garam masala so I guess we'll see if this actually happens!

Saturday - French Dip Beef Sandwiches au jus (Crock pot)
AND I might even be ambitious and make my own french bread rolls! HAH we will see :)

5 ingredient recipes! - Chicken in Garlic Lime Sauce

2011-04-08T06:45:00.001-07:00

Another Vocalpoint recipe that I am planning on trying...

Chicken in Garlic Lime Sauce
This is an easy weeknight dish that can be marinated the night before and baked for a nutritious and tasty meal. You can also use the marinade with tofu or tempeh if you’d like a vegetarian option.

Serves 4

5 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (or 4 chicken breasts)
1 fresh lime, zest and juice
1 cup chicken stock
2 tsp cornstarch
2 tsp minced garlic (about 2 cloves)

1. Marinate the chicken thighs in a plastic freezer bag with half of the lime zest and juice, and half of the garlic for 2 to 4 hours. If you need more liquid to cover the chicken, add ½ cup of water.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour the remaining marinade into a small saucepan and add the chicken stock, cornstarch, the rest of the lime zest and juice, and garlic. Whisk vigorously until smooth.

3. Heat the saucepan over medium heat until it reaches a boil, stirring frequently. Spray a 2-quart baking dish with a nonstick spray and arrange the chicken pieces, then pour the sauce over the chicken thighs.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes until chicken is cooked through. Spoon the sauce over the chicken when serving. Serve with rice or mashed potatoes.

5 ingredient recipe! - Italian Quesadillas

2011-04-08T06:43:00.000-07:00

Found this recipe at Vocalpoint and thought it sounded worth trying!

Italian Quesadillas
Change up your regular quesadillas with some Mediterranean flavors. Eggplant can be substituted for the pancetta or pepperoni for a vegetarian version. Lightly salt sliced rounds of eggplant, let stand for a few minutes, then pat off the moisture and salt with a paper towel.

Serves 4

8 large soft tortilla wraps
12 slices provolone cheese
12 thin slices pancetta, pepperoni, or thinly-sliced eggplant rounds
2 tomatoes, finely diced
2 tsp dried basil (or 1/3 cup chopped fresh basil)

1. Assemble each of the filler ingredients above on four tortilla shells, using 1/4 of each ingredient per tortilla. Gently press a second tortilla on top of the ingredients.

2. Heat a large dry skillet over medium-high heat. Carefully transfer one quesadilla at a time to the skillet and press down firmly with the back of a spatula. When cheese begins to melt and the bottom browns, gently flip the quesadilla to brown the other side. Remove from skillet and prepare the rest of the quesadillas the same way.

3. Cut quesadillas into six pieces and serve with sour cream or marinara sauce.

Nutritional info per serving: 762 calories, 37.2 g fat, 42.5 g carbohydrates, 55.6 g protein, 1.6 g sodium, 74.8% daily value of calcium.

Irish Stew!

2011-03-07T09:28:00.000-08:00

Let me start this off by saying I am not Irish, and I don't really think I know any one who is, either. But I really wanted to figure out an Irish Stew that I could enjoy. So here it is...

It's based of of this one here from AllRecipes, and I read through a bunch of the reviews and made modifications from the suggestions of people who reviewed it.

Beef and Irish Stout Stew

Prep Time: 30 Minutes
Cook Time: 8 Hours
Ready In: 8 Hours 30 Minutes
Servings: 6

Ingredients:
1-2 pounds beef roast
2 medium potatoes, diced
2 large onions, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic
6 oz tomato paste
1 t celery salt
1/2 t dried thyme
2 bay leaves
1/2 t paprika
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1 T Worchestershire sauce
1 1/2 cups Irish stout beer (such as
Guinness®)
2 cups chopped carrot (optional)
3 cups beef broth

Add everything to the crockpot and cook on low for 8-10 hours. Serve with Irish Soda Bread.

Menu Plan Monday March 7th

2011-03-07T08:53:00.000-08:00

Monday - hubby has class tonight so we'll be eating at seperate times ... have to see what leftovers we have in the fridge.

Tuesday - HMO (Hamburger and Macaroni)

Wednesday - Spaghetti (and amazing delicious chocolate cake for my mom's bday!)

Thursday - Irish Stew in the crock pot

Friday - Homemade pizza! (w/ homemade dough and sauce)

Saturday - Lasagne with family :)

Starting my garden!

2011-02-26T14:28:00.000-08:00

It's just about that time! We're starting to have at least a couple days a week that feel like spring, so I am ready to start thinking about my garden for this year! It got hot here so early last year, so this time around I want to try to get an early start on some cold weather crops this year.

I had a bag of seed starter material from last year so I decided to try making my own seed pots from old newspaper. I figured I'd make some smallish ones, so I ended up using a toilet paper roll to make them.

I cut strips of newspaper about twice as tall as I wanted the pots and rolled them up around the toilet paper roll. Any jar or glass with an opening at the one end would work great.

Leave some newspaper hanging off the end. It then gets tucked into the end of the tube to form the bottom of the seed pot.

Then pull the toilet paper roll or jar out, and Voila! it's all ready to add dirt and seeds!

I'm just doing a few early season seeds right now to see how it goes. I don't want to lose too much if I'm wrong and we have another long frozen spell.

I filled them almost all the way to the top with the seed starter mix.

Misted them to get them good and moist. Actually I ended up putting just a little water in the bottom of the tub to let it soak up into the pots too.

Poked a little hole in each pot with a chopstick to make a spot for my seeds.

Don't forget to write on the pots while they're still dry or make some kind of label or chart so you know what you planted where!

Sigh...no fun being sick

2011-02-24T09:17:00.000-08:00

Ugh, so the dreaded flu finally caught up with me this year. I've managed to avoid it for several years but couldn't avoid it any longer apparently. Never got around to making a meal plan this week, and haven't felt up to eating anything other than pretzels and a plain english muffin until today! Thankfully I made a big batch of chili on Monday so my hubby hasn't been going too hungry with me out of commission :)

Anyways, looking for ideas now for the rest of the week. Still feeling a little on the cautious side, so I'm not planning anything too crazy. I'd be happy with plain pasta lol!

Tonight (Thursday) I'm thinking some kind of mac n cheese... maybe this one?

Friday, I think I will try this Easy Garlic Broiled Chicken

Saturday maybe I will feel more like eating and we'll have Irish Stew!

Caramel Mocha Cupcakes

2011-02-13T18:38:00.000-08:00

Cupcakes!

We had a "cupcake wars" valentine's day event at work. I was inspired by these Caramel Caffe Mocha Cupcakes so I tried to recreate them.

I love these Rose liners I found at Joann's!

They're just basic chocolate cupcakes with a caramel candy pushed into the middle... I used rolos, but I should have used more than one because the cupcakes ended up so large, they candy sorta got lost.

But I thought the cupcakes themselves turned out very lovely!

Topped with a dark chocolate ganache... mmmmm

And then a coffee butter cream frosting. (and some chocolate shavings to spruce them up a bit)

Notice the one with the white frosting... I promised my hubby I would make him one without the coffee :) however, I think the coffee frosting might have been the best part!

Did I mention I got the recipe from here: http://insidebrucrewlife.blogspot.com/2011/01/caramel-caffe-mocha-cupcakes.html

but here it is with a few very minor tweaks that I made...

Caramel Caffe' Mocha Cupcakes
dark chocolate cake mix

chocolate instant pudding mix (small box - 3 oz?)
milk
oil (or butter)
eggs
rolos (if cupcakes are large, use two per cupcake)

Preheat oven to 350. Put cute liners in cupcake pan. Make the cake mix according to the directions on the back of the box, but (optionally) use milk instead of water and use melted butter instead of oil, and add a box of instant pudding mix. Fill liners halfway with cake batter. Press a rolo into the middle, but don't push it all the way in. Cover the top of the rolo with some more batter. Bake for 22 minutes. Cool completely. Spoon on some chocolate ganache. Let set and frost with coffee butter cream.

Chocolate Ganache
1 c. dark chocolate chips
1/2 c. whipping cream
Boil whipping cream. Remove from heat. Stir in chocolate chips until melted. Let cool.

Coffee Butter Cream
1 c. butter, room temperature
2 tbsp. warm water
2 tsp. instant coffee
1 tsp. vanilla
1/8 tsp. salt
4 c. powdered sugar
Put warm water in small dish. Spoon in the instant coffee and let dissolve. Set aside. Cream butter. Add coffee water, vanilla and salt and cream again. Slowly add your powdered sugar, beating after each addition. If it is thick, add just a touch more water.

Enjoy!! :)

oh and here is a glimpse of the cupcake tower with everyone's creations piling up! Good turnout for a bake sale/contest!

Valentine's Week!

2011-02-12T20:00:00.000-08:00

Gotta get back on track! I basically took last week off from making dinners since my hubby was out of town the whole week on a business trip. Now that he's back home, it's time to get on the ball again!

Monday - Valentine's day... Steaks & baked potatoes with the works!

Tuesday - dinner with friends - don't need to plan anything

Wednesday - Mexican Chicken Corn Chowder

Thursday - leftovers

Friday - Hamburger & Macaroni

Also, we are having a Cupcake War at work on Monday for Valentine's day... I am thinking I will make Caramel Mocha cupcakes, so you might get to see that mess as well :)

It snowed!

2011-02-10T04:23:00.001-08:00

If you can even count this 1/4 inch as snow, LOL! But something about the overcast sky with the blue at the horizon was just really pretty!

almost February...

2011-01-29T11:02:00.000-08:00

Still missed making one of the meals last week since we ended up getting pizza with my brother and sister-in-law wednesday instead of just eating leftovers, so one meal has to move to this week...

Here's this week's plan:

Monday - Moroccan Stew (crockpot)

Tuesday - leftovers

Wednesday - lime grilled chicken... have a packet of this seasoning mix to use... will probably make some rice to go with it.

Thursday - Hamburger & Macaroni

Friday - leftovers

Saturday - Mexican Chicken Corn Chowder

change of strategy...

2011-01-22T18:27:00.000-08:00

So... I've been picking out 5 meals for each week, figuring that if I skip a day during the week to eat leftovers, then we'll push everything a day later and have saturday and/or sunday already covered. But what I've been finding is we still have way too many leftovers, because it's just me and my hubby, and even when we take leftovers for lunches and eat them for dinner a day or two, we still have some left, and I hate seeing yummy food go bad!

So for a couple weeks, I'm only going to pick out 4 meals, and see how that goes.

Here's my plan for the week...

Monday - Chicken Cheez-it

Tuesday - chimichangas (cook the meat in the crockpot)

Wednesday - leftovers

Thursday - minestrone (gonna cook this in the crockpot - probably will add chicken or mild italian sausage)

Friday - Moroccan Stew (another crockpot - one of my favorites!!)

Catchup week

2011-01-15T11:14:00.000-08:00

got a couple meals I didn't have a chance to get to over the last few weeks, so here's the plan...

Monday - Souvlaki from last week

Tuesday - beer braised beef

Wednesday - Chicken Cheez-it

Thursday - pasta "fake-bake"

Friday - corn chowder

Jan 9-15 Meals

2011-01-08T10:03:00.001-08:00

Monday - Buffalo chicken pasta

Tuesday - Chicken Souvlaki (cooked in the crockpot) with tzatziki sauce

Wednesday - Italian seasoned roast (crockpot)

Thursday- butternut squash ravioli

Friday - Baked chicken with feta from last week

Happy New Year!

2011-01-03T12:05:00.000-08:00

I've never been one for New Years Resolutions... maybe because I know for a fact that I won't keep them up, so why even pretend? :)

If I did make resolutions, though, one of them would be to really get good at making meal planning a habit!

So lets start the year off right... Here's my plan for the week:

Monday - Spaghetti w/ homemade sauce (my favorite!)

Tuesday - Black Bean Soup (this is a test - never tried this recipe before so we will see how it goes) this came out pretty well. I used 2 cans of black beans, pureed one of them, added 2 chicken breasts, and cooked it all in the crockpot on low all day. I will save the recipe, cuz it was good, but I am also planning on trying other recipes.

Wednesday - Oatmeal-crusted chicken tenders

Thursday - Steaks mmmm these were super good!

Friday - Baked Chicken in Tomato Feta Sauce

Meals for thanksgiving week

2010-11-22T10:00:00.000-08:00

Missed a couple meals last week due to things coming up and being overwhelmed with leftovers. So two meals from last week are getting moved to this week, and then of course we have thanksgiving on Thursday which will likely create enough leftovers for another whole week... so here we go...

Monday - Grilled Chicken with Peach Salsa

made the salsa last night... I was a little skeptical on the quality of the peaches I got, so we shall see how this turns out. The chicken is soaking in the spices today and we will grill it on the George Foreman when we get home.

Tuesday - Roast (Crockpot) and potatoes

I am thinking that I will have two crockpots going and put the potatoes in the second one. I haven't decided yet if I should wrap them in foil or just put them in.

Wednesday - thanksgiving gatherings begin! Salsa chicken and black bean soup

Thursday - Thanksgiving! I am responsible for mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes

Friday - Leftovers leftovers and more leftovers.......

Curtained bookshelves...

2010-11-16T09:01:00.000-08:00

I saw this idea this morning and fell in love. I am not sure yet that I have a good spot to use it but I just think it is a neat idea and I want to save the idea for possible future use...

Covering your bookshelves with decorative curtains

Found this on BHG in an article called "19 Ideas to Steal for Your Apartment". I may just have to steal it for my house :) Now just to find some curtains that I want to hide my stuff behind!

Also this one, another solution for hiding things behind some pretty fabric:

Basically some fabric attached with velcro to hide or make any sort of table or shelf more attractive!

Meals this week (Nov 14-20)

2010-11-14T12:40:00.000-08:00

Monday - Penne Pasta with Roasted Garlic Cream Sauce
I actually did this a bit different. Instead of roasting the garlic, I sauteed it, and instead of roasting the tomatoes, I used a can of tomatoes, and put them (along with the seasonings they would have roasted with) in the pot with the garlic and cream. Toasted pecans instead of pine nuts since I forgot to look for pine nuts at the store. This was very yummy, though it turned out to be a sort of funny color of orange. Adding the tomatoes to the sauce makes more sauce than otherwise, so it could have covered more than 1 pound of pasta.

Tuesday - Chicken and Italian Sauage Gumbo (Crockpot)
yum! :)

Wednesday - Chickpea and Lentil Soup (Crockpot)
this was pretty good but I don't think I'm going to put it in my regular rotation.

Thursday - Roast (Crockpot) and potatoes
moved this to next week...

Friday - Grilled Chicken with Peach Salsa
moved this to next week...

Saturday - Thanksgiving get-together with friends - candied sweet potatoes

2010-11-08T09:46:00.000-08:00

Did a bit of scouting this weekend for some of the supplies I'm looking for to reorganize and/or redecorate a couple rooms.

Found some baskets with lids at Michael's that will work in the master bathroom to help contain some stuff, and some other baskets that I think will work in a few other places.

I thought these sand colored wicker baskets would go nice with my beach theme in the bathroom, plus they have lids so I can hide stuff! (sorry for the crummy picture!)

The coffee table is new so I haven't cluttered it up yet! Found the two brown baskets at Michael's. I think they will stay there to catch anything they need to that I normally would clutter it up with! Maybe remotes, coasters, I haven't figured that out yet! I also got 2 smaller versions of those - their home is still up for grabs!

The colorful boxes I found on clearance at Target. I love the 3 colors together, although I expected them to be bigger. I haven't decided for sure yet what to do with them. I may take them upstairs to help sort and contain scrapbooking stuff. I originally thought I could use them in my closet, but that's before I looked at their dimensions. They're cute enough though that I think I will keep them and find a new use for them.

That's all for now. I haven't actually had a chance to start containing stuff in these new containers though... one step at a time :)

Meals for this week

2010-11-08T05:42:00.000-08:00

I'm actually ahead of the game for once this week! Got my meal ideas ready yesterday. I am trying to get back in the habit of planning!! Sure saves a lot of arguments and headache if I do!

I may switch around the order of these a bit, but this is probably how it will go - The three linked ones will be in the crockpot:

Monday - Lemon Dill Chicken with wild rice

Tuesday - Cream Cheese Chicken with pasta

Wednesday - Gumbo! (I am super excited for this - I've only made it once before and it was so good!!)

Thursday - tacos

Friday - leftovers

Menu Plan - better late than never

2010-11-04T11:07:00.000-07:00

I threw my menu plan together on sunday but only ever wrote it on my whiteboard in the kitchen! So here it is, better late than never, I suppose...

Monday - Italian Seasoned Roast with potatoes - ended up getting a package of Hormel meat and Bob Evans potatoes... super easy - hubby cooked for me ;)

Tuesday - Baked Ziti - Used Rachael Ray's 30-min meal recipe - very yummy!

Wednesday - Salsa Chicken and Black Bean soup

Thursday - Irish Stew - didn't brown the meat, just threw everything in the crockpot!

Friday - double date night - going out with friends to dinner and bowling!

Saturday - leftovers & clean out the fridge!

Brainstorm list of supplies

2010-11-04T10:49:00.000-07:00

Ok, trying to gather a list of supplies I might need to help me with a couple rooms.

My two main rooms I want to focus on attacking first are the kitchen (in desperate need of some organization!!!) and the master bedroom. We finally picked out a bedroom set of furniture, so it's time to get rid of the mis-matched stuff and actually make the place look polished. Maybe even a coat of paint, if I can decide on a color!

Let's start with my thoughts for the bedroom. This is mostly just a place for me to capture my ideas so I don't forget them!!

Things to look for:

boxes - decorative but can store/hide things
matching lampshades for nightstands
floor lamps - have one, need to swap the second with the matching one that's downstairs
plants or vases for the dressers/nightstands
large-ish wall hanging mirror
shelf w/ pictures, vases, candles??
tray for nightstand to hold contacts case, glasses, water cup? things with possible moisture

2010-10-16T21:56:00.000-07:00

...one room at a time...

2010-10-16T21:50:00.001-07:00

Ok, before I lose even the little bit of motivation that I have, I'm gonna start up a real basic plan. Here's what I'm thinking. I'll list out the rooms I want to do something with, and set a goal of one room a month. if I get to more than that, great. if not, oh well. and when I get to the end of the list, I'll start back up at the top!

November: kitchen

December: master bedroom

January: living room

February: family room

March: guest bedroom

April: downstairs bathroom

May: upstairs hallway

That's good for now. Lets see how far I actually get!

it's about time

2010-10-16T21:39:00.001-07:00

Well, today I went out with my mom and aunt to look at a bunch of model homes that are for sale and just drooled all over them. I've decided that I'm gonna make an effort at decorating my house. If I could make my house look like the model homes then maybe I wouldn't feel so much like I want to look for a new place! Cuz even if I got a new place, it still wouldnt' be decorated like those houses that brought in a professional interior decorator!!

I realize I'm taking on a big task that I don't know if I can handle, but right now, I'm excited about it. I figure if I take on one room at a time, and research a bunch of ideas, set myself a monthly budget or something, maybe I can do it all myself. I would love for my whole house to be painted but we'll see :) start small, Becky, you know how you get overwhelmed and give up!

Maybe I'll even work out a plan so then when I get overwhelmed and start saying "I don't know what to do next!" then I just come back to my plan and see what I should be doing.

Baby steps... that's how I work...

to do

2010-07-13T07:50:00.000-07:00

my task list for tomorrow:

menu plan

decorating plan

Menu Plan Monday...Aug 31

2009-08-30T16:38:00.000-07:00

Monday - spiedies (grilled chicken) and acorn squash from my garden!! :-D They're little but still exciting!

Tuesday - French dip sandwiches au jus! These are so yummy! When I made this previously, with a 1 lb roast, I cut the juice in half and made a few tweaks: 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 Worcestershire sauce, 1 can beef broth (french onion flavored), 2 cups water. Spices: ~3 cloves garlic, almost 1.5 tsp dried rosemary, a couple dashes of dried thyme, approx 2 bay leaves. Added a few small sprigs of fresh thyme.

Wednesday - not sure yet

Thursday - not sure yet

Friday - not sure yet

Menu Plan Monday...Aug 24

2009-08-24T09:29:00.001-07:00

Here are my ideas for the week, I just don't know yet when we're gonna need/use them. This week is feeling like it's gonna be crazy!

Monday - Chicken parmesean

Tues/Weds/Thurs/Fri - not sure what's needed yet, but probably only 2 out of these 4 days.

Grilled Beef Skewers

and Mexican crock-pot chicken that I didn't get to last week

Saturday & Sunday - leftovers? Maybe I'll make a pot of chili one day this weekend...

Menu Plan Monday...Aug 17...crockpot week

2009-08-17T06:45:00.000-07:00

Cooking all four of these recipes in the crock pot this week!

Monday - Italian Meat Loaf with Fresh Basil and Provolone

Got this ready last night, lined my crock pot with aluminum foil, and it's gonna be baking in the crock pot all day today!

Tuesday - Slow-Cooker Orange Chicken with Potatoes

Wednesday - leftovers

Thursday - Yam Nuea Yang (Spicy Beef Salad)

For this, I'm just going to use a roast (top round) and throw everything in the crock pot together, and shred the roast when it's done.

Friday - Mexican Crock-Pot Chicken

Saturday - going to a cookout/party...taking burgers

Menu Plan Monday...Aug 10

2009-08-12T10:26:00.001-07:00

I had this weeks menus ready last week! Yay for planning ahead!

I sorta cheated though (:-P), and used myrecipes.com's 1 list, 5 meals...they plan out 5 meals for you and give you a shopping list of everything you'll need for those 5 meals. I'm surprised I found one that my sorta-picky hubby and I would both enjoy all 5 of them, with only a few tweaks! So here's what I have for the week... actually starting Sunday this week...

Sunday - homemade chicken fingers with arugula and sun-dried tomato vinaigrette

Monday - Risotto with Italian Sausage, Caramelized Onions, and Bitter Greens

Tuesday - subs from Wawa

Wednesday - need it to be ready right when we get home so i'm making Orange-Apricot Pork Chops in the crockpot

Thursday - Italian Meat Loaf with Fresh Basil and Provolone

Friday - Herbed Chicken Parmesan

Saturday - leftovers

hooray! another week under my belt!

Menu Plan Monday... July 27th

2009-07-27T09:47:00.000-07:00

I think I'm getting better at this menu planning thing. I definitely feel better during the week if I don't have to worry about what we're gonna eat!

And I'm just starting to feel like maybe a habit is forming! Which would be great :)

Monday - Irish Stew - I tweak it a little... I add approx 4 diced potatoes, 1/4 t celery salt, 6 oz tomato paste, 2-3 cloves garlic, 2 bay leaves, a couple dashes of paprika, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tablespoon worcestershire sauces, 3 cups beef broth, and a green pepper if I have it...just throw it all in the crock pot together. I don't cut up the meat, just let it cook all day and then shred it.

Tuesday - softball game...we'll throw in a frozen pizza to eat quick beforehand

Wednesday - dinner @ friends' house...I'll just need to do either salad or dessert to go along with dinner.

Thursday - Lime chicken tacos - this meat is really good...we'll probably use it for hard tacos this time, but we've also cooked it before and eaten it with soft tacos and quesadillas.

Friday - need a fairly quick idea for today too...maybe we'll have leftover meat from last night to make quesadillas with!

Saturday - my brother is moving to a new apartment so my family will be in town. We'll probably be able to talk them into taking us out to eat somewhere :)

Menu Plan Monday...

2009-07-20T08:04:00.000-07:00

I've missed a couple weeks posting my menu plan...some of the weeks I've had a plan in my head, and some I didn't think about it at all. So I'm gonna try again this week.

My hubby is out of town most of the week, so that makes it a little trickier for me to eat right. I don't do too well cooking for just me! I may just see what leftovers are in the fridge, they need used up anyway!

Tonight - I want to make some quacamole cuz I never have, and hubby doesn't like it, so it's the perfect time to try it. That will probably end up being my dinner, guacamole and tortilla chips.

Tuesday - I'm going to our church softball game, so something fairly quick to eat... I do have some pasta sauce that needs eaten, so maybe I'll make some pasta and try to finish up the sauce.

Wednesday - taking dinner to a friend's house...I'll make Crock-pot cream cheese chicken with pasta... http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/05/crockpot-cream-cheese-chicken-recipe.html ... love this recipe!!

Thursday - leftovers from last night if there are any...

Friday - have the day off, and I think we might be having company come today...so I need to figure out something to make.

Maybe I'll borrow an idea from IAOJ (http://orgjunkie.com/) http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/main-courses/heathers-chicken-bruschetta-pasta/?print=1

or maybe this ? Upside-down deep dish pizza with spinach instead of broccoli... http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Ragu-Upside-Down-Deep-Dish-Pizza/Detail.aspx?ms=1&prop25=20755871&prop26=DailyDish&prop27=2009-07-20&prop28=RecipeOption&prop29=FullRecipe&me=1

Saturday - Company...maybe we'll just go out for dinner?

... I sure do eat a lot of pasta!

Menu Plan Monday

2009-06-21T14:03:00.000-07:00

Menu Plan Monday

First, let me figure out what’s going on this week…

Monday – going sailing with friends. We’ll grab subs on the way

Tuesday – hubby’s softball game, so dinner needs to be ready when we get home or there’s no time…we’ll probably eat in shifts cuz he has to leave before I get home…something quick and easy …Wawa? Bagels?

Wednesday – dinner at a friends house… we’ll bring salad…nothing special

Thursday – is this our only day at home this week? Maybe we’ll try again to do the pork chops in the crock pot http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2009/01/orange-apricot-pork-chops-in-crockpot.html

Friday – river concert – guess we’ll eat dinner before hand, but again, it will have to be quick cuz we won’t have a whole lot of time… I’ll make this chicken cream cheese recipe cuz I think it sounds really good… http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/05/crockpot-cream-cheese-chicken-recipe.html

Menu Plan Monday...

2009-06-08T06:04:00.000-07:00

Ok, here goes my attempt at planning out food for the week...

Sunday - coming home from visiting friends - probably no dinner cuz I won't be getting home till pretty late

Monday - hubby's softball game, so it has to be quick, and we'll be eating seperately...pasta with store-bought sauce

Tuesday - pork chops? maybe I'll try these... http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2009/01/orange-apricot-pork-chops-in-crockpot.html ?

Wednesday - dinner at friends house - we'll bring salad/dessert
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/04/crockpot-5-layer-brownie-recipe.html or http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2009/03/crockpot-rice-pudding-recipe.html

Thursday - our 4 yr anniversary so we're gonna go out to eat

Friday - we're going camping with some friends...wonder if we need to eat before we go? I'll be home all day, but packing, so it would be nice to just have something going in the crockpot while I'm packing. Maybe I'll heat up the lasagne that I made previously and froze...

well... that's my list. Kinda working it out as I go along, but at least I'm thinking ahead, which is a big step for me! :-)

Meal Plan Monday

2009-06-02T17:11:00.000-07:00

I'm a little late doing my menu plan but here goes...

Monday - homemade calzones (really easy to make with refrigerated Pillsbury pizza dough, add whatever fillings and cheese you're in the mood for, dipped in pizza sauce)

Tuesday - hubby's softball game so grab subs from Wawa

Wednesday - Turkey & Spinach meatloaf - I'm gonna try to make it in the crock pot...wish me luck!!

Thursday - homemade chicken fingers? my breading is based off of this http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Breaded-Chicken-Fingers/Detail.aspx, but here's what I've done the last several times...

Friday - going to a baseball game so we'll stop and get something on the way or once we're there.

This week ended up being "cheating" cuz we have other stuff going on two out of five nights :) good week to start I guess!

I'm gonna try really hard to make this meal planning a habit. I know it'll make the week so much easier, but I guess it's just the indecisiveness in me that makes me feel like it's so hard!

Starting small!! Before and after...

2009-06-01T18:44:00.000-07:00

Surface/Shelf Organizing Round-Up!

I had to start somewhere, and I seem to work better with specific tasks/challenges, so here goes...

My craft room is one of my biggest areas that runs wild, so if I can tidy up at least one surface, I'm hoping I can start inspiring myself to keep going.

Before...

and after....

as for all the stuff underneath the table....well that'll just have to be for another day and another burst of motivation! hope it keeps coming!! :)