Menu Plan Monday - July 28th… July 28, 2008

Before I get to the menu, I have a question…

Do your kids snack all the time? 

My kids never whine or complain about wanting a snack. Ok, maybe occasionally, but it’s not the norm. However, Chip’s nephew was here for a month and even 15 minutes after he’d eaten dinner he’d be asking for a snack or saying, “I’m hungry!” He’s 6.

And it’s the same thing with the 8yo that I babysit for during the summer. She eats at home before she comes and then usually eats again when my kids do. Then by 11am she’s asking for a snack. We eat at noon and by 2ish, she’s complaining about wanting more to eat.

And neither of them just wanted a “snack” - they wanted a whole meal it seems! When I think snack, I think a handful of pretzels, some chex mix or dry cereal, some grapes, an apple. That kind of thing. But they want a sandwich AND one of those things.

Other friends parents have commented on the fact that my kids don’t beg for snacks at someone else’s house (when did people stop teaching their kids basic manners?).

So, what’s the norm when it comes to snacks in your house? Do they get a snack every day? And what is it?

Monday - Zesty Crockpot Chicken BBQ - yes, I know this is the third week in a row this has been on my menu. No, we have not actually eaten it yet. Tonight’s the night though!

Tuesday - Grilled Turkey Pizza Burgers (I mix 2 lbs of ground turkey, 1 egg, Italian bread crumbs and mash them all together and shape into burgers. Then we top them with pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese).

Wednesday - Spicy Orange Chicken over rice (this isn’t my original recipe that I use, but it’s close. I do not use raisins and I make my own “chunk chicken” since I see no reason to use already processed chicken when I can make it fresh without the preservatives)

Thursday - Baked Ravioli with garlic bread (oh, I can’t wait!)

Friday - ??? I’m unsure what time we’re leaving yet on Friday. It’s possible we could leave before dinner. I’m thinking I’ll make chicken wraps and we can eat in the van if we have to.

Saturday - VACATION!!! I’m thinking PF Changs sounds delightful!

Sunday -  VACATION!!! Anyone have any great recommendations for the St. Louis area?

 

I’m sure I’ll be heading over to Orgjunkie.com before the end of the day to see what other people are cooking up. What’s on your menu for this week?

Mud - mud - muddling… July 24, 2008

I haven’t disappeared. Honest. I’ve just had a migraine for the past three days. It started on Monday evening and I thought it was gone when I woke up on Wednesday. Unfortunately, by Wednesday afternoon, it was back in full force. And since migraines make me muddle, I just haven’t had a lot to blog about the last couple days.

And I’m really, really, really hoping that I can kick this by tonight. ALL of the kids are going to Chip’s mom & dad’s for the last “cousin sleepover” tonight. So Chip and I will be kid free this evening. And I’d really like to enjoy it since I’m not sure when the next time that will happen will be.

On a good note, I did find a great local organic farm. I’m about to go order my turkey for Thanksgiving from them. And we’re planning a trip down to visit them very soon! They’ve got a lot of great fresh produce and a lot of it is CHEAPER than it is in the grocery store! Something you don’t find too often with organic farms - especially with the meat!

On other news, Noah leaves early on Saturday morning for his adventure to Fargo to reunite his cousin with his parents. They are driving to Fargo from Wyoming for a wedding, and Chip’s parents, Granny, and Noah are all going to bring Taet up to Fargo and stay for a couple days. It’s going to be a whirlwind trip and I’m sure they are going to have a great time!

Menu Plan Monday - July 21st… July 21, 2008

Two VERY exciting things happened yesterday! We finally got a new range (and there was great rejoicing!) and I found a new website called Eat Wild that lists a bunch of the organic farms in the United States. I am so wanting to order some organic beef and lamb. But that’s going to have to wait a couple weeks at least. Right now I’m just trying to figure out which one we should set up a field trip to this fall once school starts.

So for now, I’m trying to figure out exactly what I want to BAKE in my new oven! Which I’m in love with! But lets face it, after nearly a month without an oven and an entire week without a stovetop - I’d love just about any oven as long as it worked!

Monday - Spaghetti with garlic bread

Tuesday - Enchiladas

Wednesday - Crockpot Chicken Barbeque

Thursday - Grilled something??? Any ideas?

Friday - Orange Chicken Skewers

Saturday - Burgers and fries

Sunday - Lasagna

I’ll be jumping over to Org Junkie for some more menu ideas because I’m sudddenly lacking creativity. Or maybe it is creative to fall back on some old favorites when you haven’t been able to have them in a couple weeks. Oh, how I’ve  missed garlic bread! LOL!.

What’s on your menu for this week?

Sunday bulletin… July 20, 2008

• A lot of the same people in my life that were complaining about it being winter and too cold are now complaining that it’s too hot and they don’t want it to be summer anymore. Some people are just never happy.
• You will NOT hear me complaining about the heat. I love the heat! Could do without the humidity, but even that doesn’t bother me all that much.
• I cut up a fresh pineapple for the very first time in my life yesterday. I think I’d rather have fresh pineapple than any summertime melon.
• Definitely allergic to Mop ‘N Glo. Rough morning with an asthma attack. Chip thought it would be ok if he opened the windows. It wasn’t. He mopped the rest of it up off the floor with another organic cleaner. He’s my hero!
• My boys are home. Where they belong. I don’t like when they are gone.
• Nephew jumped up like the big kids on our walk last night to hit the stop sign. Scraped his arm open and cut the walk short. He’s a pretty tough kids when he needs to be.
• Kait was baptized this morning. Such a very precious moment to share with her. And it all happened on her PawPaw’s birthday.
• Our anniversary is next Sunday. I love my husband so much that it’s hard to remember life before him and impossible to imagine it without him.

Spicy shrimp recipe… July 19, 2008

Oh my goodness! We just had shrimp for dinner and I *loved* it! I had a recipe that I was going to make, but couldn’t find everything it called for, so I improvised! Something I’m actually pretty good at. This is the recipe that I ended up with.

What you’ll need:

• Shrimp - peeled, deveined (size doesn’t matter - I used the little cheap ones)
• 1 small can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (by the Mexican food in most grocers)
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp of chopped oregano

I mixed everything but the shrimp together really well in a plastic ziploc bag. Then I rinsed and patted dry the shrimp and put them in the bag. Let marinade for an hour. Put on skewers and grill for 4-5 minutes on each side. (Remember if you use wooden skewers they have to soak for 30 minutes before putting them on the girl - or you could just buy some metal ones).

These were SPICY! My kids who like spicy foods ate them with some ranch dressing to dip them in to cut the spice. I served them with a pasta salad (because we are still range-less until at least tomorrow).

If you make these - stop buy and let me know what you think. They are definitely on my list of things that I’ll make again!

As Seth would say - “Winner, winner, chicken dinner!”

Menu Plan Monday - July 14th (no range required recipes)… July 14, 2008

So, this week poses some interesting challenges. I don’t have a stove or an oven. At least for now. And I’m guessing it’s better to plan like I don’t because I have plenty of items that I can throw in the oven if somehow I end up with one. Chip reminded me that we have a behemoth of a gas stove at the church, but unless he wants to be the one to go use it, well, I don’t have a stove or oven this week!

So it’s been a stretching kind of day as I’ve worked to prepare my menu for this week. It wouldn’t be such a problem, but I’m a good cook. Because of that, we’re a bunch of food snobs around here. Because right now I’m dreaming of foods like eggplant parmesan, baked ravioli, gumbo, sweet & sour chicken, lasagna, etc…  All of those things it’s kind of hard to make without a working range. This week could make for some interesting dinners.

Monday - Steak & Shake

Tuesday - Stuffed Hamburgers

Wednesday - Crockpot Pizza (I’m going to have Chip grill extra hamburgers on Monday so I can crumble them for this dish - not two excited about having it two weeks in a row, but the kids are.)

Thursday - Orange Chicken Skewers with Sesame Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce

Friday - Zesty Slow Cooker Chicken Barbecue a la my friend Karen!

Saturday - Chipotle Spiced Shrimp

Sunday - Fellowship dinner (I think I’m going to bring Muffuleta since you don’t have to cook it)

So, what’s your favorite no-cook/slow-cook/grill meal?

Sunday Bulletin… July 13, 2008

• Church this morning was great! Don’t tell anyone, but I’ve kind of got a crush on the pastor!
• After church, we hauled the old oven out of our house.
• By we, I mean Chip and his dad and a guy from church.
• They removed the cord from our oven and installed it on the used, but new to us oven and brought it in. I was so happy to have a new oven.
• We plugged it in and it started giving us an error message.
• I looked up said error message online and it was the computer in the new, flat-top, computerized range.
• It’s a part that has been discontinued.
• I almost cried!
• Now I have *NO* stove at all and I’m trying to figure out how on earth I’m going to feed our family next week!
• I could really use some of your best crock-pot, cookless meals. Because EVERYTHING and I do mean every-last-little-thing must be able to be cooked in the crockpot or in the microwave. HELP!!!

Crockpot pizza… July 10, 2008

It just amazes me how many people request my simplest recipes. I’ve gotten more calls for the recipe for crockpot pizza this week than has ever happened before when I mentioned making something. If y’all love simple, you’re going to *love* this recipe…

What You’ll Need

• 1 box rotini (spiral noodles)
• 1 pkg of pizza cheese (I buy it already shredded)
• pizza sauce (I *think* I use 3-4 jars - it’s about the equivalent of a normal size jar of spaghetti sauce)
• pepperoni
• 1 lb ground beef or Italian sausage
• garlic
• Anything else you would normally put on your favorite pizza (onions, black olives, peppers, etc…)

Prepare noodles according to pkg instructions. Saute garlic and then brown hamburger or Italian sausage.

Layer in crock-pot: sauce (it keeps the noodles from sticking the bottom), noodles, meat, pepperoni (and any other toppings), cheese, sauce, noodles, meat, toppings, cheese, etc… until all ingredients are gone.

Cook for 30 minutes and then switch to warm until you’re ready to eat. If you cook it too long, the sauce will start to stick to the sides.

It’s super simple and really yummy! My kids request it all the time. It’s what we’re having tonight. And if it our oven wasn’t broken, we’d have garlic bread on the side.

If you try it, come back and let me know! I’d love to hear how you put your own twist on it!

A great snack… July 2, 2008

So, yesterday was a tumultuous day. I ended up eating less than 1200 calories when all was said and done. When I’m stressed or upset, I just can’t eat. And if I do eat? Well, it’s not pretty.  I want to binge on things that will make me feel worse. Ice cream being the biggest thing!

And oh how I’m missing my ice cream. I love it. Absolutely adore a good ice cream treat. My favorite is Ben & Jerry’s Vermonty Python - coffee ice cream with cookie crumb swirls and little chocolate cows! Excuse me for a moment while I dry the drool off the keyboard!

Anyway - I knew that if I didn’t figure out some sort of healthy alternative, I was NEVER going to make it through my month of healthy eating. Ice cream would be my downfall. I could eat it EVERY day and not miss a beat. Well, not until I was too big to actually walk to the refrigerator to get it. But isn’t that what kids are for?

Ok, I know, I have issues.

Anyway, yesterday, we bought grapes. And these grapes are AMAZING! The perfect amount of juiciness and the perfect bit of tartness. I took half of them and promptly put them in the freezer.

After my walk this morning, I wanted something cold. I wanted ice cream. I was seriously contemplating a popsicle. But then I decided I would try some frozen grapes!

Oh my word! DELICIOUS!!! They satisfied that craving for something cold and sweet. AND it was good for me!!!

Works For Me Wednesday - 5 ingredients or less… July 2, 2008

The thing about summer that plagues me the most is the fact that we just don’t eat much. I honestly think the kids and I could live on cold cereal and/or peanut butter sandwiches! Right now I’m not even missing our oven (it broke a little over a week ago - the stovetop still works).

One of our favorite summertime meals is Italian Beef in the crockpot. I love it because I can put it on first thing in the morning and forget about it. If we have a ball game or something, it’s waiting for us when we get home. Normally we have it with fresh garden veggies and potato salad the first night. And then finish it off the next day (or two if it’s a big roast) as sandwiches! YUM-O!!!

Rebekah’s Italian Beef
1 large BEEF roast (I so do not like pork roast - too much fat)
1 head of garlic - minced (or half a jar of the already minced stuff)
4-5 pepperocinni
1/2 cup of water

Throw it all in the crockpot on low for 10 hours (or until it’s falling apart) and then pull apart. I pull it apart and then leave it in the juices in the crockpot so it’s super moist.

And now I’m off to add this to my menu for next week!

What’s your favorite 5 item or less recipe?