On the Home Front

My fridge is full of leftovers. My freezer is currently too small to hold anything else. So we’ve been eating leftovers all weekend, and I am going to start planning only three new dinners per week. We will have leftovers for the other three meals, and go out once. Therefore:

Sunday – lunch will be leftover casserole or chicken creole (diner’s choice); dinner will be the Spanish meal (enchiladas, Spanish rice, and mole sauce).

Monday – chicken noodle soup, dinner rolls, and salad.

Tuesday – leftover pork chops with rice and salad.

Wednesday – Crock Pot roast.

Thursday – leftovers – we’ll see what’s there.

Friday/Saturday – spaghetti and salad/go out. Breakfast on Saturday will be the Huevos Tortillas.

While we’re at it, since I did plan all of this week, I think I can plan next week now, too.

Sunday – lunch will be pasta with cheese and bacon; dinner will be Snappy Apple Pork.

Monday – leftovers.

Tuesday – Chicken Lo Mein.

Wednesday – leftovers.

Thursday – “Sweetish” Meatballs.

Friday/Saturday – leftovers/go out. Breakfast on Saturday will be French Toast and bacon.

I have two other recipes that I mentioned previously. They are the Ginger Beef Stir-Fry and the Mexican Black Bean and Rice Salad. I’ll make sure they get into the plan in a couple of weeks.

Hm. I think this week on Wednesday I will work on sorting out the previous meals and making a proper rotation for everything. And, of course, I’ll explain how I make chicken noodle soup!

Wednesday this week was weird, so I didn’t plan our meals then. Yesterday I had a dentist appointment, so I didn’t get to it then, either. Today, though, I don’t have to work, so I am at home and ready to plan our meals!

Because our week was a bit weird, we didn’t eat dinner at all on Sunday, and Wednesday we went out with a friend who was in town for the day. So I’m two days behind on the week’s plan. Which is okay, really, because it means we can have that slow cooker roast on Sunday!

Now, also on Sunday, I think I will make Pasta with Cheese & Bacon for lunch. It’s a favourite for both of us, off the Cooking By Numbers site.

Let’s move on to Monday. I would like to finally make chicken noodle soup, so I think for dinner on Monday we will have that. It’s been rainy here a lot lately, so soup will be nice anyway. I’ll post my recipe for that next week.

Tuesday we’ll have spaghetti. That is easy enough.

Wednesday will be Snappy Apple Pork, which is on page 87 of the Company’s Coming cookbook, 4 Ingredient Recipes, by Jean Pare.

Thursday we can have Chicken Lo Mein, from page 226 of Saving Dinner, by Leanne Ely.

Friday we’ll have “Sweetish” Meatballs, a favourite from page 73 of 4 Ingredient Recipes. It is so good! Serve with rice and a salad, of course.

Saturday for breakfast I’ll make Huevos Tortillas, a breakfast from page 56 of 4 Ingredient Recipes. For dinner we’ll stick with the Mexican theme and go for Mexican Black Bean and Rice Salad, which is on page 228 of Saving Dinner.

And that is this coming week. I should be back on track come Wednesday – wish me luck!

The best-laid plans… *sigh*

Long weekends always mess everything up for me, and this past weekend was no exception.

Initially, we were going to go out for dinner with some friends from Calgary on Friday night, but they didn’t arrive until very late, so I ordered pizza for dinner. Saturday was supposed to be grocery day, but with people visiting and my writing meet that afternoon I couldn’t go. We had leftover pizza for dinner that night, and breakfast was not pancakes, it was our usual fare. Sunday we didn’t have lunch until late, while we were driving out to Manitou Lake to meet up with our friends there. We had A&W. Dinner was at a restaurant in a hotel at Manitou Beach. I finally made the pancakes on Monday and fried some leftover ham to go with. The meal was a hit, which means it’ll go into our meal rotation. We didn’t really have lunch on Monday, being that we had a late breakfast. Dinner was a really basic bean & tomato soup I threw together, which we ate with cheese melts. (See the end of this post for the recipes for both!)

I got to the grocery store yesterday afternoon. Yesterday we finally had “barbecue” – done in the oven since we still have no propane for our BBQ. I marinated some loin pork chops, steamed some corn in its husks, and made a pasta salad. It was very good.

So tonight we will have that Roasted Herb Chicken I mentioned last week, and tomorrow we’ll have the meatloaf and pea salad. Friday will be the Chicken and Stuffing Casserole, Saturday will be Broiled Pork Chops and Lemon Linguine, Sunday will be Gumbo Style Chicken Creole, Monday will be Warm Steak and Potato Salad, and Tuesday will be the Pasta Bake.

Let’s finish out the planning for the week, shall we?

I need an entree for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday next week. This week has been mostly chicken, so let’s look at beef – how about a roast? – and pork.

Wednesday, let’s do Beef Enchiladas. DH loves mole sauce; I wonder if I can find a recipe for that? Oh, look, I did! I’ll do Spanish Rice to go with, and then a regular old salad.

On Thursday I’ll do a Ginger Beef Stir-Fry with rice. Something fun and quick, and we get to practice using our chopsticks!

Friday I think I’m working, so I’ll plan to do a Crock Pot roast since I can put it in the cooker on low all day and the whole meal will be ready when we get home. This is one I’ve done before that is quite good.

I’ll plan to go out Saturday night, and for breakfast that morning I think I’ll make French toast and bacon. Mmm…!

Okay, that’s the plan for this week, now how about those recipes I promised?!?

Basic Bean & Tomato Soup

1 can diced tomatoes
2 cans 6-bean mixed beans
spices to taste (oregano, garlic, and parsley work well)

Put all ingredients in pot on medium heat. Do not drain cans – that’s where the liquid comes from. When it’s boiling, it’s done. There’s lots of protein in this, and it’s low in fat – bonus!

Cheese Melts

1 slice of whole wheat bread per person
1 Tbs of mayonnaise per person
4 slices of cheddar or marble cheese per person

Toast bread lightly. Put mayonnaise on and top with cheese. Put in toaster oven, set to broil, on rack with tray underneath it (to catch dripping cheese). Broil until all cheese is melted. This isn’t so low fat, but it’s really yummy.

I am doing FlyLady (more on that in another post) and she says to plan next week’s menus on Wednesday. So I’m going to give it a shot. If nothing else, it gives me a chance to peruse the AllRecipes web site a bit more and see just what’s out there. (Another bonus is that I don’t have to think about it on Saturday when I make my grocery list; I just need to go through the recipes and the fridge and have at it!)

First up, let’s tackle breakfast, shall we?

Sunday through Friday, DH and I fend for ourselves. I make sure there is blueberry yogurt in the fridge for him, as well as raisin English muffins. I like to have a toasted bagel with butter on it and a cup of Lucerne yogurt (I state the brand name because I can’t stand other textures of yogurt; also, when I say “cup” I mean one of those little individual servings that come in the pack of 12). Saturday, I like to make us a brunch of some kind. Last week I made quiche; this week I’m going to make some pancakes that I found a recipe for in an issue of Prevention magazine (which I don’t buy regularly, but there it is anyway).

Next week, I think I’ll try my hand at the Slow Cooker Fruit, Nuts, and Spice Oatmeal. I can get it started before bed and it’ll be ready when we get up in the morning – nice deal!

Okay, that’s sorted. Now for lunch.

Monday through Friday, I pack DH’s lunch first thing in the morning. I give him leftovers from dinner the night before, fruit, a couple of meat sandwiches, cottage cheese, a couple of cookies, and a granola bar. Yes, that sounds like a lot, but he doesn’t always eat everything and he has a really high metabolism that is only just starting to slow down. Here at home, I usually have some soup, some fruit, and maybe some cheese and/or pickles. We don’t tend to eat lunch on Saturdays, either, so it’s just Sunday that I need to worry about.

This week, I think I’ll have at the Spicy Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, and maybe make some creamy tomato soup to go with them. I like spicy food, and we both like grilled cheese, so this sounds like an excellent option! The one change I’ll make is to use marble cheddar instead of processed cheese slices. We are both fans of healthy whole food rather than preservatives and synthetics.

…And now it’s time to look at dinner. This might be more difficult, because while we do typically go out on either Friday or Saturday night, it’s not consistent. So I have to plan a full seven dinners and then if we go out I will shift everything over by one day. No biggie, right? Right. Except that FlyLady says to do your menu every Wednesday, which means that I might have to shift by a day after I’ve already planned the next week. This could be weird, people!

Sunday, I think we will have a simple Roasted Herb Chicken & Potatoes, with steamed fresh veggies (I’ll see what I find at the Farmers’ Market tomorrow). I like to get a little fancy for Sundays, though it’s just the two of us.

On Monday I’m going to make a favourite that I’ve made a number of times before: Easy Salsa Meatloaf, which I will pair with the Minted Pea Salad and dinner rolls.

Tuesday we can have chicken again, so let’s have the Chicken and Stuffing Casserole, which I think I made once last year. I’ll pull together a basic salad of lettuce, mushrooms, and tomatoes to go with it.

Wednesday, let’s see… how about Broiled Pork Chops? A new recipe, looks good. Let’s couple that with Lemon Linguine, shall we? We can have leftover salad from Tuesday to go with it.

On to Thursday. We’ll go with chicken again, this time a Gumbo Style Chicken Creole. The beauty of this one is that it’ll have all the food groups in it already. I should be able to put all fresh veggies in it, too. Score!

Now on Friday, we’ll have Warm Steak and Potato Salad, which looks most excellent. With a side salad, we’ll be all set.

Finally, we are at Saturday. We’ll go with something simple, a one-dish meal that includes all the food groups: Pasta Bake. I’ll probably do salad to go with it.

So, there you have it: a week’s worth of menus!

What are we eating for the rest of this week? Well, tomorrow I’m making cottage pie (that’s shepherd’s pie with ground beef instead of lamb/mutton). Friday or Saturday will be a steak stir fry; we’ll go out the other night.

I tried a new recipe tonight: Chicken Ole, which is available to you only if you’re a member of Curves. That’s too bad, because it is yummy!

First you put the rice on. I cooked it in the rice cooker, because I wanted to have some left over for us to have in our lunches tomorrow.

Then you mix the fresh ingredients while your oven heats (this is broiled). Looks good, doesn’t it?

Next comes the chicken, in the casserole dish.

And then you put the tomatoes on the chicken.

Broil it briefly (I added time and went for 5 minutes)…

…then turn the chicken over and put the rest of the tomatoes on.

Broil it again. It wasn’t all cooked when it came out the second time, so I moved the rack down and changed the oven to bake at 350 F. That took about 15 minutes longer, but at least I knew the chicken was definitely cooked all the way through!

When your rice is done, you mix in the canned goods.

And then you dish it up!

Juniper liked it and ate two servings, so there was only one left to go in the fridge for a future lunch. I think I might take that with me on Wednesday. It really was excellent. The cumin is amazing – never thought of putting it on chicken before tonight!

I’ve finished a few projects already this year (2010), so my next post will describe those projects in detail. But after that, I’ll try to post weekly with updates on current projects (the ones that aren’t surprise gifts), new recipes I’ve tried, and all that other fun stuff. Oh, and of course, once a recipient has received their gift, I’ll post about it.

What you need to know: I’m 33, I work part-time from home, and I have a cat who likes to hunt yarn. Oh, and a guinea pig who likes to eat it, and a fiance who isn’t always as interested in my projects as I think he should be.