Week and A Half Menu (J)

Omelets & Hashbrowns
Creamy Potato Cheese Soup -YUMMMM!
BLTs
Marinara Pasta & Salad
Breaded Chicken, Couscous, Braised Carrots
Connie's Pot Roast
Sausage Rice Casserole
Corn Soup (store bought) & Grilled Cheese
Easy Mexican Bean Soup (from this site)
THANKSGIVING DINNER

Easy Mexican Bean Soup

4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
3/4 onion, chopped
3/4 cup diced green or red bell pepper
1/2 chopped celery (optional--I don't like celery so I never use it!)
1 clove garlic, crushed or minced
1/2 t chili powder
black pepper to taste
dash of hot sauce (tobasco or tapatio, or similar)
14 oz can OR about two cups chicken broth
16 oz can refried beans

After cooking the bacon, remove it from the pan to drain and cool. Add the onions, bell pepper and celery to the hot pan. Saute until softening. Add the garlic, chili powder, pepper and hot sauce. Stir to blend seasonings well. Add the chicken broth and beans, stirring until the beans and broth are well-blended. Cook 3-5 more minutes until heated through.

Serve topped with grated cheese, chopped tomatoes, and crushed tortilla chips. Good with fresh cilantro, too, if you like it.

Weekly Meal Plan

1. Mom's Crockpot Chili and corn muffins

2. Easy Baked Tofu with rice and broccoli (my kids really LIKE tofu)

3. Indian curried potato wrap (never made this before) and roasted acorn squash

4. Homemade pizza

5. Thai Butternut squash soup (never made this before)

6. Easy Mexican Bean Soup

Connie's Menu (Nov. 16-21)

Hi all! This is a great site - thanks for inviting me in Jenae! A warning -- my weekday meals are usually either crockpot or something very simple and fast since I work full-time, so I'm always interested in good and QUICK -- aren't we all?

Sunday - Crockpot Chicken Curry, orange jello salad, breadsticks, root beer floats
Monday - Jambalaya over rice (from this site!)
Tuesday - Spaghetti with Prego sauce (my kids love it), salad, garlic bread
Wednesday - Pork chops (baked with seasoning), broccoli and the church's instant potato pearls
Thursday - Nachos Supreme (from this site!)
Friday - OUT -- I never cook on Fridays - :)

Eliza's weekly menu (11-17-08)

Mon - Pizza (using the Costco coupon)
Tues - Roasted Vegetable Quesadilla's (from this site)
Wed - Crock pot Chicken Curry (from this site)
Thur - Tuna Noodle Casserole
Fri - Out
Sat - Freezer meal pullout
Sun - Probably a roast

(J) Weekly Menu

Friday - RS dinner at craft night
Saturday - eat out
Sunday - White Chili & Cornbread
Monday - Sweet n Sour Meatballs over rice
Tuesday - Chicken Milan
Wednesday - Baked Potatoes, Broccoli, Cheese
Thursday - Taco Soup

Eliza's weekly menu 11-10-08

Mon - Omelet with bacon, hashbrowns
Tues - Jambalaya
Wed - BBQ chicken, roasted potatoes and a steamed veggie
Thur - Winter vegetable soup (crock pot meal)
Fri - out
Sat - Nachos
Sun - Apricot pork roast (a frozen roast from Dream Dinners I have in my freezer), mashed potatoes and a veggie.

A little about me and a recipe

Here's a little about my family and about what kind of dinner-cooker I am, so you'll know where I'm coming from with the recipes I share.

I'm the mom of two kids who will hardly eat anything. My three-year-old loves things like plain yogurt and plain oatmeal. And he won't eat anything with a sauce of any kind. Basically, if the food is flavorful, he won't touch it. Then my little one, who is almost a year and a half, won't eat anything that he can't see his older brother eating. Because of this, I cook things that I know my husband and I will like, and if we're lucky enough to get our kids to eat it, great. If not, they are welcome to eat some oatmeal and applesauce for dinner.

My husband and I try to keep our meat ingestion to a minimum. We eat meat and we like it, but we go vegetarian a lot. So I really love vegetarian cooking. Lots of the meals and recipes I will share have no meat. I made this last night and it made us happy.

Roasted Vegetable Quesadillas
(from Moosewood Restaurant's New Classics Cookbook)

2 cups quartered and sliced potatoes
1/2 cup sliced onions
3/4 cup sliced red or green bell peppers
1 1/2 cups sliced zucchini or sliced portabello mushrooms
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced or pressed
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
4 8-inch flour tortillas
1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Preheat the oven to 425. Toss all the vegetables with the olive oil, garlic, oregano, salt and black pepper. Spread it in one layer on a baking sheet. Roast in the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender and slightly brown.

Pile about 1/4 of the roasted vegetable filling onto one half of each of the tortillas, top with 1/4 cup chedder cheese. Fold over to form a half moon shape.

Heat a lightly oiled large skillet over medium heat. Cook two of the quesadillas for 1 to 2 minutes each side, until golden brown. Remove from the skillet and keep warm. Cook the next two quesadillas. Slice them in half and serve them warm.

I made this with the mushrooms. Just before putting the cheese on, I added some red pepper flakes because my husband likes things spicy. A little sour cream on the side. Perfect. And my kids ate just plain cheese quesadillas.

Savings on Spices

I had a great find at the grocery store today when I stumbled upon spices in the bulk foods section! I had to buy curry powder and chili powder which usually cost $2.50-$5.00 each for a 2.5 oz jar and was not looking forward to adding more money onto my bill.

Well, today I paid $.45 for one and $.62 for the other by buying them in bulk and simply refilling the spice jars that I already had (although I did have to dig them out of the garbage can --eeww, don't worry, I will wash them!).

Anyways, I thought I would pass this on because it saved me a ton of money today and if you don't already buy your spices in bulk, find somewhere where you can!

Crockpot Chicken Curry

CROCKPOT CHICKEN CURRY (From Connie)

3 T. flour
3 T. curry powder
1-1/2 t. ground cumin
1 t. salt
1-1/2 lbs chicken, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 c. peeled & chopped potatoes
1-1/2 c bias-sliced carrots
1 c. coarsely chopped cooking apple (Granny/Gold. Del.)
¾ c. chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded & finely chopped
1 t. instant chicken bouillon granules
½ c. water
1 – 13 oz. can unsweetened coconut milk

Hot cooked rice
Raisins (optional)
Chopped peanuts (optional)


Put flour, curry powder, cumin and salt in a bag – shake and coat chicken a few pieces at a time.
Put potatoes, carrots, apple, onion, garlic, jalapeno and chicken bouillon in crockpot. Top w/ chicken. Pour water over chicken mixture.
Cover, cook on LOW for 6-8 hours or HIGH for 3-4 hours.
If doing it slow, turn it on HIGH for 30 min. after stirring coconut milk into chicken mix.
Serve over hot rice, sprinkle each serving w/ raisins and peanuts.

YUMMY!!!!

Weekly Menu

Crockpot Chicken Curry
Egg Sandwiches
Chili & Cornbread
Lil' Cheddar Meatloaves, couscous, veggies
Bean Burritos
eat out

My meals this week

Mon - Relief Society casserole (this is a new recipe for me)
Tue - Chicken and rice soup with rolls (this is a new recipe for me)
Wed - Pasta with eggplant sauce (this is a new recipe for me)
Thur - Homemade pizza and cake (for Jacob's birthday)
Fri - Fantastic Friday potato soup
Sat - waffles
Sun - Pot Roast