Thursday, September 22, 2011

A Month (Plus) of Menu Planning...

We really tightened our budget so I am going to try to do a majority of our shopping twice a month now, with a budget of $650/month for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and toiletries for 5 people, lets see how this goes!

*Disclaimer...wherever I say sandwiches, I really mean something quick since we wont be all together as a family...be it PB&J, Grilled Cheese, french toast, etc...

22 Something quick... (shopping day)
23 Spinach Pita Pizza
24 Apple Pie Chicken
25 Crockpot Chicken Enchilada
26 Farm Share Stir Fry
27 Sandwiches
28 Sandwiches
29 Tater throw together
30 Pizza Puffs

October

1 Sloppy Joe Chicken
2 Inside out Chicken Pie
3 Farm Share Stir Fry
4 Sandwiches
5 Sandwiches
6 Corned Beef Quesidillas (shopping day)
7 Chicken nuggets and tots
8 Pizza Hut for my Bday :)
9 Out
10 Steak
11 Sandwiches
12 Sandwiches
13 Spaghetti and Meat Balls
14 Spinach Pita Pizza
15 Inside out Chicken Pot Pie
16 Sheppard Pie
17 Farm Share Stir Fry
18 Sandwiches
19 Sandwiches
20 Italian Chicken (Shopping day)
21 Hot dogs
22 English Muffin Pizza
23 Soup and Grilled cheese
24 Apricot Chicken
25 Sandwiches
26 Sandwiches
27 Tacos
28 Meat Ball Subs
29 Burgers
30 Out
31 Stirfry

Things to try DIYing this month to save on

Cream Of Whatever Soup
Cheese itz
Granola bars

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Menu Planning

So I have been on a recipe finding binge on pintrest and it reminded me I need to do my menu plan! Here it is...

Wednesday ~ Tomato Soup
Thursday ~ Sheppard's Pie
Friday ~ Egg and Cheese Muffins (Breakfast for dinner we need a break from the pita pizzas! Going to freeze them and try them out for breakfast on Sunday so we can see how well they really taste after being frozen)
Sunday ~ Tacos
Monday ~ Inside out Chicken Pie
Tuesday ~ Apple pie chicken

The farm we get our farm share from took a pretty hard hit from Irene so this week we see the last of the tomatoes and some of the less hearty greens. Good news is though the broccoli and cabbages and other sturdy greens didn't get hit that hard so we will be seeing more of them in our box.

I have gotten in the habit lately of just throwing out what I have no idea how to use, hoping to really break myself of that this week.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Menu Plan

Wednesday ~ Coldcuts
Thursday ~ Creamy Bail Pasta
Friday ~ Spinach Pita Pizza
Saturday ~ Hamburgers and coleslaw
Sunday ~ Inside out chicken pot pie
Monday ~ Italian chicken
Tuesday ~ Spaghetti and meatballs

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Ktloo's Carrot Cake


So sorry for the lack of posts lately...things have been just crazy lately...BUT I do have a recipe to share!

Matt picked up some carrots at a local farm stand so I decided to make up some carrot cake, however I couldn't find one recipe that I liked everything about so I just winged it and came up with this...

Ktloo's Carrot Cake

3(ish) cups shredded carrots
2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp Cinnamon
4 Eggs
1 1/2 cups applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 handfulls :) Crasins

Preheat oven to 350, mix all ingredients together and pour into a greased (Pam'd?) 9x13 pan and bake for about 40-50 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Neufchatel Cheese Frosting

1 8 oz package Neufchatel Cheese (a/k/a philly cream cheese lol)
1 softened stick butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
enough powdered sugar to get the right consistency you are looking for

cream the cheese and butter together, add the vanilla extract and about a cup of powdered sugar, keep adding sugar and mixing until you reach a consistency you like


I was kinda really proud that I whipped this up and it actually came out good/edible/not burned/tasting like carrot cake :) it was rich and super moist and super tasty and everyone ate it! I will definitely make this again!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Baby Turnip Coleslaw

This recipe?? So easy and so yummy... I got the original recipe from here and didn't alter it at all...it was so easy it didn't need any altering. It made an excellent crunchy addition to our burgers and even Cassie ate some :)

Bottom line?? We will definately be making this again, I think that I may even plant some turnips once I *finally* start my garden.

CSA Week 3 and Menu Plan


This week's Farm Share contains...Mesclun Mix, Red Lettuce, Green Lettuce, Baby Pak Choi, Bright Light Swiss Chard, Radishes, Dill and Steaks

Wednesday ~ Sandwiches or Pasta of some kind (Recently discovered that there is a Farmer's Market at the church at the end of our road on Wednesday afternoons so I'm going to have to go check it out...which may have an effect on the meals for the rest of the week :) we shall see what happens)
Thursday ~ Steak and Baked Potatoes
Friday ~ Pita Pizzas
Saturday ~ Cilantro Chicken
Sunday~ Chicken Veggie Gravy over puff toast

No idea what we are going to do with the Baby Pak Choi or the Radishes yet, but apparently the Swiss Chard makes excellent wraps so we will have that for lunch!

We were told by the woman at the farm that there will be basil soon, and broccoli and cauliflower too, finally something I recognize AND know how it should taste lol...


***ETA ~ The more I think about it, the more I think I found a use for the Radishes...will be making this for dessert on Friday ***

Monday, June 27, 2011

CSA Week 2 and Menu Plan


This weeks Farm Share includes... Mesclun, Lettuce, Italian dandelion Greens, Baby Turnips with Greens, Radishes with Greens, Arugula, Cilantro, Dill, and Ultra Lean Hamburger Patties

Wednesday ~ Sandwiches
Thursday ~ Sauteed Garlic Dandelion Pasta (Recipe from 8 Mile Creek Farm)
Friday ~ Pita Pizza with Arugula topping...(tried it with spinach last week and it was great, this week the newsletter from the farm suggests putting Arugula as a topping on pizza so we shall give it a shot!)

Two tips from the farm... 1) Apparently Turnip Greens are extremely healthy and packed with all sorts of nutrients and make an excellent salad when chopped up, and 2) Radish greens make an excellent soup so it was suggested we save the greens from this week and add them to the Radishes we get next week to make the soup...

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Farm Share Week 1 and Menu Plan


We got our first Farm Share this week! Lots and lots of greens :) which is something I have virtually no experience with so there will be alot of experimenting this week! So glad we did this, because these are things I would completely skip over at the market, plus we can test things out and see if we want to try and grow them ourselves next summer.

So quite obviously each week this little box is going to dictate what our menu plan looks like! Hopefully it will always look nice and healthy ~ which will make me a very happy mommy :)

This weeks box contains ~ 1 lb (Ultra Lean Corn Fed) Ground Beef, Mixed Green Salad, Spinach, Arugula, Broccoli Raab, Garlic Scapes, Culinary Lavender and Lettuce.

I used the Garlic Scapes last night to make a type of Garlic Scape spread on bread to have with Spaghetti and Meatballs :) soooo yummy I will post the recipe soon.

Speaking of recipes each week the we get a sheet of recipes emailed to us from the Farm to give us suggestions of what to make with our veggies...very helpful and where I am going to be getting most of my recipes from this week.

So anyway on to the Menu Plan

Tuesday ~ Something involving Ground Beef, Arugula and Rice...which will require some experimenting so I will post the results later :)
Wednesday ~ Sandwiches...Maybe soup? Depends on what the weather does.
Thursday ~ Porkchops (that I never made last week...) with Spinach Salad
Friday ~ Broccoli Raab and Chick-Pea Pita Pizza (Recipe from 8 Mile Farm)
Saturday ~ Hamburgers with Salad
Sunday ~ Meatloaf (as Requested by Matt)
Monday ~ Depends on what we get in the Box...I will figure out a way to use something in there :)

Also I am going to use the Lavender in a Scone recipe that came from the Farm :) never made scones before so this will be a first on 2 levels...

Monday, June 20, 2011

Hot Fudge Oreo Sundae Brownies



Alright I made this recipe twice in two days and to be honest they weren't as great as I thought they had the potential to be...

I found the original recipe here which was actually an edit of this recipe from Picky Palate

These definitely weren't the best brownies I have ever made, though the first batch came out a bit better (if not a bit under cooked...) than the second batch I still don't think I would make them again. At least not with the Oreo in them. When I made these I don't know if it was the brownie mix I used or the amount of hot fudge/ice cream that I guesstimated but my Oreos floated in the mix and I think that caused them to get a bit over cooked and rock hard on top. Not cool when the rest of the brownie was nice and ooey gooey.

I think next time I am going to go off of the Picky Palate recipe and just forego the Oreos and see how that turns out.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Pasta with Pesto Creme Sauce


This turned out to be an AWESOME dish! It was light and fresh and easy...perfect for a quick Saturday meal.

We picked up some fresh basil from the farmer's market and I went to town for dinner. Even with the few mistakes I made it was pretty tasty :)

I found the original recipe on Pioneer Woman's website Here

Now for the version I came up with I some how forgot to add the garlic (ahhh the horror!!!!) and somehow I came up with way too much sauce, but it was still awesome.

Cassie ate it, but grudgingly (I think because of the color...) we had to mix it with tomato sauce for her to eat. However, I will absolutely be making this again, except next time I may add some chicken to the mix as well, I think that would make this great dish absolutely fantastic :).


Thursday, June 16, 2011

Just a teaser :)

Just put these pretty little bites in the oven, Hot Fudge Oreo Sundae Brownies...recipe and review to come soon!
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Sunday, June 12, 2011

Things to try making...

I always seem to be looking for some new recipe or another...here's a list of the top things I am looking for *THE* perfect recipe for...

Red Sangria
Soft Pretzels
Granola Bars
(NON DEEP FRIED) Donuts
Orange Cheesecake
Frappuccino
Stromboli
Brownies

Menu Plan

The theme this week is quick and easy :)

Monday ~ Sandwiches
Wednesday ~ Apple Pie Chicken
Friday ~ Meatball subs
Sunday ~ Sloppy Joes

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Menu Plan

Let me just say, trying to find yummy sounding recipes that wont heat the entire house in 90 degree weather isn't very easy plus the littlest Miss and I are sick so I'm not feeling all that inventive sooo this weeks Menu is what it is... :)

Monday ~ Sandwiches
Tuesday ~ Beef and Gravy Noodles
Wednesday ~ Cheese Steaks
Thursday ~ Beef and Been Burritos (Since we didn't get to them a couple weeks ago)
Friday ~ Chicken Nuggets (Movie Night!)
Saturday ~ Birthday Party
Sunday ~ French Toast

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Menu Plan

Monday ~ Grilled Cheese
Tuesday ~ Turkey Tacos
Wednesday ~ Meatball Subs
Thursday ~ Beef and Bean Burritos

Memorial Weekend ~ We're Grillin!

Friday ~ Grilled BBQ Pizza
Saturday ~ Hamburgers
Sunday ~ Steaks
Monday ~ Italian Chicken

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Menu Plan

Didn't get to do much grocery shopping last week so we are going to try for this week, pretty much the same menu...

Monday~ Chicken Apple Pie
Friday ~ English Muffin Pizzas
Saturday ~ Sheppard's Pie

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Menu Plan

I really need to get on top of this...get into some sort of routine. Actually I need to work on getting some routine down in all aspects of my life...but until that happens random works for now.

Sunday ~ Chicken Apple Pie
Tuesday ~ Sheppard's Pie
Friday ~English Muffin Pizzas

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Mini Morning


*I know I have lots of posting to get up on my regular blog, but...I have these pics and this will be much quicker so it's better than nothing!! I will get back over to that blog soon enough :) *


Woke up Saturday morning with the urge to bake something...anything...since I hadn't been in the kitchen for a couple of weeks and this is what I came up with...

Mini cinnamon rolls and mini blue berry muffins... the mini cinnamon rolls because the biscuts were about to expire and the mini blue berry muffins just because :)



The mini muffins came out okay...they were a bit on the sour side for my liking, but Matt liked them and Cassie LOVED them so I guess they couldn't have been all that bad. I got the original recipe from Smitten Kitchen (another of my favorite food blogs)...which can be found Here.

Makes 9 to 10 standard muffins

5 tablespoons (2 1/2 ounces or 71 grams) unsalted butter , softened
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces or 100 grams) sugar
1 large egg
3/4 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 1/2 cups (6 3/4 ounces or 191 grams) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon (7 grams or 1/4 ounce) baking powder
1/4 teaspoon (1 gram) baking soda
1/4 teaspoon (2 grams) salt
3/4 cup (3 3/4 ounces or 105 grams) blueberries, fresh or frozen (if frozen, don’t bother defrosting)

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a muffin tin with 10 paper liners or spray each cup with a nonstick spray. Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat well, then yogurt and zest. Put flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a sifter and sift half of dry ingredients over batter. Mix until combined. Sift remaining dry ingredients into batter and mix just until the flour disappears. Gently fold in your blueberries. The dough will be quite thick (and even thicker, if you used a full-fat Greek-style yogurt), closer to a cookie dough, which is why an ice cream scoop is a great tool to fill your muffin cups. You’re looking for them to be about 3/4 full, nothing more, so you might only need 9 instead of 10 cups. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until tops are golden and a tester inserted into the center of muffins comes out clean (you know, except for blueberry goo). Let cool on rack (ha), or you know, serve with a generous pat of butter.

I used Sour Cream since I didn't have any plain yogurt and I used a couple of squirts of lemon juice since I didn't have any fresh lemons on hand to zest... I think on squirt of juice would have sufficed though (maybe why they came out a little sour for my taste). Other than that the recipe stayed as is.



The mini rolls came out great (then again I got the recipe from Picky Palate a blog from which I have yet to get a bad recipe...) they were perfect bite sized bits of cinnamony sweetness. Original recipe found here...

One can Pillsbury “Simply” refrigerated biscuits, 10 count

5 tablespoons softened butter

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

2 teaspoons McCormick Gourmet Roasted Saigon Cinnamon

1 cup powdered sugar

5 to 6 tablespoons heavy cream

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and line a large baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray.

2. Unroll biscuits onto a clean countertop and press out with fingers to about 3 inches wide. Spread each biscuit with 1/2 tablespoon of butter then top evenly with brown sugar and cinnamon. Starting at the bottom of each round, roll up jelly roll fashion with seam side down on countertop. Use a sharp knife and cut 1/2 inch slices and place onto prepared baking sheet. I cut 6 slices per biscuit making 60 small cinnamon rolls. Bake for 16 to 20 minutes, until light brown and cooked through. Remove from oven.

3. Place powdered sugar and heavy cream into a small bowl and whisk until smooth. Drizzle glaze over hot rolls. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving. Best served warm with a tall glass of milk!

Makes 60 itty bitty bites

I changed it up a bit in that I used jumbo butter milk biscuits and I just used about a teaspoon and a half of brown sugar on each biscuit rather than splitting up a quarter cup evenly. Oh and I used plain old cinnamon, but the McCormac Saigon Cinnamon sounds pretty great, will have to remember to put that on my list next time we go shopping. The only reason I used the jumbo biscuits was because that is what I had in my fridge at the time. I don't think I flattened them out enough though since they unrolled in the oven and all the sugary cinnamony goodness melted out...I salvaged them though and they came out pretty awesome!

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Menu Plan

Now that the Littlest Miss is here it's time to get back to the planning...going to try to make it so that we are doing our grocery shopping on Saturdays :) we will see how it works out though, may take a little rearranging...

Thursday ~ No clue - We have Nothing in the house and I doubt we will get out to do some shopping so we are going to have to play the next couple days by ear...
Friday ~ No clue
Saturday ~ Sour Cream Noodle Bake
Sunday ~ Hot Chicken Salad Sandwiches
Monday ~ Mac & Cheese
Tuesday ~ Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce
Wednesday ~ Tater tot Hot dish
Thursday ~ Chicken and Vegetable Gravy over puff toast
Friday ~ Pepperoni Pizza Quick Bread

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Recipe Review ~ Roasted Banana Cinnamon Rolls

I found these Roasted Banana Cinnamon Rolls the other night on Picky Palate and just knew I HAD to have them. I can't stand bananas unless they are cooked in something (bread, pancakes...whatever) I love the smell and the taste, just can't stomach the texture of raw bananas.

So to make me happy, Matt made these for breakfast for me this morning and they. were. AWESOME.

Here is the original recipe, he didn't alter it at all (though for fall I am pretty sure that apples would be just as awesome as bananas...), it's pretty straight forward. The one thing that he did do was have to lengthen the cooking time, but we are still figuring out this oven of ours so it may not be something everyone should do!

2 ripe bananas cut into 1/4 inch slices

2 Tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces

2 Tablespoons brown sugar

1 roll Pillsbury French Bread Loaf

4 Tablespoons softened butter

1/2 Cup brown sugar

1 1/2 Tablespoons ground cinnamon

1 Cup powdered sugar

3-4 Tablespoons heavy cream

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Place banana slices and cut up pieces of butter into a small baking dish. Sprinkle with brown sugar and bake for 25 minutes or until golden and bubbly. Remove and let cool for 10 minutes. Next, use a fork to smash roasted bananas until well combined.

2. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F. Unroll Pillsbury French Bread dough into rectangle. Spread with softened butter and sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon. Place dollops of roasted banana mixture evenly over top. Starting from long end, roll up into log shape. Using a sharp knife, cut 1 inch slices and place onto a silpat or parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until just turning golden brown. Remove and let cool for 10 minutes.

3. Whisk powdered sugar and heavy cream until combined; drizzle over top of warm rolls.

12 rolls

Friday, April 15, 2011

A Crockpot Easter

Wow is Easter really only a week away already? How did that happen?

Whether or not we have a newborn by then we are going to keep it a low key affair, while looking at different recipes today I came across this post and a light bulb went off so we will do the entire "dinner" in the Crockpots.

Not that we are doing all that much...just Ham, Carrots and Potatoes.

Cinnamon Glazed Carrots (we usually make regular glazed (candied) carrots, but the cinnamon sounds like a good change up hopefully it comes out good!)

Maybe just maybe I will do up some cookies or a cakes for dessert...we shall see

Bed Rest Break

So bed rest does NOT equal being able to cook an awesome meal for my family every night :( we have been kinda playing it by ear each night...eggs will be making an appearance in anything I cook for a while me thinks, either that or Matt will grill up something awesome for us every night lol (thanks goodness for awesome grilling weather!) I am pretty sure I could live on the burgers he makes for the rest of this pregnancy and be a very happy person...

So anyway just because I can't stay on my feet in front of the stove in the warm kitchen every night doesn't stop me from getting awesome recipes in my inbox or Facebook news feed so I figured I would start collecting them here so I can try them out in the near future!!

PB&J Monkey Bread (I actually think Cassie can help out with this one!!)
Veggie Lasagna - Can NOT wait till our veggie share starts up!

ETA:


Saturday, April 2, 2011

Menu Plan

Sunday ~ Turkey - yep you read that right...the darned thing isn't thawed out yet...
Wednesday ~ English Muffin pizza
Friday ~ Soup and Sandwiches
Saturday ~ Not sure we have Maternity Pics being taken so it will depend on how long that goes...

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Quick and easy recipe list...

When the Little Miss came along last year I am ashamed to say I was very much unprepared when it came to our food stocks...we survived the first few weeks of her life living on Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and the occasional take out meal. Not good, not good at all.

This time around I am determined to not do that. However, we don't have *any* room in our freezer to pre-make any meals sooooo I am making a list as I go along of the quick, easy, (mostly) non nutrient sapping recipes that we liked so I have them close at hand when the time comes!


then there are the usual...

Grilled Cheese/Tomato Soup
Chicken Apple Pie
Sheppard's Pie

And more to come...anyone have some suggestions?? Want to keep things interesting :)

There's a party in my Tummy...

Okay, so finally a recipe review...I have a few waiting in the wings, but I want to get some pictures (of course!) before I actually do anything with them so I figured I would start with tonights meal since its fresh in my head!

Tonight for dinner I made The Pioneer Woman's Pasta with Cream Sauce...

Original Recipe can be found Here

And here is what mine turned out like!


As you can see from the picture above I used these lovely mini bow ties for the pasta :)


They work so much better for the Little Miss and her Little Fingers :) the only other thing I changed was that I added some chicken to the mix to give it a little more sustenance.

And the verdict??

Well the Little Miss thinks it's finger licking good :)



And so did the grown ups, except we didn't use our fingers to eat lol. This recipe was super super simple and makes a TON I used 1 1/2 boxes of the bowties figuring I would have some left over to make mac & cheese for lunch tomorrow, but nope there was enough sauce for all of it.

Will definitely make this recipe again!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Menu Planning

Sorry Sorry Sorry I was a major slacker with this this week...here is the plan for the rest of the week, hope to get back on track next week!!

Wednesday ~ Grilled Cheese/Tomato Soup (game night @ work is a possibility for Daddy so it may just be me and Grandma and the Little Miss...)
Thursday ~ Pioneer Woman's Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce
Friday ~ Fish Fry and/or burgers @ Persico's (love to support this little local place, especially since its right at the end of our road!)
Saturday ~ Turkey (never got to it a couple of weeks ago so here is another try!

Friday, March 18, 2011

Menu Planning

Well it looks like Saturday's are going to be our new shopping day so...can't really do Menu Planning Monday anymore as it wouldn't really work out :)

Saturday ~ Sour Cream Noodle Bake (Grandma Peggy is coming over so hope this turns out good!)
Sunday ~ Turkey (yes a whole one...Matt wants to try out the perfect Turkey option on the new stove :) )
Tuesday ~ Stuffed Shells
Wednesday ~ Left overs
Thursday ~ Breakfast for Dinner (Kindermusik and a Dr. Apt...not going to be getting to fancy for dinner...)
Friday ~ Soup and Grilled Cheese


Monday, March 14, 2011

A little secret

I am going to let you in on a little secret...I used to be scared to cook...

I still am sometimes, I definitely have a major aversion to touching raw meat, I am *slowly* getting over that but it's still something to work around. I do not however have an aversion to eating it though once I have cooked the heck out of it, though usually cooking the heck out of a piece of meat doesn't yield the best results taste wise.

So here I am separating this blog off of my normal family one bringing you all my successes (and failures) as I try to bring some variety to my family's table and *try* to be healthy and balanced while doing it.

I'll share the recipes I have found and what we thought of them (and where I found them!), hopefully I will learn how to use all my brand new and/or brand new to me even though it's been in my cabinet for years with out use, Kitchen gadgets, and hopefully I will inspire the little Miss to help me out in there one of these days once she is a bit older!