Weekly Menu 1

All the mommy blogs that I read tend to publish recipes, menus and shopping lists for a week. I get so many good ideas from these people that I decided to try and do it myself. My menus will include recipes from various cookbooks, blogs, family, and some of my own. It will also include lunch ideas and snacks for the week. If I get the recipe from someone's blog then I will link to it! Anyways, your feedback is more than welcome. I will try and makes things as easy as possible and I hope you enjoy this weeks menu!

1) Loaded Baked potatoes with homemade cheese sauce!
2) Chicken Satay with Balinese Peanut Sauce
3) Lasagna with Garlic bread
4) Tex Mes Chicken and Rice
5) Chicken Garden Pizza

Lunches this week include:
Peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches
Fish sticks and mac and cheese
Chef salads
Deli sandwhiches
Left Overs

Snacks and sides for lunches include:
Fresh fruit (strawberries, bananas, apple slices etc..)
String cheese
Pickles (we all love pickles =))
Sun chips
Cheese and crackers
Popcorn
Mixed nuts

That about does it I think. Enjoy and Happy cooking. Please feel free to ask questions if you have them!

Menu for Jason's Birthday Party!

Jason is turning 27 this year and I am throwing him a party laid back style since I know he is not that big into parties. Here is a sneak peak of some of the things on the menu!!!

Meat:
Beer Brats
Cheeseburgers
Hot Dogs

Desserts:
Mini Root Beer Float cupcakes
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Torte
Strawberry Angel Food Cake Truffle
Sticky Cinnamon Rolls
S'mores

Sides:
Homemade potato skins and Sweet Potato chips
Deviled eggs
Strawberry spinach salad

Drinks:
MGD keg
Sweet tea
Lemonade
Pop
Water

Then I have some people who are attending bringing side dishes! I am so excited, the food is going to be sooo good!!!

Recipes, menus, and more

I read a lot of mommy blogs! Something that I love about all of them is that they always share their weekly menus, favorite recipes, little tricks to make cooking easier and faster, and shopping lists. I love that they do this because it helps me plan my weekly menus, meals and snacks. When I do this I find that I spend less money and I buy healthier things for meals and snacks. The last couple of weeks I have gotten lazy about planning a menu. Which, fine we were traveling and camping and what not, but now I don't have an excuse not to do it. So tonight I will be working on my menu for the week and I want to start sharing my menus with you! Whether you use one recipe, or the whole menu I hope that it will help you in some way to stay on budget, to eat healthier foods and snacks and in the long run save time and money! I will try and make it as simple and easy as possible for you! I will also be doing some rearranging on my blog, maybe adding some tabs and folders so check back for the changes and menu tonight!

Steak Gorgonzola!

YUM! Can I say again YUM!!!! I have been getting almost if not all of my meal ideas from this blog that I am absolutely in love with. Well Monday night Italian food sounded really good and I remembered that one of the meals on my list was Penne Gorgonzola! Score! Well the recipe called for chicken but I was craving steak so Jason fired up the grill and made to delicious fillets! While he was doing that I worked on the pasta. Here is the recipe ! It was sooooo easy to make and it was soooo good! I almost always get the steak Gorgonzola when we go to the olive garden, and I think this recipe even tops that! I would however recommend measuring out the Gorgonzola cheese, it calls for 5oz and my package was 8 ounces and I just eye balled it and though it was still really yummy, I could tell there was a little to much of it in there. I think next time I make it I am going to add red peppers and maybe some broccoli.

If you have some time look around on the eat at home cooks blog! You will find some great recipes. Jason and I would highly recommend the Peanut Butter and Jelly muffins! They are so good! Enjoy!!!

I am in need of a recipe...

So yesterday was one of those cool, fall days and Chicken and Dumplings sounded really good. The problem? I have never made Chicken and Dumplings. So I found a Paula Dean recipe online and thought that it would be a good one. The only changes that I made was I added peas and carrots and did not put celery in. I made the dumplings just like the recipe said and the only difference there was that I used wheat flour instead of white flour. Ok now the soup turned out great! It had really good flavor and was hearty. The dumplings however did not turn out. They ended up being little wheat disks that were not good at all. Could using wheat flour make it turn out bad? So now I am looking for a good chicken and dumplings recipe! Do you have one you can recommend? I would love to try it!

Recipe of the week:

Chinese Chicken Salad:

Grill time: 8-12 minutes
Total prep time: 30 minutes

Salad Ingredients:
2 boneless chicken breasts
1 tbsp peanut oil
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 cup coarsely shredded carrots
1 cup roughly chopped cashews
1 cup bean sprouts
1/3 cup thinly sliced scallions
1/4 cup copped fresh chives

Dressing ingredients:
2 tbsp peanut oil
1 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tsp honey
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp black bean sauce with garlic
1 tsp minced garlic-about 2 cloves
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/8 tsp mustard powder
1/8 tsp freshly ground pepper

Directions:
1. lightly coat the chicken with oil. Season evenly with chili powder, salt and pepper. Grill Chicken over medium heat. Remove from grill and let cool until you can handle it with your fingers.

2. Using your fingers, pull the meat apart into shreds roughly 1-2 inches long. Place in large bowl. Add the remaining salad ingredients. Mix well

3. In a small bowl, whisk the dressing ingredients until emulsified. Add enough dressing to the salad to lightly coat the ingredients. Mix well and serve immediately. Serve at room temperature.

Makes four servings.

This is a really yummy cold salad! We love it, plus it's healthy! I hope you like it as much as we do. Try it and let me know what you think!

By the way, I was able to find all the ingredients at my grocery store down the asian/mexican isle.

Pizza

Over the past few months Jason and I have really been trying to eat healthier foods. Sometimes it is really hard and other times it gets really expensive, but we try it anyways. I like the way it makes me feel, I have more energy and I must say that it is helping with the whole weight loss thing. Anyways, here is a recipe for pizza that I got from my friend Tami and we have come to really love it and I thought I would share it with ya'll:
For the crust I either buy one pillsbury refrigerated crust or an organic thin crust. I use whichever I have on hand.

Ingredients:

3 garlic cloves minced
4-5 tbls olive oil
Italian seasoning
1-2 Chicken Breasts
1/4 of a red pepper
1/4 of a yellow pepper
1/4 of an orange pepper
1 small zucchini
1 small squash
1 tomato (optional)
2 cups mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Take crust out of package and place on cookie sheet/stone/pizza sheet, whatever you have and or like to use. In skillet, cook chicken in a little olive oil and Italian seasoning. Once cooked place on cutting board, and using a food chopper, chop up the chicken. In a small prep bowl combine minced garlic and olive oil. Slice all veggies (I slice mine really thin using a medallion). Now with a basting brush, brush on your olive oil and garlic mixture onto crust. Add cheese, chicken and veggies. Top off with a little Italian seasoning. Bake for about 10-15 minutes. Bake time will vary, it depends on how many toppings you put on.

This pizza is very yummy, we never have any leftovers. It also has lower calories and less fat than your typical pizza. Enjoy and let me know what you think!!!