Menu Plan March 1-7, 2010

MON 1: Pork Chops in Lemon & Garlic Marinade, spaetzel, mixed vegetables

TUES 2: Cheesesteaks, French fries

WED 3: Baked-potato bar, salad

THURS 4: Spaghetti

FRI 5: Baked Swai, Tami's Greek Potatoes, mixed vegetables

SAT 6: Cub Scout Blue & Gold Dinner!

SUN 7: Baked Chicken with Parmesan & Herbs, Orzo with garlic & onions, vegetables

TO TRY LATER: Amanda's Farfalle Vesiviana

UB's Dijon-Onion Chicken or Fish

My uncle (we call him UB) is a really good cook, but often he makes things that have exotic ingredients. So when he sends me a truly simple recipe, I like to give it a try.

Here's what I got in an email the other day:

a pretty good recipe for chicken or fish

crush some durkees onions in a bag until like crumbs
melt some butter and add dijon mustard-mix

dip chicken/fish into butter and then dip into onion crumbs

bake at 375-- it really tastes good (especially fish---scrod=tilapia)

See? It's so simple it doesn't come with measurements! As you can see, UB is not too fond of using the SHIFT key, so there are no caps or punctuation. This drives the English major in me up a wall. The recipe doesn't have a name, either, so I had to take care of that.

(Oh, and just for the record, he was "UB" long before Uncle Buck.)

UB's Dijon-Onion Chicken

5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, flattened
1 1/4 cups Durkee's Fried Onions, crushed
3 TBL melted butter
5 heaping TBL Dijon mustard

Cover a baking sheet with foil and brush some olive oil onto the foil to prevent sticking. Combine butter and mustard. Dip chicken into butter mix and then into crushed onions. Place on prepared baking sheet.
Bake 25 to 30 minutes at 375.

What's in the Cookie Jar?

I found the link to this recipe at Simplemama's blog, and they're quite good:

Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, and Pecan Cookies

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (about 5 1/2 ounces)
1 cup regular oats (I used quick oats)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°.

Combine flour, oatmeal, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.

Beat sugars and butter with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add vanilla and egg; beat until blended. Gradually add flour mixture, beating at low speed just until combined. Stir in pecans and chips. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes or until edges of cookies are lightly browned. Cool on pans 2 minutes, then remove to wire racks.

I was a little freaked out at the consistency of the dough; it was almost like a granola bar dough, very crumbly. I thought that maybe there wasn't enough butter in here. But since the recipe only makes 3 dozen cookies, I figured it was only a small batch to experiment with. And once I baked them, they tasted VERY good. Instead of parchment, I used silicone liners on my baking sheets.

Furnishing the Kitchen

The last new furniture that got purchased around here were the computer desks and the kids beds.  Our dining-room set and kitchen set are both hand-me-downs.

Not that I'm complaining--there are family memories attached to these pieces, and sometimes memories take precedence over things like decor.

But there are times that I look around my cramped kitchen and wonder if there's any way to make it a little less crowded and a little more comfortable to work in.  We're talking about a 10 X 11 space here, so there's not a lot of room to play around.   When I'm making school lunches in the morning, there's really not room for any of the kids to get their breakfast at the same time.

Suggestions are welcome--but I'm keeping my hand-me-down table, because Granma baked there first.

Menu Plan February 22-28, 2010

MONDAY: Enchiladas using leftover roast pork, rice, corn

TUESDAY: Homemade hamburger helper

WEDNESDAY: Chicken Crescent Casserole

THURSDAY: It's Chick-Fil-A night for the kids' school, and TheDad's away on business. Time to "eat mor chikin!"

FRIDAY: Cheese ravioli with marinara sauce and "Olive Garden Breadsticks"

SATURDAY: we won't be home

SUNDAY: UB's Onion-Dijon Chicken, sides TBA

Chicken Piccata Bites

This was my daughter's idea. We like it better than regular chicken piccata, as you get more sauce on the chicken!

CHICKEN PICCATA BITES

Get the recipe with nutrition information at Cook and Count!

Menu Plan February 15-21, 2010

We wound up having our Valentine's Day date last night (at my favorite restaurant, with the fabulous Romanian Chicken Paprikash and homemade spaetzel, and decadent lemon pound cake for dessert).

SUNDAY: Hungry Girl's Exploding Taquitos (I'm using beef taco meat instead of chicken)--this was a new recipe, and we weren't crazy about the results. The taquitos never rolled properly. We'd rather just have regular tacos--much less work!

MONDAY: Beef paysanne with noodles, broccoli

TUESDAY: Chicken Piccata bites, rice, mixed vegetables

WEDNESDAY: Soup and grilled-cheese sandwiches

THURSDAY: Spaghetti

FRIDAY: pizza

SATURDAY: Melt-in-your-mouth braised & barbecued chicken, rice, green beans almondine

SUNDAY: Chili over baked potatoes

Sauteed Brussels Sprouts

Barb at Bless Us O Lord recently posted her new favorite Brussels Sprouts recipe. It looks delicious, and I'll definitely try it. It's a little more complicated, though, than the recipe I've been using lately. Just something I came up with on my own. I like it a lot -- but I like my Brussels sprouts plain and simple. See the recipe, photo, and nutrition information at Cook and Count.

Menu Plan February 8-14, 2009

MON 8: I attempted to re-create Olive Garden's Chicken and Gnocchi soup, with not-so-fabulous results. The breadsticks, however, were a big hit. I think the oven temperature (400) was a little high, as the breadsticks were very dark on the bottom and a little crispier on the outside than I'd have liked. No one else seemed to mind, and they all want me to make these again.

TUES 9: Burgers and macaroni and cheese

WED 10: Calzones with sausage, peppers and onions and mozzarella cheese

THURS 11: Spaghetti

FRI 12: Baked flounder, rice and vegetables

SAT 13: Chili-and-cheese-topped baked potatoes

SUN 14: Valentine's Day! Looks like TheDad and I will be going out to eat. Takeout for the kids.

Slow-simmered Chicken Stock

I'm spending the snow day today (we've got about 2 feet of snow out there and it's still coming down) making chicken stock.

The last two times I roasted chicken, I knew I wasn't going to have time to make stock from the carcass, so I popped the carcass into a ziplock bag and froze it.

This morning I dug out my deep stockpot (the one with the handy-dandy pasta-draining insert) and loaded up that colander with the two chicken carcasses, one cut-up onion, half a pound of baby carrots that were a little past their prime, some celery tops (including the leaves), a handful of dried parsley, some kosher salt, black pepper, 2 tablespoons of minced garlic, some rosemary and thyme.

It smells great in here.  The stock has been cooking for 4 hours now.

I'll let it cool a bit, then remove the colander with all the solid stuff, then chill the broth so I can remove the fat from the top.  Now I'll have the soup base all made for Monday evening's dinner.

Caramelized Baked Chicken

A yummy way to cook skin-on chicken!

3 pounds chicken wings
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 cup honey
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
Place chicken in a 9x13 inch baking dish. Mix together the oil, soy sauce, ketchup, honey, garlic, salt and pepper. Pour over the chicken.
Bake in preheated oven for one hour, or until sauce is caramelized.

Source: happymomof4 at Family Corner

Cheesy Unmashed Potatoes

Like cheese fries, but you have to eat these with a fork. YUM.

6 potatoes (russet, Yukon Gold, red-skin), NOT PEELED
1/4 pound bacon, cooked (my kids said it needed more bacon)
1 TBL butter
1 small-to-medium onion, diced
2 TBL minced garlic
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar or Cheddar-Jack cheese

Cut the potatoes in eight pieces each and boil for 45 minutes to an hour until they are fully cooked. Meanwhile, cook the bacon. Remove to drain the bacon and cook the onion in the bacon grease. Add garlic when onion is almost cooked. Drain cooked potatoes and return to cooking pot. Add butter, onions and garlic, crumbled bacon and cheese. Stir to coat, set the lid on the pan and let it sit 5 minutes before serving.

SOURCE: The original recipe was shared by a friend of a friend on Facebook, but these are my modifications.

Menu Plan February 1-7. 2010

MON. 1: D's Chicken and Stuffing Casserole, Rice, Irish Brown Bread

TUES. 2: Continental Beef and Noodles, vegetables

WED. 3: Honey Mustard Chicken, Cheesy Unmashed Potatoes, vegetables

THURS 4: Spaghetti and meatballs

FRI 5:  dinner out at Chili's

SAT 6: Tandoori Chicken, Potatoes AuGratin (thank you Betty Crocker) and vegetables

SUN 7: Super Bowl Sunday: hoagies (from our church's hoagie sale), Barb's Pinto and Cheese Nachos

D's Chicken & Stuffing Casserole

A friend from church brought over a delicious chicken and stuffing casserole right after my surgery. Everybody liked it, and I asked her to share the recipe.

1 lb. chicken tenders
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup water
1 box Stove Top stuffing mix
2 to 3 tbl butter
2 cups mixed vegetables
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Mix soup and water with a whisk in the bottom of a 9X13 casserole dish. Top with the stuffing mix and vegetables. Stir a bit with a fork to moisten. Dot with butter. Place chicken pieces on top of everything. Cover with foil. Bake at 325 for 55 minutes. Remove foil and sprinkle cheese on top. Bake uncovered just until the cheese melts.

Back in the Saddle--er, Kitchen

I can't believe that I went for 2 1/2 weeks without cooking anything, but that is exactly what has happened. Following my surgery on January 8, we either had my mom's cooking, takeout, or people generously showing up here with meals.

So, let's see, what did we eat around that time:

SAT 9: Chinese

SUN 10: Rotisserie Chicken, Rice-a-Roni, peas & corn, homemade cranberry-orange relish (from a friend)

MON 11: Chicken & stuffing casserole (from a friend)

TUES 12: Honey-baked ham, baked potatoes

WED 13: Pulled pork (from a friend)

THURS 14: Spaghetti

FRI 15: I have no clue what they all had. I was really sick that day.

SAT 16: TheDad took us to the diner. That was uncomfortable. Yikes.

SUN 17: Chicken & broccoli casserole (from a friend)

MON 18: French toast, sausage

TUES 19: Cheesy garlic chicken

WED 20: can't remember!

THURS 21: Lasagna (from a friend)

FRI 22: leftovers

SAT 23: Stacked enchilada (first time I cooked!)

SUN 24: out to eat

MON 25: Pork roast with rosemary-roasted potatoes, vegetables, corn muffins

TUES 26: Homemade hamburger helper

WED 27: Caramelized Baked Chicken Tenders, rice, broccoli

THURS 28: Spaghetti

FRI 29: Italian sausage sandwiches

SAT 30: Pizza

SUN 31: Chili at a friend's

It's good to cook again even if I can only do a little at a time. I can't stand at the stove too long, so I do the prep "over time" and select things that I don't have to tend all the time.

But the kitchen is a no-mom's-land right now. The Amateur Homemakers who are doing dishes, unloading the dishwasher, and putting stuff away do NOT know where I normally keep things! I hunted for a good long time (a few minutes here, a few there) until I found the meat thermometer today.

Coupon Brag

Today was a banner day in my Coupon World.

First I stopped at Walgreens to pick up photos for our Christmas cards (yeah, I'm THAT behind.) I had ordered them online using a sweet 25%-off deal.

The photos weren't ready yet, but there were a few other things I needed at the store. So I picked up the Dr. Pepper (on sale, pretty good price) and found some candy bars that I had BOGO coupons for. I told the photo clerk that I'd be back for the pictures after I ran some other errands. When I paid for my other stuff, I got a "save $2 on your next purchase" coupon at the register.

Next stop, Shop Rite, where they had some great sales this week. Plus they'd sent me a "save $10 on a $100 purchase" coupon that was only good through Saturday. Post cereals were on sale 2/$3 AND I had a few coupons for "save $4 on 4." I bought 8 boxes of cereal and paid $4--then got back $4 in catalina coupons. 8 boxes of good cereal--FREE! (For the record, that was 4 Honey Bunches of Oats, 3 Grape Nuts Flakes and 1 Shredded Wheat.) All in all, I had 10 bags of groceries including 12 boxes of cereal, 1 roasting chicken, 12 chicken legs, 3 pounds of chicken breasts, juice, milk, bread, cheese, ice cream, peanut butter and more. After store sales and coupons I paid $65 for all that. My coupon and sale savings totaled $70!

Cha-Ching! I'm stocking the freezer and the pantry--and it was ALL ON SALE.

Then I went back to Walgreens, got my pictures, and used that $2 off coupon on top of the 25% off I'd already saved!

Sesame Chicken Bites

Sesame Chicken Bites (prep /total time 30 min)

1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup sesame seeds
2tsp minced fresh parsley
1/2 cup mayo
1tsp onion powder
1tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp pepper
1 lb boneless chicken breast, cut into 1 inch cubes
HONEY MUSTARD SAUCE
3/4 cup mayo
4 1/2 tsp Honey (or honey flavored syrup)
1 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
In large resealable plastic bag combine,crumbs ,sesame seed and parsley, set aside.
In small bowl combine, mayo,onion powder,pepper,and mustard.
Coat chicken in mayonaisse mixture,then add to crumb mix a few pieces at a time, and shake the pieces in the bag.
In large skillet, saute the chicken in oil, in batches, until the juices run clear.
In small bowl combine the sauce ingredients for dipping.
8 to 10 servings

Source: sandieluvsbears at Family Corner

Menu Plan December 2009

TUES 1: Pork roast with rosemary roasted potatoes

WED 2: Scarborough Fair Chicken Soup, Outback Steakhouse bread

THURS 3: Spaghetti and meatballs

FRI 4: takeout

SAT 5: Hawaiian Chicken

SUN 6: Big Brother's Eagle Scout Ceremony and Philly-Food Extravaganza, featuring cheesesteaks, hoagies, Philly pretzels and Boost (actually a Riverside, NJ beverage, and you don't get any more local than that)

MON 7: Cheesesteaks (leftovers)

TUES 8: Balsamic Chicken with Thyme

WED 9: Cheesesteaks (leftovers)

THURS 10: Spaghetti & meatballs

FRI 11: Pizza

SAT 12: Cheesy Garlic Chicken

SUN 13: Diner

MON 14: Pork Chops in Lemon-Garlic Marinade

TUES 15: Sesame Chicken Bites

WED 16: Beef enchiladas

THURS 17: Spaghetti

FRI 18: Waffles

SAT 19: Roast chicken, baked potatoes, Stove Top stuffing, green beans, cranberry sauce

SUN 20: Baked 20 dozen Christmas cookies! For dinner, Italian Veal Stew over linguine.



TO TRY: Sesame Chicken Bites

Monster Cookies

In Big Brother's Scout troop, a summer-camp tradition is a big tin of Monster Cookies, baked by the Assistant Scoutmaster's wife.

Since we're preparing for Big Brother's Eagle Scout Court of Honor on Sunday, I thought I'd make a batch of these cookies to bring along as part of the dessert. First I checked with the usual baker of the cookies, just to make sure she wouldn't be upset if someone else made her signature dish. I think she thought I was silly for asking, but I've seen that kind of thing backfire before, so I just wanted to be sure.

This batch makes 100 or so cookies if you use the same size scoop I have. It does NOT fit in a stand mixer--you need a Really Big Bowl for these. And a really big cookie jar.

I am not responsible for any wooden spoons broken during the process of stirring these cookies. You have been warned. Use a really sturdy spoon to stir the batter!

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup (2 sticks) margarine, softened
2 cups sugar
2 cups brown sugar
3 cups peanut butter
6 eggs
1 1/2 tsp corn syrup
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
4 tsp baking soda
9 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 bag (12 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups M&Ms (I think I used 3 cups--didn't measure these!)

I used a stand mixer to help the beginning of this process along. Cover baking sheets with silicone liners or parchment paper.

Cream margarine, sugars, peanut butter together. Beat in eggs, then add corn syrup and vanilla.

At this point, transfer the batter to your super-huge bowl (Mrs. Assistant Scoutmaster recommends "sink-size").

Add baking soda and oats and mix.

Mix in chocolate chips and M&Ms.

Using an ice cream scoop (I used the Pampered Chef model), scoop balls of dough onto your baking sheet. Leave plenty of room between cookies. I only put 8 balls of dough on each full-size baking sheet.

You can flatten the cookies slightly if you want. You probably should. I didn't, but I think it would have been a good idea.

Bake at 350 for about 12 minutes. I switched the pans from bottom rack to top midway through baking.

Cool completely before serving/storing.

Maple-Hoisin Salmon

This recipe is a super-easy and delicious way to make salmon. The whole thing including preheating the oven takes 25 minutes!

I tripled the recipe and changed the directions a little bit from the original.

3 tablespoon maple syrup
3 tablespoon hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
6 6-oz salmon fillets

Preheat oven to 400. Brush Pyrex pan with olive oil.

Combine first 4 ingredients in a small bowl.

Place salmon skin-side down in prepared pan. Brush with sauce.

Bake 15 minutes.

Serves 6.

Source