Menu Ideas

A friend of mine on Facebook requested I put up a sample menu for ideas. Instead I will list some of the things we eat most often.

• Spaghetti w/cheesy garlic bread -- I think Josh is getting tired of it finally, but its my favorite. I usually make this once a week, but I'm trying to cut down for his sake.
• Lasagna -- Fancy spaghetti. It use to take a couple hours to make this, but I've got it down to about 30 minutes pre-cooking/prep time and then 30 minutes in the oven so it's easy.
• Roast w/mashed potatoes -- I make this 2 to 3 times a month. I usually make it on Tuesdays because I teach evening classes so I get home late. I put it in the crock pot in the morning, and call Josh around 2pm to double check it.
• Crunchy onion chicken w/green beans, mashed potatoes and sometimes gravy -- This is so easy its pathetic. Take the French's dried onions, the big can, put it in a ziplock back and crunch it up. Then dip your chicken breast in egg, cover it with the onion crunchies, and then back in the oven at 350* about 25 minutes on each side. The great thing about this is that you can cut it open to double check that it is ready, and then shmush the chicken back together with the crunchies and no one will ever know! Also so you know, I hate canned green beans so I usually cook them in a skillet with butter and garlic powder. And gravy should never come out of a packet.
• Caramelized Salmon with red potato fries -- Dump some brown sugar in skillet with butter and let it start to melt. If your salmon has skin then put that side up so that the top cooks first. Then when you flip it be sure to keep putting the brown sugar over it as it cooks. (Salmon should be flaky, in my opinion. It should be a light pink, not white because that's over cooked, and not dark pink because that's undercooked. It doesn't take long so you have to watch it. For the red potatoes I cook them like Josh's mom. 10 minutes in the microwave, and then in the oven with spices until they are golden brown.
• BBQ Meatballs and Rice -- The recipe is in the Betty Crocker cookbook except I don't put onions or anything like that in ours, and instead of bread crumbs I like the consistency I get by putting the croutons in the food processor. Pour a little bit of bbq in with the mix, not in the recipe, and then after they are cooked you can put the meatballs close together, pour more bbq sauce all over, and let it cook for another 10-minutes.
• Thanksgiving -- I've only done this once since we moved. I get a bone-in turkey breast and cook it in the crock pot then make all sorts of Thanksgiving foods to go with.
• Pizza -- We like Hamburger pineapple and chicken pineapple. I get the pre-made crust and go from there.
• Tacos -- Super easy.
• Pineapple Chicken -- The recipe is on this blog already.
• Fried Chicken w/mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans -- We don't have this very often because I hate cleaning it up, and it isn't good for us.

I can't think of anything else right now. I know there has to be other stuff, but this is what I'm remember for now. Anything that calls for hamburger I usually use turkey burger, but do use beef occasionally. It is the same price, taste the same, and is healthier. (The only thing I've really noticed a difference with taste in is the lasagna and spaghetti, but its not bad, just different.) Also to save money I've bought vegetables the last few weeks at the farmer's market, and started putting it away in the freezer. They are cheaper than the grocery store, local, and they taste better! Visit Pick Your Own to find farms in your area.

*I'm not sure what is going on with the editing of this post. I'm sorry if the bullet points get hard to read, but it isn't letting me fix it. pooey!*

Project #2 -In Progress

I moved all the pots and pans out of the cabinet and put my make-shift recycling bins in their place. The plan is to have actual bins to sort everything into, but these paper bags are what I have for now so they will do.  The more I look at it the more I think that I need to find a better spot. For starters I'm going to end up with my pots, pans, cutting board, colander, and bake-ware scattered around in random places all over the kitchen now, and that isn't good. Second, there really isn't an easy way to set it up in this cabinet and still make all the bins easily identifiable. 

I think I might be able to set up bins in the top shelf of the laundry room instead. This would allow all the bins to be easily seen once the labels are adhered, they would still be out of site, and I would continue to have a place for all my cookware!  The only downside is that I'll need a step stool in order to reach the bins every time i want to sort something. Decisions. Decisions.

On the bright side, I did finish the labels. All I have to do is have them laminated so they will last.  Plus, they match the pantry labels because of the bird! So everything is nice and matchy-matchy, just how I like it!

As for the other project, the pantry jars: I hit a snag with covering the lids so I'm in search for the perfect ribbon to fix it. I am also trying to get the goo from the original labels off the jar. I will let them soak more tomorrow and then use lots of elbow grease to clean them up nicely.

P.S. I never did get around to writing/posting a "Flashback Friday" so maybe I'll get to it next week, who knows.

Pineapple Chicken

This is my first home developed recipe, and I love it. If you find any ways to improve please share!

Ingredients:

• 2 boneless chicken breasts
• 1 (8oz) can pineapple chunks in juice
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon seaseme seeds
• 2 packages of steamfresh rice (or about 3-4 cups cooked rice)
• 1 shot brandy (optional)

Directions:

1. (If you are cooking your own rice make sure to start it before you start cutting your chicken so it is done in time.) Use kitchen shears to cut the chicken breast into 1/2" pieces and cook chicken in a lightly greased skillet. (It is best to cook it in a deep skillet so everything fits.) Once the chicken is fully cooked you may have to drain the excess oil/juices, and you can brown it further if you wish, be sure not to long because you want it to stay nice and moist.
2. While your chicken is cooking make your sauce by mixing the honey, soy sauce, seseame seeds, juice from the pineapples, and the brandy. I usually mix it up in my measuring cup so that it is easier to pour around the chicken.
3. After the chicken is cooked pour the sauce in the chicken along with the pineapple chunks, stir, and let it simmer for 5-8 minutes. (It should sort of smell like it is on the verge of scorching. If that doesn't make sense then bring it to a full boil first then turn down to a low medium heat to simmer.) During this time cook the Steamfresh rice packs. I usually use one pack of plain rice and one package of the rice with vegetables.
4. Once everything is cooked mix it together in the skillet, and let simmer for 10-15 minutes. Stir occasionally and serve.  (The longer you let it simmer the more it will be like fried rice.  I usually cook for the full 15 minutes up to 20 minutes so that it is still moist without being runny, but this is a personal preference. Just watch it and decided for yourself when to serve because everything has already been safely cooked.)

Cooked for about 3 minutes after rice was added, so it is still runny.

Wash, rinse, and never repeat.

Apparently I don't know how to put JetDry in the dishwasher. The lid wouldn't close and the stuff was leaking everywhere. This is going to be the best rinsed load of dishes the world has ever seen.

The soup low-down

(Mind you, my iPhone doesn't always take the best pictures, especially at night.)

Tonight Josh's parents came over for dinner. It seems to be a running trend that whenever we eat with them I experiment with cooking. So far they have eaten a dry loaf of zucchini bread, a runny lasagna, a crunchy blackberry pie, a weird key lime pie, and probably a few other things I can't recall right now.  Each time they are super gracious about it, and his mom helps fix things (like the flour in the pie filling fiasco) or she lets me know what to do the next time, if needed.

Anyway, tonight I made matza ball soup for the first time.  I hadn't originally expected the matza balls to be perfect, in fact I sort of expected them to fail. So my back-up plan in case the balls went crazy was to cook chicken in the soup broth so that at the very least we could have chicken soup. However, I got lucky and everything turned out just fine so we happened to have the regular matza ball soup with extras in it. 

There is almost enough for another meal, but because it is running kind of low on chicken I'm going to add vegetables to it. We still have bread left over from tonight so its a bonus - I don't need to really cook tomorrow. Which is good because I really need to work on an apron for my grandma. (I'm having a really hard time getting started on it because she picked out what I consider to be a hideous fabric, but I'm starting to feel guilty about not getting it done. -- Nothing like good old fashion guilt as the perfect motivation for completing a project. *note sarcastic tone*)

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Matza ball soup mix: $2.something so we'll say $3

Chicken: $4

Rhoades Rolls: Free

Salad: $3(after adding in extras)

(I'm not going to count dressings or butter)

Rough estimate that this dinner cost about $10

It serves at least 6 = $1.66 a serving

However tomorrow I will add about $1 worth of frozen vegetables so it will go even further and cost less.

This is definitely an inexpensive and healthy meal.

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