Menu Plan Monday (on Sunday!)

After a couple of crazy weeks with kids playing ball, school projects, working a little more and starting to pack to move I am back at it. Our budget is getting tighter so the luxury of eating out that we have taken advantage of the past few weeks is going away. I planned this weeks meals and actually ended up with a grocery bill of only $81.25........my goal was to come in under $100 so I was pretty excited. Here's how we're looking for the week ahead.

Sunday: 20 Clove Garlic Chicken w/ Roasted Potatoes and Carrots (got this one from Em!)

Monday: Hotdogs and baked beans ( at home instead of the ball park)

Tuesday: Ana has her choir spring performance and party afterwards so we will be eating Pizza there.

Wednesday: Hamburger Steak patties and baked beans

Thursday: Chicken Lo-Mein ( with Ramen noodles!!)

Friday: Sweet and Sour chicken with sticky rice

Saturday : TBD


Happy Mother's Day to all my favorite moms! Love you all!!

Menu Plan Sunday (instead of Monday!)

Uhhhh....I think I missed a week! Sorry! We started softball/baseball games last week and it's all a blur. 4 games between the 2 of them and picture day for one. So......that being said, you'll be seeing some ballfield nights on our dinner menu for the next couple of months!

Sunday - Tacos, refried beans

Monday - ballfield ( Hotdogs!!)

Tuesday - Chicken with yellow rice and peas

Wednesday - Spaghetti

Thursday - leftovers/ffy

Friday - ballfield

Saturday - yet to be determined, probably date night!

I've been inspired by Kristan to try my hand at baking a little. I love it, I'm just soooo messy! My sweet husband comes in the kitchen and looks around and says....YIKES! Last sunday I stayed in the kitchen ALL day. I made a really cool beer bread from www.cookingbread.com (thanks Kristan!!) It has sausage and cheese in it........we ate one loaf and I froze one to take to my sister-in-laws for Easter. I also made Sunday gravy (spaghetti sauce with homemade meatballs) from my Sopranos cookbook. I finished the day with the triple chocolate scones from cookingbread.com....they were really good too. They got 2 thumbs up from Ana which is quite the compliment.

Tonite I made homemade chocolate cupcakes and icing. Got one thumb on those but I think it's because they were still warm and the icing was melty. I think they are going to rock tomorrow!!
Here's the recipe:
Ingredients:2 cups bleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup natural cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup mayonnaise (not low-fat)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups boiling water

1. Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350°F (175°C). Line two standard 12-cup muffin tins with paper cupcake liners.
2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. In another bowl, combine the sugar and eggs and beat with an electric mixer set at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the mayonnaise and vanilla just until combined. Reduce the speed to medium and beat in half of the flour mixture just until combined.
4. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add half of the boiling water and beat at very low speed, just until the batter is smooth, 5 to 10 seconds. Add the remaining flour mixture and beat just until combined, 5 to 10 seconds longer. Beat in the remaining water. The batter will be somewhat thin.
5. Divide the batter among the prepared cupcake cup liners, filling them about two-thirds full. Bake until a wooden skewer inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 18 to 22 minutes. Transfer the tin to wire racks and let cool completely

Iced with buttercream icing.........Yum!


Also> Amish Friendship Bread recipe update.........I left out a couple of important ingredients when it's time to make the bread! Oops!! 1c oil
1/2 cup milk
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
Mix these together with 1c of starter and then add dry ingredients from my previous post!

Amish Friendship Bread

Before I got Kristan's recipe for the sourdough starter she uses, I found this one I had gotten from a friend at work. I started it 4 days ago and it is sitting on my counter doing it's thing. Tomorrow is Day 5 so I will have to feed it. This starter makes a very sweet bread, almost like cake.........it rocks! I'm going to try the sourdough next!!

Here's the recipe for the starter, or if you'd like at Day 10 I'll have some to freeze or give away!!

Starter: 1 pkg (.25 oz) active yeast pkg dissolved in 1/4 c. very warm (110 degree) water
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk ( i warmed this too, just barely warm)

Mix all these together in a non-metal container, can be placed in a gallon sized ziploc storage bag.

Day 1 make starter
Day 2 stir ( if in ziploc bag open bag to let out excess air that builds up then close and mash bag)
Day 3 stir ( or vent and mash bag)
Day 4 stir ( vent/mash bag)
Day 5 add 1cup milk, 1cup sugar and 1cup flour and stir/mash bag (Will be lumpy it's ok)
Day 6 stir (vent/mash bag)
Day 7 stir (vent/mash bag)
Day 8 stir (vent/mash bag)
Day 9 stir (vent/mash bag)
Day 10 place in non-metal bowl, Add 1cup milk, 1cup flour, 1cup sugar and stir. Remove 1cup starter to make bread ( or 2 to double recipe) Keep 1cup starter to continue and give the rest away or freeze in 1 cup portions.

Bread recipe:
1 cup starter
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 - 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 box (5.1 oz) instant vanilla pudding
1/2 tsp salt
optional : 1 cup nuts

I have made tons of variations with this.............cranberry/orange with orange zest and craisins.........i've mashed bananas and used banana pudding and walnuts for banana nut bread. ........i read one option using chocolate pudding and mashed banana that sounds good........I'm going to do lemon pudding with poppyseeds this time..........I also grease the pan and instead of flouring it, I sugar it...........makes a crisp sweet crust.

This makes enough for 2 loaf pans...........Bake at 325 for 1 hour.

My accomplishment

This is what my sink looked like tonite when I went to bed!! I used the crock-pot today and I have a nasty habit of soaking it for days afterwards but tonite I got it cleaned and set out to dry. Amazing.......can you believe it?

Menu Plan Sunday (instead of Monday!)

I did my menu planning a little early this week. After having Ana in the hospital for a week and then spring break I'm a little off on days of the week. MPS is further confusing it by having tomorrow be an inservice day so the kids get an extra day off at the end of spring break....since when does that happen??

I looked back at my menu from last week, and we pretty much stuck to it........I did cave and order pizza friday night because I was just too tired to think about cooking. We did yard work all day Wednesday and then took the kids to the batting cages Thursday and of course the grown-ups had to play too, so by friday I was SORE and exhausted!! Soooo friday's spaghetti got postponed until Saturday!

I strayed from the menu tonite too and I have to say I did pretty good!! Let me start by saying I am NOT a fan of cooking a whole chicken. Not at all. I probably cook one a year and that is usually around the holidays to use the broth for dressing, and since Rachel Ray came out with her boxes of chicken stock I didn't even cook one at all this past year. Well I came across a recipe on a blog for Whole Crockpot Chicken. Here's the link http://www.recipezaar.com/Whole-Chicken-Crock-Pot-Recipe-33671


Let me tell you........it was awesome. I am completely converted to cooking whole chickens this way. I did cheat a little on the seasoning.......instead of getting all the different kinds I got a jar of a chicken seasoning by McCormick that had just about all of them in it. I got a chicken at Walmart for $8.94, it was pretty big too.....it had one of those pop-out timer things which was helpful. I got up this morning, removed the yuck from inside the chicken ( I think my problem is that I just know too much about what all those parts are!!) and cut up an onion and stuffed it in. I rubbed the seasoning on the outside and put a little under the skin on the breast side. I stuck it in the crockpot and turned it on. That was it. EASY. I cooked it on high for about an hour and then backed it to low for the rest of the day. It turned out amazing. It was fall off the bone tender. Everyone loved it. It was pretty close to one of those rotisserie chickens except it was much more bird and it was way cheaper per pound. It was also very easy to get off the bone....which is the most hated part for me (again, I know too much). I baked some potatoes and cooked green beans and didn't have but a little chicken left at then end. One of the responses on the recipe link mentioned making gravy with the drippings left over and I tried that but I stink at gravy!! It tasted great but wasn't so pretty to look at!!


Here's the plan for the rest of the week:

Monday- Bowtie Pasta w/ chicken and Broccoli

Ingredients3 cups farfalle (bow-tie pasta), uncooked4 cups broccoli florets (chopped)3 tbs Kraft roasted red pepper Italian with parmesan dressing6 small boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1 ½ pounds)2 cloves garlic, minced2 cups tomato-basil spaghetti sauce4 ounces cubed cream cheese (I used fat-free)¼ cup grated parmesan cheeseDirectionsCook pasta as directed on package, adding broccoli to the cooking water for the last 3 minutes of the pasta cooking time. (or steam broccoli separately). Meanwhile, heat dressing in large nonstick skillet on medium heat. Add chicken and garlic. Cook 5 minutes, turn chicken over; continue cooking 4-5 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.Drain pasta, return pasta to pan and set aside. Add pasta sauce and cream cheese to chicken in skillet; cook on medium-low heat 2-3 minutes, or until cream cheese is completely melted, mixture is well blended and chicken is coated with sauce, stirring occasionally. Remove chicken from skillet and keep warm. Add sauce mixture to pasta mixture; mix well. Transfer to 6 serving bowls.Cut chicken crosswise into thick slices. Fan out chicken over pasta mixture in each bowl. Sprinkle evenly with parmesan cheese.Makes 6 servings, about 1 ½ cups each.**I cooked two regular breasts of chicken. When it was cooked through, I cut it into bite-sized pieces, smaller would have also worked. I only then added it to the pan and began to cook it up with the dressing and garlic. Also, to serve, I mixed the entire mixture together instead of removing the chicken and fanning it out pretty on top, which would have also been nice.

Tuesday: Apricot Chicken


Ingredients:Enough frozen chicken breasts to fill the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Some small spaces on the bottom ok.1 bottle french dressing1 jar apricot preserves/jam1 envelope lipton onion soup1 and 1/2 cup waterDirections:Combine water, dressing, preserves, and soup mix together in a bowl. Pour over the chicken in a 9 x 13 pan. Bake on 350 for 90 minutes. Take chicken out and shred. Mix chicken back into sauce. Serve over rice.

Wednesday: Chinese Takeout from the freezer.

Thursday: Sloppy Joes

Friday: We are kidless....Date night maybe?

Sat/Sun : TBD will post when I make up my mind!

Menu Plan Monday

Ok ladies. I'm on the bandwagon!! My cousins Emily and Kristan are both posting their meal plans for the week so I decided I could play too!! I have been lurking for quite some time on one of Emily's favorite blogs called Grace for Gayle. It has really inspired me to be more concious of what I am shopping for, how much of it I am getting and what I am feeding the family. I am the queen of eating out so this has taken some real effort on my part!! When you work until 7:30 at night it is hard to think about coming home to prepare a meal for the family. Needless to say I use my crock-pot quite a bit and I have even found ways to put meals together in zip-loc bags and have my hubby put them together in the oven to be ready when I come in. Well..........life happens and I have not been working since February 18 so I have had plenty of time on my hands to menu plan and cook and we have no income so being frugal has gone from being something I was working on to an absolute neccesity. I would love to say I could be like Gayle and feed my family of 5 for $50-$60 but so far it ain't happening!! I have made some huge improvements however and have been thinking ahead about what we will be eating and shopping very carefully. I even cleaned out my cabinets and reorganized them to help me keep an idea of what I've got to work with. ( Like I said......LOTS of time on my hands!!)

Sooooo that all being said, here goes!

Sunday night: Chicken Alfredo from Costco $11.99 fed us all!

Monday: Taco Salad (with chili I made in the crockpot today)

Tuesday: Chili Dogs ( See above!)

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Ryan's birthday, he picked Ox Yoke for his birthday dinner.......thank you mom and dad!!

Friday: Spaghetti

Saturday: FFY as my kids call it......fend for yourself..........i keep stuff in the freezer/spaghettios/PB and J/ leftovers

Sunday: Chicken with yellow rice and peas.

My money saving attempt this week was to buy 5lbs of ground beef from Costco. I browned it this morning, used a little in the chili today and divided the rest into 4 freezer bags and now I have ground beef frozen and ready for my spaghetti friday night and will use more next week.

I can't believe my baby turned 12 today. Time has flown, it seems like he was just a baby and now he's a young man! It's been quite a journey with him so far! I feel very blessed to be his mom. He has taught me so much about patience and love and it seems like every time I turn around he has exceeded my expectations for him. We received the heartbreaking news that he was probably autistic when he was 18 months old. His initial diagnosis was a language development delay. As he has grown, and developed and through early intervention at school, speech therapy and occupational therapy he has progressed amazingly into a very intuitive, very loving, sometimes very oppositional boy. He falls somewhere on the very high functioning end of the autism spectrum. He is still mainstreamed in school and seems to be holding his own there. Socially, I worry that he doesn't fit in but he has some amazing classmates who love him and look out for him as does his little sister who adores him (most of the time!!) Regardless of his "diagnosis" he is and always be my baby Jacob. I am a very lucky mom and I love him very much! Happy Birthday Jake!