Menu Plan

This week, I need quite a few quick, get-out-the-door meals. So that's what's on the menu!

Monday
BBQ Chicken Sandwiches w/ caramelized onions, cheese, tomatoes, and lettuce
Go-to Mac and Cheese

Tuesday
Ravioli "Lasagna" (layer cheese ravioli with sauce and mozzarella and bake for a shortcut lasagna)
Salad

Wednesday
Shepherd's Pie (I'll brown the ground beef the night before, when I make the "lasagna")

Thursday
Schultzie's Mess (big breakfast-for-dinner scramble with potatoes, ham, peppers, onions, cheese, and eggs)
Buttermilk biscuits with jam

Friday
Soup TBA

Saturday
leftovers

Sunday
takeout

What's a Meal Plan?

Just kidding. I almost always have one, I've just become such a horrible blogger that no one ever gets to see it except me. Which I guess is better than nothing. Here's this week's plan:

Monday
Cuban Sandwiches (sliced roasted pork, ham, pickles, provolone, mayo and mustard on a homemade soft, slightly-sweet mini baguette, grilled panini-style) (an dI will likely add sliced tomato and some greens to mine, 'cause I can)
Salad

Tuesday
Roasted chicken
Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Glazed Carrots

Wednesday
Tortellini with chicken and pesto cream sauce
More Salad (I've got some nice greens I don't want to go to waste!)

Thursday
Roast Beef
Homemade noodles
Steamed Peas

Friday
Hawaiian Ham Steaks
Pineapple-almond Rice Pilaf
Veggie TBA

Saturday
Leftovers

Sunday
Chinese?

Menu Plan

This week:

Monday
Roast Beef
Roasted Potatoes with Rosemary and Garlic
Glazed Carrots
Buttered Peas
Cole slaw
Rolls

Tuesday
French Chicken in a Pot
Rice pilaf
Broccoli with cheese sauce

Wednesday
French Dip Stromboli
JoJo Potatoes
Salad

Thursday
Homemade Pizza
Veggie Sticks and Dip

Friday
Sausage and Egg Casserole
Maple Streusel Muffins

Saturday
Leftovers for lunch, dinner with friends?

Sunday
Pasta with Pesto Alfredo Sauce and Chicken

Basic Sweet Dough

This one is a no-brainer: it's a recipe from America's Test Kitchen (foolproof), it's easy (thankyouverymuch), and it is perfect for any sweet dough application, like sticky buns, cinnamon rolls, hot cross buns, or Entenmann's-like danish. Oh, the deliciousness.

This basic recipe makes enough dough for three Entenmann's-sized danishes. My favorites are cream cheese and cinnamon (additional recipes to follow).

But here's where it all begins...

Basic Sweet Dough

3/4 c. buttermilk (or clabbered milk), warm
6 Tbsp. butter, melted and cooled until just warm
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
4 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/4 c. sugar
1 envelope (2 1/4 tsp.) yeast
1 tsp. salt

Whisk together the buttermilk, butter, and eggs.

In a large bowl, whisk together 4 cups of flour, the sugar, yeast, and salt. Add the buttermilk mixture and mix until the dough comes together. (I use a stand mixer for this, but if you don't have one, you can always do it by hand--it'll just mean more kneading)

Let your stand mixer mix the dough on medium-low for 10 minutes, or knead by hand for 10-15 minutes, adding flour as needed.

Knead the dough by hand on a floured counter top until it's smooth and elastic--about 1 minute. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, and turn to coat. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size, about 2 hours.

How you proceed depends on what you're making next; I divide it into three even portions when I'm making danishes/coffee cakes, but use the whole recipe of dough to make a 9x13 pan of sticky buns or cinnamon rolls.

Menu Plan

Coming soon: Recipe for homemade danish (my new obsession)

This week's menu plan:

Monday
Breaded Pan-fried Pork Chops
Green Bean Casserole

Tuesday
Chicken and Spinach Three-Cheese Stuffed Shells

Wednesday
French Dip Sandwiches
Potato Wedges
Salad

Thursday
Egg Rolls (holdover from last week)
Fried Rice
OR
Beef/Veggie Stir-fry

Friday
Kielbasa
Mashed Potatoes
Broccoli

Saturday
Leftovers

Sunday
Crock Pot Chicken-In-A-Pot
Glazed Carrots
Herbed Noodles

Menu Plan

I'm actually excited about this week's menu plan, which is a nice change! The kids and I went to the grocery store to pick up a prescription today and spent some time meandering the aisles, during which time I was reminded of a whole bunch of stuff I love, but haven't made in a while.

Here's this week's plan. But since there are a few TBA events this week, I've elected not to assign days to the meals; they'll just have to work themselves out according to how much time we have at home!

Taco Night
Spicy Shredded Beef
Mexican Rice
Refried Beans
Tortillas and fixins

Greeky Night
Greek chicken pita sandwiches (on Naan)
Greeky Greek Roasted Potatoes
Zataar and olive oil for dipping (not Greek, I know. but still good)

Italian Night (kinda)
Roasted Chicken w/ pesto vinaigrette
Spicy Orzo
Grilled Romaine Salad

Asian Night
Homemade Egg Rolls
Asian Chicken Wings
Sesame noodles, Lo mein-style

Tex-Mex Aberration Night
3-Bean Chili with cheese and sour cream
Elbow Mac or Rice (depends on my mood)

Menu Plan

It's Turkey Week. not officially, of course; that happens in about a month. But every year, the grocery store has such fabulous deals on turkeys, and I never can pass them up. Trouble is, you only need so many turkeys in your freezer. So this week is all about using up a turkey to make room for the next bird. I've got one in the fridge thawing and plan to brine it overnight tonight and cook it tomorrow (pray that my oven hangs on, by the way). For the rest of the week, we'll just see how far we can stretch the leftovers...I'm guessing pretty far.

Monday
Spaghetti
Homemade marinara
Homemade bread w/herb dipping oil
Salad w/grated parm, sliced olives, and yellow peppers

Tuesday
TURKEY!
Mashed potatoes
Gravy
Green Beans
Applesauce cake

Wednesday
Pizza w/alfredo, sun-dried tomatoes, turkey, spinach, mozzarella, and feta
Cheese pizza for the kids
Salad

Thursday
White Turkey Chili
Yellow Rice

Friday
Turkey Pot Pie

Saturday
Leftovers

Sunday
More leftovers or possibly Beef with Broccoli stir-fry over Jasmine Rice

And here's last week's menu plan, which I never officially posted:

Monday
Smoked Sausage
Mashed Potatoes
Broccoli

Tuesday
Broccoli Cheese Soup
Roasted Chicken Legs and Thighs

Wednesday
Beef Stew with Carrots
Homemade noodle-dumplings
Apple Crumb Galette (like a pie, but not baked in a pan--sort of tart-esque)

Thursday
Fried Rice
Pot Stickers with dipping sauce

Friday
Takeout pizza + breadsticks

Saturday
Breakfast scramble (eggs, potatoes, onions, peppers, cheese)
Sausage links

Sunday
Leftovers

Short Week Menu Plan

Hey, all! Short menu plan week this week. My mom will be coming to stay at our house this weekend, beginning on Thursday, so I'm leaving all of the weekend meal decisions up to her (insert evil laugh here).

Monday's dish is a re-creation (in part) of a meal I had last Friday when Hubs and I went out for our Anniversary; he had a Wild Mushroom and Butternut Squash lasagna, and I had Cheese tortellini with chicken, toasted pine nuts, browned butter and sage, drizzled with pumpkin butter and topped with toasted sage-rubbed breadcrumbs. It was delicious. I don't have any pumpkin butter, so we're winging it without. We'll have Cheese Ravioli with browned butter and sage, pine nuts, and the sage breadcrumbs. We'll also have steamed broccoli with garlic chips, because we must have vegetables!

Tuesday will be Hot Chicken Salad, just because I crave it.

Wednesday will be Beef Stew because it can go in the crock pot, and we never ended up having it last week.

Thursday, we'll have leftovers and round our meal out with salad if need be. And it usually needs be!

As I said, Friday and forward will be up to my mom. But don't worry--she is an extremely capable and accomplished cook, so it will all be well.

Hope you have a great week in your house!

Back on the Bandwagon

I've just recently started cooking in earnest again--if you don't already know, we're expecting again, and I'm just now getting into my second trimester with some renewed energy. My poor garden bore the brunt of my energy-deprived neglect; I worked and weeded and planted and watered, then I got pregnant and tired pretended there wasn't really a garden out there at all. The unfortunate part is that I lost interest round about the time things were ready for harvest and needed the most attention. My wonderful husband helped me put up a few tomatoes, and I made a batch of pesto to last me the year, but other than that, much of my produce went to waste. Fortunately, our neighbors were able to use a bit of it, but still. I have been longing for the first frost to come so I could officially let go of my garden guilt, because I have lots of it. I pretend next year will be better, but I'll have a tiny baby in tow, so I'm not sure it will.

All of that to say that if I didn't have time or energy for a bountiful garden that could feed my family, I certainly didn't have energy for inventive and involved meal planning, much less energy to blog about it. But here I am, at week 15 or something like that, and though my house will take a while to recover from my constant napping, my meals are ready to jump right back in. I'm hoping to shake it up a little; looking at my repertoire, I'm just frankly a little bored. Hopefully, over the next few months, I'll find some fabulous new dishes and rediscover some old favorites to post here.

Monday
Meatloaf
Scalloped Potatoes
Peas

Tuesday--Our Anniversary!
Either we'll go out and the kids will eat leftovers, or we'll have
Roasted Chicken
Rice Pilaf
Salad

Wednesday
Crock Pot Beef Stew
Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day Bread

Thursday (Or, the day on which we might actually celebrate our anniversary on account of needing child care)
Either we'll go out and the kids will eat leftovers, or we'll have
Roasted Chicken, etc., etc.

Friday
White Chicken Chili
Sweet Corn Cake

Saturday
Pot Stickers w/ chili dipping sauce
Vegetable Fried Rice

Sunday
Takeout or leftovers

Menu Plan

This one's for you, Katie D. :)

Well, we're back into the swing of things after a marathon of family vacations. We've actually been back for over a week, but frankly, I was worn out. And THEN, coming up with a dinner menu on the fly every night has been even more taxing...so it's time to get back into the normal routine of planning and shopping accordingly. Summer always presents more work, what with the gardening and preserving of food for the winter months, and I simply can't spare the energy to try to come up with a nutritious meal for my family when my brain is already fried from all of the weeding and pruning and what-have-you.

Speaking of the garden, that is one of the joys of summer cooking for me: the abundance of fresh produce right outside my back door. This year, we've got several varieties of peppers and hot peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, yellow squash, beans, broccoli, lettuce, and a variety of tomatoes, along with cilantro, dill, rosemary, and basil. Later on, we'll also have corn, watermelon, and pumpkins. I can hardly wait. So as you read the menu plan for this week, insert fresh garden produce wherever you see veggies mentioned.

(And cross your fingers for my tomatoes--they're not doing so well...)

Sunday
Home-fried tostadas
Refried beans
Spicy Shredded chicken
Cilantro
Tomatoes

Monday
Hamburgers
Fried potatoes

Tuesday
Honey Mustard Garlic-rubbed Pork chops
Steamed Broccoli with cheese
Honeyrock Melon

Wednesday
Grilled BBQ Chicken Legs
Big Old Salad
Cornbread

Thursday
Country-Style Pork ribs
Corn on the Cob
Buttermilk Biscuits w/ Strawberry jam

Friday
Grilled Steak Salad
Garlic-Rosemary Focaccia

Saturday
Leftovers

Sunday
Wish I knew. Probably Pasta Salad with chicken.