Weekly Menu

I love finding things that make life easier.

Before I go grocery shopping, I pick 7 meals for the week. This not only helps me with my shopping, it saves me money and makes it easier to decide what's for dinner. Win-Win-Win! What makes this even easier is a list of meals by season (summer vs winter). I keep a copy in my purse and one on my fridge. This makes picking meals for the week lots easier.

I find it easier to NOT assign meals to days, which gives me a little more flexibility if our schedules change. I found this cute weekly menu planner and thought I would share it. I don't know where I got it from originally, but if you want a copy I'll email you a PDF. Just let me know.

Raspberry Sorbet

Holy Cow! This was amazing!! I know that by telling you how much I absolutely loved this, that I'll be setting your expectations super high; but I think that this recipe will totally live up to it's expectations. It was so delicious!!

Forget that Lemon Sorbet recipe I gave you a while ago. It's no good. You are only going to want to make this Raspberry Sorbet every week from now until eternity! Wowza!

I made this in my ice cream maker, but if you don't have one, you could probably make this similarly to the instructions for lemon sorbet.

Makes 5 cups (ten 1/2 cup servings)

• 2 cups water
• 1 1/2 cups sugar

Prepare a simple syrup with the water and sugar by combining both in a saucepan set on medium low heat. Cook until sugar is fully dissolved.

• pinch of salt
• 4 cups frozen raspberries, thawed

Add the raspberries and salt. 

Blend until smooth. Strain the mixture (half at a time) through a fine mesh strainer to remove the seeds. Use a spatula to help. Cover and refrigerate 2-3 hours (or overnight).

 

Pour into ice cream maker and let mix until thickened. (about 15-20 minutes). Serve!

Stuffed Blueberry French Toast

1 loaf of french bread cut into squares

8 eggs

8 oz cream cheese

1 1/2 cups milk
1/3 cup of sugar

3/4 cup of maple syrup

1 1/2 cups of blueberries

1 tsp vanilla

cinnamon

6 Tbs butter

Coat a 13 x9 inch baking dish with cooking spray. 

Layer one half of the bread cubes in baking dish.  

Cream together sugar and cream cheese and drop spoonfuls over bread.  Layer blueberries over cream cheese.  Cover the blueberries with remaining bread.  Sprinkle generously with cinnamon.  Mix remaining ingredients and pour over bread.  Press bread with spatula to help soak up mixture.  

Cover and refrigerate overnight.  

Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes.  Servers 8.

Chicken Enchiladas!

You have to try these! They were delicious!

Here's what mine really looked like - I blame the lighting in my house. 

• 3 cups cooked chicken, shredded
• 2 cups shredded Monterrey Jack Cheese
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 (4.5 oz) can chopped green chiles. Drained.
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 8 flour tortillas
• vegetable cooking spray
• 1 8-oz container sour cream
• 1 8-oz bottle green taco sauce (I used half a bottle of La Victoria brand sauce- see pic)
• Toppings: diced tomatoes, chopped avocado, chopped green onions, sliced olives, cilantro

Make it!

Stir together first 5 ingredients. Spoon chicken mixture evenly over each tortilla, and roll up. Arrange in a lightly greased 13- x 9-inch baking dish. Coat tortillas with vegetable cooking spray.

1. Bake at 350° for 35 to 40 minutes or until golden brown. (Mine didn't need this long. I would cook them 20 minutes and then check on them.)
2. Stir together sour cream and taco sauce. Spoon over hot enchiladas, and sprinkle with toppings.

My Latest Time Saving Tip

Sometimes life is just way too busy. And sometimes that means that dinner is the last thing on my mind. So I found a way to still get a good meal during the week - I cook my chicken ahead of time, so it's ready to be added to dishes without much prep time.

I know. It's nothing really new or innovative. But I thought it might help you, too.

First, I put all my chicken in the crockpot. Frozen. All at once. My crockpot can hold quite a bit, so I fill it full. I turn it on to high and let it cook about 3 hours. (*crockpot cook times may vary. Mine seems to run on the hot side). Without any effort at all, I have a crockpot full of cooked chicken breasts! Yay!

Second, I take the chicken breasts, trim them of any fat and stick 2 or 3 into my mixer. Then using the paddle accessory, I turn it on for a few seconds. This easily shreds the chicken.

Don't run your mixer too long, or the chicken will get shredded into small tiny pieces. It only takes a few seconds. Don't overdo it!

Then I take my shredded chicken and put it in a tupperware and repeat with the remaining chicken. I can put it in the fridge or freeze it.

Now, I can use my shredded chicken for all kinds of recipes cutting dinner prep time in half. *(Actual time saved has not really been measured. But I feel like dinner has been lots easier.)

Some dinner ideas for your shredded chicken:

• Fajitas (just saute some onions and peppers, heat up the chicken in a skillet with seasonings, and you are ready to go south of the border in seconds!)
• Chicken Salad Sandwiches
• Southwest Chopped Chicken Salad
• Cilantro Lime Chicken Tacos
• Chicken Enchilada Pasta - just heat up the sauce and cook the pasta. Add the chicken and you are ready to go!
• Chicken Noodle Soup 
• Teriyaki Chicken
• Chicken Pot Pie
• Haystacks
• These delicious Chicken Enchiladas

*also, I save the broth from the chicken and strain it and use it for homemade chicken noodle soup.  Win-win-win!

Brownie Volcano!

The other day to celebrate summer ending, we headed to the Rainforest Café. During dinner we discussed their dessert – the Volcano. It looks something like this.

 

It was $15. With tax and tip, we’d be up to almost $20 for dessert. So, we decided to make one at home. Ourselves. Here’s how ours looked. Yup. We even put a sparkler on top. Or two.

Here’s how I made it.

Ingredients:

• Box of Brownie mix
• Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
• Hershey’s Chocolate Sauce
• Sparkler. Or Two.

This is pretty self-explanatory, but here it goes. I made the brownies in an 8x8 pan. I let them cool and then sliced them in half. I put the two pieces on a plate in the freezer for about half an hour. or until they were a little firm. Then I took the 4x8 piece of brownie, set it on it’s side and cut in into 2 wedges by slicing lengthwise. I repeated this with the other side. Now, I have 4 brownie wedges. I put these back in the freezer for an hour until they were firm enough to work with.

When the brownie wedges were firm enough, I got out a plate and piled up 3 scoops of ice cream. One on top of the other.  Then I leaned three of the pieces against the ice cream, building the sides of the volcano. I put the thickest part down on the plate as the base. One more scoop of ice cream topped it off. Then I poured Hershey’s Syrup all over it and stuck in my Sparkler. We were ready to rock n’ roll!

Pass out spoons and enjoy!

I know the brownie cutting is hard to understand. Let me know if you have any questions.

Blueberry Popsicles

Mmmmm! Now that it's summer, it's popsicle time! These are so good. And why wouldn't they be? They are made with ice cream! They taste like a blueberry milkshake.

Here's the recipe (from Martha Stewart)

I bought a new popsicle maker to make these. Here's the one I bought, but any one would work.

Ingredients

• 5 1/2 cups blueberries
• 1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 quart vanilla ice cream

Directions

1. Cook blueberries, lemon juice, and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until berries release their juices, about 10 minutes. Strain mixture through a fine sieve, pressing on berries to extract liquid. Discard solids.
2. Refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour. Transfer to a blender along with ice cream, and puree until smooth. Divide mixture among fourteen 2 1/2-ounce ice-pop molds, and freeze until hardened, at least 4 hours.

Chicken Enchilada Pasta

I know, you are all shocked that I’m posting not only one, but two, count them 2, recipes on here.  Blown away, I know.
I found this on Pinterest and thought, why not.  It looked good and it got really good reviews.  I’m trying to branch out from our same 10 meals we eat over and over.  At first, Pat was like ‘you can try it, but I can’t promise that I’ll like it’.  But after we made it, he was all kinds of excited.  It was really tasty… and this is Pat, a really picky eater.   
I’m just posting the ingredients, but I’m also posting a link to her blog.  She has a great step-by-step, complete with pictures.  But here are the few changes we made. 
A little less sour cream, and a little less cheese.  Also, we made it with the onions, but since we aren’t really onion people, I don’t think we’ll put them in again.  And I don’t feel like the sauce need more salt.  While I did add it this time, I probably won’t next time.  It didn’t make it too salty, but I just think it was unnecessary.  
Anyway click here for the detailed recipe.  (and she was a hoot to read)
 
2-3 chicken breasts, cooked & shredded {or shredded rotisserie chicken…I used the breasts}
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium onion, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 {4 oz.} can diced green chiles
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
2 {10 oz.} cans green chili enchilada sauce
2/3 cups red enchilada sauce
2 cups shredded cheese {I used colby & monterrey jack}
1 cup sour cream
Penne pasta

Really you should try it.  It was good.  (and it made quite a bit)

Teriyaki Chicken

I know that you are all shocked and amazed that I’m actually posting on here.  Well, you should be.  I’ve decided to start cooking more, and Pat is being a good sport and letting me.  (well, sort of)
Anyway, today we made Teriyaki chicken for lunch.  It was SO good!!!  So I had to share.  I only took a picture of the finished meal, so sorry you don’t get a step-by-step.
First the sauce.

• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 5 tablespoons packed brown sugar
• 1 -2 tablespoon honey
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/4 cup cold water

Directions:

1. Mix all but cornstarch and 1/4c water in a sauce pan and begin heating.
   
2. Mix cornstarch and cold water in a cup and dissolve. Add to sauce in pan.
   
3. Heat until sauce thickens to desired thickness.
   
4. Add water to thin if you over-thick it :).

Read more: http://www.food.com/recipe/restaurant-teriyaki-sauce-133751#ixzz1zE9Vsqk1
I love that there isn’t anything too crazy in it.  It’s mostly things you would already have. (except maybe the ginger).
Then we grilled some chicken, steamed some veggies and cooked some rice.  Yummy goodness.  I think it would also be really good over noodles, but, we are noodle folk. I took a picture in a bowl and on a plate, but after I took the picture of the plate, I just mixed it all up anyway.
Hope you like it as much as we did.

Chicken Florentine

I was talking to Jeska last night when I was making this, and she wanted me to post it on our cooking blog. Luckily, she mentioned it just in time to get lots of photos!

 

4 Ingredients:

Spinach

Chicken Breasts

Mushrooms

Parmesan Cheese

 

1. Cook your spinach! (If you have fresh spinach, which I used, just boil it in water until tender. If you have frozen, cook according to package.)

2. Poach your Chicken! Place the chicken in a saucepan large enough to hold the chicken pieces comfortably. Add enough water to cover the chicken. Bring to boiling on medium-high heat; reduce the heat. Cover the pan and simmer until the chicken is no longer pink (170 degrees F).Boil your chicken breasts in water until fully cooked. . But do not overcook. About 15 minutes. Ironically, cooking chicken in water actually dries it out. Continually check on it to make sure you get it out as soon as all the pink is gone.

 

3. Sauté your mushrooms in butter, or olive oil. Or leave them raw. You decide.

4. When everything is done cooking, layer it!

Spinach on bottom (add a dash of salt)

Then Chicken (I cut mine up for easier serving, but you can leave your breasts whole.)

Mushrooms on top of the chicken

Then Sprinkle with Parmesan Cheese. Oh, and not that pizza, dried out cheese. I’m talking about the grated kind. It’s with all the other cheeses, like cheddar and mozzarella!

Then place it in the oven for about 10 minutes to let the cheese get melty and yummy!

Enjoy. You can sprinkle vinegar on your spinach like dad to add a little flavor to the spinach!