Menu Plan Monday – February 8th, 2010

Wow, time is flying! I need to get some Valentine’s this week!

But I love sitting down on Sundays and figuring out my menu plan for the week. I was talking to a couple of lovely ladies on Friday night who are having a hard time with dinners right now. We all agreed that putting the time into planning your meals is well worth it. Then you just don’t have to think about it for the rest of the week. Write it down on a calendar (I just print one from iCal) and keep that calendar somewhere within easy reach. Often times I’ll take a glance at it after dinner or first thing in the morning to see if I need to pull anything out of the freezer.

Here’s the plan for this week…

Breakfast:
Pancakes & fruit
Granola & fruit
Rice Pudding and Blueberry Sauce
Banana soft serve sundaes
Not sure what else yet
(Mom-Green smoothies)

Lunch:
Pancake sandwiches
Leftovers
(Mom – Texas Cavier or Hoppin John with salad or raw veggies)

Dinner: (M-Th dinners are all from the freezer; the chicken for roasting and the fish are also from the freezer)
M-Oriental Mini Meatloaves w/ rice & a veggie
Tu-Marmalade Glazed Pork (held over from last week) w/ green beans & sweet potatoes
W-Hawaiian Chicken w/ rice & veggies
Th-Pumpkin Chili w/ cornbread
F-Leftovers
Sa-Roast Chicken w/ roasted veggies
Su-Fish en Papillote w/ rice & a green veggie

If you haven’t tried meal planning yet, give it a whirl! Check out I’m an Organizing Junkie for her Menu Plan Monday post. There are literally hundreds of other menu ideas linked to her post (like 400-500)!

I hope you have a wonderful week!
Antoinette

Raw Food Journey – Part 2

It’s been an up and down sort of week with food. I know how good it is for me to eat more raw foods, and I also know how I feel when I eat raw foods. For example, I’ve been able to start my mornings off with a green smoothie each day. Now that I’ve done this for over a week I don’t think I can go back to cereal, pancakes, or anything like that. They are so invigorating! Whenever I eat something like pancakes or waffles for breakfast I usually feel like going and taking a nap shortly after. But drinking these green smoothies has me running around the house getting stuff done! And the ones I make are generally 32 ounces, sooo it takes me all morning to drink them.

And that’s about as far as I get. When it comes time for lunch I’m still struggling. When the smoothie wears off I get really hungry and want to eat NOW! So I don’t want to take the time to cut up a salad. I’ve been eating tortilla chips and guacamole. :-O Hey, the guacamole is raw. But I find that the chips don’t satisfy. I keep eating and eating, looking for the full sensation, but it doesn’t come. It’s weird. I am, after all, making a lifestyle change… not trying out some new diet. And I’ve already lost about 5 pounds. (whoot!) So I’m encouraged to continue. But I think I need to add a little bit of good fat to my smoothie so that I’m not craving avocados for lunch… like maybe a little coconut oil. Mmmm.

Speaking of encouragement, I’ve joined an online community called Raw Food Rehab. The name kind of cracks me up, but it’s so helpful to me. There are different rooms that you can join like, the Kitchen, the Spa, the Fitness Room, the Liquid Lounge, even the Loo (to talk about digestive issues and such). So far I’ve spent a lot of time in the, ahem, kitchen. People post the recipes they love or have been experimenting with in regards to raw food. I sure do need all the help I can get with recipe ideas!

Another person who’s been very inspiring to me is Sheri @ Green & Crunchy. Sheri is a vegan who tries to eat mostly raw food. You’ll see the occasional tortilla or tortilla chip in her diet, but all in all it’s mostly raw food. She’s also married with 5 children and they are all vegan, raw foodies!
I’m hoping to slowly start incorporating more raw foods into my children’s diets over time. Why?

Well, raw foods still have their original enzymes which allow our bodies to process the food much more efficiently. When we cook and process food we lose the enzymes and a lot of the nutrients that our bodies need to process the food. That is why I feel so much better when I’m drinking these green smoothies. I’m getting a lot more nutrients than I get from a multivitamin.

I realize that I need to start taking pictures of the Ectoplasm that I’m drinking. It’s fun stuff! I made one today that wasn’t very good… my own experiment gone wrong. I was able to drink half of it and the other half is in the fridge. I might go see how much more I can handle before bed.

And on that note, I think I’ll sign off here. Thanks for stopping by!
Antoinette

Menu Plan Monday – February 1, 2010

And just like that, January’s gone. Wow! This will be my first attempt at a meal plan since having the baby. We shall see if I stick to it. I’m attempting to use up what’s in my freezer and pantry if possible. Anything in italics has come out of my freezer.

Breakfast:
Pancakes w/ fruit
Rice Pudding w/ fruit
Granola w/ fruit
(we kind of like fruit around here, even if it’s frozen)

Lunch:
Leftovers

Dinner:
M-Bourbon Chicken w/ rice and veggie (maybe egg rolls too)
Tu-Cowboy Stew & cornbread
W-Marmalade Glazed Pork Tenderloin w/ potatoes & green beans
Th-Crock Cranberry Chicken w/ Sausage Cornbread Stuffing & veggies
F-Leftovers
Sa-Spaghetti Sauce and MB w/ salad &/or raw veggies
S-Not sure what we’re doing yet.

Looking for a little more inspiration for your menu this week (or dinner tonight)? Head over to I’m an Organizing Junkie for hundreds of other menu ideas.

Now, if you read my previous post you might be wondering if I’m going to be eating all the thing I listed above. The chances are very slim. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure if I was just going to head in the raw direction or go vegetarian. Well, I couldn’t stomach the meat I made tonight or last night. Seriously, it just tasted… dead. Sooooo, I may not be eating meat for a while. I honestly don’t know at this point. As far as what I will be eating this week…

Breakfast:
I’ll probably have an Ezekiel English Muffin first thing in the morning. Then I will make a green smoothie after I drop my munchkins off at school. I’ve decided on 4 different ones from the Raw Family web site:
Party in Your Mouth
Miner’s Lettuce
Kent Mango Bliss
The Laughing Gorilla

Lunch:
Some sort of salad each day and possibly a side of Hoppin’ John Salad.

Dinner:
Hmm… what am I going to do? I know I’ll eat whatever veggies we have, plus rice or potatoes. Other then that I’m going to have to wing it. Maybe I’ll make a batch of Couscous Confetti Salad, only I would substitute quinoa.

I’ll probably head over to the Green & Crunchy web site to see what kinds of ideas i can get from Sherri. She’s married with 5 children, and the whole family eats a vegetarian raw diet. I love reading her blog!

Well, that should be it for today. It’s time to feed the baby boy. Thanks for stopping by and God bless!
Antoinette

Raw foods – the beginning…

Hello everyone! It’s been about 2 months since my last post. Anyone missed me? Life is starting to settle down a little bit as we get used to the routine of having a new baby around. He’s a cutie too…

I’ve had gestational diabetes with at least 3 of my pregnancies that were detected. They never detected it with my first pregnancy, but suspect it was there because I develop it late. Any ways, towards the end of this one I was feeling pretty yucky, and not just because I was huge. I felt like the food I was eating wasn’t doing my body any good. So I started asking questions. A friend of mine, who’s a vegetarian, pointed me to some good web sites and books to read.

That lead me toward Raw Foodism. I’ve been interested in a raw foods diet for a number of years, but have never done anything about it. With the addition of a new baby to the family, however, I’m feeling like I need more energy. Not only that, but most of the time I feel like I can’t think straight. I’m sure most moms feel that way… or most people as they start to age. But I’m starting to wonder if I’m eating foods that are affecting the way that I think because it’s hard for my body to process them. Or simply because I’m eating so many cooked foods that my body isn’t even getting the nutrition it needs!

Oh… what is raw foodism? I suppose I should describe it a little so you don’t think that I’m going around eating raw chicken, beef, & pork. Here’s how Wikipedia describes it… Raw foodism (or rawism) is a lifestyle promoting the consumption of un-cooked, un-processed, and often organic foods as a large percentage of the diet. What that means for me is a lot more greens/vegetables: green smoothies, salads, etc. I’m planning on only eating cooked meat for dinner.

This post is merely to let you know that I’m trying out a different path/lifestyle. I have no idea how this is going to go, or how it will affect my meal planning. I would like to share with you all the web sites I come across and the things that I learn, plus how it’s affecting my health. I’m also hoping to develop some better habits that will be passed along to my children. They won’t be forced into this new lifestyle. I will give them opportunities to try the things that I’m eating, but also offer them a healthy alternative. Just this morning I made a green smoothie off the Raw Family web site. They all wanted to know what I was making. I told them it was Green Gak. Surprisingly they all wanted to try it!

First Born drank the whole thing!

One & Only Daughter took a sip of mine and asked to get her own glass.
After a couple of sips she said she could taste the lettuce (romaine). At least she tried it! And my Pervious Baby of the family shared mine. I couldn’t believe it! Maybe it was cool to them to be drinking something so green? Whatever the case I’m hoping it happens again.

I’ll be back with more links to the web sites I’ve been enjoying. Thanks for stopping by today.

Antoinette
PS-In case you were wondering which smoothie my children dared to sample, it was The Laughing Gorilla (in the Children’s section).

Meal Plan Monday – November 30, 2009

So, how’d everybody’s Thanksgiving go? We really enjoyed ours this year. I mentioned that we were not having turkey, and let me tell you, I think we’ve started a tradition. The FRENCH DIP recipe that I posted was absolutely THE BEST recipe ever! I want more already! And the Shepherd’s Pie that we made from the leftovers was the best Shepherd’s pie I’ve ever made. YUMMY!!! I used the au jus from the dip to make the gravy. Yep, my mouth is salivating again. Already planning on doing the same thing for Christmas. And I’m planning on making Alton Brown’s Best Ever Green Bean Casserole. I might have to make two.

This week will be fairly simple so that I can make some meals for the freezer… as mentioned in the previous post. Breakfasts are getting harder for me, so I made a couple of loaves of bread today to help us make it through the week. Here’s what I have planned…

Breakfasts:
Pumpkin bread
Carrot/Apple bread
Pancakes
Eggs
Fruit

Lunches:
Leftovers
Sandwiches
Fruit
Veggies
Maybe a cookie if I get some made

Dinner:
M – Pancakes, Sausage, & Eggs
Tu – CP Rotisserie Style Chicken, veggies, & rice (making enough rice for W night too)
W – Chicken Fried Rice and pot stickers
Th – Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf, baked potatoes and veggies
F – Leftovers
Sa – Dump Swiss Steak, corn, & veggies
Su – Pizza?

Sound good? It does to me.
Thanks for stopping by and have a flavorful week!
Antoinette
PS – Don’t forget to stop by I’m an Organizing Junkie for hundreds of more recipe ideas!

T minus 2 weeks and counting…

We’re looking at less than 2 weeks to go before we meet the 4th addition to the family… the longest 2 weeks of the pregnancy of course. I have 3 (technically 5) Dr. appointments this week, but am planning a run to Sam’s club somewhere in there so that I can make a bunch of meals for the freezer. I plan to do a little each day so that I don’t overtax myself, and so I’ll have easy meals to prepare after the baby arrives.

Here’s a list of the things I plan to make…

Wednesday – Using Chicken Breasts
Bourbon Chicken
Teriyaki Chicken

I plan on mixing all the ingredients together and freezing in a freezer bag. Then I will cook them in the crock pot when the time comes.

Cranberry Chicken

This one I will toss everything but the onion together in a freezer bag. On the day of cooking I’ll just slice the onion and toss everything in the crock pot.

Whole chicken…
Bombay chicken

Thursday – Ground Beef and Ground Turkey

Oriental Mini Meatloaves (2)

I’m going to make the mixture for these and freeze it in a bag. Then when I thaw it I’ll section it into muffin cups and bake.

Meatballs
I like to make these as simple as possible. Mix everything together, spread in a 13″ x 9″ pan and bake at 400 degrees about 30 minutes. Then I cut them into squares, let them cool and freeze. When it comes time for spaghetti and meatballs, I plop the sauce into my crock pot about 4 hours on low. I then add the meatballs and simmer another 4 hours.

Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf

I might make one of these for the freezer and one for dinner Thursday night. For the freezer, I’ll mix the meatloaf and freeze in one bag. Then I’ll put the remaining sauce in a snack size or sandwich bag to freeze with it.

Friday – Pork Tenderloin (cut into 1/2″ slices)
Peachy Pork Chops

I’ll freeze the pork cutlets in one bag along with the rest of the ingredients in another bag.

Cranberry Maple Pork Cutlets

Pretty much the same with this one… I’ll place the pork in one bag, and the sauce in another. I’m not going to worry about the butter, oil, and onion until it comes time to make these.

I may have some extra pork leftover, or I may double up these recipes.

Sounds simple enough, right? We’ll see how it goes.
If you have any simple recipes that you’d like to recommend, I’d love to hear them.
Antoinette

PS – After I posted this I remember that I’m also going to buy the 3 pound package of Kilebasa from Sam’s. I’ll slice up each pound and freeze to make our simple favorite Pierogi Skillet.

Meal Plan Monday – November 23rd, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving week to you USA visitors. Last week was a 5 star week with the meals. All the kids loved everything I made. I was shocked!
By far, my favorite was the Crock Pot Rotisserie Style Chicken. I was extremely disgusted taking all the skin off the chicken, and pretty convinced that I was never going to attempt to do that again. I was also convinced that it was going to be dry without the skin. Boy was I happily wrong! It was very moist and flavorful. You have to try it!
The next night I made Chicken Pot Pie in a Jar. Haven’t tried making fruit pies in a jar yet, but the kids loved the chicken pot pies. I was even able to make 2 extras to send with them to school the next day. They were thrilled!
The Sour Cream Chili Bake was another pleasant surprise. Since I’m almost 9 months pregnant, I pretty much get heartburn from everything. This month I received 2 batches of chili from my monthly meal exchange, plus I still had some old stuff in the freezer. I didn’t want to let it just sit there for another month because of my issues. Luckily my friend posted the recipe for the SC Chili Bake. No heartburn for me!!! And the kids, who will eat chili because we make them eat whatever we put on the table, were raving about it. Thumbs up! Oh, btw, instead of following the recipe directly I just used my own chili and mixed it with the remaining ingredients in step 3.
The Cranberry Pork also rocked.

On to this week’s menu…

Breakfast
Pancakes and Eggs
Hash Brown Casserole
Overnight Cinnamon Rolls

Lunch
Leftovers
Crackers, cheese & ham
Sandwiches
Carrots
Oranges/Apples
Cookies

Dinner
M – Hash Brown Casserole
T – Crock Pot Lasagna (didn’t get to last week)
W – Thai Peanut Chicken (from monthly meal exchange)
Th – Crock Pot French Dip (non traditional Thanksgiving for us)
F – Pasta E Fagioli (from the freezer)
Sa – Shepherd’s Pie, using Rachael Ray’s recipe as a base
Su – Something simple… possibly leftovers.

I hope that you all have a great week and a Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanks for stopping by,
Antoinette
PS – Don’t forget to stop by orgjunkie.com for more menu ideas.

Menu Plan Monday – November 16th, 2009

Did you see that? We’re over half way through November already! And this week I will hit 36 weeks on Thursday. Before we know it there will be a new baby in the house! Everyone in the house can tell too because I have been organizing everything in the house. Just the other day I organized my freezers. Did she just say freezers, as in plural? Oh yes, I have 3. We bought this house specifically because it had a Mother-in-law apartment with a 2nd kitchen in it. So I have those 2 freezers and an extra stand up freezer that we had before we bought this house. Now the freezers have labels. One hold fruits, veggies, and cheese; another holds meat and pre-made meals; the last one holds grains, nuts, and any overflow that don’t fit into the other 2. And because I organized those freezers, I will be trying to use up the things that I came across!

Here’s what we have planned for this week…

Breakfasts
Egg biscuits with cheese
Crock Pot Hash Brown Casserole
Maybe some muffins or quick bread

Lunch
Leftovers, Sandwiches or wraps with a fruit, veggie and cookie.

Dinner
M – Crock Pot Rotisserie Style Chicken
T – Chicken Pot Pie
W – Sour Cream Chili Bake (Thanks Kirsten!) I’m going to try making this with chili that I already have in my freezer
Th – Cranberry Pork (from the freezer)
F – Leftovers
Sa – Crock Pot Lasagna This will also be an experiment as I want to use noodles that I already have instead of lasagna noodles
Su – Pizza

That’s very interesting. Nearly all the recipes I’m using come from either Recipezaar or A Year of Slow Cooking. It seems that any recipe I’m looking for can be found on Recipezaar. For example, my friend Kirsten posted the Sour Cream Chili Bake in her menu plan last week. Knowing that I wouldn’t be able to keep track of it unless I wrote it down or found it on Recipezaar, I hiked over there and did a search for it. Found it… exact same ingredients too. The Chicken Pot Pie recipe is the exact same one that I use out of my Betty Crocker Cookbook. It’s just a great site to use. Make sure you check the ratings though.

Well goodness, this post has gotten long enough. I hope that you have a wonderful week. Oh, and don’t forget to click on over to orgjunkie for hundreds of other menu ideas. Thanks for stopping by!

Antoinette
PS – These Cranberry Upside Down Muffins are scrumptious!

Menu Plan Monday – Nov 9, 2009

Saturday morning my daughter and I spent a little time baking. It was a slow start as I was up until 12:30 the night (morning?) before. At 8 months pregnant, that was not a good idea. :-O But we still got some baking done and have been reaping the benefits so far this week. We made 4 loaves of pumpkin bread, close to 5 dozen molasses cookies and peanut butter cookie dough to keep on hand in the fridge. I was also able to bake a couple batches of rolls using this recipe. I’ve made 3 batches of this dough this week and have been loving it! All you do is throw it together, let it rise in the container (I use a 1 gallon ice cream bucket) then throw it in the fridge overnight. The next day you have your dough to use whenever you need it. And it’s GOOD!!!
There is actually a couple of cookbooks out there with more recipe ideas in them, that I would love to get… Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a Day & Healthy Bread in 5 minutes a Day. That last link has a video of them making the bread with the recipe right on there!

Last week I tried a couple of new recipes that I really liked. The first was Asian Peanut Butter Pork for the Crock Pot. Num, Num, Num!!! The kids all balked at the sauce at first asking if they HAD to try it. But once they did try it, they loved it. My oldest even asked for more sauce. I also made Crock Pot Hash Brown Breakfast Casserole. I made it with ham and it needed a little salsa, I thought… but overall very satisfying. Lastly, and probably my favorite, was Inwood Hamburgers. It was 60+ degrees here in Minnesota this weekend… that’s a big deal for us. So we decided to take advantage of that and grill up the burgers that I got at my monthly meal exchange. I will be making these again whether we grill them or not because they were so flavorful! I’ll include the recipe at the bottom.

On to this week’s plan (or maybe I should say guideline)…

Breakfasts:
Pumpkin Bread
(Just found THIS RECIPE and will try it next time)
Applesauce Bread
Baked Oatmeal
Granola
Homemade Yogurt!

Lunch
Leftovers and sandwiches with fruit, veggies and a cookie.

Dinner
M – Pot Roast in the Crock Pot (freezer meal from meal exchange, recipe to follow)
T – Beef Barley Soup (using leftovers from the pot roast)
W – Thai-Style Peanut Chicken (freezer meal from meal exchange, recipe to follow)
T – Waffles and eggs
Friday – Inwood Hamburgers (easy to freeze)
Saturday -Chicken Parmigiana
Sunday – Pizza

Now let’s see if I stick with that. :-O
For hundreds more ideas head on over to orgjunkie.com where lots of other people post their menus for the week.

Thanks for stopping by today!
Antoinette

BROWN FAMILY ROAST
2 1/2 lb. chuck roast
1 packet of Onion Soup Mix
1 t garlic powder
salt
pepper
1 can of tomato whatever (she used sauce + diced tomatoes)
carrots/potatoes/etc.

Coat roast in onion soup, garlic powder, salt & pepper.
Put in tomato whatever
Add carrots, potatoes, and other usual roast accompanying vegetables if desired.

Cook on high in crock pot for 2 hours
Turn to low and cook 5-6 more hours or until it falls apart.

THAI-STYLE GRILLED PEANUT CHICKEN

3/8 c peanut butter
1/4 c honey
1/4 c soy sauce (or Bragg’s liquid aminos)
1 1/2 T curry powder
1 1/2 t minced garlic
1 1/2 lbs cut up chicken

Blend peanut butter with honey and soy sauce/Bragg’s until smooth. Stir in curry powder and garlic; mix well. Place chicken in a large plastic bag or a bowl. Pour peanut butter mixture over chicken and coat well. Close bag or cover bowl and chill at least 2 hours or up to 12 hours (or you may freeze at this point).
Remove chicken from marinade and broil or grill over medium heat 4-6 inches from heat. Turn chicken and brush with marinade occasionally while cooking. (Do not brush with any more marinade less than 10 minute before chicken is done.) Cook until chicken is no longer pink in thickest part (cut to test), 15-30 minutes depending on size and piece.

INWOOD HAMBURGERS
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
6 soft sundried tomatoes, chopped
3 green onions, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 green bell pepper, chopped
1 1/2 egg
1/4 c and 1 t bread crumbs (or substitute)
1 1/2 dashes worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 dashes hot pepper sauce
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 t vegetable oil
3 English Muffins, split and toasted

Mix all ingredients except oil and muffins. Form into 6 patties and pan fry in oil or grill. Serve open-faced on muffin with usual burger toppings of choice.

Crock Pot Wednesday – October 28th, 2009

I pulled my chicken soup out of the freezer today to find out that it was my last bag. I’m going to have to make more soup kits next week, but it’s so worth it. What I like to do is make a “base kit” of broth and other goodies and freeze it. Then when I want to make soup I toss it in the crock pot for a couple of hours, add whatever leftover meat I have and some frozen veggies… or you can clean out the fridge if you have bits of leftover veggies from throughout the week. Tonight I even threw in a cup or 2 of leftover tomato soup. Tasted pretty good!

This is a picture of what we had tonight. Kind of turned into stew!

Here’s my base recipe…

SOUP KIT FOR FREEZER:
4 cups broth (chicken, beef, or vegetable)
1 medium onion chopped
2 potatoes, scrubbed and diced (peel if you want)
2 stalks of celery, chopped
2 cups of carrots, chopped
1/2 – 1 cup lentils
1/2 cup of barley
1 tsp salt
1 tsp lemon pepper

Put all of this in a gallon sized freezer bag a freeze. Make sure to label them, especially if you make a couple of chicken and a couple of beef.

When it comes time to make the soup, pull it out of your freezer and dump into your crock pot. (It may stick to the bag a little. If this happens, either run it under hot water for a little bit or fill up a large bowl/container and plop it in there for a bit.)
Once it’s in the crock pot heat on high for 3 hours or on low for 6 hours. Then you’ll want to add your meat and any extra veggies. You may also need to add more broth at this point. Taste to see if you need to add more seasoning, then cover and cook for another hour on high or 2 more hours on low.

While it’s finishing up you can easily whip up a batch of biscuits or grilled cheese sandwiches to go with. Slice up some crusty bread, throw a salad on the table or just put some crackers out for everyone. I have 3 kiddos and they always look forward to this soup. Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by and have a flavorful week!
Antoinette
PS – For more crock pot ideas go visit diningwithdebbie!