As I wrote earlier, last week turned out to be a week of running from school to basketball games and not getting home until 8:30 p.m. That is definitely not an ideal time to cook. I did prep a shepherd's pie for Sawyer to pop into the oven on Monday when I had a late meeting. But -- we ran to Culver's after a game one night for burgers and Friday night after watching both JV and Varsity, we stopped for quick Italian.
The plus side to eating out last week is that I have very little I need to purchase this week for groceries. Then the dilemma of where to go to shop. As much as I do try not to have store loyalty, if all things ($$) are equal, I will shop local, which means Basha's. Today, however, I need produce and a beef roast. I could pick up good produce for a fairly reasonable price at Sunflower. They also carry Harris Ranch beef, which we love. But I am sticking the beef in the crock pot so it doesn't need to be a top of the line cut. So I will run over to Food City for REALLY inexpensive meat and produce. Owned by Basha's, Food City caters to the Hispanic population so I can also pick up good tortilla, pinto beans and chorizo for this weekend's project.
This weekend's project is to make sure the kids have a good, hot breakfast before school. I will spend a few hours tomorrow morning cooking ingredients for more breakfast burritos (the dozen or so I made two weeks ago are gone). We form an assembly line for everyone to layer their preferred ingredients into the warmed tortilla, fold the burritos and wrap them in plastic wrap. I create labels of ingredients so the kids can choose "their" burrito to reheat before they head out the door to the school bus/ride. (Hint - this was a good fundraiser for Moriah's trip to New Zealand last June - she sold breakfast burritos to many of our teacher friends.)
On mornings I don't want the carbs in a burrito, I grab a Crustless Quiche. I don't remember where I first found the recipe, but it was most likely a South Beach cookbook. I have tweaked this recipe:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray silicon muffin cups lightly with cooking spray. Layer your choice of chopped veggies, meat and shredded cheese. Add a little beaten egg white (ie Egg Beaters) until cups are 3/4 full. Bake for 25-35 minutes until the egg is set and golden brown. Freeze and reheat for breakfast! Ingredients I like to use are chopped zucchini, red bell pepper, Canadian bacon and dill. Or chorizo, green chiles, and frozen spinach (thawed and drained well). I have also made the "crust" with shredded cooked potato (the kids like it this way) The combinations are as endless as your imagination!nn
Enjoy your week. Find time to do something for yourself! Fifteen minutes of morning meditation is a wonderful way to start your day!
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Spicy Orange Chicken
This week's menu has morph'ed -- just like all plans must sometime change.
Last night was spicy orange chicken, served on a bed of wilted spinach with green peas and pot stickers on the side. (For a week night when I don't have much time, I use either the pot stickers from Trader Joe's or from Costco. I try to keep a bag on hand in the freezer.)
Spicy Orange Chicken
Cut boneless skinless chicken breasts into strips. Marinate in the following:
1/3 c soy sauce
1/4 c Sriracha hot chile sauce (Thai food aisle)
1/4 c honey
1/2 c orange juice
2 TB canola oil
4 cloves crushed garlic
2 TB (or more) minced fresh ginger
Other ingredients:
Frozen peas
Fresh spinach
Sliced green onions
Peeled and sectioned mandarin oranges (cuties)
While the chicken is marinating, wash and de-stem fresh spinach. Warm it in a large frying pan (or wok). Add 3 cloves crushed garlic. Transfer to a platter when spinach is wilted, not thoroughly cooked. Warm 1 cup of frozen peas. Arrange on the platter. (Keep warm)
Saute the chicken until golden brown and juices run clear. Add to platter. Top with sectioned oranges and sliced green onions.
Tonight's meal - I hate to admit it but I have a frozen pizza in the oven. Life happens. Who know what tomorrow will bring!
Last night was spicy orange chicken, served on a bed of wilted spinach with green peas and pot stickers on the side. (For a week night when I don't have much time, I use either the pot stickers from Trader Joe's or from Costco. I try to keep a bag on hand in the freezer.)
Spicy Orange Chicken
Cut boneless skinless chicken breasts into strips. Marinate in the following:
1/3 c soy sauce
1/4 c Sriracha hot chile sauce (Thai food aisle)
1/4 c honey
1/2 c orange juice
2 TB canola oil
4 cloves crushed garlic
2 TB (or more) minced fresh ginger
Other ingredients:
Frozen peas
Fresh spinach
Sliced green onions
Peeled and sectioned mandarin oranges (cuties)
While the chicken is marinating, wash and de-stem fresh spinach. Warm it in a large frying pan (or wok). Add 3 cloves crushed garlic. Transfer to a platter when spinach is wilted, not thoroughly cooked. Warm 1 cup of frozen peas. Arrange on the platter. (Keep warm)
Tonight's meal - I hate to admit it but I have a frozen pizza in the oven. Life happens. Who know what tomorrow will bring!
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Multi-tasking to make the week easy.
I know this will be a crazy week, but I do NOT want to stop and get take out. So I spent three hours today preparing for the week. I know it will make life much more simple in the long run.
I shopped yesterday and spent just over $130. to feed the family all week, plus I fed 18 hungry teens at Youth Group tonight and made a dozen breakfast burritos for the freezer. Here's what the week will look like and how I prepared much of it today.
First I stuffed a turkey breast with oranges and pears, seasoned it and put it in the oven to roast. This will provide sandwich meat for the kids for two weeks, at least. I will also have some for turkey and cranberry layered enchiladas at a later date (maybe Friday). Russell and I also had wonderful turkey sandwiches on seeded whole grain bread for dinner tonight.
I browned a 2 lb packet of ground beef, peeled and boiled some Yukon Gold potatoes, browned a pound of chorizo. Stoves do have 4 burners, so why not use them all at once? While the stove was busy, I grabbed the blender and made the sauce for the Youth Group dinner (see bottom of this post). As items on the stove were done I set them in the refrigerator. (Please remember basic food safety.)
Half of the ground beef went into a casserole (yup - still can be a casserole queen when I need to be) with frozen mixed vegetables, onions and sauce. I mashed part of the Yukon Gold to top the casserole for a Shepherd's Pie. It is resting in the refrigerator and Sawyer will pop it in the oven for dinner tomorrow. (I'll be at a late meeting and probably Zumba.) I seasoned the rest of the ground beef for taco salad for Thursday and popped it in the freezer.
I cooked three packets of fettucine for the Pasta in Spicy Peanut Sauce for Youth Group. Thank you Sawyer for helping!
Then I heated up a few breakfast sausages, grabbed the chorizo, cooked some egg beaters, shredded some cheddar, opened a can of green chiles and found some left over refried beans in the refrigerator. I now have 14 breakfast burritos individually wrapped, labeled with the ingredients and in the freezer.
I sliced the turkey and it is in bags in the refrigerator waiting for the kids to make sandwiches. It is so much better than the salty, deli turkey.
So while I feel like I lived in the kitchen this afternoon (at least I could watch the Packers while I cooked!) I know I will be providing nourishing, healthy meals instead of stopping my Sonic.
This week:
Monday - shepherd's pie
Tuesday - I do need to grab something quick and take to Pinnacle HS for the basketball games
Wednesday - Turkey with cornmeal dumplings
Thursday - Taco Salad
Friday - Grilled fish tacos with cabbage and cilantro.
Saturday - Italian Sausage and polenta with fresh vegetables
Sunday - Turkey and cranberry layered enchiladas
Pasta with Spicy Peanut Sauce
Blend together 4-5 cloves of garlic with about 1/2 cup of vegetable stock. Add juice of 2-4 limes, 3-4 TB lite soy sauce and thai red chili paste to taste. Add 1/2 cup (approximate) peanut butter and blend. The amounts can be varied depending on your preference as well as how many you are serving.
Saute vegetables, tofu (or chicken) -- I usually use carrots, tofu, peas, and broccoli. Cook pasta (I use what ever shape I have handy or let the kids choose the shape). Toss the veggies with the pasta and sauce. Top with chopped green onions, chopped peanuts and juliened cucumbers.
I shopped yesterday and spent just over $130. to feed the family all week, plus I fed 18 hungry teens at Youth Group tonight and made a dozen breakfast burritos for the freezer. Here's what the week will look like and how I prepared much of it today.
First I stuffed a turkey breast with oranges and pears, seasoned it and put it in the oven to roast. This will provide sandwich meat for the kids for two weeks, at least. I will also have some for turkey and cranberry layered enchiladas at a later date (maybe Friday). Russell and I also had wonderful turkey sandwiches on seeded whole grain bread for dinner tonight.
I browned a 2 lb packet of ground beef, peeled and boiled some Yukon Gold potatoes, browned a pound of chorizo. Stoves do have 4 burners, so why not use them all at once? While the stove was busy, I grabbed the blender and made the sauce for the Youth Group dinner (see bottom of this post). As items on the stove were done I set them in the refrigerator. (Please remember basic food safety.)
Half of the ground beef went into a casserole (yup - still can be a casserole queen when I need to be) with frozen mixed vegetables, onions and sauce. I mashed part of the Yukon Gold to top the casserole for a Shepherd's Pie. It is resting in the refrigerator and Sawyer will pop it in the oven for dinner tomorrow. (I'll be at a late meeting and probably Zumba.) I seasoned the rest of the ground beef for taco salad for Thursday and popped it in the freezer.
I cooked three packets of fettucine for the Pasta in Spicy Peanut Sauce for Youth Group. Thank you Sawyer for helping!
Then I heated up a few breakfast sausages, grabbed the chorizo, cooked some egg beaters, shredded some cheddar, opened a can of green chiles and found some left over refried beans in the refrigerator. I now have 14 breakfast burritos individually wrapped, labeled with the ingredients and in the freezer.
I sliced the turkey and it is in bags in the refrigerator waiting for the kids to make sandwiches. It is so much better than the salty, deli turkey.
So while I feel like I lived in the kitchen this afternoon (at least I could watch the Packers while I cooked!) I know I will be providing nourishing, healthy meals instead of stopping my Sonic.
This week:
Monday - shepherd's pie
Tuesday - I do need to grab something quick and take to Pinnacle HS for the basketball games
Wednesday - Turkey with cornmeal dumplings
Thursday - Taco Salad
Friday - Grilled fish tacos with cabbage and cilantro.
Saturday - Italian Sausage and polenta with fresh vegetables
Sunday - Turkey and cranberry layered enchiladas
Pasta with Spicy Peanut Sauce
Blend together 4-5 cloves of garlic with about 1/2 cup of vegetable stock. Add juice of 2-4 limes, 3-4 TB lite soy sauce and thai red chili paste to taste. Add 1/2 cup (approximate) peanut butter and blend. The amounts can be varied depending on your preference as well as how many you are serving.
Saute vegetables, tofu (or chicken) -- I usually use carrots, tofu, peas, and broccoli. Cook pasta (I use what ever shape I have handy or let the kids choose the shape). Toss the veggies with the pasta and sauce. Top with chopped green onions, chopped peanuts and juliened cucumbers.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Spicy Shrimp with Lime/Cilantro Rice
This was a hit with the family tonight, and it took 20 minutes to cook which made it a winner for me!
Cook white rice according to directions. Add juice of 1 lime and lime zest after rice is cooked. Stir in chopped fresh cilantro (or 2 cubes of frozen cilantro)
While rice is cooking, clean, de-vein and rinse shrimp. Heat a small amount of olive oil in a saute pan. Liberally sprinkle the shrimp with ground cumin and minced garlic. Saute the shrimp. When the shrimp are cooked on one side, turn them over. As the shrimp finish cooking, add a can of diced green chiles and 1 1/2 cups of frozen corn.
Serve the shrimp over the rice. Squeeze additional lime juice over all as desired. You can also add several grape or cherry tomatoes as you serve the dish.
Cook white rice according to directions. Add juice of 1 lime and lime zest after rice is cooked. Stir in chopped fresh cilantro (or 2 cubes of frozen cilantro)
While rice is cooking, clean, de-vein and rinse shrimp. Heat a small amount of olive oil in a saute pan. Liberally sprinkle the shrimp with ground cumin and minced garlic. Saute the shrimp. When the shrimp are cooked on one side, turn them over. As the shrimp finish cooking, add a can of diced green chiles and 1 1/2 cups of frozen corn.
Serve the shrimp over the rice. Squeeze additional lime juice over all as desired. You can also add several grape or cherry tomatoes as you serve the dish.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Getting started
I have been asked by several friends to start a blog about food. For many years now, I have tried to create healthy meals for my family while not spending a fortune. There are some weeks I succeed and some that, quite frankly, it is too much work because life has a tendency to throw some curve balls our way.
On a good week, I grab the Wednesday paper on my way out the door in the morning. During lunch I look over the ads and see which stores have the best deals. I try NOT to have any store or brand loyalty! I grab my trusty 3 section spiral notebook and start taking notes in section #1. I make a heading on the page of each of the 4-5 grocery stores where I may be likely to shop. It might look something like this
Basha's Sunflower Fry's
tomato sauce (s) (c - contadina) berries ($2/pt) berries (1.50/pt)
I write down things I will likely buy and if one store has a killer deal, I will compare other items at that store to see if it is worth my time and gas to go to more than one store. I mark which items are on sale (s) as well as any items for which I have coupons (c). YES! This is can be very time consuming! I have made a game of this -- I challenge myself to see how much money I can save. I love it when the clerk smiles and says, "Thank you for shopping - your total is $65.92 and you saved ....wow... you saved $98.40!" Okay -- that doesn't happen every week, but it has happened!
The next step is to plan the weekly menu. Yup. PLAN, just like our lesson plans, folks. We have an idea what we are going to do, we gather our materials (groceries) and we try to stick to the plan! The menu goes into Section II of the spiral notebook. (That way, if the store is out of a crucial ingredient, I can see which day I need to adjust, quickly make a change at the store, and not have to order pizza on that night.) If I am ever stuck for something to cook, the first place I look is at past menus.
This week's menu (going back a bit since we were out of town):
12/29/10 Cheesy corn & potato chowder with bacon
12/30/10 Baked squash stuffed with apples & pecans, pork chops topped with onions &
lemons *** bake 2 extra chops
12/31/10 Lunch (yup - on days everyone is home, I try to plan and cook a healthy,
inexpensive lunch, too) Ground Beef & Barley Stew
Dinner - our News Year's Eve tradition of appetizers. (Junk food allowed) Nachos,
coconut shrimp, etc.
1/1/11 Pasta and chicken in spicy peanut sauce
1/2/11 Lunch - leftover barley stew & pasta
Dinner - Chicken fajitas (homemade marinade)
1/3/11 Chili - I cooked it at the same time I cooked the Barley stew as it has several
ingredients that are the same.
1/4/11 Shrimp with peppers and corn, served with lime rice
1/5/11 Red lentils & pork (cooked it when I did the Barley Stew, cut up the extra pork chops
and onions from 12/30 and added them, then popped them into the freezer. Just heat
up!)
1/6/11 Parmesan chicken breasts with salad and mandarin oranges.
1/7/11 Spicy orange chicken with potstickers. (frozen from Trader Joe's or Costco. -- I have
made my own, but didn't have time this week.)
The third section of the notebook -- is where I keep copies of the receipts (you need a feel good moment on occasion - look how much you are saving!) I also keep track of the monthly food expenditures. Sometimes I also just write down notes about what was good and what didn't go over so well with the family!
I will post tips and recipes later. I hope you find this helpful.
And my disclaimer - I am not a nutritionist. I am not a financial adviser. I am a busy, working mom who is trying to make ends meet.
On a good week, I grab the Wednesday paper on my way out the door in the morning. During lunch I look over the ads and see which stores have the best deals. I try NOT to have any store or brand loyalty! I grab my trusty 3 section spiral notebook and start taking notes in section #1. I make a heading on the page of each of the 4-5 grocery stores where I may be likely to shop. It might look something like this
Basha's Sunflower Fry's
tomato sauce (s) (c - contadina) berries ($2/pt) berries (1.50/pt)
I write down things I will likely buy and if one store has a killer deal, I will compare other items at that store to see if it is worth my time and gas to go to more than one store. I mark which items are on sale (s) as well as any items for which I have coupons (c). YES! This is can be very time consuming! I have made a game of this -- I challenge myself to see how much money I can save. I love it when the clerk smiles and says, "Thank you for shopping - your total is $65.92 and you saved ....wow... you saved $98.40!" Okay -- that doesn't happen every week, but it has happened!
The next step is to plan the weekly menu. Yup. PLAN, just like our lesson plans, folks. We have an idea what we are going to do, we gather our materials (groceries) and we try to stick to the plan! The menu goes into Section II of the spiral notebook. (That way, if the store is out of a crucial ingredient, I can see which day I need to adjust, quickly make a change at the store, and not have to order pizza on that night.) If I am ever stuck for something to cook, the first place I look is at past menus.
This week's menu (going back a bit since we were out of town):
12/29/10 Cheesy corn & potato chowder with bacon
12/30/10 Baked squash stuffed with apples & pecans, pork chops topped with onions &
lemons *** bake 2 extra chops
12/31/10 Lunch (yup - on days everyone is home, I try to plan and cook a healthy,
inexpensive lunch, too) Ground Beef & Barley Stew
Dinner - our News Year's Eve tradition of appetizers. (Junk food allowed) Nachos,
coconut shrimp, etc.
1/1/11 Pasta and chicken in spicy peanut sauce
1/2/11 Lunch - leftover barley stew & pasta
Dinner - Chicken fajitas (homemade marinade)
1/3/11 Chili - I cooked it at the same time I cooked the Barley stew as it has several
ingredients that are the same.
1/4/11 Shrimp with peppers and corn, served with lime rice
1/5/11 Red lentils & pork (cooked it when I did the Barley Stew, cut up the extra pork chops
and onions from 12/30 and added them, then popped them into the freezer. Just heat
up!)
1/6/11 Parmesan chicken breasts with salad and mandarin oranges.
1/7/11 Spicy orange chicken with potstickers. (frozen from Trader Joe's or Costco. -- I have
made my own, but didn't have time this week.)
The third section of the notebook -- is where I keep copies of the receipts (you need a feel good moment on occasion - look how much you are saving!) I also keep track of the monthly food expenditures. Sometimes I also just write down notes about what was good and what didn't go over so well with the family!
I will post tips and recipes later. I hope you find this helpful.
And my disclaimer - I am not a nutritionist. I am not a financial adviser. I am a busy, working mom who is trying to make ends meet.
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