Weekly Meal Plan 3/25 to 3/31: Feeding The Family

 I tried to update the last meal plan with photos, but some I accidently deleted and one day, I completely forgot what I cooked.  The two-week meal plan didn't really make things easier or save me any money.  The only bonus there was that I had more food on hand and could switch up my meal plan when I needed to, and I seemed to need to quite often the last 2 weeks.  

The oldest was home from college, so I tried to stay off the computer and just enjoy his company.  He leaves for school again tomorrow.  I know he'll be home again in a few months, but I will miss him.

This week I'm going back to a one-week meal plan as that is the system that seems to work best for me.

Friday:  Pierogi, Hot Dogs, and left-over Clam Chowder (the Pierogi were from a Ukranian church in our area and were for a fundraiser organized by the high school to benefit the people of Ukraine.  They raised over $22,000 for Ukraine). Today is the Solemnity of Annunciation which makes it a "meat" Friday, even during Lent.

Saturday:  Tacos

These are blue corn taco shells.  I didn't burn them.

Sunday:  gf pasta with chicken Italian sausage and mushrooms, rolls

Jovial foods gluten free pasta

Monday:  gf Mac N Cheese and veg (meatless Monday)

Tuesday:  BBQ Chicken Salad, rolls (pg 177 of The Food Nanny Saves Dinner...Again cookbook)

I made homemade ranch because my egg allergic son can't eat prepackaged ranch.  I just used sour cream, ranch seasoning, and thinned with milk.

Wednesday:  Tamale Casserole, rolls, salad (pg 71 of the same cookbook)  I ran out of butter (shame on me) so I had to regroup and I made Mongolian Beef bowls, but I only had 1.33 pounds of beef which wasn't going to feed everyone so I mixed the beef in with rice and veggies.

Thursday:  Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

Have a blessed week!!

Weekly Meal Plan 3/11/22 to 3/24/22: Feeding the Family

 I tried something new this week.  I did a 2-week meal plan vs a 1 week.  I was hoping to save money, but I'm not sure that is going to be the case.  I guess the good news is that it cuts down on my meal prep time. The bad news is that my family eats too much and I'm not sure I'm saving time and money.  But we shall see.

Friday:  Slow Cooker Tomato Basil Soup  and grilled cheese (on Aldi Sourdough Bread... so good!  GF flat bread grilled cheese for J)

Saturday:  General Tso's Chicken from Skinny Taste.  I modified this for our family and our food allergies.  I left out the egg and made sure the soy sauce and hoisin sauce were gluten free.  J has never had Chinese takeout, so I really wanted to do something special.  I also used jasmine rice, because my guys are not a fan of cauli rice.

Sunday:  Slow Cooker Pot Roast with Potatoes and Carrots

Monday:  Baked Salmon, Garlic Roasted Potatoes, and Green Beans

Tuesday:  Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos

Wednesday:  Hamburgers on the grill, Vegetables  Clam Chowder 

Thursday:  Slow Cooker Corned Beef, Sauteed Cabbage, Potatoes

Friday:  St Patrick Irish Cheddar Soup, baked fish, and rolls

Saturday:  Eating Out (It's a surprise for the kids)   We were going to eat out, but we called the restaurant that we had eaten at last time we were downtown (pre-Covid) and they can no longer cook for food allergies.  No problem.  We had burgers on the grill before we headed out to the Cavs game.

Sunday:  Easy White Wine Sunday Chicken (from The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner...Again cookbook.  I want to buy these books, but I can't find them reasonably priced, so I got this one from the library), Vegetable, Salad

Monday:  Old School Hamburger Stew (Same Food Nanny cookbook)

Tuesday:  Chicken Parm, vegetable, salad

Wednesday:  Clam Chowder, salad, rolls  😂 I can't remember 

Thursday:  Tamale Casserole (from the Food Nanny)  Chick Fil A takeout.

The second week, I'm making several recipes from the Food Nanny cookbook because I just got it from the library (after a 2 month wait list).  I will try and come back and post "after" photos of all the meals I make.  The oldest will be home from college for spring break so I'm trying to make filling, comfort food.  

I really want to get our grocery prices down, but I spent $291 at Aldi last week and I HAVE NEVER spent that much at Aldi...not even at Christmas time.  Prices have skyrocketed and I'm trying to work with that.  I know that if you are reading this, you are in the same boat.  All we can do it try to feed our families the best we can, within our budgets.  

Have a blessed and wonderful week!!

Weekly Meal Plan 1/28/22 to 2/3/22: Feeding the Family

Last week's meal plan got completely blown out of the water.  We have a wrestler in the family, and last week his coach changed his weight class and our wrestler needed to cut 10 pounds.  That made all of my meals with cheese or cream, or beef obsolete.  So, I pivoted.  And that's the beauty of meal planning.  You have food in the house, you may just have to change how you use it depending on changes that occur during the week.  Usually, it's a schedule change that causes me to pivot, but last week was a new one for me.  This child is still cutting weight, so you'll notice that this week's meal plan is heavy on chicken.  They told him to concentrate on eating chicken or eggs, and since he's anaphylactic to eggs, we stuck with chicken.

Friday:  Leftovers for the wrestler, and the rest of us ate out due to a late indoor baseball practice.

Saturday:  Chicken Au Champagne, baked potato, and vegetable

Sunday:  Chicken Italian Sausage and Peppers in Rao's low sugar marinara sauce

Monday:  Teriyaki Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry with gluten free ramen noodles

Tuesday:  Hot Dogs and Veggies (requested by the wrestler)

Wednesday:  Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

Thursday:  Chicken and veggie sheet pan meal

Lunches:  Italian Wedding Soup (meatballs made with no egg, gf breadcrumbs, and ground chicken)

Breakfast:  Cinnamon toast for the 9-year-old and egg and cheese sandwiches (in the freezer) for the hubby.

This is a very chicken heavy meal plan.  I tried to keep it interesting and tasty while keeping it low fat/low carb for the wrestler.  Any meal that included carbs were for the others and the wrestler had the option to eat them or not.

For most of next week, he'll be at an overnight retreat, so our meal plan should look a bit different.

Have a blessed week!!

Weekly Meal Plan 1/14/22-1/20/22: Feeding The Family

 

Friday:  Slow Cooker Tomato Basil Soup and Grilled Cheese Sammys (instead of the Grilled Cheese Croutons in the soup recipe)

Saturday:  Dinner at Grandma's (postponed Christmas celebration)

Sunday:  Hamburgers on the grill (hopefully before the snowstorm hits), roasted potatoes, veg

Monday:  Chicken Parmigiana (gf, egg free), gf pasta, salad

Tuesday:  Slow Cooker Korean Tacos

Wednesday:  Slow Cooker Spicy Chicken and Rice Bowls

Thursday:  Slow Cooker Beef Serloin Tips and Gravy, potatoes, veg

All recipes are adapted to be safe for allergies to wheat, rye, barley, oat, egg, peanut, and tree nut

Stay safe out there friends.  Between the snow, the tsunami warning, and the tornadoes down south, I'm praying for you!

The Best of 2020: Recipe Addition

Of all the things 2020 gave us, we seemed to get a renewed interest in cooking, gardening, and apparently making sourdough bread.  While I didn't personally make sourdough bread, I did do a lot of cooking.  The following are some of my favorite NEW recipes from 2020.

1.  Mississippi Chicken by Plain Chicken
It's just got a good flavor and is so juicy.  

2.  Sticky, Sweet, and Spicy Meatballs from Our Happy Mess
I call these sriracha meatballs.  I use gluten free panko crumbs and skip the egg to make these allergy friendly for our family.  I like to serve them over brown rice with steamed broccoli on the side.
  
3.  Greek Turkey and Rice Skillet from Budget Bytes
This is a good "bulk" meal to feed my hungry men.  It can be done cost effective and fills up their bellies.  The olives and the feta give it great flavor.  

4.  Easy Taco Mac from Maebell's Simply Easy Recipes.
Another good bulk meal.  My people love all things "taco".  This more than fits the bill and again, can be done economically.  

5.  Triple Decker Club Sandwich from Oh Sweet Basil
I'm not sure why I don't think of sandwiches for dinner more often, but I don't.  I make these to everyone's taste.  One is allergic to mayo so I leave that off for him.  Two don't like avocados so I leave those off for them and give extra avocado to the child obsessed with them.  Sandwiches can be quick and are great in the summer when it's hot out and you don't feel like cooking.

6. Fast and Easy Pesto Lasagna from Food & Wine
I used a nut free jarred Pesto sauce, gluten free lasagna noodles, and skipped the egg.  Easy and allergy friendly.

7.  Smothered Philly Cheese Cube Steak from Melissa's  Southern Style Kitchen
We bought a quarter cow last year and it came with cube steaks.  I never used cube steaks before and didn't have a clue what to do with them.  This recipe was a real crowd pleaser.  I used gluten free buns for the child with food allergies.  Just be careful if you put buns under the broiler.  They go FAST and I incinerated the first batch.

Some Extras:

8.  Pressure Cooker Beans from A Mindfull Mom
I ALWAYS forget to soak the beans.  With this recipe, you don't have to.  

9.  Teriyaki Sauce from The Genuine Table
I have a hard time finding allergy friendly teriyaki sauce.  Now I can just make my own.

10.  Sweet and Spicy Asian Coleslaw
We did garden this year.  And I got several giant cabbage.  Two children refuse to eat cabbage and one of those children has the food allergies.  I made the recipe as is, but if he liked cabbage, I would have subbed the mayo with a vegan version.  

You can find photos of most of these over on The Prayer, Grace, and Tea Instagram

I would like to give a BIG THANK YOU to all the workers of Giant Eagle Curbside and Delivery, Instacart Pick Up and Delivery, and Walmart Store Pick Up for all their hard work keeping us in food this year.  I am so grateful to you for all your hard work when I either couldn't get into the store or didn't feel safe going into the store.  My son works in the meat department of Giant Eagle so I know exactly how hard you all worked and what you had to go through.  THANK YOU!

Four Days Until Christmas

 It's December 21 and things are hopping around here.  Cards are out, most of the presents are wrapped (but not all... I'm still working on that), I hope to start cookies today, all the food is purchased for Christmas Eve and Christmas day, and all recipes are ready and accounted for.  I'd say I feel organized, but that would be a lie. Does anyone ever feel organized this close to Christmas?  If you do, God Bless You.

I've been stock piling food for Christmas for a few weeks now.  I bought anything that is frozen (fish) a few weeks ago.  I ordered the large gluten free pasta shells from Amazon around Thanksgiving (for stuffed shells Christmas Eve), I picked up most of the fresh items this past week.  Except for fruit, I think I'm all set.

The hardest thing to find this year was the baccala.  Our grocery stores didn't have it.  By chance, I happened to see on Instagram that a local Italian grocery store had some in stock.  I called on Thursday to order some, and I planned to pick it up on Friday in between some doctor appointments that we had.  I picked it up at 11:30 on Friday, along with some cheese, chocolate, and a bottle of wine for Christmas.  The place was PACKED.  Apparently they do a phenomenal take out business at lunch.  It smelled heavenly in there.  I will be back after the holidays to try some take out.  I got home and started unloading my groceries and there was no fish.  WHERE WAS THE FISH??  Apparently my items went in two bags, not one and the place was so chaotic that I didn't notice.  I called and they still had my fish.  So back I drove 20 minutes to the store get the fish for a second time.  A little old Italian lady rang up my groceries and she remembered me when I came in.  She shook her head at me, so I said "And here I thought I was being organized".  Her response was "You need to slow down, honey".  She's probably right.  (Aren't old Italian ladies always right?)


Menu:

Christmas Eve

Fish on Christmas Eve is my husbands tradition, and I don't really eat fish so I buy it and he fries it.  There's only 4 people eating fish so we do a scaled down version of the "Feast of the Seven Fishes". We have smelts, calamari, and baccala in the fryer. We also have shrimp for shrimp cocktail.  Since I don't eat fish, I usually make a pasta dish too.  The last few years it's been lasagna, but this year I thought I'd make cheese stuffed shells.  Then we usually have several different cheeses to go with it. Christmas Eve is one of my favorite celebrations of the year.  I enjoy it even more the Christmas Day.  There's just something so magical about Christmas Eve.

Christmas Day

1.  Breakfast - The last several years I've done lox and bagels for Christmas morning breakfast.  The boys love their smoked salmon.  I stick with the bagels only.  This year I've decided to add in a this slow cooker copy cat Cracker Barrel hash brown recipe .  I'm doing au gratin potatoes with dinner, so this may be too many cheesy potatoes for one day so I'm still rolling it around in my mind.  I would love to do an egg casserole, but J is allergic to eggs (wheat, rye, barley, oat, eggs, peanuts, and tree nuts) so that is out.  

Speaking of allergies, I have a hard time finding bagels for him so I tried this bagel recipe from Skinny Taste yesterday and it came out great!  He really liked them.  My technique could use some work, but I'm just glad to be able to make bagels for him. Instead of the egg whites, I substituted Ener-G egg replacer and I used King Arthur Gluten Free Measure for Measure Flour. 

2. Dinner - Usually we have ham for Christmas, but due to Covid, my husbands company didn't have a Christmas party this year, so they are giving everyone a standing rib roast.  I have never made a standing rib roast before, so this should be interesting.  My plan is to have the rib roast, au gratin potatoes, green beans, left over fish/shells from the night before.  I'm not a big beef eater, but I'm willing to try it.  Fingers crossed that I can cook it without over cooking it.  
recipes to use:

Standing Rib Roast from Recipe Tin Eats

I've made au gratin potatoes for so many years that I don't really use a recipe, but this recipe from Tastes Better From Scratch is close to what I do.

Southern Style Green Beans from Spicy Southern Kitchen

So this is it.  These are the plans but I know that plans don't always come off without a hitch so I'm prepared to be flexible.  

I hope you are all coming along with your holiday plans and that they come off without a hitch!

A Thankful Month

 I can't believe we are moving into mid-November.  I feel like Christmas is right around the corner (and I am SO trying not to stress about it...  I will not be stressed this Christmas.  I will be a bucket of  peace and calmness...).

This is also the month for Catholics to remember the ones that we've lost (All Souls Day is in the beginning of the month, but we can carry this through all month long).  We currently have a bowl on the kitchen counter with any prayer cards of friends and family that we have lost and a list of names for those we have lost but don't have cards for.  It's a reminder to keep praying for them and to keep praying for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

I sat down this morning and wrote out my Thanksgiving menu and my grocery list.  I usually start cooking the Tuesday before (making the cranberries and the gluten free bread for the stuffing).  Pie, sweet potato casserole, and green bean casserole are done on Wednesday.  And I save the Brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes, and turkey for Thursday.  I feel less stressed doing this in steps and with a plan.  All of this needs to be free of wheat, rye, barley, oat, egg, peanut, and tree nut.  I've been doing it for so many years that it's not a problem, but when I first started out, things came out not so well but everyone was kind enough to not complain.  My biggest issue is usually the gluten free, egg free pie crust.  There was one year where it took me 3 hours to get the pie to a point that it would be edible.  And then I accidentally dropped it on the floor while taking it out of the oven.  It was a sad, sad day.  So I had to start all over again at 9 pm making a whole new pie.  Thankfully the movie Gone With The Wind was on that night to help get me through.

Christmas music started on Sirius XM November 1st.  While I have been thankful for that, it has taken my kids a few weeks to come around.  But they are into it now too.  I'm considering putting up one of our Christmas trees this week too.  I know it's a tad early, but I am SO READY!!  I've been watching Hallmark Christmas movies since they started also.  Being the only female in the house, I can honestly say that I truly am the only one thankful for the Hallmark Christmas movies.  But we have enough TV's in the house that it all works out fine.

Last week, I started to buy a few things for Christmas.  Just for the boys.  I have a list, but they change their minds on things so frequently, that I don't want to do too much yet.

I also bought a few new Christmas-y smelling candles last week.  I LOVE scented candles and I usually buy my candles from Yankee Candle, but this year I thought I had a gift card to Bath and Body Works (turned out it was for Bed, Bath and Beyond... I should learn to read better) so I went there and am going to try their 3 wick candles which I have not tried before.  They were on sale, so I hope I like them and that they have good "throw".

I still have to do the family Christmas card.  I usually make it on one of those "online photo sharing sites".  But I'm not sure exactly what I want to do yet.  I was thinking that if I put up the small tree, maybe I could gather the boys around it and take a photo and use that.  I usually use ones that we took throughout the year, but I feel like it's gotten old and maybe we need to mix it up a bit.  Whatever I'm going to do, I better figure it out soon because I usually send out the cards the first week of December.

So that's the current happenings in a nut shell.  I'm just trying to remember to be thankful for everything this month.  I hope it becomes more of habit and I will remember all the things to be thankful for EVERY month.

Links:

My Pinterest Thanksgiving Recipe Board

Bath and Body Works 3 wick candle page

Hallmark Countdown to Christmas 2018

My favorite turkey roaster from Granite Ware (Walmart link)  I have a small version of this that I use for roasting chicken too.  They are great and they clean up very well.

More about November and the month of the Holy Souls in Purgatory from CatholicCulture.org

(these are NOT affiliate links and I get no compensation for sharing them. I'm just sharing some things that I like)

Confirmation

The middle son made his Confirmation yesterday.  Our church still does Confirmation in eighth grade (many others have changed the age to high school).  We had 72 Confirmandi.  It was wonderful to see so many young people receive the Holy Spirit. 

Afterward we all went out to eat.  He has numerous life threatening food allergies so this is not something we do often.  We have a hard time finding a restaurant that can or is willing to cook safely for him.  Luckily, we found one.  We had a lovely dinner with family and the best part of that my son was able to eat safely and not have to bring his own food from home.

Catching Up

Well, February has come and gone and I haven't made it here once.  February was a busy, but good month.

My oldest turned 16.  I can't believe he's 16 now.  Wasn't he just born, like 5 minutes ago?  Oh my, it sure seems that way.  Time goes too fast (I say this A LOT lately, but it's so darn true).  He took his classroom driving instruction in January, and had his first in car class today.  Part of me is looking forward to him getting his license, but a bigger part of me is scared.  There's so many new worries to go a long with the drivers license.  But I can't hold him back.  I just have to put it in God's hands and pray a lot more.

Lent started February 14.  I gave up a few things and added in a few things and feel like I'm failing miserably at Lent this year.  I had such good intentions.  But the road to hell is paved with good intentions.  I have a month to do better and to make the most of this Lenten season.

My middle son makes his Confirmation in one week.  We'd like to take him out to dinner, but because of his multiple food allergies, eating out is very difficult.  We are going to call a few places this week to see if any of them can serve him safely. 

Wresting ended last weekend.  He didn't win a single match this season, but since this was his first time wrestling, I didn't really expect him too.  He was disappointed, but he's the type of kid that thinks he can just show up and things will happen.  Other than practices, he didn't really put in any outside work.  I hope he finds the lesson in going the extra mile.  I'm sure it would have made a difference.

There were some family health issues, but everyone is on the mend.

And that was February in a nut shell.

We just got upgraded internet on Friday, and things are moving much better now.  It will certainly make it easier for me to get on the computer and blog more.  I tried to blog from my phone, but that didn't work very well.  Before the new internet, it was very slow and very tedious.  I feel like I'm flying now.  Hopefully it stays this way!