Menu Plan 1-13-23 to 1-19-23: Feeding the Family

 Well, all of the Christmas decorations are down, inside and outside.  The house was so dusty.  Yuck.  This is the last week that the big boys will be home until spring break.  They head back to school this weekend.  I am going to miss having them home.  We all will.  Little brother is already getting sad.  They will be home in March, but only for a week.  Then we plan to head to college for Easter since it's not a recognized holiday and they don't get time off.  If you have little kids, cherish that time.  I know how hard having little kids at home can be.  I really do remember.  But I find it harder to have them leave.  It's just so different.  

This weeks menu plan:

Friday: One Pot Creamy Sun-dried Tomato Pasta (I used gluten free pasta and it worked fine)

Saturday:  Homemade pizza (wheat and gluten free)

Sunday:  Saucy Hungarian Red Potato Goulash This was a huge hit!  I used Raddell's Polish sausage

Monday: Slow Cooker Chicken Philly Cheesesteaks

Tuesday:  Tacos

Wednesday: Red beans and rice with chicken sausage

Thursday:  Clean up Day

Saturdays pizza was very good.  I didn't get a photo because the puppy had an allergic reaction to something (we think something outside, but don't know) and we ended up in the emergency pet ER.  She's on Benadryl and they gave her a steroid and she's doing better.

Yes, doggies get hives too

Poor baby with swollen eyes

Daisy and I decided to walk for St. Jude with month.  It's 40 miles for the month of January.  We are up to 29.14 miles.  We didn't walk on Sunday, but I took her back out today and she is feeling better and we were able to get our walk in.  

You can track our progress HERE

Have a blessed week ahead!!

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 3/4/22 to 3/10/22: Feeding the Family

 

Happy first week of Lent!  I hope your Lent is off to a great start.  I got my Lenten free up over this weekend.  I wanted to do on Wednesday, but this week was busier than normal, so it had to wait.

Weekly Meal Plan (including meatless Mondays and Fridays for Lent)

Friday:  Mediterranean Tuna Salad, rolls

Saturday:  Garlic Butter Chicken Bites and Asparagus  I did not plan on making this.  I planned on making sweet and sour chicken but by dinner time, I just didn't feel like frying chicken.  I just wanted something I could throw in the oven.  The family loved this.  It probably went over better, than the original recipe I was going to use.

Sunday:  Creamy Tomato Gnocchi Oh my was this good!  I used gluten free gnocchi to keep it was for allergies.  This was a belly bomber of a dinner and perfect for Sunday family dinners.  I served it was a salad and rolls.

Monday:  Baked fish with greek salad, rolls

Tuesday:  Turkey Tacos

Wednesday:  Korean Ground Beef Bowls

Thursday:  Clean-up Day. 

 There was nothing to clean up, so I made Jose Guevara's Gallo Pinto from The Blue Zones Kitchen cookbook by Dan Buettner and I added in a pound of mild Italian sausage to give it some "oomph" for my guys.

Do you have any favorite meatless recipe that you can share? 

Have a blessed week!!  

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!