Menu planning is going more smoothly for me this week. I am starting to get used to it and enjoy it! I kind of think about it all week and I try to have a loose idea by Saturday, then by Monday it is on paper (or weblog!)
I forgot to finish my menu planning before I went to the grocery yesterday, so I had to make do with what I had on hand.
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So, here is my wrap up from last week:
Saturday: Grilled Tilapia Sandwich with sweet potato fries (My hubby just puts a few spices in aluminum foil, grills the tilapia and I made a creole mayo mix. I cut up sweet potatoes in thin strips, mix w/ olive oil, salt and pepper and cook at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes)
It went perfectly! We used each planned meal and had leftovers each day from dinner the night before. So easy…
Also, has anyone every tried the food processor called The Magic Bullet? Well, I got one on clearance at Walgreens a few months ago and never tried it until last week. Wow, have I been missing out. Since I haven’t seen any good deals on baby food lately I decided to try and puree a few things and see if he liked them. We made the Chicken n’ Dumplings and he just didn’t like the consistency of it, so I pureed it with some water and green beans. He ate two helpings of it! So, I pureed the rest and put it into my plastic Gerber containers that I collect, labeled them and stuck them in the freezer. I am going to try some different fruit combo’s this week and see how those go. Anyone else got ideas on things to do for baby food?
For breakfast, we tried a new smoothie this week with toast, it was Peanut Butter Banana Smoothies and they were sooo good. My daughter LOVES peanut butter, she tries to get a spoonful every hour. So, these had all our food groups and my son loved it too. Also a great afternoon snack!
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My Plan for this week:
Sunday:
(Lunch) Leftovers (Daddy Date to the Circus after church)
(Dinner) Thai Coconut Chicken Soup (College Inn Thai Chicken Broth I got on good deal, recipe below) I am using the leftover chicken from my Chicken n’ Dumplins meal last week. This soup is one of our favorites!
Monday: Free Dinner Out (I’ll be telling you more about this later!)
Tuesday: Crockpot Spaghetti & Meatballs , green salad, and homemade wheat bread (I might have to cook meatballs in pan first to brown, not sure) These are meatballs from Kroger Mega Match Sale last week.
Wednesday: Spinach, Brown Rice, and Cheese Casserole, fruit, homemade wheat bread
Thursday: Meatball Sandwich (meatballs from Monday’s spaghetti dinner) Hoagies, w/ meatballs and provolone
Friday: Pizza & Movie Night (I’ll probably make my homemade pizza again, see Christina’s great dough recipe below w/ homemade sauce ) I usually just cook 1 or 2 pizzas and roll the rest of the dough out and freeze it for the next week.
Saturday: Not sure, I think we are having friends over.
Breadmaker Pizza Dough
1 1/3 cup water
2 t. sugar
1 1/4 t. salt
2 T olive oil
2 T corn meal
3 cups flour (I do 1 cup whole wheat)
1 t. baking powder
1 1/4 t. garlic & onion powders (each)
1 T. yeast (breadmaker yeast)Place all wet ingredients first, then put in all dry ingredients. Yeast goes in last, make a little well in the flour (dry ingredients) and put yeast in it. Set on dough cycle. Usually takes about 1.5 hours.
My revisions to the soup:
- Frozen broccoli (thaw in microwave)
- Frozen Fresh Ginger: I buy a ginger root, peel and freeze it to keep on hand. Then I use my microplane while it is frozen to grate it for soups and stuff.
- Coconut Milk: I omitted
Thai Chicken Soup
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup broccoli florets
1/2 cup diced carrots
2 tsp. grated fresh ginger
1/2 tsp. curry powder
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1/2 cup thin spaghetti or angel hair, broken into 2 inch pieces
1 carton COLLEGE INN Thai Coconut Curry Broth
1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
1 cup light coconut milk (optional)
1 cup chopped or shredded cooked chicken (optional)1. Cook onion, broccoli, carrots, ginger, curry, red pepper flakes in oil in large saucepan, 3 minutes. Add noodles, broth and lime juice.
2. Bring to boil, reduce heat. Simmer about 5-7 minutes or until noodles are tender. Stir in coconut milk and chicken; heat through.
Go here to see more menu planning ideas.
I LOVE the Magic Bullet! My mom got one for me while I was pregnant and I used it to make all of my baby food. I still use it to puree certain vegetables that I “sneak” into my regular meals, but don’t tell my husband! :0) It’s also great for grinding nuts, coffee beans…even those tiny little flax seeds.
This is ours. I hope we don’t go over budget at the grocery store this week. I need a lot of incidentals!
Monday: Crock Pot BBQ Pork Ribs
• Baked Beans
• Corn on the cob
• Sandwich Buns
• Pear Tart
Tuesday: Tyler’s Guys Night Out
• Frozen Manicotti
• Salad
• Homemade Bread
Wednesday: Meatloaf
• Dill Potatoes
• Frozen Peas
Thursday: Church Small Group Night
• Mom & Dad: SteamFresh Chicken
• Boys: Macaroni and Cheese
• Homemade Bread
• Fruit
Friday: Chicken Enchiladas
• Pinto Beans
• Rice
Saturday: Tyler’s dinner meeting
• Homemade Pizzas
• Spinach and Garlic Salad
• Fruit
Sunday: Hamburgers
• Sweet Potato Fries
After experimenting a lot with Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious cookbook, I had so many extra purees on hand that I started just using them as baby food for my 8 month old. The purees are a much better consistency for my child than any of the stage 2 baby foods (which I find runny and I was adding rice cereal to all of them to thicken them up…which was constipating the baby). Anyway, my Cuisinarts (I have a std. size and a mini-prep) are my new fave kitchen gadgets. I just steam veggies in my rice cooker/steamer, then puree them for a/b 2 min. Anyway, her faves to date are sweet potatoes, early peas (I use frozen ones), spaghetti squash, and zucchini. Three that I didn’t expect her to like, but she loves are cauliflower, cantaloupe and avocado. I’ve been storing them in my left over breast milk storage freezer bags b/c they stand up easily in my freezer door. And it’s so much cheaper than jarred foods!
On another baby note, does anyone have any tips for best Pampers or Similac deals? I’m trying to put together my “per unit” pricing chart so I have an idea. I’ve always thought of bigger is a better deal (i.e. Costco or jumbo diaper boxes at Babies “r Us, but after your class, I’m not sure that’s the case).
Do you make your homemade wheat bread in a breadmaker? Maybe you could post this recipe some time. I’ve tried a couple different recipes, but they seemed dry to me. Thanks!
we do pizza and movie night too, although we do it on mondays when redbox has free codes 🙂
yes i love the magic bullet. i did not use baby food either for my 12 month old. i just took what we were having for dinner and put it in the magic bullet. he is now such a good eater and loves all kinds of spices and foods. i also use it to sneak veggies into snack food for my 4 year old since he won’t eat anything and can get him to eat spinach in granola bars and pumpkin in pancakes. Thanks so much for the class…i came with my sister jennie witherspoon and really enjoyed it and have had two great publix trips!!!
I’m going to have to try your dough recipe – I’ve been experimenting with wheat and white combined and haven’t found THE ONE:) The sauce sounds pretty traditional too – I’ll give that one a whirl – the one I tried last week was yummy to me (chunky tomatoey…yummmm.) but my husband loves more traditional. Thanks for the recipes! I’ll let you know how it goes.