We had a lovely, low key 4th with friends.  After today’s morning run to H-Mart and Wegmans, I am ready to cook this week’s Meal Plan.

• High Pockets Chicken Pasta (with lemons and grape tomatoes)
• Shrimp Tacos with Cilantro-Lime Sour Cream
• Rachael Ray’s Spicy Stewed Zucchini over corkscrew (Rotini)  pasta
• Ground Beef Tacos/Taco Salad x2 (an extra meal for  a friend)
• Chicken Fajitas with PW’s Pico De Gallo and Guacamole

See more Menu Planning Ideas at Org Junkie.

I’m late getting to my meal plan, since we started our week with a trip to Dutch Wonderland.  Here’s what the rest of the week looks like:

• Tuesday – Two Step Chicken Picante with brown rice, edamame and corn
• Wednesday – Slow Cooker Pulled Pork BBQ (w/Trader Joe’s BBQ sauce),  Cornbread Casserole, Greek Salad, and PW’s Texas Sheet Cake
• Thursday – Tacos/Salad
• Friday – homemade pizza
• Saturday – leftovers TBD

Get more meal planning inspiration at OrgJunkie.com

Busy week here – trying to eat a lot on a teeny tiny food budget.  Mostly shopping from the freezer and pantry.

• Sunday – chicken nuggets, potato salad, and peas & corn
• Monday – Rachel Ray’s Sloppy Joes + salad
• Tuesday – Birthday Dinner!  By request:  Hot Dogs (and roasted chicken) + Baked Beans + Corn-on-the-Cob + Creamed Spinach + Rocket Ship Birthday Cake!
• Wednesday -  Basil Risotto with Seared Scallops
• Thursday – RR’s Spicy Stewed Zucchini w/chick peas over pasta
• Friday – breakfast for dinner and/or quiche
• Saturday – Rookie Cookie’s Chicken Enchiladas – a variation of Tyler Florence’s recipe

As always, I’m sure a few of these items will fall by the wayside, but this gives me a good framework.

See more menu planning ideas at Org Junkie.

So far, this menu plan thing is working pretty good.  My goal would be to make sure we have at least one meal with beef/pork, one (or more) chicken, one seafood/fish, and one veggie.  These are the dinners I’m planning for this week:

• Honey Garlic Spare Ribs
• Chinese Cashew Chicken
• Grilled Tilapia with Mango Salsa
• Breakfast for dinner – homemade whole grain pancakes waffles, omelets and bacon
• Ham & Spinach Quiche
• Homemade Pizza

My first time participating in Menu Plan Monday, which is hosted by Org Junkie.   I confess, I’m not usually good about planning out the whole week, I tend to buy the stuff we like that happens to be on sale and figure out meals as we go.   Anywho, Mike & I are excited about this week’s eatings.  In no particular order, we will be having the following dinners:

• Chicken Enchiladas + Restaurant Style Salsa (we had this last night, YUM!)
• Mom’s Oh So Good Tilapia + broccoli — an easy, delicious dish even the kids like!
• Chicken Fajitas + Guacamole — trying this marinade for the first time
• Beef Tacos / Taco Salad — the kids love plain ole tacos.  Hubs & I love taco salad, especially with this homemade Catalina dressing
• Spicy Chinese Chicken — another new recipe.  The kids will probably hate the spice, but that just means more for me & DH!

As you can see, we like our tex-mex and our chicken!

Sam loves to learn how to do new things and loves to help in the kitchen.  I confess, I’m not always eager to have the kids underfoot, but Mike has been great about teaching them.  Sam and Wendy learned to crack eggs at a young age — I’m pretty sure he had Sam doing it by age 3.   Occasionally they get shell in the batter, but overall, they do a great job!

Anywho, one night Daddy was slated to work late and I declared a breakfast for dinner menu.  But I realized I had my hands full with waffle making and  making eggs, so I asked Sam if he wanted to learn how to make scrambled eggs.

He did a great job!  He was very careful and aware of what was hot on the stove (and I closely supervised).  The eggs were yummy, and I suspect they were all the more delicious because he made them himself.  He was so proud to tell his Daddy when Mike surprised us and showed up in time for dinner after all.

Wendy, my kindergartner, is a lunch bringer.   Her Dad packs her lunches most mornings, something I am eternally thankful for.  But she began to complain that she wanted a chance to buy her lunch at school occasionally, so we worked out a deal.

If she did a good job eating her lunch Mon – Thurs, we decided she could buy lunch on Fridays, typically pizza.  This has worked  pretty well for us – she makes more of a conscious effort to finish to eat everything in her lunch each day  (Mike is good about putting all kinds of healthy stuff in there), and she gets the reward of buying on Fridays.   Our school system participates in My School Bucks, so I was able to look online and review her spending.  Then I realized she was not only buying the pizza lunch for $2.50, but also purchasing ice cream for an additional $.90.

I wasn’t too thrilled about this, realizing she had carte blanche to buy a bunch of stuff that I’d rather her not have, so we worked out a deal.

If Wendy wants to buy a treat at school, the money for that is not to come out of our prepaid account, but out of her own “Spend Bank“.   This dovetails nicely with the money unit she’s been working with her class.  Friday mornings, she opens up her bank and counts out the amount of dimes and/or nickels that she needs.

I feel much happier about this because she’s learning that treats come at a cost and she’s the one sacrificing her own “fun money” to enjoy them.  At some point, she may feel like her money is too valuable and she’ll save it for other stuff.  At least, that’s the hope.  Or her “spend” bank will run dry and she’ll have to figure out another plan.

What’s your approach to lunch at school?

We had friends to dinner last week (note:  we’ve done more entertaining in February than we’ve done in the last six months, I think!) and I decided on a tex-mex themed menu.   Perhaps a risky choice, considering our guests are from the great state of Texas, but fortunately, everything turned out great.   Since it was so yummy (if I do say so myself), I thought I’d share my recipes with you.

The Menu:

• Chicken Enchiladas
• Spanish Rice
• Guacamole
• Salsa

Chicken Enchiladas

These are adapted from the Southern Living Cookbook, which we received as a wedding present 11+ years ago.  Apparently it’s no longer in print :(

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 (10 3/4 oz) can chicken broth
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 (8 oz)  carton sour cream (I used light)
• 2  (4 oz) cans chopped or diced green chilies
• 12 corn tortillas
• vegetable oil or butter for frying
• 1 cup cooked chicken, chopped or shredded  (I usually boil 2 frozen chicken breasts and chop it up)
• 2 cups (8 oz) shredded Monterey Jack cheese, divided (feel free to use other cheeses too)
• 3/4 cup chopped onion

Melt butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat; add flour, stirring til smooth.  Cook 1 minutes, stirring constantly.   Gradually add chicken broth and water.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened and bubbly.  Stir in sour cream and chopped peppers.   Pour up to  half of sauce into a lightly greased 12x8x2″ baking dish  (just enough to cover the bottom).  Set the rest aside for later.

Fry tortillas, one at a time, in a splash of oil or butter in a medium skillet – 5 seconds on each side, until tortillas are softened.  Drain on paper towels.

Set up the tortilla filling operation: I use 3 bowls, one with chicken, one with onion, and one with 3/4 cup cheese.  Fill tortillas – add 1 Tbsp each of chicken, cheese and onion.   Roll up tortillas and place, seam side down, in the prepared baking dish.  Pour remaining sour cream sauce over tortillas.

Bake, uncovered, at 425° for 20 minutes.  Sprinkle remaining 1 1/4 cup cheese on top  (I just sprinkle cheese generously across the top) and bake another 5 minutes, or until cheese melts.

Garnish with parsley and serve with Enchilada Relish*.

*The cookbook has a recipe for relish, but I much prefer to use a different salsa.

Restaurant Style Salsa

I discovered this recipe when my favorite blogger, Ree posted it on her Pioneer Woman site.  It is super delish and easy!  I do find that it runs pretty hot (good for hubby and I, not so much for the kids).  I’ve been omitting the jalapeno and using two regular cans of Rotel and find the spice is quite nice.

Spanish Rice

I’d never made Spanish rice before, but decided I needed something to round out my meal.  I found this recipe, “Spanish Rice II” on All Recipes and decided it would work well.  I made it as described and it was tasty.

Guacamole

We don’t really follow a recipe for guac anymore, but I’ll share what goes into ours.

Ingredients:

• 2 – 3 avocados
• a little chopped onion (~1/4 cup, preferably red/Spanish onion)
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
• kosher salt
• juice from half a lime
• fresh cilantro, chopped
• some grape tomatoes, cut up

I don’t do exact measurements.  We just scoop out a couple of avocados, and mash them – not to a pulp.  Then add the other ingredients and mix it up.  Simple, but tasty!

All in all, everything turned out great and it was a nice evening with friends.  My only regret is that I only took a picture of the table, and not the people it was set for!

Over the blizzard break, I had some time on my hands, so I decided to make the latest recipe for my bread making club.  The “formula” was for Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread and was surprisingly easy and delish.   One of the nice things about the recipe is that it doesn’t call for a bunch of unusual or hard-to-find ingredients – I had everything I needed, already in my house, except for the buttermilk, which I faked.  Here’s the recipe:

Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread

from Peter Reinhart’s “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice”
makes two 1 1/2 lb loaves

3 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
4 tsp granulated sugar
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp instant yeast (I used 2.5 tsp active dry yeast)
1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 large egg, slightly beaten
2 Tbsp shortening, melted or at room temp
1/2 cup buttermilk or whole milk, at room temp
3/4 cup water, at room temp
1 1/2 cups raisins, rinsed and drained (I patted them dry with a paper towel to remove excess moisture)
1 cup chopped walnuts (I skipped these)

Cinnamon Swirl Mixture (optional)
Sift or mix together:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp ground cinnamon

Steps

Note:  I didn’t have any buttermilk or whole milk, so I faked my buttermilk using the vinegar method.  If you buy buttermilk and are wondering what to do with the rest, freeze it in 1 cup increments – you can use it in pancakes and other recipes.

1. Stir dry ingredients together: flour, sugar, salt, yeast and cinnamon in bowl of electric mixer.  Add egg, shortening, buttermilk, and water.  Stir together (or mix on low) until the ingredients come together and form a ball.  Adjust with flour or water as necessary if dough is too sticky or dry.
2. Knead the bread – use the dough hook on the mixer (~6 to 8 min), or knead by hand (~10 min) on a floured surface.  Dough should be soft and pliable, tacky, but not sticky.  I found I had to add more flour — I had measured my flour by weight (16oz), but my other ingredient by dry measure, so that may have been my problem.   Sprinkle in the raisins and walnuts in the final 2 minutes.   I followed Reinhart’s advice and took my dough out of the mixer and kneaded by hand to get the raisins properly distributed.  Dough should pass the window pane test – mine did, but I think I’m getting more and more liberal with the definition of “passing”.   Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer dough, rolling it to coat it with oil.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap.
3. Let dough rest at room temperature for ~2 hours, or until dough doubles in size.
4. Divide dough into two equal pieces (I used my handy dandy food scale) and form them into loaves.
   Note – if you are doing the cinnamon swirl mixture, sprinkle it onto your bread before you roll it up. (I forgot!)
   Reinhart’s technique for making sandwiches loaves is hard to explain — I’ll do my best.  Basically, flatten the dough into an even-sided rectangle, ~5″ wide by 6 to 8″ long.  Roll the dough up on the SHORT side, pinching the crease as you rotate to strengthen surface tension.  The loaf will get longer as your work, closer to 8 to 9″.  Pinch the final seam closed and place in pan, seam side down.  I always have a hard time with shaping, so I looked online, and found this helpful example – not quite the same, but gives an idea of how it works.Place each loaf into a lightly oiled 8.5″ x 4.5″ pan, mist tops with spray oil and over loosely with plastic wrap.
5. Proof loaves at room temp for 60 to 90 minutes, or until dough crests above lips of pan and is nearly doubled in size.  For once, this only took about an hour for me (usually it seems I have to proof everything longer).
6. Preheat oven to 350 with oven rack on middle shelf.  Place loaves on a sheet pan making sure they don’t touch (I didn’t use a pan, I just put them on the rack).
7. Bake loaves for 20 minutes. Rotate pans 180 degrees and continue baking for another 20 to 30 minutes.  Finished breads should register 190F in the center and be golden brown on top and lightly golden on the sides and bottom.
8. Immediately remove bread from their pans and cool on a rack for at least 1 hour, before slicing or serving.

Even though I don’t consider myself a huge fan of raisin bread, it was quite delicious!  Since I forgot to add the cinnamon swirl, I did a trick Reinhart suggests:  when the bread comes out of the oven, brush the top with butter and then roll them in cinnamon sugar (I just sprinkled some on top).  We sliced it and had cinnamon toast – yum!

This recipe is my favorite way to use up old bananas.  I found it on All Recipes, and made a few modifications to make it healthier and tastier (IMO).

Mocha Chip Banana Muffins

Source:  adapted from this recipe

Wet Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter (one stick), softened
1/2 cup natural, unsweetened applesauce
1 cup white sugar
1 large egg
3 ripe bananas
1 Tbsp instant espresso powder dissolved in
1 Tbsp hot water
1 tsp vanilla extract

Dry Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour (I use *white* wheat)
1/4 cup old-fashioned Quaker oats, coarsely ground up
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp whole ground flaxseed meal

3/4 to 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Combine wet ingredients in mixer and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes.
3. Combine dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, then add to wet ingredients.  Blend until flour is mixed.
4. Add chocolate chips and stir by hand to mix.
5. Line cupcake/muffin tin or mini-muffin pans with liners, spray lightly with cooking spray and spoon mixture in.
6. Bake ~25 minutes for cupcakes or ~15 minutes for mini-muffins.
7. Cool 5 minutes before devouring.

Yield:  15 to 18 cupcake sized muffins or 66 to 72 mini-muffins

Notes:

I prefer to make the mini-muffins.  They are just the right size to pop in your mouth and oh so delicious.  I discovered my Oxo cookie scoop is just the right size for scooping into the mini-muffin tins.  It makes getting them scooped a breeze.   I also think the mini-muffins tins are easier for clean-up.  Because they are smaller, I just stick in my dishwarsher and they don’t take up much room.

I put 1/4  c. oats in my mini-food processor and pulse for a few seconds. They don’t have to be completely pulverized, just broke up a bit.  If you don’t have a processor, you could use a blender or even a mini-chopper.

Using applesauce in lieu of extra butter or oil makes them healthier and nice and moist.

The original recipe called for using instant coffee, but the mocha flavor wasn’t coming through.   Using espresso powder gives the mocha a stronger taste, but it is still pretty faint – my kids don’t notice or complain.  You could increase the amount of espresso or skip it, depending on your preference.

This post is linked up to the Works For Me Wednesday blog carnival,  hosted by We Are That Family.