Meal Plan 5/2/16-5/8/16

Breakfast:

• Chocolate chip muffins
• Make sausage biscuits for freezer (I buy 1 lb roll of sausage and form into patties and use my biscuit recipe)
• Biscuits from freezer with butter/jelly
• Pancakes
• Pinapple/Bananas
• Pineapple is on sale for .97 and Bananas for .33/lb this week! =)

Lunch:

• Salad with lettuce, cucumbers, granny smith apples, bacon, and cranberries
• Leftovers
• Yogurt

Dinner:

• Spaghetti sauce from freezer with noodles, breadsticks, and ranch potatoes
• Pizza with pepperoni and canadian bacon, with peas
• Baked teriyaki chicken made with chicken breasts (new recipe trying out), with steamed broccoli

Snack:

• Smoothie popsicles with bananas and blueberries
• Oats and Honey Granola bars

Dessert:

• Puppy chow

Meal plan 4/25/16-5/1/16

Breakfast:

• Bread pretzels (from freezer)
• Banana muffins (from freezer)
• Make breakfast burritos and buttermilk pancakes for freezer for future use

Lunch:

• Salad with green leaf lettuce, ranch chicken, avocado, crushed tortilla chips, ranch, salsa 
• I'm pretty excited that avocados are .17 each on sale this week!  I price match and then only have to shop at one store (Wal-mart) (for the most part).
• Leftovers
• Yogurt

Dinner:

• Shredded BBQ chicken (from freezer) on baked potatoes, topped with cheese, served with green beans
• Frito pie with Gram's chili, topped with cheese, served with peas
• Grabbing a few bags of fritos on sale this week for 1.67 each
• Chicken parmesan nuggets served with steamed broccoli 

Snacks:

• Oats and Honey granola bars 
• S'mores snack mix left from last week
• Smoothie popsicles made from my smoothie recipe, this week with bananas and blueberries

Dessert:

• Butterfinger cookies (from freezer)
• Chocolate chip cookies - see below for a time saving/frugal tip

Frugal tip - Cookies:

• I make double batches of dough (or triple sometimes).
• I make the dough like normal, and then roll the cookies into balls like I'm going to bake them. 
• Then I put 12 cookie balls laid flat into a sandwich Ziploc bag and stick the bag in the freezer, laid flat.
• When I'm ready to bake more cookies, I just pull out a bag and they are ready to go on the preheated stone by the time the oven warms up!
• This helps save money by stretching a batch of cookies (and it also helps us not to overindulge with just the 3 of us =)).  It is also a huge time saver!

Meal Plan 4/18/16-4/24/16

Breakfast:
Banana muffins, Bread pretzels, Cereal with almond milk

Lunch:
Leftovers, Yogurt, Salads with carrots, cucumbers, fajita chicken, and Nannie's dressing

Snacks:
Yogurt Smoothie Popsicle's made from my smoothie recipe, Smores snack mix

Dinner:
1) Pulled pork on buns, with green beans.  I will freeze half of the pulled pork after making for an easy meal in the future.
2) BBQ Beef and crescents from freezer, with roasted carrots
3) Pepperoni pizza, with peas

Dessert:
Chocolate covered ritz

Frugal tip:
Freezing Meat

I like to stock up on certain meats when they're on sale and freeze in ziplocks of 1 lb portions (using my kitchen scale).  I try to defrost the meat 24 hours in advance by putting it in the refrigerator.  If I am in a hurry or don't plan, I use warm water in the sink to defrost it.  Here's the meats I do this with and the prices I look for.

1) Ground beef (I try to get 90% lean or higher): $3.50/lb, freeze in 1 lb portions in ziplocks.

2) Boneless, skinless chicken breasts: 1.99/lb.  I cut off the fat and then measure into 1 lb portions into ziplocks

3) Sausage links: $2.50/14 oz.  They usually come in the 14 oz size.  I don't have to do anything to these since they are already portioned and vacuum packed.  I just stick these straight into the freezer and defrost when needed.  I use this for things like jambalaya.

Meal Plan 4/11/16-4/17/16

Breakfast:
Chocolate chip muffins and Banana muffins

Lunch:
Leftovers, yogurt

Dinner:
1) Tacos with chips and salsa, served with peas
2) Baked honey garlic chicken with rice, served with broccoli
3) Spaghetti made with Italian sausage, served with breadsticks and corn (I've got some breadsticks left from a previous batch in the freezer, so I will just defrost those.)

Snacks:
Peanut butter granola bars and Ranch oyster crackers

Dessert:
Aunt Smokie's Brownies

Frugal tip:
Cheese
This past week I stocked up on cheese (208 oz!).  I suppose you could say this is one of the frugal things I do.  I like to get the block cheese (cheddar and mozarella), shred it with my kitchen aid mixer (with shredding attachment), and then freeze it.  I try to look for the cheese under $3/16 oz.  Then, I shred it and mix in 1/8 c of flour per 16 oz of shredded cheese to help it from clumping up.  I then place the cheese into 8 oz portions into sandwich bags and freeze flat. When I need cheese, I just pull a bag out and put it in the fridge to defrost.

Meal Plan 4/4/16-4/10/16

Breakfasts:

Cinnamon Sugar Muffins and Chocolate Chip Muffins, defrosted from the freezer, and fruit.

Lunches:

Leftovers, Yogurt.

Snacks: 

Oats and Honey Granola Bars - These are absolutely delicious.  They have been my go to over the past week when I get hungry.  I will need to make another batch mid week or so.

Dinners:

1) Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken over baked potatoes, and topped with cheese.  Served with Green Beans.  I will freeze half of the chicken once its made to have at a later date as an easy meal.

2) Chicken Fajitas with Bell Peppers and Onions.  Served with chips and queso.  I will make the queso with velveeta and salsa. 

3) State Fair Subs.  Served with Peas.  These should be fairly easy since I'm buying the french bread.  Sometimes I make it but that is more labor intensive.

Also, I have been working hard at organizing my recipes online so they are easy for me to link to and also to find when I am away from my beloved recipe book. All of my recipes (including the ones above) can be found here.  I'd love to know if you make a recipe and how it turns out.  Just shoot me a comment below!

Meal Plan - 2/8/16-2/14/16

Hi Everyone!

I hope you've had a fabulous week.  I made some updates to last week's meal plan blog post on reviews of the new recipes or ideas, so go check that out!

Here's the plan for next week:

1) Freezer Meal - Slow Cooker Barbeque.  I made this a while back and froze half of it or so, so we need to use that up.  So this will be a nice easy meal.  I'm going to make some tasty sweet dinner crescents to go with it. (Note: These rolls freeze very well so I will probably freeze half for later.)

2) Baked Potato Soup and Basic No Knead Bread - meatless meal for either Wednesday or Friday.  (Ash Wednesday is next week.  Can you believe it?!)  I'll leave out the bacon on the soup.  I'm excited about trying the bread, which is a new recipe for me.  I had it at my aunt's house and it was delicious.

3) Cheese Pizza - another meatless meal for either Wednesday or Friday.  I will use my regular pizza recipe but not put any meat on top.

4) Make up some of my grandma's house dressing and eat that on salads throughout the week for lunch.  I've been adding some lunch meat or whatever meat I have with some lettuce, tomato, and shredded carrots, and that makes a tasty lunch.

5) Need to make up some more chocolate chip muffins for the husband's breakfasts.

6) Last but not least, we decided to have some friends over for the Superbowl.  So, I decided I'm going to have fun with it and make some yummy things.  I've never tried these pretzel bites (though I have made regular pretzels before), but they sound delicious.  And then I'll make up some of those crescent wrapped smokies.  Should be yummy!  And then we will have some other easy snack foods to go with it.

I hope you have a blessed week!  Please comment below if you have any good recipes for me to try!

Nannie's House Salad Dressing

Nannie’s Vinegar and Oil Salad Dressing

1 clove minced garlic

2 T cider or red wine vinegar

1 t sugar

1 t salt

1 t dry mustard

½ t pepper

6 T canola or vegetable oil

Combine all ingredients in a jar and shake well.  Refrigerate.  

Basic No-Knead Bread

Basic No-Knead Bread

From Ann Byrne

6 cups bread or all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface

½ teaspoon active-dry yeast

2 ½ teaspoons salt

2 2/3 cups cool water

In a large bowl, combine the flour, yeast and salt.  Add the water and stir until all the ingredients are well incorporated.  The dough should be wet and sticky.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.  Let the dough rest 12-18 hours on the counter at room temperature.  When surface of the risen dough has darkened slighty, smells yeasty, and is dotted with bubbles, it is ready.

Lightly flour your hands and a work surface.  Place dough on work surface and sprinkle with more flour.  Fold the dough over on itself once or twice and, using floured fingers, tuck the dough underneath to form a rough ball.

Generously dust a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with enough flour to prevent the dough from sticking to the towel as it rises.  Place dough seam side down on the towel and dust with more flour.  Cover with the edges or a second cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours, until it has doubled in size.

After about 1 ½ hour, preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Place a 6-8 quart heavy covered pot, such as a cast iron Dutch oven, in the oven as it heats.  When the dough has fully risen, carefully remove the pot from the oven.  Remove the top towel from the dough and slide your hand under the bottom towel; flip the dough over into the pot, seam side up.  Shake pan once or twice if dough looks unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes.

Cover and bake for 25-30 minutes.  Uncover and bake 4-5 more minutes or until the crust is a deep chestnut brown.

Meal Plan - 2/1/16-2/7/16

Hi Everyone!  Here's my plan:

• Breakfast
• Pancakes and Waffles
• I will make enough batches to use 2 quarts of buttermilk and freeze most of them in gallon ziplocks.  Then when we need more breakfast food, I just take out and put in the fridge.  I use the microwave for the pancakes and toaster oven for the waffles.  Makes for easy breakfasts!  We usually also have fruit with breakfast.
• Dinners
• Jambalaya 
• My husband really enjoys this one.  It's on the weekly list.
• Cilantro Lime Chicken (Slow cooker recipe) 
• Will make 2 lbs worth.  I made this a few weeks ago and it's tasty!  I'm serving with warm tortillas (by placing tortillas in a wet paper towel or 2 and warming for 30 seconds). 
• Cilantro: I froze some cilantro the last time I made this by adding a little oil, blending it, and freezing in an ice cube tray.  I'm going to try using the cilantro ice cubes and see how that goes.
• Update 2/4/16: The frozen cilantro cubes worked out great!  And it kept me from having to buy cilantro twice and do all the work of removing the stems, etc.
• Lime Cilantro Rice 
• To go with the Cilantro Lime Chicken.  I use bottled lime juice.
• BBQ Glazed Meatballs
• This is a new one for me.  I'm excited to try it.  
• I will cut the recipe down to 8 servings to use only 1 lb meat.  I will also cut the brown sugar down by half per the first review.  Finally, I will use regular milk instead of evaporated milk.
• Update 2/4/16: The Husband really enjoyed these.  I thought they were pretty good.  I will probably double the sauce next time and also serve with rolls, per my husband's request =).
• Will serve with Ranch Roasted Potatoes (I use russets).
• Roasted Carrots - side one night.
• Superbowl food:
• Probably courtesy of Dominos! =)
• I will also need to make more yogurt at some point soon.  I make it about every 10 days.  I do sweeten it now, so I use my recipe above but then add 1/2 c. to 3/4 c. sugar and 2 vanilla (per 8 c milk).  I add these after heating the milk while it's cooling down, but before adding the yogurt starter.

Jambalaya

Copycat Zatarain's Jambalaya

Serves: 4

Adapted from: http://www.lifesatomato.com/2014/04/27/copycat-zatarains-jambalaya/

Ingredients

For the spice mix

1 c uncooked long-grain rice

1 t onion powder

1 T dried parsley flake

1 1/3 t beef bouillon granules

1 t minced dried chives

1 t dried celery flakes

1/2 t pepper

1/8 t cayenne pepper

1/2 t garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

For the jambalaya

2 cups water

Spice mix from above

8 ounces tomato sauce

1 pound smoked sausage, cut into rounds

Instructions

Combine all ingredients for spice mix in one bowl.

In a large saucepan, bring the water to boil.

Add the spice mix and stir.

Return to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cover and simmer for 15-25 minutes or until the rice is tender.

In another saucepan, combine the tomato sauce and sausage and cook on low for 10 min., just enough to heat through.

Combine both pans and mix well. If the sauce is too thick, add a bit of water and stir.

Recipe - Buttermilk Waffles

Buttermilk Waffles

2 eggs

2 c buttermilk

1 t baking soda

2 c flour

2 t baking powder

½ t salt

6 T oil

Heat waffle iron while mixing batter.

Beat eggs well.  Beat in the buttermilk, baking soda, flour, baking powder, salt, and oil.  Beat until smooth. This is a thin batter.

Bake in hot waffle iron for about 5 minutes per batch.

Recipe - Buttermilk Pancakes

Buttermilk Pancakes

From Ann Byrne

2 eggs  
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoon sugar
2-2.5 cups buttermilk (use 2 ½ if use chocolate chips)
4 Tablespoons vegetable oil

Preheat griddle to 360°.

Combine flour, baking powder, soda, salt and sugar. Beat egg. Add buttermilk and oil to egg. Add buttermilk mixture to dry mixture. Whisk until just moistened - do not over stir! Add chocolate chips here if you want.... :)

For each pancake, pour about 1/4 cup batter onto a hot, lightly greased griddle. Turn pancakes when tops are covered with bubbles and edges looked cooked.

Yield: 16 (4 inch) pancakes

Review - Perogies

I made the Perogies from my meal plan today.  I have to say they were definitely time consuming.  However, the nice thing is that it made enough for 2 more meals + leftovers.  So those 32 or so perogies are in the freezer (in bag below)!  All I will have to do next time we want perogies is boil them and then pan fry them in some oil!

I served them with sliced pan fried sausage and everyone seemed to like it. They made the "every other week" list.  

Changes I made to the recipe/Other notes:

1) I did not brush water on the dough.  I did with the first set, but then stopped because it made them harder to fold over.

2) For the salt, pepper, and onion salt I used 1 t. salt, 1/2 t. pepper, and 1/2 t. onion salt.  
3) Next time, I will cut down the potatoes by about 1/2.  I used regular russets and used about 15 since they were small.  I had a ton of leftover mashed potatoes.  Guess what's for leftovers this week? =)

4) After boiling the perogies, I pan fried them in some oil so they were nice and crispy.

5) This made about 50 small perogies. 

Let me know in the comments below if you try these and if you like them!

Review - Pepperoni Bread

Tonight I made the Pepperoni Bread from my meal plan.  It was a big hit!

My husband has lists he categorizes my recipes into, such as daily/anytime, weekly, monthly, or prefer to never have again.  This helps me know how much he likes something.  He said this goes into the daily/anytime list!  I had a feeling he'd like it because he enjoys my pizza, but it's a little different so I wasn't sure.

I used my pizza dough recipe and made the full dough amount (so enough for 2 pizzas). Then, I doubled everything else in the Pepperoni Bread recipe and made two loaves out of it.  I also added a liberal sprinkling of Penzey's Pizza Seasoning before rolling it up.  Finally, I brushed the outside of the loaves with the beaten egg before baking.

Finally, I used my pizza sauce to dip the bread in.  I made the full recipe (16 oz).

Everyone loved it, including the toddler!  I will be making it again!

Meal plan 1/25/16-1/31/16 and Wunderlist App

Hi everyone!

So, I don't know if I'll continue to post my meal plan each week, but I want to try it out.

Wunderlist App

Before I get to the meal plan, I wanted to tell you about an App called Wunderlist that I’ve been using for a few months and it’s helped me so much.  Y’all know I like to be organized, and this helps me do just that =).  I got the idea from a podcast called Edit Your Life Show.  Things I like about the app: 

     1)      It’s on my phone and so it’s convenient.

     2)      The ding it makes when I check something off =). 

     3)      You can set tasks to repeat (weekly, etc). 

     4)      You can also create multiple lists.  So I have one for my grocery list (I just use this when I’m in the kitchen…my real one is on my computer), to dos,  etc. I put all my cooking, defrosting, and cleaning stuff on here as well as general to dos.

Meal Plan

     1)    Breakfast: Chocolate chip oatmeal muffins – idea courtesy of Sarah.  Never tried before, but looking forward to it.  I have a less healthy version I’ve tried but am looking forward to these.

a.      http://www.thesemisweetsisters.com/2015/03/27/chocolate-chip-oatmeal-muffins-recipe/

     2)      Perogies and Sausage (link kind) – I bought some frozen perogies and served with sausage a few weeks ago.  I want to try my hand at them.  I’m going to make a full batch and freeze some of them, which should make for an easy dinner one night paired with some meat.  I made these a few weeks ago and they turned out quite tasty, but were not the healthiest thing in the world =).

a.      http://allrecipes.com/recipe/84706/grandmas-polish-perogies/

b.      If these turn out good, I’m thinking these could be a go to for us on Fridays during Lent.

     3)      Pepperoni bread – this is a new one for me too.  I’m going to use my pizza dough recipe for the bread and my pizza sauce for the dipping sauce.  You can totally just buy the sauce and bread =).

a.     http://allrecipes.com/recipe/18019/pepperoni-bread/

b.  My pizza recipe

     4)      Meatball Hoagies – I made these a few weeks ago and Matthew loved them.  I have some hoagies left in the freezer from the first time, so it should be an easy meal.  I do cut down the spice for H’s sake (I leave out the hot pepper sauce and cut the cayenne to ¼ t). You can totally just buy the rolls and save yourself a lot of time! =)

a.      http://allrecipes.com/recipe/213742/meatball-nirvana/

b.      http://www.food.com/recipe/hoagie-rolls-126997

c.      Other notes – I add pizza sauce and provolone slices on top of hoagie sandwich after assembling.

Next week, I’ll have to start figuring out what we are going to have for the Super Bowl on February 7!

Comment below with any meal ideas you have!  I love trying new things!

Michelle's Pizza

Servings: 2 Large Pizzas

Sauce:

16 oz. can tomato sauce                              

¼ t. dried oregano                                          

¼ t. garlic powder              

¼ t. dried basil                                                

¼ t. salt

1 t. sugar                                                          

¼ t. dried thyme                              

1/8 t. black pepper          

1 bay leaf   

¼ c. water                                                                     

Combine all ingredients in small saucepan.  Cook over medium heat until sauce starts to boil.  Lower heat and simmer, uncovered, for 45 minutes.

Dough:

4 ½ t. (2 pkg) active dry yeast                                     

2 T. oil 

2 t. salt

2 c warm water, warmed to 110-120 degrees        

2 t. sugar             

5-6 c flour

2 t. oil (to coat)

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water.  Add the oil, sugar, and salt.  Let it sit for about 10 minutes.  Add flour and knead for 5 minutes, until elastic. Add 2 t. oil to coat dough to prevent sticking to bowl.  Cover with saran wrap or towel and let rise for 40 minutes, until almost doubled.

Toppings, other items needed for baking:

Parchment paper for baking

8-10 oz sliced pepperoni, Canadian bacon, etc. (toppings your choice)

4 c (16 oz) grated mozzarella cheese

Penzey’s pizza seasoning

Garlic butter for crust:

4 T. margarine

1 t. salt

1 t. garlic powder

Melt margarine and then stir in salt and garlic powder.

Directions:

1) Make sauce.  Make dough and let it rise. Prepare toppings and garlic butter. Cut two circles of parchment paper to fit stone or pan you will cook pizza on.  Once dough has risen, divide in half place each on the parchment paper circles and roll out into 2 circles. At this point, I like to preheat the oven to 500 degrees.  I preheat my stone as well as the oven is preheating.

2) Roll out the dough farther than parchment paper and then bunch up the edges to form a crust.  Add ½ of sauce to each pizza and spread into thin layer to cover dough. Sprinkle Penzey’s liberally on top of sauce. Add ½ of cheese to each pizza.  Add ½ of toppings to each pizza.  Finally, baste about ¼ of the garlic butter onto crust, reserving ½ for after baking.

3) Carefully take preheated stone out of oven and transfer pizza to the stone with a cutting board underneath to help transfer (parchment paper will stay underneath pizza).  Bake 1 pizza at a time, for 8-10 minutes each, until golden brown on top.  Add ½ of remaining garlic butter to each pizza after removing from oven.  Slice, serve, and enjoy!