Menu Plan Monday - Full of Fail

It's Menu Plan Monday and last week was full of fail on the cooking and exercising front. I forgot to take things out of the freezer, I forgot to put things in the crock pot, and I never made the bread dough for soup night. There were a lot of sandwiches last week, despite my meal planning and shopping. It was like I had a mental block about it.

This week I'm going to try my mom's old advice about looking at tomorrow's menu while making tonight's dinner. Sometimes you just need to pull something out to thaw, but sometimes you can go ahead and make a marinade or even a whole crock pot dish for the next day.

My FitBit finally had a busy day on Saturday when TPB and I took George and Daisy on a long walk around the neighborhood and then I ran up and down the stairs to get the 50 floors badge. The scale isn't really budging at the moment, mostly due to the fact that it is always someone's birthday at work, and the lovely people there are so thoughtful to share cake with the receptionists. Also, due to the fact that I have no will power.

It was a long, crazy week at work, and my wonderful co-worker brought me some ice cream therapy. Have you heard the news from Ben and Jerry? Just FYI, it's awesome.

My user name on My Fitness Pal is QJ2013 if you want to be friends.

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• Sunday - Hamburgers on the grill (this is what I forgot to thaw last week - luckily it was sunny and 70 again.), Oven Roasted Potato "Fries"
• Monday - Crock Pot Kid Friendly Turkey Chili
• Tuesday - Baked Pasta with Sausage and Spinach
• Wednesday - Broccoli Cheese Stuffed Chicken, Creamy Crock Pot Risotto
• Thursday - Chicken and Dumplings, mixed green salad
• Friday - Leftovers/YOYO
• Saturday - date night

What's on your menu?



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Menu Plan Monday - Starting to Feel Like Fall

It's Menu Plan Monday and it's starting to feel like fall. When I take the dogs out in the mornings or before bed, there's a whiff of cool breeze and the slightest hint of rustling leaves.  Menus now have to factor in cross country meets (pasta on Wednesday, crock pot on Thursday) and football games.  Failing to break 90 degrees each afternoon is practically an excuse to dig out the boots in these parts, and a forecast without rain - rare this summer - is all the reason we need to grill, baby, grill. 

When I'm planning my weekly menu, I look at the calendar first to see what days are jam packed, screaming for a crock pot meal or leftovers.  The second place I look is at weather.com for the week's forecast.  I'm rotating back in a few recipes that feel too heavy for summer, and starting to think about soups and stews for rainy days.  Does your menu change with the weather, too?  What are your fall favorites?

My user name on My Fitness Pal is QJ2013 if you want to be friends.

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• Sunday -Braised Brisket with Potatoes and Carrots
• Monday - Whatever looks good at Kathleen's Catch, quinoa, grilled mixed veggies
• Tuesday - Pollo Sabroso, yellow rice, oven roasted green beans
• Wednesday - Baked Pasta with Sausage and Spinach *I'm doubling this and putting a batch in the freezer for the Holiday Grand Plan
• Thursday - Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatore over leftover pasta, salad
• Friday - leftover buffet
• Saturday- friends over to watch football - potluck menu TBD

What's on your menu?



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Menu Plan Monday - In the Heat of the Night

It's Menu Plan Monday and, after a rainy overcast summer, it finally feels like Atlanta in July again.  That is to say, hot and humid.  This calls for grilling or crock potting - anything that won't make the kitchen any hotter.

Also, my freezer is overfull from those nights when I had planned a meal but we ended up having other plans, so I'm trying to use that stuff up first.

• Sunday - tossed salad with leftover grilled chicken
• Monday - Crock Pot Italian Sloppy Joe with a tossed salad
• Tuesday - Grilled Pollo Sabroso, yellow rice, and asparagus that I never made last week.
• Wednesday - Whatever looks good at Kathleen's Catch, brown rice and grilled veggies.
• Thursday - Leftover buffet
• Friday -grilled chicken and vegetable kabobs, quinoa (this is quickly becoming our traditional night-before-weigh-in meal!)
• Saturday - Hamburgers, slaw, potato salad

I never made it back to my workout routine last week, so my progress stalled a bit.  I'm trying to get motivated to get back to it.  Of course, the longer I wait, the harder it is.  

My user name on My Fitness Pal is QJ2013 if you want to be friends.

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In the Kitchen

Today my kitchen is hopping!

I'm baking for our guild's annual holiday party.  The theme is A Tribute to Redwork, and Ben has asked us to use as much red and white as possible.  What could be more perfect than a white chocolate cheesecake with raspberry topping?  (Recipe below.)

I'm also bringing one of our new favorite crockpot dinners to a friend.  I make these beef short ribs with some rice and roasted asparagus, and my family inhales it.  It's not one of those complicated crockpot recipes with a lot of browning or chopping or multiple steps either; no, this one has 4 ingredients and can be assembled in under 5 minutes!  Perfect for this busy month.

For dessert, I'm trying out Pioneer Woman's Itty Bitty Nutella Cakes.  Just because they're pretty and easy.  Also, I love Nutella.  Isn't that enough?  

We've run out of our homemade hot cocoa mix, so I grabbed the ingredients for that and stirred up a batch while the cheesecake was in the oven and the Nutella Cakes were in the freezer.

After all that my family will still expect dinner, so I'm experimenting with a new baked potato soup recipe.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

What's new in your kitchen?

White Chocolate Cheesecake (origin unknown)

Preheat oven to 350.

Crust:

• 1/4 lb butter, melted
• 2 C very finely ground tea biscuit crumbs (I use Social Tea Biscuits.  1 sleeve makes about 2 C)
• 1 oz white chocolate, grated
• 1/4 C sugar

Melt butter and combine remaining crust ingredients until well blended.  Press mixture over sides and bottom of an ungreased 10" springform pan.  I put foil around the bottom and sides on the outside of the pan to prevent dripping in my oven, but that is not a necessary part of the recipe.

Filling:

• 2 lbs cream cheese, softened
• 1 1/4 C sugar
• pinch of salt
• 4 large eggs
• 3 oz white chocolate, shaved

Combine cream cheese and sugar and beat until soft and fluffy.  Add salt and mix well.  Add eggs, one at a time, keeping mixer on lowest speed and beating just until each egg is incorporated.  Fold in chocolate.  Pour into crust and bake 40 minutes.  Remove from pan and let stand for 10 minutes. 

Topping:

• 2 C sour cream
• 3/4 C sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 oz white chocolate, shaved
• 1 pckg frozen strawberries, raspberries, or mixture of both
•  confectioners sugar, to taste

Combine sour cream, sugar, and vanilla.  Spread over cheesecake and return to oven for 10 minutes.  Remove and refrigerate immediately.  Puree berries with confectioner's sugar in blender.  Serve cheesecake with shaved chocolate and berry topping.



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In the Beginning - Sampler Quilt

Sorry for the long Wordless Wednesday stretch. I haven't been outside in the sunshine playing with my kids and ignoring you, much as I wish that were true. No, these days the black hole that sucks any extra time out of my day has been the gala and auction for my daughter's school.

Every year they host a beautiful party with literally hundreds of silent auction items, along with a live auction of a few eye-popping trips, jewelry and more. I am the computer girl for all of this so, needless to say, it's been a busy few days...weeks...months.

It's a good news/bad news kind of thing. The bad news is that I haven't been working out nearly every day, nor have I been posting or quilting much. My house needs a good cleaning and my husband is pretty much over the stories from school.

The good news is we raised some nice money for the school tuition assistance program and technology fund - both needed in this economy - and that I did get to the gym some, which is more than during last year's gala season. I also made a 1000% improvement over last year in the dinner/grocery routine, using my handy crock pot and, gasp!, actually going to the grocery store on a regular basis. I know, I know, crazy stuff.

And through it all, I made this:

This is some very good news. Potentially. I have been offered the chance to teach a beginning quilting class. This is all dependent upon enough people signing up for the class. I decided that more people would be interested if they could see what they would be making. After all, that's what gets my attention.

It took a while to decide exactly how much I could squeeze into four short classes, but I came up with this quilt which, I think, covers the basics. The shop gave me 2 yards of these Lila Tueller fabrics by Moda to work with - YUM! (The neutral in the middle is from my stash...sorry, no selvage left to give credit.)


I've included applique and piecing, sashing, borders and binding, and both hand and machine quilting - although I'm not delusional enough to think I can teach those completely. I just want the students to leave at the end knowing how to finish their quilt. When I left my beginning quilting class 14 years ago, I had a few blocks, some pieces of blocks, and no clue what to do next. I'll give you three guesses where they are now. (Hint: there is a Ziploc bag in the answer.)

So we'll see how it turns out. Maybe no one will sign up. But maybe, just maybe, this is the beginning of a new journey.

What's new in your world these days?

Made by You Monday - Taco Soup

Anyone playing at Skip to My Lou? Today's "Made by You" is about quick and easy meals. This one is apparently an old favorite - someone even said it was originally a Weight Watchers recipe - but I just found it recently. Quick, easy, perfect for carpool days and late sport nights. Warm on a winter's night with very little work.

Taco Soup

• 1 1/2 lbs ground beef or turkey (I use turkey)
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 pckg taco seasoning
• 2-3 C water
• 2 cans black beans
• 2 cans whole kernel corn (I use frozen)
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 can Rotel tomatoes
• 1 can green chiles

Brown ground meat with onion until onions are tender. Drain fat. Put all ingredients into a crock pot on high and stir. It's done when hot. My kids love this with some quick cheese quesadillas.

If you are in a hurry, you can just heat it through in a large pot instead of using the crock pot. I prefer to prepare it just before getting the kids so that it simmers while I run carpool and drive back and forth to LAX or football or basketball practice.

My favorite part of this is that all of the ingredients can be kept on hand for a day that turns suddenly crazy. Keep the corn and turkey in the freezer, and all of the canned goods in your pantry for nights when dinner plans seem like one too many chores.

Enjoy!