Menu Plan Monday

I can't believe it's Monday again! This should be a tasty week, especially Wednesday. We love St. Patrick's Day around here. This will actually be the first time I've prepared corned beef. I was going to corn it myself, but then saw that New Seasons has all-natural corned beef, and figured I might as well go with that and save a little time and effort.

Monday - Fish Tacos (recipe to be posted soon)

Tuesday - Lentil Soup, Bread

Wednesday - Corned Beef, Colcannon, Irish Soda Bread, Green Broccoli Soup (maybe)

Thursday - Leftovers

Friday - Root Vegetable Soup, Garlic Bread

Saturday - Tacos, Fruit Salad, Dessert? (Friends over for dinner)

Sunday - Breakfast For Dinner (Eggs, Bacon, Hash Browns)


More great menu plans can be found at I'm An Organizing Junkie.

(Almost) Springtime Fun

On Saturday the weather was absolutely beautiful. We had planned to go to Dustin's parents' house that morning to stay the weekend, but because of the nice weather Dustin had to work all day. That meant Abby I and had the chance to get outside and enjoy the sunshine. The first thing we did was buy some flowers. Abby loves flowers. I had decided that this year she's big enough to have her own flower pot, so we went to Fred Meyer and she got to pick out 3 flowers. I was surprised that all 3 of them weren't pink! When we got home, we decided to start some sun tea. I had gotten some herbal tea recently, and thought it would make good sun tea, so we got that started before we planted the flowers (in case the sun disappeared early).

Then Abby and I found a suitable pot for her flowers. She helped, and we quickly had her new flowers planted in the pot. After they were planted, she watered them with her water pot and we placed them on the back porch.

After we finished planting, we decided to walk around the yard looking at all the flowers that are blooming. I was surprised at how many we have! 

It was so nice, we decided to dig out Abby's roller skates. She's still a bit unsure about them, but she had fun with me pulling her around.

A few minutes later Dustin got home from work, so we packed up some sun tea and headed down to visit his parents.

Sun Tea

Makes 1 gallon

Sun Tea Pitcher

Water

4 Tea Bags (Any Flavor)

Fill pitcher with water. Place tea bags in the pitcher. Put pitcher outside in the sun for 3-4 hours. Sweeten to taste.

We found that this flavor didn't need any sweetening, unlike the black tea I usually use. It's also fun to experiment with tea combinations, such as 2 black tea bags and 2 peach tea bags.

Menu Plan Monday

Once again we ended up not eating everything from last week's menu. Hopefully this week we can finally eat the items that keep showing up!


Monday - Steak Fajitas, Fruit Salad

Tuesday - Salmon, Quinoa, Green Beans

Wednesday - Chicken Noodle Soup, Homemade Bread

Thursday - Homemade Pizza, Green Salad

Friday - Ravioli with Sauce, Green Salad

Saturday - Fish Tacos, Fruit

Sunday - Homemade Chicken Nuggets, Veggies with Dip


More great menu plans can be found at I'm An Organizing Junkie!

Homemade Larabars

A few weeks ago I was at Fred Meyer in the nutrition section. (I love that area!) I happened to walk past the snack bars and saw Larabars. I remembered reading about them recently, so I decided to take a look. I was pretty impressed with what I saw - they have just a few ingredients, and all of the ingredients are real food! While I was looking at the different bars and comparing the nutrition info, one of the employees came over. She asked if I needed any help, so I asked her if she had ever tried the Larabars. She began to tell me how good they are and pointed out her favorite flavors. Then she did something toatally unexpected. She asked if I wanted to try one. I'm not one to ever pass up free food, so I said sure, and picked the Lemon Bar. I couldn't believe how good it tasted! It didn't have any odd, chalky flavor like many snack/protein bars do. It tasted real.

When I got home I looked up the website to find out more information. It turns out these bars don't just taste good, but they're gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, non-gmo, vegan, and kosher. There are currently 16 different flavors, as well as a line for chocolate lovers. (I've tried two of these and haven't been as impressed by the flavor.)

The ingredient list is so simple that I decided to make my own Larabars. There are a number of recipes available on the internet, but I decided to work straight from the bar. I chose the Cherry Pie Bar because it had only 3 ingredients, and I love cherry pie! I went to a site called FitDay, where you can plug in foods and get the nutritional value. I then plugged in amounts of dates, almonds, and dried cherries until I came out with numbers that matched up on the Larabar package. It really isn't as time consuming as it sounds. I think it took five minutes at the most.

Now that I knew how much of each ingredient I needed I was ready to make them. This is when it was really handy to have a food scale. If you don't have one, I highly recommend it. I have a digital one, accurate to the gram/ounce. Anyway, here is the recipe I ended up with. They are very good, and taste a lot like cherry pie (without all the work!) As I come up with more flavors, I'll add the recipes to this post.

Homemade Larabars - Cherry Pie
Yield: 16 - 48 g bars

320 g dates
256 g almonds
192 g dried cherries

Place almonds in a food processor. Process until finely chopped. Pour into large bowl. Process dates and cherries together. Warning: don't go too long or they'll turn into a large mass! Place in bowl with almonds. Use your hands to blend them together and shape into bars. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

Menu Plan Monday

I can't believe it's March already! We ended up having a lot more leftovers last week than I had expected, so several items are back on the menu for this week.


Monday - Leftovers (Dustin and Abby are going out for dinner)

Tuesday - Taco Salad

Wednesday - Salmon, Quinoa, Vegetables

Thursday - Bacon Cheeseburgers, Kale Chips, Fruit

Friday - Roasted Chicken, Mixed Vegetables

Saturday - Gone

Sunday - Chicken Noodle Soup, Homemade Sourdough Bread



More menu plan ideas can be found at I'm An Organizing Junkie!

Breakfast Sausage

My husband likes sausage. I'll eat it occasionally, but I always prefer bacon. I recently went to buy some sausage, and made the mistake of looking at the ingredients - corn syrup, MSG, BHA. Those definitely aren't healthy, and they're not necessary. It's possible to get sausage without those extra things but it's pretty spendy, so I ended up getting some ground pork and resolving to make my own breakfast sausage.  The internet has quite a few recipes available, but many of them called for ingredients I didn't have. I finally found one that looked fairly simple, and modified it to work with the ground pork I had gotten.

Breakfast Sausage - adapted from this recipe

1 lb ground pork
1/4 tsp salt**
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp sage
1/8 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp thyme
1 oz water**

Mix pork with spices.

Shape into patties. Cook over medium heat until browned and cooked through, 10-15 minutes.

Enjoy! Patties may be frozen for quick and easy breakfasts.

**The ground pork I bought had added water and salt :( , so I cut down on these ingredients.

Menu Plan Monday

Last week's menu turned out pretty good. The "Unstuffed" Cabbage Rolls were surprisingly tasty. I've cooked cabbage before and had troubles with the strong smell, but this recipe didn't have that problem. This week the sunny weather has been inspiring me to sneak in a few lighter dishes.


Monday- Thai Salad with Spicy Dressing

Tuesday- Leftovers From Freezer

Wednesday- Chili

Thursday- Grilled Chicken with Onions and Mushrooms, Green Beans

Friday- Roasted Chicken with Roasted Vegetables

Saturday- Taco Salad

Sunday- Salmon, Quinoa, Leftover Roasted Vegetables

More menu ideas can be found at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Mango Orange Smoothie

I found this recipe when looking for a way to use up some leftover coconut milk I had in the fridge. I made it a few nights ago and all 3 of us liked it. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture. The flavor combination is really good, and the fat in the coconut milk helps balance out the sugars from the fruit. This makes a great dessert or snack. It could also be part of a breakfast.

Mango Orange Smoothies - adapted from The Nourishing Gourmet

1-1/2 cups coconut milk (we used most of a 14 oz can)**
2 bananas - peeled, chopped, and frozen
1 mango - peeled, chopped, and frozen
5 mandarin oranges - peeled and seeded

Place everything in blender. Blend until desired consistency. Makes 3 large servings.

**If the coconut milk is solid, you may want to soften it first by heating slowly in a pan of hot water.

Hmmm....

I'm not feeling very excited by food lately. I made the crockpot chicken nuggets last night and they didn't turn out so well. I poked holes in the foil like the recipe said, but the bottom few layers didn't even resemble chicken nuggets. They looked more like chicken pancakes. :( The flavor was okay, but it was hard getting past the appearance. Then I forgot to soak the beans for tonight's bean soup. So I took a pan of Shepherd's Pie out of the freezer. However it's 5pm now and it's still frozen solid.

The only things on the menu I have time to make are completely unappealing to me, and most of my "go-to" recipes have ingredients in them that are currently off-limits. Hmmm....what to do? I'm thinking it might be a good day to have breakfast for dinner - bacon, eggs, and hash browns. Lucky for me, the breakfast cook should be getting home from work anytime now!   ;)


Update: I truly believe that hash browns can fix almost anything.  :)

Menu Plan Monday

This week is fairly simple because one or both of us have meetings almost every evening.


Monday - Crockpot Chicken Nuggets (from last week), Roasted Vegetables

Tuesday - Bean Soup with Ham, Rolls

Wednesday - "Unstuffed" Cabbage Rolls

Thursday - Leftovers

Friday - Chicken with Black Beans, Brown Rice

Saturday - Shepherd's Pie

Sunday - Hummus Plate (hummus, olives, cucumbers, tomatoes, red pepper strips, crackers)


More great menu plans can be found at I'm an Organizing Junkie!

Potato Soup

We like potato soup. It's easy, inexpensive, and tastes good. It's also a great way to use up potatoes and leftover ham. I've been making it for years, but I never had a recipe. I always made it by feel and taste. While it usually turned out good, it was always different. I decided if I wanted to share it here then I'd better write it down. I guess my potato soup is actually more of a chowder than a soup. It starts with a roux, which may sound intimidating, but is actually quite easy. I read recently that a roux requires equal parts flour and fat, but I found that I use a little extra flour to end up with a thicker soup.

Potato Soup

4 c Potatoes - peeled and diced

1/4 c Butter

1/4 c + 2 TBSP Flour

2 c Milk - preferably whole milk

1 c Ham, diced

1 15-oz can Whole kernel corn - drained

1/2 tsp Black pepper

1 tsp salt

• Peel and dice potatoes. Place in large saucepan and just cover with water. Boil until cooked through.
• Melt butter in 3 qt saucepan over med-low heat. Slowly stir in flour. Cook for several minutes until flour is cooked but still light in color.

• Slowly stir in milk. (This amount makes a very thick soup. If you like yours thinner, add more milk.)
• When potatoes are finished, add them into milk mixture, along with cooking water.
• Add the rest of ingredients, seasoning to taste.

• Simmer 10-15 minutes, until flavors blend.
• Serve hot. Excellent with fresh bread!

This recipe makes about 5 really thick servings. It gets even thicker when cool, and the flavor is almost better the second day.

Shepherd's Pie

I grew up eating Shepherd's Pie. It was quick, easy, and affordable. Our version had browned hamburger combined with frozen mixed vegetables and a can of tomato soup. That was covered with a layer of mashed potatoes (usually Potato Buds) and baked. It's funny how foods you enjoy when you are young can become unappetizing when you get older. I think I've made Shepherd's Pie twice in the last ten years. And then I found this recipe last weekend. I made a few small changes, and wow! It's really good. My 3-year-old ate three servings. It also made me happy that the potatoes, onion, green beans (frozen), and carrots (frozen) all came from last summer's garden. I ended up making two 8x8 pans and freezing one for later.

Sorry about the really bad picture

Shepherd's Pie - adapted from Passionate Homemaking

8 medium potatoes, cut into chunks
8 medium carrots, cut into small chunks*
1 lb. ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced

8 oz. can tomato sauce
14 oz. can diced tomatoes
2 1/2 tsp. sweet basil leaves
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp ground mustard
1 tsp garlic powder
1 bay leaf
3-4 cups total veggies – mushrooms, green beans, peas & corn, fresh or frozen**
milk, butter & salt to season mashed potato mixture

1/2 – 1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese

Boil and cook potatoes and carrots. Carrots take longer then potatoes, so I encourage starting with carrots and then adding potatoes after 10 minutes or so. (Unless using frozen carrots.) While cooking, brown ground beef in a skillet adding onion and garlic when about half browned. Add remaining ingredients, except vegetables. Season as desired. Allow to simmer for 20-25 minutes. Add desired vegetables in the last 5-10 minutes. Mash the potatoes and carrots once they are soft with a mixer and add milk, salt, and butter to flavor. Layer the meat mixture in a 9×13 pan (or two 8×8 pans), followed by the mashed potato mixture. Top with cheese and a dash of paprika (if desired). Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

To freeze: 

Put it together as listed above, but don't bake. Cover with plastic wrap and foil, and put in the freezer. When ready to serve, thaw and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

* I used a quart bag of frozen, sliced carrots

** I used frozen green beans, frozen carrots, frozen peas, and a can of corn

Menu Plan Monday

I've decided to start participating in Menu Plan Monday over at I'm an Organizing Junkie. I started menu planning over six years ago, after I got married and was no longer shopping and cooking for one person. I've found that it saves quite a bit of money when you know ahead of time what you will be making throughout the week. I usually only plan dinners because Abby and I eat leftovers for lunch, and breakfast tends to be a simple affair that doesn't require much planning ahead.

Monday - Steak, Grilled Vegetables (Today is the perfect sunny day for a BBQ!)

Tuesday - Bean Enchiladas, Green Salad

Wednesday - Crockpot Chicken Nuggets, 

Thursday - Soft Tacos, Mango Orange Smoothies

Friday - Potato Soup, Garlic Toast

Saturday - Out of town

Sunday - Leftovers

There are tons more ideas over at I'm an Organizing Junkie!

Sourdough

My husband makes the best sourdough biscuits in the world! For a while, we had sourdough biscuits for breakfast every weekend. Sometimes he would make some gravy, but usually we just topped them with butter and jam. The best biscuits were when he would coat them in leftover bacon grease. Yum!

Unfortunately, this all came to a halt last Fall. We went out of the country for 2 months, and had to leave our starter behind with family. When we returned, the starter had been sitting for a few weeks without being fed, and it smelled really sour. Dustin thought it might be possible to revive it, but wasn't sure. We ended up tossing it. Luckily, Dustin's aunt gave us some of her starter. (She had given us our original starter as well.) However, the 2 month break from sourdough proved to be long enough to disrupt the routine Dustin had for caring for the starter. It sat, forgotten, until we wanted to have biscuits and realized the starter was no longer good. Once again Dustin's aunt gave us some of her starter. This time it was properly cared for, but within a few days we noticed that it was all speckled! Evidently something had contaminated it. The same thing happened to Dustin's aunt's starter. So there we were, craving sourdough biscuits but having no sourdough.

I decided to do some research, and found that a person could actually make their own sourdough starter. It was at this point that I decided to take on "The Responsibility of the Sourdough." I found some instructions on this website, and got started. My first batch seemed to be doing well, but then stopped growing before it became stable. It also had a horrible odor. I am currently on day 4 of my second batch, It looks like this one might turn out!

On its way to doubling

Looking alive!

Food!

Hello, my name is Sarah, and I love food! I love to eat it. I love to read about it. I love to think about it. I love to talk about it. In fact, that last one is the reason I started this blog. My husband is getting tired of me always talking about food, but I need some way to get my thoughts out so they don't keep bouncing around in my head. I suppose you could say food is my passion.

It's important to me to feed my family healthy food. It seems everyone has a different idea of healthy eating, and they all have research to back up what they say. This makes it very confusing. Some people say the primal lifestyle is healthiest. The government has the My Pyramid program. Others say vegetarian/vegan is the way to go. I'm still working out what my idea is of healthy eating. The more I read, the more it seems to change! I'll be sharing my current thoughts in another post.

I enjoy trying new recipes. It's always exciting to find one that all of us like, but it's also disappointing to find one that doesn't work. My husband and I were talking a few weeks ago and realized that in the past 6 years, there has only been one meal that was completely inedible. I'd say that's a pretty good record. I'm sure it's also really lucky! I think I've gotten a lot more adventurous over the years, although I still tend to follow recipes exactly as written instead of improvising. Hopefully that will start to change. I already have a few recipes I'm thinking of changing.

I hope to use this blog to keep track of (and share) recipes, both new and old favorites. It seems like when I think of something we had that I want to make again, I can never remember where the recipe is (unless it's something we make fairly often). I have a fair number of cookbooks, as well as a few notebooks full of printed recipes, and stacks of other recipes that I want to try but never seem to find the time. Does this happen to anyone else?

I also want to use this blog to discuss thoughts and ideas about food. Hopefully I will have a few readers and they will share their thoughts and ideas, too! When I read other blogs, I enjoy reading the comments to see what other people have to say. Sometimes they have really good suggestions.

I think that's enough of an introduction to the blog, so bye for now!