MPM #7

I skipped last week - just had too much going on. We had the menu posted (and we followed it mostly) but just didn't get to blog-land to share it! TroubleMaker is down for a nap so we'll see how we get!

It's supposed to be a hot week this week so with summer coming (I think for real this time) I may have to adjust the menu to suit the weather. There is nothing worse than heating the house up further by having to 'cook' with the oven!

Sometimes the problem with planning a month in advance is by the end of week three, what I planned just doesn't sound good or we're in the middle of heat wave! I've also had it happen where I've planned a yummy 'summer menu' and it's pouring rain (so who wants BBQ anything when it's 10 deg. C and raining cats and dogs?)!

So here is our week at a glance!
June 21 to June 27
Monday Mushroom & Chicken Linguine
Tuesday Tuna Casserole
Wednesday Spaghetti with homemade meat sauce
Thursday Tater Tot Casserole
Friday Shepherd's Pie
Saturday Homemade Pizza (ACK - I can't find my crust recipe to share... UGH)
Sunday Slow Cooker BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches (this is not my usual recipe but I cannot seem to open the recipe link with our ISP!)

Lunches are simple this week for Hubby and TroubleMaker:
Tortilla Pizzas, Cottage cheese, leftovers and grilled cheese sandwiches

Breakfasts are easy too and will likely include some fresh berries and lots of cereal as it is Hubby's new mission to get more milk into our son's diet! So far, they've had cornflakes and muffets! I've got some banana muffins frozen and another day will include scrambled eggs so I think they'll have a yummy week!

But its getting late in the day and I best go get TroubleMaker up from his nap (if I ever want him to go to bed tonight)! Hope you have a great week and check out more Menu Plan Monday cooking and meal planning ideas over at Org Junkie!

MPM #6

We've had a beautiful weekend to end an otherwise dreary week. Our menu this past week was reasonably uninspired but sometimes it's more about just getting us fed than it is an exploration of my culinary abilities! I think the hi-lites of our menu were the Farmer's breakfast and the baked tortellini. I added lots of yummy vegetables to the sauce (zucchini, mushrooms, onions, celery, red & green peppers). And the best is that we froze half of it for supper another night!

The weekend's wonderful weather meant a great coming together of family to celebrate my older brother's 40th birthday. They had a great spread of delicious hamburgers, turkey burgers and hot dogs. My mom made her famous No Bake Cheesecake (I'll get the recipe and post it soon) - I ate 2 and a half pieces! TroubleMaker had tons of fun tearing around my Dad and Step Mom's yard with his cousins - he slept very well last night!

Today was 'do it all' day! After a yummy Hubby cooked (not on the menu) breakfast, I made potato salad and tossed a frozen slab of beef into a marinade. I then baked Hubby's favourite chocolate cake (again, recipe will come soon, I promise). After a quick wash of some dishes and the floor (TroubleMaker has a way of making every surface in the house sticky) I was out to help pull weeds from the lawn Hubby is working to make soft and perfect for Barefoots! ;-)

TroubleMaker is down for a nap and I wanted to share this weeks' menu! As always, links where applicable are shared and underlined recipes are shared below!

Dinners at a Glance
Monday: Tuna Sandwiches and tossed salad
Tuesday: Chicken fingers & fries
Wednesday: Crock pot meatballs over egg noodles
Thursday: Spinach salad with French bread
Friday: Gramma's Baked Mac & Cheese (maybe - I may be going to a fundraiser for Dufashanye Canada! Check them out and support this very worthy cause!
Saturday: Chicken wings & veggies n dip from Barefoot Deliberations MPM 4th Edition
Sunday: Hamburgers & chips

Lunches include cereal bars, yogurt and smoothies and breakfasts are cheese toast, Banana Muffins, PB Toast and hard boiled eggs on English Muffins!

Recipes:

Crock pot Meatballs
Use your favourite meatball recipe (or use prepared meatballs) put in the crock pot RAW (that's right, you don't have to precook your meatballs for this recipe!)!

2 cans mushroom soup
3/4 cup water
1 can mushrooms (if desired)
1 package of Lipton's Onion Soup Mix

Add soups, water, mushrooms and soup mix to crock pot, stir well and then add your meatballs. Turn on low and cook all day. Delicious served over egg noodles!

Gramma's Baked Mac & Cheese
4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp flour
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1-1/2 cups milk
Lots and lots of shredded cheese

2 cups macaroni

1/8 to 1/4 cup butter
1/2 to 2/3 cup bread crumbs

Method:

Boil water for the macaroni. When boiling, add macaroni and cook until desired tenderness is achieved. Meanwhile...

Melt butter and flour in small pot. Allow to bubble for 2 to 3 minutes but do not let brown. Add salt slowly, stirring well. Add milk, small amount at a time stirring well with each addition. Once all added, add mustard and pepper. One may add additional seasonings (such as parsley, garlic, etc) if desired. As it slowly starts to boil, add lots of cheese - the sharper the better. At least 2 cups. I often mix a blend of whatever is in the fridge - cheddar, mozza, etc. Stir after each addition of cheese. Allow to almost boil but continue to stir so it does not stick or burn.

Get another small pot and add about 1/4 cup of butter to it and melt. Then add about 1/2 to 2/3 cup of bread crumbs. Stir until mixed.

Drain macaroni well. Pour cheese sauce over and stir to combine. Pour 1/2 of macaroni with cheese sauce into a casserole dish. Top with 1/2 the buttered crumbs and a small amount of shredded cheese. Top with remaining mac & cheese and add the remaining buttered crumbs and more shredded cheese. Sprinkle with paprika & bake 15 to 20 minutes at 375 F.

Need more inspiration? Check out Org Junkie's MPM!

Back on the Wagon!

So I’m hiatus from blogging – I make it ‘official’ and BOOM, the spirit hits. Maybe it’s because I’m in better spirits today?

Over the past few weeks, I have been tackling small organizing projects in our house. The first was randomly emptying kitchen drawers on the May Long weekend. Our outdoor plans were shelved due to rain (and snow, if I recall) so as we stood around on Sunday morning discussing what we could do that day, I started to empty the drawers… First in search of a little plastic square we use to scrape out the cast-iron frying pans but it quickly evolved into a complete empty, purge and wash event!

I don’t have many drawers in my kitchen. Well, I actually have lots of drawers in my kitchen. In our condominium, I had two drawers. One for cutlery and ‘everything’ and one additional one that had to be the ‘junk drawer’ because EVERY kitchen has to have one. In our present house, I have six drawers and of course, one of them is the customary ‘junk drawer’. I have a drawer with towels, one with potholders, oh, wait – I have two junk drawers – a small junk drawer, the drawer for plastic wrap, foil and baggies, the cutlery drawer, the kitchen tool drawer (for egg slices, flippers, etc) and another junk drawer.

So as I write this, all proud to tell you I filled half a shoe box with unused and unneeded kitchen implements, I’m embarrassed to realize I’ve discovered my next project.

Every kitchen needs a junk drawer but not two. I’ll let you know how I make out with the next “snip-it” in a couple of days.

Temporary Leave of Absence

There are some things going on in my life that I need to sort out right now... I will still post my MPM but will likely not be further updating my blog until July.

Check back - please - sometimes life gets in the way of the creative spirit.

Corrie
AKA Brennan's Mom

Menu Plan Monday - fifth edition!

This is a hurried menu this week - I'd hope to get the month done all today but it just wasn't happening! We didn't eat everything according to menu this week, the weather wasn't all that cooperative (it rained and rained and then it SNOWED) so I adapted a few things to make the menu less summery and more "seasonal" to go along with the snow!

I'm not as detailed this week as TroubleMaker is on a 'sleeping strike' and I can't get him to go to bed so I'm trying to get this posted at least before I head to bed with him so we can both catch up on some missed sleep!

Here are our dinners at a glance!

Monday: Baked Tortellini w/ homemade meat sauce
Tuesday: Stir Fry veggies and stir fry rice (from May 30)
Wednesday: Chili & buns (from May 28)
Thursday: Farmer's Breakfast (recipe below)
Friday: Two step honey dijon chicken (from May ??)
Saturday: Birthday BBQ at my Dad's to celebrate my brother's 40th!
Sunday: Crockpot ham & scalloped potatoes (from early May)

Lunches:
Crackers & Cheese, Cottage cheese, leftovers, yogurt, cereal bar

Breakfasts: Eggos (Frozen pancakes), Banana muffins & cheese cubes, toast, bagels & cream cheese, cheese toast

I hope to do a few more posts this week - last week was just one of those weeks! Enjoy and look for more great menu planning ideas, check out Org Junkie!

Recipes:
Farmer's Breakfast (this is slight adaptation of an old family favourite)
500g hash browns
6 to 8 eggs
1/2 to 1 pound bacon
1 large onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
other things (broccoli, mushrooms)!
various seasonings

Chop bacon and saute until mostly cooked, add chopped onions and green peppers (and mushrooms if desired), saute until soft. Add hash browns and season to taste with parsley, season salt, onion & garlic powder, & pepper. Once the hash browns are cooked through and lightly browned, (if adding broc, add now) crack and beat eggs in a bowl with some milk. Add to hash browns and mix through. cook until set.

Serve topped with shredded cheddar cheese.

Menu Plan Monday - fourth edition

Well… This week was a new experience! I started my new job and as you know, I planned simple, quick meals. Using the transit system actually allowed me more time at home than ever before and we were able to have dinner every night by 5:30pm. Yeah for us! That meant more time for playing and visiting and connecting as family!

Unfortunately, my barbeque menu plans have been pretty much rained out so we’ve rearranged a few meals and even ended up having an impromptu Saturday Night Pizza Party! I wish every Saturday night could be a pizza party but then it wouldn’t be special, would it? This time, we ordered in pizza and it is always a huge disappointment but the eating in front of the TV and watching movies (in our case a kid’s DVD) is always lots of fun and TroubleMaker only had one spill!

This week’s menu is a good one. I’m looking forward to trying a make-at-home taco salad with a yummy ‘homemade’ taco seasoning recipe and fresh made salsa. I’m on the fence about Monday’s dinner because the rain has delayed all our plans this weekend if it is nice tomorrow, I’m not sure I want to spend any of the day inside prepping the easy and yummy salad – I’d rather just come in at dinner time and cook a quickie meal.

Here is the week at a glance! Underlined recipes are available for download in PDF format below!

Monday: BBQ Steak with Creamy Primavera Tortellini Salad
Tuesday: Taco Salad with Homemade Taco Seasoning
Wednesday: Chicken burgers with coleslaw
Thursday: KD & Fish sticks
Friday: Chili & buns
Saturday: Easy Hot Wings, veggies n' dip
Sunday: Stir fry veggies with my fried rice

On tap for breakfasts this week:
Bacon & Eggs
English muffins with cheese
Jam toast
Scrambled Eggs
PB Toast

And lunches:
Crackers & cheese
Leftover pasta salad
PB Sandwiches
Yogurt with cereal bars

Find more great menu planning ideas at the Org Junkie’s Menu Plan Mondays!

BD MPM Recipes May 24 to 30

Snip-it #1 - SUCCESS!

I went home last night and almost forgot about my commitment to clean out one cabinet... As I stood talking to my husband, in front of the stove, I remembered my plight. I grabbed a chair and up I went... And up came TroubleMaker - he wanted to help!

We dumped the following open liquor down the drain (sorry fishes, I hope you can swim straight):
1- 1/4 full "Mickey" of white rum
1- 1/2 full "26er" of amber rum
1- 1/2 full "Mickey" of Brandy (why we had brandy, neither of us could recall)
1- 1/2 full bottle of Triple Sec
1- 1/4 full bottle of Grand Marnier
1- 1/4 full bottle of Kahlua
1- 1/4 full bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream

We kept three closed bottles of liquor. I'm not sure when we'll ever drink them but the cupboard is clean, organized and tidy! Wednesday's "Snip-it" was a success!