Weekly menu planning

I had a menu on the fridge last week, and it REALLY helped. Thinking about it on the webz also helps, so here goes...

Sunday: Leftover beef strew (this was really good last week)
Monday: Chicken tortillas
Tuesday: Pasta
Wednesday: Burgers
Thursday: Potato soup
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Hot dogs on the firepit

Chocolate zucchini bread

The original recipe was called "Death by Chocolate Zucchini Bread". I made some changes, of course.

2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 cups shredded zucchini (or summer squash)
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2/3 cup chocolate chips

Mix eggs and sugar; add oil and vanilla, mix; add zucchini, mix.

Mix dry ingredients and add to zucchini mixture in 3 parts; add chocolate chips.

Bake at 350 degrees until done - recipe claimed 50 minutes; mine took more like an hour and a half.

Next challenge: The Lovely Daughter has requested that I try a vegan version - so there will be tofu instead of eggs next time around.

cinnamon roll recipe

https://theorganisedhousewife.com.au/recipes/2-ingredient-lunchbox-scrolls/?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=facebook_page&utm_medium=The%20Organised%20Housewife

Weekly menu plan

Monday: something made with leftover chicken - enchiladas?
Tuesday: Soup
Wednesday: fish
Thursday:  pasta
Friday: steak/burgers
Saturday: pizza
Sunday: Chicken skewers

Granola!

I made this last night from a Bon Appetit recipe, and had it with my breakfast yogurt this morning.

Full confession - I didn't follow the recipe exactly. I used all of a nearly-full small canister of oatmeal, the remains of a bag of coconut, the remains of a bag of pecan pieces, a cup or so of wheat germ, the remains of a bag of brown sugar, the remains of a jar of honey...and filled in the blanks with a guess on how much oil to add. All of the "remains" were fairly close to the amount called for in the recipe, given the scaling up to how much dry stuff I had.

Now I just need to add some dried fruit to one of the containers!

Breakfast for dinner

I used the Belgian waffle make Santa brought us for Christmas. So far, I've just started with a box of waffle mix, and honestly, it works so well I don't see a real reason to try anything different, at least when I'm feeding boys. I do have to reconcile this with the fact that I'm basically feeding them cake for dinner, but the bacon offsets the sugar, right?

Shopping also means I have shrimp and hot dogs for dinners later in the week.

Sesame Tofu

The Lovely Daughter found this recipe:  http://www.food.com/recipe/sesame-tofu-177242

It was yummy.

Recipe for GIngerbread scones

http://thesuburbansoapbox.com/2015/12/14/gingerbread-scones-with-eggnog-glaze/?utm_source=P-0679&utm_medium=FB&utm_campaign=SocialFabric is the site, but it hangs up dreadfully, so recopied for utility - also noting things I want to change

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup cold heavy cream
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon- increase to 1 tsp
• 1/2 tsp cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves 
• 1/4 - 1/2 c chopped crystallized ginger
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 tablespoon cold heavy cream
-use raw sugar for sprinkling

Icing (I'm unlikely to do this)

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons eggnog

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together 3/4 cup of cream, egg and molasses. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, salt and cloves. Grate butter over flour mixture.
2. Work butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal, with a few pea-size pieces of butter remaining. Add crystallized ginger.  With a fork, stir in the cream mixture until just combined. The dough will still be crumbly.
3. Pat dough into a 7-8-inch circle. Cut into 8 wedges and transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush the tops with 1 tablespoon cream and sprinkle with granulated sugar. Transfer to the oven and bake until golden, 16 to 18 minutes, rotating the sheet pan halfway through. Allow to cool on the sheet pan for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
4. While the scone cool, whisk together the powdered sugar and eggnog until smooth. Drizzle the glaze over the scones. Allow the glaze to set, approximately 30 minutes, before serving.
5. Store in an airtight container for up to 48 hours. Best when served the same day.

vegetarian chocolate pie

The Lovely [vegetarian] Daughter is home for the holidays. Chocolate marshmallow pie is a long-time favorite of the older two kids, and marshmallows are one of the few non-veg things that TLD will eat. Today I tried it with marshmallow fluff, which IS vegetarian.

The pan scrapings tasted quite yummy, so I have high hopes!

This is a VERY easy pie, and the marshmallow creme worked really well.

Chili Lime Peanuts

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/chile_lime_peanuts.html

I actually used about 4 cups of peanuts - I cut everything in half, but it seemed to be a little too much chili powder, so I added extra peanuts and lime juice. Next time, probably even less chili powder.

Menu planning

It's been working writing dinners on a little whiteboard on the fridge.

For this week, we've had/will have:

Mon: French Bread Pizza (Small Man's suggestion)
Tues: Hamburgers
Wed: Chicken pot pie
Thurs: Pasta (raviolini)
Fri: Pancakes

Dinners can be a little more time-intensive since I've had to start teleworking more. They're renovating our office space, and while we have limited access to off-site office space, most of us are teleworking almost full-time.

My Grandma was famous for her pies

My cousin Sonya just sent me a copy of a newspaper article written about my grandmother and her pies ~6 months before I was born.

Orange-Cardamom Cookies

I used this recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/printerfriendly/orange-cardamom-cookies-240927

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoons grated orange zest
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream

EXCEPT I doubled the cardamom as suggested in the comments on the recipe, I used a whole egg instead of an egg yolk, I used half-and-half instead of heavy cream because it's what I had in the fridge, and used tangelo zest because the tangelos were on sale.

I also didn't roll and cut - I made a log, froze it, and sliced rounds to bake.

They were really good - light and crisp.

Chocolate muffins

Not dinner, breakfast :)

Does anybody else remember when Williams-Sonoma had actual catalogs:

And when they sold a ton of really cool stuff that was actually affordable? I used to love poring through the new W-S catalog, and actually bought some things from them. I still use my stainless steel measuring cups - AND the odd-size cups as well - and miss the broken Japanese fish soup bowls that have gotten broken. I'm pretty sure I actually purchased the animal muffin pan on the cover of this catalog (Fall 1984), but gave it away a long time ago because I could never get it properly seasoned and the muffins always stuck to the pan!

ANYWAY, the ingredients listed are from the original recipe, my mixing order is different.

Preheat oven to 400 (recipe calls for 425)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder

4 Tbsp butter, melted
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs

Melt butter, warm milk slightly and add to butter, blend eggs slightly and add to milk/butter, add vanilla. Mix thoroughly.

Mix dry ingredients and sift into wet ingredients, mix just until combined. Spoon into greased muffin tins and bake 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned. (recipe claims yield is 24 muffins; 18 is what I usually wind up with)

These are lovely; not overly sweet.

Menu planning

I tried something new the first week of school:

I posted the weekly menu on a whiteboard on the fridge.

The Karate Kid loved it! The only thing he seemed to not like was that I didn't have the weekend meals on it :)

Thinking about next week...
Sat. - Leek quiche (I made a leek frittata before and it was awesome; TMOTH would've preferred a crust, so crust it will be.
Sun.. - Pizza we had soup instead
Mon. - Pork chops
Tues - Taco Tuesday! (suggested by the Karate Kid)
Wed. - Bean soup Waffles
Thurs. - Spaghetti and meatballs
Fri. - Grilled chicken

Banana Chocolate Chip cookies

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/11201/banana-chocolate-chip-cookies/

Tastes like banana bread in cookie form! Both The Lovely Daughter and the Karate Kid loved these; the Small Man, not so much. TMOTH didn't like them at all - too soft for him (one reason Karate Kid liked them so much).

Menus for the short week

I leave Saturday morning to take The Lovely Daughter back to college, so the boys will be on their own for a few days. TMOTH usually makes burgers one night, pasta one night, and they order pizza one night. More than that, and they start eating out :)

Sunday: Karate Kid's choice: it's his birthday. He's REALLY like to go out to dinner, but since Mama doesn't want to, it's not happening. So we had cheese tortellini (I could have predicted this!).

Monday: Likely fair food, although that could be Wednesday. Burgers if we don't.

Tuesday: Leftover cornish hen.

Wednesday: Burgers, or the fair.

Thursday: Karate night ~ waffles and fruit.

Friday: I need to go to karate, so something quick. But it's The Lovely Daughter's last night to have family dinner, so maybe something she will eat. Lasagna?

miscellaneous

Pickles last weekend: http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/pickled-cauliflower-carrots-red-bell-pepper.aspx

Then made more peach-ginger jam. MMMM.

Tonight I made an herbed pork loin roast for dinner - I ground up garlic, rosemary, basil, and sage with some salt and pepper in olive oil, smeared it over the pork loin, made some shallow slashes, and rubbed it in, then roasted it. Also MMMMM.

Tentative meal plan for this week:

Monday:
Bacon
Waffles
Fruit

Tuesday:
Chicken/fish sticks
Frozen vegetables
Salad/crudites
Bread/rolls
Fruit

Wednesday:
Chicken fried steak/hamburgers
Mashed potatoes/gravy
Broccoli
Biscuits

Thursday:
Fish/shellfish
Farmers Market vegetables
French Bread

Friday:
Pizza

Saturday:
Hot dogs
Smores if the weather is good

Sunday:
Pasta
Breadsticks
Salad

canning today

Mint jelly, from the recipe in the Certo box, made from the exploding mint on the patio, and pickled peppers, made from this recipe from peppers from the garden. TMOTH planted some kind of "hot" pepper but it is NOT AT ALL hot - but I planted jalapenos, and they ARE hot. Each jar of pickles got one hot pepper :)

Crab cakes

recipe here

We had steamed crabs for our anniversary dinner, and had picked crab left over. I wound up with 5 crab cakes from what we had; we each had one for dinner and I'm freezing the rest. (We being TMOTH and me ~ no way the boys would try it.)

I mostly followed the recipe, except for the Old Bay. I just hate it. So I subbed in Zatarain's instead.