I Gong Myself for Last Week, so Here's a New Menu

So.
I did horrible at sticking to the menu last week. Let's see... I think we had only one meal on the menu for the night it was planned. We had spaghetti a different night and sandwiches earlier in the week instead of this weekend. And we did eat a lot of leftovers. Well, it was hot and we were busy, so there, those are my excuses. We'll shift a couple of those menu items over to this week.

So let's try this again... 5/28- 6/3
Monday: Pizza
Tuesday: Lasagna Rolls
Wednesday:Cheesy Tuna Noodle
Thursday:Shrimp and Steak (Happy Anniversary!)
Friday: Out to celebrate
Saturday:Chicken Pot Pie
Sunday: Pot Roast

Some of these may be changed as I need to go through the freezer and start using up our frozen foods before we move.

We Had a Regular Bakery Going on Round Here

I was on a baking binge the other day and just thought I'd share what Savannah and I whipped up. All of our favorites...

The Best Banana Bread
3 very ripe bananas
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/3-1/2 cup melted butter
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 cups flour

-Combine all ingredients together; EXCEPT you need to mix together the milk and baking soda separately before adding to the other ingredients.
-Pour batter into GREASED loaf pan
-Bake 1 hour at 325* check center done with toothpick

Reese's Chewy Chocolate Cookies
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup Hershey's Baking Cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1-1/4 cups butter softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1-2/3 cups (10oz pkg) Reese's Peanut Butter Chips

-Stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
-Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with mixer until fluffy.
-Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.
-Gradually add flour mixture, mixing well.
-Stir in peanut butter chips.
-Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8-9 minutesat 350*. Do not overbake. Cookies will be soft. They will puff while baking and flatten while cooling.
-Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack and cool completely.
Makes about 4 1/2 dozen cookies.

** I also make these substituting Andes Creme De Menthe Baking Chips for the peanut-butter chips sometimes. Awesome!!

Breakfast Cookies
1 cup shortening or margarine
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups Special K cereal
1 cup oatmeal
Raisins

-Beat together shortening, sugars, eggs and vanilla till light and creamy.
-Mix together flour, baking soda and salt in separate bowl.
-Gradually blend flour mix into creamed mixture.
-Stir in cereal, oatmeal and raisins.
-Bake 8-10 minutes at 375*
-Let stand 2 min before removing from cookie sheet.

Steak, Steak and More Steak

I am so full.
Ryan grilled some steaks tonight, along with some asparagus and we had some nice fresh french bread and I am STUFFED! There's nothing better than a great steak.
Except maybe if kids actually eat it! Which one of mine did tonight!!! Savannah asked for seconds even, which is amazing. She ate all of (two helpings) her steak, all her asparagus, all of her apple slices and two pieces of bread. She even got chocolate pudding for dessert since she managed to finish a whole plate today!
Sawyer had a beef frank and some of his veggie sticks.

Yesterday I never got around to the lasagna rolls. It was definitely a lazy day. I whipped up a skillet instead, with eggs and ham and cheese along with some hashbrowns and toast. Savannah ate pretty well, but Sawyer wanted nothing to do with it.

Weekend Recap and next week's Menu

We ended up grilling some chicken on Saturday. Just some plain ol' barbequed drumsticks. I made up some butter and herb pasta and also served fresh veggies with dip. Mmmm... it was a great warm-evening meal. And surprise, surprise, Savannah actually ate it! She ate a ton of the chicken, only tried one noodle, but had a whole plateful of baby carrots. All Sawyer ate was a bunch of cucumber slices.
Today we had an Open House, so we did a fast lunch at McDonalds and then when we returned home after being gone for the entire afternoon, we just threw together miscellaneous stuff to eat.

Menu for 5/21-5/27
Monday: Lasagna Rolls
Tuesday: Steak on the Grill
Wednesday: Cheesy Tuna Nooldle
Thursday: Spaghetti
Friday: Chicken Pot Pie
Saturday: Soup and Sandwiches
Sunday: Pot Roast

Biscuits and Gravy

Oooh... this is our absolute favorite, although I don't really consider it a dinnertime meal, and I don't think we've ever made it other than a Saturday or Sunday breakfast/lunch. I guess it is as much a meal as pancake nights or anything else of that nature.

All it takes is to brown up some pork breakfast sausage, add a country gravy mix, pour it all over some fresh-baked jumbo Pillbury buttermilk biscuits, and yum-O!

The kids don't ever want to try it (gravy = ick!!!) plus Sawyer's no milk, so I usually just fry up a few sausage patties for them and they either eat biscuits with a little fruit spread on it, or toast or maybe waffles with some fruit.

Honey Nut Chicken Strips

We love these! It's one of my favorite and easiest recipes. They're good hot or cold and we really like them cut up on a caesar salad.

If you want to try the recipe, here are a few twists I do...
instead of messing with the food processor, I just put the cereal (I almost always use Honey Nut Cheerios because I usually have them on hand) in a Ziplock freezer bag and crush it up, then add all the other ingredients (don't forget the oil-- I, for some reason, almost always forget the oil and then they just aren't as crunchy), and just toss the chicken pieces in the bag to coat. (After the flour and egg drenching)
Savannah always complains they're "too spicy", so this last time I mixed up the cereal, bread crumbs and oil first and did a handful of tenders for the kids before I added all the spices and finished up the batch.

Well, even though the kids' were just honey nut chicken nuggets, they didn't eat it. Savannah had to be forced into ONE BITE. I keep trying these though, as theoretically it's something they should definitely like, and like I said, it's one of our favorites.

Pork Tenderloin on the Grill

I simply bought an already marinated tenderloin and the man of the house grilled it up for me, along with some asparagus I cut and seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Both the kids used to eat pork like this, but with their newfound pickyness, neither of them even touched it. In fact the only thing Savannah ate was mandarin oranges, and Sawyer left his plate full as well, only minus a handfull of green beans (offered along with the asparagus because I know he hates the asparagus).

As for the adults... it was very delicious and I love how easy the meal was!!

Menu for May 14-20

Monday: Pork Tenderloin on the grill with asparagus and mandarin oranges
Tuesday: Honey Nut Chicken Strips on salad
Wednesday: Biscuits and Gravy
Thursday: Leftovers (soccer night)
Friday: BLT's
Saturday: Pizza
Sunday: out for most of the day (open house)

Yet Another Blog

Here is my attempt to keep track of what works and what doesn't work in regards to meal planning in this crazy house.
My goal is to plan a weekly menu and then reflect on who ate what and keep score of the hits and misses at our table. At the very least, it'll be an online recipe book so I can come here to find my favorite recipes instead of searching my mess of a notebook in my kitchen!! Any ideas, links or emails of recipes are greatly welcome!!