HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
I realize I am a bit late posting the menu for this week, since it's already Friday.
I also completely skipped over last weekend it.
It was Thanksgiving and I am sure most of you were having turkey dinner anyway.
So for this week, I went for groceries on Tuesday and spent $128 at Farm Boy and another $58 at Sobeys.
I guess I didn't do too badly considering it's already Friday and I am in the process of making all my meals for the weekend.
I will have to make one trip this weekend to pick up more fruit and maybe some eggs, and then I think we will be good until payday!
Okay so here is the menu for this week and I will post photos and recipes in a bit
Week 2 Menu
Tuesday
Beef Enchiladas served with Spanish rice
Wednesday
Grilled chicken with tomato and basil penne
Thursday
Leftovers with a big salad!
Friday
Homemade pizza (we always have pizza and a movie on Friday)
I am in the kitchen all day today preparing our weekend meals which consist of:
Saturday
Bacon wrapped meatloaf and mashed potatoes
Sunday
Beef (already cooking in the crock pot, with a splash of red wine), served with Yorkshires, and mashed turnip and potatoes...mixed together to trick my picky eater!
I am also making Butternut squash ravioli from scratch today (using wonton wrappers).
Its a first for me, so I will be sure to let you know how they turn out.
This will be a time consuming project and just might freeze the ravioli until we need them.
Yes, that's what I will do, because I think, even for us, we will have plenty to eat to get us through the weekend.
Butternut Squash ravioli can be on the menu for Mondays dinner!!
Stay tuned!
I also completely skipped over last weekend it.
It was Thanksgiving and I am sure most of you were having turkey dinner anyway.
So for this week, I went for groceries on Tuesday and spent $128 at Farm Boy and another $58 at Sobeys.
I guess I didn't do too badly considering it's already Friday and I am in the process of making all my meals for the weekend.
I will have to make one trip this weekend to pick up more fruit and maybe some eggs, and then I think we will be good until payday!
Okay so here is the menu for this week and I will post photos and recipes in a bit
Week 2 Menu
Tuesday
Beef Enchiladas served with Spanish rice
Wednesday
Grilled chicken with tomato and basil penne
Thursday
Leftovers with a big salad!
Friday
Homemade pizza (we always have pizza and a movie on Friday)
I am in the kitchen all day today preparing our weekend meals which consist of:
Saturday
Bacon wrapped meatloaf and mashed potatoes
Sunday
Beef (already cooking in the crock pot, with a splash of red wine), served with Yorkshires, and mashed turnip and potatoes...mixed together to trick my picky eater!
I am also making Butternut squash ravioli from scratch today (using wonton wrappers).
Its a first for me, so I will be sure to let you know how they turn out.
This will be a time consuming project and just might freeze the ravioli until we need them.
Yes, that's what I will do, because I think, even for us, we will have plenty to eat to get us through the weekend.
Butternut Squash ravioli can be on the menu for Mondays dinner!!
Stay tuned!
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Thursday I had run out of steam. I needed a quick dinner with absolutely no prep work.
So, out came the crock pot.
Yes, the good old fashioned crock pot.
In went the pork loin and half a bottle of BBQ sauce.
BBQ pulled pork sandwiches.
Dinner done!!
No photos for this one.
As for dessert, I figured I should do something!
I had a fresh pineapple that was begging to be eaten.
So, I chopped it up into spears.
Rolled it in brown sugar
Then introduced it to my panini grill.
Drizzle with homemade chocolate sauce.
So, out came the crock pot.
Yes, the good old fashioned crock pot.
In went the pork loin and half a bottle of BBQ sauce.
BBQ pulled pork sandwiches.
Dinner done!!
No photos for this one.
As for dessert, I figured I should do something!
I had a fresh pineapple that was begging to be eaten.
So, I chopped it up into spears.
Rolled it in brown sugar
Then introduced it to my panini grill.
Drizzle with homemade chocolate sauce.
Chocolate Sauce
1/4 cup of whipping cream (heated in the microwave, don't overheat)
A handful of chocolate chips
Stir until melted
Enjoy!!
Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday
This is when things started to go a little sideways.
That's okay though, I lived to tell!
Instead of Spaghetti, I decided to make cannelloni.
A little more work, but it was fun to make.
Messy, but fun.
So I had oven ready cannelloni shells in my cupboard that had been saved for a rainy day. Oven ready means you don't have to boil the pasta first. You can fill the cannelloni and place in your baking dish and bake. They soften and cook in the oven. They also sell lasagna sheets like this too. Fabulous!!!
Okay so here are the steps
The Sauce
I made a meat sauce from scratch, but please feel free to use your favourite jar of sauce.
I am all about keeping things simple.
Saute onion, and brown some ground beef in a pan.
Add a can of diced tomatoes, and a can of tomato sauce and let simmer and reduce until the sauce has thickened.
By reducing, I mean, that you are allowing the liquid to evaporate. What you end up with is a thicker, richer sauce.
Season to taste with salt and pepper and perhaps italian spices (oregano, rosemary, basil, thyme, garlic powder).
If you are using a jar of sauce, you probably don't need to add anything further for taste. It will already be seasoned.
Place a ladle full of sauce in the bottom of your baking dish.
A nice saucey bed for your cannelloni.
The Filling
Place one container of Ricotta cheese in a bowl
Add one egg
A handful of Romano cheese
A handful of grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper
A handful of chopped, fresh herbs (I used Italian flat leaf parsley and basil)
A tip for the Basil:
Pull off the leaves and lay all the leaves on top of one another. Roll into a cigar and then starting at one end, chop the basil. Making lots of little strands of basil. This is called a chiffonade.
Mix the filling and get ready to get messy!
For filling the cannelloni. I took a ziploc bag and snipped one of the corners. Fill the ziploc with the cheesy, herby filling and then squeeze the mixture into the cannelloni shells.
It does get a little messy but lots of fun!
Place the filled shells in your prepared baking dish and cover with remaining sauce.
Top with parmesan cheese, cover with foil and bake according to the directions on the cannelloni box.
375 degrees for 40 minutes covered.
10 minutes more uncovered to get the cheese all nice and toasty!
Very kid friendly!!!
Enjoy!
This is when things started to go a little sideways.
That's okay though, I lived to tell!
Instead of Spaghetti, I decided to make cannelloni.
A little more work, but it was fun to make.
Messy, but fun.
So I had oven ready cannelloni shells in my cupboard that had been saved for a rainy day. Oven ready means you don't have to boil the pasta first. You can fill the cannelloni and place in your baking dish and bake. They soften and cook in the oven. They also sell lasagna sheets like this too. Fabulous!!!
Okay so here are the steps
The Sauce
I made a meat sauce from scratch, but please feel free to use your favourite jar of sauce.
I am all about keeping things simple.
Saute onion, and brown some ground beef in a pan.
Add a can of diced tomatoes, and a can of tomato sauce and let simmer and reduce until the sauce has thickened.
By reducing, I mean, that you are allowing the liquid to evaporate. What you end up with is a thicker, richer sauce.
Season to taste with salt and pepper and perhaps italian spices (oregano, rosemary, basil, thyme, garlic powder).
If you are using a jar of sauce, you probably don't need to add anything further for taste. It will already be seasoned.
Place a ladle full of sauce in the bottom of your baking dish.
A nice saucey bed for your cannelloni.
The Filling
Place one container of Ricotta cheese in a bowl
Add one egg
A handful of Romano cheese
A handful of grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper
A handful of chopped, fresh herbs (I used Italian flat leaf parsley and basil)
A tip for the Basil:
Pull off the leaves and lay all the leaves on top of one another. Roll into a cigar and then starting at one end, chop the basil. Making lots of little strands of basil. This is called a chiffonade.
Mix the filling and get ready to get messy!
For filling the cannelloni. I took a ziploc bag and snipped one of the corners. Fill the ziploc with the cheesy, herby filling and then squeeze the mixture into the cannelloni shells.
It does get a little messy but lots of fun!
Place the filled shells in your prepared baking dish and cover with remaining sauce.
Top with parmesan cheese, cover with foil and bake according to the directions on the cannelloni box.
375 degrees for 40 minutes covered.
10 minutes more uncovered to get the cheese all nice and toasty!
Very kid friendly!!!
Enjoy!
So Tuesday, as promised, I made roast chicken thighs and served it with artisan lettuces and grilled mushrooms.
I cheated a little with this one, because I had this chicken in my freezer, so it wasn't part of my shopping list for last week.
I drizzled the chicken thighs with olive oil and lots of salt for tasty, crispy skin, and placed them in a roasting pan.
I set the timer to roast the chicken for 40 minutes at 425 degrees
until,
I almost set fire to my kitchen.
Yes, keeping it real here folks, I almost had a fire.
After all, I am all about sharing, the good, the bad and the ugly of everyday life!
The grease from the chicken was splashing all over inside my oven and I already had something burning on the bottom of the oven from pizza last week (I think), apparently.
Anyway, lets just say this was almost smoked chicken.
I got it out just in time, after about 20 minutes and finished it off on my handy grill.
I removed the chicken after about 7-10 minutes or so, and grilled the mushrooms in the remaining chicken juices.
For the bed of artisan lettuces.
I found them originally at Costco, but lately at Sobey's.
They are sold in a plastic container and there are 4 little heads of lettuce inside.
Each one different.
One purple, one curly, one crunchy, and one soft.
Wish I could tell you the names of each lettuce. Next time I promise.
Wash and chop, and lay on a plate as a tasty colourful little bed for your mushrooms and chicken.
Drizzle with your favourite dressing.
I used Fig Balsamic dressing by Kraft.
Kid approved, they loved it!
Enjoy!
I drizzled the chicken thighs with olive oil and lots of salt for tasty, crispy skin, and placed them in a roasting pan.
I set the timer to roast the chicken for 40 minutes at 425 degrees
until,
I almost set fire to my kitchen.
Yes, keeping it real here folks, I almost had a fire.
After all, I am all about sharing, the good, the bad and the ugly of everyday life!
The grease from the chicken was splashing all over inside my oven and I already had something burning on the bottom of the oven from pizza last week (I think), apparently.
Anyway, lets just say this was almost smoked chicken.
I got it out just in time, after about 20 minutes and finished it off on my handy grill.
I removed the chicken after about 7-10 minutes or so, and grilled the mushrooms in the remaining chicken juices.
For the bed of artisan lettuces.
I found them originally at Costco, but lately at Sobey's.
They are sold in a plastic container and there are 4 little heads of lettuce inside.
Each one different.
One purple, one curly, one crunchy, and one soft.
Wish I could tell you the names of each lettuce. Next time I promise.
Wash and chop, and lay on a plate as a tasty colourful little bed for your mushrooms and chicken.
Drizzle with your favourite dressing.
I used Fig Balsamic dressing by Kraft.
Kid approved, they loved it!
Enjoy!
I don't know about you, but sometimes my weekly plan takes a nose dive when real life decides to interrupt.
Last week was one of those weeks.
I did manage to feed my family by sticking to the menu, somewhat.
The good news is, I didn't go back to the grocery store all week, so I made do with what I had and perhaps saved a little money in the long run.
So here is:
Monday's Whole-y Mackerel (sorry, I couldn't resist)
My baby boy and pure fascination!
Mackeral meets grill.
Oh, a little side note here. I had a blonde moment last week.
I thought I was being clever by cashing in some rewards points from my credit card.
Could have bought a Tiffany bracelet, silver ear rings, a nice watch.
I chose a grill.
A panini grill by Breville.
I have always wanted one, because I love hot, toasty sandwiches.
I felt pretty pleased with myself.
Until it arrived
I started taking it out of the box and realized I had one already.
What was I thinking?
I have a good old faithful George Foreman grill!
So, I frantically searched to see if you can return items bought with rewards points.
It doesn't seem like you can.
So now I have two grills. Both have their pros and cons.
The cons about panini grill is it's harder to clean.
The grills on the George can be removed and can go in the dishwasher.
The panini grill relies on elbow grease.
Oh and it takes a lot longer to warm up than George.
The pros of the panini grill are the larger cooking surface, and you can alter the height of the lid so you don't squash your food flat.
So, I think I will be selling George and keeping my panini grill.
Okay, back to the mackerel
So, as mentioned last week, there are no recipes for this week. I just had fun!
The mackerel was whole, and so I cleaned it up and made a marinade of olive oil, juice of one lemon, thyme, salt and pepper. Rub the marinade all over the fish and inside the cavity.
I let the mackerel sit and get happy in the marinade for about an hour.
Make sure to make slits in the skin of the fish on both sides to allow for moisture to escape. This also prevents the skin from shrinking shriveling in the heat.
Place the mackerel on your grill and cook for about 5-7 minutes. Do not over cook.
There is nothing worse than over cooked fish of any kind.
I served the mackerel with jasmine rice and roasted asparagus.
For the asparagus, I drizzled it with olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted it in the oven at 425 degrees for about 8-10 minutes.
Don't over cook the asparagus.
No one wants dull, wilted asparagus.
It should still have a bit of a bite to it, and the salt will help keep the nice bright green colour!
Here's the finished product.
Last week was one of those weeks.
I did manage to feed my family by sticking to the menu, somewhat.
The good news is, I didn't go back to the grocery store all week, so I made do with what I had and perhaps saved a little money in the long run.
So here is:
Monday's Whole-y Mackerel (sorry, I couldn't resist)
Oh, a little side note here. I had a blonde moment last week.
I thought I was being clever by cashing in some rewards points from my credit card.
Could have bought a Tiffany bracelet, silver ear rings, a nice watch.
I chose a grill.
A panini grill by Breville.
I have always wanted one, because I love hot, toasty sandwiches.
I felt pretty pleased with myself.
Until it arrived
I started taking it out of the box and realized I had one already.
What was I thinking?
I have a good old faithful George Foreman grill!
So, I frantically searched to see if you can return items bought with rewards points.
It doesn't seem like you can.
So now I have two grills. Both have their pros and cons.
The cons about panini grill is it's harder to clean.
The grills on the George can be removed and can go in the dishwasher.
The panini grill relies on elbow grease.
Oh and it takes a lot longer to warm up than George.
The pros of the panini grill are the larger cooking surface, and you can alter the height of the lid so you don't squash your food flat.
So, I think I will be selling George and keeping my panini grill.
Okay, back to the mackerel
So, as mentioned last week, there are no recipes for this week. I just had fun!
The mackerel was whole, and so I cleaned it up and made a marinade of olive oil, juice of one lemon, thyme, salt and pepper. Rub the marinade all over the fish and inside the cavity.
I let the mackerel sit and get happy in the marinade for about an hour.
Make sure to make slits in the skin of the fish on both sides to allow for moisture to escape. This also prevents the skin from shrinking shriveling in the heat.
Place the mackerel on your grill and cook for about 5-7 minutes. Do not over cook.
There is nothing worse than over cooked fish of any kind.
I served the mackerel with jasmine rice and roasted asparagus.
For the asparagus, I drizzled it with olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted it in the oven at 425 degrees for about 8-10 minutes.
Don't over cook the asparagus.
No one wants dull, wilted asparagus.
It should still have a bit of a bite to it, and the salt will help keep the nice bright green colour!
Here's the finished product.
Oh, and by the way, my kids loved it!
My youngest is a tad on the picky side and he loved it.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Menu - Week 1
As promised, here is the menu for Week 1.
It may not end up being as simple as I thought last week. Today I went to Sobey's and for the first time I found fresh whole Mackerel.
So, I had no choice but to buy it. It cost $5 for 2 fish. They are small, and you may need one per adult.
I realize Mackerel is not a staple in most of our kitchens, and I may never cook it again, but I have to try it once!
So, it's going on the grill tonight, along with some olive oil, garlic, lemon juice and fresh thyme.
So my trip to Sobey's cost $84.
It included the fish for tonight, and a pork loin roast for Thursday night, and a couple of lunch items.
Anyway, here's the menu for this week.
Monday
Grilled Mackerel, rice, asparagus
Tuesday
Roast chicken, artisan lettuce salad
Wednesday
Spaghetti Bolognese with The Bread
Thursday
Pork Loin Roast, potatoes, carrots
Friday
Homemade pizza (dough made in bread maker)
No cookbooks for any of the above (except The Bread, it's from The Pioneer Woman).
Oh for dessert, I did make a batch of mini Orange muffins with a brown sugar orange glaze that are truly wonderful.
The Pioneer Woman again! Do you get the feeling I love her???
I will post photos and the recipe for them later because they would be perfect for Christmas and can be the first of my 12, Christmas Cookie/Cake/Cupcake Countdown recipes.
I am in the process of freezing a batch and will let you know how they turn out before I recommend them.
Wish me luck with the Mackerel!
It may not end up being as simple as I thought last week. Today I went to Sobey's and for the first time I found fresh whole Mackerel.
So, I had no choice but to buy it. It cost $5 for 2 fish. They are small, and you may need one per adult.
I realize Mackerel is not a staple in most of our kitchens, and I may never cook it again, but I have to try it once!
So, it's going on the grill tonight, along with some olive oil, garlic, lemon juice and fresh thyme.
So my trip to Sobey's cost $84.
It included the fish for tonight, and a pork loin roast for Thursday night, and a couple of lunch items.
Anyway, here's the menu for this week.
Monday
Grilled Mackerel, rice, asparagus
Tuesday
Roast chicken, artisan lettuce salad
Wednesday
Spaghetti Bolognese with The Bread
Thursday
Pork Loin Roast, potatoes, carrots
Friday
Homemade pizza (dough made in bread maker)
No cookbooks for any of the above (except The Bread, it's from The Pioneer Woman).
Oh for dessert, I did make a batch of mini Orange muffins with a brown sugar orange glaze that are truly wonderful.
The Pioneer Woman again! Do you get the feeling I love her???
I will post photos and the recipe for them later because they would be perfect for Christmas and can be the first of my 12, Christmas Cookie/Cake/Cupcake Countdown recipes.
I am in the process of freezing a batch and will let you know how they turn out before I recommend them.
Wish me luck with the Mackerel!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)