My Menu for the Week

I'm writing this here partly to share with you all, and partly because I lost my menu and I want to remember what I have planned so I'll do it :)

Tue: Crock Pot Teriyaki Chicken

Put the chicken (whatever kind you want, I used chicken breasts, but you could use wings or thighs) into the crock pot. In a bowl mix 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1 cup water. Pour over chicken and cook on low or high for as long as you need to. I did about 7 hours on low. Half an hour before serving, put some rice on to cook and add some pineapples to the crock pot. I served with broccoli and green salad. I was still hungry afterward, but it was delicious! Oh, and I also tried to add some cornstarch when I added the pineapples to thicken the sauce but it didn't work. I think I should have transferred it to another pan and warmed it more but I didn't want to do all that.

Wed: Taco soup and twice baked potatoes

Thur: Hawaiian Haystacks (using the leftover pineapples I saved from Tue)

Fri: Leftovers (and get a roast out to thaw for Sun.)

Sat: Homemade pizza (and make extra dough for rolls tomorrow)

Sun: Roast and mashed potatoes and gravy and rolls

Mon: Chimichanga's using leftover roast

Let me know if you'r interested in any other recipes, and I would love to see your menu's too!

Depression Cooking

Hey Josie, check out this YouTube TV series. It features 96-year-old Clara as she teaches you how to cook meals from the Depression. It looks like the series is about five years old, as the first two I've watched say she's 91 years old. Anyway, it's pretty cool. Basic, cheap, filling and nutritious meals for your family.

http://youtu.be/3OPQqH3YlHA

Meatless Chili

Last week when I was really on a healthy-eating kick (I still am, but I'm okay with eating meat this week, lol), I came up with this meatless chili recipe, again made from the ingredients I have on hand. I had leftovers for lunch today, and it still tastes good. And, just so you know, this recipe is made possible because Jim (Dad) bottles our dry beans for me so they are convenient to use, so that I will use them.

Easy Meatless Chili

1 pint bottled (or canned, I suppose) pinto beans, rinsed and drained

1 pint bottled (or canned, I suppose) black beans, rinsed and drained

1 pint bottled homemade salsa (made from the USU's Extension Service approved recipe)

2 pints canned whole tomatoes (or a quart bottled if you like)

1 tablespoon chili powder

That's it. Combine it all in a pan and heat through, letting it simmer on low for a bit. Between the chili powder and the salsa, it had just the right heat level for me, and I didn't need to add any salt, I suppose because of the canned and bottled stuff.

Also, when we bottle beans, no matter how hard we try to guestimate the right amount of beans to put in the bottle, they always swell more than we think and end up being crammed in there. So if you use store-bought canned beans, you may need an extra can of beans, in which case you might consider another kind of beans, such as Navy or Kidney or something.

Spinach-Fruit Salad

With our dinner last night I wanted to serve a salad, but the only greens I have on hand are from a bag of spinach that I bought a few days ago. Usually I think of spinach salad as having strawberries in it, but I don't have any fresh strawberries on hand. I do, however, have lots of apples, and a few walnuts. Oh, and look!, there are some dried cranberries, too! So I looked up a recipe for spinach-apple-walnut salad. I found several to choose from. I guess the main thing I needed was a dressing recipe. So here's an approximation of what I came up with (measurements are approximate):

Divide evenly between two serving plates:

2 handfuls of spinach

1 apple, cored and cubed

a few walnut halves, broken (I actually heated a frying pan and put these in it, along with a sprinkle of sugar, and stirred them around til the sugar melted and coated them a bit)

a few Craisins or dried cranberries

In a blender combine:

2 tablespoons frozen cranberry juice concentrate

2 tablespoons water

4 tablespoons safflower oil

2 tablespoons vinegar (I used cider)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon Mrs. Dash

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Blend all together. Taste to see if you need to add more salt or sugar or vinegar or something to give it a bit of pleasing tang. Then pour a little over the two salads just before serving.

We also had some hamburger-stroganoff for dinner, which I made as roughly follows:

1 pound hamburger, cooked with

half a large onion, chopped

When the hamburger is longer pink and the onion is soft and cooked through, drain the juices and add:

a can of cream of mushroom soup

a can of mushrooms

a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce

Stir till heated through, then remove from the heat and stir in a big spoonful of sour cream or plain yogurt. Serve over cooked rice or noodles.

Cooked carrots and broccoli were the vegetable(s) we ate with the meal, and I had a slice of bread and butter with honey on top for dessert.

Anyway, it was a good meal.

Pumpkin Pancakes

Last night I tried out these Pumpkin Pancakes from allrecipes.com for dinner. They were so good! I think I will start buying pumpkin puree now and trying other pumpkin dishes because even my kids liked the pancakes. I wanted to share the recipe here so besides posting the link I will copy and paste it too. I hope that's ok:

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons vinegar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. In a bowl, mix together the milk, pumpkin, egg, oil and vinegar. Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, allspice, cinnamon, ginger and salt in a separate bowl. Stir into the pumpkin mixture just enough to combine.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

I just put all the wet ingredients in my blender and blended them a bit then mixed all the dry ingredients together and dumped in the wet. These were the fluffiest pancakes I've ever had. They were a little bland but I think that's because I was missing the ginger and allspice. I still loved them though!