Easy Menu Week!

So, I'm fully aware that some of the stuff I make isn't exactly what a lot of people have time/energy for after a long day. But a lot of it is. As anyone who knows me real well is aware, I'm a big lobbyist for "real food". When I say real food, I mean minimal processing. I prefer to eat food that I've cooked myself, without having to worry about what other extra crap I'm eating. So to that end, I'm a lot more willing than a lot of people to put the extra effort into a meal at the end of the day. But it almost drives me nuts to hear people say, "Well, I just don't have the time/energy to cook like you do". Yes, you do! Cooking healthy food doesn't have to be time consuming or laborious, and in a lot of cases, it's actually cheaper than all of the pre-packaged processed crap that so many people eat out of convenience. So this week, I'm focusing on easy-to-prepare, yet still (mostly) healthy food that doesn't take hours to make, and I'll be including recipes.

Tuesday - Stewed Tomato Pasta (Recipe to follow)

Wednesday - Soy sauce chicken wings and fried rice (Ok, maybe a little bit of a sodium overload, but we don't eat like this very often, and for the most part, it's not horrible for you. If anyone wants the fried rice recipe I use, I'll post it.)

Thursday - Mexican Chicken (Literally, just chicken breasts and salsa. Put the chicken in a baking dish, pour salsa over the top and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Serve over rice. It's deceptively simple and really tasty.)

Friday - Broccoli Pasta Toss (Recipe to follow. I haven't made this one before, but it looks really good.)

Saturday - Hamburger Hotdish

Sunday - Pasta Alfredo (Homemade alfredo sauce is SO easy to make. Fattening, but easy, delicious, and nasty stuff-free. I'll be making the pasta from scratch, which if you have the time, makes this recipe SO much better, but it's still great with store-bought pasta as well. Recipe to follow.)

I spent about $35 on groceries for all of this, but the only reason it was that much is because I was out of a lot of staples. I had to get minute rice, to keep with the "easy" theme of the week, and apparently, Target does not have a store brand of the minute rice anymore. :( I also had to get another 2 pound block of cheddar (we go through a lot of cheddar), so that added $8, and another block of Parmesan cheese was $2.49 (I never, ever buy green can grated Parmesan cheese.) So it did add up, but mostly because I needed to buy damn near everything.

Stewed Tomato Pasta
(This recipe serves 8-10, I usually do a half recipe)
2 14.5 ounce cans stewed tomatoes with juice
1 3/4 cups of chicken broth (this is equivalent to one 14 oz can)
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
1 12 ounce package of spiral pasta

In a Dutch oven, combine everything except the pasta. Bring to a boil and add pasta. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 16-18 minutes, until pasta is tender. Stir occasionally.

My notes on this recipe: I mash the tomatoes with a potato masher before adding the pasta. I also add garlic salt and onion powder with the Italian seasoning, and I top with fresh grated Parmesan for serving. It's delish! :)

I will get additional recipes up in the next couple days!

This week's menu and other things....

I feel like I've been insanely busy lately, but at the same time, I feel like I haven't been. I keep making excuses for not blogging, but really, I spend plenty of time at my computer, I'm just lazy. Anyways, I made up this week's menu mostly out of leftovers that we had in our freezer, and trying to use stuff up. Made for a nice short grocery list. :)

Sunday: Chicken Noodle Soup
Monday: (Leftover frozen) Crockpot Pizza Soup
Tuesday: (Leftover frozen) Chicken Tacos
Wednesday: Rib-eye steak with whiskey cream sauce and roasted potatoes with garlic
Thursday: Nachos with (leftover frozen) cheesy nacho sauce
Friday: (Leftover) potato soup (from the previous recipe)

It was supposed to be Turkey Noodle Soup for dinner tonight, to use up some leftover turkey in the freezer, but then I needed more chicken broth anyways, and I make my broth from wings that I buy in bulk from Costco, so I'm using the chicken from that. I also made a huge batch of noodles and froze half, so in a couple weeks, when I'm craving soup again, I'll be able to quick throw it together with very little prep work. It's nice that we're getting a lot of our leftovers used up, especially because a lot of the time, we'll decide to freeze stuff....then immediately forget that we put it in the freezer to begin with. So this morning I just went through and found everything that would require minimal prep for dinner this week. It'll be nice to not have to worry about dinner all week, but I might actually start to miss cooking. ;)

I haven't been up to a whole lot lately. It feels like I've been working CONSTANTLY, but I know that's not the case. I did just get off of a 6-day stretch, which was exhausting. I want to get back into crafting (knitting, macrame, etc), but then I feel like I'm trying to cram more into my life. Maybe I'll try knitting a simple scarf or something to feel like I'm accomplishing something and see how that goes. I just know that I really miss my crafting. I don't know if I'm up for re-opening my Etsy shop, because that was a lot of work, but I know that I liked the joy I got from knowing that people were wearing my creations. And the extra cash was nice, especially when it came time for that tattoo. ;)

Well, I don't want to promise that I'll try blogging more often, but I will attempt to put a more frequent effort into it. In the meantime, I'll try to get my chicken noodle soup recipe up in the next day or so. It's my ultimate comfort food, because it's exactly like my mom used to make it. :)

(Oh, quick P.S.: If you're on Twitter, follow my sweet little guy: The Cuter Peyton. I'll be posting cute pictures from Peyton on there.)

This week's menu

This week's menu is small, because I work until 8 Monday and Friday, which means that we will be eating convenience foods (I know, I know, not the best way to do things). I'm going to try to find some super easy healthy foods to eat on my late nights from now on so that we're not falling off the healthy wagon. We've done salads those nights a couple times, and I think we should probably make that more of a habit. Either that, or I should have a hotdish (that's casserole for those of you not living in Minnesota) prepared and ready for Brian to throw in the oven. So without Monday and Friday, here's what we're having this week:

Sunday - Greek Shrimp
Tuesday - Sesame scallion tofu and sea slaw
Wednesday - Asparagus and poached eggs on toast
Thursday - Spinach Artichoke Hotdish

The only one of these that I've made before is the dinner on Wednesday, and we'll be eating it with a couple slices of bacon too. I'm not going to include my shopping list this time because I haven't gotten everything on it yet, and I'm lazy.

*Note: Just got done eating the Greek Shrimp. If you know what is good for you, you will make it for dinner this week. That is all. :)

Menu plan and housewifeliness

So my alarm went off at 5:30 this morning, and I've actually been a productive housewife so far today. I got my menu planned through Sunday, and I actually get to cook dinner for 6 nights in a row! I'm trying a few new recipes this week that I think are going to be FABULOUS. It's been a while since I've done much cooking around here, so it'll be nice to get some good, fresh, homemade food in our bellies. I'm also going out on a limb and trying steak again. I've generally not liked steak for my entire life, but I think I might be missing out, and the Pioneer Woman has a delicious looking recipe in her new cookbook that I think is going to be a serious treat for us. :) Without further ado, this week's menu!

Tuesday - Rib eye steak with whiskey cream sauce (The Pioneer Woman Cooks, page 166) and roasted garlic and new potatoes
Wednesday - Homemade pasta Alfredo (both noodles and sauce from scratch)
Thursday - Shrimp pasta in a foil package
Friday - White bean stew with Swiss chard and tomatoes
Saturday - Comfort meatballs (PW Cooks, page 172) and (forgive me) instant mashed potatoes
Sunday - Roasted asparagus with poached egg on toast with bacon

Man, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it! I'm also going to be whipping up a batch of chicken broth tomorrow. I still have to get the whiskey and the Swiss chard for tonight and Friday's dinners, but I'll be out running errands later, so I can pick those up then. This will be my first time ever purchasing whiskey. :p

Now I've got to finish up my laundry, switch the dishes in the dishwasher, go get my hair cut, continue sorting through my pile of randomness for Goodwill, and I should probably eat lunch sometime soon. I get to play with my camera today as well, as we've got a good-sized snowstorm headed our way. :)

Need a new name for Menu Plan day

My menu plans are returning! However, since I've started a new position with different hours, it's not necessarily getting done on Saturday morning any more, and I'm no longer doing all the cooking! Brian's getting his turns at least twice a week now too. So I'll update them as often as possible, and they won't necessarily always be for an entire week. I think I need a new catchy name for my menu plan posts now though, since I can't really use "Menu Plan Saturday" anymore.

Anyways, here's my current menu and grocery list:

Monday - Salads (I know, original, right?)
Tuesday - Salsa Chicken
Wednesday - Fettuccine with zucchini (Brian's cooking)
Thursday - Soy sauce wings and fried rice

My list this week also included supplies for making sandwiches, as I'll be bringing my own lunch the next couple days, and a few other items that weren't necessarily "needed" for those 4 meals.

Meat:
Deli sliced ham (Market Pantry) - $3.49

Veggies:
Romaine lettuce - $1.99
Alfalfa sprouts - $1.99
Green onions - $1.19
Zucchini - $1.07
Radishes - $.99

Dairy:
Muenster cheese (Market Pantry) - $2.29

Shelf-stable foods:
Honey (Market Pantry) - $3.19
Western salad dressing - $2.03
Instant rice (Market Pantry) - $3.39
Bread (Sara Lee) - $1.99

Grand total: $23.61

Now, I'd love to tell you that that's all I bought. But that would be lying to you. My actual total came to $70.70. I also bought a couple shirts and a few pairs of undies, and Coke products were on sale, so I got some Diet Coke for me and Caffeine-free Coke for Brian for $3/each. We're also complete Reese's fiends, so I got a huge bag of the mini Reese's cups. However, I did find out that you can get 5 cents off your total if you use a reusable bag! I was pretty psyched about that. And tomorrow, Brian will be getting more ground beef and chicken wings from Costco, which will tack even more onto the total. So don't let that piddly $23 fool you, that's just the actual meal food that I got from SuperTarget.

Notes from this week:
1) Salads might seem like a cheap idea, but they can add up, especially if you prefer store-bought salad dressing (which my husband does, I might be trying some homemade stuff). They are great if you're keeping them basic and you already have some of the toppings to go on there. (We already have diced ham in our fridge, as well as some Salad Toppins and a few different bottled dressings.)
2) I will probably be trying to bring my lunch more often, at least on the two days a week that I work until 8. I brought my lunch to work yesterday, but it was a pretty small portion and I was starving, so I went and got Chipotle instead. Mental note: when packing my own lunch, make sure to bring enough food!
3) As much as I love to cook, I'm really enjoying having Brian take on some of the cooking responsibilities too. He usually has to pick what he's going to make, and he's been finding some good recipes. Tonight he made a really rich cheese soup in our slow cooker. He is becoming a serious pro at the slow cooker. I think he'll do really good making the Fettuccine with zucchini on Wednesday.