Sunday, February 8, 2009

Menu Plan Monday — February 9th-15th

I haven't done my formal menu planning since prior to our move to Michigan. Which was August 1st of last year. I tell you, this move has put me out of my groove. But I'm determined to get back into it, not only menu planning this week, but also getting every remaining box unpacked before Valentine's Day. Wish me luck!

Monday—Breakfast for Dinner...Pancakes and homemade syrup (recipes below, and in parenthesis in the pancake recipe I gave the measurements for when I triple and quadruple the recipe, and I always at least triple it). I mean, come on, we eat dessert for breakfast.

Tuesday—White Chili from Lora. This is a new recipe for our family.

WednesdayCheesy Spaghetti Bake. Another new recipe for our family. The directions say to make it in two 9 x 13 casserole dishes and that it makes 24 servings, so I plan to bake one and freeze one prior to baking. I'm curious to see how that turns out since I don't usually do too well with frozen meal planning. I will serve this with Pepperidge Farm Mozzarella Bread.

ThursdaySlow Cooker Barbeque Beef Sandwiches. I'm really going out on a limb this week, because this ones new, too. I might double this recipe or do it at 50 percent more. I'm still working on that one. It may be a decision I make while I'm standing at the meat counter looking at how big the piece of meat is that it calls for...because if I cook it I sure want to have enough to eat it. I will probably serve this with a veggie tray.

FridayMeat Loaf. This is almost the identical recipe to the one that is in my Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book from 1987. I always double it, and depending on my mood and the amount of time I have to cook it, I will sometimes make it into mini-meat loafs and just put them on my largest Pampered Chef baking stone (the one with sides). It takes a lot less time for it to cook that way. I usually have to use my smaller stone for the overflow. I will probably serve this with some type of dinner roll and warm veggies; probably green beans and corn.

Since I'm trying some new things, I may very well have some leftovers, but since they are new, I don't know how much. Any of these things could get bumped back a day or so depending on that, and then we have the weekend planned out also. Except that I'm hoping I get to eat somewhere special Saturday. Hint, hint, Hubby...

Pancakes
Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book (in 1987)

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (3 3/4 or 5)
2 T sugar (6 or 8)
2 tsp baking powder (6 or 8)
1 beaten egg (3 or 4)
1 cup milk (3 or 4)
1 T cooking oil (3 or 4)
1/2 tsp salt (1 1/2 or 2)

Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Combine egg, milk and oil; add all at once to flour mixture, stirring till blended but still slightly lumpy. Pour onto a hot, lightly greased griddle or heavy skillet. Cook till golden brown, turning to cook other side when pancakes have a bubbly surface and slightly dry edges.

The recipe says it makes about eight 4-inch pancakes or about 30 dollar-size pancakes. I've never made either size, so I have no clue how accurate that is. I just know to feed my family of six, I need to triple the recipe, and if I want any leftover for the next morning for the kids, I have to quadruple it.

Homemade Syrup
from Betsy

1 cup white sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup water

Bring to boil in medium saucepan over high heat. Boil and stir about 30-60 seconds, until the drips on your spoon start to thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract and 1 T butter.

Another new recipe, and I'm going to be Betsy's guinea pig since she's never had any left and tried to save it. I'm going to need to make more than one batch anyway, so I might triple it and see how much I have left over, refrigerate it, and we'll see how it keeps.

This week I will also be making Puppy Chow for a snack (which will be gone the day after I make it), figure out something yummy with a Valentine's theme, or chocolate!, and I'm also going to try and make Homemade Granola for the first time ever. Unfortunately, I'm going to show you a recipe and I don't know whose blog I printed it or linked to it from.

Homemade Granola
we'll just say anonymous for now

3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup honey
5 cups oatmeal
1/2 cup dry milk
3/4 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
1/2 cup raisins (but if you think I'm putting food in my food, you're crazy; I just put this here in case someone else happens to want this recipe and likes raisins)

Mix brown sugar, oil and honey in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and heat until the sugar is dissolved. Combine dry ingredients in a large cake pan. Pour syrup over dry mixture and mix well. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally. Let cool in pan. Add raisins (if you must) and stir. Store in an airtight container. You can also add wheat germ, coconut, nuts, dates and other dried fruit. Of course that's just what the recipe said. That would again qualify as food in my food. Makes 5 cups. At least without the food in your food.

It feels good to be getting myself organized and back on track again! To check out hundreds of other menu plans and recipe ideas, go to I'm an Organizing Junkie.

4 comments:

MixMyGranola said...

Hi Kayren,

the homemade granola looks tasty. try www.mixmygranola.com - custom-made granola anyway you like it!

MomsTheWord said...

White Chicken Chili is one of my family's favorites. I use canned beans and chicken. And, I add a lot of montery jack cheese.

Nancy said...

Hey Girl! Thanks for checking in on me a couple of weeks ago. Sorry it's taken me so long to reply. And sorry to hear about your accident...those things are NO fun!

I've been a little sparse around the blogosphere lately as Little Man has decided to cut his nap time in half and cut a few more teeth, so he's keeping me on my toes these days!

Hope to check in a little more often...glad to "see" you around!

Lora @ my blessed life said...

Great menu plan! You're really going after the new recipes this week:) I hope they all turn out well--especially the white chili! I love baked spaghetti, I think I'll check out this recipe. And that granola sounds yummy--I've never tried to make anything like that before, but it sounds easy.

 
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