Food Prep for the Week / Menus for the Week

With two birthdays this month, one party, Mother's Day, driver's ed, and an unexpected washing machine repair, we came to the end of the money in the grocery envelope, with several days of the month left to go, and no available envelopes to "rob" from.  I love challenges like this!  Last weekend I spent considerable time preparing the food we did have for future meals, so as not to waste any.  Also, this makes dinner preparation go much more smoothly during the week if some of the steps have already been done.  I enlisted the children's help, and we got a lot accomplished!

We cooked up the three pounds of hamburger I had in the freezer, then split it into 3 bags and re-froze it.

We chopped up a bunch of veggies for dinner that night, sautee'd the leftover onion and then froze it.  I have not frozen pre-cooked onion before, so this is an experiment!

 

 

We pulled the skin off lots of chicken thighs and drumsticks, marinated some of them for dinner, and froze the rest for future meals.

We had several over ripe bananas, so we mixed up a huge double batch of banana muffins to have at breakfast over the course of the week.

I also baked four loaves of bread for the week!  (three pictured)





With all of our cooking on Saturday, by Sunday we were tired of being in the kitchen, so we made something super fast and easy for dinner ~ scrambled eggs!

Here are our dinner menus for this last week of May:

Friday:  pizza and salad

Saturday: tomato-curry lentil stew (crock pot), home made bread

Sunday:  roast, carrots, and potatoes (crock pot)

Monday:  bbq chicken on the grill, garlic potatoes, fruit

Tuesday: taco soup (crock pot), tortilla chips

Wednesday: poppyseed chicken, steamed veggie


Thursday is payday, which means GROCERY SHOPPING and therefore all new food to work with!!!!!!!!

Honduran "Reprochetas"

For extra credit in her Spanish class, our daughter made these reprochetas one night for dinner. They were a bit labor intensive, and because she fried just one at a time, it took a while to make enough for the whole family. But they were really, really good! They are a traditional meat-less Honduran dish.


Ingredients

corn tortillas (we prefer flour, but bought corn ones for this in order to be "authentic"!)
tomatoes
onions
lemon juice
salt to taste
oil
Queso fresco, a soft white cheese similar to mozzarella (we found this with no problem at our large local grocery store)


Chop tomatoes and onion, mix with a bit of lemon juice (sorry no measurement!) and salt to taste. Set aside.


Heat just enough oil to cover the bottom of a frying pan. Slice the cheese and put between two corn tortillas.




Lay the tortilla stack in the hot oil and fry on one side until lightly browned. Flip over and fry on other side until equally done.




Remove from pan, drain, and pat excess oil dry with paper towels. Top with the tomato/onion mixture and eat like a tostada.


Enjoy!

Fresh Raw Tomatoes with Basil

Here is a simple way to use up the last of your fresh garden tomatoes, and it's sooooo good!!!


Ingredients:

Fresh Tomatoes
Fresh Basil
Parmesan Cheese, sliced
Garlic Expressions salad dressing

Slice up tomatoes and cheese. Layer around a plate. Cut up some basil and sprinkle over tomatoes/cheese. Dribble some garlic expressions salad dressing over everything. Chill, and serve! Soooo delicious!

(thanks to my friend Lisa for the Garlic Expressions recommendation!)

Whole Wheat Corn Waffles

This is another breakfast recipe I found at The Happy Housewife. Love her website!

Heat up waffle iron while mixing batter. In the original recipe she says to mix the wet ingredients first and then stir in the dry, but I did the opposite so I could more easily adjust the addition of the milk. I'm glad I did, as I used just slightly over 3 cups of milk, rather than 4. I just kept checking the consistency of the batter as I added.

Mix in large bowl:

3 cups whole wheat flour (freshly ground or store bought - can also mix whole wheat and white)
1 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 T baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt

Add to dry mixture:

4 eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup oil
3-4 cups milk (add milk slowly to adjust - if using white flour you will use less milk. Batter should be pourable but not runny)



Pour mixture onto hot waffle iron and cook.


Voila!


The children ate theirs with syrup, but I put vanilla yogurt and blueberries on mine. YUM!


Freeze leftovers and re-heat in the microwave or toaster!

Homemade Granola

Another recipe from The Happy Housewife, and another winner! The first batch I made didn't even get used for breakfast by the kids ~ it was munched on as a snack until the bowl was completely licked clean! (I did manage to sprinkle some on a bowl of yogurt for breakfast)

3 cups dry oatmeal
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup honey
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup wheat germ (didn't have so left this out)



First melt the butter in a 3 quart saucepan over medium heat. Add the honey and salt and stir well. Turn off heat and add the oatmeal and wheat germ (if using). Stir well, then pour the mixture onto a greased cookie sheet. Try to spread the mixture out as flat and evenly as possible.


Bake at 375 for 10 minutes (I baked mine for 15). It will be a golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool. Store in an airtight container.


GREAT breakfast or snack, easy to make, and very popular with the children. I plan to make repeatedly!

Bull's Eyes for Breakfast!

This is a recipe I got from The Happy Housewife, and it was a real winner!

Need:

slices of bread
butter
eggs

Put a dollop of butter in hot frying pan to melt. Cut a circle or a heart or whatever shape you desire out of a slice of bread, and lay the bread and the cutout piece in the pan to begin frying. Break an egg into the cutout so that it cooks along with the bread. Cook about 2-3 minutes on one side, then flip and cook an additional minute on the other.


Serve the bull's eye with its little cutout piece and enjoy!

Meals in 30 Minutes - Chicken Salad Bar

We've already had some really hot weather (100 degrees or close to it) and on those nights I really don't feel like cooking. Sometimes I barely feel like eating! On one such night recently we had a chicken salad bar for dinner. The two bowls near the bottom of this picture contain feta cheese and dried cherries.


This was also super fast because I already had diced, cooked, and seasoned chicken in the freezer that I just pulled out and defrosted in the microwave (I season with Italian seasoning while browning).


I looked through the veggie drawer and cut up what I could find, clockwise from top: tomatoes, carrots, red and green peppers, and strawberries in the middle. We required our children to choose at least two items from the veggie platter. I also had some cantaloupe on another plate.


Son C was very artful with his arranging!


Healthy, fast, delicious, and no cooking required!