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In my house there are three adults and one toddler. We have sort of a multi-generational arrangement that works quite well for us. It's my parents, myself and my son. I am in charge of the food. Those of you who know me aren't surprised at all by that fact. I do the grocery shopping, plan the meals, and cook. It's one way that I can earn my keep and give back to my fantastically generous parents. So, since I started back to work in August after having the summer off, it's been more and more important for me to have a menu plan for the week. I'd like to show you what I do. [Disclaimer: I am NOT a super organized person. One peek at my bedroom is proof of this fact. So if I can do this, so can you.]
The Menu
Menu planning is sort of my Friday night ritual. I think about the week ahead, what we all have planned, and I write out a plan for the meals for the upcoming week. Here's an example for last week:
- Saturday: Bubble-up Casserole
- Sunday: Leftovers
- Monday: Crockpot Swiss Chicken
- Tuesday: Leftovers
- Wednesday: Apricot Pork Loin
- Thursday: Leftovers
- Friday: Eat out or Order in
When I'm making my meal plan, I try to keep in mind what sorts of protein I have on hand in the freezer, so that I'm not buying things that I already have. I also don't include side dishes in my menu plans, because...I guess that would feel a bit TOO planned for me. But you can do whatever makes you happy.
The Shopping
That leads me to the inevitable grocery list. Once I've figured out the menu for the upcoming week, I make a grocery list. When you are trying to eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, it's really important to shop each week. Fresh stuff just doesn't last as long. I do my best to make a list of everything I need, and stick to the list. The more impulse buys I make, the less healthy they are and the more expensive.
I also try and stick to the outside aisles of the grocery store. I learned in Weight Watchers that when you shop the perimeter of the store and stay away from the middle aisles, you are more likely to fill your cart with healthy food and less likely to fill it with processed junk. Don't get me wrong, though. I love me some Golden Grahams, Cocoa Krispies, and ice cream. But my cart isn't full of these items. They're just treats.
The Sales
I check out the grocery circulars every week to see which store has the best sales on what I need and then go to the store with the best deals. Something that I've learned in my quest to save money is that food goes on sale in cycles. Things usually go on sale every 3 months or so. Unfortunately, when it comes to meats, the healthier they are, the more expensive they are. So, when pork loin was on a crazy sale for $1.49/lb a few weeks ago at my grocery store, I bought a bunch. My hope was to buy enough so that I wouldn't need any more until the next time it goes on incredible sale. The same goes with lean ground turkey and beef. When they're on sale for $1.99/lb or less, I stock up. This way I am able to feed my family healthy meats at a minimal price. I don't stock up on a meat unless it's a great sale. If I run out, I buy small amounts and wait until the next super sale.
The Bottom Line
Does that sound like a lot of work? It really isn't. I think it actually saves me time and money because I don't have to agonize each night over what to make for dinner, since it's already planned out. I also don't make a lot of mid-week trips to the grocery store, since I made a careful list for the weekend shopping. A few minutes of planning each week are one way that this busy mom is able to work, and still feed my family healthy meals.
So, now that I've spilled the beans on my strategy for sanity, what's yours? Leave comments. Discuss.
I've got a bone to pick with Lean Cuisine. They have an add campaign going on right now, where they talk about food myths and then impress upon us the idea that Lean Cuisine breaks those myths. That's great. But one of their most recent food myths is this: "Chopping and peeling can be kind of relaxing at the end of a long day." And then the announcer says, "For who?" I say: ME!!!! I love to come home after a long day at work, as long as my kid isn't screaming, and spend a few (I repeat, a FEW) minutes chopping and peeling. It doesn't take thought. Or skill. Or much of anything. Just a cutting board, a knife, and some veggies. This recipe was created on one of those days where I just wanted to make something simple and do a little bit of chopping therapy. Some women do "shopping therapy," I prefer "chopping therapy."
As I was searching in the fridge for something else to jazz up the concoction, I stumbled upon steak sauce. That's when the true inspiration hit. Now, steak sauce and sloppy joes might sound like an odd pairing. Let me explain. I love to make Rachael Ray's Caution Flag Chili. It gets it's flavor base from steak sauce and it's a huuuge hit every time I make it. So it only made sense to flavor the sloppy joes similarly.
And like the chili that went before it, the sloppy joes were out of this world. Savory. Deep. A hint of tang. Perfect! I've made the recipe two or three times since, and I make sure to follow my original recipe every time, so as to replicate the tastes exactly. It's that good. And if you know me, you know that I only reserve actual recipe following for those super dooper special recipes that are so amazing that I can't imagine doing it any other way. This is one of those recipes.
A quick note about veggies: The veggies in this recipe were ones that I had on hand in my fridge that day. I have made this since with other veggies. Don't make a special trip to the store for this recipe. That defeats the purpose. Just use what you have on hand.
My sister Julie spent a summer in Slovenia on a missions trip a while back. While she was there, she was introduced to a wonderful summer dish that her host family made. It was a simple cucumber, tomato, and corn salad with a vinegary dressing. The family would eat this vegetarian meal with a large loaf of crusty bread to soak up all the sharp juices. What a great summertime treat! A little bit like the tuna salad-stuffed tomatoes my mom used to make when I was a kid. Nothing to cook and delicious.
So, Julie brought home the idea and has replicated the recipe as best she could. She leaves out the corn, since it's a little bit higher in starch (and points) and she uses a bottled light balsamic vinaigrette for the dressing. Whenever I go to her house during the spring and summer, there's usually this salad in the fridge.
When I made it, I kept forgetting to buy the balsamic vinaigrette at the store. So I ended up making my own "dressing" with white wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil. It was great. You can use store-bought vinaigrette to make the recipe even easier, or top with my version. Also, feel free to add any sort of fresh herb to the salad. Perhaps basil or flat leaf parsley.
Growing up, the rule in my house was that you ate everything that was put in front of you. "I don't like this food," was not an excuse. Except for one food. Each of us was allowed to have one food which we said we would never eat. For Julie, it was eggs. For Trish, it was tomatoes. For me, well, I begged for it to be chicken. My mother said no. Frankly, she couldn't afford for me to not eat chicken, since it was a staple of our menu and relatively cheap.
For as long as I can remember, I've had a dicey relationship with chicken. I am still not wild about chicken on the bone. Especially dark meat. Blech. I like chicken breasts, but the sight of them raw is enough to send me running the other way. There's something about raw chicken that grosses me out. But I've resolved to overcome this! So I bought a cookbook called The Big Book of Chicken. What better way to immerse myself in the world of chicken than with a gigantic cookbook dedicated to the ingredient?
The following recipe was the first on my journey to accept chicken as my culinary friend, and it was a resounding success. My family raved about it. And it was amazingly simple to create. Much to my delight, I didn't have to touch the raw chicken too much. Bonus! The creamy sauce is flavorful but subtle, and the Swiss cheese on top is buttery, gooey, and delicious.
The beauty of this recipe is that the sauce is 0 points, so the only thing that will cost you any points is the cheese. You can adjust the amount of Swiss cheese to the points you want to spend. If you're feeling decadent, use the entire 2 cups. If you're feeling a bit more austere, limit the cheese. It will still be a glorious dish.
When I served this dish, I knew that the cheese topping was a bit decadent, so I made some sauteed peppers and onions, and steamed broccoli to go alongside it, instead of a starch. I spooned a bit of the flavorful saucy-broth from the bottom of the baking dish on top of the veggies to serve it. Don't waste it. It's fantastic!
Recently my sister Tricia opened my eyes to the glories of muffin baking. In her quest to fill her and her son's belly with whole foods, she makes a batch of some sort of whole wheat muffin so that she always has a healthy snack within reach.
I've got to tell you that there is beauty and serenity in the art of muffin baking. Sounds crazy, I know. But consider this: you don't need any fancy equipment. Two bowls, a wooden spoon, and an ice cream scoop. That's as fancy as it gets. The repetitive but mindless activity of filling each well in the muffin tin with thick, fluffy batter is so gratifying! I LOVE MAKING MUFFINS!
Think you're too busy to make muffins? Not a baker? I tell you you're too busy NOT to make them! Why don't you stop for a moment and sample what life might be like if you were June Cleaver? Where else in your hectic life do you get the chance to have a Betty Crocker moment in a Lean Cuisine world? I'm telling you, freshly baked muffins are the ticket! Besides, after you've made them, your normal life will be waiting right where you left it, but you'll have fantastic muffins to eat for the next few days. Bonus!
Before I give you the recipe, I must say a few words about the ingredients. There are a few specialty items that are needed, but once you have them on-hand, the muffin possibilities are endless! Simply go to Pinch My Salt and search the recipes there for whole grain muffins. Make a new batch of muffins each week, trying out different recipes. You'll already have most of the hard-to-find ingredients. You'll be so glad you did.
- Bananas: These aren't exactly hard to find, but you do need to understand one important thing: the blacker the banana, the better the muffin. Trust me. You might be scared to let your bananas ripen to the point of blackness, but believe me, once you taste the muffins made from them, you will kiss my feet. I buy a bag of discounted, over-ripe bananas from my grocery store and I leave them out for a week or two extra, until they are black all over. If you want to help this process along, pop them in the fridge. Store unused bananas in the freezer in bags (just the flesh, not the peels). Thaw them in short bursts in the microwave for your baking delight.
- White Whole Wheat Flour: I found this in the baking section of my grocery store. Hyvee, to be exact. It is a special type of whole wheat flour that is supposed to be a little bit lighter than regular whole wheat flour.
- Low-Fat Buttermilk: Did you know that buttermilk is naturally low in fat? Cool, huh? I now keep a large container of buttermilk in my fridge and use it as needed, mostly for muffins. It lasts forever. My sister uses dried buttermilk, which she found next to the powdered milk in her grocery store.
- Wheat Bran: I found this in the health food section of Hyvee. It was approximately $2.
- Flax Seed Meal: Not called for in this recipe, but used in a lot of other Pinch My Salt muffin recipes. It is also called ground flax seed and is approximately $2. Store this in a freezer bag in the freezer, for optimum freshness.
I adapted this recipe from the banana muffin recipe on Pinch My Salt. My sister suggested that the muffins were too big for a snack, so she recommended dividing the batter to make smaller muffins. I also increased the quantity of banana, because I like a little more banana punch. The original recipe calls for pecan meal, which is essentially very finely ground pecans. Sounds fantastic, but it was so expensive, I decided not to try it. Instead, I use 1/2 cup of chopped pecans. Sometimes I just break them up roughly with my hands, or pop them in a bag and give 'em a good whack with something heavy. This time around I also added some miniature chocolate chips for a chocolate kick. Feel free to leave them out if you'd like. Finally, I added some vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg to the batter because I can't fathom a muffin without said ingredients. If you disagree, leave them out.
Last summer, my Dad created this dessert. He's always had a "thing" for pound cake covered in strawberries. In an effort to lighten that up, he traded the pound cake for angel food cake, added a few bells and whistles, and we've never looked back. This is our go-to dessert at spring and summer family gatherings.
This post is light on words and heavy on pictures because it was the easiest way to explain how to assemble this recipe. You'll note some very masculine-looking hands in the photos: they're my Dad's. I did a photo shoot with him as the star. He was in heaven! In case you were wondering, my Dad's nickname is Ace. Hence, the title of this recipe.
Enough chit chat. On with the recipe...
What you'll need:
- One 8 oz angel food cake loaf. (If you can't find a loaf, go with the regular ring-style cake) Pop the cake in the freezer for at least 12 hours before you are ready to make the dessert. The cake will be a bit more firm, which will help you slice through the cake more easily.
- 3 lbs of strawberries, hulled and sliced into quarters. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar to the sliced strawberries and stir them up. This will allow some "juice" to form. Set the berries aside while you assemble the cake.
- Optional: 1 small container of blueberries (sorry, I don't know the size). These add a bit of color.
- Lemon curd. You'll find this in the jelly aisle of the grocery store. If you've never tasted lemon curd before, it's a creamy and tart lemon custard. It's absolutely delicious. In this particular recipe, it enhances the brightness of the strawberries, rather than tasting overly lemony. This ingredient is the key to this recipe. DON'T SKIP IT.
- Strawberry preserves. My Dad prefers Smucker's Simply Fruit.
- Cool Whip Light. For dolloping on top.
- An electric knife. The electric knife will help you cut through the angel food cake without smooshing it. (That's a technical term. Smoosh.) If you don't have an electric knife, just go with a very sharp, serrated knife.
Yay! I'm officially back. The test is done. I've been celebrating my freedom from studying by trying out some new recipes and revisiting some old ones. There's tons to post about.
I'll start with my latest and greatest crock pot discovery: Tex-Mex Beef Sammies. This dish is essentially one of the best shredded beef sandwiches I've had: subtly spiced with smokey tex-mex flavors, and topped with an array of fresh garnishes, like guacamole, cheese, and red onion. Yum!
What caught my eye about this particular recipe was the use of...wait for it...cocoa powder. Keep reading now!! Cocoa powder and/or chocolate is actually an authentically Mexican ingredient. It adds to the depth of flavor, rather than tasting like meat-flavored hot chocolate. However, if you have any squeamish family members, I highly recommend that you keep the cocoa powder a secret until you are sure they like the dish.
I made this recipe for Father's Day. In fact, I cooked it overnight the night before and kept the crock pot on the warm setting for the rest of the morning. I figured, what could be better than celebrating the men in my life with a large crock pot full of meat? To my relief, the family agreed. This was definitely a winner. It seemed to suit everyone's taste, since the spice factor is subtle rather than powerful. If you desire a powerful kick, just chop up a chipotle pepper or two and add to the crock pot before cooking. It'll be beautiful.
A note about serving: Make sure you utilize the savory broth (as in beef "au jus") that the meat cooks in when constructing your sandwiches. In order to do that, I got hoagie rolls from my grocery store's bakery section that could stand up to being dipped into the juices without disintegrating, but weren't so hard that all the meat would gush out the other end of the sandwich with the first bite. I HIGHLY recommend that you do the same. Regular hamburger or hot dog rolls will not cut it. Go for high quality rolls that are slightly chewy on the outside and softer on the inside.
A final note about points: I had a bit of trouble calculating the points per serving with my normal on-line points calculator. When that happens I usually just make an educated guess. Just know that chuck roast is fattier than leaner cuts (that's why it practically melts in your mouth.) A 3 oz portion of cooked chuck roast is about 7 points. Hopefully that will help you gauge your "pointage" for the day.
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