Oh, but first a quick addendum to last week's menu... We went to my sister's house for dinner last Thursday evening so the kids could play together. She served that yummy lasagna recipe I was talking about that my mom and Casey both share. The one with cottage cheese that's baked in a Wherever pan. Case, I NEED that recipe! It was delish!
And on Friday morning, I made some more yogurt pancakes for breakfast before work. P.S. I tried using half whole wheat flour this time and it was terrible. I find that strange because I love the whole wheat oat pancakes and I don't find a problem with whole wheat flour in many other baking recipes. But in these yogurt pancakes, it just wasn't good. Just FYI.
And here's what's been on our menu this week:
1) Saturday morning (well, Friday overnight), I tried Weelicious Oatmeal in the Crock Pot. (More on that in an upcoming post.) Also, on both Saturday and Sunday, we had a couple different berry smoothies along with our breakfast/snacks. Saturday evening we had my SIL and her family over and they wanted to order pizza, so that's what we did.
2) Sunday, we had supper at my parents' house.
3) Monday I tried Crock Pot BBQ Chicken. This does NOT really require a recipe and it was ridiculous-easy, but it smelled and tasted really good. Just 3-4 chicken breasts with 1 cup bbq sauce. Cook for about 2.5 hours. That's it. I also cut up a whole head of cauliflower and roasted it in the oven with just some olive oil, salt & pepper. I LOVE that!
4) Will's lunch on Tuesday was a strange smorgasbord but it covered all the bases: a pumpkin apple muffin, about a tablespoon each of peanuts and raisins, steamed broccoli with roasted cauliflower (two leftovers pulled together), and red grapes. Will never minds the random collaboration of food items. :)
Our babysitter has been off all this week because she had surgery on Monday. I wanted to take a meal to her family and we'd planned on Tuesday night for me to bring it by. So I decided to make a recipe that SHE gave me (which I made entirely on Monday night - I almost never prepare a meal - on a weeknight - on the same night we're going to eat it). That way I knew her family would like it. It's called Cheeseburger Soup. It actually has potatoes, carrots and celery in it though with a creamy base, so it tasted more like potato soup. I doubled the recipe and took half to their house and left half for us. I also decided to lay off the frozen garlic bread that goes so well with this and make my own using the Weelicious Garlic Bread recipe. Boy did I feel straight out of a magazine with my loaf of French bread poking out the top of my reusable grocery bag this week! And the smell and taste of was SO good! I highly recommend it. Oh, and I sent along a few of our pumpkin apple muffins for breakfast/snack for our sitter's family.Soup ingredients:
I actually left out a key ingredient in the above picture that lends itself to the CHEESEburger soup name. I'm almost embarrassed to show you, but honesty is the best policy, right?
I wanted to make it as directed since I was sending to their family, who'd had it before... But I think next time I make this soup for just our family, I'll just try using shredded cheddar and see how that goes. The recipe (which serves 8) calls for 8oz of Velveeta. So 1oz of "cheese product" per serving, I guess. Ah, well.
I actually left out a key ingredient in the above picture that lends itself to the CHEESEburger soup name. I'm almost embarrassed to show you, but honesty is the best policy, right?
I wanted to make it as directed since I was sending to their family, who'd had it before... But I think next time I make this soup for just our family, I'll just try using shredded cheddar and see how that goes. The recipe (which serves 8) calls for 8oz of Velveeta. So 1oz of "cheese product" per serving, I guess. Ah, well.Hmm. In terms of visual appeal, this meal is certainly lacking in color. White soup, white bread, white (leftover) cauliflower, and (haha!) a slice of sharp white cheddar. Oh, and white milk! Oops! Guess I hadn't thought that one through...
Later that night, I was craving some chocolate with nothing in the house to satisfy it. Actually, I'd had the same experience on Monday night and two nights in a row was enough to put me over the edge. So... I made a batch of Aunt Cathy's chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. Problem solved. I am SUCH a cookie-girl.
5) Wednesday - As I mentioned, our regular sitter has been off duty recovering, so my wonderful cousin Brianne has been coming over to watch the kids at our house and we LOOOOOVE her! She has been so helpful and does such an awesome job. So I've been getting breakfast and lunch prepped for the kids this week and having stuff ready to go for meal times. Sometimes it has been dinner leftovers. Other times I've gotten together simple veggie bowls and the makings for a bean & cheese quesadilla. I love our quesadilla maker. I just left it on the counter ready to be plugged in and Brianne could grill the quesadilla right before serving. Easy peasy. The kids have also had scrambled eggs, graham crackers with peanut butter, etc.
The next two meals (Wednesday and Thursday night) were made entirely last Friday night. I absolutely love having "casserole" type meals ready to put in the oven for week nights. I just take one night to cook/prep and clean up and then dinner is so much faster when time is of the essence during the week. There is just no way I could fathom coming home from work - feeling tired with kids needing/wanting my attention - and make an entire meal. I think I would go crazy with stress and guilt.
Later that night, I was craving some chocolate with nothing in the house to satisfy it. Actually, I'd had the same experience on Monday night and two nights in a row was enough to put me over the edge. So... I made a batch of Aunt Cathy's chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. Problem solved. I am SUCH a cookie-girl.
5) Wednesday - As I mentioned, our regular sitter has been off duty recovering, so my wonderful cousin Brianne has been coming over to watch the kids at our house and we LOOOOOVE her! She has been so helpful and does such an awesome job. So I've been getting breakfast and lunch prepped for the kids this week and having stuff ready to go for meal times. Sometimes it has been dinner leftovers. Other times I've gotten together simple veggie bowls and the makings for a bean & cheese quesadilla. I love our quesadilla maker. I just left it on the counter ready to be plugged in and Brianne could grill the quesadilla right before serving. Easy peasy. The kids have also had scrambled eggs, graham crackers with peanut butter, etc.
The next two meals (Wednesday and Thursday night) were made entirely last Friday night. I absolutely love having "casserole" type meals ready to put in the oven for week nights. I just take one night to cook/prep and clean up and then dinner is so much faster when time is of the essence during the week. There is just no way I could fathom coming home from work - feeling tired with kids needing/wanting my attention - and make an entire meal. I think I would go crazy with stress and guilt. So Wednesday evening we had Weelicious enchiladas with tossed salad. Here were my ingredients before prepping on Friday... I was psyched about the red bell pepper and corn that went into the filling!
And here is the baked product... They were actually rolled up burrito style (tucked in at the ends) instead of jelly-rolly style with the ends open.
So I just washed up some lettuce and cut veggies for a tossed salad while it baked. Oh, and I added a bit to the baking time since it was coming out of the fridge instead of going in directly after preparation. I think I baked it for 25-30 minutes?
6) Thursday was my favorite meal of the week: Weelicious Lasagna Rolls, green beans, and another loaf of Garlic Bread. It was a spinach lasagna, not a meat lasagna. And it was so pretty and delicious! I did get more complaints from the peanut gallery (Will & Craig), but I am so over their ungratefulness. It doesn't hardly phase me anymore. My brother and his girlfriend stopped by briefly before we sat down and showered the smell/appearance of my meal with compliments and I almost hugged them. What a nice (rare) thing it would be to hear gratitude once in awhile! Will does compliment the things he likes, but it's usually something like "Ooh! Thank you for making these grapes, mommy! They're really good!" ;)
And here is the baked product... They were actually rolled up burrito style (tucked in at the ends) instead of jelly-rolly style with the ends open.
So I just washed up some lettuce and cut veggies for a tossed salad while it baked. Oh, and I added a bit to the baking time since it was coming out of the fridge instead of going in directly after preparation. I think I baked it for 25-30 minutes?
6) Thursday was my favorite meal of the week: Weelicious Lasagna Rolls, green beans, and another loaf of Garlic Bread. It was a spinach lasagna, not a meat lasagna. And it was so pretty and delicious! I did get more complaints from the peanut gallery (Will & Craig), but I am so over their ungratefulness. It doesn't hardly phase me anymore. My brother and his girlfriend stopped by briefly before we sat down and showered the smell/appearance of my meal with compliments and I almost hugged them. What a nice (rare) thing it would be to hear gratitude once in awhile! Will does compliment the things he likes, but it's usually something like "Ooh! Thank you for making these grapes, mommy! They're really good!" ;)Ingredients for spinach lasagna:
One prepped roll - so pretty!
That's fancy enough for company! From here, I just cover with foil and stick in our spare fridge (in our garage) until I'm ready to serve it.
I also write the baking information on the foil/lid in case I put away the recipe and forget or in case Craig needs to stick dinner in the oven for me.
Yum.
7) Friday - This is a recycled picture, but I made cottage cheese pancakes this morning for breakfast. A hot breakfast before work isn't so difficult anymore! And these little babies taste a lot like French Toast, I think. A good dose of protein and calcium to start our day. I also bought a bag of oranges and (our standard) bananas at the store last night, so we had some fruit slices along side.
Tonight will be leftovers 'cause we have plenty! But it's been nice having easy lunches to pack for myself this week with all our dinner leftovers.
One prepped roll - so pretty!
That's fancy enough for company! From here, I just cover with foil and stick in our spare fridge (in our garage) until I'm ready to serve it.
I also write the baking information on the foil/lid in case I put away the recipe and forget or in case Craig needs to stick dinner in the oven for me.
Yum.
7) Friday - This is a recycled picture, but I made cottage cheese pancakes this morning for breakfast. A hot breakfast before work isn't so difficult anymore! And these little babies taste a lot like French Toast, I think. A good dose of protein and calcium to start our day. I also bought a bag of oranges and (our standard) bananas at the store last night, so we had some fruit slices along side.
Tonight will be leftovers 'cause we have plenty! But it's been nice having easy lunches to pack for myself this week with all our dinner leftovers.So next week is Thanksgiving! And I am so thankful for our healthy family. We wish you all a pleasant holiday with the ones you love and lots of yummy food to share together. Happy Thanksgiving!
1 comment:
Ashley - Thank you soo much for the yummy meal you brought over on Tuesday. The soup, bread and muffins were wonderful! It was so nice not to worry about a meal the following days after my surgery. You're a wonderful woman and cook!!
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