Menu Monday- Thanksgiving Edition

Let me just say that it was SO nice getting in the kitchen last week and cooking more than I have been! I really love cooking, especially when I get to try new recipes and they turn out really good! All of the recipes I tried last week were wonderful!

This week I'm just doing some boring basics but I have several things cooking for our weekend Thanksgiving trip! We are staying in a lodge with some of Derek's extended family. I think there will be about 24 of us! It's going to be a lot of fun! Since I am doing a lot in preparation for that, I thought it would be fun to share my recipes!

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Crock Pot Green Beans
(I am making these for our Thanksgiving Feast at Thomas' school! I know they'll taste good and you can't go wrong with a crock pot recipe!)

via Pioneer Woman

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls
(I love making these and freezing them. You can freeze them at any point but I just do it before I bake them. This recipe makes a lot, so you can just pull out what you need. The extras make great gifts too!)

via Bakerella

Turkey Cake Pops
(These were the very first cake pops I made! (2 years ago) I'm looking forward to making them again now that I'm a little more experienced. They'll make the perfect quick snack this weekend!)

via Pioneer Woman

Homemade Cranberry Sauce
(If you have never tried to make your own cranberry sauce, you are going to be amazed at how easy this is make and how delicious it tastes!! And if you've never tasted cranberry sauce, now is the perfect chance! I am using the one on the back of the Ocean Spray bag but I've tried this one from Pioneer Woman too.)

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Corn Pudding
(This is a must at Thanksgiving and Christmas in my family! It's so easy and simple and is sure to please everyone! I actually mix mine in the dish I bake it in for easy clean up. It's always a hit!)

Turkey and Stuffing
(I don't want to share my family's recipe, but I did some research and found these recipes here and here that are very similar! The key is to over season the stuffing so that the flavors spread to the turkey and to butter the bad boy up. We use a LOT more than what this recipe calls for. If you are not a fan of actually stuffing the turkey, this might not be your thing. I can say that my family has been doing turkey this way for YEARS and it's the best turkey I've ever had! Hopefully ours will come close this year.)

I'm not going to be making these next few recipes, but I wanted to share a few more of my favorite Thanksgiving dishes!

via Paula Deen

Breakfast Casserole
(The onion sautéed in with the hash browns make this dish! I love to make this up and then freeze it for when I need it!)

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Sweet Potato Casserole
(I add a little bit of cinnamon and nutmeg to this and love the way it tastes! The orange juice makes this dish stand out from other sweet potato recipes too!)

Okay, I feel like I'm posting a ton of recipes! I think this is enough to keep you busy! ;) Feel free to ask any questions if I didn't make something clear enough.

As always, feel free to play along! Comment below and let me know if you do, I'd love to hear what's on your menu!

Menu Monday and Giveaway Winner

I've been slacking lately- on the blog, in the kitchen, with the giveaway (whoops)... just seems like there's a lot going on! I'm back and ready to get things on track again! 

So, for starters I guess I should share the giveaway winner! Congrats to Amanda for winning the Shaklee cleaners!! You get a special award since you were the only one to enter! ha! 

I'm ready to get back in the kitchen- I've got to warm up my cooking skills again since Derek and I are making the Turkey this year for his family!!! I am beyond excited and extremely nervous because it's going to be huge! I will be using my Nani's special recipe, it's always wonderfully moist and juicy and extremely flavorful! She is German but married an American and moved to the United States. When she moved here, she wanted to cook like his family so she tried a Better Homes and Garden recipe for her Thanksgiving Turkey. She tweaked it through the years and once my dad and his sister started doing the the turkey, they used the same recipe. Everyone tweaks it to their taste, but it's still that same basic recipe that my Nani found so many years ago!

Ready for an exciting menu?!! 

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Chicken Fajitas 

(I bought some pre-seasoned meat as part of a special and added my favorite spices- southwestern chipotle seasoning and cumin and sauteed it with some onion and bell peppers! It was really good!)

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Pork Roast with Apples and Onion

(This is a new recipe from Pioneer Woman! I had several apples laying around that were just a little too soft for me, so this is the perfect use for them!)

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French Chicken Broccoli Supreme

(Thanks to pinterest, I found this little gem. I've been wanting to try it for a while now!)

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Tomato Basil Cream Pasta 

(I love this type of pasta sauce so I'm just going to whip up something based off a few different recipes)

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Pacific Rim Pork Steaks with Asian Broccoli Slaw

(Usually I don't do pork and even when I do it's never twice in one week but this sounded really different from the other! Click here for the recipe)

Saturday we are having a very special Tea Party for Derek's grandmother (more on that later). I'm going to be doing some special things for that. I've still not hammered out my menu since I'm trying to be health conscious! 

I'm also going to be working on some appetizers and snacks to freeze for next weekend! We are celebrating Thanksgiving a week early with Derek's dad's side of the family! (That's when we will be doing our Turkey!!) 

I will try to post some special Thanksgiving themed recipes soon!!

What's on your menu this week?

Menu Monday- Week 36

I've been searching pinterest for more recipes and I'm excited to share this week's menu! 

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Chicken Spaghetti 

(definitely a favorite in our house!) 

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Taco Roll Ups

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Crispy Chicken with Creamy Italian Sauce and Bowtie Pasta

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Risotto Primavera

(My grandmother made something very similar at Easter and it was SO good!)

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Skinny Meatloaf cupcakes with Mashed Potato Frosting 

(Can't wait to try these, although I'm certain mine won't be so pretty!) 

We have been doing Friday Night Pizza nights and it has gone really well. We let Anna-Kate make her own pizza and we've just been using what ingredients we have on hand, so I'm not having to buy anything at the store for that meal! 

Other things we are cooking up this week that I thought you might like: 

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Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Muffins

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French Breakfast Puffs

(When I make these for home, I use the mini muffin pans. It's more work but way easier to eat, especially for the little ones! I don't coat all of them, so if that's all they eat for breakfast, I don't feel as guilty!)

All of these are for church, but I'm hoping to have enough to freeze some for us too. These recipes look so good and I don't have a lot of experience with homemade muffins! (Except those breakfast puffs... mmm...) 

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I'm also going to whip up a batch of the scarecrow crunch I mentioned on Wednesday. Yum!!

Don't forget there are 3 ways to find the recipe/ picture source. You can click on the picture, the caption (via) or the meal itself and it will take you to the recipe. If there's a problem, feel free to let me know. I'm sometimes bad about switching around the links!

It looks like it's going to be a great week for us! ha!

What's on your menu this week? If you post a weekly menu, feel free to leave me a link in my comments section! I'm always looking for new ideas! 

Menu Monday- Week 34

I am finally feeling on top of things around the house and like we are getting into a good routine. Sorry for the time away, but I just wanted to jump right in with a menu Monday post! 

This week I was inspired by Pinterest! :) So glad to have such a great resource when I'm trying to menu plan. I am just putting the finishing touches on our household notebook and I have planned out our dinners for the month of September. I'm looking forward to some new recipes! I'm also really excited about our Friday pizza night! I think the kids are going to love it too! 

On the menu this week: 

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Ham and Cheese Sliders 

(we actually had these for lunch today and- oh my word- they were delicious!) 

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Crispy Southwest Chicken Wraps

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Crockpot Ravioli

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Savory Spiral Stuffed Rolls

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Garlic Chicken Puffs 

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Homemade Cheese and Veggie Pizza  

(I know this is vague, but I plan on just using up the extras at the end of the week. I have more exciting ideas for pizza night, don't worry! I always use Pioneer Woman's crust so I can have one fresh and freeze the other!)

As always, you can click on the picture or the meal to get to the website where I found the picture and recipe! 

What's on the menu this week? Comment below with a link to yours! Thanks for playing! 

I think the best part of the menu this week is that it was so budget friendly! 

Menu Monday- Week 31

We had Derek's birthday celebration last week and a few other things pop up, so I still have a few repeats this week! 

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Sloppy Joes

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Pasta Carbonara

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Lasagna (I don't follow a recipe!) 

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Mexican Chicken 

(I make mine SO similar to Amanda's here but I just throw in a few of my own seasonings and a little sour cream!)

Smothered Pork Chops 

(Trying a new recipe- will share if it turns out good! ha)

What's on your menu this week? Play along and leave a comment so we can check your menu out too! 

Menu Monday- Week 30

I'm so excited to be starting a new routine at home and to have more time to cook for my family!! 

This week I'm trying to use what we have in our pantry, so my meals are not super amazing, but here's what we're having! 

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Beans and Cornbread (Pioneer Woman's Recipe)

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Breakfast Casserole (One of my all time favorite recipes from Paula Deen. I love to have this for dinner and the leftovers for breakfast!)

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Tuna Noodle Casserole (one day I'll make this version, but for now I don't really follow a recipe, I just use my Grandmother's recipe!)

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Sloppy Joes (I just use a can of Manwich and add the meat. One day I'll make it from scratch!)

Pasta Carbonara (Using this recipe without the wine and red pepper flakes)

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Chili Dogs (Paula Deen's Recipe)

(Normally I would not dare make chili until later in the fall, but this was what Derek chose for his birthday dinner!)

What are you having this week? Comment below and share! 

Menu Monday-Week 27

I have no clue what week we're on!! But I know it's been way too long! 

Here's what's cooking this week: 

Spinach and Chicken Lasagna

Homemade Pizza

Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas (my sister's recipe!) 

Ham and Cheese Sandwiches 

Breakfast- eggs, sausage, home made biscuits and gravy 

What's on your menu this week? 

Comment below and share! 

Menu Monday- Week 19

I have to admit that I am not in the mood for casseroles- especially hit-or-miss healthy ones! I'm not really in the mood to cook either. This week I was craving lighter meals, mostly grilled! :) 

Derek seemed to be at the same place, so it was pretty easy to plan our meals! 

Grilled Steak

Squash and Potato Veggie Packs

Courtesy of The Pioneer Woman

Chicken Spaghetti (I LOVE Pioneer Woman's version, only I substitute one can cream of mushroom for cream of chicken and I sauté the bell pepper and onion so that it's not too strong for the kids!)

Grilled BBQ Chicken Breasts

Grilled Corn

Sweet Potatoes

Tuna Salad Sandwiches (Not my usual dinner, but with Derek's new schedule I wanted to make sure I planned a few very simple meals so we wouldn't get overwhelmed!) 

Grilled Chicken and Veggie Kabobs 

Rustic French Bread

Chicken Fajitas- with whole wheat tortillas

Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad (Derek and Anna-Kate can't get enough of this!) 

Tonight we had the grilled chicken kabobs and they were so good!! I made a rub for the chicken, sprayed the chicken with olive oil and then rubbed the chicken down before I put it on the grill. While the chicken was grilling, I glazed it with a mixture I made up! This was actually my first time ever grilling- I even had to fire up the charcoal grill on my own! I also used hickory chips to add some nice flavor. We all loved them so much! I'm pretty sure we will be having these a lot this summer! 

Last Friday I got my first taste of Strawberry Pretzel Salad- which is not really a salad, it's a layered dessert. It was so good, I had to make some for Derek to try! :) 

I plan on using my leftover fajita vegetables for an egg white omelet sometime this week too. 

What's on your menu this week? Comment below and leave your link! 

Menu Monday- Week 17

Derek and I are still trying to eat healthy, so I posted the weight watchers points beside everything. We were in the mood for some different meals, so we tried a lot of new things! 

Last night we had the Shepherd's Pie and it was very different with lentils instead of ground beef. Anna-Kate and Thomas ate it up. I thought it was pretty good too! 

Healthy Baked Chicken Nuggets- 4 points

Baked Sweet Potato Fries- 2 points
Steamed Broccoli

Grilled Apple Chicken- 3 points

Creamy Cauliflower Puree- 2 points
Sauteed Zucchini

Savory Chicken and Wild Rice- 5 points

Sauteed Squash

Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie- 4 points (this one is a brave choice)

Spinach Pasta Bake- 5 points (we used fresh spinach and mushrooms)
Rustic French Bread- 3 points

What's on your menu today? Comment below and leave your link! :) 

Saturday Cooking!

I thought it would be fun to share more about how we do our Saturday cooking! We have been doing this every other week, since we are a family of four and most recipes have about 8 servings. We are able to make 7 meals and divide them in two so we have 2 weeks of dinners and only one day with the messy kitchen. 

We have been spending about 3-4 hours on Saturdays cooking. Usually we time it during nap time, so we only spend the last hour or so cooking while the kids are up. This week only took us about 2 1/2 hours! 

We had two meals that will be made the days we need them. So we only had to do 5 meals, so that helps. 

When we got home with the groceries, I realized that I needed to come up with a game plan. Then I quickly realized that we chose more complex meals this week. 

I posted this yesterday, but here's the menu I came up with: 

Broccoli and Cheese Spuds

Santa Fe Chicken

Chicken Divan

Asian Chicken

Greek Turkey Meatballs

Spinach Manicotti 

Spinach and Feta Stuffed Chicken Breasts

I know I've said this, but just in case... all of these recipes (except the spuds) are off of a website called Skinny Taste and they all are pretty healthy so that is awesome! 

So back to the planning. I realized that it was going to be a bit overwhelming if I didn't just take it one recipe at a time. I decided that I would try to do more of the prep work and grabbing things, while Derek did a lot of the cooking and assembling part. It actually worked really well! We make such a great team. 

The first thing we did was sort through the groceries. I like to put away what we won't be needing right away and then sort of group the items by recipe.

Next we divided up the chicken and put what we needed for the Santa Fe chicken in the freezer. Then we boiled what we needed for the chicken divan. While that was boiling we started on the Asian chicken. 

I pulled the ingredients and chopped the onion while Derek browned the chicken and then added the ingredients for the sauce. He also "grated" the ginger for me too. (I'll get to the grated items in just a sec)

Once all of that was mixed in the pot, it needed to simmer for 20 minutes. So while that simmered we decided to get started on the Tzatziki sauce for the Greek turkey meatballs. 

On a side note- that tzatziki sauce is 0 weight watchers points. Yes you heard me... ZERO points! It's delicious, so how awesome is that?! 

The sauce is a little complicated to make, but it really didn't take long.

While we were cooking, I noticed that she used the term "grated" in a lot of her recipes. It did not take long for me to realize that she was probably using that to say minced. It kind of drives me crazy. I'm not sure why. Maybe things really are supposed to be grated... but we just ran them in the food processor and let them be finely chopped. 

So after the tzatziki (I'm really loving typing that word- even if spell check is not) sauce was made, Derek turned off the boiling chicken and stirred the Asian glazed chicken. Since we did not use drumsticks, the chicken did not take the full 20 minutes to cook. We also had a hard time getting the sauce to reduce down to a glaze, so he removed the chicken and did the glaze on it's own. 

Meanwhile, I was getting the turkey meatballs together.

After we finished the Asian glazed chicken and the meatballs we got started on the manicotti.

The recipe calls for crespelles. I had never heard of them but I learned that it's an italian thing and they use them in place of pasta. They are very similar to crepes. It's basically flour, milk and eggs. We put everything in a blender to mix it.  Derek made the crespelles since he has experience with crepes. While Derek made those, I got the rice started for my chicken divan. The recipe does not call for it but I thought it would be good.

I simplified the recipe by using a jar of marinara sauce. I poured a little of it in the bottom of the pan.

I got a crespelle and put the ricotta/ spinach mixture on top and then rolled it.

I laid each crespelle seam side down in my dish. I squeezed 8 in each dish.

I topped the manicotti with more marinara and mozzarella and parmesan cheese.

Yummy!! 

After the manicotti we just had two dishes left. I had already cooked the chicken and the rice for the chicken divan so all I needed to do was make the cream sauce and mix it together. 

I was a meanie and left Derek to do the spinach and feta stuffed chicken by himself. I know- he's great and I'm terrible for leaving! :)

Here's the mess when I left...

just keeping it real. :)

When I came home he had finished the stuffed chicken and cleaned the kitchen.

AND my freezer was neatly arranged!

If you're still here... you get a special award! haha.

That's basically how our cooking Saturdays go. We have a small kitchen, so it gets pretty interesting! It's always so much fun to spend the time doing something we enjoy though. It's so nice to know that most of our dishes are done for the week!