Menu Plan Monday - Jan 13, 2014

Good morning my friends! It’s the beginning of a new, and crazy busy week! We have plans ALL SEVEN DAYS this week! Between the girls dance and swimming lessons, mama going to a concert (JT!!) and some parties and some football this weekend, plus the usual school and work, it’s going to be a gong show week in our household!

Miss A and her Mango!!

Thankfully I have this blog to plan out our week a bit! Honestly, without the menu planning, I don’t know if we would eat a proper meal at all. Miss A’s New Year’s resolution is still going strong – she has tried turkey meatloaf, mango, perogies, sausage, honeydew, peas and carrots! I’m so proud of her, and I’m even more excited that we made a list of about 50 things she wants to give a try. We looked on a kid-friendly website for recipes and she found a whole bunch of things to try!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you all have a fantastic week!

On the menu this week:

Monday: Turkey pot pie and Rachel Salad– I’m not sure how much of this Miss A will eat, I better make a backup plan for this one…

Tuesday: Homemade shake and bake chicken (recipe to come!), rice and carrots 
 
Wednesday: Baked Ziti

Thursday: Dinner out! 
 
Friday: Brinner – breakfast for dinner! Crack potatoes (recipe to come!!), eggs and bacon
 
Saturday: Pizza and salad

Sunday: Turkey Burgers and fries

I’ll be linking my menu plan up to OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday – check it out!!

Yummy Mummy Oatmeal (Homemade Oatmeal Packets)

Hi Everyone! Look at this – two posts in a week! Yippee! Good start to 2014!

I have lamented the pickiness of my older daughter’s eating habits many times here on this blog, but there is one food that she absolutely LOVES and will eat it for breakfast, lunch or dinner if you let her. What, pray tell, is this amazing wonder-food that will fill her up and make her happy all the live-long day? O-A-T-M-E-A-L!

I used to buy the pre-packaged oatmeal packets (hopefully on sale!) but I found them to be quite expensive. When your child wants to eat 2 packages at a time, this can be an expensive breakfast option!

I remember seeing a post on one of the money-saving blogs I follow (MrsJanuary.com) for homemade oatmeal packets. I have been making the oatmeal this way for over a year now, and my girls just love it. I love that I know exactly what is in the bowl, and that it costs less than the pre-packaged oatmeal – win-win!

You could add absolutely any toppings to this oatmeal to personalize it and make it your own- blueberries, apples, bananas, anything really. My girls don’t like “chunks” in their oatmeal, so we drizzle a little sugar-free maple syrup in the bowl for a maple/brown sugar oatmeal. The possibilities are endless – enjoy!!

Yummy Mummy Oatmeal
Recipe from MrsJanuary.com

Ingredients

5 cups Quick Oats
1/3 cup Skim Milk Powder
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 ½ tbsp. cinnamon

This recipe is so easy, Miss A can mix it up herself!!

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Mix well, and break up any little balls of brown sugar. When all ingredients are well combined, transfer to an airtight storage container.

At breakfast time, place about ¾ cup Yummy Mummy Oatmeal mixture in a bowl and pour approx. ½ cup boiling water over top. Stir to combine. You could also add water and heat in the microwave for 40-60 seconds.

Add any extras! We drizzle ours with a swirl of sugar-free maple syrup. Grab a spoon and enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by to read today! I hope you enjoyed this recipe!



I will hopefully be linking this recipe up to A Bowl Full of Lemons, and Joyful Homemaking.

Menu Plan Monday - Jan 6, 2014

Good morning my friends! I know it’s been a long time since you have heard from me, but today is Monday, and it’s a new year, and I’m going to try to be a better blogger this year! We will see how it goes…

This is our family on Christmas morning, celebrating with our presents!!
Happy New Year!!

I have plans to post some fun recipes and craft ideas, and some of those recipes I have already tested and photographed – now it’s just a matter of actually writing the posts and sharing them with you guys!

For now, let’s start small – with this week’s menu plan! After the craziness of Christmas (and all of the turkey, wine, chocolate, more chocolate and still more chocolate) it’s definitely time to get back into planning healthy meals for my family – and to take for lunch to work.

Did you make any New Year’s resolutions? This year I am just making one, fairly easy (I hope) plan for 2014 – to NOT go out for lunch every day that I am at work. It’s a matter of time management and planning meals to bring food to work. It also helps that I have some great friends at work who have the same plan!

Our family is also trying to make a resolution together. We are going to TRY to get the girls to eat more of the dinners that I actually cook on the menu plan. Right now, I would make the girls one dinner (chicken strips, pasta, grilled cheese) while the hubs and I would have the dinner from the menu plan. I have one very picky eater on my hands, and one who is starting to get picky with her meals. Hopefully 2014 will be the year that I can cook ONE DINNER for everyone to eat! I’m not getting my hopes up, but you never know!!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you all have a fantastic week!

 

 

On the menu this week:

Monday: Turkey Meat Loaf, mashed potatoes and steamed veggies

Tuesday: Butter chicken and brown rice

Wednesday: Lasagne Wednesday

Thursday: Maui ribs, roasted potatoes and corn on the cob

Friday: BBQ chicken breasts, Mexican rice and salad

Saturday: Date night! Dinner and a movie while the girls are at a slumber party

Sunday: Chicken Parmesan with spaghetti in Boursin cream sauce

I’ll be linking my menu plan up to OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday – check it out!!

Peanut Butter Heath Bar Cookies

Hello my friends! Long time, no see! Life has been crazy busy, but lots of fun. I have had so many adventures in the past few months, but unfortunately not a ton of time to chronicle our fun.

I'm back today with another fun recipe for you all. For the eighth straight year, I am hosting a (very strict) cookie exchange. I invite a few of my nearest and dearest and we all bake up 6 dozen cookies. As much as possible, I try to limit the cookie recipe types so we don't end up with five kinds of shortbread (that happened one year!) so we have a big range of cookies. This year the list is shaping up quite nicely. I'll be sure to report in with all the goodies after the party.

Anyhoo, back to today's recipe. I tried a test batch of the recipe today to make sure that these cookies were as amazing as the recipe made them out to be. They are de-lish!

Peanut Butter Heath Bar Cookies

Adapted from a recipe in this book

Ingredients

2/3 cup crunchy peanut butter
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup Heath bar bits (or Skor bits)
3/4 cup + 1/4 cup chocolate chips
1 tsp shortening

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375F. In the bowl of your standing mixer, combine peanut butter, butter, white and brown sugars and mix until creamy and smooth. Beat in egg until combined. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Add dry mixture to peanut butter mixture and mix until well incorporated. Add the Heath bar bits and 3/4 cup chocolate chips.

Using a medium cookie scoop, drop onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the edges of the cookie just begin to brown. Remove from the oven and squish just a little bit with the back of a fork.  Allow to cool on cookie sheet for 10 minutes.

At this point, it would make your life much much easier if you shifted all of the cookies onto one cookie sheet, with little to no gap between the cookies. In a small glass bowl, combine remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips and 1 tsp shortening. Microwave in 20 second increments, stirring between each heating. When the mixture is stirred completely smooth, head back to your cookies. Using a fork, lightly drizzle the melted chocolate over the cookies.

I hope you enjoyed this recipe! They were certainly popular in my house today - half of the batch is gone already!!!



I will hopefully be linking this recipe up to A Bowl Full of Lemons, Delightful Order, Doodles and Stitches and Joyful Homemaking.

Menu Plan Monday - Oct 28, 2013

Woo hoo - lookee here - two blog posts two days in a row! I hope I can keep up the pace, but it's another busy week, so my hopes aren't too high!

At the beginning of October I mapped out a menu plan for the month. Even though I didn't post about it along the way, I did manage to stick pretty closely to it and we actually ate some healthy meals along the way.

With Halloween this week, my baby niece's baptism this weekend, we will be heading out a couple of times, but hopefully the rest of the week we'll be able to stick to our menu plan.

On the Menu This Week:

Monday: Baked ziti and shake and bake chicken breasts

Tuesday: Maui ribs, mashed potatoes and veggies
Wednesday: Lasagne Wednesday!
Thursday: Halloween! Turkey burgers and fries

Friday: Tortellini with prawns in Boursin cream sauce
Saturday:  Curry Coconut Chicken, rice and stir fry veggies
Sunday: Dinner out!

I’ll be linking my menu plan up to OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday – check it out!!

Oatmeal Streusel Muffins

Hello my lovelies! After what seems like ages I have finally found time to a) bake, b) photograph said baking and c) conjure up a blog post to share with you all. I've told you before how my older daughter refuses to eat many foods, and making lunches for school is getting increasingly difficult. I know that she like banana bread and muffins, so today I tried a new recipe combining two things I know she'll eat - oatmeal and muffins!

Normally when I bake I add copious amounts of chocolate chips to my recipes for added flavor and love. This time, I left them out to allow the muffins to shine for themselves. I'm not gonna lie, I'll likely add 3/4 cup of semi-sweet chips to the recipe next time, but you could just as easily add blueberries, small chunks of apple or any other fruits.

This recipe took a little longer than I originally anticipated it would. It involved actually cooking the oats on the stovetop for a few minutes and then after they cooked grinding them down to nearly a flour-like consistency. I have to say, I'm so glad I took the time for these steps because I think they made all the difference. These muffins were light and absolutely delicious.

Oatmeal Streusel Muffins
Many thanks to FirstLookThenCook for this recipe, it turned out great!!

Ingredients
Streusel Topping:
1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Muffin Base:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/3 cups packed light brown sugar
1 3/4 cups milk
2 large eggs, beaten

Instructions:

Topping
In a medium bowl, combine oats, flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Drizzle melted butter over mixture and stir to combine; set aside.


Muffins
Preheat oven to 375F. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake liners. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a skillet over medium heat. Toss the oats into the melted butter and cook, stirring frequently, until oats turn golden brown and smell of cooking popcorn, 6 to 8 minutes.

At this point I was supposed to pulse the oats in a food processor, but since I don't have one, I just used my regular old blender. It did a great job! Mix the remaining flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda to oats and pulse until combined.

In the bowl of your standing mixer with the whisk attachment, combine sugar and 6 tbsp. of melted butter until smooth. Add the milk and eggs and whisk until smooth. Fold half of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix the other half of the dry ingredients. At this stage, the mixture was still very liquidy.

The instructions said to set the batter aside for 20 minutes to allow the mixture to thicken and I'm so glad I did, because it filled out nicely in that time.

Scoop batter equally among prepared muffin cups, about 3/4 full. Sprinkle the reserved streusel topping over muffins. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 20-23 minutes, rotating muffin tin halfway through baking.

Let muffins cool in muffin tin on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove muffins from muffin tin and serve or let cool completely before serving.

I was so happy that I found this recipe on Pinterest today! Miss A loved them and she wants them in her lunchbox tomorrow! Win!



Linking to Joyful Homemaking, Not Just a Housewife and A Bowl Full of Lemons.

Iced Pumpkin Cookies

Hello my friends! As promised, I am back with a recipe for a sweet treat, perfect for cozy days curled up under a blanket with a cuppa tea. It was also perfect for a fundraising bake sale I participated in last week. 

Knowing that fall is just around the corner, and with it the promise of all things pumpkin and spice, I scoured Pinterest to find just the right pumpkin recipe. I found this recipe from jamonkey.com, and it perfectly fit the bill.

These cookies turned out soft and chewy and once the icing was drizzled on top, they were perfect cookies for sitting with a cuppa tea. You could make these with canned pumpkin, but I had some frozen pumpkin that I used for these cookies and they turned out great! They certainly didn't last long on the bake sale table!

Iced Pumpkin Cookies
adapted from Jamonkey.com

Ingredients

Cookies
4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
3/4 cup butter
2 1/4 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cup pumpkin
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Icing
3 cups icing sugar
5 tbsp milk
1 1/2 tbsp melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt.

In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add pumpkin, eggs, and vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Using a medium cookie scoop, drop on cookie sheet and flatten with a fork.

Bake for 17-20 minutes, until the cookies are golden delicious on top. Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze on top of the cookies. For this step, it's easiest if you push the cookies close together on a cookie sheet, or on a piece of parchment paper. This way, when you drizzle the glaze on the cookies, it makes much less sticky mess.

For the glaze: In a medium bowl, combine icing sugar, milk, melted butter teaspoon vanilla. Whisk together until you reach a smooth consistency. If the mixture is still too thick, add milk as needed. You want to be able to drizzle over the cookies. Transfer the glaze into a medium Ziploc bag, cut a tiny piece of the corner and use it to drizzle the glaze evenly over the cookies.

I hope you have enjoyed this recipe - let me know if you try it out!



Linking to Joyful Homemaking, Not Just a Housewife and A Bowl Full of Lemons.