Monday, March 18, 2013

This Week's Menu

Last week was a mega success! We ended up doing Southern Fried Chicken on Sunday, and really, how can you go wrong with that? The potatoes were also amazing, I seriously recommend trying them. They'll be delish on the bbq this summer too! Both the pasta and chicken turned out pretty good too and will most likely be making it on the menu again in the future.

I ended up doing the pizza rolls the week before and they were a great change. For Friday, Jason found a recipe for Broccoli and Cheese Panzerotti which were good in theory, however we overcooked the broccoli, which made them not so great according to me.  The only thing that was really disappointing was the pork chops; they ended up being soggy, good taste, but soggy.


Onto this week:

Saturday:  Oven chicken wings, beer batter onion rings, deep friend pickles (with the same batter) and fries.

Sunday: Roast with mashed potatoes

Monday: Meatless Spaghetti

Tuesday: Salmon and Rice

Wednesday: Pulled chicken and macaroni salad

Thursday: Taco salad

FridayPepperoni Pizza Rolls

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Northern Life Chili

This is how to make chili, my way.

I'm warning you now though, it's very much a throw things into a pot recipe. 

Step 1: Cut up 2 celery and saute for a couple minutes in a little bit of olive oil and butter. I use my dutch oven for this recipe, so it can be a one pot type of thing. 

Step 2: Add in ground beef, with salt and pepper and cook until all brown and not pink.  The celery will cook more and become softer too.
Step 3: Add a can of this (or the spicy one, but this is what I had on hand). Read the label though, notice how it says CHUNKY? That means you have to take an extra 2 minutes and cut them up. Save yourself the trouble and just buy DICED!
Step 4: Add beans. I chose Red Kidney and Romano. Drain and rinse them before throwing in! 
  
Step 5: As you can see on the above photo, I don't have enough liquid, so we took a can of diced tomatoes and used a hand blender to make them liquid. I suppose a can of crushed would have been easier, but again, that's all I had on hand. 

Step 6: Spices. These measurements are approximate: 4 tbsp of Chili Powder; 2 tbsp of Cumin; 5 dashes of hot sauce; 1 tsp Garlic Powder; 1 tbsp homemade Taco Seasoning; Salt and Pepper. All of these are to TASTE. As in start with a little, cook, then TASTE and adjust accordingly.

 Step 7: Simmer. I ended up cooking for approximately 2 hours, however you can do more or less. BUT the longer it cooks, the more the flavours meld and become one, so I wouldn't do any less then two. (This can easily be a crockpot meal by the way.)

 Step 8: Top with sour cream and cheese and DEVOUR with some Tostitos. 

Update: Here's an ingredient list to make your life easier!
(Again, all measurements are approximate, especially the spices, do whatever you feel! It's really hard to screw up chili!)

2 Celery, washed and chopped
1 tsp Olive Oil
1 tsp Butter
1 lb Groud Beef
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 can Italian Seasoned Tomatoes, diced
1 can Red Kidney Beans, drained and rinsed
1 can Romano Beans, drained and rinsed
1 can Crushed Tomatoes
4 tbsp of Chili Powder
2 tbsp of Cumin
5 dashes of hot sauce
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tbsp homemade Taco Seasoning
Salt and Pepper
Sour Cream and Cheese for topping

Friday, March 08, 2013

This Week's Menu

Lately I've been feeling very uninspired with meal planning. We're doing the same things over and over and I'm BORED. So our plan from now on: trying a minimum of one new recipe per week.

So here's this week's menu with 6 new recipes!


Saturday: Chili. Chili is one of those things that I just throw stuff in and it comes out delicious.

Sunday: Some sort of chicken with Scalloped Hasselback Potatoes (I bought a whole chicken, so now I'm looking for something to do with it)

Monday: Three Cheese Pasta Bake

Tuesday: Cheesy Chicken Kiev with Rice and Broccoli

Wednesday: Spaghetti

Thursday: Best Pork Chops Ever with Rice and Asparagus. The pork chops call for dry italian mix, and I found this recipe that I'll use.

Friday: Pepperoni Pizza Rolls


Here's to an exciting culinary week!

Sunday, March 03, 2013

Not So Sleepy Sunday

The following pictures pretty much sum up our not so sleepy Sunday. The only thing we're missing is a picture from the awesome brunch we had at Kaleb's girlfriend's. 


The best toys are never actually toys.

Putting pennies in his piggy bank!
New place to hang out!



Eating strawberries from the best seat in the house! 

Is this week over yet?

Last week was interesting, to say the least. 

On the weekend we went to visit family back home, we had a great time, although very short. Just as we were heading to our last stop, our dog Bella decided to eat some rat poison, making things interesting. 

We continued on our journey, knowing there were at least 2 vet clinics and called our vet back home for guidance. She made a few phone calls for us only to find out that we had to turn around and go back 45 minutes to the only clinic offering emergency services. 

The vet was very nice and made Bella puke, fed her special food and gave her a huge shot of Vitamin K. We were given enough vitamin K to last us ten days with instructions to visit our vet for a check up then. So far she seems to be fine, which is a relief. 

When we finally got on the road again, we found out the highway was closed. Thankfully there was detour, however it took us 2 hours to get 30 mins down the highway. Needless to say, we got home very late that night. 

Monday and Tuesday was uneventful thankfully, as the best was yet to come. 

When I picked Kaleb up from daycare Wednesday, I was told he had just been sick, but it was probably from the water he choked on, no big deal, it's happened before. On the way home he was sick again in the truck, but seemed to be in good spirits during and after supper, that we figured he'd be fine for swimming lessons. Boy were we wrong. He was sick again in the car. (Side note: cleaning car seats is possibly the worst job ever!).  

Poor thing was hungry and asking for food, so we gave him a couple soda crackers hoping he'd be able to keep it down, but a few minutes later, it all came up again. :(  He managed to get through the rest of the night, but Jason stayed home with him. Thursday seemed to be better for him, but he was obviously under the weather. Then Jason got sick, so Friday was another day home with daddy. Just as we thought that Kaleb was feeling better, the diarrhea started. Two days later, he's finally getting over it.  

Hopefully this week will be better! 

This week's menu

So obviously I didn't post our weekly menu last week, but it was nothing special and went downhill quick when half the house got sick. 

This week's menu:

Saturday: Tacos! Corn tortillas, Mango Avocado SalsaSouthwest Chicken and Beef, with lettuce, cheese and sour cream.

Sunday: Chicken, Mashed potatoes, stuffing and fresh frozen corn. 

Monday: Hot chicken with leftover potatoes

Tuesday: Salmon with Rice and Cauliflower

Wednesday: Shepherd's Pie

Thursday: Mahogany chicken thighs with fries

Friday: Homemade Pizza