Menu Change...

This is not unusual at our house, but we had a menu change that effects to nights at our house.

Last night Mom was busily crafting and had to switch to our great standby food, tuna casserole only it was chicken casserole instead this time :) We had enough left over between that and the BBQ Chicken that we are having a leftover night tonight. So we will pick up with are steak sandwiches on Sunday night and this weeks menu will carry on until Thursday. I will pick up with the next menu plan on Thursday night instead of Tuesday next week.

BBQ Chicken Sandwiches and Oven Fries...

YUM YUM YUM!!! You have to try this recipe from Smashed Peas and Carrots. It is a must on your menu for this week. Hubby LOVED the BBQ and the whole family LOVED the non greasy fries. I am already thinking that Ava and I will be eating these fries again for lunch some days :)

http://smashedpeasandcarrots.blogspot.com/2011/01/crockpot-barbecue-chicken-and-oven.html

GO GO GO, right now get the recipe, go to the store, feed it to your family. Trust me they will love you for it!

Happy Eating!

Weekly Menu Plan 1/26 - 2/1

Well we are having a little bit of a switch up we ended up having a left over night tonight, so we are pushing our BBQ Chicken dinner back to tomorrow night. This week is full of first time meals for us. This is fun for me, I love to try new things, scary for my family that is not always so open to trying new things.

Wednesday 1/26- BBQ Chicken Sandwiches, oven baked fries and mixed vegetables, new recipe from Smashed Peas and Carrots
Thursday 1/27- Philly Steak Sandwiches with boiled carrots
Friday 1/28- Apple Cranberry French Toast, a new recipe from $5 dinners
Saturday 1/29- Eating out
Sunday 1/30- Chicken and Bacon Florentine Pasta, another new recipe from $5 dinners
Monday 1/31- Connie's Mexican Mess, also a new recipe that can be found here from $5 dinners
Tuesday 2/1- Marinated Pork Roast, with mashed potatoes and green beans

I'll post after trying each new meal to let you know how it was. I'll also as is the new habit post new recipes the night before if they are not already linked up here.

Happy Eating!

Sweet Potato Casserole, its not just for the Holidays!!!

I often think we get in a rut certain foods on weeknights, certain foods on the weekend, certain foods we only make for holiday's or special occasions. I am trying to break out of this mold, I love sweet potatoes and I really love the not so healthy sweet potato casserole, but we eat it twice a year, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Why? Why only eat something you enjoy twice a year, so I decided if I want to make it once a month I'll make it once a month! Who knows maybe I won't want it as much once I am eating it more than twice a year :)

The great thing about sweet potato casserole recipes is that a lot of people that don't really enjoy sweet potatoes enjoy these.

Grandma's Sweet Potato Casserole:
1/2 C. sugar
2 beaten eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 C. melted margarine
1/2 C. evaporated milk
1 t. Vanilla
3 C. mashed sweet potatoes or yams (you can use 1 large can)

Topping:
1/3C. flour
1 T. brown sugar
1/4 C. melted margarine
1 C. chopped pecans

Combine all sweet potato ingredients together and place in a small 8x8 glass baking dish.

Combine all of the topping in ingredients and sprinkle over the top of the casserole

Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.

Go on and give it a try!

Happy Eating!!!

Lil Cheddar Meatloaves

This Meatloaf recipe is our favorite hands down. It is tried and true and great for when company comes. The recipe serves 8, but lets be honest, I have never met a man that eats less than 2 servings! And my 10 year old daughter easily eats 1 1/2 servings. So my opinion is it should be 8 servings but realistically, it feeds 6.

Without further ado I give you tonight's dinner recipe:

Li'l Cheddar Meat loaves:
1 egg
3/4 C. milk*
1 C. (4 oz) shredded cheddar cheese*
1/2 C. quick cooking oats
1/2 C. chopped onion*
1 tsp. salt
1 lb lean ground beef*

Sauce:
2/3 C. chili sauce or ketchup
1/2 C. packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. prepared mustard

In a bowl beat the egg and milk. Stir in cheese, oats, onion and salt. Add beef and mix well. Shape into eight loaves; place in a greased 13x9 baking dish.

Next combine chili sauce or ketchup, brown sugar and mustard; Spoon over unbaked loaves.

Bake, uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until the meat is no longer pink and a meat thermometer reads 160 degrees.

*On a side note, I make this using fat free cheese and milk and it still tastes great, I usually buy meet that is 97/3, but I have been known to substitute ground turkey as well. I have also substituted dehydrated onion when I didn't have a fresh one on hand, I would only use a bout 1/4 cup dehydrated onion as it expands.

Happy Eating!!!

Weekly Meal Plan 1-19 to 1-25

Okay so I already have failed, slightly, but I did do two posts yesterday. So here is our weekly meal plan, two days later than I will post it in the future. Promise.

1-19 Wednesday: Polynesian Meatballs
1-20 Thursday: Costco Ravioli, with ceaser salad, galic bread and green beans
1-21 Friday: Meatloaf and Sweet Potato Casserole and boiled carrots
1-22 Saturday: Eating out
1-23 Sunday: Russian Apricot Chicken, couscous, green beans
1-24 Monday: Homemade pizza and salad
1-25 Tuesday: BBQ Chicken Sandwich and oven baked fries (from this website here, it will be a new recipe for our family too).

I will link up all recipes as posted the night before and in the future I will link to previous entries if applicable as well

Happy Eating

Yummy Easy Cake!

Today is my daughters tenth birthday and we talked about all of the different types of cakes we could make our favorite chocolate zucchini cake, PW's Red Velvet cake, PW's Chocolate sheet cake, my husband's favorite mellow cake, applesauce cake, salted caramel chocolate cupcakes, yes the options are endless and well its cake, you just can't go wrong no matter what you choose!

Since its her 10th birthday I will admit I was tempted to make a different cake for breakfast, lunch, dinner and well dessert! One its a day to celebrate, two you only turn double digits once, and three I am too young to have a child in the double digits!!!

Well, sadly I restrained myself, my waistline and my husbands rage and settled for a yummy Easy Cake that we had not made in quite a while (we are talking years) but one we all really enjoy.

The recipe was originally given to me by my friend Alisha and was called Heath bar cake, but we make it with all different kinds of candy bars. Today we are making one with twix and one with snickers, one for our house and one for achievement day.

So with out further ado here is the moistest chocolate cake ever!

Heath Bar Cake:

Cake:

3 oz instant chocolate pudding mix
1 yellow cake mix
2 C. warm water
2 eggs

Frosting:
1/4 C. margarine, melted
1 C. powdered sugar
2 egg yolks
8 oz. cool whip
4 heath bars, crushed ( you can chop up a different kind of candy bar, but you may need more than 4)

Cake directions: Blend together pudding, cake mix, water and eggs. Pour into cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes and passes toothpick test. Let cake cool.

Frosting directions: Mix together margarine, powdered sugar, and egg yolks. Fold in cool whip and frost cooled cake. Sprinkle with crushed candy bar. The cake will need to be refrigerated once frosted due to the cool whip and egg yolk.

Enjoy!