Sometimes you just need a little help.

This week I am not home for dinner most of the week so I am taking a little help from the pantry and my friends at Bird's Eye...

Sunday: Alfredo pasta with chicken sausage
Tuesday:Leftover pasta from Sunday and salad

Alfredo Pasta with Chicken Sausage

Pantry/Fridge/Freezer Shopping:
-Birds Eye Chef's selection- penne, peppers, peas, alfredo sauce (purchased on sale with coupon for $1.50!)
-2 chicken sausage links (in freezer leftover from previous meal)
-baby spinach leaves (leftover from previous week)

Grocery Store Shopping:
none!

This was a very quick and tasty meal! Thanks Bird's Eye for the help!

Freeze 'n Bake Treats!

Tonight is exactly why I love to make cookie dough and freeze it for another day!

I was craving something sweet (shocker!). I had Edy's Espresso Chip ice cream in the freezer, but why just have ice cream when you can have an ice cream sandwich?!

I took out 12 balls of frozen cookie dough and arranged them on a cookie sheet. After letting them thaw for about 20 minutes I baked and partially cooled them.

My daughter and I had a yummy treat in no time and we have extra cookies for her lunches during the week... or more sandwiches for me!

Week of March 3, 2012

Cooking For Now:

Saturday: Beef Stew w/dumplings
Sunday: Sandwich (last of deli meat from week) and potato salad (using potatoes from 5 lb. bag I bought)
Monday: leftover Beef Stew
Tuesday: Ginger Teriyaki stir fry with rice
Wednesday: Chicken Caesar Salad
Thursday:Lettuce wraps (using leftovers from Tuesday night)
Friday: Chicken Caesar sandwich

____________________________________________________________________

Beef Stew
Pantry/Fridge/Freezer Shopping:
-can of beef broth
-Worcestershire sauce
-onions (leftover from previous recipe)
-bay leaf
-flour
-Wildtree Rancher's Steak Rub
-Bisquick
-milk
-baby spinach leaves (leftover from previous week)

Grocery Store Shopping:
-baby carrots (sale)
-potatoes (5 lb. bag on sale)
-onion soup mix (Stop & Shop brand is perfect)
- stew beef (on sale)

Ginger Teriyaki stir fry with rice

Pantry/Fridge/Freezer Shopping:
-2 Perfect Portion chicken breasts (from freezer, bought during Shaw's pick 4 sale)
-Simply Asia Ginger Teriyaki Stir-fry sauce (bought on sale with coupon)
-Bird's Eye Steamfresh Chef's Favorites- Asian Medley (bought on sale and with coupon)
-Minute Ready to Serve rice (bought with coupon)

Grocery Store Shopping:
-None!

Lettuce wraps

Pantry/Fridge/Freezer Shopping:
-leftover stir fry and rice from Tuesday's dinner
-chopped up peanuts
-crunchy Asian noodles
-Romaine leaves (we always have lettuce in the house for my husband's NutriSystem meals)
-shredded carrots (extra from bag I bought for beef stew recipe)

Grocery Store Shopping:
-None!

Chicken Caesar Salad

Pantry/Fridge/Freezer Shopping:
-2 Perfect Portions chicken breast (from freezer, bought during Shaw's pick 4 sale)
-Romaine (we always have in the house)
-Broccoli Slaw (also always have)
-Caesar dressing (in fridge)

Grocery Store Shopping:
-None!


Chicken Caesar Salad Sandwich

Pantry/Fridge/Freezer Shopping:
-Leftovers from Caesar salad dinner on Wednesday

Grocery Store Shopping:
-onion roll

FOR LATER:

-Bought a large package of stew beef and divided into 4. Used 1 portion for this weeks beef stew and froze the rest:

1. Beef stew for another day in freezer- package beef, chopped onions, potatoes, spinach and baby carrots
2. Sliced another portion and put in ziplock baggie with marinade (olive oil, soy sauce, dried rosemary, garlic, honey salt and pepper) for grilling.
   
3. Sliced remaining portion, put in ziplock baggie with marinade (olive oil, soy sauce, salt and pepper) for beef and broccoli (will add broccoli, orange juice and zest when I cook meal).

-Pork tenderloin was on sale Buy 1 Get 1 free, so I brought two and divided them up into 6 portions, approximately 12-16 oz. a piece.

Banana Muffins- One woman cannot eat all of these.

We often buy bananas and forget about them until they are too ripe to eat right out o the peel. The result of this is a freezer full of over-ripe bananas.

Typically I use them in pancake and waffle mix and of course, banana bread, but last week I was looking for something different... and without chocolate chips (which is how my daughter likes it).

After searching online I found a Banana Crumb Muffin recipe that looked good, so I thought I would give it a try.

The recipe makes 10 muffins. I should not eat 10 muffins in one week. I could, but I really shouldn't.

I recently heard a woman say that she makes cupcake batter, bakes off a few cupcakes and freezes the rest in the liners to bake later. Hmmm, if it works with cupcakes, why not muffins, right?

So I baked 5 and froze 5. Put them in the muffin and popped them in the freezer until hard. Wrapped each on in waxed paper and put in a Ziplock baggie.



I like this recipe because it uses melted butter so I don't have to wait to for softened butter and you can mix it by hand.

I found it to be a little dry though. Not sure if I baked them too long, but I made another batch this week (with chocolate chips) and added 1/2 c. sour cream and they were fantastic! Nice and moist.

I haven't baked the frozen ones yet, but I will update this post when I do.


UPDATE: I took the muffins out of the freezer to get to something else and forgot to put them back in so I had to bake them all.

My results:

1. They were a little dry like the first batch, but otherwise the batter baked up like I had just made it.
   
2. The crumb topping wasn't as light and fluffy as the fresh batch, but still good.

Recommendations:

1. Add the sour cream to the batter as mentioned above.
2. Add the crumb topping right before baking or omit altogether

If I bake it, I will eat it... the chocolate chip cookie dilemma.

I notice last week that we were out of snacks to send in my daughter's lunches. Since baking is an activity in my house, I decided that we should make chocolate chip cookies. Nothing fancy, just the recipe on the package.

Two problems:

1) We didn't have enough chocolate chips
2) If we make the cookies, I will eat the cookies and have to make more next week.

Solution 1: After a thorough search of the cabinets, we found some chocolate bars so we chopped them up and used those along with the chocolate chips we had.

Solution 2: We baked one dozen cookies (with some willpower that should last use through the week) and froze the rest.


I use a cookie scoop (one of the best gifts I have ever received) so they are all about the same size and scoop them onto a cookie sheet. Fit as many as you can and put the whole cookie sheet in the freezer. Once the dough it hard, I transfer them to a Ziplock baggie where they will stay until I need more.

I like to thaw the dough before baking and cook just as I did the original batch.

I do this with all of my cookie recipes so when needed, we can also bake up an assortment too!

Apple Cranberry Maple Syrup

Apple Cranberry Maple Syrup

Boil until reduced by half:
1 c. apple cider
1 c. cranberry juice
1/2 t. cinnamon
1 t. nutmeg

Add and simmer until thickened:
1/2 c maple syrup

Update:
I have used this syrup three time so far:

-Syrup for an apple cranberry overnight french toast
-Glaze on ham steak
-Glaze on an apple crescent roll bake
(spray baking dish with Pam, put dollop of canned apple pie filling on each triangle, roll and place in dish. Pour over an extra pie filling. Brush with apple cranberry syrup and bake at 350 until golden brown. Can add dried cranberries as well.)

Week of February 26, 2012

For me dinners start with what I have I the house already and then build from there. This is the easiest way I have found to cut my grocery bill. Here is my process:

My Kitchen Shopping:

-ham steak (freezer, bought on sale)
-cranberry apple maple syrup (homemade)
-Just for One peas and corn (freezer)
-sauteed saugage pieces (leftovers a friend sent home with me)
-sauteed peppers and onions (baggie from freezer, sliced and frozen)
-shredded mozzarella cheese (freezer)
-Knorr side dish- fettuccini & broccoli (bought on sale with coupon)
-Perfect Portion chicken breasts x2 (bought at Shaw's during Pick 4 sale)
-Potato
-Ricotta cheese (leftover from homemade pizza last week)

Grocery Store Shopping:

-pizza dough
-asparagus bunch (on sale)

For Now:

Sunday- ham steak, glazed with cranberry apple maple syrup, peas/corn and baked potato
Monday- calzone with sausage, onions, peppers, mozzarella cheese and ricotta and salad. (made Sunday night)
Tuesday- fettuccine with broccoli, roasted asparagus and chicken
Wednesday- leftover calzone and salad (for my husband's NutriSystem, we always have romaine hearts and broccoli slaw salad in the fridge).
Thursday- leftover fettuccine.
Friday- leftover calzone and salad (last piece!)*
-Omelet with cheese and leftover diced ham for breakfast.

*I generally try to make enough for 2 dinners, but the calzone made 3 good-sized pieces

FOR LATER:

-Remaining diced ham in freezer for future recipe.
-Remaining 1/2 pizza dough leftover from calzone in freezer

Not a great week for stocking the freezer with "later" foods, but very happy with what I was able to make with what I had already. Plus, I ate everything I made/bought this week!