Meal Plan 11/22

Another issue of Cooking Light arrived yesterday. It is chock full of yummy goodness. (Take a look for yourself.) One thing I love about the recipes in this magazine is that they use ingredients we typically have on hand. They're also quick and super tasty.

• Grilled shrimp & broccoli with brown jasmine rice
• Chicken & Black Bean-Stuffed Burritos
• Asparagus Noodles
• Kid's choice - quesadillas won
  
• Thanksgiving - I always make rolls. This year I'm going to give the brioche rolls a shot. And we'll also bring bread pudding.
  
• Leftovers!!
  

Meal Plan 11/15

Not much in a cooking (or planning) mood this week. I've been dealing with a sinus infection for a couple weeks and currently have zero motivation.

• Carne asada
  
• Grilled burgers
• Homemade pizza (with this sauce) - didn't make last week because I was on my own (which pretty much never happens) one night and decided to have quesadillas instead
  
• Tomato soup and grilled cheese
• Breakfast burritos
• Spicy Shrimp Bowl for the adults & basic shrimp noodles for the kiddos
• Dinner at our favorite restaurant to celebrate good grades!
  

An easy and yummy snack for the week:

• Popcorn balls
  

Meal Plan 11/08

I'm so excited that it's cool enough for soup. Lots and lots of soup.

• Homemade chicken noodle soup - this has been on the list a couple times recently, but we never got around to it
• Taco salad with Verde Valle flor de mayo beans - super tasty beans similar to pintos
  
• Chili con turkey with brown jasmine rice and salad
  
• Lentil soup with veggie broth and homemade rolls or crusty bread
• Pizza with Alton's dough

Note from last week:

• The remnants of the roasted chicken make excellent stock.

Find more menu plan ideas at Org Junkie.com.

Granola

This one is super easy and almost always hits the spot. We like it with or without additions - almonds, craisins, white chocolate chips - and on top of yogurt. Flax meal blends nicely too (love to sneak that in wherever I can).

Wet Ingredients
1 3/4 c brown sugar (I realize this one's debatable, but sugar is a wet ingredient to me)
1 1/2 c canola or olive oil
2/3 c water
3 Tbsp vanilla
3/8 c maple syrup or honey

Dry Ingredients
2 lb old fashioned oats
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 250*

1. Mix liquid ingredients in medium bowl
2. Mix dry ingredients in very large bowl
3. Add liquid to dry and stir well
4. Spread granola mixture onto two cookie sheets
5. Bake for an hour or two (really depends on your oven) stirring every 20 minutes or so
6. Cool & try not to eat too much!

The granola goes fast around here, but I'm pretty sure it'd be fine in an air tight container for a while.

Meal Plan 11/01

• Roasted chicken with brown jasmine rice and salad
  
• Minestrone (using chicken stock from the crock pot) and rolls
• Asparagus Noodles - sauteed asparagus with homemade noodles
• Ham sandwiches on Pain a l’Ancienne - this was kind of a throw together last week that was amazingly delish. This bread is nothing short of THE BEST BREAD EVER. I often eat it to the point of popping and then eat some more. LOVE it!
• Carne asada with grilled broc - I've gotten a little addicted to broc grilled on the grill. Not sure how I'll get my fix when the weather gets cold.
  
• The weekend is up in the air at this point, but I plan on not cooking. Hopefully someone else will. :)
  

Stuff that I'll probably get around to baking this week:

• Chocolate chip cookies - these will definitely be made and might include a few bits of toffee
  
• Granola - this is going to be a weekly. The kids dig the heck out of it and it requires about thismuch effort.
  
• Something with pumpkin
  

Meal Plan 10/25

The weather has decided to behave a bit more fall-like. (Good job weather!) I'm excited to start cooking healthy versions of heartier meals. Thought it'd be best to slowly ease into it so my jeans will still fit next week.

• Pierogies full of mash and cheddar topped with sauteed broccoli & onions and possibly a little crumbled bacon
• Taco Soup
• Bean burritos with my homemade refrieds
• Tomato soup and grilled cheese
• Fried rice
• Ham sandwiches on Pain a l’Ancienne with potato salad (ended up having breakfast instead of the weird grilled cheese/potato salad combo)
  

What's baking this week?

• Banana Snacking Cake - Had some bananas begging to be used rather than composted. Thought this would be a good alternative to all the banana bread we've had lately. Could stand a bit more spicing up, but tasted fab with the reject meringue frosting (see below).
  
• Vanilla Cake with Italian Meringue Frosting - Made this for a birthday over the weekend. Pretty yummy. Had a few issues with the meringue frosting, but nothing major.
  
• Strawberry Fruit Leather

Meal Plan 10/18

Looks like this is the week for comfort food. After a quick, wild and restaurant-a-licious trip to Indy to visit some amazing friends that live far, far away, I need it something fierce.

• Chicken Noodle Soup
• Pizza
• Asparagus Noodles - sauteed asparagus with homemade noodles, super yum!
• Grilled Cheese with Potato Salad - weird combo, but sounds good together for some reason
• Carne Asada
• Spaghetti with homemade Pain a l’Ancienne - the bread is the only reason I'm agreeing to another week of pasta
  

This week's baking list:

• Granola
• Blueberry Muffins
• Something else yeasty
  

Meal Plan 10/11

The temps are rising. Again. It's mid October, right? At least the humidity is gone.

• Grilled chicken & broccoli
• Soup of some sort - probably homemade chicken noodle
• Bean burritos with my homemade refrieds
• Cold Sesame Noodles
• Visiting friends for the rest of the week

A few notes from last week:

• The Korean meatballs were really good. A bit garlicky, but tasty.
• The yogurt worked and was gone by Wednesday. I followed the recipe I posted last week and it took quite a bit longer to turn into yogurt than the recipe said, but it was cold (outside & in the house) that night, which might have slowed the process. Making another batch as we speak with a different technique - just to try something new.
• Ended up making Basic Banana Bread and it was a huge hit.

Back on the meal plan train

I've been making a mental meal plan for the last few weeks. It works. Just not quite as well. Our schedule has recently been turned upside down making it so we can only do dinner as a family on the weekends. In order to make my crazy weeknights a little easier to manage, my plan is to prepare the more complicated meals on the weekend and to have a few quick & easy options as well.

While pouring over recipes online, I came across a link for two free trial issues of Cooking Light. Just received my first issue this week and am super excited to try some of the amazingly photogenic recipes.

Oh, and in unrelated bizarro news, the oven is working. No shit. It started working when the weather cooled down. Clearly, the thing needs to be replaced for being moody, if nothing else.

• Korean Meatballs
• Something on the grill
• Minestrone (using chicken stock from the crock pot) and rolls
  
• Tomato soup & grilled cheese - trying to find a yummy recipe for this one because tomato soup is one of the few things I don't make from scratch
  
• Breakfast
• Pasta for the kids, something else for me because I've had my fill for a while
  
• The stinker boy's choice because the girlies will be spending the night away from home

Other stuff I plan to make this week, assuming the oven cooperates:

• Yogurt - yogurt is one of my favorite a) snacks and b) ingredients, so I'm really hoping this works
  
• Banana Bread - haven't settled on recipe yet, but they all look good
• Blueberry Muffins - white whole wheat flour works well in this recipe, usually add a bit more yogurt to compensate for the www flour

Dinners I want soon and will forget unless I do this:

• Taco Soup - I loosely follow this recipe and toss in what I have on hand
• Turkey Meatloaf
• Spicy Shrimp Noodle Bowl
  

We have a bike rider

I sorta kinda feel like a loser parent for this. But, what am I supposed to do when the kid doesn't care to learn how to ride a bike until she's 9? As a reward for her hard work she got a new bike courtesy of some lovely grandparents. Don't have video of that. But I do have video of this...

Bike Rider from Autumn Hutt on Vimeo.

What's for dinner?

• Grilled salmon & grilled broccoli
• Birthday dinner with family
• Chicken stir fry with brown jasmine rice
• Spaghetti with greek salad

This week's menu

• Marlboro Man's Favorite Sandwich - this looks yummy!
• Shrimp with Succotash or some sort of grilled shrimp
• The noodle dish . . . again. At some point we'll tire of this. But for now it's a favorite. Since it's yummy hot or cold, it's a great dinner for nights that I have practice.
  
• Dinner out
  

First day of school

This school year might be a little tricky. The girls are going to different schools that start and end at the same time. They can't ride the bus to school because we're either out of district (Belle) or the bus comes at the crack of dawn at a far away pick up spot (Ava), which makes no sense to me.

Belle started first grade. She had a blast in the spanish immersion program last year and will stick with it at least through fifth grade. So far, Ava's loving fourth grade. I'm really excited about the program she's in (an accelerated one) and the school she's attending.

Luke will be going to the same preschool he went to last year - a coop that we love. I'm in charge of all the parent clean up days and am on the board of directors this year.

Add the school stuff to life, work and roller derby and I anticipate being one tired momma.

Drum roll please...here are the first day of school pictures. Thankfully the making funny faces in pictures gene skipped one of my kids .

It's still HOT

I haven't been paying attention to the stats, but it seems like this has been one of the hottest summers ever. And it keeps being hot. The low the other night was 75*, which is my idea of the perfect daytime temp. Maybe it's time to turn nocturnal?

• Dinner at a friend's
• Chili Con Turkey - with my chili seasoning recipe that's similar to this recipe
• Breakfast burritos - I could eat breakfast for dinner every night. We had the best breakfast/lunch restaurant in the town where I grew up. Haven't been able to find another place like it. Oak Table, I miss you!
• Grilled pizza - because I want to try again and I'm not feeling very inspired this week

Another week, another meal plan

This has been a hot, crazy week and I'm tired. I've got the weekend to catch up on sleep in preparation for the first day of school on Wednesday. While I am looking forward to the structure school brings, I'm definitely not looking forward to getting up super early and doing the morning run around. Three kids at three schools this year. Yikes.

• Pizza on the grill - Pizza dough recipe from I'm Just Here for More Food
• Cold Sesame Noodles with Chicken & Cucumbers - Two weeks in a row! This was a huge hit and super easy. Making it ahead of time this week to try it cold. Eden Udon Noodles are one of my all time favorites.
• Meatball subs
• Tuna sandwiches with tons of fresh veggies from family and the farmer's market

100% Whole Wheat Bread

This yummo recipe came from the awesome folks at King Arthur. Unfortunately, they've revamped their site and removed this recipe.

Even though I've made at least two loaves of this bread every week for the last two years and have the recipe etched in my brain, I need to put it in a safe place. A place where kids and cats cannot destroy it.

For 1 1/2 pound bread machine

1 1/4 cups water

2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil

1/4 cup honey or maple syrup

3 to 3 1/2 cups 100% White Whole Wheat Flour

1/4 cup flax meal

1 tablespoon vital wheat gluten

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast

Put all ingredients into the bread pan in the order listed. Program for basic white bread and press start.

The stove hates me

Even though I said I'd get over my mental thing with the stove, I didn't. Decided midweek that I couldn't live one more minute without some snickerdoodles. Turned on the stove to preheat it, got the dough all nice and ready then realized I was out of parchment paper. Bummer. But not compared to the bummer of the stove NOT GETTING HOT.

Maybe it's just vacationing for the summer? Eh, probably not. It's been dying a slow and painful death for quite a while. The broiler hasn't worked for who knows how long and we've been lighting the burners with a match for even longer than that. But I enjoy that part since the smell of burnt out matches makes my nose especially happy.

The goals from last week were met. Sticking with the making as few trips to the store as possible one. Once the kids are back in school it won't be such a big deal since they'll be IN SCHOOL when I shop. And unless you've shopped with three youngsters, you have no idea how happy this makes me.

• Grilled cheese with avacado & tomato soup - this is something we tend to eat when it's not a million degrees out, but I'm really jonesin' for some cooler weather, so we're going to pretend
• Veggie stir fry with brown jasmine rice
• Taco salad (crossing fingers that I'll be able to add some fresh tomatoes from our yarden)
• Kebabs or Cold Sesame Noodles with Chicken and Cucumbers

Dinner without the stove

Last week's meal plan was a success. Oddly enough, as it gets hotter and hotter, I find myself wanting meals that require the stove. I know it's a mental thing. And I'll get over it. As soon as I walk out the door and get slapped around by the humidity or peek at my most recent electric bill.

The goal for this week is to create as little heat in the kitchen as possible. This meal plan should do the trick. Oh, and a couple little goals while I'm at it. 1) Fewer trips to the grocery store. During the summer I have to take the kids. Sometimes that ends with me running out of the store short a few items. 2) Budget friendly meals.

• Grilled Lime Chicken Sandwiches with Spicy Slaw
• Pitas & homemade hummus with tomatoes and cucumbers
• BLTs on homemade bread
• Dinner out

Grilled Lime Chicken Sandwiches with Spicy Slaw

It's way too hot to cook inside these days. Luckily, I hit the jackpot with a twofer one hardwood charcoal from Whole Foods. Granted, standing over a hot grill in 90 plus degrees is no picnic. For this recipe, I'd do it at least once a week.

Grilled Lime Chicken Sandwiches with Spicy Slaw

from Shape magazine a zillion years ago

Serves 4

Prep time: 30 min

Cook time: 10 min

For grilled chicken:

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast fillets, all fat removed

1/2 cup reduced sodium soy sauce

juice of 3 limes

For dressing:

1/2 cup plain nonfat yogurt

2 tablespoons mayo

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 teaspoon sugar

3 tablespoons chopped cilantro

1-2 teaspoons Tabasco sauce (or to taste)

salt, to taste

For slaw:

4 cups shredded raw cabbage

1 cup shredded raw carrots

1/3 cup finely sliced green onions, green parts only

nonstick cooking spray

4 large whole-grain buns

Preheat broiler or prepare coals for grill.

Place chicken breasts, soy sauce and lime juice in a medium size glass or ceramic bowl; cover with plastic wrap and allow to marinate in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes (and up to 3 hours).

Meanwhile, place dressing ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until well incorporated. In a large bowl, toss dressing with cabbage, carrots and green onions and set aside.

Once chicken has marinated, lightly coat fillets with cooking spray and grill or broil until chicken is firm and cooked through. (Cook for 4-5 min on each side, depending on thickness.)

To assemble sandwich, place 1/2 cup slaw on a whole-grain bun bottom, place chicken breast on top and add 2-3 tablespoons of slaw over chicken. Cover with bun top and serve immediately.

Nutrition score per serving (1 sandwich):

363 calories

28% fat (11g, 2g saturated)

34% carbs (31g)

38% protein (34g)

5g fiber

133 mg calcium

2.5 mg iron

800 mg sodium

Trying to get organized

Being organized keeps me sane. This summer has pretty much been chaotic, so here I am taking baby steps toward sanity. Step one (with some inspiration from my meanie friend) is to get my dinners together. There have been periods of time when I've done really well with making a meal plan and sticking to it.

Cooking dinner in the summer is a challenge due to the heat. Our a/c unit, much like the old dishwasher, is ancient. The summer heat pushes it to the limit some days, which means adding a hot stove to the mix can be disastrous.

I'm responsible for dinner Friday through Monday, so here we go!

• Grilled burgers and salad (with tomatoes from our yard)
• Zesty Slow Cooker Barbecue Chicken
• Pesto (with basil from our yard) over angel hair
• Breakfast - english muffins with scrambled eggs & turkey sausage or breakfast burritos
  

A new year, a new dishwasher

I'm not a resolution maker. While I get the whole starting fresh thing, it seems like it'd be better to make the change you want to make when you want to make it rather than waiting until some really cold day in the middle of winter when it's easier to wait until tomorrow. Doesn't work for me.

Ya know what else doesn't work for me? A dying dishwasher. We only had a dishwasher at one house growing up. And we couldn't use it due to low water pressure or some such. When I bugged my parents for a dishwasher (which is totally normal, right?) I always got the same response, "We have a dishwasher. Her name is Autumn." (I was also the tv remote.) Needless to say, I'd be cool without ever washing another dish.

The dying dishwasher (it came with the house, so it's at least five years old and quite possibly may be the first dishwasher ever made) had been acceptable until the last few months. As I found myself washing more dishes than the dishwasher, I decided that was it.

I got the best New Year's gift ever in my new dishwasher. It's fancier than I planned with it's stainless steel door and tall bottom rack. The only downside is that the fridge and stove seem a bit jealous.