On the menu

I'm a bit late getting to this post.  With having Elyse home last weekend, I didn't get around to the grocery shopping until last night.

We decided to head to Meijer's only because I've been shopping at Kroger all the time and I wanted to check once again to price compare.  Bad idea.  Spent more money at Meijer than I have in months at Kroger.  I think from here on out, we'll stay at Kroger.  It appears to be cheaper and we get a gas discount as well.  As a side note - I'm glad my husband is willing to go grocery shopping with me.  I know many men wouldn't do that - and I want to publicly thank him for being willing to do that.  Sometimes it seems it's the only time we get to spend alone - lol!

On to the menu.  My kids have always been great at eating what is in front of them, but little man - well sometimes he can only take so much change in his life before it really begins to stress him out.  He has grown tired of my creativity in the kitchen - lol.  He has been requesting that I not switch things up all the time.  No - he's not being bratty and he truly does struggle with change - so, in order to make his life a little better and mine a little easier, these next 2 weeks, I only chose 1 or 2 "new" meals.  In those "new" meals, they are similar to foods he is used to eating so I am hoping he will be okay with them.  I've been sharing with you the cost and this week the total was around 303.00.  Now, at the request of my college daughter, I did buy a slew of microwaveable foods to send on to Minneapolis to her.  This week I also needed dog food, laundry detergent, toilet paper, a memory card for E, etc - and that stuff adds up quick which may explain why my bill was a little high this time around. 

Anyway - let's move on to the actual food.  Hope you can find some ideas for your menu this week!

Lunch
Ham & Potato Soup
Catherine's Spicy Chicken Soup

Dinner
Barbecue Beef (a carry over - again - lol!)
Spaghetti
Slow Cooker Beef Stew (new but not much different than roast and potatoes which we eat regularly)
Taco Salad
Roast/Potatoes/Carrots
BLT's
Ham Steaks/Mashed Potatoes/homemade applesauce
Caramel Apple Pork Chops (new - I intend on making the sauce separately & having that optional for him because I don't think he'll like it)
Baked Ziti
Mac & Cheese and hot dogs
Tacos

Snacks
Crackers & Cheese
Sauteed Apples (new, but similar to applesauce or apple crisp)
Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread (carry over again)
Apples/Caramel Apple Dip
Tortilla Chips/Queso Dip
Smoothies
Malteds
Popsicles
Popcorn

On the menu

Yesterday I arrived back home after visiting my Mom for a few days.  4 days of not being home = much catching up to do!  Although, I have to give a shout out to my incredibly good lookin' man because I came home with all laundry folded and put away - AND a clean kitchen sink!  WOO HOO!  What a MAN :) (That's right ladies - a REAL MAN cleans!!) So much nicer to not have to deal with all THAT before I start dealing with normal Monday/post-pay check stuff!!  Thanks babe - I'm a lucky girl to have you :)

A few things to share about this weeks meal planning.  First - the sales this week were not great.  Last shopping trip, lots of bargains - this week - no can do.  It ran me 281.00 which is about 30.00 higher than I like to spend.  To add to that, I needed to send a package out to my college girl which cost me another 20.00 meaning I am at budget for the next 2 weeks.  That's not good considering we have several needed days of eating out (Special Olympics state finals, trip to Chicago to pick up our girl, Marty and Jon are attending Hunters Safety next weekend, and we'd like to take Elyse and her roomie out for Mexican when they come home).  It totals about 5 meals out which, if eating at fast food, means about 60-80 for the three of us and another 70.00 or so for Mexican out w/ everyone.   That's going to need to come from somewhere so I'll need to take a look at the budget and figure out where I can squeeze that from.

I moved some things forward from the last time - meals we didn't end up eating.  I was hoping that would save us some cash flow - but nope, it didn't.  Not this time.  One item to note - I try to do the majority of my shopping at Kroger.  It's the closest to me, the least expensive closest to me - AND every 1.00 I spend, I get a reward point.  100 reward points = .10 off per gallon of gas.  This week I spent 281.00 so that means 281 reward points which will mean .20 off per gallon of gas on my next fill up.  That's worth it when your filling a blazer!

And finally - the list.  I'll come back in here tonight and add the links to the recipes.  Hope this will give you some ideas for your next shopping trip!

Breakfast (normally just cereal, oatmeal or eggs - but Elyse is bringing her roomie home from college and she said she misses home cooked meals - so I'm going all out!)
Amish Casserole
Clone of a Cinnabon Cinnamon Roles (THE BEST EVER!!)

Lunch
Leftover chili
BLT'S & chips
Salad Bar (this is a great idea - I chop up everything I can think of you might find on a salad bar:  onions, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, bacon bits, sunflower seeds, beets, cukes, peppers, cranraisins, croutons - you name it, I throw it on there.  Then I lay it all out on the counter and everyone gets to grab their own items to create their own salads.  We do this A LOT for lunch in the summer especially.  When finished, I put every item back in the fridge in little containers and everyone can make their own salad at any time!) & leftovers

Dinner
Barbecued Beef
Spaghetti/Garlic Bread/Salad
Chicken Enchiladas
Baked Teriyaki Chicken
Chili
Lasagna
Leftovers

Snacks
Dump Cake
Apple Crisp
Popcorn
Oreo Cookies
Apple Butter & Pumpkin Bread
Snickerdoodles
Biscuits & Strawberries
Banana Pudding

Caramel Apple Cider

This weekend we had some time to kill so we stopped at Bigsby coffee.  I'm not a huge fan of hot apple cider - but it was a cold day and they had advertised caramel apple cider.  We got some - and oh my - was it yummy!

So - of course - I am on a recipe hunt for it.  Here's some recipes I found in blogger/Internet land and will be trying in the very near future.


Baking Bites - Caramel Apple Cider

Food.com - Hot Caramel Apple Cider

Our Best Bites - Caramel Apple Cider

CdKitchen - Starbucks Caramel Apple Cider

Now - for all I know - these recipes are similar.  I honestly didn't look them over.  I'll try them all and see which one comes closest to Bigsby and let you know.

And - to give a shout out to my friend Jackie - I think Hot Caramel Apple Cider will go along GREAT with her Pumpkin Dip which you can find by clicking HERE.


Fall is a great food time - unfortunately!  Anyone else know of some yummy fall recipes they want to share?

Country Apple Dumplings

Tonight I made something yummy :)  Country Apple Dumplings.  Actually, I'm not normally a fan of dumplings as the whole slimy dumpling taste bothers me.  You get that here, a little bit - but the ingredients of this thing - more than make up for it!  Hope you enjoy :)

Ingredients
2 large Granny Smith Apples, peeled and cored (I used 3 small granny smith and just doubled some of the slices in the dumplings)
2 (10 ounce) cans refrigerated crescent roll dough
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 (12) Mt. Dew (Oh yeah, you KNOW this got my attention!!)

Instructions:

1.  Peel and core apples, set aside

2.  Unroll Crescent roll dough - separate into triangles

3.  Wrap apple slices (if you are using large granny smith, one wedge per crescent triangle - I used small apples, so on some of them, I wrapped more than one apple wedge.

4.  Place in greased 9x13 pan

5.  Melt butter slowly, then add sugar and cinnamon.  Do not boil or burn.

6.  Pour over the dumplings

7. Pour Mt. Dew over dumplings

8.  Cook at 350 for 35-45 minutes, or until golden brown.  

Sorry - forgot a picture of the final product!!  I will say - I turned the dumplings about half way through because I was concerned they were going to burn.

YUMMO!!!

Now, I must give credit where credit is due.  This is NOT my recipe.  I repeat - this is NOT my recipe!  I got this recipe on my favorite recipe site - allrecipes.com.  Here is the link for Country Apple Dumplings, originally submitted by docswife.  I hope you enjoy this as much as I do!  Next time, we'll try it with some ice cream!!

Great Recipe!

Sunday I tried a new recipe - and it was AMAZING!!  Simple, few ingredients and a great brunch recipe.  I served it with sliced strawberries (on sale at Kroger) and an apple coffee cake (purchased on sale - I could make it, but it was cheaper to purchase it).  The recipe follows - but let me give you some tips before.  It did not specify - or at least I didn't take what they said maybe the way they meant it - whether or not to actually COOK the eggs before doing the layering thing.  I guess reading it now, that probably makes sense - but what I did was take the milk and eggs, lightly beat that together, dump that into the 8x8 UNCOOKED, drop the sour cream in there instead of layer, throw the sausage on top.  It did take me longer to cook, and I had to mix it up a couple of times to get all the ingredients mixed together properly.  I also did not put the cheese on until it was already cooked - and then just heated it long enough to melt the cheese.  You might try doing it the opposite way and cooking the eggs first - but whatever works for you:)  Anyway - it was YUMMO - and very bed and breakfastish.  I forgot to take pics (above not my own) - I'm sorry - but here's the recipe - enjoy!!

Ingredients:
1 roll of Kroger pork sausage
10 eggs
1/4 cup milk (although I messed up and used 1/2 and it was still yummy)
8 oz container of sour cream
1 cup of shredded cheddar (I used 2 cups)

Lightly scramble eggs w/ milk.  (This is the part I think they meant to cook - but I took scramble to mean beat).  Brown sausage.  On bottom of 8x8, layer eggs, then sour cream, then sausage.  If you cook the eggs prior to layering, then go ahead and put the cheese on now.  If not - WAIT :)
Cook at 350 for 20-30 minutes (it took 35 for me plus 5 with the cheese to melt it)

It is SOOO yummy!  By the way - you may think 8x8 is not enough.  However - we have enough left over to serve this twice - so it makes technically 8 plus servings.

ENJOY!!

What's for dinner?

Tonight for dinner I'm making Carne Guisada.  Carne Guisada means "meat in gravy."  Whenever we go out for Mexican, this is what Marty orders.  I found the recipe on allrecipes.com - but it says it's a Puerto Rican dish. Not sure if that's just this particular recipe or what.  I'll have to do a little research on where Carne Guisada originated.  Wherever it did - this is dinner tonight.  Also gonna throw in some homemade torts and canned refried beans topped w/ monteray jack cheese.  (I can make them homemade but didn't think to soak the beans overnight)

Here's the recipe for those who are interested:

Carne Guisada III (Found on Allrecipes.com/submitted by fivebrigs)
Serves 4 (I doubled the recipe)

Ingredients

• 1 (8 ounce) can canned tomato sauce
• 1/4 cup sofrito sauce (found in the Mexican food section at Kroger)
• 1 (.18 ounce) packet sazon seasoning (Mexican food section at Kroger)
• 1 tablespoon adobo seasoning (yellowish bottle w/ blue top found in spices and in Mexican)
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• salt to taste
• 2 pounds beef stew meat
• 2 cups peeled, cubed potatoes
• 1 cup water

Directions

1. In a large pot, combine tomato sauce, sofrito sauce, sazon seasoning, adobo seasoning, oregano, and salt. Simmer over medium low heat for 5 minutes. Add meat, and cook until evenly browned. Stir in just enough water to cover meat. Cover, and simmer for about 1 hour. Add potatoes, and cook for about 30 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving  Calories: 682 | Total Fat: 46.5g | Cholesterol: 155mg

I'll let you know how this turns out!!