July 6-12 meal plan

I am trying to make sure that there is something for dinner every single night this week. We will not be going out to eat unless it is a special occasion. Such as Thursday which is my sons 18th birthday. We are surprising him with a family dinner out to Red Robin.

So with that said lets take a look at this week:

Monday-Fresh Green Beans with New Potatoes and Bacon

Walnut Bread

Smoked Sausage

Tuesday-Crock-Pot Beans (adzuki) with bay Leaves

Texmati Rice

Whisk Bread

Wednesday-Grilled Chicken and Vegetables

Whole Wheat Pasta

Thursday-Red Robin

Friday-No Knead Pizza with Veggies and left over chicken from Wednesday

Salad with home made dressing

Saturday-Black Bean Chili with stew meat and Cornbread

Sunday- Left overs from the week and whisk bread.....

I need lunches for my two daughters and my husband. My son and I work at a school and feed a daycare center so we have lunch each day.

Breakfast is no-sugar cereal, eggs, toast, muffins (oatmeal from scratch) or nothing. That is their choice.

Fresh Green Beans with New Potatoes-

1-2 lbs of green beans

2 lbs of new potatoes either red or white

1 T. kosher salt

2-3 dry bay leaves

enough water to cover

1-2 ham hocks or some cooked bacon or even a large ham slice cut into hunks

Trim the stalk end of the green beans and scrub the potatoes. Place them in a large pot or a crock pot, add just enough water to cover. Turn burner on high, or the crock pot on high. Salt the water well and throw in a couple of bay leaves. You can keep the crock pot on high or turn it to low to fit your time schedule. If you do them on the stove they will only take about an hour on low. I like to do this slow and low to develop the flavor. I will also add a ham hock or cooked bacon or even a hunk of good ham. Serve with some type of bread or fresh made corn bread.

Beans Beans everywhere Beans

I am cooking more beans for our family. We want to cut back on meat and reduce our food bill a bit, or a lot. So I have been stock-up on beans. I am hunting up heirloom beans, but they are hard to find. So I will make do with what I can find.
Tonight we are having fresh green beans, new potatoes and a ham hock. I also have a loaf of walnut bread to go with it. I will soak my red and white beans tonight for dinner tomorrow. I also found organic light brown Texmati rice, should be good with it.

Clare comes home tonight, my youngest. She has been on a cruise with a friend. The little world traveler! I know she has had fun, but it will be nice to have her home again. She has been away for 8 days!

Here is a new site to check out cookforgood.com read, buy and tell me what you think.

A new post, finally...

It has been a while, but life at a school becomes insane in the last two months, then I take off most of June and just chill. I had a friend tell me about her view of summer, June is like Friday night, do nothing but play, July is like Sat. still playing but the weekend is closing, then August is Sunday night and you have to pull it all together, fast!

So I am just starting my Sat. I have a bit more time.

I have found some new food sites that I am in love with. You may not agree with everything, but I do respect what they have to say about food and it's production.

Check out

www.foodrenagade.com

www.cookforgood.com

My cooking class will be taken from the "Cook for Good" e-books. I strongly suggest you purchase them and glean from them. Linda Watson has done her homework and I am very impressed! Read through her site and enjoy.

More later...

Spring Break

We just got back from my in-laws. All had a fun time catching up and talking all at once, and filling everyone in on each others lives. There was a new baby and that of course became the centre of my world. She was tiny, pink and adorable, of course. It was my mother- in- laws 82 birthday. So my girls and I followed hubby and first born son out to the far reaches of Western Kansas, which is in the middle of nowhere. It is a 5 hour trip with very little electronics, and once we got out there, no electronics. So my children had to learn to interact and use words (instead of texting) to fill the time up. It worked.

We got back late last night and hit the bed. Two girls with head colds, on messy house and spring break starts! Yeah!

I made a roast for lunch today after church and it was great. I tried something new, so give it a try and see if you like it...

Dutch Oven Pot Roast

I have a 3 qt. cast iron dutch oven. I use to make my "no Knead Bread" but look for other uses.

2-3 lb roast

1 lb of red potatoes

1/2 bag of frozen pearl onions

1/2 lb of baby carrots

1 cup of water

Heat your oven to 400 degrees. Heat the dutch oven (hear by known as the DO) with a couple of globs of Crisco. Let this heat up on the stove top.

Mix 1/2 c flour, several grinds of black pepper, 1 T. kosher salt, and 1 t. of garlic powder- mix well. Dust your roast in the flour covering all sides. Carefully place your roast into the hot DO and let it sit for about 5 minutes, turn the heat down a bit. When browned, turn over, raise the heat a bit. Let this sizzle for 4 minutes. Turn the heat off and pour very carefully the cup of water, this is going to bubble and spit. Using a spoon, or tongs, slosh the water around the roast, to pick up the browned bits on the bottom. Add your veggies on top, cover and bake for about 4 hours at 350. Now what I did a bit different is, I heated my oven to 400, placed the DO with roast in veggies inside. Went and got ready for church, could start to smell roast, smelled heavenly. As we were leaving for church (about an hour of get ready time), I turned the roast down to 350 (church from 10:05 till home at 12:30).

The roast was caramelized, the veggies were wonderful, only there was no liquid left for gravy. Heat break! So I removed roast with a thick caramelized underside (some would say burnt, we don't) and scraped the carrots and pearl onions out as best as I could. They were very stubborn. Heated the pan on the stove and added one cup of cold water. It deglazed, at least some of it did. Add a packet of gravy mix (hey, we are moms and we do what we need to do!).

It was so good!!!!!! The caramelized parts were full of flavor and the gravy had pieces of the veggies in it. WE devoured the roast!

Cooking Class

Today is my home school cooking class. This semester I have 10 kids, 5 boys and of course 5 girls. Seven of them are new and they seem to be having fun!
Today we are making egg and bacon muffins with cinnamon tortilla chips. These is easy, but so yummy. In a greased muffin tin you place the bacon around the muffin cup and bake for 20 minutes of so. Crack an egg into each spot and place back in the oven for 5 minutes or until the egg is cooked. Pop out and enjoy. The chips are just good old flour tortilla cut into wedges, drenched in butter, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar and baked for about 10 minutes till crisp. They will love it. Have to run and get the kids!

Here is a new little life that is just so adorable!!! It is a Friend of my sisters, and the hat is one that I made! The baby really makes the cute look great.

My sister's photo business is taking off like gangbusters, she does have a natural talent for it. And two great kids that are top notch models!

We are planting a garden this year. A big garden. Right now our bedroom has become a nursery for all kinds of baby peppers and tomato's. We are growing them from seeds and everyone is showing up! We have close to 300 plants and we will be selling the excess to friends and family. My faves are the heirlooms. We have red, yellow, pink, green, white, purple, black, large, medium and cherry sized tomato's. I can't wait to try them in salad and for fresh salsa.

We are growing a lot of Plum Tomatoes for sauce that I will can for the winter. We also have spinach, yellow beets, and radish in the ground. Lettuce and carrots will follow next week, then successive plantings of all them to take us into June. I can't wait for the Bright Color Swiss Chard. I bought Deborah Madison's "Local Flavors" and her soup cookbook. So we will be exploring the vegetarian life style a bit.

I have found a really cool web site http://www.culinate.com/ if you are a foodie, this has great articles about food and about people who love food.

Feb. 3rd

I am back to having my cooking class. Last week we made inside out spaghetti. We filled hollowed out tomato's with cooked pasta, red, yellow and green diced peppers, basil, fresh garlic and parm cheese. Then cooked them for 10 minutes at 425 degrees. The kids ate every bit of it! This week we are making paper wrapped chicken. Chicken is marinated in soy sauce with garlic then placed in the center of parchment paper with blanched Nappa cabbage and shredded carrots and bit of salt and pepper. The entire thing is folded up like an envelope than baked at 450 degrees for about 10 minutes. Your chicken will cook perfectly! Serve it over rice! Maybe Jasmine rice made with coconut milk!

I stayed on my WW points yesterday and I am on track today. Tonight I am making my family version of Swiss Steak over Mashed Potatoes. Lots and Lots of veggies!