Finally!

Sorry Carolyn that I haven't posted anything yet - I'm living a crazy life right now. However, I do have a few minutes to sit and post. So here is my main dish items for this week. We always either have bread or crackers with everything we eat, along with some type of fruit and veggie.

Tonight, Monday
Chunky Potato Soup in Bread Bowls
2 cups Water
2 Chicken bouillon cubes
3 cup cubed peeled potatoes
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/2 cup thinly sliced celery
1/2 cup sliced carrots
1 Tbsp Chives
3/4 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Pepper
2 cups Milk, divided
2 Tbsp Flour
1 cup Sour Cream
2 Tbsp Parsley
4-6 Bread Bowls (I just buy mine)

Combine water, bouillon, potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, salt and pepper into saucepan over medium heat; bring to boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or potatoes are tender. Add 1 3/4 cup milk. Combine flour with remaining milk; stir to form smooth paste. Add to soup and stir constantly. Bring to boil and stir for 2 minutes or until thick and bubbly. Add small amount of hot liquid to sour cream; stir to mix. Slowly add to soup, stir constantly; heat through but DO NOT boil. Add more flour if desired to make it thicker, add parsley and chives just before serving, pour into bread bowls.

Tuesday
Italian Pasta Bake
1 lbs Hamburger
3 cups Penne or Rotini Pasta cooked & drained
1 Jar Spaghetti Sauce
1 can mushrooms (stems & pieces)
8 oz shredded mozarella cheese
Parmesan Cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. brown meat, stir in sauce, mushrooms & cooked noodles. Spoon into 13x9 dish, top with both cheeses. Bake for 20 minutes.

Wednesday - my busy night so it's always a crock pot night
Pot Roast
1 onion
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 Beef Bottom Round Roast
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 can beef broth
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp cold water

Place onion and mushrooms in slow cooker, rub roast with salt & pepper; cut in half and place over onion mixture. Combine broth, brown sugar, mustard and Worcestershire sauce; pour over roast. Cover and cook on LOW for 6-7 hours until meat is tender. Mix cornstarch and water until smooth, stir into cooking juices. Cover and cook on HIGH for 30 minutes or until gravy is thick.

Thursday
Stove Top Chicken Casserole
1 box stove top - prep accordingly
1/2 pack of frozen peas (1-2 cups)
8 oz Sour Cream
1 can Cream of Chicken soup
10 oz can of Chicken

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix soup and sour cream. Layer - 1/2 stuffing, peas, soup mix, chicken, 1/2 stuffing into 9x9 baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes.

Friday
Taco Soup
1 lbs ground beef
1 med. onion
1 package Mild Taco Seasoning
1 can Cut Corn
1 can kidney beans
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
Tortilla chips
Shredded cheese

Brown meat, saute onion. Mix everything together and simmer 20-30 minutes. Serve with Tortilla chips & cheese.

Saturday
Hawaiian Haystacks
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup flour
3 cup Broth from Boiled Chicken
2 cup Milk
3 cup Cubed Chicken
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper
Cooked Rice
TOPPINGS
Olives
Chow Mein Noodles
Pineapple
Coconut
Shredded Cheese
Green Onion
Bell Pepper
Nuts

Boil Chicken. Melt butter, add flour, salt & pepper. Cook on low, stirring until smooth. Add broth and milk. Stir until well blended. Add chicken and stir until thick. Serve over rice, top with toppings as desired.

Sunday
Brandon cooks on Sunday so I don't have anything

Taco Soup

I know 2 Mexican nights in a row. but I for got to grab chili seasoning while at the store so my plans for chili and corn bread are put off for the day. Anyway, today is the kids first day back at school and I know it is going to be hard on them since they are WAY off their normal routine and JD didn't fall asleep till 1 am this morning so it will be an early night for us to say the least! So I am using my crock pot tonight for taco soup. Should be ready shortly after daddy gets home for work so we can shoot for a 7- 7:30 bed time! YAY!!!! Anywho, enough talking and on to the recipe.

1 lb of hamburger cooked and drained ( I take this one step further and give it a quick rinse)
1 15 oz can of Tomato Sauce
1 15 or so oz can of Diced Tomatoes
1 or 2 packages of Taco Seasoning (depending on your taste)
1 and 1/2 Tomato cans of water
1 can of Corn
1 can of *Great Northern Beans
1 can of *Pinto beans

Mix all ingredients in the crock pot and walk away while the flavors blend. Top each serving with any combo of the following things, cheese, sour cream, diced avocado. Use taco chips as your spoon.

*these are what I happened to have you can use any assortment of beans you choose, black beans, chick peas, whatever your family likes.


Or just look at the post above mine and see Tiffany's Recipe there are some differences so I will leave both. LOL. Great minds think a like.

Chicken Enchiladas

These were last nights dinner. They turned out pretty yummy if I do say so myself .

3 to 4 chicken breast boiled and shredded ( I put some diced onion and red pepper flakes in the water to season it some)
2 Cans of cream of chicken soup or you could do one cream of much and one cream of chic.
1 and 1/2 cups sour cream
1/2 a soup can of milk
1 can of green chilies ( optional, I dont use them)
salt and pepper to taste
8 to 10 flour tortilias
Shredded cheese

While the chicken is cooling to shred, mix together the cans of soup, milk, sour cream, and chilies. Pour up to half of the mixture in with the chicken. Lightly oil the bottom and sides of a 13x9 baking pan, then pour a light coating of the reserved sauce in the bottom of the pan. Fill each tortillia with some of the chicken mixture and wrap them up. Arrange in the pan. Pour remaining sauce mixture over the chicken stuffed tortillias. I felt like this was missing something and I am going to have to play around with it a little more. I think me leaving out the chilies took away from it. I need to find some veggie that would be yummy in it, maybe mushrooms or black olives? hmmmm...something to think about. Anyway these were still very yummy. just felt like something was missing.

Homemade Pizza

I follow this recipe ( http://www.recipezaar.com/Basic-Pizza-Dough-26181 )for the crust except I use brown sugar instead of regular, you can also use honey which is yummy too. Last night I added in a bit more water too, but I think it was because I doubled the batch. anyway if the dough is too dry and not mixing together very well add a little water at a time till it starts coming together for you. After the dough is ready add your fav pizza sauce, for us it is the boboli pizza sauce that is there on the display by their pizza crust. Top with cheese and add your fav toppings, last night we had seasoned chucks of chicken, sausage (breakfast sausage, I hate itallian), pepperoni, and mushrooms on my part. Doubling it gave me 2 huge pizzas a calzone and enough dough to make bread sticks. We have tons of leftovers :) If you haven't worked with yeast or have any questions, let me know and I will give you the easiest ways I know how.

Yummy Chicken Marinade

Wow guys I have been So bad at this I am really going to try harder! I think I got a little in over my head and didnt keep up with posting every night what the recipe was. I really am going to do better this time!!! So anyway tonight we had marinated chicken that I cut into strips and we had it over jasmine rice. YUM YUM! Here is the marinate recipe....

1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup brown sugar
Fresh ginger root sliced ( I only used about a teaspoons worth a little goes a long way)
2 cloves garlic
2 TBS oil

Mix all ingredience together (I did it in a gallon ziplock bag and added the chicken strips right into it. Add your meat, beef would also be yum! Refrigerate over night ( I only did like 4 hours and it turned out fine!) Then I put a little oil in the wok and fried up the strips of meat and put served it over rice. Our family likes a little spice so I also added in a little red pepper flakes towards the end..about 1/4 tsp.

Next time I am going to split the marinate in half or maybe just double it and add in fresh veggies (broccoli, carrots, red bell pepper and onion) let it marinate too! then I will cook it seperately so I have sauce to go over the rice. the marinate is that good.