Baked Rotini and Mixed Vegetables

Breakfast-
Leftover applesauce
Sliced Pears

Lunch
Chicken Salad- chicken from the freezer, lettuce from the produce box

Dinner-
Baked Rotini from the freezer
Mixed Vegetables from the freezer

Many Bean Soup and Homemade Applesauce Day 40

Lunch-
Homemade Pizza, for toppings I used pepperoni and mushrooms I had in the fridge. Recipe for pizza is here

Dinner-

Many Bean Soup
1/3 C great northern beans
1/3 C baby lima beans
1/3 C lentils
1/3 C pinto beans
1/3 C red beans
8 C water
1 onion, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 bay leaf
1 large ham hock

Soak the beans overnight, drain and place in a large pot with water. Add onion, celery, garlic, bay leaf, and ham hock. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer until all the beans are tender about 3 hours. Remove and cool the ham hock slightly, remove the meat from the bone and return meat to the pot. Stir and serve.

Crockpot Applesauce
2 lbs apples, peeled and cored
3 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 C water

Combine everything in a crockpot and cook on low for 6-8 hours or until done. Mash apples with a potato masher until they are the consistency your family likes.

Brown Sugar Chicken, Chinese Sesame Garlic Cabbage, and Stir Fry Vegetables





Brown Sugar Chicken

1 C brown sugar
1/2 C butter
2 Tbsp catsup
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp yellow mustard
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Combine brown sugar, butter, catsup, Worcestershire, and mustard in sauce pan and heat until butter is melted. Place chicken in a 9 x 13 inch baking dish and pour sauce over chicken. Bake, covered at 350 degrees for 60 minutes or until cooked through.

Chinese Sesame Garlic Cabbage

1 med savoy cabbage, cored and shredded

1 clove garlic, minced

1 onion, diced

2 Tbsp oil

2 tsp sesame oil

1 Tbsp sherry

1 Tbsp sesame seeds

1 Tbsp soy sauce

Heat oil in a wok. Saute onion and garlic for a couple of minutes then add cabbage, stirring frequently. Add sherry, sesame oil, and soy sauce, stir fry for a few minutes, until cabbage is wilted. Add sesame seeds. Toss well and serve.

The stir fry vegetables were just a bag from the fridge that I bought during my last trip to the store.

Turkey Frame Soup Day 38

Lunch
Chicken Won Ton Soup- from a can.

Dinner
Turkey Frame Soup- my favorite way to use up every bit of a turkey

Turkey Frame Soup

1  turkey frame, leave some meat on it
12 cups water
1 onion, chopped
1 16 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon instant chicken bouillon granules
1 ½ teaspoons dried Italian seasoning
adobo, to taste

Pepper, to taste
4 cups of fresh vegetables (great time to use up the extra celery, carrots and any other vegetables leftover from dinner)
1 ½ cup uncooked medium noodles

Break turkey frame so it will fit in a large stock pot  with water, onion and salt. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cover; simmer for 1 ½ hours. Remove turkey bones taking off any meat and reserving to go back into the soup. Discard bones. Strain broth; discard solids. Return broth to stock pot. Stir in cut-up turkey meat, undrained tomatoes, bouillon granules, and seasonings. Stir in fresh vegetables. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes. Stir in uncooked noodles, simmer, uncovered, 8 to 10 minutes or until noodles are done. Serve or freeze.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

The picture does not do this dish any justice at all....this stuff is so good I can't even describe it's excellence.

On Superbowl Sunday we had dip for dinner. Why? Everyone was so super sick no one wanted to eat. We did gorge ourselves on this dip though.

Buffalo Chicken Dip
1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened
1/2 C ranch salad dressing
1/2 C buffalo wing sauce
2 (12.5 oz) cans chicken, drained well
1/2 C mozzarella cheese

heat oven to 350 degrees. Place everything in a baking dish and mix together. Bake for 20 minutes or until heated though and cheese is melted. Serve with tortilla chips.

Turkey, Dressing and Brussel Sprouts with Butter Sauce Day 36

The recipe for the turkey is here.
The dressing was a box mix from the pantry and the brussel sprouts were from the freezer.

Carne Asada Tacos

Breakfast
Egg and Potato Breakfast Burritos- made with leftover mashed potatoes from last nights dinner

Lunch
Pastrami and Provolone on Rye

Dinner
I had a lot of errands to run the day that I decided to cook a 26 pound turkey from the freezer. It has a cook time of about 5 hours so I went and did my errands only to come home to a raw turkey. My roaster decided to die while we were out. I have another roaster so I transferred the bird to that to finish cooking and my sweet husband stayed up to take it out and put it away when it was done. It was an easy dinner the next night and we we able to pack up 4 (2 C) bags of cooked chopped turkey for future dinners. I also made a turkey frame soup to use up everything. I cooked the turkey the same way I cook my Thanksgiving turkey.

Simple Turkey

1 14-15 pound turkey

1 stick margarine, softened

Bay leaves

Adobo, to taste

1 carrot, chunked

1 stalk celery, chunked

1 onion, quartered

1 green apple, quartered

½ C. water

Heat oven to 500 degrees. Wash the turkey and pat dry (save the bags of parts for your gravy). In the turkey cavity place all your vegetables. Separate the skin carefully from the turkey and place bay leaves and slices of half of the margarine under the skin. Rub the outside of the turkey with the rest of the margarine. Season to taste with adobo. Place turkey breast side up in a roasting pan. Put water in pan around the bird not over, you don’t want to wash away the margarine or seasoning. Cover turkey tightly with foil, removing the foil about 1 hour before turkey is done to brown the skin. Cook turkey at 500 degrees for 30 minutes, turn oven down to 325 and cook for 3-4 hours or until done, a meat thermometer inserted into the thigh without touching the bone should read 180 degrees when bird is fully cooked. Let turkey rest for 30 minutes before serving.

So what did we have for dinner? My husband had been asking for carne asada and since I didn't have any defrosted meat we went to the carniceria and bought some premarinated meat and made street style tacos.

Shake and Bake Pork Chops, Buttermilk and Onion Mashed Potatoes

Breakfast
Steak and Egg Breakfast Burritos-used the leftover steak from last night's dinner

Lunch
BBQ Chicken Nuggets- Chicken nuggets from the freezer, cooked and then tossed in BBQ sauce
Macaroni and Cheese- from the pantry
Apples- from the produce box

Dinner
Shake and Bake Pork Chops- used the last of the shake and bake from the pantry
Carrots- from the produce box

Buttermilk and Onion Mashed Potatoes

2 lb new potatoes, scrubbed, skins left on, quartered

2 shallots, peeled and cut in half

2/3 C buttermilk

4 green onions scallions, sliced

1 1/2 Tbsp butter

Salt and pepper to taste

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add potatoes and shallots and cook until tender about 20 min.. Drain and hand mash after adding in the buttermilk, butter, green onions, salt and pepper. Serve as is.

Steak, Fried Potatoes and Asparagus

Breakfast
Biscuits and Gravy

Lunch
Hot Dogs-from the freezer even the buns
Pasta Salad- box mix from the pantry

Dinner-
My husband actually made dinner-- it's the first time I've ever allowed him to do that!

Steak-from the freezer, seasoned with steak seasoning from the pantry
Fried Potatoes- used potatoes and onion from the pantry
Asparagus- canned from the pantry

Chicken Parmesan over Spaghetti, Mediterranean Style Vegetables and Garlic Bread Day 32

Breakfast
Scrambled Eggs-from the fridge
Hash Brown Patties- from the freezer
Ham Slices- from the freezer

Dinner
Chicken Parmesan over Spaghetti- from the freezer
Mediterranean Style Vegetables- from the freezer
Garlic Bread- from the freezer

Egg Drop Soup and Vegetable Fried Rice Day 31

Egg Drop Soup

1 can chicken broth

1 C. water

1 green onion, chopped

2 eggs, slightly beaten

Heat chicken broth and water to boiling in saucepan. Stir green onions into eggs. Pour egg mixture slowly into boiling broth, stirring constantly with fork to form shreds of egg. When egg is cooked through serve.

I made the fried rice like I did here except I added a whole bag of frozen stir fry vegetables.