Weekly Menu Plan 11-15-09

Beer Butt Chicken
Mushroom risotto recipe
(We had this tonight and it is FABULOUS)

Chicken pot pie (made with leftover chicken) recipe

Tilapia in a bag recipe


Sausage Tortellini Soup (from Amy)

1 lb Italian sausage
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 small onion chopped
4 cans diced tomatoes, undrained
2 cups water
1 T Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp salt and pepper
1 T chicken bouillon crystals
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup Rose' wine
1 9oz package fresh or frozen cheese tortellini

Crumble sausage and cook with onion and garlic, drain. Mix all ingredients together in crock pot except tortellini. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Put tortellini in the last 30 minutes to 1 hour of cooking.
Original recipe calls to cook on stovetop so you could do it either way!

Thanksgiving....the early version

I'm not posting my weekly meal plan this week because I am having a lovely group of women over to my house tomorrow to cook an early Thanksgiving feast....together. I'm really looking forward to it but feel a little out of sorts because I'm not doing all of the cooking. Here's what's on the menu.

Turkey (duh)
Cornbread dressing recipe
Streusled sweet potato casserole recipe
Easy corn pudding recipe
Cranberry relish recipe
Copper pennies
Pear Gorgonzola salad recipe
Pumpkin pie recipe
Oatmeal pecan pie recipe

I did make the pumpkin pie ahead of time. It's going to be terribly hard not to eat some in the morning....I just LOVE pumpkin pie for breakfast!

Weekly Menu Plan 11-1-09

Better late than never!

Fiesta shrimp recipe
Creamy potato bacon soup (new....recipe later if it's tasty)
Blueberry waffles recipe

Easy Chicken and Noodles:

Skin 1 whole chicken. Place chicken, salt, pepper, and some water in crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours. Debone chicken and put back in crockpot with juice. Take 24 oz frozen homestyle noodles and 4 cups chicken broth and put in large pan on stove. Bring to boil and simmer 20 minutes. Add noodles and broth to chicken and cook on high 1 hour. Salt to taste.

I like to serve this over mashed potatoes for a true starch fest.

Pumpkins Pumpkins We Love Pumpkins!

So I was reading Moneysavingmom.com (which is a GREAT blog BTW) and she writes this post on making pumpkin puree from scratch here and makes it sound easy. I get the bright idea that I should make this wonderful puree which will undoubtedly make my Thanksgiving pumpkin pies Superman good. I go to Walmart to buy the pie pumpkins (a whole lot smaller than the ones you carve) and come home thinking this is going to be a breeze! I didn't realize at the time that these little jewels would require a hacksaw to cut through opposed to the serrated knife that moneysavingmom had used! I really wish that I had taken pictures of me with the hacksaw going after these little pumpkins! It all did result in 13 Cups of pumpkin puree (most of which I froze) which I plan on making into an assortment of treats. My first attempt was White Chocolate Pumpkin Dreams which are some amazing cookies! Watch out for future additions to the pumpkin saga!

White Chocolate Pumpkin Dreams recipe

Meal Plan Week of October 25th

I'm back in the kitchen this week making cookies and pumpkin puree (more on this later). It's also a good week to use up some things I have in my freezer and take advantage of what's on sale.

Ribeyes, mashed potatoes, grilled asparagus

Best Pot Roast here

Pork Tenderloin (out of new Paula Deen)

Lasagna (going to work on a recipe b/c I usually just wing it!)

Meal Plan Week of October 18th

It's a good thing not too many people read this blog or there might be a mutiny considering this will be another "short" week for cooking! The hubby is heading out of town for a few days and I'm hoping to mooch off a friend one night for dinner and take the girls out another. Here's what's on the menu for the remainder of the week :)

Chili (I really don't use a recipe b/c I make it different each time. I usually start with "Chili Magic" and doctor it from there)

Apricot chicken (this is a new crock pot recipe that I will print if it's successful)

Sausage Breakfast Rolls recipe
Tomato soup

Week of 10-11-09

The Homestyle Meatloaf from this past week was great! I did run out of ketchup and subbed BBQ sauce instead but otherwise followed the recipe.

I'm leaving the hubby to hold down the fort and won't return until Tuesday.....then leaving again on Thursday....I doubt there will be much cooking in my kitchen next week.