Sunday, August 29, 2010

The Grocery List

Here is a main list of groceries for this week.  Check to make sure you have all other spices required.


1 lb of wild salmon
1 lbs of boneless center-cut pork chops
1/ 2 lb of rib-eye or boneless beef top steak
Orzo pasta
1 package of linguini pasta
1 oz of prosciutto/cooked ham
2-4 large chicken breasts
1/2 lb asparagus
2 medium red onions
1 large zuchinni
1 large sweet red pepper
Garlic
1 tomato
20 oz package of frozen sweet potato fries
Chicken broth
Dijon mustard
Honey
Olive oil
Breadcrumbs
Parmesan cheese
15 oz can of red beans or pinto beans
Parsley (1 bunch)
Apricot preserves
Balsamic vinegar
1 quart of 2% milk
Cajun seasoning
Ketchup
Mayonnaise
Molasses
2 ciabatta rolls
2 cans (4.5 oz) diced green chiles
1 can (14.5 oz) petite diced tomatos
Flour
I package of flour tortillas
1 package (8 oz) of shredded swiss cheese



Here it is! Weekly Meal Plan #1

August 29th –September 3rd


Sunday –  Honey Mustard Salmon and Roasted Asparagus
Monday – Red beans with orzo salad
Tuesday – Center Cut Pork Chops with an Apricot Glaze
Wednesday – Creamy Zucchini Linguini
Thursday – Salsa-Fied Turkey and Rice
Friday – Cajun Steak Sandwich w/Sweet Potato Fries
Saturday – Swiss Enchiladas

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Sunday: Honey Mustard Salmon and Roasted Asparagus

Ingredients

            1 lb of wild salmon (1” thick)
            2 tbs. Dijon Mustard
            2 tbs. honey
            Salt
            Pepper

            1/2 lb fresh asparagus
            1 tbs. olive oil
            Salt
            Pepper
            1/8 C breadcrumbs                       
            1 tbs. parmesan cheese


Directions for salmon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Wash salmon and place in a baking pan.  Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Mix the mustard and honey and pour over salmon. 

Bake for 20 minutes.

Directions for asapargus

Wash asparagus and trim 3 inches off the bottoms.  Place in a baking pan.  Add 1/2 tbs. of olive oil, and roll the asparagus around so they all are glazed in the olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper. 

Toss breadcrumbs with remaining olive oil and parmesan cheese.  Sprinkle over asparagus.  Place in oven with salmon when the salmon has about 15 minutes left to bake. 

Makes 2 servings

Recipe from the cookbook, What to Eat with IBD, by Tracie Dalessandro MS RD CDN.

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Monday: Red Beans with Orzo Salad

Ingredients

      14-ounce can chicken broth
      1 1/2 C  water
      1 1/3 C  dried orzo pasta (rosamarina)
      1/4 C finely chopped onion
      1 tsp. dried Italian seasoning, crushed
      15-ounce can red beans or pinto beans, rinsed and drained
      1 oz. prosciutto or cooked ham, cut into thin strips (about 1/3 cup)
      2 Tbs. snipped fresh flat-leaf parsley
      1/3 C  finely shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions
In a medium saucepan, combine chicken broth and the water; bring to boiling. Stir in uncooked orzo, onion, and herbes de Provence. Return to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, for 12 to 15 minutes or just until orzo is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed, stirring often.
   
Stir in drained beans, prosciutto or ham, and parsley; heat through. Top individual servings with Parmesan cheese. Makes 4 servings.

Recipe from Better Homes and Gardens.  Red Beans with Orzo

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Tuesday: Center-Cut Pork Chops with Apricot Glaze

Ingredients

            1 lb boneless center-cut pork chops (4 chops, 1” thick)
            Salt and Pepper
            2 Tbs. olive oil
            1 Tbs. Dijon mustard
            1/3 C apricot preserves
            3 Tbs. balsamic vinegar

*There are two different I’ve prepared this dish.  Here are directions for both.

Directions #1

Wash and dry pork chops and season with salt and pepper.

In a large skillet, brown chops on both sides in olive oil over medium heat.  Remove from pan, but leave the drippings.

While the pan is still hot, add balsamic vinegar and reduce it for 2 minutes.  Add mustard and preserves to pan and whisk together. 

Place pork chops back in pan and continue to cook over low heat for 15 minutes or until internal thermometer read 165 degrees.  Serve on platter topped with sauce.

Directions #2

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Wash and dry pork chops, place in a baking pan and season with salt and pepper.

In a small saucepan, reduce the balsamic vinegar over medium heat for about 2 minutes.  Add mustard and preserves and whisk together until fairly smooth.  Pour over pork chops.

Bake for 15 minutes. 

Makes 4 servings.

Recipe from the cookbook, What to Eat with IBD, by Tracie Dalessandro MS RD CDN.

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Wednesday: Creamy Linguine with Red Pepper and Zucchini

Ingredients

      1/4 C. olive oil
      1 large zucchini, diced
      1 large sweet red pepper, diced
      2 cloves garlic, minced
      1/2 tsp. salt
      1/8 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
      1 (12 oz.) package linguine pasta
      1 C. 2% milk
      2 Tbs. chopped fresh parsley
      1 C. freshly grated Parmesan cheese

*You could also add 2 cooked, diced chicken breasts for protein.

Directions

In a large skillet, heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add zucchini, red pepper and garlic to hot oil, and season with salt and red pepper flakes. Cook, turning occasionally, until zucchini and pepper are slightly browned on all sides, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of generously salted water to boil. Add pasta, and cook until al dente, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain, and set aside.

Stir milk into zucchini, and simmer until it is reduced by about half, about 10 minutes. Add pasta to skillet, and stir well. Sprinkle parsley and 1/2 C. Parmesan over the top, and toss. Garnish with remaining

Makes 6 servings.

Original Recipe from Recipe4Living.  Creamy Zucchini with Linguine
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Thursday: Salsa-Fied Turkey and Rice

Click here for recipe --> Salsa-Fied Turkey and Rice

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Friday: Cajun-Steak Sandwiches and Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients

            20 oz. pkg.  frozen french-fried sweet potatoes
            8 oz.  trimmed rib-eye steaks or boneless beef top steak, cut 1/2 inch thick
            3 tsp.  Cajun or blackening seasoning           
            1/4  C  mayonnaise
            1 Tbsp.  ketchup
            1 tsp.  molasses
            2 ciabatta rolls, split and toasted
            1 tomato, sliced
            Sliced green onion (optional)

Directions
Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Spread sweet potatoes in 15x10x1-inch baking pan. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Bake 18 to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut steaks in half crosswise. Coat both sides of steaks with 1-1/2 tsp. seasoning. Heat a cast
iron or heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Cook steaks in hot skillet for 3 to 5 minutes on each side.

In a small bowl combine mayonnaise, ketchup, molasses and remaining seasoning.

Place one steak on each roll half. Top with some of the sauce tomato slice, and green onion. Serve remaining sauce with fries.

Makes 4 Servings

Recipe from Better Homes and Gardens. Cajun Steak Sandwich with Sweet Potato Fries

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Saturday: Swiss Enchiladas

Ingredients

         Cooking spray
         1 1/2  C  chopped onion
      2 large cooked chicken breasts, diced
      2  garlic cloves, minced
      2  (4.5-ounce) cans diced green chiles, undrained
      1  (14.5-ounce) can petite diced tomatoes, undrained
      2  C  2% reduced-fat milk
      2  Tbs.  all-purpose flour
      1/4  tsp.  salt
      6  to 9 flour tortillas
      1  C shredded Swiss cheese, divided

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°.
Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion; cook 5 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in chicken, garlic, chiles, and tomatoes. Reduce heat, and simmer 7 minutes or until liquid evaporates. Set aside.
Combine milk and flour in a small saucepan over medium-high heat; cook 5 minutes or until mixture thickens, stirring constantly with a whisk. Stir in salt.
Warm tortillas in microwave.  Spoon about 1/2 cup chicken mixture and about 2 1/2 tablespoons cheese down center of each tortilla; roll up. Arrange filled tortillas in the bottom of a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Pour milk mixture over tortillas, and top evenly with remaining 1 cup cheese. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until cheese is bubbly. Remove from oven.
Preheat broiler.  Broil casserole for 3 minutes or until cheese begins to brown.
Makes 6 servings.  (Actually, I think it makes about 9 tortillas, depending on how much filling you put in.)
Recipe from My Recipes.  Swiss Enchiladas


ENJOY!!!

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Bad girl! :-(

Sorry, friends, that the meal plan is not ready yet. I'm a bad blogger. :-( Just got home from babysitting and going to a local streetfest my dear husband begged me to meet him at. I'm just a tad tired right now. But no worries! Look for it by noon tomorrow.

School days...



So sorry my favorite meals went MIA this week.  Back to school it was for myself and fellow educators!  I remember being tired at the beginning of the school year, but not this tired!  Wow!  I tell my husband the same thing, and he actually had the audacity to say, "Well, you are getting old(er)."  Ugh!  Thanks, honey.

Well, as promised, I will be posting the first weekly meal plan tonight.  These plans will likely contain a list, similar to an earlier post, with the day of the week, and the meal planned next to it.  I will try to link every meal to either the recipe listed on my blog, or to the website it may have originally come from.  Then, I'll layout the grocery list for these meals.  Lastly, I will include any new recipes or links to their websites.

Remember, adjust the weekly meal plans to fit your needs!  Rearrange the days you want to eat them, take one away if you plan on eating out, or if you think you'll have left overs, put that in place of another meal.

Since I've been MIA, you all deserve a little treat.  Here...

 

Saturday, August 21, 2010

So...I'm also a wino.

And I LOVE finding and sharing new wines.  My most recent find is this...
















Oh...my...goodness!

My mom and dad introduced me to this one last night.  My dad opened it, and when I went to pour it...and therefore smell it...all I could think is, "My!  This is delightful!"  It brought a smile to my face just to smell it.  And then the taste!  It was hard to describe.  First I said it was like a cherry twizzlers, then a tart cherry pie, then I threw something about a granny smith apple taste in there, and finally just ended back up at....delightful!  It's thick and jam-y, and oh so...delightful!

An interesting fact?  The label for this wine was designed by Prada.   Prada!  How much is it?  We got it at Binny's for $9.99...that's a steal, especially for Prada.

I just had to share!  Hope you don't mind that I do that between meal plans every so often.

Favorite Meal #2

Salsa-Fied Turkey and Rice


This meal is SO easy, our dog could make it!













This dish is great for evenings where you don't have a lot of time and it makes enough to have left overs or create future microwave dinners!  Now, it uses ground turkey.  I know...but, wipe that look of disgust off your face!  It's a great, healthy alternative to ground beef, and you can't even tell it's ground turkey with everything that is in it.

Ingredients:


1 tsp of olive oil (if you have a nonstick pan, don't worry about this)
1 lb ground turkey (you know where I get mine cheap?  ALDI!)
1 cup long-grain rice
1 cup of red kidney beans (canned, or fresh as look as you cook them first)
1 (7 ounce) can of corn kernels (again, canned and drained, or fresh off the cob!)
2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth (ALDI!  Their Fit and Active brand)
1 1/4 cup of chunky salsa (however spicy you like it)
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Directions:


If you don't have a nonstick pan, heat up olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  If you do have a nonstick pan, don't worry about the olive oil, just heat up the pan over medium heat.  Start boiling water for rice (whatever your box calls for) in a small saucepan.  Add ground turkey to skillet and cook until lightly browned, about 5-6 minutes.  During this time, you should be able to add rice to sauce pan and cook until ready.  Set rice aside if ready early.

Once turkey is nicely browned, drain excess oil, then add the rice, beans, corn and chicken brother.  Stir to combine.  Cover and Simmer for 15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed.

Add salsa to turkey mixture and stir to combine.  Top with shredded sharp cheddar cheese!

Super yummy and versatile! Serve as is in a bowl, serve in a tortilla, or scoop it up with tortilla chips!   How ever you and your fellow gobblers like it.  Makes a great meal for the following night, or freeze individual servings for easy microwave dinners.

This dinner was originally brought to you by Food.com...Salsa-Fied Turkey and Rice 

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Our Favorites!

Weekly meal plans will begin Sunday, August 29th.  In the mean time, I thought I'd introduce you to some of our favorite meals!

Now, I can't take complete credit for coming up with these on my own.  Most recipes I *steal* from recipe finder websites, such as RecipeZaar, Recipes4Living, and MyRecipes.  A couple I found on other blogs.  I tend to adjust each recipe slightly to our liking, and I suggest you do the same if you feel like it.  Still, I will do my best to link to the original recipe or blog as to credit the original recipe maker!

So, here is...

Favorite Meal #1: Broccoli-Sausage Pasta


Let's start with the end in mind...












Mmmmmmmm!

Ingredients:
     1/4 C of Olive Oil
     3 cloves garlic, minced
     1 small red onion, sliced thin (use your Santoku knife!)
     1 large head broccoli, cut into florets
     1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes  (more or less depends on how spicy you want it!)
     1lb package of smoke sausage (beef or turkey), sliced and quartered
     8 oz of short cut pasta, such as penne or rigatoni
     Shredded or grated parmesan cheese

Heat olive oil in a large skillet with high sides on medium heat.  Add onion and garlic and cook until soft, 2-3 minutes.  Meanwhile, fill pot with water and start heating it up for the pasta.  Slice and quarter the sausage.  Add sausage to skillet and cook an additional 3-4 minutes.  Meanwhile, cut broccoli into florets.  Put pasta in water to cook.  Add the broccoli and red pepper flakes to the skillet and toss.  Continue cooking 8-10 minutes until pasta is ready.  Drain pasta, but reserve 1/4 cup of pasta water.  Add cooked pasta and reserved water to skillet.  Heat 2-3 more minutes.  Serve topped with parmesan cheese.

Hope you like it!    This recipe originated from a blog called Peace, Love and French Fries.  You will see this meal in my plans about once (maybe twice) a month because we love it so much.


Be on the look out for the next recipe coming at you this weekend!  



 

Sunday, August 15, 2010

How much can you save?

You might be wondering...how much can meal planning really save me?  Well, I have found when I really stick to it, I've been able to cut an average of $45 off my weekly grocery bill.  That is huge!



Now, these savings are only likely if you are willing to take a look at all your local grocery store options, and figure out which ones have the best prices on certain products.  When I do my weekly grocery shopping, I will go to two, if not three different stores!  Ok-stop gasping.  You can do it!  It might take just a little longer, but you will find it worth it in the long run.  Also - be willing to check out those bargain stores like Aldi.  I LOVE Aldi.  You can get so much for so little, and you kind find much that is actually of very good quality.

These are my three favorite stores for groceries:  Target, Aldi and our local fresh market called Valli Produce.  I bet you have a local fresh market, too!  Check it out...you can get an incredible amount of produce for CHEAP!  Once you have found the stores you will be going too, divide your weekly list up between them so you know what you will be getting at each store.

Ok, so the gist of it is, be willing to spend a little more time, and travel to maybe 2 different stores to save the extra $$.  Wouldn't $180 extra each month go a long way?  Oh....and don't forget to go green and stock up on your reusable bags! I always take 6-8 with me when I grocery shop.  Not only are they environmentally friendly...they are hand, shoulder and back friendly, too!


Alright...be ready for your first weekly meal plan to start on Sunday, August 29th!  
And no, just because you meal plan doesn't mean you can't eat out.  Just plan for that, too! 

Meal planning calendar

I have used both a monthly calendar to plan meals, and a basic list of days/weeks in a word document for meal planning.  It's really up to you!  Although it may sound crazy to plan for the month, there are always going to be those signature meals you and the family enjoyed that you may want to spread out throughout each month just to get started.  Those will eventually become your easy go to meals.  So, in list format you may want to start with this:

Sunday, Aug 29 -
Monday, Aug 30 -
Tuesday, Aug 31 -
Wednesday, Sep 1 -
Thursday, Sep 2 -
Friday, Sep 3 -
Saturday, Sep 4 -

Sunday, Sep 5 -
Monday, Sep 6 -
Tuesday, Sep 7 -
Wednesday, Sep 8 -
Thursday, Sep 9 -
Friday, Sep 10 -
Saturday, Sep 11 -

Sunday, Sep 12 -
Monday, Sep 13 -
Tuesday, Sep 14 -
Wednesday, Sep 15 -
Thursday, Sep 16 -
Friday, Sep 17 -
Saturday, Sep 18 -


Sunday, Sep 19 - 
Monday, Sep 20 -
Tuesday, Sep 21 -
Wednesday, Sep 22 - 
Thursday, Sep 23 - 
Friday, Sep 24 - 
Saturday, Sep 25 - 

Sunday, Sep 26 - 
Monday, Sep 27 - 
Tuesday, Sep 28 - 
Wednesday, Sep 29
Thursday, Sep 30 - 
Friday, Oct 1 - 
Saturday, Oct 2 - 

I know...it seems obvious...but I wanted to do the work for you!  Just copy and paste now!  Once you start finding those meals your family loves, add one or two a week at the beginning of the month, and that is one or two less meals you'll have to plan for that given week. 

My cooking essentials

So...when you meal plan, you need to make sure you have all the necessary tools and ingredients at your disposal.  This list will grow as I remember everything I end up using every week, but this is a good place to start. 


A basic pot and pan set that includes: 

1 small sauce pan
1 large sauce pan
1 medium frying pan (omelette pan)
1 large saute pan.

These should do the trick to get you started.

Cooking Untensils/Tools


A really good knife set-it will make all the difference in the world.  My favorite knife?

A Santoku knife!

I LOVE this thing.  We actually have two because we got one free somehow and I'm so glad I have two.  I use this thing like there is no tomorrow.  It is AMAZING when it comes to slicing and dicing produce.  I have both a Henckels and a Calphalon Santoku knife.  Our knife set is Henckels, but shhh....I like the Calphalon one a little better.

Also make sure to have the folllowing:

1 slotted spoon
1 solid spoon
1 pasta spoon
1 spatula
1 ladle
1 whisk
1 pair of tongs
1 cheese shredder
1 garlic mincer (love these!)
2-3 cutting boards
1 colander

A list of basic ingredients that are good to have on hand every week:


Salt
Pepper
Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
Sweet Red Peppers
Garlic Cloves
Onion (red onion is our favorite)
Tomato
Cheddar Cheese
Parmesan Cheese
Olive Oil
Eggs
Milk
Sugar
Flour
Pasta (any kind)
Rice (white or brown)
Tomato Sauce
Butter (Smart Balance for health!)

Also make sure your spice rack has basil and parsley.  I found I use these the most.  I try to get them fresh when I have a specific meal I planning for, but they are good to have on hand if they are not a main ingredient.

Go check your pantry/fridge and make sure you know what to get on the next grocery trip!