Menu for the Week

I don't struggle too much with making specific recipes, but I do struggle with coming up with a grocery list and meal plan for the week. I'm really bad about wasting food or forgetting one essential ingredient from the store.

I do my very best to plan out a menu for the week and do all my shopping on Sunday afternoons.

I'm going to share a few recipes and my menu for the week. On Sunday afternoon, I made some chicken in my crockpot and I used it all week. It's best to make it on a day that you'll be around, since you don't leave it in the crockpot for a full 8 hours.

Cafe Rio Chicken

(from this blog)

Ingredients:
1 small bottle Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing
1 T chili powder
1 T cumin
3 cloves garlic—minced
5 lbs chicken breast

Cook all together in a crock pot for 4 hours, shred meat and cook 1 additional hour.

*I used half the amount of chicken breast and Italian dressing, but close to the same amount of spices.

This chicken is really delicious! On Monday night, I had a little bit of the chicken on a salad with the Tomatillo Ranch Dressing. Yum!

Tomatillo Ranch Dressing

(also from this blog)

Ingredients:
1 buttermilk ranch dressing packet (make as per recipe)
2 tomatillos
½ bunch of cilantro
1 clove garlic
Juice of 1 lime
1 jalapeño (Use the seeds too if you like it spicy. You could substitute a few drops of green tobasco for the jalapeno.)

Prepare Ranch dressing according to directions on the package or recipe you're following and set aside.

To make a roasted tomatillo dressing, dice tomatillos, place on a baking sheet, and roast at 400F for 15-20 minutes before adding them to the food processor.

Remove large cilantro stems, then wash leaves and spin dry or dry with paper towels. Add cilantro to food processor fitted with the steel blade and pulse until finely chopped. (If you don't have a food processor, I'd chop all ingredients well by hand and then blend dressing in a blender.)

Add tomatillos, garlic, lime juice, and chopped jalapeno to the food processor and pulse until ingredients are finely pureed. Add the 2 cups of prepared dressing and pulse just a few times, until ingredients are well combined. Chill dressing for an hour or two and serve.

*I recommend using a little less buttermilk- the dressing was just a little bit too runny, but so good!!!

On Tuesday night, we had Cafe Rio rice, black beans, and the chicken. It was a really good combination!

Café Rio Rice

(also from this blog)

Ingredients:
4 c water
4 t chicken bouillon
4 t garlic –minced
½ bunch cilantro
1 can green chiles—or equivalent fresh
¾ t salt
1 T butter
½ onion
2 c rice (see note)

Blend cilantro, green chiles and onion together in food processor. Bring water to a boil and add all ingredients, simmer covered 30 minutes.

I still had quite a bit of leftover chicken and I used that in chicken tacos and chicken quesadillas. The rice, beans, and chicken was great leftover and taken in my lunch to work.

New Year's in OKC

Since we had been with my family for the Christmas holiday, we decided to spend New Year’s with Jeremy’s family. Luckily, they were willing to drive to OKC, since we were a little tired of traveling. They wanted to come see our new house, too!

Billy, Rita, Alison, Granny B, and their two dogs, Gabby and Sebastian made the long trek from West Tennessee to OKC. The night they arrived, we had dinner waiting for them. I decided to make red beans and rice, since it was a little cool out and it’s typically a crowd pleaser. I think everyone liked it.

Red Beans and Rice

1 pound dried red beans, rinsed and sorted over

3 tablespoons bacon grease

1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onions

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Pinch cayenne

3 bay leaves

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

2 teaspoons fresh thyme

1/2 pound smoked sausage, split in half lengthwise and cut into 1-inch pieces

1 pound smoked ham hocks

tablespoons chopped garlic

10 cups chicken stock, or water (I used combo)

4 cups cooked white rice

1/4 cup chopped green onions, garnish

Place the beans in a large bowl or pot and cover with water by 2 inches. Let soak for 8 hours or overnight. Drain and set aside. (Very important step- don't forget!)

In a large pot, heat the bacon grease over medium-high heat. Add the onions to the grease in the pot. Season with the salt, pepper, and cayenne, and cook, stirring, until the vegetables are soft, about 4 minutes. Add the bay leaves, parsley, thyme, sausage, and ham hocks, and cook, stirring, to brown the sausage and ham hocks, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the beans and stock or water, stir well, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the beans are tender and starting to thicken, about 2 hours. (Should the beans become too thick and dry, add more water, about 1/4 cup at a time.)

Remove from the heat and with the back of a heavy spoon, mash about 1/4 of the beans against the side of the pot. Continue to cook until the beans are tender and creamy, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and remove the bay leaves. Serve over rice and garnish with green onions.

We played a few games, watched movies, and Alison and I decided to decorate cupcakes. We went with a red and white theme. I think they turned out pretty cute!

Somehow we made it through the entire weekend without taking a family picture! We will have to remedy that at our next get-together.

Here’s our pic in our matching pjs from last Christmas!



After several days of fun, they headed back to Tennessee. Ivy was completely exhausted!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

When life gives you lemons . . .

make a delicious dinner!

Dinner tonight- salmon baked in foil and lemony rice. Yum!

I'm trying to clean out my pantry and freezer, so I've been brainstorming on some recipes that will use up all those staples that seem to multiply while you have them stored. For example, I have about 4 or 5 different types of opened, partially used rice- brown rice, instant rice, texmati rice, risotto, etc. Several months back, we also purchased a huge (3 lb.) bag of salmon fillets from Sam's and I'm pretty sure we have had salmon one time. So that's how this dinner came about! As always, this is really easy to make!

Salmon with Lemon

(I adapted this recipe from Food Network)

2 (6-ounce) salmon fillets
2-3 tablespoons cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
several sprigs of dill
4 lemon slices (about 1 lemon)
1/4 cup lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
1/4 cup Marsala wine (or white wine)
2 pieces of aluminum foil

Brush top and bottom of salmon fillets with olive oil and season with salt, pepper. Place each piece of seasoned salmon on a piece of foil large enough to fold over and seal. Top the each piece of salmon with dill, 2 lemon slices, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons of wine. Wrap up salmon tightly in the foil packets.


Place a grill pan over medium-high heat or preheat a gas or charcoal grill. Place the foil packets on the hot grill and cook for 10 minutes for a 1-inch thick piece of salmon. Serve in the foil packets.

OR


Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake for 12-17 minutes (depending on size of salmon). I went with this option- it seemed easiest!

Lemony Rice

(original recipe here)

1 cup Uncle Ben's Converted Rice (not instant)
2 T olive oil (or 1 T butter and 1 T olive oil)
1 tsp. salt
3 T lemon juice (or more)
3 C chicken stock
Lemon zest

Use a heavy pan with a tight fitting lid. Saute rice in olive oil for 2 minutes. Add salt and lemon juice and zest and saute 1 minute more. Add chicken stock carefully so it doesn't splash up on you, let it come to a boil, reduce heat to the lowest you can get it and still keep the liquid boiling and cook 30 minutes without peeking at all.

After 30 minutes you are allowed to peek to see if all the liquid is absorbed. If not cook a few more minutes until it has. I find it usually takes 35 minutes, but I can't keep myself from peeking after 30 minutes.

E’s Notes:

• If you don’t have 3 cups of chicken stock, you can use a combo of chicken stock and water- it just has more flavor with more chicken stock.
• When I first started making this rice, I had an issue with the rice getting really brown on the bottom (i.e. burning). Now, as soon as I see the chicken stock/water slightly start bubbling, I turn another burner on low heat and get it warmed up. Then, when it’s boiling, I move it to the burner on low. You probably won’t have this issue if you have a gas stove.

I gave Ivy some of the lemony rice and she loved it! She literally licked the bowl clean!!! Don't you wish that everyone could see you through the eyes of your dog?!?!

No Use Crying Over Spilled - - - Saffron Rice

Tonight I was preparing dinner and I cut open my package of saffron rice, I grated the lemon zest right inside the package (so clever- I thought). I was waiting for the chicken stock/ water to come to a boil. Somehow in all my preparations, I knocked over the open package of rice. Rice went everywhere! Of course, Ivy was right there to start licking up the numerous grains of uncooked saffron rice. I don't think uncooked rice is on the list of "don'ts for dogs", but I didn't really think it could be healthy. So I put her into the living room and put up the baby gate. She immediately jumped onto the back of our couch, so she could watch me clean up the mess. As I'm vacuuming, sweeping, and swiffering up all the rice, the pot of chicken stock boils over in a major way. So now, chicken stock is all over my cook top. Awesome. I move the chicken stock and turn off the burner. I finally get everything cleaned up, but dinner was a little late!

This was originally a Rachael Ray recipe and as I go over the changes I made, I realized that it hardly resembles the original recipe. However in the past, I made the dish with shrimp and used RR's marinade and it was delicious. This just worked better for me tonight.

Spanish Shrimp and Chorizo with Sweet Pea Couscous
(I really should have renamed it- Cajun Chicken and Andouille with Sweet Pea Saffron Rice)

1/4 cup (about a handful) parsley, chopped
Zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (eyeball it), divided
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Package of boneless, skinless chicken breast
Package of saffron rice (see pic for the type I used)
1 tablespoon butter
5 cups chicken stock, divided (or what packaged rice calls for)
1 cup frozen peas
Package of andouille sausage, sliced
Cajun seasoning

Cut chicken breast into 1 inch cubes and season with cajun seasoning.
Combine the chicken stock, and lemon zest in a medium-size sauce pot. Note- packaged rice will call for water, using chicken stock will give the dish more flavor (I used a combo- 4 cups chicken stock, 1 1/3 cups water). Cover and place over high heat to bring up to a boil. Once boiling, add the packaged rice. Follow cooking directions on package of rice. When cooked, add the peas and let them warm through.
Place a large skillet over medium-high heat with 1 turn of the pan of EVOO. Add the chicken and cook, stirring every now and then for about 4-5 minutes. Add the andouille and cook another 4-5 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the sausage is brown. Add rice into meat mixture and sprinkle with chopped parsley.

** Tip- do not open packaged rice until ready to add to boiling water/ stock.