Monday Meal Plan

Now many of you reading this blog probably don't know how much in LOVE my hubby is with Google. He is always the first to try any one of their products and he is the guy who has been trying to convert our whole family over to gmail, google home page, picasa, notebook and google docs. He has been very successful in transforming us into a google family as he has always been right about their products.

Before I was always using Microsoft word to store away any recipe, craft idea, or nutrition information I could find. Which in turn meant that maybe 6 times a year I would be searching for one thing and come across something that I had wanted to try 6 months early. Of course hubby was convinced that if I switched over to google docs all my sorting problems would go away and I would be able to recall a recipe I had wanted to try with in seconds. After about 3 months of convincing I finally let him show me how GREAT google docs is. So as of last week I became an official google gal...what does that mean you ask. Well I now have all my documents, recipes and spread sheets in google docs.

I can't really go into details about how hubby got all my information from MW to Google docs because he is a computer nerd and well I am not that high tech. But I will let you know that it is wonderful to have all my stuff there. You see it has a great search feature that you just have to put in one word from the recipe and up it comes. This makes it so simple for searching your ideas that you have copied and pasted into it. Another wonderful thing about it is that I always have my recipes with me. That means if I am visiting friends and want to make a favorite recipe I can just go online and get my recipe!!! Below is a short video on how to use google docs.




Last week I used google docs to put together two sets of list for my house binder. One is the Peterson favorite recipes, in this list is all the main dishes, sides dishes, soups, stews, breads, snacks,convenience foods and desserts that we love to eat. And the other is all the recipes (within the same categories) that I would like to try. Wait ladies (or gentleman) it gets better. The program allows for links which means for a recipe if you have it in your google docs or a website you can put the link right in. This has made this weeks meal planning so easy. I simply look at my lists and decided what I want to make and then I click the recipe name to see the recipe to find out what ingredients I may need to pick up at the grocery store.

Oh boy I should have listened to hubby a long time ago. Also this program has made sharing recipes with you guys much easier as I just publish them as a website for you to see. For recipes that I am trying to make better and I can share them with friends to try and add their input. This program has also worked well with a grocery price spread sheet I created. Now I will have other people helping me put in prices so we will know where the best deal in town is!!

I am starting to sound like hubby about Google...so on to the menu

Monday: Pot roast with veggies (potato, carrots, squash and sweet potato)

Tuesday: Honey Baked Chicken

Wednesday: Sandwiches (bagel sandwich or pizza subs)

Thursday: French Bread French toast and sausages

Friday: Pork fajitas and nachos

Saturday: Out

Also ladies don't forget to check in tomorrow for You ask I answer Tuesday. And for more delicious meal ideas check out Organizing Junkie.

Peach Jam

I have really been enjoying making my own jams this season. Already I have made strawberry, peach and blueberry jam. I do have to admit (although I haven't tried the blueberry yet) that the peach has been my favorite so far. The peaches this season have been deliciously sweet and they are also very nutritious. The contain essential vitamins and minerals such as Vitamin A,B, C, copper, magnesium, potassium and zinc.

The process for making jam is very simple. Here is a picture of my mixture just getting ready to boil hard for 1 minute.

And here is the finished product. I really love the color of the peach jam. This batch turned out a little darker then the last batch but I am sure it is still delicious.


I have heard that pear jam is very good. So now that they are coming into season I think I may try to make some. Let me know of your jam making skills and what types of berries and combination you use.

Something NEW!!

Ok...so I want to start a new day on the blog. Its a you ask I answer Tuesday.

Now that I am registared Dietitian I want to stay up to date on the latest information and I feel that doing a question answer day will help me be able to do that. So here we go if you got a nutrition question please feel free to ask and every Tuesday I will be posting answers to the questions. The questions can be about any type of food, nutrition related topic, or even cooking topics.

To ask your questions please leave it in the comment box...also for clarification you don't need a blogger account to post comments you can just leave your name or do it anonymous.

Hope to get lots of questions from ya!

Monday Meal Plan

Last weeks meal plan went very well. Every thing I planned for we ate. I did try a new recipe last week Chicken Tetrazzini. The original recipe is from the happy house wife (link posted below). I didn't have some of the ingredients so I did some altering which is listed in blue. This is the sauce before I added the noodles. It was so delicious the best I have had and made. I have really been looking for a yummy white sauce dish like this. Its defiantly going into our family favorites!



Sorry this picture isn't from the same night we ate it. I forgot to get a picture because we were so hungry and baby was crying. That always make for a fast supper, so this is my lunch the next day. I wanted to get a picture because I loved the look of the carrots in this recipe!! Hubby didn't even know there was carrots in it. He thought it was cheese that wasn't melting. For a better picture and the original recipe jump over to the happy house wife.

Also this week I tried to make some bagels. I didn't think that they turned out that great because I had some problems with the bread machine and I didn't follow the recipe. I thought 3 cups of white flour wouldn't be good so I tried to add 1 cup of 12 grain flour. This made the dough very heavy. Needless to say I continued on with the project and got 7 bagels out of the batch. Hubby tried one this morning and actually like them. So I will have to keep trying...any advice??

Also this weekend we had some men over to help my husband build us a new deck. So of course I had to think of a meal that would feed them all. What better then a pot of chili (made in the crock pot allowing me to spend some gal time at the mall) and cornmeal muffins. The recipe I used for the muffins makes 24 large muffins and 12 small ones. They taste very yummy and not to sweet.



So this weeks looks like this...

Sunday: Meeting after church

Monday: Out for supper

Tuesday: BBQ chicken on garlic toast

Wednesday: Meat Loaf, baked potatoes and squash

Thursday: Chili Cheese Fries

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: Out for supper

For more great meal ideas head over to Organizing Junkie

Frugal Friday

I have always been making my own cards since the first time I went to buy my mom a mothers day card and saw the price on the back. Knowing that in a couple of months that card would be tucked away some where's, like in the bottom of the garbage, I decide to make my own. I must say that I have a long way from the folded over construction paper and crayons in my creativity. One way I have found to recycle cards that you receive is to cut out the images or saying and use them for your own cards. This is one that I just made recently for a wedding.

Front
Inside top


I also love to make my own gifts to give people. From home baked goodies to cookies, brownies or soup mixes in a jar or even tissue paper wrapped bag of solider beans I like to give people things I know they love. Even sprucing up gifts makes them look so much more attractive. I got this idea from a friend at a baby shower I went to and decided to make one for my cousins baby shower. This is a pack of diapers formed into a diaper cake. Each diaper is rolled up and tied together with a mini hair elastic. Then you shape it like a cake, put some ribbon around each layer and place little gifts into the ribbon. Since this was for a little gal you could put baby hair stuff, mini books, teethers, soothers or whatever you would like.

My friend used this gift as a baby shower game and had each women write their name and a number of how many diapers they thought were in the cake. The woman who was the closet won a little prize.




Recently I have decided that before I have any more children I would like to learn how to do two things. The first is knitting. I am always seeing pretty little dish cloths at the farmers maker and craft sales and thinking...those would be a great gift. So with the help of 3 great teachers I have now knit 2 dish cloths and I am on the 3rd. This is a picture of my first one which I decided to keep because there are a lot of mistakes in your first project. My second goal is sewing...but I haven't started that one yet.




For more frugal ideas visit Biblical Woman Hood.

Bread from the machine

This is the newest addition to Kate's kitchen. I picked this up early this summer when I was home at my parents house. Mom doesn't use it too much so she asked if I would get any use out of it. Immediate I replied yes! It seems these gadgets are in a lot of my friends kitchens.

I never thought I would enjoy the bread maker. I guess I felt it was a lot of flour for just one little loaf and most machines have a huge hole in the middle from the kneader. Luckily mom still had the instruction book with it and I found out that you can use these to just mix your dough!!! RIGHT ON in my mind. I mean I don't mind doing it but its great when you don't have to do it and make a mess all over the counter.

So the first time I made the bread I just followed a recipe in the instruction book but instead of setting it on a basic baking selection I decided to put it on the dough cycle. Once it was done I took it out and divided it into two balls. I placed these into two small round coffee tins and let it rise. Once it was about double I place in the oven and baked at 350 for 40-50 minutes.


The bread turned out great and tasted wonderful too. Especially when it was warm and smothered in peanut butter and molasses!!

Today I was busy preparing for our weekend camping trip and was using the oven to make pita bread and granola bars so I decided to just bake the loaf in the machine. It turned out OK but not as nice as when I cooked it in the oven. And of course there is the hole in the bottom from the kneader. I think that I will stick to using the dough cycle.



If you have any great bread machine recipes please post it or a link.

Whole grain bread recipe

1/3 cup water
1 cup butter milk
1 tsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp oil
1/4 cup molasses
2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup oat bran
1/4 cup corn meal
1/4 cup rye flour
1/4 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 cup bread flour
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

layer ingredients as listed into bread machine. Select dough cycle to bake in oven or basic setting to make in machine.

*one change that I made is that I didn't have rye flour or buckwheat flour so I just used 1/2 cup of 12 grain flour.

Monday Meal Plan

We made it back from camping and wow did we have a great time. We were a little bit worried because the weather forecast was not looking great for this long weekend. But as a family we prayed real hard and stepped out in faith! The LORD is good we only got a little sprinkle of rain the second night we were there that lasted maybe 15 minutes. Other than that we didn't get one drop...and the best part is the friends and family who came to the camp site on Sunday to see us had both left their homes (which were on either side of us (one house ~ 45 minutes and the other ~ 1 1/2 hours) drove through rain and had thundershowers that day before leaving. Thank you God for once again showing us that you are in control!

Thanks for all you ladies who commented last week and gave us some great ideas for a camping menu. Lets just say we didn't starve and probably could have stayed about 2 more weeks before all the food we brought would have been gone. This wonderful family I married into are high class campers (only when it comes to food...we sleep in tents). I will be posting about our meals and preparation later this week.

As for getting a menu together here is what we will be eating this week.

Monday: Holiday...return from camping

Tuesday: Pork roast, potatoes, squash and carrots

Wednesday: Away at pot luck bringing Curry Goulash

Thursday: ChickenTetrazzini Or Chicken and Squash Bake

Friday: Hubby away (left overs)

Saturday: Chili and Corn meal muffins

This corn meal recipe I got from a friend and find that it taste delicous. There are some varations written in it that she used and they still tasted great. I like to make this big batch and freeze them. The last time I made these they were crumbly but we just crumbled them into our chili.

Also this week I am going to try making bagels using the dough setting on the bread machine and these tips.

For more great recipes check out Organizing Junkie