Live2Ride Posted November 26, 2012 Share Posted November 26, 2012 I saw all the posts and though I love to cook, I don't always love coming up with meal plans! So I saw a Groupon someone posted and hopped on it. I'm enjoying it thus far. Last night we had the Black Bean, Sweet Potato, Chicken Chili. YUM! I did add more spices as we are from Louisiana where herbs and spices are used liberally, lol! The cheese quesadilla's were a hit too though I'm not eating wheat right now. Tonight it's Swedish Meatballs and I added in some deer sausage to our meatball mix, tossed some mushrooms with the onions and garlic to sweat and used cornstarch to thicken instead of wheat flour. So far everyone's mouth is watering as I'm cooking, lol. How about y'all. Are there any hits or misses yet. We've got the rest of the next two weeks planned including lunches and weekend dinners. I filled in those using some of the older weeks menus! UPDATE: ok...kids didn't really like the meatballs (I suggest reducing the salt by 1/3 to 1/2). That was their complaint that they were a bit salty. DH liked it all though. Not bad and I did not make the peas with the noodles as I forgot to pick some up. So I made a side of green beans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmoira Posted November 27, 2012 Share Posted November 27, 2012 That chili was amazing... and the sage brown butter sweet potato penne from the same week. Mmmmm. We start our week tomorrow, as we're out on Monday evenings. The kids are looking forward to Swedish meatballs (thanks for the tip about the salt). I've substituted a taco recipe from last fall for the veggie pita pizzas at the end of the week, as I'm reasonably sure even the adults in our house wouldn't eat them. :tongue_smilie: Besides, I can triple the taco recipe and have an cheap and easy dish for our December [board] Game Day on Saturday. I'd never really used corn tortillas before starting the Fresh 20 (except cut up in casseroles), and am happy to have learned the trick of microwaving them in a damp towel. So easy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linguistmama Posted November 27, 2012 Share Posted November 27, 2012 I just joined this weekend. I really needed something planned out for me as dinner gets boring otherwise! I am not a very good cook either so something quick that tastes good is a lifesaver for me. I agree that the meatball recipe had too much salt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VeganCupcake Posted November 27, 2012 Share Posted November 27, 2012 We use the veggie plan and I supplement DH's meals sometimes with some kind of meat thing. Today we had the sauteed vegetable medley with the pepper and pea noodles and it was really good! I made a piece of chicken for DH with the veggie sauce as well. We loved the sage brown butter penne, too. It reminded me of the butternut squash ravioli at Pasta Pomodoro in San Francisco. Yummmmmm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Live2Ride Posted November 27, 2012 Author Share Posted November 27, 2012 We're going to try the sage brown butter penne this week. I can normally tell with recipes what I need to adjust, but I actually added more meat for more meatballs (growing boys eat a lot) than the recipe called for and so I used most of the salt as I saw that the sauce didn't have much salt...my bad, lol. We're having the jambalaya tonight; this is a recipe I'm familiar with and plan to adjust it a little. DH is taking the other piece of chicken and the rest of the chicken chili for work today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linguistmama Posted December 4, 2012 Share Posted December 4, 2012 We loved the pork loin today! Everyone was sad that they were too full to eat anymore of it. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmoira Posted December 4, 2012 Share Posted December 4, 2012 We loved the pork loin today! Everyone was sad that they were too full to eat anymore of it. :) Mine is marinating for tomorrow... I can hardly wait. The chicken cacciatore was the big hit last week. I substituted red chard for kale -- four cups of kale wouldn't have flown with me, much less the kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Live2Ride Posted December 4, 2012 Author Share Posted December 4, 2012 We actually like kale. It was good in the chicken sweet potato chili. My kids didn't even blink twice at it. I think they thought it was spinach which they happily eat. Tonight we are having lamb stew, a spin on one of their earlier Nov Menus. I am planning the sausage, sweet potato and Kale farfalle tomorrow. I'm prepping for it tonight though. I have to run by the store for the pork loins and leeks. I thought I had some in the freezer, but nope, and the leeks were seriously sad looking at the store, so I'm looking at a different store today on my way home from music lessons. Luckily I had my friend pick me up some salmon from the large store she went to late last week. Then I saw the menu on Saturday, lol. Lucky me since the smaller stores here don't really carry it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linguistmama Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 I'm pleased to say that this is really working for me! I've tried to menu plan in the past and it never lasted very long. This is the longest I've stuck with anything, great or really pathetic, right? :) At first I was worried that it would cost more, but we are actually saving money. DH used to make a lot of his own food and did his own shopping. Now I do most of the shopping so we are spending half as much on impulse buys since only one of us is going to the store. We all look forward to dinner now. DH even asked if we could have the pork loin again for Christmas, lol! I told him I would look for a past ham recipe and past side dish recipes. We've all been really happy with how good the food tastes, it's easy to make, but not boring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Live2Ride Posted December 8, 2012 Author Share Posted December 8, 2012 We loved the sausage, farfalle, sweet potato and kale dish. It was given a thumbs up here and going into some recipe boxes for my kids and myself. It's so simple. I did however add a cup of chicken broth at the very end to give it a little juice. That made it very nice. GOtta check on what we're having tonight...I haven't got that far into my day as I just got up...didn't get in until 1:30 this morning from taking oru church youth to a dance in New Orleans... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmoira Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 The braised leek and quinoa side (I normally eschew quinoa, but what the heck) made a decent cold salad the next day. It would have been even better cold with more nuts -- maybe cashews instead of walnuts -- sauteed veggies left a little crisp, and some crumbled bacon. Something easy to make up an eat as/with lunch for the week. The pork tenderloin dishes and the salmon were big hits here. DD the Elder wasn't partial to the farfalle, but I think it's because there was too much fennel (for her) in the Italian sausage; next time I'll have the meat guys mix it up custom and go light on the fennel. All we have left now is the leek and potato soup. I'm going to serve it with the salad and half a grilled cheese sandwich because the protein count for Day 5 dinner is too low otherwise. I'm surprised they didn't add some cheese to the salad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmoira Posted December 14, 2012 Share Posted December 14, 2012 I learned something from this week's tortilla soup recipe: you can put in a bunch of cilantro and remove it, like a bouquet garni. No little bits of chopped up green for kids to complain about. And that soup was good... as was the dijon chicken earlier this week. I served that to a table of seven adults (at a child's birthday party), and it wowed them all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halcyon Posted December 14, 2012 Share Posted December 14, 2012 We r doing the soup tomorrow. The chicken was a big hit here too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Live2Ride Posted December 14, 2012 Author Share Posted December 14, 2012 I'm still enjoying it but am behind. Company came this week and we had other meals planned for them and one that they were making...I'll be back on track next week. I can't wait to try some of these, although the scallop dish will not be served here. We'll use shrimp instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Florida. Posted December 28, 2012 Share Posted December 28, 2012 I finally made the stovetop eggplant lasagna, though I cringe at the title. Lasagna refers to the noodles or the dish made with lasagna noodles. You can no more have penne lasagna than you can have penne elbows or penne linguine. Anyway, rant over. Ds ate it, loved it, and had no idea there was eggplant in it. He made a face when I told him later that night, but it was too late. He already declared it delicious! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmoira Posted December 28, 2012 Share Posted December 28, 2012 I finally made the stovetop eggplant lasagna, though I cringe at the title. Lasagna refers to the noodles or the dish made with lasagna noodles. You can no more have penne lasagna than you can have penne elbows or penne linguine. Anyway, rant over. Ds ate it, loved it, and had no idea there was eggplant in it. He made a face when I told him later that night, but it was too late. He already declared it delicious! :lol: I solved it by thinking, "lasagne." :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmoira Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 OMG, OMG, OMG... My eldest not only ate an entire bowl of split pea and onion soup last night (with visible chunks of carrot and celery), but she made a point of thanking me for it and requested it be made again. She just polished off another bowl with lunch. <insert fainting smilie> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Live2Ride Posted January 5, 2013 Author Share Posted January 5, 2013 OMG, OMG, OMG... My eldest not only ate an entire bowl of split pea and onion soup last night (with visible chunks of carrot and celery), but she made a point of thanking me for it and requested it be made again. She just polished off another bowl with lunch. <insert fainting smilie> lol, don't you just love that when it happens! I've made a few things like that so far, but I'm afraid brussel sprouts are never going to be a hit for half my crew, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeschoolMamaOfTwo Posted January 6, 2013 Share Posted January 6, 2013 I bought it back in November but I'm sad to say that we haven't actually made anything from the lists yet. :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Live2Ride Posted January 6, 2013 Author Share Posted January 6, 2013 I bought it back in November but I'm sad to say that we haven't actually made anything from the lists yet. :( Just jump in :) There are some really great ones and it's so easy. I've been writing down the ones we really like Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linguistmama Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 I was surprised to learn that we all like brussel sprouts! :confused1: and :hurray: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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