Menues Made Easy

Thank you all for your sweet comments on our Day in the Life at Sweetness and Light! It's fun to see how the day all pans out when it's in the works :)

Many of you have asked for some recipes, so I thought I'd share what has worked as we launched back into our schooling mode for Late Summer/Early Autumn.

First off, the Brown Sugar Chicken is from Make it Fast, Cook it Slow by Stephanie O'Dea. She claims in her book that after making this for her family, they coined it "Candy Chicken" and yes it was very sweet! Everybody liked this one, even my one who isn't truly fond of chicken unless it's oven baked with lots of garlic ;-) *Recipe Note: my chicken fell apart and did not look like the chicken in the recipe link, but more shreddy (is that a word?) and we had lots of yummy sauce to spoon over the brown basmati rice. Rated 5 stars by my crew!

Violet made the Bacon, Cheese & Egg Bake previously pictured and it was so good, they were no leftovers (not that there ever are). She has discovered some really fun cookbooks called Teens Cook and Teens Cook Dessert, and this easy overnight recipe was included in the former.

By having a set of four weeks Menues mapped out in advance was a life saver for me at the beginning of this new term. All of my menues were planned around what we receive in our weekly Organic Bin delivery and our main monthly shopping at the very large and economical Costco. With this system (and our weekly Smith Bros. Organic Milk Delivery) I rarely have to go the the store each week. If need be, a few things can be easily picked up during the week.

Here are the four Menues we have used thus far:

Download Late Summer Menu Rotations Week 1 - 2010

Download Late Summer Menu Rotations Week 2 - 2010

Download Late Summer Menu Rotations Week 3 - 2010

Download Late Summer Menu Rotations Week 4 - 2010

Please feel free to download these to use with your family :)

On occaision I may switch a few things around or substitute if I have run out of a particular item and is unavailable to make the meal or snack, but so far it has been minimal subbing, which means little, to no scrambling!! The best part is that if I become ill or we have an off day for whatever reason and someone else needs to take over the menu for the day, it's all right there available for everyone to see and the recipes are all in my cupboard or are so easy to prepare, anyone can fix them :) Well, except for maybe Sean-Paul, but not for his wanting to help out ;-)

I have really been pleased with how my crockpot meals have been turning out as well. So far only one has bombed, the crockpot baked potatoes. My crock cooked either too hot, or I cooked too long with too few potatoes (I did 6) and they were just bad.

Here are the kids favorites from the month (yes, we voted):

Chicken Stroganoff (Week 1) ~ from Saving Dinner

Skillet Granola Parfaits (Week 1) ~ Download Skillet Granola Parfaits

Shanti's Chicken (Week 2) ~ adapted from Suzanne Somer's Get Skinny on Fabulous Food ~ Download Shanti's Chicken

Crock Pork Chops (Week 2) ~ varied a bit from the Make it Fast, Cook it Slow recipe linked. (I used hoisin, rather than ketchup and didn't have the 5 Chinese Spice) It was still delicious!

MaryEllen's Easy Chicken Salad w/Dark Rolls (Week 2)

Sleepover Roman Apple Coffee Cake (Week 2) Violet prepared this one from Teens Cook

Overnight French Toast w/Cinnamon-Apple Compote (Week 3)  *Recipe Note: This one is delectable and perfect for Monday morning as all one has to do is pop it in the oven and prepare the compote (you could actually make this ahead as well and reheat, but it's really no biggie in the morning as the toast is baking). ~ Download Overnight French Toast Bake

Stuffed Shells (Week 3) ~ the classic recipe from the back of the pasta box ;-) I also cheated and used an organic jarred sauce, it was delish!

Crock Chile Verde (Week 3) ~ Make it Fast, Cook it Slow  ***This was a HUGE hit and tons of leftovers!!! So yummy.

Apple-Pecan Muffins w/Yogurt and Fruit (Week 3) ~ Ellie Krieger's The Food You Crave

Blueberry Drop Scones w/Honey yogurt (Week 4) I wish I'd made a double batch of these!

Grilled Tuna Naan Sandwiches (Week 4) *Recipe Note: I make my Naan dough in my bread machine in the morning then quickly bake and they are ready to grill, so yummy and filling. Also, we like provolone with tuna, but Tillamook sliced cheddar is a good second :)

Chicken and Dumpling Soup ~ Make it Fast, Cook it Slow *Recipe Note: Rather than add the dumplings in the crock I made fluffy buttermilk biscuits instead. Some had theirs on top of the biscuits, some had theirs on the side. This is like a super creamy chicken pot pie, very good. 

Whew, if you're still reading, you love to cook, LOL!! Sorry this got so long and wordy. I hope you'll be able to fit some of these ideas and recipes in to your repertoire! If there are any that I didn't link and you'd still like them, let me know and I'll hunt them up ;-)

Many blessings in your week ahead, we're preparing for the Ember Days on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and zipping along in Week 5!

Comments

[Leslie]

Thank you for the suggestions and the menu planning recharge! We added crock pot chili verde to our crazy Thursday. I have a question about the Naan. Im attempting to make the allrecipes version but I like the idea of the bread machine dough. . .Is it really that much easier? Help!

[Gemini Alexander]

Hi Meredith,
I love your blog. I was wondering if I could get the recipe for the bacon, egg and cheese bake? It looks delicious!

Thank you!
Blessings,
Gemini Alexander

[Meredith]

Thank you Leslie, I will post the Naan recipe, it IS that much easier and the kids just gobble it up!

Gemini, thank you for you kind words, I will hunt up the Bacon Egg Bake as I know a few others are wanting it too :)
Many blessings!!

[Betty]

One of those 'others' wanting the Bacon Egg Bake would be me! Thanks so much!

[Natalia]

Meredith,
I can't open your files. Is there a way to have them as pdf files? I know that is asking a lot and I understand if you can't do it.

Thanks,

[Stephanie O'Dea]

Hi Merideth,

I'm so glad you and your family liked the Brown Sugar "candy chicken"! LOL---it is pretty sweet. I made it last week and did cut the sugar down, and noone seemed to notice---so that's good to know for next time. :-)

thank you for the link, your sweet words, and support---they mean so much. xxoo steph

[meredith]

Well, Stephanie, hearing from the author herself is always a delight!! You are so very welcome, and thank you for making my menu planning SO much easier. I am crock cooking so much more than I ever have thanks to all your great ideas. I wish you much more success in any future endeavors and many blessings to you and your sweet family!

 

Love,

Meredith

[Jen]

Thank you for sharing these recipes!! I know it takes time to do this and it's so appreciated. Blessings,

[Sarah N.]

Thanks so much for all these great menu inspirations! I've got the Chile Verde and Overnight French Toast to my menu for next week. I completely agree that menu planning makes life run more smoothly and I spend less on groceries and less time at the store. I always get out of the habit in the summer though when we're not sure what we'll get each week in our CSA box and we're travelling a lot. Thanks for inspiring me to start writing down my plans again!