November 17-23

This blog has already served its purpose. I have turned here to scroll through previous weeks in order to make this weeks menu.
Here's the menu from two weeks ago...I got a little behind in posting. At least I kept up with the cooking!

Shawn's special was rice and beans. A simple, somewhat bland recipe made in hopes of pleasing my overly picky tummy, as of late. The enchilada pie didn't happen because it was too spicy, so we ended up having leftovers.
I love spicy food but lately it has been hurting me really badly, so we've had to make a few adjustments to our menu. We are trying to focus on lower-fat meals with milder spices and lots of veggies. Except the homemade pizza of course, it's our favorite.

Perfection in a cookie

Mom...this one's for you. After years spent searching for a great oatmeal cookie recipe that is soft and chewy even after it cools...and the whole time it was right in front of my face! On the bottom of the lid for the Quaker Oats canisters there is a recipe for Vanishing Raisin Oatmeal Cookies. I simply switched the raisins with semi-sweet chocolate chips and there you have it. The world's best chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.

Easy Sheperd's Pie

I grabbed this super quick recipe from a RealSimple magazine (Oct 2007). It looked like a really easy dish that definitely falls into the comfort food category. We really enjoyed this and it would be easy to make last minute if I change my mind on something. We'll definitely be having this again.
This picture is of the meat and veggie mix before you top it off with mashed potatoes. I think next time I'll replace the carrots and green beans with fresh.
Here is the recipe on the RealSimple site.

Nov 10-16

I do have a picture for this weeks menu...and yes...I'm feeling much better!
So far this week we have followed the menu every day. Except for last night when I made a mistake. I made the tortellini and we sat down to eat it, but it was a little on the stale side so we ended up eating leftover Shepherd's pie. Both the Shepherd's pie and the Potato and Leek flatbread were new recipes so I'll be posting recipes and pics of those soon.

Nov 3-9

I don't have a picture of my fun menu board for this week. Not because I forgot to take one but because I never did a board this week! This was a week of plain survival as I had a terrible cold. Which also means lots of comfort foods :)
Monday...I can't remember what we ate this night!
Tuesday - Burritos
Wednesday - Grilled Cheese and Soup (Thanks Justin for cooking!)
Thursday - Perogies
Friday - KD (Macaroni and Cheese, KD is what us Canadians call it. Stands for Kraft Dinner)
Saturday - Culver's
Sunday - Leftovers

Oct 27-Nov 2

You may think that I had forgotten to update this little blog...well I hadn't. We've been in Canada for two weeks and so I didn't have to plan any meals! However, I do have a menu board done up for this current week.
We started off the week with a meager attempt at a real meal...at least it wasn't take out. Tuesday's chili was thawed from our freezer, I'm going to post the recipe for this soon...it's amazing.
On Thursday I didn't feel like make Ritz Cracker Chicken so I decided to do homemade pizza. That didn't go well. I realized after taking the dough out that I hadn't put the mixer thingy in the breadmaker properly. So we ended up with takeout. It had been a LONG day. And tonight, my special ended up being the ritz cracker chicken. It was yummy. I wonder what Shawn will make tomorrow?

Angel Hair Pasta Chicken

This was a super easy, quick recipe. It's pretty healthy and tasted great!
I needed to use up some chicken so I searched on allrecipes.com. Here's the link to the recipe. I followed the recipe except that I used whole wheat angel hair pasta instead of regular.

Disclaimer: I am working on improving the quality of my pictures! I never realized how difficult it was to take good pictures of food, especially under less than optimal lighting.

October 6-12

With both Shawn and I having had terrible colds all of last week, neither of us felt like cooking...so if you're wondering why I didn't post any special recipes, now you know.

It's Tuesday right now and we've already had a change in the menu. Monday was true and Outback was amazing. But tonight, instead of leftover sloppy joes, we had ham, mashed potatoes and green beans. It was yummy. Hopefully the rest of the week will stay the same. Saturday and Sunday have an N/A because on Saturday we are heading to Vancouver, BC, Canada. We're going home to visit my family. We will be there for two weeks, with Shawn coming home a week early. Our thanks to Justin for house and cat-sitting!

September 29-October 5

It's Thursday and we've only changed one night so far. On Tuesday we kind of coped out and had Kraft Dinner instead of a healthy whole grain pasta with a Vineyard marinara from Bertolli. And last night was supposed to be Shawn's special, but we were invited to Outback...who would refuse that kind of invitation! Tonight we are going to a fundraiser banquet for Kids Around the World. (By the way, Saturday is chicken quesadillas, I just shortened to fit.)

Classic, Cheese Lasagna

Tonight I made lasagna from scratch for the first time. It took two hours of prep and one hour of cooking time. It was super good. However, as good as it was, next time I will use store bought sauce.


First I made the marinara sauce.
2 (28 oz each) whole, peeled plum tomatoes, undrained
3 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped (2 Tblsp)
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1. Pulse tomatoes and juices in a food processor until coarsely chopped.
2. Heat garlic and oil in a 5-quart pot over medium heat until garlic begins to sizzle, about 2 minutes. Add tomato puree, salt, and pepper, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer, partially covered, stirring occasionally for 30 minutes

While the sauce was simmering I cooked the lasagna noodles according to the instructions on the box.

The next step is to prepare the ricotta mix.

1 pound whole-milk ricotta cheese
1 large egg
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
freshly ground pepper
1 pound fresh mozzarella
Marinara
store-bought noodles, cooked
5 ounces coarsely grated Parmesan cheese (about 1 3/4 cups)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine ricotta, egg, nutmeg, and salt in a medium bowl. Season with pepper. Coarsely grate 1/2 of the mozzarella, and stir into ricotta mixture. Using your fingers, shred remaining mozzarella into 2-inch strips, and reserve.
2. Spread 1/2 cup marinara in a 9 by 13inch baking dish. Place a layer of noodles over marinara. Spread 1/3 of the ricotta mixture over noodles, and sprinkle with 1/3 of the parmesan. Place a layer of noodles over the cheese layer. Spread 1 cup marinara over noodles. Repeat layering (noodles, marinara, noodles, ricotta mixture, parmesan) 2 more times. Spread remaining marinara over cheese layer, then sprinkle with shredded mozzarella.
3. Place baking dish on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until cheese is golden brown and sauce is bubbling, 45-50 minutes. Let stand for 15 minutes before serving.

This lasagna turned out great. I'd give it a 9 out of 10. The recipe was taken from the October '08 Martha Stewart Magazine. Here it is on their website, only the link on their site isn't working. But you can see the other three versions of lasagna from the article.

September 22-28

This is the menu for the week. Last night, on Tuesday, we had hotdogs instead of burgers and I'm guessing we'll have burgers instead of Lemon Chicken on Thursday. Everything else should stay the same. I'm super excited about making my new recipe this week. I've never made lasagna before, I've only reheated it!

Tuna Pasta Salad

This was Shawn's special this week. I still need to get the recipe from him.





It sure looks yummy! It tasted good to. I'd give this recipe an 8 out of 10. The biggest problem with it is that two hours after we ate we were hungry again. In the future I would probably make a much smaller batch and serve it with something else instead of it being the main course.

Chicken, Broccoli and Brown Rice

This is the first meal in an experiment we are trying. I've always tried to add a new recipe to the menu each week. Now Shawn is joining in the fun too. Once a week we have a "his special" and a "her special". We will take pictures (if we remember) and I'll post them along with the recipe and review it. We got the idea from this blog.

This is a Campbell's soup recipe. For some reason their adds always look so good!
The recipe:
1tbls vegetable oil
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 can (10.75oz) Campbell's Condensed Cream of Chicken soup
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups uncooked instant brown rice
2 cups fresh or frozen broccoli flowerets

1. Heat oil in 10" skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook until well browned on both sides. Remove chicken from skillet.
2. Stir soup, water, paprika and black pepper in skillet. Heat to a boil.
3. Stir rice and broccoli in skillet. Reduce heat to low. Return chicken to skillet. Sprinkle additional paprika and black pepper over chicken. Cover and cook 5 min. or until chicken is cooked through and rice is tender.

This recipe recieved a 6.5 out of 10 from us. We liked it and with some changes would make it again. It would have been better if I had cooked it for a few extra minutes at the end with the lid off to cook off some of the extra moisture. This recipe would be good with other veggies in it as well, like carrots, peppers and/or zucchini.
I used 98% fat free condensed cream of chicken soup and extra virgin olive oil in order to make it a bit healthier. See the Campbell's site for other pictures and nutritional info for this recipe.

September 15-21

Monday: was my special; Chicken, broccoli and brown rice.
Tuesday: dinner at Shawn's parents house.
Wednesday: Leftovers from Monday.
Thursday: Burritos
Friday: Ended up being Shawn's special. He made Tuna Pasta Salad.
Saturday: Qdoba
Sunday: Panda Express

This weeks menu post ended up being a bit of a confession...we didn't follow it very well. But as you'll see in the upcoming weeks, we usually follow it pretty closely.

Personal Online Cookbook

This site will be home to our weekly menus as well as our weekly "his and hers" specials. I will be posting pictures and recipes of our specials, essentially creating an online cookbook with reviews. This will help me when it comes to planning the weekly menus, I can scan through previous weeks for ideas!