Menu Plan

Just finished getting the new Menu Plan together.

The next two weeks are all about my favorite dishes. There won't be any new recipes, but I'm going back to the very beginning of my blog, and remaking family favorites, retaking new photos and editing posts.

Can't wait to eat these delicious meals again :)



BREAKFAST: Toast with Jam, Juice, Coffee
LUNCH: Chicken Nuggets, Mac and Cheese, Iced Tea
DINNER:  Have to get groceries late in the day, so we're heading out to dinner at Buca Di Beppo. 



BREAKFAST:  Muffins, Milk
LUNCH: Cheese and Ham Sandwiches, Fruit
DINNER:  Galinha com Pimentos e Arroz - Chicken with green peppers and rice




BREAKFAST: Toasted Raisin Bread w/ Butter, Orange Juice
LUNCH: Chicken Salad
DINNER: Chicken Fried Steak, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy




BREAKFAST: Homemade Vanilla Waffle, milk, coffee
LUNCH: Tortilla Chips and Homemade Salsa
DINNER: Spaghetti Pizza Pie




BREAKFAST: Bacon, Sausage, Eggs
LUNCH: Sandwiches, Chips
DINNER: Beef Curry




BREAKFAST: Cereal, Milk
LUNCH:  English Muffin Cheese Pizzas
DINNER: Chicken and Sausage Ragu





BREAKFAST: Cinnamon Rolls, Orange Juice
LUNCH: Grilled Cheese and Tomato, Strawberries with Whipped Cream
DINNER: Texas BBQ Burgers






BREAKFAST: Oatmeal, Milk

LUNCH: Ravioli, Salad
DINNER:  Fettucine Alfredo 




BREAKFAST:  Pancakes, Juice
LUNCH: Cheese Quesadillas
DINNER:  Homemade Pizza



BREAKFAST: Cinnamon Toast, Juice
LUNCH: Salad for me...Hot pockets & veggies for the kids
DINNER: Bratwurst, Tater Tots




BREAKFAST: Homemade Hash Browns, Bacon
LUNCH: Pizza

DINNER: Steaks with Pepper Sauce and Homemade Fries




BREAKFAST: Biscuits and Gravy
LUNCH: Sandwiches, Chips

DINNER: Roast Chicken, Roast Potatoes




BREAKFAST: Cereal, Milk
LUNCH:  Mac and Cheese for kids, Sandwich for me
DINNER: Lasagna



BREAKFAST: Muffins, Juice, Coffee
LUNCH: Hotdogs
DINNER: Chicken Pot Pie



BREAKFAST: Oatmeal, Milk

LUNCH: Taquitos, Veggies

DINNER:  Spaghetti with Bacon 



BREAKFAST:  Pancakes, Juice

LUNCH: Sandwiches

DINNER:  Fish Cakes and Butter Garlic Potatoes

P B and J Bars

My sweet tooth has been nagging at me all day but honestly I wasn't in the mood to make anything, so I kept putting it off and putting it off until about 30 minutes ago.....I couldn't anymore, I really wanted something sweet, so out came the PB and J Bars.

Pretty simple to put together and if your kids or you, like Peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches, then you'll really enjoy these.

Just wish there was a recipe to keep the children away from these bars before they inhale them all in 10 minutes.  Yikes!

I made half with strawberry jam and half with my homemade tomato and apple jam.  Yum!

P B and J Bars

Credit:  Bisquick

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup shortening
1 egg
1 1/2 cups Bisquick mix
1/3 cup strawberry jam or preserves

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.  In large bowl, beat sugars, peanut butter, shortening and egg with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly.  Beat on medium speed 1 minute, scraping bowl occasionally.  Stir in Bisquick mix until blended.

Place dough on surgace sprinkled with Bisquick mix; 

gently roll in Bisquick mix to coat.  Divide dough into 4 parts. 

Shape each part into roll 3/4 inch in diameter and about 13 inches long.  On large ungreased cookie sheet, place rolls about 2 inches apart.

Make indentation lengthwise in center of each roll with spoon. 

Spoon or squeeze jam evenly into indentations.

Bake 9 to 11 minutes until light golden brown and set. 

Cool on cookie sheet 5 minutes.  Cut each roll into 12 slices.  Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

About 4 dozen cookies.

1 cookie:  70 calories

Tomato and Apple Jam!

If you've never tried Tomato Jam you are probably sitting there with a wrinkled nose and wondering if I've lost my ever loving mind.

I assure you, I haven't. I also assure you that it's delicious and this is coming from someone who does NOT like tomatoes.

I remember when I was a little girl, my great grandmother Ema, would make a big batch of tomato jam and I would immediately grab a slice of bread, cover it in butter and slather that jam on there, yum yum yum.

Now the tomato jam is amazing all on it's own, but when you add apples to it, it becomes very much like an Apple butter and I know that you guys like Apple Butter right?

So give this a try and let me know what you think, don't let the tomato thing scare you off, I promise you, you can't even taste it.

Tomato and Apple Jam

800 gr of tomato (weigh after it's been peeled and chopped)....it's about 5 medium tomatoes
400 gr of apple (weigh after peeling and chopping into cubes)......about 4 and a half apples
900 gr of sugar (2 lbs), I used about 4 1/2 cups of sugar
1 cinnamon stick (if you don't have it, don't worry just add in some ground cinnamon to taste)


I start by peeling my tomato and the way I do it, is to cut an x on the bottom of each, then pop them into a big pot of water, bring to the boil, then drain the tomatoes. Remove the skin and cut off the stem.



Cut the tomatoes into small chunks and pop into a big pan. Add the apples, cinnamon and sugar.

Cook on low stirring occasionally. Let it simmer until the tomato and apple is soft, at this point I use my hand blender and puree the apple and tomato.

Keep cooking and stirring until it reaches the consistency of jam. The way I check, is to take a tablespoon or so of the jam, put it on a plate and then run my finger or a knife through it, if it opens up in the middle and doesn't immediately close back up, it's ready.

In Portuguese we call this "Ponto de Estrada", which means, it looks like a road through the jam when you pass your finger or knife.

Immediately pour into pint jars which have been sterilized.

This recipe makes about 3 and a half pints so I was able to fill 3 jars and still had about half a jar left.

Enjoy!

Note: If you prefer, you can remove the seeds from the tomato when you remove the skin and the stem. My great grandma never removed them and I don't either, but I know of a lot of people who do.

Menu Plan Monday September 15

Come on in and see what's on my menu for this week. I'll be posting the recipes as I make them during the week, so come on back for any that caught your eye :)

If you want to join in with your own menu or take a look at all the other ladies participating, head over to Laura's blog "I'm an Organizing Junkie".

Monday 15th 

Breakfast: Toast with Strawberry Jam, Juice
Lunch: Chicken Salad
Dinner: Creamy White Chili

Tuesday 16th
Breakfast: Raisin Bran Cereal, Cinnamon Coffee
Lunch: Grilled Cheese and Tomato
Dinner: Crockery French Dip




Wednesday 17th
Breakfast: Eggs in a Hole, Juice
Lunch: Chicken Soup
Dinner: Cheese Stuffed Meatloaf, Mash. Potatoes, green beans

Thursday 18th
Breakfast: Buttermilk Waffles, Apple Juice
Lunch: Cheese and Ham Sandwich, yogurt
Dinner: Crockpot Chicken Cacciatore




Friday 19th
Breakfast: Cinnamon Rolls
Lunch: Salad
Dinner: Pizzeria Pot Pie



Saturday 20th
Breakfast: Sausage Biscuits
Lunch: Cheesy Dogs
Dinner: Garlic Swiss Steak

Sunday 21st
Breakfast: Bacon, Eggs, Sausage
Lunch: Late breakfast no need for lunch
Dinner: Goblin Good Turkey Burgers

EDIT: Many of you have requested the recipe for the Pizzeria Pot Pie, so here it is :)

PIZZERIA POT PIE

Ingredients:

Pizza Crust Dough:
2 1/4 cups bread flour
3/4 cup water
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp milk powder
1 tsp instant yeast

Filling:
8 ozs mozzarella cheese
4 cups of simple tomato sauce(recipe is at bottom of page)
8 ozs button white mushroom
8 ozs ham or sausage

Utensil:
4 ovenproof cereal bowls


Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients for the pizza crust dough and knead until smooth and elastic. Oil the dough and leave in a covered bowl to proof until double.

2. While the dough is proofing, prepare the simple tomato sauce, cut or shredd the mozzarella cheese, clean mushrooms with a damp kitchen towel and cut ham or sausage into bite size.

3. Grease the cereal bowls and line with the mozzarella cheese, add in the mushrooms and ham/sausage and top with the simple tomato sauce.

4. When the pizza crust dough has doubled it's size, punch down and divide into 4 portions and make them into balls. Roll ball out to a size 1/2 inch to 1 inch bigger than the cereal bowl. Cover the bowl with the dough.

5. Repeat with the other 3 balls and leave to proof. In the mean time, preheat oven at 425 f.

6. Put in hot oven and bake for 15 - 20 minutes until dough is brown.
7. Remove from oven and flip pizza crust on to serving plate and remove the cereal bowl.

Menu Plan Monday!!! Slow Cooking Week!!!

Happy Monday everyone, this week is ALL about the Slow Cooker, I'm trying out a couple recipes and will post them for you as I make them, so be sure to check back on that day if you're interested.

Thank you Laura for hosting this every week, I wish I had the time to go through everyone on the list, but seriously, who has time to go through over 100 blogs??? Anyway, If you're interested in playing along or just checking out what everyone is cooking, run on over to "I'm an Organizing Junkie".




BREAKFAST: Cereal, Milk
LUNCH: Homemade Grande Pizza
DINNER: Out for dinner




BREAKFAST: Cinnamon Rolls, Orange Juice
LUNCH: Grilled Cheese and Tomato, Strawberries with Whipped Cream
DINNER: Slow Cooker Swiss Steak




BREAKFAST: Ham Sandwich
LUNCH: Tuna Wraps
DINNER: Slow Cooker Italian Sausage Penne




BREAKFAST: Brown Sugar Oatmeal, Warm Milk
LUNCH: Omelets in a Bag
DINNER: Slow Cooker Hearty Chick n' Dumplings




BREAKFAST: Chocolate Chip Muffins, Juice
LUNCH: Chicken Soup, Fruit
DINNER: Slow Cooker Cantonese Dinner




BREAKFAST: Pancakes with Homemade Tomato Jam
LUNCH: Take Out
DINNER: Sirloin Burgers on the Grill, Homemade Fries, Salad




BREAKFAST: Bacon, Sausage, Eggs
LUNCH: Late breakfast so don't need to worry about lunch
DINNER: Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup



Others:

Slow Cooked Caramel Apples
Amish-Style French Toast