What's for supper? Chicken tortillas in a pan

Tonight's dinner menu:

Chicken Tortilla Helper:  ground chicken, cut-up tortillas, black beans, cheddar cheese, homemade taco seasoning, a little salsa, all in a skillet.
Frozen green and yellow beans

A small thawed pumpkin loaf, pears and apples.

What's for supper?

Tonight's menu:

Turkey-pasta casserole from the freezer
Leftover crockpotted chicken from last night (partly bones, but it is easier to just heat and eat it than to pick it apart)
A pan of little potatoes, cut in half and sprayed with olive oil before baking
Lettuce and celery salad

"Pumpkin" bars made with butternut squash

What's for supper? Taco Turkey Pasta and a Hot Fudge Sauce recipe

Tonight's dinner and dessert menu:

Taco Turkey Pasta, a casserole I made up with browned ground turkey meat, homemade taco seasoning, macaroni, chopped celery, cheese, a bit of tomato sauce, and water as needed.  We had enough left to freeze some for another night.

Broccoli

Very small slices of leftover Chocolate Microwave Cake, dressed up with Gary's Microwaved Hot Fudge Sauce.

Gary's Microwaved Hot Fudge Sauce came from MyRecipe.org about seven years ago, but it's no longer there, because MyRecipe.org is gone.  So here is the recipe, because it is very good and because Mr. Fixit says he wants leftover chocolate microwave cake with fudge sauce for his birthday cake next summer.

In a microwaveable container (I use a four-cup glass measuring cup), combine 1/2 cup white sugar, 3 tbsp. cocoa, 1 1/2 tbsp. cornstarch, and a dash of salt.  Stir in 1/2 cup water.  At this point I cover the container lightly with plastic wrap, although Gary didn't say to--I just like to be careful.

Have a spoon ready, plus something to lay the spoon down on (trust me on this), and maybe a damp cloth in case of drips.  Microwave the sauce for between 3 to 4 minutes total, stopping to pull it out and stir every 30 seconds.  Gary says not to skip this step--it's important.  Stop cooking when it begins to thicken, and stir in 1 tbsp. butter or margarine and 1 tsp. vanilla.  Serve hot, cold, or rewarmed; thin with a bit of water if it gets too thick.

What's for supper? Cold day, warm food

On our "calendar of firsts" would be the first (short) snowfall of the year.  Tonight's dinner menu:

Reuben Chicken, made with bone-in chicken breasts (that is, sauerkraut in the bottom of the casserole, then chicken, then some Thousand Island dressing; bake till done)
Sweet potatoes
Peas
Whole wheat bread from the bread machine

Banana cake made with this muffin recipe (muffin batter baked in a 9 x 13 pan; we leave out the chocolate chips)

What's for supper? Fall-type Food

Tonight's dinner menu:

Slow cooker filled in layers: sauerkraut, frozen barley cubes, kielbasa-type sausage, whole mushrooms, and sliced celery added later on.  I unloaded the sausage, mushrooms and celery into a serving bowl, and served the sauerkraut-barley layer separately.

Cheese perogies

Pumpkin-spice yeast bread, from a recipe in the bread-machine owner's manual.  I hadn't tried this one before, but it's a keeper. Ponytails says it would be good with apple butter.

Almonds and mini rice cakes

Vanilla pudding, thawed blueberries

What's for supper? Chinese meatballs

Tonight's dinner menu:

Pork meatballs with homemade honey-garlic sauce
Reheated rice mixed with a few frozen vegetables
Celery sticks, cut-up green pepper, baby carrot sticks

Choice of melon balls, oranges, pears
Pieces of a Euro chocolate bar.

What's for supper? Cranberry pork chops

Last night's dinner menu (after our afternoon out):

Cranberry pork chops in the slow cooker, made with a package of boneless pork chops, a can of cranberry sauce, 3/4 cup of chili sauce, a tablespoonful of brown sugar, and half a tablespoonful of lemon juice.  The sauce breaks down a lot more in the slow cooker than it does on the stovetop, so I had to thicken it with cornstarch at the end.  Ponytails was at a friend's, but Grandpa Squirrel came over and helped us polish them off.

Sauerkraut-filled perogies from the Euro foods store.  Sauerkraut might sound like the worst thing ever with the cranberry-chili sauce, but it actually worked.

Frozen peas.

Oranges, bananas, and Christmas cookies.

What's for supper? 4 C's

Tonight's dinner menu:

Chili
Cornbread
Carrot Sticks

Chocolate pudding

What's for supper? Ham quiche

Tonight's dinner menu:

Quiche, made with leftover ham and green beans

Acorn squash

Pan-fried potatoes with mushrooms and smoked paprika

Canned pineapple, store wafer cookies

What's for supper? From the freezer

Tonight's dinner menu:

The last of the enchilada pies, with sour cream, chopped green pepper, etc.  (I need my big pie plate back....)
Butternut squash  (because I want to make squash pie with the leftovers.)

Sliced pears, oranges, and banana chips

What's for supper? Chicken thighs cacciatore

Tonight's dinner menu:

Boneless chicken thighs and mushrooms, baked in the toaster oven with Mama Squirrel's Diner-Style Sauce (clarification: the sauce ingredients, without the ground beef)
Butterfly (bow-tie) pasta
Cooked carrots

Vanilla pudding with blueberries

Last night's supper menu: Something sustaining

Mr. Fixit's Favourite Meatloaf, from the Betty Crocker Cookbook
Sweet potatoes
Spinach tortellini
Bean salad (made with a can of romano beans and a can of green beans)

Choice of: no-bake brownies, blackberry crisp, oranges, yogurt

What's for supper? Swojska sausage and the rest of the food groups

Tonight's menu:

Polish smoked sausage (Swojska style--who knew there was a Sausage Wiki?) baked with sauerkraut
Baked potatoes
Baked spaghetti squash
Peas
Herbed cheddar soda bread

Banana-mango freeze

What's for supper? Autumn veggies and leftover pork

What's on hand tonight?  Half a package of whole wheat tortillas, leftover boneless pork chops, a bag of grated cheese, tomato sauce, chicken broth, red and green peppers, butternut squash, rice.  I could have chopped the meat and peppers and made fried rice, but I went with Pork and Pepper Tortilla Stack instead.   I used this very easy enchilada sauce recipe from A Year of Slow Cooking (except I used a can of no-salt sauce instead of crushed tomatoes, since that's what I had).

The menu:

Pork and Pepper Tortilla Stack
Butternut Squash (baked in the toaster oven)
Rice

Grapes
Chocolate lunchbox cakes (bought on sale)

Menus this week: fun in the kitchen

This week's menu started out by accident.  I printed out a sample menu page from the Hillbilly Housewife's free PDF Menu Planning 101, and left it in the kitchen.  The Squirrelings saw it and got all excited about the Quick Cinnamon Rolls, Garlic Breadsticks, and other things I haven't made for awhile; they were disappointed when I said it was just a sample I'd printed out.

Aww.

Well, we do have most of the ingredients called for, if we shifted some of the meals around, and I think most of us would like most of the meals.  But it's going to be kind of a crazy week, with different people in and out for different things.  How about everybody helps cook this week, when they are home, so that we get to try some new things/old favourites?

Okay.

To make it easier, Mama Squirrel printed out every single recipe from the menu and put them into a three-pronged folder.  Everybody responsible for a particular dish can easily find the instructions.  And if we want to do the same meals over again, it will be easy.

So here's this week's menu plan, with most recipes available on the Hillbilly Housewife website:

Sunday (Father's Day):  Breakfast:  Banana muffins, fruit, cereal.  Lunch:  Dad's choice.  Dinner:  At a relative's (that was easy).

Monday (a day when a couple of people have to leave early in the morning):  Breakfast:  Cereal and toast.  Lunch:  Macaroni salad.  Dinner:  A skillet rearrangement of Company Chicken Casserole, served with rice or maybe perogies.

Tuesday:  Breakfast:  Homemade granola or other cereal.  Lunch:  Vegetable Lo Mein, or it might turn into fried rice.  Dinner:  Impossible Cheeseburger Pie, vegetables.

Wednesday:  Breakfast:  Cheese Pancakes.  Lunch:  Pigs in a Blanket.  Dinner:  Green Spaghetti (my own addition--I have the ingredients for that, but not for the Stuffed Peppers originally on the menu), Garlic Bread Sticks, Bean salad, Peach Crisp.

Thursday (a day when people are eating at odd times):  Breakfast:  Hot or cold cereal.  Lunch:  quick sandwiches.  Dinner:  Italian Beans and Rice, Cheese Puffs.

Friday (we have a church event in the evening):  Breakfast:  Peanut Butter Bread for those who can eat it, other options for those who can't.  Lunch:  Banana Carrot Salad and leftovers.  Dinner:  5 Can Bean Soup (with bacon added), leftover bread sticks and cheese puffs, fruit.

Saturday (the adult Squirrels have to have a quick dinner because of another event):  Breakfast:  Cold cereal, and maybe the Quick Cinnamon Rolls.  Lunch (after grocery shopping):  Maybe hummus with vegetables, maybe sandwiches.  Dinner:  Either Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Sandwiches (from A Year of Slow Cooking rather than the Hillbilly recipe), or Sloppy Joes, and cookies.

What's for supper? Sausage and polenta

I like dinners that make people come in and say, "Something smells good in here."

Tonight's dinner:

Italian sausages, baked on sauerkraut (really, they taste fine together)
Baked sweet potatoes
Sliced polenta rounds, topped with a mixture of olive oil, Parmesan cheese and fresh parsley, and baked in a hot oven for about ten minutes

Blueberry-Applesauce Crisp  (frozen blueberries) and yogurt

What's for supper? Barbecue Meatball Mini Subs

One of this week's dinners:

Salad (made from a half-price bag of mixed greens, plus chopped carrots)

Sweet potato fries (just sweet potatoes cut into long strips and sprayed with pan spray before baking)



Meatballs (one-quarter of this recipe), made small, baked on a cookie sheet and then added to simmering barbecue sauce;












served on dinner rolls (the More Expensive Supermarket often has these for half price on Saturday afternoons, if we happen to be in the neighbourhood),

 and topped with shredded old Cheddar cheese.

Photos:  Ponytails.

What's for Supper? Wednesday and Thursday, Cleaning out the Fridge

Wednesday:

Lotsa Leftovers.

Thursday:

Lunch:

Pressure-cooker soup made with dried white beans, a few canned tomatoes, a bit of pasta, celery, and the last onion
Sandwiches made with this and that

Teatime:

Graham crackers
Oranges








Supper:

Pork Meatballs
Frozen hash browns baked with homemade soy sauce-milk gravy--I baked the meatballs first, then added them to a casserole full of hash browns, poured the gravy over it, and baked the whole thing for awhile longer
Carrots
Bean salad made with a can of mixed beans and some chopped green pepper
Triscuits
Canned pineapple, bran muffins

Photos by Ponytails

What's for Supper? Pakistani Beef Curry and Blueberry Crisp

Tonight's dinner:

Pakistani Kima from The More with Less Cookbook, adapted to use cauliflower and other ingredients we had in the fridge
Brown rice
Homemade tortilla chips (flour tortillas cut in triangles and crisped in the oven) (taking the place of chapatis or pappadums)
Yogurt, cottage cheese, applesauce
Blueberry crisp (incorporating the end of a box of bran flakes into the topping); yogurt or milk

Pakistani Kima (our adaptation)

1/2 chopped onion
1 or 2 cloves garlic
1 lb. ground beef
1 tbsp. curry powder
1/2 tsp. salt (much less than the recipe calls for)
dash pepper
dash each cinnamon, ginger, and turmeric
1 good cupful diced canned tomatoes
1 small head cauliflower, cut up (instead of potato)
1 small sweet potato, peeled and chopped
(The recipe calls for frozen peas, but we didn't have any)

Either saute the onion and garlic in some oil and then add the beef; or brown the meat until it is almost done (what we did) and then add the onion, garlic, and spices.  Either way, get everything in the pan up through the spices.  Then add in the tomatoes and whatever other vegetables you like.  Cover and simmer 25 minutes, checking to see if it needs more liquid.  Serve with rice.

What's for supper? St.Valentine's Day Dinner

Garlic bread rounds (cut from a submarine bun, spread with margarine and garlic powder, and broiled in the toaster oven)

Salad (lettuce, celery, apple,  homegrown sprouts, and dried cranberries for colour)

Chicken Cacciatore with fusilli (recipe below)

Cocoa Ricotta Cream in fancy dessert dishes, with star sprinkles (left over from a birthday)


Chicken Thighs Cacciatore

I put about eight partly-thawed boneless chicken thighs in the Crockpot, and added about a cupful of diced canned tomatoes, half a chopped onion, and a generous sprinkle (at least a tablespoonful) of tarragon dressing mix.  That cooked on high for about five hours, until the chicken was cooked through but not yet falling to pieces.  About an hour before dinner, I added a package of fresh mushrooms and a can of tomato paste...the tomato paste could have been added earlier, but I wasn't sure how much thickening the sauce would need.

We served sauce and pasta separately, but you could combine them for serving if you prefer.  We also had grated Mozzarella cheese  on the table for topping--no deals on Parmesan lately.