This week for dinner. . .

This is what I'm thinking for dinner

M-Cashew chicken
T - Tacos
W - Pasta Bake
Th - After Thanksgiving dinner -- i.e. Turkey & all the fixin's. Brandon LOVES Turkey and wants some more!!!!
F - Leftovers
S - Ward Party

Spicy Orange Chicken

Sally wanted me to post this recipe. I liked it okay but my family thought it was kind of weird. There's a lot of nutmeg, maybe that's why. And, looking at the ingredients, I don't really get where the "spicy" comes from.

http://thisweekfordinner.com/2007/01/31/recipes-main-dishes/

SPICY ORANGE CHICKEN
From: Mary/Grammy McCarthy
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 boneless skinles
s chicken breasts
- 1/2 C flour
- 1/2 t. salt
- 1/2 t. pepper
- 3 T butter

Sauce:
- 2 T brown sugar
- 2 T vinegar
- 1 C orange juice
- 1 t. nutmeg
- 1 t. dried basil
- 1 small can mandarin oranges
- Jane Note: I add ground ginger as well. I also 1.5 X the sauce ingredients.

DIRECTIONS:
Combine flour, salt and pepper in bag. Shake chicken pieces until coated. Brown on both sides in butter in skillet over medium heat. Drain off fat.

Combine sauce ingredients (1 1/2 times the recipe) and add to skillet. Cover and cimmer ~30 minutes or until tender. For a “sophisticated touch” add drained mandarin oranges and heat about 5 mins.

Note: cook chicken and sauce in covered skillet, but tip the cover a little to thicken sauce towards the end of cooking time.

Eames Meals for Nov 9-14

This is what I'm thinking

M- Turkey Vegetable Rice Soup in the Crockpot
T - Taco Salad - I keep planning this and have something else instead.
W - Minestrone Soup with Rosemary Bread- Andrew will hate it because it has tomatoes, but I'm making it anyway.
Th - I'm going to try something new, just not sure what yet.
F - Macaroni & Cheese
S - Hot Dogs, potato logs, and veggies

One week left till Phil comes home!

I'm excited for this weekend. Phil comes home and should be home for quite a while, barring any crazy pandemic of h1n1 or some other parasitic/water-born disease.
That being said, I still have to make it through one more week.
This weeks menu:
Sun--roast chicken and butternut squash
Mon--chicken noodle soup
Tues--chicken rice salad in warm pitas
Wed--red beans and rice (I keep saying I'll make this and forget to soak the beans...I'm really trying to use dried vs canned now)
Thur--pot stickers
Fri--pizza
Sat--something yummy and new

Tweaking A Recipe

I like finding recipes on boxes. First, because that means it uses something I buy and second, because they've usually been tested (although some are just plain weird). Here are 2 of my finds that I've tweaked a little. They are big hits here in the Budge household.
Black Bean and Rice Soup--found on a Good Seasonings Italian Salad dressing packet (the dried stuff)
2 cans of black beans, undrained and divided
3 cups of water
1/2 cup chopped onions
1 packet of Italian Salad dressing mix
1 1/2 cups instant brown rice, uncooked
Place 1 1/2 cans of beans in a blender. Blend until smooth. Pour into large saucepan.
Add remaining beans, water, onion and mix; stir until blended. Bring to boil on medium-high heat.
Stir in rice. Reduce heat to low, cover. Simmer 5 minutes.
Here's how I changed it: I added one can of undrained petite diced tomatoes. Threw in some extra sausage I had browned and added regular rice instead of brown instant. This meant that I had to cook it a little longer (20 minutes maybe), but with the extra juice from the tomatoes it still stayed soupy. You might need to add extra water though, so watch it carefully. The kids really liked this one and it was good for them.

Grape-Nuts Peanut Butter Bars
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup peanut butter
4 cups Grape-Nuts cereal
Mix corn syrup, sugar and peanut butter in large microwave bowl. Microwave on high 2 minutes or just until mixture boils, stirring every minute. Add cereal; toss to coat well. Press firmly onto bottom of greased 13x9 pan. Cool. Cut into bars.
Here's how I changed it: Cut the corn syrup in half and add honey to make up the difference. Omit the sugar. Add unsweetened coconut flakes and sunflower seeds to the cereal to make a generous 4 cups (cut back on the cereal a little). They make a great granola-type bar, perfect for lunches.
Enjoy!!

Nagel Nov 4th.

I'd rather be horizontal than anything else right now but we all know how that's not how it works. Instead, I'm off to the grocery store.

1. wild rice soup

2. autumn sausage casserole

3. burritos and mexican rice

4. potato sausage soup

5. spicy orange chicken

I found the potato soup and spicy orange chicken on that site Cynthia linked awhile ago called This Week for Dinner.

Have a great week everybody.

Away

I'm off to Canada again to visit my mom who has been (still is actually) in the hospital. So I have no idea what my family will eat while I am away....I'm sure they'll eat something!

As for me and Spencer and my sister, I have no idea what we will be eating while staying at my mom's and commuting to the hospital each day. Oh the joys of travel.

First week of November

How is it November????? Anyway, keeping with the theme idea, this is the plan:

M - BBQ Country Style Ribs in the Crockpot and Baked Potatoes
T - Taco Salad
W - Chicken Vegetable Soup & French Bread
Th - Pancit
F - Rocky Mountain Bean Storm
S - Sandwiches

Dinner this week

I'm not sure of the order. I might have to switch a couple because my week gets a little crazy.
Here it goes:
M--cream of broccoli soup and bread
T--black bean salad
W--pasta of some sort
Th--red beans and rice
F--pizza
Sat--a new recipe of some sort...I'm looking through all of the recipes I pull out of magazines to come up with something