Menu Plan for the Week

Follow along if you want to! I'd love to see how other people's recipes turn out!!

Tuesday: Chicken Tortilla Soup
Wednesday: Chicken & Rice
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Fettucini Alfredo
Saturday: Potato Soup (personal recipe)
Sunday: Crock Pot Chicken & Brown Rice Casserole

New Recipe! Crispy Noodle Chicken

I tried out a new recipe tonight! I thought it was awesome! Lewis liked it, but still liked the Mexican Rice Casserole better. Here's the recipe:

Crispy Noodle Casserole
1 frying chicken, cut up (I used 2 large chicken breasts cut up into cubes)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup sour cream
3 Tbsp onion soup mix (I just bought one of those Lipton Onion Soup packages that has 3 packets in it & I just used one whole packet)
1/8 tsp pepper
1 (3 oz) can chow mein noodles

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Place chicken in single layer in a shallow casserole dish.
In a bowl, combine soup, sour cream, soup mix and pepper, blend thoroughly. Spread over chicken. Sprinkle with noodles. Bake for 1 hour or until chicken is tender.

*Can also use cream of celery or cream of chicken soup instead of cream of mushroom.


I cooked this and served it over brown rice. It looks like it's going to last us 2+ meals. We will probably both be able to eat it for dinner for 2 nights and then it will be lunch another day for someone, too.

Meal Planning

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What have I been up to lately? Meal Planning. Yep, I've broken down into the mom-groove & I'm making an additional effort to be a good wife & mom - because apparently cooking meals at home is involved(?). Partly because I won't be working much this fall and then possibly not at all after that due to practicums at school and then student teaching. So I'm trying to make it easier on Lewis who will be providing our main source of income for the next year. Also, I'd like to be a little healthier and junk. It's just positive all the way around.

So here's what I did: I made a spreadsheet. It's super-nerdy and embarrassing, but that's the story of my life. It organizes 24 recipes that I found so far that seemed easy and didn't have too many ingredients. The ingredients are listed alphabetically on the left and they go in order of non-perishable items through perishable items. Then I labeled which recipes only use non-perishable items. So then I went to the grocery and bought all the non-perishable items and have started cooking the recipes that only use those items. (It's 17 recipes!!) And so far, I've only made 1 recipe because it's lasted us 3 days already and we haven't even eaten all of it! So from time to time, I decided to share my recipes with you! Also, you need to check out all the cool new blogs I found about recipes!! I love them! And please share your recipes with me! I'm going for few ingredients & easy!!

Mexican Rice Casserole
**Note: I used ground turkey meat instead of ground beef & I added corn & chopped onions to this recipe.**
Ingredients
1 package ground beef
1 package taco seasoning
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
2 cups rice
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Directions
1. Cook 2 cups rice with 4 3/4 cup water. Bring water to boil, add rice, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes.
2. Brown ground beef. Drain. Return to skillet, add 3/4 cup water, taco seasoning and tomato sauce. Stir through.
3. Add ground beef to rice. Put into 9×13 baking dish. Top with shredded cheese. Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes until cheese melts.


Check out some recipe sites!
5 Dollar Dinners
Recipes to Go
A Year of Slow Cooking

Recipe Blogs!!

Because I continue to work on my cookbook for work, here are some links to recipe blogs!!

I Want That Recipe Blog

My Recipes

Secret Restaurant Recipes

Simple Daily Recipes

Janet is Hungry

Mixed Salad Annie

The Cookbook Junkie

Closet Cooking

Baking & Books

Cara's Cravings

Eat Me, Delicious

Dish It Up

Recipes!!

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I'm in charge of putting together a recipe book for my office for our Annual Meeting this year!! Everyone has been sending me recipes and I am so hungry all the time now because I keep reading them! I wanted to share some...

Mexican Chicken Casserole

Ingredients:
2-3 lb. chicken breast
1/8 tsp. red pepper
1 tsp. garlic salt
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper
1 lb. Velveeta, grated
1 small onion
10 oz. Doritos, crushed and divided
1 can tomatoes with green chilies
1 can crem of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup

Cook chicken and cut into small pieces. Arrange in a 9x13 pan. Layer chopped onion, spices, grated Velveeta and 1/2 of the crushed Doritos. Mix together last three ingredients and spoon over layers. Sprinkle remaining crushed Doritos on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes.

Recipe submitted by Lorraine Smart

Ziploc Freezer Bag Ice Cream

Ingredients:
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (for a lighter cream use half and half or whole milk)
2 Tbsp. white sugar
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

Put ingredients in a 1 pint Ziploc Freezer Bag and zip shut. Take a larger size Ziploc Freezer Bag and put the Ice Cream Bag inside of it then add crushed ice until halfway full then sprinkle 6 Tbsp. of salt on top and zip the bag shut.

Gently shake, turn, toss and knead the bag so the mix can get cold enough to make ice cream. After 5 or 10 minutes, the liquid from the inner bag will start to harden and turn into ice cream.

Continue to shake, turn, toss and knead the bag. When the ice cream reaches the consistency you desire, open the Ziploc and remove the bag with your ice cream.

Be sure to rinse off the Bag with the ice cream to remove any salt residue before opening and eating. Grab a spoon and enjoy! Note: Do not double this recipe, it doesn't work well for bigger portions.

Add stuff like fruit, M&M's or broken bits of Butterfinger or even Gummy Bears!!

Recipe submitted by Marsha Pulliam

Emily's Brownie Thing

Ingredients:
1 pkg of any kind of Brownie mix
1 pkg of instant Chocolate pudding mix
1 pkg of Cool Whip (the medium size)
1 pkg of crushed up Heath bar

Bake brownies
Make Chocolate pudding

In a trifle bowl layer:
Brownies, pudding, cool whip, heath bar, then repeat until full. (2 to 3 layers)

Recipe submitted by Emily Johnson

Blue Orchid Designs Brownie & Raspberry Bites

Ingredients:
Brownie Bites
Raspberries
4 inch skewers

Place a brownie bite and a raspberry on a skewer and arrange on a pretty serving dish.

Recipe from Blue Orchid Designs

I am also LOVING Blue Orchid Designs right now!! Check out their blog!!