Comments on: Simplify. Organize.

By: Dawn

Dawn — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 03:15:02 +0000

Hi, well here is my menu planning at it’s finest. Sloppy joes, with french fries, baked beans and can of veggie (usually corn or green beans) talk about starchy but everyone likes it. Another favorite is spaghetti; fun shape noodles, sauce (jar), salad and garlic bread. depends on how you feel you can brown some ground beef or even put some italian sausage in it. Easy and quick. My husband is a big meat and potatoes man. I on the other hand LOVE casseroles. One dish wonders is my kind of cooking. But I also have a daughter with severe food allergies and most casseroles call for a “cream of” soup. So I have learned over the past seven years how to cook from scratch. I am not an organized person at all but I do make up my menu at the begining of every week and make my shopping list. Makes life sooo much more simple. Also double duty dinners are great. Last week I made pork roast in the crockpot, with cabbage and carrots, then when it was done, I made gravy on the stove top from the juices. I am the gravy queen! Any way the left over pork roast was shredded and added to homemade (simple) bbq sauce for shredded bbq pork sandwiches a few nights later. AND there was so much of that left over that I put that in the freezer for another night’s dinner in a few weeks/months. Basically it’s being creative, and don’t think too complicated, simplicity works best. Main dish, usually meat, side of starchy something (french fries, roasted potatoes) and veggie. Quite easy! E-mail me more questions if you would like. I also do the grocery game. Look it up, it is AWESOME! Gotta run and list some crap on e bay! I need some money for christmas!

Dawn

By: Tracye

Tracye — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 01:06:12 +0000

Here’s another:

Cowboy Stew (it’s really good! I made it last week)

Cook ground beef in a dutch oven or stew pot. Throw in (DO NOT DRAIN THE CANS!) a can of french-style green beans, corn, black beans, (or butter beans are good, too) and one or two cans of diced tomatoes. Stir it all up and let it cook until the juices have reduced a little.

I serve it over brown (boil in the bag!) rice.

It’s another thing that once you cook the meat, you’re basically done with it. It gets better every day it sits in the fridge!

Tracye’s last blog post: How Am I Feeling, You Ask?

By: Tracye

Tracye — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 01:02:15 +0000

I totally understand!

About the meals/husband thing, I have a meat and potatoes man, too. Literally. The ONLY vegetable he eats besides potatoes is corn. That’s it. Other than that, he eats things that had parents. No pasta, no rice, no sauces of any kind.

So, here’s my go-to, super-easy, I-don’t-feel-like-cooking-tonight meal:

Baked chicken!

I buy the bags of frozen chicken breasts with about 9 or 10 pieces. I take out enough for the meal I’m cooking (usually two for the four of us; they’re big) and put the bag back in the freezer. Preheat the oven to 350. Put the COMPLETELY FROZEN chicken breasts in a dish. I use Pampered Chef stoneware every time, but you can use a glass dish or square brownie pan; anything that fits the amount of breasts you’re cooking in one layer. Pour some Italian dressing (we use light or fat-free) on top of them, maybe a few tablespoons for each piece, then season them with whatever you want. Cover the dish with aluminum foil, and bake for an hour. The pan will be full of juice, the chicken will be baked through and juicy, and all you did was throw frozen chicken in a pan and forget about it for an hour. At the end of the hour, sometimes I put some rolls or cornbread in there, too, and just set the oven temp to whatever they need to cook. It’s the easiest recipe ever! We eat it a lot!

We ate it tonight, with steamed broccoli, (the kids and I, anyway!) corn on the cob and cornbread.

Tracye’s last blog post: How Am I Feeling, You Ask?