Week Three

I didn't really stick to the schedule this week at all. It ended up being a totally crazy week with a lot of last minute things happening. Monday evening we had Upside Down Pizza. My friend Maria posted a few months ago that she was making this and I thought it looked good. It was a hit the first time I made it a few months back so I put it on for this week. I think hubby and the kids actually like this more than I do. It's good but it's by no means my favorite.

http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=540313

Because of the craziness of the week we ate the leftovers from Monday both Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday was a scheduled leftover day because I knew there would be plenty left. Wednesday I had planned to cook but I ended up having to have a CT Scan done at 4:30 that day in addition to several other things so we had leftovers again.

Thursday night I made Stuffed Shells. I buy the Rosetto Pasta shells because I'm not good enough to stuff my own shells. Maybe some day. I used a pound of ground beef and Prego Mini Meatball Sauce. I added some Tastefully Simple Dried Tomato and Garlic Pesto Mix and some Italian Seasoning to the sauce. I love Stuffed Shells and they are pretty easy. I've never used this type of Prego sauce before but it was definitely a winner in our house. Hubby loved it and the kids ate a lot too.

Friday we had leftover shells. I had a quiet day on Friday so I spent it hanging with the kids, baking Banana Nut Bread and organizing the menu, shopping list and coupons for the next 4 weeks. I'm hoping to hit the store this weekend to do the shopping because we also need snacks for the big game on Sunday.

I made Banana Nut Bread because we had a bunch of bananas that otherwise would have been in the garbage.

I've never made Banana Bread before so I just searched for a recipe on allrecipes.com It was easy and turned out to be really yummy. It's certainly not good for my diet so one loaf will either go in the freezer or I'll save it for our company on Sunday. Here's the recipe I used for it.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Extreme-Banana-Nut-Bread-EBNB/Detail.aspx

Deal Pulp

I discovered a new daily deals site today. It's similar to Groupon and Living Social. It's called Deal Pulp. Today I bought the deal and it's for a box of gently used kids clothes on ThredUp. Thredup is an exchange site where you pay $5 plus shipping for a box of gently used clothing. I have some friends who used it and I've been wanting to check it out. With the Deal Pulp deal if you signed up through someone else's link you got a $5 credit so I got it for $1. I bought a second one as a gift for $6 so it's really a great deal. Here's my link if you want to check out Deal Pulp.

http://dealpulp.com/?r=amyfarr1

1/25 and 1/27 and 1/28

1/25 and 1/27 were designated as leftover nights because of different appointments that were scheduled those days. !/28 I was sick with a nasty cold that is probably a sinus infection. The kids and I ran quite a bit that day and I had a lot of cleaning to do so we ended up getting pizza at Little Caesar's. Can you really beat a $5 pizza when you feel like crud?

I had stuffed shells on the menu for 1/28 but I just added them to a different week and I already have everything bought for it.

Now I'm all caught up. Yeah!

1/26 Roast Beef

If you're friends with me on facebook you might remember that I posted about a month ago about the horrible roast I had made. It was very disappointing and was dry and tough even after being in the crockpot all day. I usually just put onion soup mix on them and let them cook. I was out of onion soup mix and thought that Tastefully Simple Onion Onion should work the same way. It didn't unfortunately. I use it for many things but it doesn't do the trick for a roast.

I found this recipe on The Menus That Save Blog. I was little skeptical when it called for a can of coke but thought what the heck. After the awful roast I cooked a month ago what could it hurt to try it.

It was simply wonderful. I think this was my favorite so far of the new recipes I've tried. Even Maura asked for leftovers the next day. She also commented several times on how good it smelled while it was cooking. Ryan's Occupational Therapist was here that afternoon and she also commented on how good it smelled. This will definitely get made again. Maybe every week:)

The Roast Beef was on Wednesday on this post. I re-heated our redskin potatoes and I made the balsamic carrots from this post also.

http://communityvoices.sites.post-gazette.com/index.php/arts-entertainment-living/menus-that-save/27045-weekly-menu-for-the-week-of-jan-17

Monday 1/24 Roast Chicken

When I made the menu I didn't know we were doing a chicken for the Pampered Chef Party two days before but I went ahead and stuck with the game plan. This was a recipe from the Menus That Save Blog.

It was good. My husband really liked it. I thought it was good but it was by no means my favorite of the new things I've made. It called for using fresh herbs and putting them inside the chicken. I used dried and put them on the outside. It was a little much for me. The next time I'll spend the extra money and put them inside. I also made redskin potatoes in the oven. My friend Kelly told me to quarter them and put butter, salt, pepper, garlic powder and parsley on them. They were really good. I cooked them in my Pampered Chef stoneware loaf pan.

Again I removed what was left and have been having wraps for lunch. It worked out pretty well.

It was the Tuesday meal on the blog post:

http://communityvoices.sites.post-gazette.com/index.php/arts-entertainment-living/menus-that-save/27045-weekly-menu-for-the-week-of-jan-17

30 Minute Chicken 1/22

I have never bought a whole roaster chicken before. I've only ever bought boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I had a Pampered Chef party this day and we made 30 minute chicken in the Deep Covered Baker (which is by far one of the best inventions ever) in the microwave. I know what you're thinking about cooking chicken in the microwave but it seriously was delicious.

If you don't have a Deep Covered Baker from Pampered Chef you really must add it to your wishlist. I love baking cakes (in the microwave) in it. I can make chicken breasts in the microwave in less than 15 minutes and have a ton of broth left in it. You can bake in the oven with it also but to this point I had never used it in the oven.

At the moment I'm having trouble finding the recipe online so I'll come back and post it later.

Either way the chicken was really good. It was nice and moist and not at all rubbery like you would expect from cooking it in the microwave. There was a nice amount of broth in the pan too. What we didn't eat at the party I pulled off the bone and I used it to make wraps this week for lunch.

Here's the deep covered baker and if anyone feels a strong need to order one I'll get you in touch with my Pampered Chef Consultant. I'm so glad I got one a couple of parties ago.

http://www.pamperedchef.com/ordering/prod_details.tpc?prodId=30735&catId=9&parentCatId=9&outletSubCat=&viewAllOutlet=

Italian Style Chicken Breasts

This recipe was also a first and I thought it was delicious. I found the recipe on Giant Eagle's website. I thought it sounded good when I read the recipe so I added it to the calendar. This one will definitely make another appearance at some point.

http://www.gianteagle.com/Recipes/RecipeDetails.aspx?recipeId=318