Weekly Menu 1.31.10 - 2.6.10

31 Tortilla Soup

1 Scrambled eggs with biscuits and gravy

2 Orange Chicken Fried rice and egg rolls

3 Creamy Potatoes with Pork Chops

4 Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese sandwiches

5 Pizza - HM

6 Spaghetti with HM Bread

For the first time I have a whole month of menu planning done. Phew!

Panacakes (as my boys used to call them)

Yummm.... Pancakes! Is there anything more significant on Saturday morning besides pancakes? I think not!
I've dabbled in pancake recipes for years, looking for the "perfect one." I was almost convinced it was only achieved by restaurants, because I love me some restaurant pancakes! But I found it, about 2 months ago. Try them and then try to tell me it's not perfect!
I found the recipe on one of my favorite blogs "Chickens in the road" Suzanne is a romance author turned farmer. She's so stinkin' cute! Anyway, I got a lot of my bread making technique from her as well as this amazing pancake recipe. Plus, can you not love a recipe that gives you a base for so much more? Simply amazing!
Here are the perfect pancakes:

Tilapia Tacos Otherwise known as "Yum"

This is a really easy and really delicious recipe. I use Tilapia but you could use any white fish.

Combine about 1/3 cup of corn meal,

salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste. About 1/4 tsp of each. ( I like a LOT of pepper!)

Coat each piece of fish front and back and place in skillet with preheated oil (I used Canola), enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan.

While that is starting to cook, in a medium sized bowl combine a small bag of shredded cabbage or coleslaw mix (no dressing) with about 3 or 4 Tbsp of tarter sauce. No nasty comments here, please.

Mix well.

Flip fish and cook until golden on each side.

See how pretty? I use coffee filters for everything, but they work especially well as oil/grease blotters.

Make a wrap out of slaw mix and taco pieces in a tortilla. Very, very Yum!

Jaizy's Tilapia Taco.

Taco Tuesday

So... I stole "Taco Tuesday" from a friend and ran with it! We generally have some form of Mexican food on Tuesdays, although I have just done some other ethnic food as well, but very, very rarely.

So... this week was supposed to be Chemichangas but I didn't do it. Sometimes that happens. I had avocado and I went weak. I love avocado on my burritos and so I made burritos instead. Yum. In fact I have leftovers and I want some!

So I have no "burrito secrets." I brown up ground turkey (sometimes I use minced steak) and add canned (strained) black beans and mush them up a little with a potato masher. I guess that could be a secret? Maybe the fact that I make my own taco season is a secret? It really is no secret more than a way to save money.

I once bought a bottle of Ortega Taco Seasoning and loved the convenience of it so I looked up recipes on how to refill that spice bottle and this is what I've come up with. Change it up to suit your own needs.

Warning: these are kind of appx because I don't really measure.

Taco Seasoning

16 tsp of powdered or minced onion

8 tsp of chili powder

3 tsp dried red peppers, crushed

2 tsp dried oregano

6 tsp salt

3 tsp cornstarch

4 tsp powdered or minced garlic

4 tsp ground cumin

Combine all ingredients into a plastic baggy, bowl or spice shaker/jar. I like to grind with my mortar and pestle before putting in my spice jar. Use anywhere from 1 Tbsp to 1/4 cup with your ground meat, depending on your preference and how much meat you use.

Anyway, I brown up my meat choice of the evening (beef, turkey, chicken, whatever) and while it's browning I add taco seasoning. Whether you make your own or use the packet kind, doesn't matter. I don't follow the directions on the package. If you really know me, this shouldn't come as a surprise because I rarely follow directions.

Anywho, I like to use a potato masher to make my ground up meat really fine. Strange, I know. Maybe not so strange? I know I read it as a kitchen idea once upon a time and I liked the idea so I've been doing it every since. I even think I bought my masher at a dollar store, so it's a cheap idea at that!

See? Potato Masher!

yes, that's 2 whole pounds of ground turkey! I have hungry teenagers and I LOVE leftovers!

Here is the finished product with black beans!

My friend and her family makes these awesome "Just Right Potato Bags" and they make the best tortilla warmers (among other things) and so here are my tortillas in my Potato Bag.

Just put the package of tortillas in the potato bag, microwave for 2 minutes and like magic you get soft, warm tortillas! Yes, I realize that is a lot of tortillas in there. Remember - teenagers? Plus they are the medium sized tortillas. And we save the original package to put them back into the fridge.

Add corn or salsa to your meat mixture for something different but yummy! Serve with shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, sour cream, SW Ranch (which you can make yourself by adding your taco seasoning to regular or lite ranch dressing), diced tomatoes (or salsa), and yummy avocado! Or whatever else you like to add to your taco/burritos! Or just make a big yummy taco salad instead!

Disfrutar!

Comfort food in the form of bread

Here is my bread recipe. Try it, you'll like it! It's not nearly as hard as it seems, in fact, on review, it doesn't seem hard at all, so what are you waiting for?

Ingredients for one loaf. Just double ingredients for 2 loaves.

• 1 & 1/3 cup hot water
• 1 packet of yeast (rapid rising or regular, doesn't matter) 1 packet = 2 & 1/4 tsp
• Tbsp of Sugar or Honey, or more depending on your preference.
• 3 C flour. Plus some, up to 1/4 cup when kneading. I like to use 1 C of whole wheat to 2 C of unbleached white, but you could do equal parts or all white. Just not all whole wheat.
• dash of salt, or about 1/2 to 1 tsp. You could use garlic or onion salt for variety!
• 3 Tbsp of oil. Use veggie, canola, EVOO, or whatever you'd like. This is approximate, sometimes I only use about 1Tbsp. Depends on my mood, I guess!

You can do this one of two ways, I will tell you both.

1. Place all measured flour in a large bowl. I use a large stainless steel one (Pampered Chef to be exact). Add salt. Mix and make a well in center of bowl with your hands.
2. Pour hot water in well and add sugar/honey and yeast and mix gently, but do not incorporate flour mix as of yet! Let sit for about 10 minutes to activate the yeast. The wet mixture will be foamy when it's ready.
3. Add oil and mix all ingredients together, slowly incorporating the flour in with the water mix. I just use my hand for this, but it is messy!
4. The other option is:
5. Place water, yeast and sugar/honey in bowl and sit for 10 minutes to activate yeast. When mixture is foamy add flour and salt and start mixing together.
6. Start kneading dough until not sticky, adding additional flour by the Tbsp if needed. Dough will be one piece (not liquid) and look like dough! You can continue kneading in bowl if you'd like, but sometimes it's better to do on a lightly floured counter. Here is a great video on how to knead bread thanks to Epicurious! I knead my dough about 4 minutes. It's very therapeutic, I think.
7. Place dough back into lightly oiled bowl (I just spray with non-stick cooking spray) and give dough a flip to cover the dough with oil. Place towel over bowl and let rise. If you use rapid rise yeast, about 30-40 minutes is perfect, if regular about an hour works.
8. When rise time is down check your dough! It's all puffed up! Punch it! Go ahead, it's ok! punch it! Actually punching it down gets rid of the air that is in the dough and knead again for about another minute or so to make sure all the bubbles are out. Remove from bowl to do this if you'd like.
9. Take your dough and lightly pat it out into a big fat disc and roll into a loaf shape. Place in bread pan that has been lightly oiled. If you made dough for 2 loaves just split dough into two equal parts and do the same.
10. Place loaf pan(s) into a COLD oven and turn on to 350 degrees. The dough will rise a second time while the oven is preheating! Set a timer for 45 minutes.
11. Remove bread from oven and let cool a moment before removing from loaf pan. Set bread on cooling rack and cover towel for a bit until cool enough to sample, I mean slice up.
12. It's better to slice your bread all at the same time. It keeps it from being too crumbly.
13. Bread stores in a large gallon size ziploc bag for about 2 days.

I will come back and post step-by-step pictures the next time I bake bread, either tomorrow or the next day! Until then, here is a picture of today's finished product!

Grilled Steak with salad

Yeah, it's a no brainer today.

Grill up some steak.

Cut into strips.

Serve with salad.

Now get this: I buy bagged salad. Funny, right? I make so much from scratch yet I won't just cut up heads of lettuce. I figure I like that convenience. I think it makes less waste in my house (however, now with the pig it probably wouldn't be considered "waste") and there's no surprise soggy-greenish-science project in the back of the fridge a couple weeks later.

Now I know I'm not the only one who has discovered this, so don't play coy with me!

Hello, my name is Desiree and I buy bagged lettuce...

Ham & Potatoes

Ok, so here is my recipe, but I altered it a lot for tonight! 1. Because I forgot to throw everything into the crockpot before I left for my party today and 2. because I'm cool like that! This is a great recipe for a pot luck or a family gathering. It's also Weight Watchers friendly as long as you watch your portion. It can easily be cut in half. I like leftovers for lunch during the week.

Crockpot Ham and Potatoes

This makes 12-1 cup servings @ 3 points a piece (Weight Watchers)

4 cups lean ham (I like to use turkey ham)

8 cups raw potatoes (I like to use red potatoes), cut in half and then sliced thinly. Thinner = faster cooking.

1 medium Onion, chopped finely

1 green bell pepper, again chopped finely

1.5 cup reduced fat cheddar cheese-Shredded

2 can healthy request cream of chicken

black pepper to taste

1 tsp yellow mustard (or a good squirt)

1. Spray 4-quart crockpot with non-stick cooking spray, add ham, potatoes, & onion.

2. Sprinkle cheese over the top

3. In a small bowl combine all other ingredients, stir well, add to crockpot, mix well to combine

4. Cover cook on low for 8 hours, mix well again before serving

Today, I threw it all in a large casserole and baked at 400 degrees for an hour and a half. Tested the potatoes for doneness and served with green beans and ham slices.

Here is a picture of Jaizy's plate.

This week's menu

Recipes to follow daily. Hopefully with pictures, too!

24 Ham & Potatoes

25 Steak Strips Salad

26 Baked Chemichangas

27 Chicken Stroganoff w/Rice

28 BLTs with Avacado Spread

29 Tilapia Tacos with Tarter Slaw

30 Easy Kielbasa Pasta Bake

Make some dough!

So... while I would love to mean money, I actually mean dough, as in bread dough. I got interested in making bread last August when I went on a girls-only beach weekend and one of the gals (who I was very close friends with as a child) brought stuff to make bread while we were there. Now, initially I thought "that's nuts!" But I went home and thought about it. A lot. And then I emailed her for her recipe. Bread making is so easy and fundamental (emphasis on "mental") I don't understand why more people don't do it! If you only realize how far that first loaf of bread has taken me!

It's a form of sanity-making therapy. There is something soothing about kneading bread. By hand. Not that I wouldn't mind having a good quality stand mixer, but I'll save that for another time. (Just be sure that I can't wait for my tax return. )

Anyway, if kneading bread is mind-soothing, imagine what eating that first slice of warm, fresh bread does to your soul.

Since that first loaf of bread, which by the way turned out beautiful, I have started making my own laundry soap, scouring powder (think Comet without the green), dishwasher detergent, all-purpose spray cleaner, bread, cinnamon rolls, english muffins, pita bread, granola, soups and lots of other stuff on a regular basis. Homemade stuff is better for you and not difficult to do. Occasionally it can be time consuming, but nothing a few hours on the weekend can't handle.

And the reward is so gratifying.

Trials and Tribulations

Ok, so someone recommended that I try this, so I shall. I'm definitely not a Domestic Diva (unless you're referring to my Brown Bag Party business!) but I try to be domesticated. I like to bake bread, try new recipes and cook made-from-scratch meals as inexpensively (and as healthy) as I can.
I will post my trials and tribulations in the land that is known as the Denakisland Kitchen. Yes, it should be it's own land. Do I do the dishes? Not if I can help it! That's what chores are for! So as the Queen of Denakisland I do what I do best: I delegate chores. But of course, if the minions, I mean family members enjoy what I cook, they should be willing to clean up. Right?