Meal Planning Monday

Monday:  pasta with tomato sauce, zucchini and oven roasted green beans
Tuesday:  spice rubbed tilapia, wild rice, fruit
Wednesday:  parmesan chicken tenders, fruit
Thursday:  Bart @ church, Lauren- leftovers
Friday:  eating @ church
Saturday breakfast:  free spicy chicken biscuit @ Chick-fil-a
Saturday lunch:  sandwiches
Saturday dinner: crockpot BBQ chicken, grits and cornbread
Sunday breakfast:  cereal
Sunday lunch:  grilled cheese and soup
Sunday dinner:  green chili chicken and lime soup

Peppermint Bark Popcorn

 I made this twice over the holidays, and its delicious as well as so easy!  This will definitely be kept in my repertoire as a quick treat to make to bring to a gathering or as a gift.  Here's the source - a wonderful blog with tons of great recipes.

Ingredients:

1 package almond bark - white
18 cups popped popcorn
2 tsp peppermint extract
1 box candy candes
3/4 c chocolate chips (not pictured)

It took me three bags of popcorn to get the 18 cups, but I also leave a lot of kernels unpopped because I'm afraid of burning it. Here's what you do:
-Unwrap and crush up the candy canes using a plastic bag and a meat tenderizer.
-Melt the almond bark in small batches in the microwave (according to the package directions) and pour over the popcorn.
-Sprinkle the candy cane pieces and peppermint extract over the popcorn and mix very well.
-Spread popcorn out on parchment covered baking sheets and allow to set.
-Melt chocolate chips, spoon into a plastic bag with the corner cut off and drizzle over the popcorn.
-Let sit for a few hours (on the counter or in the fridge). Once hardened, break apart and enjoy!

You can mix the peppermint extract in with the almond bark but many people online suggest that this makes the bark 'seize up' and become clumpy.  I just used my fingers and tried to sprinkle it over the popcorn, which worked out fine. I also did mine in two batches because I didn't have a big enough bowl to do it all at once.  If you aren't a peppermint fan, there are a number of other options on the source blog, some of which I hope to try soon!

Baked Ziti - healthy version!

Baked ziti is a great comfort food, but does not offer much in terms of nutritional value.  Sure, the tomatoes are good for something, but when you add ground beef or sausage, pasta and all that cheese, the tomatoes get a little overshadowed.

1 pound ground beef (I used 90/10)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
16 oz package pasta
26 oz jar pasta sauce
1 zucchini, shredded (use a food processor if you have one - so easy!)

Brown ground beef in a skillet. Drain well. Cook pasta according to package directions to 'al dente'. Drain and set aside. Return pasta to the pot it was cooked in and add pasta sauce, ground beef and zucchini.  Stir well.  Spread 1/2 pasta in a 9x13 dish sprayed with Pam. Top with cheese and spread it out so it covers evenly.  Add the remaining 1/2 pasta and top with cheese.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes and enjoy!

Goes well with: garlic bread, green salad, roasted green beans

Here's my source for the recipe inspiration. It calls for ricotta, parmesan and egg, similar to a lasagna. Leaving these items out makes for a healthier version, but really I just forgot to get them at the store :)

Meal Planning Monday

Monday: crescent chicken, frozen veggies
Tuesday: tilapia, veggies, fruit
Wednesday: king ranch chicken, green salad
Thursday: creamy chicken noodle soup, bread
Friday:  crockpot chicken tacos, corn salsa & chips
Saturday: date night!
Sunday: baked shrimp in lemon garlic sauce, rice, green beans

Meal Planning Monday - its 2011!

Happy New Year!  We're back to work this week, back to eating in and not having dessert with every meal :) Hope you all had a wonderful, restful holiday!

Monday- spinach alfredo pizza, fruit
Tuesday- ham and cheese potatoes, carrots
Wednesday- pork roast, rice, carrots
Thursday- taco soup, cornbread
weekend- I'm having a sister weekend, so Bart will be having BBQ chicken and veggies, a spinach cheese omelette, and crescent chicken

I'll be on a flight for most of it, but here's to an Aggie win over LSU in the Cotton Bowl this Friday! Whoop!

Soup's on

Soup is one of my absolute favorite fall & winter dinners.  I've posted some good ones, like Italian Sausage Tortellini soup and Chicken Fiesta Soup but there are tons more I want to try.  I thought I'd get a few in one place, so I can reference them over the coming weeks.  Here goes:

1.  Baked Potato Soup - Annie's Eats
2.  Chicken noodle soup - similar to Jason's Deli or Chickfila's...I think the key is homemade noodles. Good thing thats one of my 2011 goals!
3.  Manitoba soup - I grabbed this recipe from a friend a long time ago. Its time to try it!
4.  Beef stew - Cooking Light has a promising recipe this month, so hopefully I'll get to try it soon.
5.  Chicken tortellini soup - a healthier soup than the italian sausage one above :)

I look forward to sharing these recipes with you, but now its your turn!  What soups do you love? Let me know and share the recipe if you have one!

Check out my pages!

Happy New Year everyone!  I've created two new pages on the blog, so if you view this in a reader, click on over to the blog itself to see what's new.  One page lists 2011 goals I hope to meet and the second is about a "resolution" of sorts I'm going to keep up with here on the blog. I'll do a normal post when I update these pages so you'll know when there's anything new to read there.

I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year, and thanks for reading!