Menu planning

Monday: Lasagna, caesar salad, garlic bread and cookies
Tuesday: Dinner @ pre-married class
Wednesday: Soup, salad and french bread
Thursday: Breakfast casserole, fruit salad
Friday: kitchen closed
Saturday: kitchen closed
Sunday: Spaghetti with italian sausage, green beans, garlic bread

Meal Planning Monday - Happy Labor Day!

Its the 3rd annual No-eating-out September in our household, so I'm trying some new things and resurrecting some old favorites to keep us from being bored eating at home all the time! :)

Monday: Hungry Girl's Bacon cheeseburgers, sweet potato chips, green beans
Tuesday: at Leaders training for the Watermark Pre-married class
Wednesday:  South of the Border chicken soup, cornbread muffins
Thursday: Chicken tinga, chips & salsa
Friday:  Mongolian beef, rice, sauteed broccoli
Saturday breakfast:  cinnamon rolls, fruit salad
Saturday lunch:  leftovers
Saturday dinner: pizza night - pick your own toppings!
Saturday dessert:  black and white cookies
Sunday brunch:  sharing the cinnamon roll bounty with our community group
Sunday lunch: grilled cheese and soup
Sunday dinner:  french dip sandwiches, fruit salad, carrots

DIY Burrito bowls

Inspired by our friends at Chipotle, I decided to make burrito bowls earlier this week.  They were delicious!  The options are really endless, so I'll tell you what we did as well as some alternatives we might try next time.

1.  Start by making cilantro lime rice (one recipe yields about 3-4 servings worth for the bowl, depending on how much you want)
2.  Marinate, then cook, your meat.  We used steak I got on sale seasoned with salt, pepper, cumin, cayenne, and lime juice.  Chicken would also be delicious, or slow cooked pork or beef.
3.  While meat is cooking, assemble other ingredients.  Ours were: black beans, corn salsa (courtesy of Chipotle!), regular salsa, lettuce, and cheese.  You could also have pico de gallo, queso, onions, pinto or refried beans.
4.  Layer everything up!  I think the best order is rice, meat, beans, salsas, cheese, lettuce. 

This is really SO easy, and though its a little time consuming to get everything together, its certainly worth the end result.  I think this would be a great (and healthier) option for a get together, especially as football season approaches.  If you try it out, let me know what you think!

Meal Planning Monday

Monday: burrito bowls with cilantro lime rice
Tuesday: herbed quinoa, grilled chicken and broccoli
Wednesday: our 3rd anniversary! out to eat at III Forks
Thursday: leftovers
Friday: out to eat (with a giftcard!) at Texas Roadhouse
Saturday: going to a wedding
Sunday: still need a recipe, but I'm making mahi mahi...any ideas?

Have a great week!

Peanut butter ice cream

Yet another recipe find from Annie's Eats!  If you like reese's, I will be shocked if you can resist making this ice cream just after seeing the picture :)  We've had our ice cream maker three years now, and I used it for the first time this weekend (apologies to whatever nice person gave that to us as a wedding gift...but better late than never, right?)  Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
¾ cup creamy peanut butter
¾ cup plus 2 tbsp. sugar
2 2/3 cups half-and-half
Pinch of coarse salt
Dash of vanilla extract
1 heaping cup mini Reese’s cups, wrappers removed, frozen and chopped (optional)

Directions:
Combine all of the ingredients (minus the candy) in a blender or food processor; and puree until completely smooth.  Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator.  When the mixture is chilled through, freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.  To mix in the Reese’s, transfer the ice cream to a storage container and gently fold in the peanut butter cup pieces until evenly distributed.

I didn't think far enough ahead to put the freezer piece in overnight, so after running the ice cream maker, it was still rather soupy. I also didn't freeze the Reese's, so they sunk right to the bottom.  I think they would have stayed mixed in better if my ice cream was thicker and if they were frozen.  The flavor of this ice cream is great!  Its the perfect amount of peanut butter, and I'm sure would taste good on any cake.  Report back if you decide to try it - or if you'd like another type of ice cream, Annie's Eats has quite a few she's made recently.

Chocolate buttercream frosting

We celebrated my husband's birthday a few times this year, but our first celebration was when my family was in town last week.  He asked for a marble cake with chocolate buttercream frosting, so I went searching for a frosting recipe. (I went box route on the cake - although I'm sure a marble cake homemade would not be too hard!)  I found this recipe, and it turned out wonderful!  Here it is:

Ingredients
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened -I used butter
3/4 cup cocoa or three 1 oz. unsweetened chocolate squares, melted - I used cocoa
1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately 1 lb.)
3-4 tablespoons milk
Makes: About 3 cups of icing.

Stiff Consistency: In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add cocoa and vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use. For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Rewhip before using.

For Thin (Spreading) Consistency Icing: Add 3-4 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk.

Since we were using it to frost a cake, I added 3 tbsp of water and it was very spreadable.  I wasn't sure how much 3 cups of icing was (the yield) but it was plenty!  I used a very small amount between the layers and I had leftovers.  So, if you use for a cake, feel free to load up the bottom cake layer - I promise you will have enough!  Next, I'm going to try the stiffer consistency on my favorite Magnolia bakery cupcakes. Yum!

German chocolate cake

I'm sure you were all anxiously awaiting this post...just kidding!  Unfortunately, my cake did not look nearly as pretty as this picture....but it did taste good!  The recipe is lengthy, so I'll just point you to it here.  Many of my recipes come from this site, Annie's Eats - you should definitely check it out!

A few notes on this cake...a lot of new skills for me, like cutting 2 cake layers into 4, whipping egg whites into meringue and making a custard.  The only one that didn't go super well was the custard.  I wasn't sure how thick it needed to get and I know now that I did not let it get thick enough.  After assembling the cake, the liquid from the coconut layer soaked into the cake, leaving pretty much a coconut only layer (I omitted the nuts).  It still tasted good, just lacked that typical German chocolate filling.  It will be awhile before I make this again, just due to the time it took, but I will at some point and hopefully will have a perfect cake to report!