My Menu - 31 January 2011

We've been on a real salad kick around here. Last week we had salad almost every night ! It was wonderful !!

So ... last night I put this on facebook ... "i am wanting to make a cool refreshing salad for dinner tonight. anyone got any ideas ? quickly ... i am heading to the store soon !!" I got some great responses ! I ended up making black bean salsa and guacamole. I let them sit in the fridge while we had drinks with the neighbors and watched the kids play at the park, when we came in, we just melted a bit of cheese on some corn chips, in the microwave, it literally took seconds. Then topped those with the salsa, guac, sour cream and black olives. It so hit the spot !!

BUT ... I got so many other cool salad responses on my post and I'm going to try them this week. Some of them we've had before and I was happy for the reminder ! Some of them are new ...

Sunday

Just me and the kids tonight ... I'm eating WOMBOK salad as I type !
I'll post the recipe tomorrow !!

Monday

THE Salad !
This is so yum and makes a bunch.
It will feed us dinner and a few days lunches, at least !

Tuesday

Michelle's Salad
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Sweet onion, sliced into rings
Hard boiled eggs, sliced
Boiled red potatoes, sliced
Avocado, cut into small chunks
Carrots and/or celery, if you like
Green olives, if you like
Salt to taste, preferably sea salt
Toss it all with Italian dressing; let sit in fridge for a couple of hours for flavors to blend
Top with shredded cheese just before serving, if you like
Nice and cool, and the eggs and potatoes make it filling enough for a meal.
John and I have this at least once a week during the summer. :-)

I'm going to try making this Italian dressing.

Wednesday

Teresa's Salad

I top greens (any lettuce you prefer) with a mix of white sweet corn, black beans, tomatoes, green chilies, cilantro, green onion, splash of lime juice, salt and pepper to taste. I put a drizzle of creamy ranch or any you prefer, I also love to add leftover grilled chicken to make it a filling dinner. Love the fresh taste!! Oh, can also top with avocado and tortilla chips.

Thursday

Khrista's Salad Bar

we also like to do "salad bar" at our house in the summer...just ALL kinds of stuff on greens...beans (garbanzo, black, kidney) sprouts, tomatoes, carrots, celery, sunflower seeds, broccoli, red cabbage, butter beans, mushrooms, peppers...etc. you get the picture. ;)

and i will have the ingredients for jamie's broccoli salad out as well ...

Friday

I've sort of stopped planning Friday dinners. They are pretty relaxed ... sort of a casual thing. We almost always have drinks with our neighbors and stay outside til well after dark ... sometimes we will all order dinner in, sometimes we all run in and throw something together to share and sometimes we come in late and just eat by ourselves. You never can tell. It's spontaneous and fun and I like it !!

**

Menu Plan Monday is hosted by Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie

The Pioneer

I can't believe I haven't posted this yet.

Another from the Cheese and Burger Society site ...

Swiss Cheese
Beef Patty (cheese and burger did two ... we only did one)
Sautéed Mushrooms
Caramelized Onions ... this was not part of the recipe but we decided they would be a good addition !!
Rosemary, fresh
Bacon, cooked
Garlic Aioli - homemade with this recipe and check out my video tutorial to see how easy it is !
Lettuce, I like ice berg
Sesame Seed Bun

Very simply ... make your burgers. We always BBQ ours. Top with cheese (while still on the BBQ) While the burgers are cooking, caramelize your onions, cook your bacon and sautee your mushooms. While those are cooking, get the rest of your stuff ready. Make the Aoili, pull apart the lettuce, grab a few sprigs of rosemary from the garden.

Once everything is cooked, you just need to assemble, serve and figure out how to fit that big ole burger into your mouth ! You'll be glad you did though ... this is ONE TASTY BURGER !!

menu plan monday // Khrista 01.24.11

Some old favorites and meals I have most of the ingredients for this week. 

Have a great week! :)

::::::::

Menu Plan Monday is hosted by Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie

My Menu - 24 January 2011

FINALLY !! I have made a menu !
I went with all stuff that I've made before.
It IS the first week back to school and getting back into routine
so I thought I'd make it easy on myself !

Here's the plan ...

Sunday
Asian Chicken Salad

Monday
Amazing Caesar Salad

Tuesday
Toasted Ham and Cheese Sandwiches

Wednesday
Steak Cobb Salad

Thursday
Garlic Chicken Pasta (Crock Pot)

Friday
Either Leftovers or Burgers ....
Will see how the week goes !

**

Menu Plan Monday is hosted by Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie

Menu Plan Fail #2 ?!

"Routine ..."

"Routine ..."

"Where are you, Routine ??"

We are now in the last week of summer holidays.



The kids go back on Monday.
I am so looking forward to getting back into a good routine !

Maybe then I'll actually get a menu planned again !!

Here's hoping .....

menu plan monday // Khrista 01.17.11

Links to Recipes:

Ecuadorian Quinoa Vegetable Soup

Black Bean & Sweet Potato Chili

Lemon Spaghetti

Menu Plan Monday is hosted by Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie

do {you} subscribe ?

two things.

1. i was in google reader today and i noticed that we have hit 100 subscribers to the beans blog ! along with the 25 who follow in blogger ... we have 125 people who subscribe to this blog ! that is INSANE !! i mean ... it's not on par with the pioneer woman who has 62,331 subscribers but close enough ! i just find it hard to believe that there are that many people who like our little old blog enough to subscribe to it ! i wonder ... do you subscribe ? i'd love to know how many of those 125 subscribers actually read each post ? this is a little test ... if you read this, would you just say g'day in the comments ?! that would be cool !

2. today i went to the camera shop to buy a remote for my camera. i got one. a really cool one. i also asked about their photography classes. i got to talking with the guy who runs the classes and at one point mentioned that i love to take photos of food. he asked me for my card. i was like 'what?' he asked again and i said 'i'm not a professional' he asked me if i wanted to be. long story short, i'm sending him some photos of food to see what he thinks ... he told me to think about my hourly rate too ... BIZARRE !!

so ... would you please do me a favor ? i need to pick like 6 - 12 good photos to send to him. if you are reading this and you think ... 'oh, i love that one photo of .......' would you please let me know which one it is ? i'd love a bit of feedback before i make my final choice on which ones to send !

that is all !

thank you

and good night.

Menu Plan Fail

Totally failed at making a menu plan.

Floods have been happening only an hour away from here and I've been a bit preoccupied. I wasn't sure it they would end up down here so the other day, during a break in the rain, I ran up to the grocery store and just grabbed a few things. So ... we'll be eating those up. Just making up recipes and trying to use what we have on hand.

We've been trying out some of the recipes others have posted here at the beans blog.
I can recommend a couple of them !
The Lemon Garlic Shrimp were freaking delicious !
They are basically a heart attack in a bowl but they taste amazing !
We went the whole hog and had a loaf of bread to sop up
those amazingly flavored juices !!

Also tried the lemondoodles.
Actually, we did snickerdoodles, lemondoodles and we made orangedodles as well.
Made the orange ones according to the lemon ones recipe ... just substituted orange, of course.
They were amazing.
We have some dough left over ... I'm going to bake those puppies up for dessert tonight.

Speaking of tonight ... we are trying Asian Chicken Salad for dinner !

Going to go cook it now ...

I'll let you know what I think ! I'm pretty sure I already know ...

It looks and sounds so good.

Pumpkin Salad

Whipped this little beauty up for dinner tonight.

Whole little potatoes onto a baking sheet, covered in olive oil ... on a hot oven (200 C) ... I think they took about an hour to bake. When they came out of the oven, I sprinkled with a chunky salt.

Chopped up some pumpkin, cooked it coated in olive oil in the other half of the baking tray I used to make the roasted cauliflower. Took about 45 minutes ... in the same oven as the potatoes. I turned it down to about 180 when I put the pumpkin/cauliflower in.

The salad was spinach, rocket, pine nuts, avocado, feta cheese, & red onion. Then the pumpkin. Then some nice balsamic vinegar. And then some crunchy fried noodles.

Easy peasy. Done. Delicious.

menu plan monday // Khrista 01.10.11

I am pressed for time today, but if you'd like more info on any of these recipes, leave a comment! :)

Menu Plan Monday is hosted by Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie

Asian Chicken Salad

This is an easy and tasty chicken salad that our family has made for years.
My mom always called it Asian Chicken Salad, though we aren't exactly sure what is Asian about it..

For 4 servings::

One head cabbage
3-4 chicken breast

For the topping:
1 package ramen noodles (maybe this is where the asian part comes in?)
About 1/4 cup sesame seeds and 1/4 cup chopped(or slivered) almonds

For the salad dressing:
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil (I tried OO once and it wasn't nearly as good.)
2 1/2 Tablespoons Sugar
1 teaspoon Salt
3 Tablespoons Rice Vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Pepper

Thinly chop the cabbage and throw into a big bowl.

Chop Chicken into bite size pieces. Flour and fry until crispy, seasoning with garlic salt and pepper.

Heat about 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil in a skillet and brown the sesame seeds and almonds along with the broken up ramen noodles.

While your chicken and nuts are frying to a nice golden brown, mix up your dressing.

Let the chicken cool and drain on some paper towels.

Next, pour the dressing onto the cabbage and mix thoroughly.

Dish the salad and top with chicken, sesame seeds, almonds and ramen.

Coming from a family of meat and potato dinners, I can say this salad certainly stands on its own feet as a main dish.

LemonDoodle

 I took a regular Snickerdoodle recipe and made them into delightful little lemon cookies.


2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 sticks of butter, room temp.

2 eggs




1 1/2 cups sugar



And for

Lemon Glaze

Juice of one lemon

zest of one lemon

3-4 tablespoons of powdered sugar...add as little or as much as you'd like for desired consistency.





Preheat the oven to 400°

Sift together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
Combine butter and sugar. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, a couple minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl. Add eggs, and beat to combine. Add dry ingredients, and beat to combine.

Chill the dough for 20-30 minutes (or overnight), makes it easier to shape into balls.

For LemonDoodles:
Roll into small balls and place on cookie sheet.

Bake for about ten minutes.
Let cool on sheet for a couple minutes, transfer to wire rack and drizzle with Lemon Glaze.



For regular Snickerdoodles

In a separate bowl mix



1/4 cup sugar mixed in a bowl with
2 tablespoons cinnamon



roll balls into mixed cinnamon and sugar then place on cookie sheet.
Bake for about ten minutes.

menu plan monday // Khrista 01.03.11

This is our menu for the first week of 2011!!!
This is the form I print out and fill in every week. (You can use it too if you'd like! ;)
I want to get back in the habit of planning and posting here every week!
A few links to recipes:

• I'm using this recipe as a guide for the Kale & Cheddar Hand Pies. 
• Caramelized Leek Quiche
• Wednesday & Thursday's recipes are from the book Super Natural Cooking. I think they'll be YUMMY! I see she has a new book coming out in the Spring too! eeek! :) I might pre-order that!
• The Pad Thai recipe is from the book Skinny Bitch. I might tweak this one a bit gathering from comments I've read regarding it on the net. 

 

Menu Plan Monday is hosted by Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie

My Menu - 3 January 2011

Can you believe it is 2011 already ? Insane !

We've had a lovely week off. It rained most of the week so we spent a lot of time inside the house ... playing games, watching movies (lots and lots of movies) ... we got a beach day in one day and it was nice for New Years Eve so we joined the crowds for fireworks down at the beach then too ! It's been wonderfully relaxing.

We cooked some great food too !! All Jamie Oliver recipes and all ones we had never tried before ! I am currently grappling with how/if to share those recipes here on my blog ! I'll keep you posted ....

But for now, let's get onto the menu for this week ... it's back to work, so mostly back to what we know, what is simple during the week and new stuff on the weekends !

Tonight we are doing pizza with friends ... we're going to try making them in our Weber BBQ's ... we have one, and they are bringing theirs ! Among other pizzas, we will OF COURSE be introducing them to The Funky Lime ....

Tuesday
Calamari
Ok ... so, I lied ... I'm going to try two new things ! ha ha ... I just have to try Nancy's Lemon Garlic Shrimp and I've been meaning to try Hannah's Foccacia for some time now.
I'll make some sort of green salad to go with this meal too ...

Wednesday
We are going to friends place for dinner ...

Thursday
We haven't had garlic and coriander chicken for ages.
I'm going to make lumpia to go with it ... but I'll do a big batch and freeze a bunch for later.
And of course ... sweet and sour sauce.


Friday
Time to do another burger !
Not sure which one yet ... I'll have to get back to you on that !


Saturday
not eating at home

Sunday
not eating at home

**

Menu Plan Monday is hosted by Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie

Lemon Garlic Shrimp

Shrimp is an old family friend of ours. There's not a birthday, holiday or family occasion that goes by with out it.

So for New Year's Eve we tried this recipe for the first time and we were in shrimp garlic heaven.

You will need:
- 2 pounds Raw Shrimp, deviened
- 2 sticks Cold Butter, cut up
- 1 teaspoon Sea Salt
- 4 Garlic Cloves, Peeled
- 1/4 Cup Fresh Parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed Red Pepper
- 1 Lemon, juiced

Preheat oven 375 degrees. Rinse frozen shrimp and arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet.

In your food processor, add cold butter pieces garlic, lemon juice, salt, parsley and crushed red pepper. Pulse until combined and sprinkle over the shrimp. Bake until shrimp is cooked and the butter sauce is hot and bubbly, about 30 minutes.

If you really want to out do yourself, toast some french bread and dip it in the butter sauce.
MERCY! Its so good. Probably my favorite food ever.

P.S. Thank you Ree Drummond for the amazing recipe.