Meal Plan 2/16 to 2/22

I hope you enjoy this week of my meal plan.  My hopes is to continue helping you in your meal planning.  I think we all need to get away from eating fast food or overly processed packaged foods.  May your meal planning & cooking journey be a great one!

Sun Feb 16
Breakfast:  banana waffles
Dinner:  Pot Roast Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Mon Feb 17
Dinner:  Duggar Tater Tot Casserole
Dessert:

Tues Feb 18
Dinner:  Leftovers

Wed Feb 19
Dinner:  Slow Cooker Pizza Casserole

Thurs Feb 20
Dinner:  Leftovers (because that casserole makes alot even for my family of 5)

Fri Feb 21
Dinner:  Tuna Noodle Casserole
Dessert:

Sat Feb 22
Dinner:  Baked Chicken Teriyaki  quinoa  steamed veggies

Baked Chicken Teriyaki

One of my family's favorite dinners.  The way these thighs bake with brushing sauce on them every 10 min, make them fall off the bone delicious!

Baked Chicken Teriyaki
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp cold water
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
12 (large package) bone in chicken thighs

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  You can buy skinless, bone in chicken thighs or you can buy with skin on.  Cut off skin before adding to baking dish.

In a small saucepan combine cornstarch & cold water, mix thoroughly.  Add in sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, ginger & pepper.  Simmer on low heat, stirring frequently till sauce thickens.  Take off heat.

Place chicken in 9"X13" lightly greased baking dish.  (I always grease with coconut oil.)  Brush both sides with sauce.  Place dish in oven for 30 min (brushing with sauce every 10 min), flip chicken over & bake for additional 30 min (again brushing with sauce every 10 min.)

Make sure not to over brush chicken each time or you won't have enough sauce for both sides.  On your last brush make sure you use up the rest of your sauce.  Can be paired with mashed potatoes, quinoa or whatever other favorite side you have.  Your family will think you've been slaving all day to make this delicious meal!

Tuna Noodle Casserole

Delicious comfort food!

Tuna Noodle Casserole
 2-10.75 oz cream of celery
1 cup milk
2 cup peas
4 (6 oz) canned tuna, drained
4 cups hot cooked egg noodles
4 Tbsp dry bread crumbs
2 Tbsp butter, melted
4 Tbsp pimentos (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Mix soup, milk, peas, tuna, pimentos & noodles in a 9"X13" casserole dish.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Mix bread crumbs & butter together.  Sprinkle on top of cooked casserole & bake for additional 5 minutes.

You may exchange cream of celery for a different cream of soup that you wish.

Slow Cooker Pizza Casserole

My kids wish I would cook this everyday, but it's just too cheesy so it is just a once in a while meal.

Slow Cooker Pizza Casserole
16 oz of rigatoni or large tube pasta
1-1/2 lbs of ground beef
1 onion chopped
4 cups (16oz) shredded mozzarella
2 (15 oz) pizza sauce
(10-3/4 oz) cream of mushroom soup
8 oz sliced pepperoni

Cook pasta according to package.  I use whole wheat (or gluten free) noodles for this recipe.  Meanwhile in skillet cook ground beef till almost not pink, add in onion, drain if needed.  Cook thoroughly.

Drain pasta, place in slow cooker.  I've used 4qt before & it is completely full.  So now that I have a 6qt slow cooker I use that now.  Stir in beef mixture, cheese, sauce, soup & pepperoni's.  If your using the 4qt you'll see it takes some talent to stir this, if using the 6qt there should be plenty of room.  Cover, cook on low for 2-3 hrs.  Your mainly allowing time for this masterpiece to meld together.

I have to note when done, you'll want to soak this baby (crock pot) right away as the cheesiness is not friendly for cleaning time!  Also if you make your own cream of mushroom soup let me know how this turns out.  I've been wanting to try to make my own cream of's but haven't yet.  Especially if I can make the cream of's to be gluten free.  I am trying to get my family off the gluten, but they are not easily willing to make this change.

Pot Roast

I love a good pot roast!  And Ree Drummond always has such delicious recipes.  There are not very many recipes of hers that I have tried, that my family didn't rave about.  So I decided to use her pot roast recipe which you can get here:  Ree Drummond delicious pot roast

Now, I don't have a fancy dutch oven (I wish I did & maybe one day I will) so I had 2 options when using this recipe.  My first was to throw it in a crock pot, but I ended up using one of those roasting bags.

So follow her recipe up to the deglazing.  While I was deglazing my pot with a bit of wine then using a cup of broth, I put my roasting bag on my 9"X13" casserole dish.  Added my roast, put my onions around it, & add the carrots.  I'm also a horrible gardener (something I wish to get better at, but for now it is not unlikely that I will kill all plants that I have) so I used dried rosemary & thyme.  I sprinkled them both on top of my roast.  Then added my cup of deglazing broth & added another cup of broth.  I sealed up the roasting bag, cut the slits it advises to do & threw in the oven.

If I were to of used my crock pot, I would of done the same only instead of adding to the roasting bag.  I would added everything to the crock pot.

Banana Waffles (or base waffles/pancakes)

My boys love waffles, it used to be pancakes till my love bought me a waffle maker, so I'm sharing my base recipe.  You can use this for pancakes or waffles.  You can really let your creativity flow after getting to know this base recipe.  My family's favorite version are the banana waffles (actually it's the chocolate chip version, but that is only used for special occasions).

Banana Waffles
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
a few dashes of nutmeg
a few dashes of ground cloves
1 egg
1 & 2/3 cup milk
1 Tbsp oil
1 whole ripe banana

In a good size bowl, add the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg & cloves; stir to mix well.  In a measuring cup add the egg & beat slightly with a fork.  Add to dry mix.  Add milk to measuring cup (Any milk will do, during the holidays it is my favorite to add egg nog it really makes fluffy waffles.  If you are using regular milk you may thicken  it up a bit by adding a Tbsp of vinegar per cup of milk.) & pour slowly into dry mix.  I usually add a bit at a time maybe cause I use a fairly small bowl, if you are using a bigger bowl you can probably add the whole first cup at once & mix well.  For the next 2/3c add a little at a time no matter the size of your bowl.  I like my mix a bit runny, you may like it a bit thicker.  Add your oil & mix in.  At this point I add my banana, I usually break it up into pieces then mix.  I like having some chunks of banana.  You can also add other things instead of banana, like blueberries (fresh or frozen) chocolate chips, etc.  You may also play with extracts like adding a tsp of vanilla, almond or whatever sparks your fancy (Or maybe you just need to use it up  I have some mint extract that needs used, but I don't think that would taste good.  Maybe if you try mint extract & it turns out amazing let me know ;)

And that is it pour batter into preheated waffle griddle or on heated fry pan.  When I used to make pancakes (before I received my waffle maker) I preheated a frying pan (I don't use non-stick at all) & used coconut oil.  It is my favorite oil to use it doesn't burn to the pan like my olive oil would. (Which is a nightmare to wash up if not pretreated with dish soap, baking soda, hot water mix.  But not as bad as scrambled eggs, I really detest cleaning a pan with stuck scrambled eggs.  Most likely why non-stick was made, but again I will NEVER use non-stick.)