Meal Plans 6/4/2012

I generally post my meal plans on a Monday or Wednesday.  However, my planning has been a little...ummm... sporadic.  They happen but it's not always one the same day.  Sometimes I plan for a little longer than seven days or I have to go to the grocery store on a particular evening.  That's another thing, I generally relegate my shopping now to the evenings or maybe a Saturday morning.  Not my favorite but that really is the best for the season of life that we are in right now.  Maybe that is a post post for another day.  HA!

I am actually pretty excited about some of the recipes this week.  However, there was one that I was particularly excited about and it turned not as over-the-top-delicious as I thought it would be.  Maybe I did something wrong??

Anyway, here's what's cookin'

• Chicken & Avocado Salad w/ veggies and hummus  (I made the original recipe that is mentioned here before and I will say that I like this updated recipe much better.  I think it's the bigger chunks that helps)
• Man Pleasing Chicken w/ Quinoa & Pine Nuts side dish , strawberries (This was the one that was abig disappointment.  While good, I was expecting more.  My kids LOVED the quinoa though!  We added the strawberries because the plate was looking a little brown)
• Tacos w/ Avocado, black bean, and corn salad.  Chips.
• Monterey Chicken  w/ zucchini tots
• Roasted Chicken w/ Orzo-stuffed peppers
• BBQ Chicken Quinoa Salad

How To: Miss A's Owl Cake

Okay, so a few people have asked for a more step by step "tutorial" on how I made this cake.  Because I didn't take pictures for each step you will have to do your best to imagine.  If you have specific questions feel free to e-mail or comment.

Upfront, this is a small cake.  I used a 6-inch cake pan that I got at a craft store.  Yes, it's small.  I used a butter cream frosting and colored it as needed with Wilton cake colors -- far superior than regular food coloring.  Feel free to use whatever frosting you feel the need to use.  Butter cream warms up pretty fast and will lose it's ability to hold form as it warms up in the pastry bag you are piping with.  So, work quickly and take a break to refrigerate your frosting as needed.

• With my cake on a plate, I crumb coated the cake.  I need to look into what this really entails but my version was just adding a thin layer of white icing on the whole cake.  It gave me a nice clean surface to work on.
• Then I created the outline for the bird face in the crumb coat.  For the large part of the eye I used a glass tumbler from our cabinet.  For the black part of the eyes I used the alcohol measuring cup -- ahem -- you know it's small and it measures out a pour, etc.  Then I drew the rest out with a toothpick.  When I was satisfied with my template I put it in the freezer for about 15-20 minutes.
• While the cake was in the freezer I set aside some of the white frosting I made for the owl's eyes.  With the rest I colored to my desired blue color.  When the timer went off I pulled the cake from the freezer and iced the side and the smooth blue areas of the cake.  I have yet to master the technique of an ultra-smooth cake.  Someday.  It was satisfactory for me and gave the owl a little texture.  HA!  Back in he freezer.
• During this break I filled my pastry bag and pick my decorating tip.  For the life of me I don't remember which number I used.  Basically, just pick what kind of texture you want and go with it.  I let the frosting firm up a bit in the fridge and all was good to go when the timer went off.  I "stippled" in the feather area.  Freezer.
• Fill in the white of the eyes even though they are already white.  It covers the crumb coat and makes everything level.  I just used a medium sized piping tip (it's just round if you are wondering about that.)  Still working on my technique here.  Freezer.
• Make the back icing.  Fill in eyes and eyebrows.  I used a yellow cake gel I had on hand for the nose and filled that in pretty fast.  You can use the gel (it comes in primary colors in the baking section of your local grocery/market) or make some yellow frosting.  I didn't have yellow coloring so this was super handy.

That's basically it.  The freezing, for me, helped keep the shape of everything and prevented any of the colors from bleeding into each other.

If I missed something let me know and I will add that into this "tutorial."

Miss A's 1st Birthday!

ARGH!

I realized last night as I was posting what seemed like a gazillion photos to Flickr (with still many more to go from two other cameras!) I realized that I never posted about Miss A's birthday cake.  What?!?!?  Seriously, we are about a month and a half out from her birthday.  Where does the time go?

I found this owl cake on Pinterest and immediately fell in love with it.  I realized later I liked how "clean" it was which was created with fondant.  However, I have never really worked with fondant nor did I think that it would be ideal for a cake that a freshly minted one-year-old would tear into.  So, I opted to just adapt from there.

To be honest I almost scraped the whole idea and just go for decorating the cake like a cupcake.  Sigh.  I finally just sucked it up and went for it.  I like using butter cream frosting but it is not so stable when it warms up.  So, I went in stages with this cake and stuck it in the freezer for about 20 minutes between each step so the frosting would firm up.  I worked fast between steps so it wouldn't "melt."  It was a winner of a plan although it took some time.  However, I was pretty tired on this particular day so lots of little breaks were a welcome addition to the day.  Well, here's my final product.  I realized I should have crossed his eyes to maybe make him look a little less Angry Birds looking.  It was hit either way, even with my oldest, Miss L.  I have to also mention that I bought a special small cake pan for this project as I didn't think Miss A needed a regular sized cake all to herself.  Baking the cake took some extra care because there aren't standard guidelines for this sized cake.  I also did up cupcakes for the rest of the family.

I still would like to work on my cake decorating skills.  Maybe when the girls are older I can take a class.  Until then it will be my random dinking around with what I remember from almost 15 years ago when I had someone teaching me.  I used to be able to make lovely drop flowers and roses.  I am not sure I would know where to start anymore.  I think I will also try working with cream cheese frosting the next time around.  Delish and maybe a bit more sturdy (as in not so "melty") for sure.

Is it worth spending so much time on my cakes just so the girls can destroy them?  Totally.  The videos of my girls tearing into their first cakes are so worth every minute.  Plus, it's a fun little challenge.  However, I think for Miss L's third birthday coming up we may be ordering a cake from the bakery as I will be not too long from my due date and wow... that sounds like a lot of work.  We will see.  Oh yes... one more picture... the cake after Miss A was done with it...

"Vegetarian" Lasagna

I am always looking for something to add vegetables to our meals rather than just as a side.  I am not really creative there and Miss L is now in a phase of hit or miss on whether she likes vegetables and Miss A could not care any less as long as the food is in front of her.  I found this recipe browsing Pinterest (surprised?) and it was in a list of "8 weeks of easy recipes" from a website called, Moms Who Think.


So, while I am not a huge fan of mushroom I purchased all the necessary ingredients.  I had pasta sauce already on hand from a great sale and oddly enough I also had feta on hand that I needed to use sooner than later.  I have the word vegetarian in quotes in this post because I happened to have some left over pasta sauce that had some Italian sausage in it.  I added more sauce to the recipe as an estimate.  Go with what works for you.  Also, 24oz of mozzarella was a lot of cheese.  I didn't use it all by any means.  I will be using in in another meal later this week.  Be sure not to cook the vegetables too much as they will become too mushy during baking.  While I almost left the feta off because Miss L has not been such a fan of feta in the past.  However, she seemed to like it and it adds a whole new dimension -- must. add. feta.

This meal, while messy for my one year old, went over very well!  Great leftovers and the girls gobbled it up!  Totally worth the mess.  Totally.

Vegetarian Lasagna Ingredients:

4 medium zucchini
1 package of fresh mushrooms (amount depends on taste)
1 medium onion
Fresh garlic (to taste)
10 oz. frozen chopped spinach
28 oz. jar pasta sauce
24 oz. mozzarella cheese
8 oz. feta cheese
Olive Oil (to coat the pan)
Lasagna Noodles

Directions:

1. Boil lasagna noodles until al dente. Mince zucchini, mushrooms, onion and garlic.

2. Coat pan with oil and sauté vegetables until tender. Add defrosted spinach. Add pasta sauce.

3. Layer vegetable mixture on top of noodles; add mozzarella cheese on each layer.

4. Top with feta cheese. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 until brown and bubbly.

5. Serve with warmed Italian bread. (Or maybe a fresh green salad!) 

Ham & Cheese Sliders

I keep seeing this recipe being "repinned" on Pinterest and I always think to myself, "Good recipe, I need to blog about it."  This was one of the first things I tried from Pinterest.  It was originally pinned from The Girl Who Ate Everything.  (I need to look through this blog a bit more! HA!)

Ham happened to be on sale that week.  I will say because of the general expense of meat I probably would not go out of my way to make this meal again.  However, it will be in rotation for when we generally have leftovers of ham.  So, think Resurrection Day/Easter, Christmas or New Year's if that's your thing... or anytime it is on sale.  This recipe may work well with deli sliced ham if you find a good deal on it.  This meal was a bit on the expensive side for me because I got the swiss cheese in the deli.  However, my buyer's remorse was short lived with how well this meal went over with everyone AND I was able to use the cheese I had not only for this meal but for another meal and some lunches.

I actually halved this recipe because I didn't think we would need ALL of them.  Plus, I was running short on time (I forgot I still had to slice the ham myself!) and I had opted earlier to only buy one bag of rolls.  Next time I will make the full recipe as they were gobbled up and they would make AWESOME leftovers.  Just sayin'.

Ham and Cheese Sliders

adapted slightly from the Recipe Club

24 good white dinner rolls

24 pieces good honey ham
24 small slices Swiss cheese
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup miracle whip

Poppy seed sauce
1 T poppyseeds
1 1/2 T yellow mustard
1 stick butter, melted
1 T minced onion
1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

In a small bowl, mix together mayonnaise and miracle whip. Spread onto both sides of the center of each roll. Place a slice of ham and a slice of Swiss inside of each roll. Close rolls and place them into a large baking dish or heavy cookie sheet. Place very close together.

In a medium bowl, whisk together all of the poppy seed sauce ingredients. Pour evenly over all of the sandwiches. Let sit 10 minutes or until butter sets slightly. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until cheese is melted. Uncover and cook for 2 additional minutes. Serve warm.

** sandwiches can be assembled a day ahead and kept in the fridge ready to bake.

Crispy Southwest Chicken Wraps

Let me just say, my kiddos (1 & 2 1/2) gobbled this up!  That should be all you need to know to try this yummy meal.  I had just used the last of my sour cream a couple of days before so I didn't get to use that in these this time around.  However, my littles don't really like sour cream so I would have left it out of theirs anyway.  I put a little less chili powder in as my girls can be a bit sensitive but they didn't complain! I will add this to a regular rotation.  I had some left over chicken from another meal so it made it a pretty cheap meal.  However, I may try this with whole wheat tortillas next time around. (You can find the original recipe by clicking on the photo - they also have a print friendly version available there.)  Oh yes, this was also tagged on my Pinterest board.  Love.

Crispy Southwest Chicken Wrap

*Makes 6 wraps*

1 cup cooked rice, warm or at room temperature
1 cup cooked, shredded chicken
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 green onion, finely sliced (white and green parts)
1/2 red or green pepper, diced
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
juice of 1 lime
1/2 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
2 cups shredded cheese (I used a combination of monterey jack and sharp cheddar)
Sour cream (optional)

6 burrito-sized flour tortillas

Mix rice together with chili powder, cumin and garlic salt. Add remaining ingredients except for cheese and sour cream. Sprinkle cheese over tortillas, leaving 1/2-inch border around edges, then arrange chicken and rice mixture down the center of each tortilla. (Optional: on some of the wraps, I dotted the cheese with about 1-2 tablespoons of reduced fat sour cream before arranging chicken and rice mixture down the center – it made the wraps delightfully creamy.) Roll stuffed tortillas, leaving edges open. Spray the tortillas all over with cooking spray.

Heat a large non-stick skillet (or griddle) over medium heat for 1 minute. Arrange 2 wraps, seam-side down, in pan and cook until golden brown and crisp, about 2-3 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate and repeat with remaining wraps. Serve.

Tortilla and Black Bean Pie

Not too long ago a friend posted on her blog about all the lovely things one can find on Pinterest.  Anything really from food, crafts, photography.  If it's on the internet it can be "pinned."  She posed the question to her readers if we are on said website do we do anything with the things we pin.  While I have not done anything with the crafty things I have pinned I have made several recipes that I have pinned.  It has actually become my go to place to plan my meals.  Granted, some things you find there can be quite extravagant.  However, you can find super simple and budget friendly meals as well.  So begins the many meals that will be tagged with "Pinterest."  Oddly enough, I found this recipe on the same friend's recipe board!  However, the original recipe can be found on MarthaStewart.com.

For whatever reason I didn't use the beer in this recipe.  I wanted it to be a lighter beer (as in color) and I think all we had on hand at the time was a stout.  Maybe next time.  It was a really yummy meal.  I made the mistake of getting smaller tortillas than the called for 10-inch.  Get the 10-inch people!  I made mine in a cake pan rather than pulling down the spring form pans.  Probably beautiful either way.  But the spring form will allow for easier access.

This is a great recipe and the kiddos loved it.  We had a tiny bot of taco meat left over so I threw it in just for kicks.  If I were making this again it would be perfectly delish as it is written.

• Tortilla and Black Bean Pie
• 
  
• 4 flour tortillas (10 inches)
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 jalapeno chile, minced (remove seeds and ribs for less heat)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
• 2 cans (15 ounces each) black beans, drained and rinsed
• 12 ounces beer, or 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 package (10 ounces) frozen corn
• 4 scallions, thinly sliced, plus more for garnish
• 8 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded (2 1/2 cups)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. With a paring knife, trim tortillas to fit a 9-inch springform pan. Use the bottom of the pan as a guide. Set aside.
2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, jalapeno, garlic, and cumin; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 5 to 7 minutes.
3. Add beans and beer, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium; simmer until liquid has almost evaporated, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in corn and scallions, and remove from heat. Taste and adjust for seasoning.
4. Fit a trimmed tortilla in bottom of springform pan; layer with 1/4 of the beans and 1/2 cup of cheese. Repeat three times, using 1 cup cheese on top layer. Bake until cheese melts, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove side of pan; sprinkle pie with scallions. To serve, slice into wedges.