It's Super Bowl Sunday, and while most of the country is waiting for the game to resume after the freak power outage, I'm trying to get my menu posted for the week. I have to admit, I'm just not a sports fan. I'd rather be watching the new episode of Downton Abbey. ;)

I made some fun soft pretzel bites for our Super Bowl treat, and my son made Southwestern Egg Rolls. Yum. I've got a new stromboli recipe on the menu for this week. I made it today and we'll just reheat later in the week.

Here's this week's menu. Enjoy and have a great week! Be sure to follow me on Facebook to get fast updates from the blog. :)

Sunday - Super Bowl: Soft Pretzel Bites, Southwestern Egg Rolls with Avocado Ranch Dipping Sauce

Monday - Salisbury Steak and Mashed Potatoes (made ahead), Green Beans, Salad

Tuesday - Ham & Cheddar Stromboli (made ahead), Salad, Strawberries

Wednesday - Spicy Shepherd's Pie (made ahead), Salad, Applesauce

Thursday - Grilled Shrimp Skewers with Creamy Cilantro Sauce, Broccoli, Salad, Strawberries

Friday - leftovers

Saturday -  Grilled Chicken Parmesan, Green Beans, Salad, Strawberries

For more menu ideas, visit orgjunkie.com.  
 

These take a lot of steps to make, but they taste wonderful and great for a special treat. I make the normal salty version and the cinnamon sugar version.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups warm (110 to 115 degrees F) water
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 package active dry yeast
22 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 4 1/2 cups
2 ounces unsalted butter, melted
nonstick spray, for pan
10 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Pretzel or sea salt

Directions:
Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes.

Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then spray it well with nonstick spray. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside.

Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and gently deflate it.  Divide it up into approximately 6 equal portions.  Working with one piece at a time, roll the dough out into a long rope about 1-inch in diameter.  Use a pizza cutter to cut the row into small segments, no longer than 1-inch each.  Repeat with the remaining dough.

 Place the pretzel bites into the boiling water in batches so that they aren’t overcrowded.  Boil each batch for about 30 seconds, stirring once or twice to submerge all surfaces in the water.  Remove from the water with a slotted skimmer and spread out on the prepared baking sheets.

Once all the pretzels have been boiled, brush the tops with the egg wash and sprinkle lightly with salt. Bake in the preheated oven until dark golden brown, about 9-11 minutes.  Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Serve with melted cheese, marinara, mustard, etc. 

Cinnamon sugar variation: Make the basic dough recipe as instructed, omitting the sprinkling of salt before baking.  While the pretzel bites are baking, combine ¾ cup sugar and 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon in a small bowl.  Mix to blend.  In another small bowl, melt 3 tablespoons of butter.  When the pretzel bites are done baking and have cooled enough to handle, dip the top side briefly in the melted butter, then dip in the cinnamon-sugar mixture to adhere to the surface.  Gently shake off any excess.  Repeat with the remaining pretzel bites.  Let stand 5-10 minutes to allow the mixture to set on the surface of the pretzel.

Recipe source - Alton Brown and Annie's Eats

This stromboli is easy to make and uses a no-rise whole wheat dough. You can use whatever fillings you like. It makes two stromboli rolls. I made one with ham and cheddar and one with pepperoni and mozzarella.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 T instant dry yeast
1 cup + 1 T warm water (110-115 degrees F)
2 T canola oil
2 T sugar
3/4 t. salt
3 cups whole wheat flour *
Toppings of your choice (i.e. ham, pepperoni, veggies, etc.)
Shredded cheese of your choice
Olive Oil
Oregano

*You can use half whole wheat flour and half white whole wheat flour. Or, you can use half whole wheat flour and half all-purpose flour (that's what I did as I was out of white whole wheat). 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425.

Combine the warm water and yeast in a mixer bowl. Add in the sugar, salt and oil. Let it sit about 5 minutes until yeast begins to foam.

Add in the flour and mix with dough hook until combined. Knead the dough for 5 minutes using dough hook on mixer at medium speed until dough pulls clean away from the sides of the bowl.

Cover the bowl with a towl and let it rest for 5 minutes.

Divide the dough into two parts. Roll out each half on a lightly floured surface into a large rectangle. Add toppings on top of dough, covering most of the surface. Just leave a little space on the edges. Starting on the long side of the rectangle, roll up the dough jelly-roll style. Pinch ends closed and seal the seam with a little water. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with oregano.

Place seam side down on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at  425 degrees F for 20 minutes.

Slice and serve with sauce of your choice (i.e. marinara, ranch, etc.).

Recipe modified from Finding Joy in My Kitchen

I sat down to post this week's menu, and realized that I never posted last week's menu! Drat! Oh well, at least I have five year's worth of menus already posted for you to choose from. ;)

This is week is the first week in a LONG time that everyone in my family is home every night during the week! Nice! I'm pretty excited about it. Just as an update, our family was successful at our races at Disney two weeks ago. Corey and I can now claim to be half-marathoners, and Eric ran a full marathon! We are pretty proud of ourselves.

Enough of that, though. Here's this week's menu. Enjoy and have a great week! Be sure to follow me on Facebook to get fast updates from the blog. :)

Sunday - Chicken and Dumpling Casserole, Green Beans, Salad

Monday - Chili Ranch Grilled Pork Chops, Broccoli, Salad, Strawberries

Tuesday - Ott's House Casserole, Green Beans, Salad

Wednesday - Baked Tilapia with Horseradish Sauce, Rice, Broccoli, Salad

Thursday - Hamburger Soup (from freezer, Salad, Orange slices

Friday - Leftovers

Saturday - Roast Beef, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans, Salad

For more menu ideas, visit orgjunkie.com.  

This is a great no-meat meal that my whole family loves. The lime and cilantro give it such a fresh taste! You can just use plain rice if you don't want to go the expense of making the saffron basmati rice, but it is very tasty and a nice treat.

Ingredients:

For the rice:
1 pinch saffron threads
olive oil in a mister bottle
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 cup basmati rice
2 cups chicken stock

For the beans:
1 can low sodium black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can low sodium pinto beans, rinsed and drained
2 limes
1/2 t. cumin
3/4 t. chili powder
2-3 T chopped cilantro

Toppings:
fresh salsa
sour cream

Directions:

To make the rice:

Put the saffron threads in a small bowl and crush them a bit with the handle of a knife (or use a pestle if you own one). Pour in a 1/4 cup hot water and soak the saffron for 5 minutes. This helps it release its flavor.

While the spice is soaking, rinse your rice in a colander. Spray the bottom of a 3 quart saucepan with olive oil. Add in the chopped onion and saute on medium heat until the onion softens and starts to caramelize. Add the rice to the pot, mixing with the onion, and stir for one minute.

Pour the saffron liquid evenly over the rice mixture. Make sure you get it all out of the bowl - saffron is expensive! Add the broth and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed and rice is cooked through.

To make the beans:

While the rice is simmering, pour the beans into a small pot. Squeeze the juice from the limes over the beans. Add the cumin and chili powder. Heat through, stirring occasionally. Right before serving, stir in the chopped cilantro. We like a lot in ours.

Serve the beans over the rice. Top with fresh salsa and sour cream.

One of my favorite treats at Silver Dollar City during Christmas season is a serving of their ham and beans with fried potatoes and corn bread. I had never made ham and beans at home before, and decided it was about time I try. I'm so glad I did, because it was very easy, and my recipe is even better than SDC! :)

Ingredients:
1 ham bone (I get them from Honeybaked Ham)
1 lb. great northern beans
1/2 lb. pinto beans
2 t. onion powder
1/2 t. pepper

Directions:
Rinse the dried beans and remove any residual material. Soak overnight in 8 cups of water (at least 8 hours). Drain soak water and rinse beans.

Add 8 cups of hot water to rinsed beans in a large stock pot. Add the ham bone, onion powder and pepper to the pot. Simmer covered for 2 hours until beans are tender and ham is falling off bone.

Remove the ham bone and pull off meat. Chop into bite-sized pieces and return meat to pot (discard bone). Stir and serve.

This makes a huge pot of ham and beans. The leftovers freeze well.

This is an exciting week for the Matzat family. This weekend, we travel to Florida to run the Disney Half Marathon (Corey and me)/Marathon (Eric)! We've been training very hard the last few months for this race, and we are so ready to be finished! :) Because we will be gone over the weekend, I'm going to go ahead and post the menu for the next two weeks. I'm not posting anything for the days we are gone. Our housesitter is on his own for cooking. :)

Here's this week's menu. Enjoy and have a great week! Be sure to follow me on Facebook to get fast updates from the blog. :)

Sunday - Steak, Baked Potatoes, Green Beans, Salad

Monday - Ham and Beans (from freezer), Sinfully Sweet Cornbread (from freezer), Salad

Tuesday - Homemade Pizza (needed to use up some extra sauce and mozzarella I had in the fridge), Salad

Wednesday - Creamy Chicken Breasts (didn't get to them last week), Rice, Green Beans, Salad

Thursday - Spaghetti, Broccoli, Salad, Garlic Muffins (carb loading for the race )

Friday - Sunday - Eating in Florida - Housesitter on his own!

Monday - Turkey and Gravy (from freezer), Mashed Potatoes (from freezer), Green Beans

Tuesday - Grilled Fish Tacos (just grill some Tilapia and slap it on a tortilla!), Strawberries

Wednesday - Southwest Beans and Rice (recipe later), Salad

Thursday - Leftovers

Friday - Taco Salad, Applesauce

Saturday - In N Out Burgers, Green Beans, Salad

For more menu ideas, visit orgjunkie.com.