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.  



Last Wednesday was my 5 year "blogiversary" for the What's for Dinner blog! Is it strange that I've been blogging about what I eat for five years? Hopefully my meal plans and recipes have been useful for many of you. They are vital for my family. If I didn't meal plan, my family would eat out or eat junk way too often. Meal plans are definitely a key component of survival for this mom. :)

Today is New Year's Eve, and we woke to a dusting of snow on the ground! It has been so warm this December that it's nice to have it actually feel like winter finally. We don't have any huge plans for the evening. Corey's girlfriend, Hannah, is visiting, and they plan on making some cookies today. We are going to have fun appetizers for dinner, watch movies, play games and ring in the New Year with a sparkling grape juice toast. :) Hopefully Eric and I will be able to stay up that late. ;)

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 - Eat at Silver Dollar City (had to go see the Christmas lights one more time for Hannah)

Monday - New Year's Eve fun food - Mini pigs-in-blanket (turkey little smokies wrapped in crescent rolls), Mini meatball subs (meatballs cooked in marinara sauce and put on wheat Kings Hawaiian rolls with provolone), Chips and Queso, Orange slices, and whatever cookies the kids make today :)

Tuesday - Tator Tot Surprise (didn't get to it last week - too much leftover ham and beans to eat), Salad, Oranges


Wednesday - Lasagna Rolls (borrowed my brother's pic as I forgot to take on last time I made them), Salad, Garlic Bread, Strawberries

Thursday - Taco Salads, Fruit


Friday - Creamy Chicken Breasts, Rice, Green Beans, Salad


Saturday - Turkey Dinner (Wal Mart had turkeys on sale for 50 cents/pound!)


For more menu ideas, visit orgjunkie.com.  
It's Christmas Eve! I can hardly believe today's the day. It has been so warm here lately (60 degrees yesterday) that it doesn't seem very Christmasy But, we actually have a winter storm watch for Christmas day, so maybe some snow is in our near future.

Corey and I are officially on break from school for two weeks! Woo hoo! He has had a very tough semester with 6 AP classes, half of which he takes on online. No "blow off" senior year for my kid - yes, he's crazy! He has definitely earned some down time. We took in a couple of movies this weekend (Hobbit and Lincoln - both great), and we're looking forward to heading to Grandma's house to eat lots of food.

We will be around a few days this week, so I have a few things on the menu, all of which are requests from the boys. 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 - Comforting Chicken Noodle Soup, Salad, Blackberries

Monday - Ham and Beans (recipe coming soon), Sinfully Sweet Cornbread, Salad

Tuesday - Eat at Grandma's! Merry Christmas!

Wednesday - Southwestern Egg Rolls with Avocado Ranch Sauce, Strawberries, Salad

Thursday - Tator Tot Surprise, Salad, Oranges

Friday - Eat at Grandma's

Saturday - Eat at Grandma's

For more menu ideas, visit orgjunkie.com.  
 
It's hard to believe that we are just over a week away from Christmas! This is our last week at school before break, and I look forward to sharing holiday stories and activities with my students in the library this week. Even more than that, I look forward to some time at home with my family over our break. I'm hoping to have to extra time to spend in my kitchen. :)

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 - Chili, Fruit Salad

Monday - BBQ Pork Sandwiches (from freezer), Green Beans, Salad, Oranges

Tuesday - Apple Butter Glazed Chicken, Broccoli, Salad, Pineapple

Wednesday - Chili Ranch Grilled Pork Chops, Green Beans, Salad, Applesauce

Thursday - leftovers

Friday - Steak, Baked Potatoes, Green Beans, Salad

Saturday - Ott's House Casserole, Broccoli, Salad




For more menu ideas, visit orgjunkie.com.