What's Cooking?

Bowtie Lasagna

This looks very good...I was wasting time on Facebook and came across this post by the Pioneer Woman...

I tried her Penne with Chicken Thighs last night and it was fast and tasty (almost everyone liked it which is highly unusual in my house)...:)

I love her new show on the Food Network and so does Rose!  :)

 

Meal and Recipe Planning

I have a very organized friend, who keeps her recipes in a three ring binder with page protectors to keep the recipes neat and clean while she cooks.  I can't tell you how often I plan to cook and spend way too long searching for the recipe or looking online for a comparable one to prepare.  I have most of my recipes marked in my favorite cookbooks but I don't have room to store all my cookbooks for easy reference.  This binder method will help me immensely--I will keep it close at hand in my kitchen and it will have our family favorite recipes at my fingertips.  

Of course, there will be a bit of work involved as I will need to copy/keyboard recipes from recipe cards, cookbooks and online sources.    I hope to get my big girls to keyboard recipes into the computer and then print them out and file them in my binder by type (appetizers, main courses, desserts, etc.).  

 Obviously, with Lent just a few days away, I have been thinking of more austere meals.  Holy Mother Church only requires the faithful to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and Fridays during Lent.  Fasting is only required on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.  Our family will be meatless one more day during Lent (Wednesdays).  

The recipes below are some of our "staple" meals.  I will attempt to link more as I have time.  This post was just started as a way to "think out loud."  Now, if I can just make it to Office Max to get my binder...;)

Meatless:

Potato Soup with Dill

Basil Pesto 

Cheese Enchiladas 

Bean Enchilada Soup

Brown Rice with Veggies

Frozen Cheese Ravioli with Marinara

Cuban Beans and Rice

Breakfast for Dinner (Pancakes or French Toast)

Spinach Lasagna

Baked Potatoes 

Vegetarian Baked Ziti

Salmon Patties 

Meat:

Hamburgers

Pork Ribs 

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce 

Roast Chicken 

Chopped BBQ on buns

Pot Roast

Beef Stew

Chicken and Dumplings

Pork Chops

Honey-Baked Ham

Menu Plan for July 6-12

After a rather rocky month in June family-wise and thus, meal-wise, I knew I just had to come up with a food plan for this week (and hope that this plan will encourage me to continue to work on a weekly meal plan).  

I asked the Bill and kids to tell me what they wanted for dinner this week.  Everybody got a day to choose a meal (except for little Joseph--he and Paul have similar tastes, anyway!).

Plan:

Monday:  Marie:  Homemade Pizzas (with dough recipe from my kitchenaid cookbook--I always double the recipe).

Tuesday:  Rose:  Spinach Lasagna

Wednesday: Daddy:  Brown Rice w/Chicken and Veggies

Thursday:  Grace:  Flank Steaks with Baked Potatoes and steamed veggies

Friday:  Meg:  Grilled Salmon, Fresh Green Salad, Whole Wheat Rolls

Saturday:  Paul:  Sweet Italian Sausage Links with Pesto and Pasta and french bread

Sunday:  Mommy:  Chicken Fajitas

Phew...now to make the grocery list and head to the store...

Easy Lasagna Florentine

From one of the very first cookbooks I got after Bill and I were married:

The best thing about this recipe is that you do not have to pre-cook the noodles.  The key is adding pasta sauce to the bottom of the baking dish.  Here we go; you will need:

2 cups low-fat ricotta or cottage cheese

1 egg

1/4 cup grated parmesan

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

1 (10 oz) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

1 32 oz. jar spagheti sauce or 4 cups homemade sauce

9 uncooked lasagna noodles

3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

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Preheat oven to 375.  

1.  In a medium bowl, combine ricotta/cottage cheese, egg, parmesan, garlic powder and spinach.  Mix well.

2.  Spread one third of spaghetti sauce over the bottom of a 9x12 pan.  Cover with 3 uncooked lasagna noodles.  Top with half the cheese mixture and then sprinkle with 1 cup of mozzarella.

3.  Spread with half the remaining sauce. Top with another 3 noodles.  spread the remaining cheese miute over the noodles and sprinkle with 1 cup of mozzarella.

4.  Top with remaining 3 noodles, then spreaqd on remaining sauce.  Sprinkle one more cup of mozzarella on top.  Cover with foil.

5.  Bake 45 minutes our until noodles are tender.  Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

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This is not a gourmet recipe, by any means...but it is delicious and my kids will all eat it...:)

You could make it a bit more gourmet with fresh spinach, fresh garlic and homemade sauce as I have done this in the past...but my kids didn't notice a difference and hey, this is really quick and easy to prepare with ingredients that I usually have on hand!!  :)

Served with homemade french bread and a green salad and you are ready for a feast!