Menu Plan Monday

Here's a quick post this week:

Monday - Oven baked chicken with rice and vegetables

Tuesday - Honey-Soy Porkchops with chinese noodles and green beans

Wednesday - BBQ chicken wings with classic macaroni salad and carrots

Thursday - Ham with mashed potatoes and baked beans

Friday - Pizza Fridays

Saturday - Dinner at a Friend's House

Sunday - Not sure (it's up to hubby)

Quick note: our girls are known to be picky but they both love the chicken! The classic macaroni salad lives up to its name and reminds me of the salad the ladies bring to our church potlucks. Good old-fashioned salad - true to its name.

Dominican Rice and Beans

This was my mom's specialty dish. Although she made many kinds of "rice and peas" dishes. The one with kidney beans was my favourite. I also loved her rice with "black eyed peas" as well. I make this on special occasions such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. It also makes a good Sunday dinner accompaniment. It's great with roast beef, roast pork or roast chicken. My daughters love it with roast gravy on top. Here's the recipe:

Dominican Rice and (Kidney) Beans
(makes about 6 cups of rice)
Printable recipe

Ingredients:
1 - 19oz can kidney beans (I prefer Unico brand)
2 cups white long grain parboiled rice (choice of rice is critical - it isn't the same unless it's parboiled rice)
Reserved liquid from kidney beans + water to make 4 cups
1 small can of tomato paste (freeze what you don't use for another time)
1 tsp salt (there's salt in the boullion cube)
1 tsp vegetable oil - helps to keep the rice from sticking
1 chicken boullion cube

Directions:
1. In a medium sized pot, add the liquid, salt, boullion cube and oil and bring to a boil.
2. Meanwhile, rinse the rice in cold water until the water runs clear. Don't rinse too much. My mom used to say that if you rinse too much, you'll take the "strength" out of the rice. Never knew what that meant but I always heeded her warning.
3. Add the rice to the pot and stir. Add 1 - 2 tbsp of tomato paste (for colour)
4. Turn down the heat to low, cover the pot and let the rice simmer for about 45 minutes.
5. Check the rice and when the water has been absorbed, remove from heat. Stir.
6. Keep rice covered and let it sit for about 10 minutes off the heat. This step is important as it gives the rice just the right consistency (hard to describe). Taste the rice and add more salt if needed before serving.

When done, the rice should not be soggy or soppy. Tastes great reheated.

Chicken Soup (A Canadian version of my mom's recipe)

My mom is from "The Islands", namely the Dominican Republic. She came to Canada in the 1950s and has been here ever since. When I was a little girl, she used to make this soup and everyone loved it. We lived in an inner city neighbourhood and my mom was the best cook around. The neighbours would come over for a bowl and she'd make some for the few Dominican ex-pats that there were in Canada in the 1970s. My mom's in a long term care facility now and no longer cooks. I make this soup from memory and always bring her some when I can. I'm documenting it so my daughters' will have this recipe and to share this soup with others. It's great comfort food and helps me when I'm on chemo.

Keep in mind this is not an exact science. My mom was always short on money and this was a great way to feed lots of people with whatever you had on hand.

My mom always put in Yucca/Cassava and green banana. Mine is the Canadian version and will leave it out.

Chicken Soup with Dumplings
(makes a big pot)
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
Chicken pieces (4-8 pieces will do)
3-4 large carrots, thickly sliced
5-6 medium sized potatoes (yellow or russet is fine) cut in chunks
1 large onion (whatever you have on hand - I used a yellow onion) cut into chunks
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
2-3 stalks of celery, sliced.
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 to 1 tsp poultry seasoning (to taste)
2 tbsp powdered chicken broth (use cubes or liquid broth - the idea is to enhance the chicken flavour)
1/2 green pepper, diced (seems odd but I love the subtle taste it adds to the soup once it's cooked)

Optional vegetables:
Yucca/Cassava
Green banana
Butternut squash
Green peas

Directions:
1. Fill a large pot with cold water (I add about 8 cups of water) and bring to a boil
2. Meanwhile, remove skin from chicken pieces (in true West Indian style, my mom would leave the skin on)
3. Wash and season the chicken with salt and pepper. You could do this first and leave the chicken in the fridge until it's time for the pot.
4. Prepare the celery, green pepper, garlic and onion.
5. Once the water comes to a boil, drop in the first piece of chicken. Wait until the water comes back to a boil before adding the next piece of chicken, etc. I find this keeps the water clear and you don't need to skim anything off the top.
6. Add the celery, green pepper, garlic and onion to the boiling water.
7. Add the chicken broth, poultry seasoning
8. Bring the heat to low and cover the pot. Let the chicken simmer for about 45 minutes to an hour. It's done when the chicken meat falls off the bone.
9. At this point I strain the soup and remove the bones and leave just the chicken meat (Canadian version) in the pot. My mom wouldn't have bothered with this. I guess part of the enjoyment of the meal is to pick the chicken off the bones when you're eating the soup.
10. Before you continue, taste the soup and adjust the amount of salt, pepper, garlic, etc. until it tastes "seasoned enough".
11. Add the carrots and the potatoes. At this point you can add optional vegetables. My mom often added green peas (for colour and to use up what was in the fridge), cassava and green banana.
12. Cover the soup and cook until the vegetables are done.
13. Taste the soup again before serving. You may need to add more salt, poultry seasoning or chicken powder.
14. About 20 minutes before eating the soup, prepare and add the dumplings. Use your favourite recipe if you wish. I just love the way the dumplings thicken the soup.
15. Pour into a large bowl and enjoy!

I've added the recipe for dumplings that I use. This isn't my mom's recipe but it comes pretty close.

Dumplings
Ingredients:
1 cup All purpose flour
2 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Butter or margerine
1/2 cup Milk

Directions:
Stir flour, baking powder, sugar and salt together in medium sized bowl. cut in butter until crumbly. Stir in milk to make soft dough. Drop by spoonfuls into boiling soup. Cover and simmer 15 minutes without lifting lid. Serve. Makes about 6 dumplings.
Directions:

Menu Plan Monday

Okay, here it is. My stomach's kinda picky this week from the chemo so there's more chicken (i.e. comfort food) on the menu than usual. I've added some "quickie" foods as the comfort foods I like aren't often loved by my kids. I've been dropping weight like crazy from the chemo so I'm trying to "fatten myself up". Ordinarily this would be a happy dilemma but being on chemotherapy is a terrible way to lose weight.

Monday - Chicken soup with dumplings (KD for one of my girls who doesn't like this West Indian version of the "old favourite".

Tuesday - Oven Baked whole chicken with mashed potatoes and vegetables

Wednesday - 50's style meatloaf (thanks, Tiffany) with white rice and corn (I'm making double to give a "loaf" to a friend). Normally we'd have mashed potatoes but I think rice is easier to transport.

Thursday - Hamburger Helper with green salad - man, my kids love this. Perhaps if I add it to the menu every week, they'll grow tired of it and I'll no longer need to make it! I have to confess that it is EASY and is a blessing to make when you're dragging yourself around most of the time.

Friday - Homemade cheese pizza (dough from bread machine) - Cheese was on sale this week so I bought lots

Saturday - Spaghetti dinner fundraiser at the church (no cooking tonight!!). Everyone's panicked at the church about H1N1 so I wonder if this will be cancelled??

Sunday - BBQ burgers/fries OR breaded sole/fries and a vegetable - TBD (cooking out of the freezer tonight)

I'm feeling pretty optimistic with my menu but I hope I have the energy to make it. This chemo sucks but it keeps me alive.

Menu Plan Monday

A new week already. Whew! This one's shaping up to be busy. I need to make treats for Cubs tomorrow night as well as my youngest's halloween party on Friday. My hubby also needs treats for his students. I'll be making a very large batch of cookies to last for each of these events.

Money's also tight this week and probably will be for a while. How does anyone budget for less than $100 a week? I also notice that food's a lot more expensive in Canada. I shop at the least expensive of all supermarkets - it doesn't get any cheaper. Even so, as an example, a small bag of flour is $6. I was shocked to see on a recent visit to the Carolinas, Ramen noodles at 9 cents a package! On sale I'm lucky to get them for 33 cents a package. It's also more difficult to find coupons here. People just don't use them as much. I'll have to think of something less expensive to eat this week that my kids will actually like. It won't be easy...

Here goes:

Monday - breaded chicken cutlets/mashed potatoes/broccoli (from the freezer)

Tuesday - Italian Chicken Skillet/garlic bread

Wednesday - Tuna turnovers/salad (a variation of salmon turnovers compliments of The Happy Housewife)

Thursday - BBQ burgers/fries (buns and fries are in the freezer)

Friday - homemade cheese pizza (dough in freezer)

Saturday - burrito Saturdays (halloween)

Sunday - Whole chicken or (Mimi's sticky chicken), rice and veg. - compliments of The Recipe Mission

A recap of the past week:
Crockpot orange chicken - Although I enjoyed it and so did my hubby, the girls weren't too keen on it. I don't think I'll be making it again. I think it was fine but they're ever so picky and it's just not worth the effort if everyone isn't going to eat the same meal.

Menu Plan Monday - 10/12 to 10/18

Last week I tried 2 new recipes. I thought I'd give my comments here so I can backtrack in future to see how well they were received:

Crockpot Beef Stew - Although my husband and I loved it, my kids wouldn't eat it. The addition of coffee was genious. It gave the stew a rich colour and robust taste. It was enough for dinner and there was some leftover for about 2 lunches. I was hoping to freeze some but there just wasn't enough. I cooked the stew on high for about 4 hours. I found that the meat wasn't as tender as I would have liked but I could break it apart with a fork although it was kinda chewy. Not sure if I should have cooked it longer or shorter.

Salmon Turnovers - I made major mods to this by using mayo instead of cream cheese. Everyone like this and it was faster to make than I had originally thought. I didn't cook the dough long enough so it was still kinda "pasty" in spots. If I make this again, I'd omit the celery and onion because my "picky" daughter complained the whole time. It was one dish that everyone ate. It's also very filling. I think of them as "gut bombs". Next time I'll just accompany them with a green salad.

This week's menu:

Monday - Thanksgiving leftovers
Tuesday - Hamburger helper with green salad
Wednesday - Spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic bread
Thursday - Sloppy Joes on braided egg bread
Friday - Pizza and leftovers
Saturday - Burritos with guacamole and refried beans
Sunday - 50's style meatloaf (frozen) with mashed potatoes and green beans

Tuesday was so rushed I didn't get home until 5 p.m. I didn't get a chance to shop so had little or nothing in the pantry. On chemo, I no longer "rush" to be the perfect mom, so HH worked just fine. The girls loved it and dinner was done in 20 minutes.

Thursday's meal is a sloppy joe's recipe that the kids love. The braided egg bread loaf is quite large and looks just like the bread you buy in a bakery. The taste is great and I modify the recipe so I can make it in the bread machine.

Menu Plan Monday - 10/5 to 10/11

I guess this post is more like Menu Plan Tuesday.

Let's see for this week....

Monday - Hamburger Helper/Bisquick Biscuits/Green salad - okay, I vowed I never feed my kids HH but seeing as they never had it when they were younger, they had a taste of it and now enjoy it. Go figure.


Tuesday - BBQ burgers/wings with fries - this is a clean out the freezer type of meal. Using the remaining BBQ stuff I bought over the past few weeks. Hopefully, I don't freeze using the BBQ in the backyard as it's suddenly turned cold.

Wednesday - Crockpot Beef stew - it's a busy day today so I thought I'd put this on around lunchtime. I couldn't find stewing beef at the supermarket (that's a first) and bought veal instead. I may have to find another recipe.

Thursday - Salmon Turnovers. Recipe compliments of The Happy Housewife.

Friday - Pizza Fridays (as usual). Hubby and I will eat leftovers (hmmm...stew)

Saturday - Burrito Saturdays (the kids never tire of this)

Sunday - Canadian Thanksgiving - looks like it'll be Turkey, Rice and Peas, Mashed Potatoes, Broccoli, Stuffing and Cranberry Sauce. I always make Pumpkin Pie for dessert. The girls love Cool Whip so there's some in the freezer as we speak