Weekly Meal Plan

Monday

Taco Salad

Tuesday

Fettuccine Alfredo

Wednesday

Hawaiian Chicken

Thursday

White Chili & Cornbread

Friday

Homemade Pizza-BBQ Chicken

Saturday

Mandarin Pork Chops with rice pilaf

Sunday

All Day Beef Stew

Monday

Au Jus Sandwiches

Fall is here! and with it comes more time inside, more warm delicious food, and more homemade bread. This week I decided to once and for all find the best white wheat bread recipe and this one is my pick.

Notice this recipe calls for Bread flour—the difference between bread flour and all-purpose flour is basically this: bread flour is a high-gluten flour made with hard wheat flour that has really small amounts of additives (malted barley flour, vitamin C (also known as Ascorbic Acid) or potassium bromate (although you should try to avoid flours that have potassium bromate)) that helps the yeast work and helps increase the elasticity of the gluten. High gluten forms air pockets that make bread rise high and light so, in essence, the extra gluten provides more loftiness and chewiness. Maybe more than you wanted to know.

I have not tried substituting with all purpose flour in this recipe and I don’t plan to. The results were fantastic.

White Wheat Bread— from Toastmaster (bread machine)

1 ½ c. warm water
2 Tbs. oil
2 tsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. salt
4 Tbs. sugar
2 Tbs. dry milk
3 c. bread flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
2 tsp. active dry yeast
Mix all together. Let raise 1 hr. Divide into loaf pans, cover, and let raise another 45 min. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Tips--

**This is a bread machine recipe, however, I do not like how the bread turns out baked in the bread machine. So if I were to make it using my bread machine I would put it on the dough setting, and once that is complete divide the loaves and put in loaf pans, cover and let raise for the 45 minutes and then bake it in the oven. After removing from the oven brush some butter on the top and cool on a rack so bread gets a crispy crust.
**If you have a mixer like a KitchenAid or other brand, I mix all together except for the flours in the bowl. Let the yeast activate for 10 minutes or so and then mix in the flours. I have a bread setting on my mixer that "kneads" it for about 3 minutes before I let it raise the first time.
**I usually grease my bowl with shortening or pam before adding the bread dough. Then I put it in a warmed oven (start to preheat your oven, but turn it off after 1 minute or less of preheating) covered with a towel to let it raise.**If you double the recipe it makes 3 LARGE loaves.
**If you have stoneware loaf pans, use them. I like how it cooks better than other loaf pans

Monday

Chicken Salsa Tacos

Tuesday

Oven-baked chicken parmesan

Wednesday

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Thursday

Spicy & Sweet Chicken & Broccoli with White

Rice

Friday

Homemade Pizza (4 Cheese)

Saturday

Vegetable Soup

Sunday

Ham & Three cheese Scalloped Potatoes

Monday

Beef Fajitas

 

Our apologies for the absence of a meal plan for the last 2 weeks—we’ve been working out a few kinks so we’re back to our regularly scheduled posts and In trying to find the most effective way to provide you with a simple meal plan, I’ve changed it up a bit. I’ve added a link at the bottom of the post with the meal plan (which you can print and tape to your fridge) and the menus but I’m no longer including the grocery list.

I did this for several reasons. One is that may want to substitute your own recipes or meals on certain days, and I find it harder to cross off items from the grocery list not knowing which meal they’re intended for—and sometimes items overlap for different meals. Another reason is because many times we have some of these items already in our pantry, we may have seasonal vegetables that we want to incorporate or food allergies, it just makes better sense to make up a grocery list according to your specific needs and your own food inventory. It should still be pretty easy to formulate your grocery list using the menu if you want to use our entire meal plan. I hope this helps and I look forward to providing you all with delicious easy recipes each week. Happy Cooking.

Monday

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

Tuesday

Fettuccine Alfredo with side salad and breadsticks

Wednesday

Easy Caesar Salad with breadsticks

Thursday

Chicken Stir Fry over brown rice

Friday
Homemade Pizza with pepperoni, olives and green peppers

Saturday

Chicken Roll-ups

Sunday

Lasagna with salad and breadsticks

Monday

Chicken Fajitas with salsa guacamole and sour cream

This recipe is from Martha Stewart and it is my absolute favorite. Around here we love them as afterschool snacks.

Ingredients

Makes 24

• 1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick-cooking)
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup packed dark-brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together oats, flour, raisins, baking soda, and salt; set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy, scraping down bowl as necessary. Add egg and vanilla; beat until combined. Gradually add oat mixture; beat just until combined.
2. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls, 2 inches apart, onto two baking sheets. Bake until cookies are golden brown but still soft, 12 to 16 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Cool 5 minutes on sheets; transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Around these parts, our kids have only been back to school one week and I’m already out of ideas for school lunches.

Some great ideas I think I’ll try:

Tuna Apple Raising Salad

Family Fun’s great ideas

Amazing Mom’s Ideas

Of course I always add fresh fruit and a note. What’s your best lunch Idea? Do share.

Making your own tote bags is not necessarily linked to food storage—but I find, for the most part, that if you’re the type of person who prepares for emergencies, plans for the future and tries to live as well as possible in the present you too are concerned with waste and the environment—reusable tote bags are a simple way to make a difference.

This Tote bag tutorial is super easy, it shows the step-by-step process with pictures and the end result is always fantastic. I’ve made more of these than I can count—in fact they’re useful for just about anything…groceries, the library, or perfect activity bags for the car..just fill one with crayons, play-dough (if you dare), coloring books, and snacks.

With the winter months approaching it’s a good idea to can fresh fruit. These directions are easy and take you step by step through the canning process—don’t be afraid if you’re a beginner. This peach pie filling recipe is delicious.

Other Delicious Recipes for canning..

Cherry Pie Filling

Canned Pizza Sauce

Another bread recipe for this week—except this one is special. If you’ve ever wished you could make fresh rolls for dinner without having to do all the work and waiting for dough to rise this recipe is perfect.

My Friend Summer made this recipe this week and they were really good. The recipe makes a ton of dough which you can then refrigerate to have on hand for fresh rolls, cinnamon rolls or even scones.

It’s super easy too.

 Summer’s refrigerator Rolls and Cinnamon Rolls

1 Quart (1Pint/4C) Prepared Dry milk (make as directed on package)

OR

1 Quart (1Pint/4C) Scalded milk cooled to lukewarm

2 Packages of active dry yeast

10 Cups Flour (divided)

1 Cup Sugar

1 Tablespoon Salt

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

2 teaspoons Baking powder

1 Cup Oil (add oil last)

Mix milk.   Dissolve yeast into Milk.  Add 5 Cups of flour, Sugar, Salt, Baking Soda, and Baking Powder and mix, while mixing add oil.  Mix in 4 cups of flour and reserve 1 cup for after rise.  Cover and let riles in bowl and double (1 to 1 ½ hours).  Punch down and add extra flour (the 1 cup reserved).

At this point you can store the dough in the refrigerator or use it.

Knead (not too long) form rolls and grease pan.  Bake at 350 to 375 for 12 – 15 minutes.

An easy way to form rolls is to grab a piece of dough and form a rope and tie it into a knot. Let the rolls rise for a little while before baking.

For Cinnamon Rolls

Roll 1/3 of the dough into rectangle, spread cinnamon spread and roll from long edge.  Bake on greased baking sheet.  Bake at 350 to 375 for 12 – 15 minutes.  Remove and add glaze.

Cinnamon Spread:

8 Tablespoons (cube) soft butter

1 Cup Sugar

6 – 8 teaspoons Cinnamon

Glaze:

2 Cups Powdered Sugar

¼ Cup Hot Milk

½ teaspoon Vanilla

Dash of salt

Whip it good!

If like me, you like fresh homemade bread without preservatives and additives, you’ll love this bread. I’ve tried several Wheat bread recipes and this one is my favorite. The bread is soft but hearty and the taste is mildly sweet without the too bitter wheat taste.

Place ingredients in the order given in bread machine.

1 1/2 Cups Water
2 T. Powdered Milk
2T. Shortening
2T. Honey
2T. Molasses
1 1/2 tsp. Salt
3 1/3 Cups Whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp yeast
secure baking pan. close lid. select: Whole Grain Setting (my machine burns bread in this setting I selected basic bread with light crust and it turned out perfect..) When finished baking, cool on rack so the bottom doesn't get soggy. The outside will be slightly crisp. Enjoy with just about anything!