Seeing's how it's been over a month since I last blogged about ANYTHING, I thought I'd make this one extra long and detailed.
Last week I had my wisdom teeth out, so I am banned from any foods too pokey or chewy... soft foods only. How boring. Needless to say, it made meal planning for this week particularly difficult..and, I didn't really 'meal plan' as I usually would. For some reason, I found myself planning out next week's meals and recipes, so I thought I'd share them today!
Monday: Chicken and Dumplings with Peas and Carrots and Canned Pears
Tuesday: Tasty Elk Tenderloin with Baked Sweet Potato and Couscous
Wednesday: Stir Fry on Rice with Egg Drop Soup
Thursday: Pancakes and Eggs with Cantaloupe Slices
Friday: Crockpot White Chicken Chili and Corn Bread with Honey Butter and Choco Pudding
Monday Recipes
Notes for Monday:
Tonight's dish can be as easy as you would like to make it. If you want fast prep, use broken lasagna noodles as your dumplings.
Reserve some chicken for Wednesday's stir fry.
Boil a chicken carcass to make chicken broth! Make extra for egg drop soup on Wednesday.
Chicken and Dumplings
2 cups cooked shredded chicken
3 cups Chicken broth (made from chicken carcass)
Garlic salt
1 can Cream of Chicken soup
broken lasagna noodles
or
Homemade Noodles:
2 cups of flour
1 rounded tsp of baking powder
2 eggs
Mix ingredients for noodles. You want workable dough so if they are too dry add a few drops of water, too wet a bit more flour. Roll and cut; a pizza cutter is the best way. If you get too much baking powder they will have a salty 1/2 cooked taste. Cook noodles in broth. Your cooking time will depend on how thick the noodles are; you will just have to taste it. ;-)
Add soup and seasonings to taste. Add chicken in when the noodles are almost cooked. You may sprinkle with parsley for some color if you would like.
Peas and Carrots
Pears
Tuesday Recipes
Tasty Elk Tenderloin
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 elk tenderloins (about 1 lb. each)
2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
2 cups applesauce, unsweetened
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup apple juice
1/2 tsp ginger, ground
Preheat oven to 350° F. Combine flour, salt and pepper in a small, shallow bowl. Cut tenderloins into six pieces and flatten each cut piece to about a 1 inch thickness. In a skillet, melt butter. dip each piece into the flour mixture and then brown in skillet, turning to brown on both sides. Place elk in an ungreased baking dish. In the same skillet, saute the onion and garlic until tender. Add remaining 5 ingredients and bring to a boil. Pour this mixture over the elk and cover and bake.
Baked Sweet Potato
Couscous
Wednesday Recipes
Stir Fry
14 oz. bag stir-fry frozen vegetables
1 lb. Leftover cooked chicken (from Monday's supper)
1 bottle Kikkoman Stir-fry sauce
olive oil
Basmati rice
Add frozen vegetables and cook until hot and water from frozen veggies cooks out. Add chicken to veggies and heat through. Pour 1/2 - 3/4 bottle of the stir fry sauce over everything and simmer until bubbly. Serve over rice.
Basmati Rice
Egg Drop Soup
3 cups chicken broth
1 green onion with top
1 sp. salt
dash of pepper
2 eggs, slightly beaten
Heat chicken broth, salt and pepper to boiling in saucepan. Stir green onions into eggs. Pour egg mixture slowly into boiling broth, stirring constantly with fork to form shreds of egg.
Thursday Recipes
Pancakes
Eggs
Cantaloupe Slices
Friday Recipes
Crockpot White Chicken Chili
4 chicken breasts, cubed
1 cup chopped onion, cooked (from freezer)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried leaf oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp Tabasco sauce
2 cans (about 15 ounces each) great northern beans, drained, rinsed
12 to 15 oz. corn
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro, optional
Mix onion, garlic, chicken broth, cumin, oregano, salt and Tabasco in 3 1/2 to 6-quart crockpot. Add cubed chicken breasts. Cover and cook on low for 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 hours, or until chicken is tender (this may vary depending on how hot your crockpot cooks). Stir in beans, corn, and cilantro, if using. Cover and cook on low 30 minutes or until thoroughly heated.
Cornbread with Honey Butter
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup milk
1 egg
Preheat oven to 425°F. Put half of the olive oil in a 9x9x2 cast iron skillet and preheat in oven without burning oil. Mix all remaining ingredients in a bowl. Pour batter into preheated cast iron skillet and bake for 20-25 minutes or until done.
Note: if you do not have a cast iron skillet, spray a pan with non-stick spray and mix all of the olive oil into the batter. Do not preheat your pan if it isn't cast iron.
Serve with softened butter that has been mixed with a little honey to taste.
Chocolate Pudding
As usual, this menu was adapted from www.menus4moms.com
