Monday, September 14, 2009

Hi, from Steph's Kitchen

I am so excited about this blog! When Brandi sent out the email about it, I was literally sitting on my couch wondering what in the world I was going to fix for dinner this week. I have lots of staple recipes that are an easy go-to, but frankly I'm feeling bored with them. SO this was perfect timing. Just what I need to bring a little inspiration back into my kitchen.

For a little background on how I run my kitchen, I do try to plan out my meals for the week. This helps me buy just what I need when I go grocery shopping and it helps me resist the urge to
"just eat out." When I first started meal planning, I would plan a meal for every day of the week (minus weekends), but I just ended up wasting a lot of food. So now, I plan three meals per week, which gives us a little room for leftovers or to eat out if it's been an particularly long day. :) I haven't quite figured out how to plan for weekends, though. We so often go out with friends or go out of town, that I just don't cook much on the weekends. However, I have started doing a big Sunday lunch/dinner so I need to start factoring that into the plan. All that to say, I'm still figuring my meal plan out. :) Any suggestions meal planners?

This week is a little different for us because Casey is out of town for most of it. So with just Braelyn and me to consider, I'm taking this week a little easy. Here's the plan:

Meal 1: Build your own pizza. (Sometimes I do a homemade crust, but tonight, just Boboli.) This has become a regular meal around here. I put tomatoes, fresh spinach, basil and goat cheese on mine. I LOVE IT!

Meal 2: Eggs and biscuits. (I told you...simple.)

Meal 3: Chicken and Rice Casserole. Like I said, I was feeling bored and in the mood for a little comfort food, so I found this recipe on FoodNetwork.com by Paula Dean. :) Here's the link. I might make a few adjustments to the recipe. I'll let you know how it turns out.

So that's me and my humble contribution for the week. I can't wait to hear from all you foodies and supermoms (and dads) out there. Thanks Brandi, for getting this started. Fabulous idea!

3 comments:

mandi said...

every body needs a little paula dean in their life once in a while! the first time i ever saw her show at my dad's, she was making granola. i knew very little about her. i was watching hoping to pick up some pointers. umm...she added 3 cans of condensed milk to her mix!!! i couldn't believe my eyes! my dad then welcomed me to the world of paula dean!

Mommy, M.D. said...

mandi, that is hysterical. that granola is probably not even as good as yours.

steph, about the meal planning: i plan for about 6 meals also. but a couple of those will rely on meat in the the deep freezer, so if we end up going out instead then i just skip that meal and the meat stays frozen. same thing with pantry staples like pasta. or just move everything forward a night. thursday is my grocery day, so if we went out unexpectedly then i move a meal to that night and plan one less meal for the next week. does that make sense? and sunday night is unreliable for me. i'll plan something, but usually i'm tired and don't want to cook, but don't want to go out either, so we have something fun and simple like nachos or pancakes. the system works better if i just go ahead and plan that, rather than plan a "real" meal. living in the country has one disadvantage in that department: no pizza delivery or "running out" to pick something up.

5 Chicks and a Farmer said...

i like what brandi said about meal planning. I usually plan for 6 meals or however many you plan on cooking that week. I don't designate days because I may not feel like spaghetti and can shift over to tacos or whatever. As for ingredients, I pretty much know what we eat around here and buy the same ingredients each week, just make different things out of them. I try and cook the veggies that may not last the entire week first.

that's my two cents! i agree, paula deen is pretty awesome with her butter lovin' self. i have a few of her recipes that i make when i just can't take it anymore;0