Here is the menu for the week and stay tuned for my shopping trip to see if I can do it on $50 this week.
MONDAY: Crockpot Chicken Pot Pie (from Family Circle Feb)- this is a lighter version using broth, chicken, carrots, mushrooms, celery, potatoes.
TUESDAY: Angel Pasta (from Midwest Living Jan/Feb)- chicken breast, mushrooms, mushroom soup, chive flavored cream cheese, angel hair pasta
WEDNESDAY: Broccoli Stuffed Potatoes (from Rachael Ray Feb)- honey potatoes cooked with broccoli, jack cheese, and sour cream with salad
THURSDAY: Lemon-Artichoke Risotto (from Rachael Ray Feb)- artichokes, broth, parmesan cheese, toasted walnuts and lemon
FRIDAY: Blue Cheese Burgers with Sweet Potato Fries
SATURDAY: Pumpkin Soup
SUNDAY: Pesto Pasta (from Rachael Ray Feb) grape tomatoes, pesto cashews, parmesan cheese and mozzarella
Charleen
I really like that you do this now but do
your kids go for this stuff?
I have 6 kids and a picky husband LOL
can you do kid friendly week or a day or something LOL
thanks again love your site and All you do.
Kim, my husband is more of a pain than the girls are really. He refuses to eat anything even remotely healthy. As for my girls, my youngest will eat a lot of different things. I am not so sure about the risotto this week but I want them to try artichokes and they love oranges so the lemon might help.
I just modify a little- I won’t put blue cheese on their burgers but they will eat mushrooms. I think they will eat the pasta and I think the potatoes as long as the broccoli is hidden under the cheese 🙂 My toddler will eat the pumpkin soup but Maya can’t use a spoon that well so she will have nuggets or something. My husband might have those too because he will complain about having soup. The girls will eat the pesto pasta as well. They have mozzarella and pesto sandwiches sometimes and they love tomatoes so I think that will be OK. They love sweet potato fries so that is fine and they will love the chicken- it is basically a roast chicken and I will skip the onion so they will eat carrots and potatoes and celery.
So basically I have one plan and then I modify for all the different people. I am a vegetarian so I won’t eat chicken but I can make something easy that night for myself- I will probably do the risotto first and then I have leftovers of that that I can eat. So anyway- there is always a shuffle. As long as the girls try things I am OK with it. My 3 yo will happily eat a tub of yogurt every day- so we have plenty of that as you can see.
Actually tonight we had cauliflower pureed with mashed potatoes and they loved it. I used about 70% cauliflower and 30% potato and they gobbled it up. So I never know what will work but I am trying to expose them to things. It is really my husband that is the problem. He’d eat chicken nuggets and lasagna and tacos in a constant rotation if I let him.
will you share the Angel Pasta recipe? or do you think I could find it online?
I heard that pureeing stuff is a good way to get the kids to eat stuff. I think that Jessica Seinfeld wrote a cookbook on it too!
What do you for breakfast/lunch since everyone is so super picky?
Do you post the recipes that you are using? I am always looking for good crockpot recipes.
Well this week we will have yogurt and granola. The girls have toast with pumpkin butter a lot, they both like cereal and I usually make a batch of pancakes on Sunday to heat up during the week. For lunch they will have sandwiches, cucumbers, carrots, crackers, string cheese … stuff like that. I make paninis a lot because it mooshes the sandwich together so they can have ham and cheese and avocado for example and it isn’t a total mess everywhere.
Oh I hear ya Heather. 99.9% of the time things are geared more toward what my husband will like but this week I went with more stuff I would like and he can fend for himself 😀 He is pretty easy going though so if he hates pesto pasta I can just put a little red sauce and mushrooms in another pot and he has his own version ready to go.
Suzanne it is FREEZING here I thought Crockpot is the answer for me this week too. I can type up whichever you are interested in. Sometimes I look for the online versions from the magazines web site but last night I had to work on Target so I was short on time 🙂
Jessica- I will either type it or I will look online at Midwest Living later tonight so just check back.
Charlene – i love that you put all of the free magazine subscriptions to use! I am contanstly pulling out mag. pages of recipies to try with my family, and fail to use them. I’ve started going through the pages once a month and pulling out a few to try. It helps me thin my paper piles if the recipe is a huge fail : )
Ha you can always see what just came in the mailbox at my house! I tear them out and they go in a bin because mags are really wonderful donation items- even with a page or two missing. Women’s shelters and various care facilities can use them. Even schools for art projects 🙂
Charleen, really I did not know that I have a ton of mags I was going to toss some are really old 3 to 4 yrs do you think I can still donate them? Should I call or look up online who may need or want them?
Yeah I always need to modify and sometimes make something else for certain kids but I would rather not do that time is limited and I barely have any to make dinner in the first place you know. My mom always said you eat what I make LOL uugh i like to make everyone happy so that saying is not an option for me. So I am looking for recipes that everyone will like which is almost impossible right even when modified. My husband is the same he is like steak and potato eater all the way when he goes to the store, he buys pizza, hot dogs, hamburger and steak every time uugh what the heck do I want to do with that. he will eat meat loaf, tacos and steak all week too uugh I am not a vegan but I really dont eat meat/steak at all anymore but chicken I make a lot I like to cook healthy too. Pasta not so much my youngest girl whos 4 hates noodles can you believe that who hates noodles? Anyway it gets tiresome and I end up dreading dinner time. I wish I had a butler! LOL
I tried looking on-line for the Family Circle crock-pot recipe but I cound not find it. So, if you can post it, I would appreciate it.
Oh I think someone can use them. Kim. I have to say if you have them that are that old time for spring cleaning mama! I would call a local preschool and see. Ours is always asking for certain types of magazines- I would keep the Cosmo and ask if they can use BH&G 😉
Is there anyway you can share the crock pot potpie recipe? Your lighter version? Sounds like it would be delicious! Thanks!
Here is the Angel Pasta:
http://www.midwestliving.com/recipe/chicken/slow-cooker-angel-chicken/
Here is the pot pie:
1/2 cup flour
1/ 3/4 tea poultry seasoning
1 3/4 tea thyme
1/2 tea salt
1/4 tea black pepper
2lbs chicken thighs and breasts cut into 1 in pieces
2 tbl veg oil
2 lg carrots cut into half moons
2 celery ribs sliced
2 red skin potatoes cut into 1/2 in pieces
8 white mushrooms sliced
1 lg onion chopped
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 1/4 cups Bisquick
2/3 cup milk
Combine seasoning, flour, thyme and salt and pepper in a bag- add chicken and toss to coat.
heat 1 tblspn oil in skillet over med high, remove chicken from bag with slotted spoon and add to skillet. cook 5 min or until browned.
put the chicken in slow cooker.
add 1 tblspn oil to skillet- stir in carrots, celery, potatoes , mushroom and onion. stir often for 5 min. stir remaining flour mix (from your bag for the chicken) into skillet and cook 1 min.
add broth to skillet and bring to a boil. pour contents into slow cooker.
cook on high for 4 hrs or low for 7 hrs.
when there is one hour left of cook time, stir biscuit mix, milk, and 3/4 tea thyme. drop mix by the tablespoonful over chicken mix. cover slow cooker bowl with cotton dish towel and place over top. continue cooking until biscuits are cooked through.
I tried the pumpkin soup recipe last night and it was YUMMY! Definitely a keeper… Thanks!