Tacos!! Fiesta!  It’s all about the kids, right?  Hope some of you have some more creative ideas than I do…

Left over white beans and rice with sausage and steamed carrots for the side.

Baked chicken, sour cream potato casserole and zucchini, apple crisp for dessert.

Macaroni and cheese with some hamburger thrown in. Green beans for a side.

My mom gave us some winter squash from the farmer’s market, so I just cooked those and will later fill them with a stuffing made of sausage, onion, celery, bread cubes, broth, and seasonings.  It’s an off-the-cuff thing, but I think 4 out of 5 of us will eat it.  I’ll make a side of green beans and some breadsticks so the picky child won’t go hungry.

Stroganoff-style chicken served with mashed potatoes (instead of over egg noodles), sautéed zucchini on the side, and milk to drink

Chicken, veggies & whole grain rice-a-roni.
What mom’s message board did you used to belong to?  I belong to one but I’m thinking of leaving.  I love the girls I chat with but I feel like it takes up way too much of my time.  Trying to seek a better balance in my life… any advice?

We’re having Spaghetta-bout-it, from the Abs Diet. Not too bad, for pasta with flax seed.

Cinnabon bread turned into french toast.  Wednesdays are breakfast night here since it’s CCD night and we’ve got them coming and going until 7:30.  I enjoy having 1 night where my picky eaters don’t complain!

Shel - I want to come over to dinner, that sounds great!!

Crock pot chicken stew—found on the back of the Lipton Golden Onion Soup Mix. Chicken, ham, diced tomatoes, lima beans, corn, potatoes. Leaving out the red pepper flakes because they would do really bad things to my husband’s stomach.

tony roma’s ribs (packaged, precooked), twice baked potatoes and microwave-steamed broccoli seasoned with butter, garlic powder & seasoned salt

Tonight is meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and peas.
Last night was chicken mixed veggies and rice roni mixed together.
Tomorrow night is ham and bean soup and cornbread if I get it into the crockpot.

We’re having a roast in the crock pot - I dumped it totally frozen into the crockpot this morning and sprinkled some italian dressing on it.  We’ll have Quinoa with it cooked in homemade chicken broth for extra flavor.  Hopefully something green too - brussel sprouts from garden or green beans from freezer.

Crock-pot chicken stroganoff—1 lb chicken breast cut in cubes, 20 oz of chopped potato, carrot, and onion, and mixed with 1 cup sour cream, 3/4 cup water and one packet chicken gravy mix.  Cook on high for 4 hours, then stir in 1 cup frozen peas and make biscuit topping, cook another hour.  Enjoy!

We’re having Honey baked Chicken from this site:
allrecipes.com/Recipe/Honey-Baked-Chicken-II/Detail.aspx
slightly modified (cut up the chicken to shorten the cook time, less butter, more curry powder, craisins and golden raisins) served over rice, steamed veggies on the side and Apple Honey cake to finish it all off: allrecipes.com/Recipe/Apple-Honey-Bundt-Cake/Detail.aspx
Yummy!  We’ve had this one before and it was a hit, easy and worth repeating.

For my son’s and husband:  Sausage, brown rice and green beans. For me, the one who doesn’t eat pork:  Acorn squash and lentil soup, made on Sunday.

We eat dinner at one pm as my husband works evenings.

Today we had leftover chili (the morning was spent scrubbing the kitchen floor hence leftovers).  Not a bad meal for the first day of snow.

My older daughters will likely have microwaved potatoes for supper with the rest of us eating sandwiches or yet more chili.

Let me make myself clear. I am having acorn squash, accompanied by lentil soup, which I made on Sunday.  Don’t know if I would like lentil soup with acorn squash in it, but it might be something to try out!

I make lasagna at the beginning of the month and freeze portions for later. We will have that with caesar salad and garlic bread.

We’re having homemade baked parmesan chicken fingers and oven fries, corn on the side.

I just finished writing out a month’s worth of dinner menus.  I am determined to make 99% of our dinners something that everyone likes.  No more of “get yourself a bowl of cereal” if a kid doesn’t like what’s for dinner.  I came up with 10 or so recipes that everyone will eat, and we’ll rotate those for a while.

Chicken chili, sliced peaches, crackers and cheese. (Preplanning leftovers for tomorrow’s busy evening)

Love this kind of thread!!  We’re just having plain old spaghetti with meat sauce (Prego - of course!).  Might spread some garlic butter on bread and toast it…

We’re having salmon, green beans, rice and salad.  After reading some of these posts, though, I’m wishing I was making something else!

Taco salad
We do a lot of main dish salads on busy nights like Wednesdays.  This one is fairly inexpensive too, with ground beef being the most expensive ingredient.  I make my own taco meat with onions, minced garlic, chili powder, cumin, oregano, tomato sauce, chicken stock, vinegar and brown sugar--Much tastier than the prepackaged taco seasoning!

King Ranch chicken with green beans and corn.

We’re having this polenta type thing I made up - think lasagna with polenta instead of noodles.  I can sneak major veggies in this - I put in a mixture of low-fat sausage, tomatoes (with tomato sauce too), green pepper, mushrooms and onions, throw in worchestershire sauce, garlic, cumin, chili powder, tapatio - and then put a bit of cheese on the top.  So yummy, and very easy to make (well, with store bought polenta), with the added benefit that it’s very healthy!

Lemon Chicken Soup with Orzo and Asiago Roasted Garlic bread to sop up the broth. Can’t wait!!!

We just dined on Lo-mein stirfry and Cream Cheese Wontons.

White bean and ham burritos, beets, and corn.  The beans and ham were cooked in a large batch in the crock pot a few weeks ago and frozen, the beets were cooked last night and the corn just came in our CSA box this afternoon.

Lizzy,

Come visit us at catholicmomcommunity.yuku.com. Not sure if it’s open to the public right now, but join in and see if you like us. You are right--one must be careful not to let it take up too much of your time, but it is a great place for friendship, support, and learning about the Catholic Faith. And if you are one that struggles with controlling time on-line--then please, take care of your family first. Come visit us later!

Oh, and dinner was tacos.

chicken stir fry over sticky rice, yaki mondo (korean wonton), seasoned dried seaweed.

I planned on meatloaf, but made too much spaghetti last night and am feeling very tired at 36 weeks pregnant, so tonight is leftovers.  Easy night.

We have a mom who organizes a dinner night.  We bring snacks, helpful teens, and a cooler.  We send a check in advance; she bulk shops, and we create 12 or 24 meals to take home.  For about 2/3rd’s of the recipes, she sends the meat requirements via email for us to add when we get home with our meals.
It’s been the best blessing ever for a busy homeschooling mom, or any busy mom.
I highly recommend it for any group with the inclination!

Beef stew.  Ever so yummy, especially since we prepared it a few weeks ago and took it out of the freezer yesterday!

Make and Bake Pizza and salad

Kind of like a “pizza bar”...everyone picks their own pizza toppings to put on their French bread and we bake them.

quiche (the crust is store-bought so I just add the eggs, milk and cheese filling and bake)
green salad and cilantro quinoa on the side

A roasted chicken, baked potato, and sauteed kale. The left over chicken will be turned into a broccoli chicken casserole for dinner tomorrow.

Pulled pork sandwhiches (pork slowed cooked in all natural Barbeque sauce in the crockpot), roasted caulifower, and pineapple salad.

Well, lasagna was not last night because my husband forgot to take it out of the freezer the night before! So, tonight, Thursday, I am making baked spaghetti. I am trying some new things with it. I am using whole grain spaghetti, 1 lb of ground beef (93/7 fat content), a green pepper, half a white onion, a jar of Ragu (sauteed onion and garlic), a jar of beef gravy, basil, oregano, pepper, part skim ricotta, part skim shredded mozzerella, low fat parmesan and pepperoni. I mix everything together in a pan then put a whole layer of mozzerrella and parmesan on top and cover that with pepperoni. Bake 350 for 45 mins covered and 14 mins uncovered. It smells heavenly baking right now! Oh--and last night we had cereal...

Last night was beef fajitas. Marinated skirt steak on the grill, sauteed onions and mushrooms, shredded cheddar and lettuce, chopped tomatoes, salsa, guac, sour cream, refried beans (fat free from a can) with flour tortillas and spanish rice on the side.
Night before was a yummy pork tenderloin recipe with maple syrup and balsamic vinegar glaze served with pioneerwoman’s acorn squash recipe (brown sugar, butter and maple syrup).
Tonight? Leftovers? I need to see just how much we have.

Totally late to the party on this one… but I HAD to share my “find” on allrecipes.com:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Man-Pleasin-Jambalaya/Detail.aspx

It’s super easy to make (I used basmati rice) Everyone loved it.

And yes ma’am, that’s MAN pleasin’ jambalaya… the name alone makes it a keeper.

Great idea!  I made some red beans and rice.  It was my first time attempting it, and it didn’t turn out too badly.