Menu Plan Monday: March 1st

Here comes another week! I'm sliding several meals from last week into this week because one night we ate leftovers and one night we spontaneously went out to dinner. (We don't eat out very often. It was a nice treat!)

• Monday: Chicken and Dumplings Casserole (sliding from Saturday--most ingredients are frozen, so this meal is super easy to slide around!)
• Tuesday: Homemade Beef with Broccoli over brown rice (sliding from last Wednesday) I hope to make this and share the recipe here later this week--it's my own recipe, very easy and good!
• Wednesday: Creamy Enchilada Casserole (part of my Freezer Cooking Plan; but the kids love it so much I think it will bypass the freezer and get inhaled promptly.)
• Thursday: Leftovers--changed to Ratatouille from The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook (Cooking playdate!) we served this over whole wheat couscous.)
• Friday: I am interested in exploring 'Semi-Slow' cooking: oven-roasting meals slowly in a Dutch Oven for several hours up to an entire day. Two recipes that I have my eye on include Braised Lamb Shanks with Red Wine Sauce (scroll down to view third recipe) and Stuffed Chicken with Rice (Tbiet)
• Saturday: Date Night
• Sunday: Dinner at Mom/Grandma's
• Monday: Spaghetti with Turkey Meatballs with green beans (sliding from this past Monday!)

 Soup of the Week: This week I am making a vegan soup: Quinoa Vegetable Soup... delicious!

Today is an exciting day because the winner will be announced for the Once a Month Mom/Dole Menu Planning Contest--and I am a finalist! Be sure to stop by after 8 AM and find out who won.

Stop by Orgjunkie.com to see other menu plans!

Declutter Challenge February Update: Building Momentum

My Declutter Challenge really picked up some momentum this month! I felt like I barely got my feet wet in January with the two larger transactions I completed. This month I branched out a bit and had income coming in from all sorts of places!

• My first book shipment to Powell's Books in January went so well that I decided to put together a second shipment. This box contained fewer, less valuable books, but I made $19.75. Another easy transaction!
• I had a few books that Powell's was unwilling to purchase, but that I noticed were selling for worthwhile prices on Half.com. I listed three books, and one book sold, providing me $7.33
• I also got my feet wet with my very first listings on Ebay, which I was a little nervous about, but everything has gone smoothly thus far. I sold four small items as well as two dozen cloth diapers, which were in high demand and ended up selling for quite competitive costs. Total sales for February: $198.81 (I am so new I don't even know if Ebay has extracted their commission/payment from this amount. I may be accounting for that next month when I have more of a clue what I am doing!)
• I also had an unexpected opportunity to clear some broken bits out of my jewelry box and earn some cash for gold as described here. My total earnings to report: $140.00

 Total for February: $365.89!!!

The little things sure do add up! This total amount will be applied to my loan payment this month--over 3 times my goal payment.

 I'm hoping this momentum will continue into March, as I have a beautiful new basement workspace in which to organizing my declutter projects (I will reveal this soon!). I have some recycling research projects to complete, as well as a few more thoughts to share about selling on Ebay. A yard sale project is in the works, as well as a consignment sale.

These projects are keeping me busy, but it is very satisfying to connect all of these items to people and places where they will be needed and used. And not only did we gid rid of the sale items listed above, we also compiled a Goodwill donation, and I found a good home for a few small items.

Fitness Goals Update: for February

Just checking in here to report that I barely squeaked in at the last minute today with my 25th aerobics class so far this year. My goal is to go more than 150 times before the end of the year, so I am barely on track. When I think about the multiple times I am going to be out of town and not working out this year, I am a little behind!

What on Earth do fitness classes have to do with 'Navigating Domesticity'??? This is one of the ways I keep my energy and serotonin levels high so that I have more brain and muscle power to devote to keeping the household afloat.

My Freezer Cooking Plan: Fitting Around Life

Unfortunately, I won't have a bunch of time all at once to do a big Freezer Cooking event in the next few days. I have a few other things that I need to take care of, in addition to having friends over and finishing up my attempt at organizing my basement.

This doesn't mean that I don't want to cook and fill my freezer. I love having a small yet useful stash of food items on hand that I can pull out at the drop of a hat. For instance, I had a loaf of banana bread in the back of the freezer that I used earlier this week when I hosted a playgroup at the last minute. I also have meal prep items, such as bone soup and shredded chicken, that I can pull out and add into a meal when required.

My plan is to prepare some items to add to the freezer without spending much more time in the kitchen than I already have planned to cook our regular meals. Here is my strategy:

• 
  
  Soup of the Week: Next week's soup is Quinoa Vegetable Soup. What is supposed to happen is that I have leftover soup each week to freeze and eat at a later date, but that hasn't been happening! The other week I made White Bean and Kale Soup and we ate it all up. My husband and I actually had to negotiate who got the last 2 servings. This soup should be different, because my husband doesn't really care for this soup. More for the freezer!
• 
  
  Creamy Enchilada Casserole: I have the ingredients, so I might as well put one together one night while I am making something else for dinner.
• 
  
  Bouchons au Thon (tuna/salmon corks): Do I dare try to make these again after what happened last time?
• 
  
  Strawberry Bread: I'm making this on Sunday morning for a vegetarian dinner Sunday night. It makes two loaves, so one will go into the freezer for a future meal or gathering. (Finished!)
• 
  
  Lasagna: my recipe makes a huge pan, so I will put some in an 11x7 pan for the same dinner, then make an 8x8 for a future family meal. First I will need to extricate the Baked Ziti currently living in my 8x8 so I can use it for the lasagna. Did you know that an 8x8 casserole will fit in a gallon size freezer bag? (Finished!)
• 
  
  ETA: I need to mix up another batch of multi grain pancake mix (recipe from The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook)

When I'm ready to bake it, I'll peel the foil off and pop it back into the 8x8 pan.

So I have some ideas. It's definitely not a month's worth of food, but my freezer is too small to handle that quantity of food anyway!

And now, off to do a bunch of other stuff.

Menu Plan for Vegetarian Dinner

We are having a few friends over for dinner this weekend, and one person is vegetarian, so I need to come up with a menu that is meat-free yet filling and nice enough for dinner guests. Here is what I've come up with:

• Appetizer: Gougeres (Cheese Puffs) These are so good! also veggies w/hummus Darn it! I ran out of time to make these. We had a cranberry goat cheese log w/crackers and grapes instead, courtesy of Trader Joe. (I don't want my guests to read this and get confused!)
• Salad: Caesar Salad with homemade dressing
• Main Course: Lasagna (if I omit the ground beef, it's a vegetarian dish!)
• Dessert: Strawberry Bread (Part of my menu from the Once a Month Mom cooking contest. I find out on Monday if my menu was selected!--ETA: I didn't win, but it was still fun!)

 This will be a simple get-together, no drink set-up or other elaborate plans, just having people over for food and friendship.

I'll share the recipes for the Caesar salad dressing and Strawberry bread next week.

I Finally Used the Frozen Mango!

I've been trying to find the ideal recipe for the frozen mango that has been living in my freezer since last summer, and I think I have perfected a winning recipe!

For some reason, I was drawn to the idea of making a chicken dish with mango in it. I found and made this recipe in the crock pot, but I think the long cooking time overcooked the chicken and the seasonings in the mango mixture were not enough to bring out the flavor of the mango (which was probably overcooked along with the chicken!) It was a decent enough meal, but I wanted to make it extra special since it is a part of my Once a Month Menu contest entry--2 more days left to submit your votes for your favoite menu!

Instead of cooking the chicken in the crockpot all day, I recommend using boneless skinless breasts so that the chicken can marinate in the mango mixture all day while defrosting, then cook up in under 30 minutes without overcooking the mango. Increasing the seasonings helps to enhance the sweet/tangy mango flavor.

Ingredients:

• 
  
  1 large mango (or 1 cup frozen mango chunks)
• 
  
  3 tsp lemon juice
• 
  
  2 tsp honey
• 
  
  4 garlic cloves minced
• 
  
  1/2 tsp paprika
• 
  
  1/2 tsp salt
• 
  
  1/4 tsp pepper
• 
  
  1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts (reduced amount of chicken due to switching to boneless skinless chicken)
• 
  
  A drizzle of olive oil

To Prepare:

1. Cut up or defrost mango. Place in food processor and puree to desired consistency. (I like mine a little chunky).

2. In a small mixing bowl, combine mango and next 6 ingredients.

3. To freeze: Place chicken and mango mixture into a resealable freezer bag and freeze.

4. To cook: Defrost if frozen. Preheat to 375 degrees. Place chicken in baking dish, pour mango mixture over top of chicken and add drizzle of olive oil. Bake until chicken is fully cooked approximately 25 minutes.

This dish is wonderful (and fast!) served over whole wheat couscous, which I made with some of my bone soup so that it has a nice chickeny flavor. We ate it all. The mango flavor was preserved much better this way than in the crock pot; I highly recommend it!

I haven't had a chance to try the topping yet; maybe I'll have time to try it if I prep this meal on a freezer cooking day! ;)

Cupcake Recipe Review

I made these cupcakes for my Book Club meeting this past weekend, and I wanted to let everyone know that they are were Fantastic! If you scroll down in the recipe for the basic Bite-Size Sour Cream Pound Cake Cupcakes, you will find 5 variations from the basic recipe. The recipe for the basic Vanilla Buttercream frosting can be found here. I made the basic cupcake recipes and followed the variations for the Salted Caramel Chocolate Cupcakes.

They were also incredibly easy to make, thanks to my new mini muffin pans and my beloved Pampered Chef mini scoop: 

(If you missed the story of what happened to my OLD mini muffin pan, you can read about it here.)

The Highlights:

• The new mini muffin pan is actually a pair of pans that make a total of 24 mini muffins at once. They are Wilton pans and the labeling says that it is safe to use metal untensils on the pan. (I will not be doing this, having learned my lesson with the last pan.) I used mini muffin liners for the cupcakes, but a few liners got out of place when I was loading them with my handy dandy scooper and they came out of the pan beautifully even though I hadn't greased the pan at all. We'll see how long that feature lasts!
• The chocolate ganache layer you see under the frosting was so easy to do! You just mix chocolate chips and whipping cream in a microwave safe bowl, heat for 30-second intervals, add more cream, and stir until smooth, then dip the cupcake tops in the chocolate. Not only does this add a wonderful chocolate flavor to the vanilla cupcake, it also seals in the cupcake's moisture so that the cupcake doesn't dry out as quickly.
• The caramel buttercream frosting is quite easy to apply. I loaded up the frosting in two sealable plastic bags and snipped a quarter inch hole in the corner of the bag to apply the frosting quickly in a spiral pattern. Very fast and easy.
• The most wonderful part of these cupcakes was that next I added salt on top of the frosting! You can see the salt flakes in the picture above. I used sea salt from a salt grater for larger flakes. The combination of the sweet caramel buttercream and the salt was wonderful. (The recipe called for a small piece of caramel to be added on top of the cupcake. I didn't do this part because I am such a slacker--clearly. ;)
• When you make a batch of mini-cupcakes and use the handy dandy scoop, you can make over 60 cupcakes out of one batch of batter! This is a good thing because when you serve them, they will disappear quickly.

One last thing: I used boring old white cupcake liners for these cupcakes, but you can find some adorable mini liners and cases at bakeitpretty.com, which is also a fascinating and dangerous place to shop for gifts for the baker in your life.

Happy baking!