Menu Plan Monday - 11/14/11

Well, the "ick" has officially invaded the house again.  The kids started feeling sick on Thursday, and now are on the mend.  I've been feeling run-down the last week or so, but it developed into a cold for me too this weekend.  Blah!  Is all I have to say about that.  Some of the plans fell apart last week.  We did homemade chicken soup and breadsticks on Thursday and skipped soccer practice.  Stayed in all weekend.  This is the last week of soccer, so hopefully everyone will be well enough.  Trying to take it easy this week, we'll see how that goes (still have mini-real baking and dance, too)!  Just putting a plan out there, although I know it may change as the week goes on.  The only project I got done this weekend was trying my hand at homemade ravioli.  Although far from perfect, certainly something I would like to try again.  No matter how they looked, they tasted really yummy.  And hit the spot to comfort this cold. 

Sunday - Pumpkin Ravioli with sage brown butter sauce.  I made the pumpkin pasta from this recipe from Leite's Culinaria with a simple ricotta filling.  And just like Jennifer in Mamaland, I loaded up on the cheap (50 cents a piece) pie pumpkins at Kroger this year.  I've been roasting, pureeing and freezing cups and cups of pumpkin.  This weekend I also made pumpkin pancakes, which were a hit!

Monday - Meatloaf, oven-roasted sweet potato fries, broccoli

Tuesday - Leftover pasta, veggies

Wednesday - Not sure yet.  Perhaps chicken and rice bake.

Thursday - Homemade Pizza

Friday - Roasted Turkey.  I tried this recipe  for Pumpkin Challah from The Challah Blog a few weeks ago and we really liked it.  I've tweaked the recipe a bit (added oil to make 1/2 cup, not 1/4).  I'm thinking of making more this week and freezing some for Thanksgiving.  Maybe as a pan of challah pull-aparts, with cinnamon sugar, hmm.  Not sure yet.

If you are looking for more recipe and menu ideas, please visit MPM at orgjunkie.com

Birthday Dinner

Well, I'm sure everyone is wondering what the big surprise dinner I had planned for my husband's birthday, right?  Okay, so dinner was a trio of his favorites.

Homemade Sushi

Asian Roasted Salmon

 And a restaurant re-make for The Cheesecake Factory Avocado Eggrolls, based on this recipe.

And for dessert (sorry, no picture)...Snickerdoodle Cheesecake from this recipe, except I used a traditional springform pan instead of the 8" x 8" pan in the recipe. 

Bringing in the harvest...sort of

With frost warnings for tonight, I decided to bring in the herbs, a couple of peppers, and a tomato (still green).  It's the end of the basil, no doubt (sniff).  I left a few bunches of tomatoes on the vines and hope they will keep growing.  Thankfully, the garden is not bare.  The broccoli and cabbage are starting to grow now and the other herbs (rosemary, oregano, thyme and even the parsley) will last through the winter here.  I am so not ready for winter!





MPM - 11/7/11

Menu Plan Monday

Trying to get back on track this week with menu-planning even if it means that perhaps I'll need to change it as the week progresses.  Lots of after-school activities this week (Nutcracker, dance class, mini-real baking, soccer).  And my husband's birthday is this week too!  I'm not going to post my plans for his birthday here (because he occasionally reads my blog ).  Sorry no links or recipes right now, hopefully I will be able to get back to the blog again to post more later.

Monday - Grilled chicken, broccoli, rice

Tuesday - Baked pasta

Wednesday - a surprise  (updated)
Thursday - Homemade pizza

Friday - Spaghetti and Meatballs or roasted chicken?  Not sure yet.  Challah.

Looking for more menu ideas, visit MPM at orgjunkie.com

The Mini-Real Bake Shop

I mentioned a few weeks ago that my daughter wanted to open a "bake shop".  Every week at her school they set up Mini-Real (i.e. a mini version of a real community), including police, school, bank, and merchants.  They rotate through different job categories throughout the year.  Right now, Miss D is in the Merchant's Mall and decided to open a bake shop.  So, last week we made chocolate chip cookies and little ghost cookies. 

And it must have gone well because the first thing she showed me after school was the sign she had to make and told me we need to make more next week:

(SOLD OUT)

This week we made mini carrot cake muffins and more chocolate chip cookies. 

Can't wait to see how it goes today!   

More cars stuff...

More pictures from the party:

A couple of weeks back I made these  box-cars for the race.  

Cars sinage I found here via pinterest.com

I found the instructions for the Mater sandwiches here.  I used cheese slices and green apple for the sandwiches.  

Cars Birthday Cake

Here's the Cars birthday cake.  I made the bottom layer root beer cake and the top layer is vanilla white cake with a vanilla buttercream, so the end result was a root beer float cake!  I used this recipe for the root beer cake.  I doubled the recipe and baked it in a 13" x 9" x 3" pan for about 45 minutes.  For the white cake, I used this recipe, doubled and baked in the same size pan, again for about 45-50 minutes.  The "stands" were made with rice crispie treats covered in marshmallow fondant.  The cars on top were baked in this cakelette pan from Williams-Sonoma.  I only decorated Lightening McQueen and Mater, because the cakelettes were a bit more labor-intensive than I had hoped, but still cute anyway.  I had made marshmallow fondant for all the cakelette characters and perhaps I will be able to try to do them later this week.  Personally, I think the cakelettes taste just fine plain!  :)

All in all, a success!