Holly's Meatloaf

Brian hasn't eaten it yet, so I can't claim a success yet ... but most of the kids liked it! I really liked it! Too long to explain why, but it will always affectionately be called Holly's Meatloaf!

Holly’s Meatloaf

1.5-2 lbs. ground beef 

½ onion, chopped
2 tbsp. minced garlic
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 cup of dried bread crumbs (any flavor)

¼ cup Worcestershire sauce 

 2 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. spicy brown mustard
1/3 cup ketchup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Sauté the chopped onion in a little bit of butter. When the onions are almost finished, add the garlic. Set aside to cool. 

In a large bowl combine the beef, egg, milk and bread crumbs. Now add the onion & garlic. Mix well. Place in a lightly greased loaf pan. 

 
In a separate small bowl, combine the Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, mustard and ketchup. Mix well and pour over meatloaf. 

 
Bake at 350 for 1 hour. 

  
I made just 1 modification and that is that I used 1lb ground beef and 1lb ground turkey. I also skipped the garlic in the onions because I didn't have any! I used garlic salt in the meat mixture and I think it turned out ok.

Today's Experiment!

What started out to just be me cutting up some left over chicken for lunch, turned into an experiment that I hope to be calling dinner tonight! Last week I took a small bottle of creamy Caesar dressing, poured it over some boneless skinless chicken breasts, and baked it for dinner. Served it with a side of broccoli. Everyone enjoyed it (well, not the broccoli part). Left overs were put away and today I decided to clean out the fridge in prep for the welcome home party we're having for Amber tomorrow. http://piecesofmyheartukraine.blogspot.com/

Anyway, I found the left over Caesar chicken and decided it would cut some up, put it in a tortilla, top is with cheese, nuke it, and have it for lunch. As I was chopping it up, I realized there was actually quite a lot left and started thinking about what I could make it into for another meal for the family. Two cans of organic "diced" tomatoes came to mind. These cans were purchased as part of an 8 pack that was buy 1 get 1 free at Costco a couple of weeks ago. I have the word diced in quotes above because the cans do not contain what I would call diced tomatoes, but rather large pieces of chopped tomatoes in some liquid. So much liquid actually, that soup comes to mind.

So, here's my experimental recipe and I put it into the crock pot in hopes that it will taste yummy for dinner tonight.

The Chicken Soup Experiment

• 2 - large boneless skinless chicken breasts 
• (pre-cooked with creamy Caesar dressing as described above)
• 2 - 8oz cans del monte organic diced tomatoes 
• (available in 8pk @ Costco)
• 2 - 8oz cans filled with water
• 2 packets chicken seasoning 
• (per Mary's recommendation, saved from top-ramen noodle packets that I used the noodles but not the seasonings)
• 1/8 cup - freeze dried chopped onion
• 1 TBSP crushed garlic
• 1 TBSP dried parsley
• 1 tsp each dried spices 
• basil, thyme, oregano, cilantro 
• (you pick what you like, I used them all)  
•  salt & pepper, as desired
• pinch of crushed red peppers

Cut cooked chicken to desired size. Empty 2 cans of the tomatoes into stock pot or crock pot. Fill both cans with water and combine into the soup mixture. Add spices as desired. Add chicken. Cook until desired temp and serve with side of rolls.

I'll let you know how it turns out! :)

Getting Back into the Swing of Things ...

For those who have been following our journey to add more children to our family through adoption http://piecesofmyheartukraine.blogspot.com/, you know that we arrived safely home on Friday, October 14th. (I will add a post to that blog about our first week back shortly.) Compared to the pace of life prior to the adoption, I've felt like life has gone at a much slower pace since getting home.

A huge part of that has been that I actually resigned from my position as paralegal for Care Net http://www.facebook.com/carenet?ref=ts prior to the adoption process. I realized back in February that the full time schedule was not working out as well as we had thought after I returned from our first adoption trip http://macyadoption.blogspot.com/. 

Don't get me wrong - I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED working for Care Net, the pro-life mission, and my incredible boss!! But, as I told them during my job interview back in 2008, I will always be a mother first and foremost, so of course they understood and have always been wonderful about things when I needed time for my family. However, with the pending adoption of possibly 2 more children, I felt the time had come that I be home more and work outside the home less -- such a position was not available within the company at that time. It was a bummer to have missed out on conference this year in Orlando, so I lived vicariously through their conference photo page while in Ukraine completing the adoption! I do hope that one day I can return to pro-life ministry work as I have been involved in the movement since junior high!

Our excitement for the week has been two things: I won a live Christmas Tree through a facebook contest from Dutchman Tree Farms http://www.facebook.com/DutchmanChristmasTreeFarms and  I went to the doctor yesterday to confirm that I have a stress fracture on the top of my foot! It was confirmed and now my foot is taped up and in a walking boot (which prevented me from going to the $1 movies with my kids this morning).

So, back to the purpose of this blog ... mostly about meal planning and life strategies for raising a larger than average family. I know there are families out there with many more children than we have, but I feel like we have a large family (we only have 1 open spot at the kitchen table) and meal time can be a challenge both financially and logistically! I am not a very good cook. I can cook, but generally I can only cook what I already know how to cook. I usually ruin a perfectly good recipe the first try (sometimes the 2nd try, too) and when you're cooking for 7 people on a budget you just can't afford too many OOPPS-we-need-to-order-pizza nights!

The first step for me is to get organized. I don't like the panic that sets in when the kids get home from school around 3pm of "what are we having for dinner." The kids like to know! Actually, I like to know, too! :) Thus, came the calendar. This is where I download my monthly calendars and they can be edited in WORD or similar programs. I download 2 at a time and start planning ahead.  

http://www.calendarsthatwork.com/

I have posted my previous months calendars on the right hand sidebar for my own use to look back, but also to share ideas with others. Even though I'm no longer working outside the home, afternoon/evenings are hectic with 5 kids to get through homework, studying, dinner, clean up, chores, and showering. I know I need to keep dinner simple, less than an hour including prep & cooking, and something I can't easily ruin! So, weekends are my own time to "experiment" in the kitchen. I always have some "easy dinner night" options available just incase I ruin something.

"Easy Dinner Night" means something I can reheat in the oven. This includes (all from Costco) take-n-bake pizza (we stock up when on sale and freeze for later use), Mickey Mouse or Dino chicken nuggets, The Ultimate Fish Sticks (about 3x the size of regular ones), or chicken taquitos. I sometimes will make an extra dish if I'm cooking something out of the ordinary. Lazanga for instance, which I only make about once every 3-4 months, I will make 2 pans of it and use one that night and freeze the other. I do the same when I make enchilladas, which I don't make very often because it takes so many steps and really quite a long time! Anyway, if I have extras of these in the freezer, they could be used on an "easy dinner night."

What to do when ...

you don't really have all the right ingredients for taco night?

I have exactly 8 meals left to cook (counting tonight) before we depart for our big adventure in Ukraine! So, I am not buying any more food, other than what we need for breakfast and school snacks (the kids eat hot lunch at school). This means that I have to make do with whatever concoctions I can create at home ... and if you've known me for very long, or have been reading my blog, this is NOT my forte! :)Never being sure that your creation is going to work out is quite scary for a mom of 4 kids (soon to be 5, possibly 6)!
 
So, time for tacos, but I don't have lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, beans, etc. any of the normal things one would add to meat inside a tortilla to make a taco. But, leave it to me to try to create something worth eating!

1lb ground turkey
1lb ground beef
2 cups dry rice - make according to package directions (should make 3 cups when cooked)
Bell pepper (any color) *see note below


Seasoning:
1/4 cup taco seasoning (if using bulk or 1 packet)
1 tsp Mrs. Dash extra spicy 
1/4 cup freeze dried onions
1 TBSP freeze dried cilantro
Add to meat after cooking and add 1/2 cup water - simmer until water is absorbed

*Since I didn't have any fresh veggies or salsa, I added a package of chopped frozen green bell peppers. These had been on a special at the store and were $1/bag (10oz). I hate chopping things, so I stock up when these are on sale. They work great when I do a sweet and sour shrimp stir fry or for something like this as well, just to add some bulk and veggies to a meal. They also work well to add some bulk to any soup or chili dish.

I mixed everything together before putting it into tortillas and adding some Mexican blend cheese and sour cream (for those who wanted it).

Amanda said it was really yummy! :) I'll have left overs to each for my lunches for the next week . . . or maybe I'll serve it again tomorrow night so that's one less meal I have to cook . . . hmmmm :)

.

I'm so PROUD of Myself!

For those who know me, I'm a "HOT MESS" in the kitchen! I can't do anything homemade and if it requires me to follow a recipe that has more than about 6 things to measure then I'm telling you it AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN!

So, I don't know what came over me tonight, but I decided that the stash of almost over-ripe tomatoes from our weekend garden picking needed to be used and guess what I was making ... spaghetti! :) We'd just gotten back from a busy day of dr appointments followed by meeting some friends at the pool, so again I'm not sure what came over me to try something new and possibly complicated. I didn't think I had time to look up a recipe, so I just decided to wing it!

~10 small to medium Roma tomatoes (from our garden) - blended or put into a food processor
26oz jar crushed tomatoes (Costoc) side note: I seriously use these for just about anything that requires pasta sauce or soup base
1 TBS crushed garlic
2 TBS sugar (I use raw organic, but regular sugar is probably just fine)
2 TBS dried parsley
1 tps dried oregano
1 tps dried basil
1 tps dried cilantro
sprinkle of crushed red peppers (if desired to add some spice)
salt & pepper as desired
1/4 cup dried chopped onions
add cooked, crumbled ground beef or ground turkey if desired
Serve over pasta of your choice! :)

Getting Started Again ... Brunch Dish made with leftovers

Well, the summer is nearly over and our visitors from Ukraine have returned to their country. We had very few meals at home during the month of July due to travel, vacations, and just being out and about instead of being at home. There are only 3 weeks until school starts, so it's time to get started again on the home cooking meals to feed a larger than "average" family on a budget, while saving money for an upcoming (hopefully) trip overseas! :) 

I will also post my August menu planner (see sidebar). With so much food stocked up that we didn't use in July, it looks like I won't need to purchase much in August for main dish ingredients. So, I took inventory of my three fridge/freezers and wrote down everything I had and then sat down to the calendar. What I have a lot of is whole wheat pasta and sauce, so we will be having some type of pasta dish twice a week during August. In order to make this work for me, I have to keep it to simple recipes that I know I can fix and every now and then pick something new that works with the ingredients I have on hand.

This morning I searched the internet for a low-carb breakfast idea for eggs/ham (using left over ham) and found one that didn't use bread or potatoes. SIDE NOTE: I need to loose 15lbs (minimum) before travel time and the only way I know how to do that is with low-carb meals.* On top of this one being low carb, it meets my requirements of less then 6 ingredients and other than chopping ham takes less than 20 minutes to put together. Ashley even helped out.

BREAKFAST BAKED HAM & EGGS
1 lb. ham, cubed 2 c. milk 1 tsp. salt 1 c. grated cheddar cheese 6 eggs, slightly beaten Mix together well and pour into 9 x 13 inch pan. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Bake uncovered 50-60 minutes at 350 degrees.

*note on low carb eating ... I have a stock pile of frozen chicken breasts from Costco so on nights that I fix a pasta dish for the family I will eat that instead.

The Girls are COMING!!!

Got the news today that the girls' flight arrangements are official! They will be here on June 28th! It's actually a nice time this year so, we'll be able to bring all our kids from home this way - last year they arrived at like 10pm or something like that, which made it nearly impossible to take little kids with us. It usually takes over an hour to get luggage, talk to people, get our family photo taken, and get off towards home ... stop for some grub and then the girls can just crash until they want to get up the next day!

I am super excited about a trip to Smith Mountain Lake. Last time I was at the lake I was with a friend who doesn't like bugs or to get "dirty" so she could barely sleep in the cabin we had just spent hours cleaning and washing sheets just to be sure they were extra clean! I also was taking some medication that made me very sensitive to the sun, so I couldn't spend much time outside. We should be able to take the kids boating, swim in the lake, go on the bike path, play some miniature golf, and there is also a movie theater and some good restaurant, but most of the time we'll be grilling up some good grub! :)

This needs to do on our other blog, but I don't have writers access to it, so hubby will have to just refer to it later! :)