Menu Plan 8/11/12-8/17/12

Another busy week with both of us working extra hours. 

We tried to incorporate a few meals that will give us leftovers and

we plan on using stuff from previous freezer cooking sessions.

It's times like this when you fall in love with freezer cooking days!

Sunday, 8/11/12

Breakfast - al fresco chicken apple,maple sausage, eggs, biscuits

Dinner - Beef roast, potatoes, carrots, celery, onion

Monday, 8/12/12

Dinner - Meximelts (made with leftover Beef roast), Spanish rice

Tuesday, 8/13/12

Dinner - Beer boiled shrimp and rice (left over from yesterday)

Wednesday, 8/14/12

Dinner - Cheeseburgers (Brad's working out of town, it's just me the 'lil man)

Thursday, 8/15/12

Gyros with Freezer Tzatziki Sauce and chips

Friday, 8/16/12

Grilled Chicken and veggies

Saturday, 8/17/12

Open

Snacks

Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies from the freezer

Fresh Fruit and Veggies

This menu is linked up with:

 Org Junkie Menu Plan Monday & On the Menu Monday @ Stone Gable

Ciao! Amy 

Freezer Cooking Sunday

It's been crazy around here with Brad and I working extra hours.

I haven't had a lot of time to do any extra cooking.

But, I have been thankful for the freezer dinners in my freezer for those nights

when there is no time to cook.

 I took a couple of hours

today to put up a bit of produce and make some bread. 

So we will call this a 2 hour cooking session.

Colby Jack Cheese Bread

makes 2 small loaves

 1 1/4 cup of milk

2 T butter, cut up

1 t honey or sugar (I used orange blossom honey)

1 1/2 t salt

1 1/4 cups Colby jack cheese shredded. Reserve 1/4 cup.

1/4 t black pepper

1/8 t garlic powder

3 3/4 cups bread flour

2 1/4 t of bread yeast

1. Add ingredients to your bread machine in order recommended.

2. Run dough on dough cycle.

3. Once cycle is complete, turn dough onto a floured surface.

4. Divide dough into 2 pieces

5. Shape into loaves and place on greased, cornmeal sprinkled pan.

6. Cover with damp cloth.

7. Let rise for 1 hour, or until doubled in size. In a warm draft free area.

8. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.

9. Slash dough length wise and sprinkle with reserved 1/4 cup cheese.

10. *Optional* Sprinkle with basil, oregano or parsley.  I used parsley for color.

11. Bake 25-35 minutes or until done. 

Shelled field peas to freeze.

Froze whole tomatoes and cherry tomatoes. 

I wash them, dry them and throw them in a freezer bag for soups & stews in the winter.

How easy is that?

I also had Brad's help cooking 2 pounds of center cut bacon for breakfasts.

Ciao! Amy

Country White Dinner Rolls Recipe

We were out of sandwich rolls and the Country White Dinner Rolls Recipe was in my to try pile.

I threw everything in the bread machine, let it do all the hard work. 

Once the dough cycle was complete I took these out and baked them in the oven.

Our only complaint, I used my 2.5 inch round cutter for these rolls and they came out huge. 

I will use a size small to cut them out next time. I got 14 extremely large, softball, size rolls.

Very tasty, easy and a keeper.

Ciao! Amy   

Summer Squash Chocolate Cake

We had a ton of yellow squash.  I made squash this and squash that.

My mother use to make a yellow squash cake that was always a hit.

Below is her recipe.  This turned out very good.

It was moist, very chocolaty and we have both enjoyed it this week.

Summer Squash Cake

4 oz unsweetened chocolate

1/2 cup cooking oil

1/2 butter, room temp

2 cups sugar (I adjusted this to 1.5 cups, my chocolate was lightly sweetened)

3 eggs, beaten

1 T vanilla

2 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa

2 t baking soda

2 t baking powder

1 t salt

1/3 cup buttermilk or sour cream

3 cups coarsely grated yellow squash or zucchini

1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Melt the chocolate and oil in a small pan, over very low heat

3. Cream the butter until light

4. Add sugar, eggs and vanilla to butter, Beat well

5. Add the melted chocolate and mix well

6. Sift the dry ingredients and stir into the batter with the buttermilk

7. Mix the squash and nuts into the batter.

8. Grease and flour two (9 inch) cake pans

9. Divide the batter between the pans.

10. Bake on middle shelf of oven for 40 mins or until tester comes out clean

11. Cool completely before frosting.

* I used some canned chocolate frosting I had in the pantry.

Ciao! Amy