Wednesday: Egg Popovers

WEDNESDAY


This week has been a week of lessons learned regarding meals and it is only Wednesday!
This meal that I am posting now WAS good, however, I think it could be better.

It was super easy, like ridiculously so and I think can be modified to be more of a real meal. It ended up being a bit of a....well....muffin.

Here is what you need (for 8 popovers:
2 Eggs (Cage Free Please. Hehe...just my little encouragement).
1 Cup of Milk
1 Tablespoon of melted butter/marg.
1 Cup Flour
3/4 tsp salt


Here is what you do:

1. Dump it all into a mixer and turn it on! Beat for 15 seconds, scrape the sides and beat again for 15 seconds.

2. Pour into muffins tin or custard cups. I do not have custard cups and muffin tins work great for me.



3. Now, pay attention here this is important. Bake at 450 for 15 minutes. THEN, turn your oven down to 350 and bake for 20 minutes.



These will come out tasting like quiche, but with the consistency of a muffin. I served this meal with fresh Banana Bread so my husband laughed that we were having banana bread and muffins...."What's with all the bread?" he teased with a wink.

I think what will make this super easy meal better is to do the following:

1. Do everything the same, add in just a bit more milk and spice these wimpy popovers things up until they are fully loaded breakfast for dinner machines.

I would add:
Bacon or Sausage
Cheese
Tomato
Spinach

If you try this let me know how it goes. It was SO SO SO easy I am going to do it again next week and will report my findings. :)

The TIP JUNKIE

As it happy bellied filled kids and satisfied hubbies was not enough we also got an extra boost of encouragement today from a GREAT website~ THE TIP JUNKIE!

Your very own MEAL PLANNING MOMMIES were recognized on the TIP JUNKIE as being today's chosen creative blog.

We started this site as a way to help one another out...so that we would actually cook and find some sort of enjoyment in the grocery shopping, planning, preparing, and serving of that which we do dish out.
It has been so fun for us to watch our little site grow. When our numbers hit the 1000's we were jumping up and down with excitement. Seriously, all of us need to get out a little I think. (Heheh).

We want to say a big THANK YOU to TIP JUNKIE for choosing us as the blog of the day and pointing other readers in our directions.

Our site has never and will never be about gourmet cooking, mostly because I had to look up how to spell G-o-u-r-m-e-t to make sure I even had it right. What we post is actually what we are serving up for dinners at our three chaotic and wonderful homes.

Thanks to all of our readers. Keep spreading the news about Meal Planning Mommies and we will keep cooking....ok so we will keep cooking even if you don't spread the news but it sure would make the task more fun.

To see our feature click here!

Thanks Friends,

Alisha
Sarah
Katie

We Want your recipes!

From time to time you, our readers, give us some great ideas to adapt recipes that we post. We would like to feature your great ideas in our reader's choice week.

We would like to for you send to us your favorite recipes that would be helpful to other busy mom's and dad's. If you would like to make the recipe, with pictures, we will have you as a guest post and link back to your website. You can also just send us the recipe and we will prepare it for our families and post it.

We are looking for recipes that are frugal, healthy, simple and all around family favorites of yours. They can be for breakfast, lunch or dinner~ we like it all !

We would love to have some guest posts and link to you. We have such a fun readership here and are excited about highlighting some of your ideas and meals!

Please submit your guest posts to this email address:

Sarah Anderson
Youthsarah@hotmail.com


We will respond back to you with a post date. Thanks so much for participating in our readers choice guest week coming soon!

The Meal Planning Mommies

Tuesday: Chicken, Wild Rice and Sweet Potato Fries

What you will need (for 4 people):

2 Chicken breasts
Bread crumbs
Flour
Egg

2 Sweet Potato
Paprika
Cinamon
Olive Oil
Salt

Wild Rice
Chicken broth


How to make the chicken fingers:
Thaw your chicken breast and cut the meat off of the bone (or use frozen already deboned breast).

On three seprate plates put flour, bread crumbs, and whisked egg.


Dip your chicken into the flour, roll.


Dip your chicken into the egg, roll.


Dip your chicken into the breadcrumbs, roll.



When the chicken is coated place it on a baking sheet and repeat until all of the chicken pieces are complete.



Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until cooked through. We like to dip these in honey.


How to make your sweet potato fries:
Peel 2 sweet potatoes.


Cut them into little fries, the thinner the better.
Put them into a ziplock with the following:
Olive Oil
Paprika
Cinnamon
Salt
And shake, shake, shake, shake until they are all coated well.



Place them onto a baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Make sure to flip them at least once while they are baking.




How to make the wild rice:
Place one cup of wild rice into a pot with enough chicken broth to cover the rice. Boil, stirring occasionally, until done. When done the rice will not be completely tender. It remains a bit crunchy. Salt and Pepper to taste.


When all is complete, serve and enjoy!

Monday: Super Burgers

Ok, so super burgers are just hamburgers with a lot of good green stuff on top of them!


What you will need:
Buns
Hamburger
Steak Sauce
Tomato
Avocado
Onion
Lettuce


What to do:

1. Thaw hamburger in a bowl.
Add a bit of steak sauce into the meat.
Form into patties.
Place onto skillet, not too hot, low heat is better.





2. Prepare your toppings!
Cut up the tomato.
Peel and slice the avocado.
Slice the onion.
Chop the lettuce.



3. When your hamburger is finished cooking to your liking place cheese on top and put on bun. Add your toppings and enjoy!

Sunday : Chicken Quesadillas

This is a meal I love and typically stock the ingredients on a regular basis. This makes a great lunch, dinner or snack!

Here is what you need to serve 4:
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast ( I only used 1 piece b/c i was making it for just 2!), 8 flour tortillas, 2 cups shredded cheese (your choice!)

Now here are some options that I like to include either in or on my quesadillas. Use as much or as little as you want:

Bacon bits, salsa, sour cream, tomato and lettuce (guacamole and black beans are also great with this!)

Step 1: Cook your chicken. I use my "George Foreman) to cook my chicken and quesadilla. If you have one of these, I absolutely recommend using this to make your quesadillas. If not, bake your chicken in the oven, on the stovetop or wherever is convenient for you! I also like to add salt, pepper and (if I have some on hand) chipotle seasoning/taco seasoning to the meat.

Step 2: Once your chicken is cooled, shred it a part with a fork or dice it up with a knife

Step 3: Place 1 tortilla on your grill, add a handful of cheese, meat and tomatoes (optional).

Step 4: Don't forget the bacon, more cheese and the 2nd tortilla! Cook on George Foreman (or in skillet on medium heat) until the cheese is all melty and the tortillas are crunchy.

Step 5: Cut with a pizza cutter, add your sour cream, guacomole and salsa on the side.
Step 6: This was my daughter's quesadilla. She had just cheese and tortilla.

This was my quesadilla, it was HUGE. I only ate half and saved the rest. It was even better re-heated!

Meal Serves: 4
Cost of meal: $4.00 (only including tortillas, meat and cheese)
Cost per person: $1.00

Saturday: out to eat or leftovers night

Use one of those restaurant gift cards you got from Santa or just give yourself a break and eat leftovers tonight. The Tater Tot casserole and fettuccini make great leftovers (trust me, I know!).

If you do decide to go out to eat tonight, doing a little research may save you a few bucks!
Check out this link to find places in your area where your kids can eat for free tonight!

Tuesday: Keilbasa and Saffron Rice

This is the such an easy meal and we like it around here.



Cast of characters~
89 cent package of saffron rice (yellow rice)
Keilbasa sausage
fresh snap beans

What to do:

1. Cook rice, following directions on package.
2. Snap and clean beans. Add them to water and boil until tender, don't overdo!
3. Cut up the sausage and put it into a frying pan. Cook, flipping, until both sides are done. We like ours a bit crispy.
4. Make blueberry muffins from a package and add flax seed.

Serve, and eat.

Simple and easy.

You can use the leftover keilbasa for tomorrow's lentil soup AND we like to use the leftover rice to stuff tortillas with black beans or peas for lunches.
Plus, leftover muffins are good snacks and for breakfast.

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Friday: Fettuchini Alfredo, Salad and Garlic Bread

This is a simple meal b/c we needed a simple one after the holidays! There are lots of great homemade alfredo recipes out there (if you have a great one, I'd love for you to share!), but this week we decided to go w/ good ole' ragu and add some of our own garlic and parmesan to it.

Here is what you need:

1 jar alfredo sauce, 1 package fettuccini (or noodle of choice), parmesan cheese, garlic bread (or make your own), package of lettuce.

Step 1: Boil noodles. I always like to add some olive oil to my noodles while they are cooking to prevent them from sticking together. Also, this is the only time you have to really flavor your noodles- so add some salt also.

Step 2: Heat up Alfredo Sauce. I added a few shakes of garlic powder and some parmesan cheese. Real garlic would be great as well!

Step 3: Bake your garlic bread
Step 4: Prepare salad, drain noodles and wala!
This dish would also be great with grilled chicken, broccoli, tomatoes, fresh herbs. You name it!


Meal Serves- 6
Cost of Meal- $6.00
Cost per person- $1.00

Thursday: Tater Tot Casserole

I have had this casserole at friends' houses before, but never attempted to make it. Let me tell you, it will be a staple in this house! This casserole is so yummy, filling, cheap and versatile.

Here is what you need:

1 lb ground beef ( or turkey ), 1.5 or 2 lb bag of tater tots, 1 can cream of mushroom soup, 1 can cream of chicken soup, 1 can evaporated milk (evaporated milk is recommended because it makes the casserole richer tasting than regular milk), 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (optional)

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Step 2: Brown your ground beef, drain and place in a 9x13 casserole dish

Step 3: Mix in a bowl the 2 soups and the can of evaporated milk

Step 4: Place your tater tots on top of the ground beef. I have such good help in the kitchen! This is my daughter, Addie (2 1/2) helping mommy.


Step 5: Pour soup/milk mixture over tater tots. Place in a oven for 45-60 minutes. (If you want to add cheese, put the cheese on during the last 10 minutes of cooking)

Step 6: Once cheese is melty and dish is bubble, it's ready!

Step 7: Enjoy with a side of mixed veggies, broccoli or green beans.

I looked online for differing recipes for this casserole. Some people put mushrooms, green beans etc. in the casserole. I chose to keep it simple the first time I made it and it turned out GREAT! I was thinking it would be very easy to turn this dish into a breakfast casserole by using sausage, tater tots, the soup/milk, and cheese. I'll let you all know if I attempt it!

Meal Serves: 6
Cost of meal: $6.00 (includes veggies)
Cost per person: $1.00