September Home Cooking Challenge - Page 3

[Zamber]

Originally Posted by Amys1st

Recipe?

Sure! This is the recipe I use. You could use a homemade sauce (so many sauce recipes to choose from out there), but I keep it simple and use manwich. I also add some brown sugar (I eyeball it - about a half a cup?), and use a little less water (you might still have to drain off the excess water before adding sauce).

Crock Pot Lentil Sloppy Joes:
(source: http://www.food.com/recipe/Sloppy-Jo...ock-Pot-309272 )

1 lb lentils
2-3 (15 1/2 ounce) cans sloppy joe sandwich sauce (any brand you like)
6 cups water

1)Clean and rinse lentils.
2) Place lentils in slow cooker with water.
3) Cook on high for 2-3 hours (or on low if you will be gone during the day).
4) Once lentils are soft, add in your canned sauce.
5) Allow to heat through.

[mnnice]

I'm in. We are trying to adjust to having two kids in school full time and having both parents working (Last year DH stayed home with DS2 during the day. I worked three days per week and DS1 went to school full time.) We need to plan or we are sunk.

Historically, I have not been much of a feed the freezer sort of gal, but I think I will become one. I (with some solid help from DS1)cooked up a storm on Monday and have a couple of extra meals in the freezer. It feels good, sort of like anti-eat out insurance.

[Alyantavid]

I'm home with ds1 today. He had cereal for breakfast, dh and I had bagels and ds2 had a pb&j english muffin.

For lunch we had hot dogs. Dinner will be chicken sandwiches and fried zucchini.

[Zamber]

Yesterday was veggie burgers, leftover soup, and pasta with tomato sauce.
Today I had a veggie burger, then the plan is to have the leftover pasta the rest of the day. Snacks have been the free popcorn I get while at the movie theater I work at (though i get sick of eating it everyday, it's better than nothing). I plan on also whipping up another batch of cornbread. Tomorrow I can go grocery shopping to fill those cabinets with some much needed food.

[SaraCate]

Tonight will be reubens - I have to get the rye bread (we're almost out of bread, period), but everything else is on hand.

Lunch was leftovers all around - enchiladas/rice/sauteed peppers for DH, salmon patties
, green peas, and grape tomatoes for me and DS

Tomorrow is probably pot pie that's in the fridge, with a green salad. Will have to get greens, but lots of other salad veg on hand.

[spatulagirl]

Breakfast: gluten free breakfast cookies from the freezer

Lunch - mac and cheese, special allergen mac and cheese for my ds

Dinner - Pineapple Quinoa Cashew stirfy

[Keeta]

Tonight's a use-up-stuff stirfry: leftover half onion, tiny mini red peppers, tiny carrots, scallions, ginger, garlic with soy curls in a 5-spice, sherry and tamari sauce (thickened with corn starch). Inspired by Rachel Ray this afternoon.

[Ianthe]

Mostly everything i've been making has just been random stir fry made with different spices, from garden and CSA veggies.. with brown rice.

Tonight we are doing tacos/taco salad with beans.. and we have lots of fresh green beans to use, so I made them fried in olive oil, garlic, red pepper flake, and leftover zucchini.

DH bought a bag of blue chips for dinner tonight.

Oh yeah.. last night we made "sneeky mama black bean soup" - inspired by Vegan Lunch Box, and it was VERY good!

[Alyantavid]

None of the boys were up when I left this morning so I don't know what they'll be having for breakfast or lunch.

But for me:
b: hardboiled egg, cheese, onion on an english muffin
l: leftover casserole
d: pizza

[Mackenzie]

Doing my meal planning this weekend...

[averysmomma05]

Today we had:
B: poptarts
Sopcorn
L: will be pizza
D: lentil sloppy joes with homemade buns and homemade fries

[butterflies]

Last week, after all our summer traveling was finished, we also started focusing on eating at home exclusively. This sounds like a great way to stay on track.

DH recently rotated our emergency/storm supplies. So the cupboard is full but we have a lot of odd canned and packaged foods to use up in the next couple months.

Today we're doing--
lunch: sandwiches and fruit
dinner: chicken caesar salad, french bread, melon

[Zamber]

I've been hitting up the hillbilly housewife site for cheap meal ideas to try. I made the creamed tuna and peas with elbow noodles since I know DH likes tuna. At first he was reluctant to try any (because he is really picky about his food, and has only liked tuna in sandwiches). However, after giving it a try, he ate 2 bowls in one sitting because he loved it so much!

The bonus was I had most of the ingrediants on hand - I just needed to pick up a can of tuna and some elbow noodles, and I had a monsterous pot of food available for $1.58 (he didn't even notice that I didn't use his fancy name brand albacore tuna ).

So, I am just going to try some more cheap recipes and not listen to DH silly "I don't think I am going to like it" or "It has to be made the RIGHT way" whines .

I have a bag of lima beans, so I am going to soak them tonight to give buttered beans a try since I have not really had them before. Otherwise we have been eating leftovers.

[Zamber]

Ok, the buttered beans were gross.
Oh well, live and learn.
DH is a soda/sugar addict, so I made him some sweet tea, and he loved it. Much cheaper than soda. Going to make him some more when I wake up because he is already out.
I had a loaf of old french bread that was hard on the outside, but soft in the very center. So, I chopped up the hardish areas into cubes, separated the soft parts of the bread, and left a hollowed out end piece. The result? I am now enjoying my very first batch of resturant style croutons ! The soft pieces of bread are going to be used in a meatloaf recipe, and the bread "bowl" I am going to try with some soup for lunch. I am so proud of myself, because normally if we don't eat the bread from the food bank the same day (and Goddess love them they give us quite a bit), it gets too hard to eat and ends up in the garbage . Now I know what to do with the extra bread.
I hate wasting food, especially when we really need it.

[SaraCate]

I heaven't checked in in a few days! Fri. night dinner ended up being pocket 'sloppy joes' - HM ground bef BBQ tucked into crescent roll dough (from the fridge, needed to be used up), customized - chesee & black olives for me and DS19mo, just cheese for DS14, and FF cheese, lots of onion, and hot sauce for DH . Green peas on the side.

Sat:

Breakfast: used up some smoked salmon in scrambled eggs
Lunch: ...I think we just grazed, actually
Supper: Pot pie (from fridge) and green salad/fresh veg

Sun:

Breakfast: HM Nutri-grain-like bars or HM WW toast with choice of spread
Lunch: Nachos - used up mexi-seasoned enchilada filling
Supper: Sausage rolls from freezer, cream cheese crescent, cheese & crackers, cut up raw veg...

Monday:

Breakfast: so far...toast w/ jam, breakfast bars, the last dab of LO salmon scrambled eggs

Lunch: Probably grilling - with whatever is on hand

Supper: ??

[Amys1st]

and we are off and runnin...

Friday night, we had to cancel our brownie troop outing so I made home made pizza. My girls like to roll out the dough and make their own pizza each. For DH and I, I made a "autumn pizza" because it went down to almost 50 degrees that night. DH picked up our first octoberfest beer (we sample everyone we find during that season) and we had the pizza.

It had fresh fig, fresh sliced mushroom, canadian bacon cooked ahead and then chopped up, sliced up apples from the picking stash, and topped with brie cheese and bits of blue cheese. It was amazing...

Saturday I made Texas chili with 4 lbs of stew meat. I am freezing most of it for some out of town relatives coming mid month. We will get together with the family and I will contribute the chili. A few others will do the same including a vegan chili for the non meat eating/vegan members of our family.

Last night, DH took the two whole amish chickens I bought, cut them up, made fried chicken from the Ad Hoc from home book. He brined the chicken pieces before hand and this was literally the best fried chicken I have ever had. I made a coleslaw from purple cabbage, raisons, and carrots. I added a diced up apple too. Amazing taste, just finishing it up as I am on MDC . Served corn on the cob and home made buttermilk biscuits too.

We also had brownies made by dd2, a apple crustada too. Make a sweet crust, roll out, add a fruit and filling and curl the edges up. Bake and serve. YUMMMMMM. Since we had quite the spread, we had the ILs over too. I think MIL had like 3 servings of the coleslaw! She took some home too.

Tonight I am thinking Steak and speggetti...

[maciascl]

I want to join in! No make that I NEED to join in

We have always eaten out too much but it has been even more since having DS3. So my plan is to actually allow myself to spend a little more at the grocery store to buy some convienance stuff and generally higher quality and easier to make stuff for now because it will still be cheaper than eating out.

Breakfast is usually eggs, cereal, oatmeal, or yogurt.

Lunch is sandwiches, salads or something easy since it is usually just me & the kids.

Dinners we have planned for now are:
Smokey tempeh, roasted potatoes and green beans
White bean pasta
Eggs, bac'n, toast and fruit
Lentil soup and rice
Spinach ravioli (frozen)
Ginger coconut rice with brocolli and tofu
Fried rice with Quorn, soy/sesame noodles, and garlicy green beans
Soy sausages with peppers, onions, and zuchini over rice
Tofu pot pie (already made in and the freezer)
Spagetti with tofu crumbles

[maciascl]

Originally Posted by spatulagirl

Dinner - Pineapple Quinoa Cashew stirfy

That sounds yummy! Do you have a recipe you could share?

[mnnice]

We are going great so far. Lunches have not been as big of a pain has I though.

We have had dinner at home Sept. 1-Sept 6 (except that DS1 and DH had some delivery pizza at the neighbors last night).

We have had
tofu/veggie stir fry
enchilidas from my "freezer stash"
homemade pizza
sushi (at home per DS2's request) we are getting better at that
beef brisket that DH smoke nearly all day on Sun (had dinner guests too it was yummy)
leftover brisket, baked beans

I have planned for this week
more leftover brisket
chicken stir fry
chili
beef strogenoff
maybe a quiche

[Alyantavid]

Dh remembered he could cook this weekend!

Saturday breakfast was scrambled eggs with a bunch of fresh veggies and sausage that we made into burritos. The boys had lunch with Grandma. Dinner was steak, some potato casserole concoction he made up and salad.

Sunday, breakfast was eggs and toast. Lunch was grilled hamburgers, chips and cucumbers. Dinner was chicken strips and fries for the boys and chicken and zucchini pasta for dh and I.

Yesterday, the boys and I had pancakes with fresh raspberry syrup for breakfast and dinner was baked trout with zucchini and onions and fresh corn on the cob. We did eat out for lunch (and a few snacks) at the county fair.

Tonight, we're having hot dogs and baked fries. With some fresh veggies again of course.