Turkey Loaf Tuesday

I made this whole meal for the first time during the first week of the 6 Week Meal Planning in May 2012. You can read the whole review HERE. This has become a household favorite and it is a great "comfort food" meal! 

Turkey Loaf

Time:
Prep time: 20 minutes (10 for meat an 10 for potatoes)
Cook time: roughly 1 hour 15 minutes

What you will need:

Cooking spray
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp brown mustard
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 cup ketchup, divided
2 lb lean ground turkey
3/4 cup Italian-style seasoned bread crumbs

Direction

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat an 10 by 5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add the mustard, oregano, thyme, salt, pepper, and 1/2 cup ketchup; stir. Add the turkey and bread crumbs; mix until combined. (Don't overmix, or the meatloaf will turn out dry.)
3. Transfer the mixture to the baking dish into a 10 by 5-inch loaf. Spread the remaining ketchup evenly over the top.
4. Bake until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the loaf registers 165°F, about 45 minutes.  We used a Meat Thermometer and it took about an hour and five minutes to cook and it was perfect. If you have a Meat Thermometer or can get one that is the best bet for having the meat turn out perfect.
Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

ENJOY!

                                    Sauce                                              Meat in the pan

 Meat with the ketchup

Potatoes

What you will need:

1 1/2 lbs (about 5 medium) potatoes

2 T butter

1/2 cup milk

Direction 
**I start working on the potatoes when I put the Turkey Loaf in the oven and it usually works out just right**

1. Wash, peel and cube potatoes

2. Put potatoes into a saucepan. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add water until potatoes are covered. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, 15-20 minutes, or until done - a fork can easily be poked through them. 

3. Drain potatoes, add milk and butter, mash- I use a hand mixer on low for just a couple minutes and that leave them just a little bit lumpy which we love!

Corn

We used a Steamer bag of corn

Thoughts:
The meatloaf was so flavorful, I'm almost sure I could have eaten the WHOLE thing but I restrained myself and only had one portion! This meal was the ultimate "comfort meal" for me and reminded me of my childhood and my grandma's house on a Saturday night. Overall a very easy meal and very flavorful.

Here is a quick photo for you of K and her love of Turkey Loaf!

    6 days before her 2nd birthday                 4 months shy of her 4th birthday 

                   

Mexican Monday

Happy Monday! Today was my first day back at work since December 19 and all I could think about all day was my sweat pants and taking a nap! I did power though the day but I did sneak in a cat nap when I got home from work before making dinner! Hopefully the rest of the week gets easier because today was a little rough working eight hours straight! 

I hope you are ready for an AWESOME new recipe! I have been trying to think of how to convey just how good this was but I really am at a loss for words so you will just need to try this for yourself! VERY YUMMY!

Oven-Fried Chicken Chimichangas

Time:
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: roughly 25 minutes

What you will need:
2/3 cup picante sauce or salsa
1 tss ground cumin
1/2 tsb dried oregano, leaves crushed
1 1/2 cup cooked chicken, chopped-I shredded the chicken because we like it better than chopped
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 green onions, chopped (about 1/4 cup)-we didn't use these because I forgot to get them at the store
8" flour tortillas- I used 7 tortillas
2 tbsp margarine, melted

Direction
1. Pre heat oven to 400
** I choose to boil the chicken because we prefer shredded chicken. If you want to do the same you will need to bring a pot of water to a rolling boil then add your chicken and let it cook for 15-30 minutes. If the chicken is thawed then it will only take 15 minutes whereas if it is frozen it will take more like 30 minutes.
2.Mix chicken, picante sauce or salsa, cumin, oregano, cheese and onions.
3. Place about 1/4 cup of the chicken mixture in the center of each tortilla.
4. Fold opposite sides over filling.
5. Roll up from the bottom and place seam-side down on the baking sheet.
6. Brush with melted margarine.
7. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden.
8. Garnish with additional cheese and green onions and serve with salsa on the side. 

ENJOY!

The Chicken boiling on the stove

Shredding the chicken

**we use two forks when shredding-one to hold the chicken and the other to pull the chicken away**

The chicken mixture

The stuffed tortillas with butter on top before going into the oven. 

The finished product!

I added sour cream, salsa and shredded cheese to the top.

They didn't look "fried" when they came out of the oven but they tasted very "crunchy" 

Thoughts:
This dinner quickly became a house favorite at the Stinson house! Overall they were very quick to make (especially if you take out the time to boil the chicken) and so very yummy! The next time I make them I will more than likely boil the chicken ahead of time then I can just grab it out of the refrigerator and fill the tortillas.

I hope you all are finding a way to stay warm!

Sunday: brunch, bread and BBQ..OH MY!

Sunday seemed to pick up right where Saturday left off meaning we followed NO schedule including our meals! We woke up to about four inches of snow and bitter COLD temperatures so there is no better way to start the day then with a good cup of coffee and a big brunch!

After brunch I still felt like cooking and today was a great day to use the oven because it was so cold outside it helped keep the house warmer! I decided today was a great day to make some banana-chocolate-chip break which turned out the perfect treat for our snacking day.

This is what as left of the bread at the end of the day!

Since we has a big brunch when lunch time rolled around we were not hungry so I switched the crock pot from high to warm and let the ribs continue to simmer until we were finally hungry mid-afternoon. And of course since we didn't eat lunch until mid-afternoon dinner was kind of a choose your own adventure which meant that we all ended up nibbling on left-overs.  

Slow Cooker Spareribs

Time:
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: roughly 3-4 hours on low or 6-7 hours on high

What you will need:
1-2 lbs of country-style pork ribs
1 1/2 cups ketchup
1 1/2 Tablespoons Old Bay Seasoning
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white vinegar

Direction
1. Place pork in resealable gallon-sized freezer bag.
2. Mix remaining ingredients together in a bowl and pour over the pork.
3. Mix together in the bag and zip closed.

When ready to eat...
4. Remove from freezer and thaw in fridge for 24 hours.
5. Place contents of the bag in crock pot and start cooking on low for 3-4 hours or high for 6-7.

ENJOY!

The ribs on Friday after mixing the sauce and putting into a freezer bag

I served Cheesy Potatoes and Red Lobster Biscuits with the ribs

The finished product! Very yummy!

Thoughts:
Overall this was a very simple meal to prepare, easy to make and very yummy! This is defiantly a meal we will be making again and it would be a great meal if you had several people to feed at one time. It was a lot of extra food for two people but it would have been the perfect amount for four adults.

Chili Saturday

Quote of the day..."Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." -Allen Saunders

The menu I had planned for today was Jason's Almost-Famous Chili/ Chili Dogs for lunch and Oven-Fried Chicken Chimichangas for dinner however plans change...Saturday was a very lazy day around our house. We spent the morning finding our living room from all the awesome Christmas gifts we had received and doing a little cleaning around the house. We did enjoy Jason's Almost-Famous Chili for lunch which led to nap time for everyone at our house then both the Kansas City Chiefs and the K-State men's basketball team played this afternoon so all activity halted while those two games were happening.

Jason's Almost-Famous Chili

There is no way Jason would ever let me share his "Almost Famous" recipe with you but here is a picture for you to enjoy!

Like I said I had planned to have Oven-Fried Chicken Chimichangas for dinner however the Chiefs game didn't get over until after 7:00 pm and I had already made plans to go look at an elliptical I was wanting to buy following the game so dinner didn't go as planned. Once we got home from all of that it was after 8:00 pm so I had left over General Tso's Chinese from last night, Hubby had chili dogs and K had plain hot-dogs. Everything I had for the Chimichangas will still be good for a while so I'm sure we will find a time to have them or they will be included in next weeks meal plan.

On a positive note I did get this beauty tonight! I'm so excited to have an elliptical at home that I can use whenever I feel like getting a quick workout done. I had no idea how long the recovery was for a complete ACL reconstruction but I am quickly learning! Since my surgery at the end of September I have only been able to go to Physical Therapy and do nothing else however as of the first of December I have been cleared to workout on the elliptical! The doctor said the elliptical would be the only exercising I can do until at least April so this will be my new best friend!

Friday meals

Friday's meal were not part of my weekly meal planning because I headed out to meet my best friend in Emporia for our annual day of alumni time at ESU and Hubby and K stayed here at home.

For breakfast I grabbed a quick coffee and some donuts holes at a local bakery on my way out of town.

Chelsea and I decided on a local Mexican restaurant for lunch which is where we spent MANY meals while we were in college! I was so busy chatting and catching up I forgot to snap a quick picture of lunch! They have some of the best white cheese dip and guacamole around so of course we had some of that then I had a cheese quesidilla so go along with our choices of dip! Hubby and K had leftover Sloppy Joes.

I ended up getting home earlier than planned so we decided since we hadn't planned anything and it was VERY cold outside we would order some Chinese for delivery.  Again, I was so busy telling Hubby all about my day that I forgot to snap a picture! I had General Tso's Chicken with fried rice and two crab rangoons. K is not a big fan, or really any sort of fan, of Chinese food so she had chicken nuggets with apple sauce and some pudding.

I'm excited for the rest of the weekend and next week's meals! I plan to spend some of Saturday in the kitchen preparing our weekly meals and maybe even a couple desserts too!

Have a great weekend!

First day back blogging and I delete my post!

So you know those days where nothing goes just as  you had planned? I thought all day today was Monday, clearly it is not! Second I decided to get back into meal planning and blogging so I wrote a post all about where I had been for the last year and a half and our meal plan this week then I accidentally deleted it! Darn!

Well the short of the story is that I haven't had time to do meal planning or blogging for the last year and a half but I'm ready to pick up where I left off and get back into a routine!

Here is our meal plan for the week:

Thursday: Sloppy Joe Cups (I already posted about this one so checkout this post)

Friday: I'm heading out of town with K so Jason will have left over Sloppy Joes or sandwiches

Saturday:
     lunch- Jason's Almost-Famous-Chili/Chili Dogs
     dinner- Oven-Fried Chick Chimichangas with chips and salsa

Sunday:
     lunch- Slow Cooker Spareribs with cheesy potatoes and biscuits
     dinner- Three Cheese Chicken Alfredo with salad and biscuits

Monday: eating at the basketball game

Tuesday: Turkey Loaf with mashed potatoes and corn

Wednesday: Spaghetti (I'm working late so this is Hubby and K's go to meal)

Thursday: French Dip Sandwiches with fries

I typically only plan dinners except on Saturday and Sunday then we either eat left overs, sandwiches or eat out for lunch.

Have a great Thursday!

Sloppy Joe Cups

I'm starting my first week back at meal planning off with a quick easy recipe since I was going to the store then coming straight home to make dinner. I didn't want anything too complicated and not too big of a mess. 

Sloppy Joe Cups

Time:
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: roughly 15 minutes

What you will need:
1 can biscuits- I use Grands! Homestyle refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
1 lb hamburger-I use 93/7 
1 can (14.5 oz) Sloppy Joe Mix
Shredded Cheddar Cheese (you will not need a lot, it is just enough to sprinkle on the top of the cups)

Direction
1. Heat oven to whatever the biscuits call it to be
2. Brown hamburger then drain grease and put it back on the stove
3. Add Sloppy Joe mix to hambuger
4. While the Sloppy Joe mix is simmering open the biscuits and place one in each hole of a muffin tin. You will need to push the dough down in and make a hollow place in the middle of each biscuit.
5. Spoon less than one tablespoon of meat into each biscuit then top with cheese.
6. Cook per the instructions on the biscuit roll-Mine called for 13-17 minutes so I did 15 and it was perfect

ENJOY!

This is what the biscuits should look like in the muffin tin

Like I said there really isn't a lot of room for meet so it is less than a table spoon of meat in each cup 

 Again, not a ton of cheese goes on each once just because there isn't a lot 

of room but a little bit goes a long way with these cups. 

Final product!

 

Thoughts:
I originally got this recipe from my mother-in-law and we have been eating these for a few year at our house so of course we love them! One thing to know is that you will have enough left over Sloppy Joe mix to have a few sandwiches or if you want to use all the meat you will need to buy two or three can of biscuits. This would be a great meal of you were feeding lots of people but didn't want to make a huge mess in your kitchen. Hubby usually eats four and I will always eat two or if we are not having any sides I will typically eat three so if that helps with planning!