What's for Dinner?

Isn’t that the most commonly asked question in families? 

And the pressure to come up with something, time and again, that everyone likes, can be challenging.

Monday rolls around all too quickly and suddenly it’s time to plan the weekly menu AGAIN!

Meal choices can sometimes get boring and moms and dads can run out of ideas pretty quickly.

Like in our house, my one daughter loves tacos, my son loves his sisters rice bowl, my fiancée loves cheeseburgers and I love weird stuff like sushi (it’s weird to them). We usually rotate at least one of these every week, except for Sushi... (maybe when they get older).

While these choices are liked by all of us, they can still get old. We will occasionally opt to have breakfast-for -dinner, complete with bacon or sausage, just to have a change. But, over the years I’ve had to use other things to drum up variety; and with much success.

I'd like to share a few:

Heinens (which is a local grocer in our neighborhood) has an email program where you can receive a weekly Email recipe when you are a rewards member. On their website they also have a recipe section where you can preview a new recipe complete with a check-off list of ingredients. (It views like a simple recipe card.)
With a click of a button you can add those ingredients to an online shopping list, then add your own items to it, print it or email it to a friend, making life a little simpler and more efficient. 

Hint for the tech savvy: Email the list to your hubby or wife! (This makes meal planning fun for grownups. If one plans the meal and he other shops for it, the communication is helpful, and no one can forget the list at home if you both have it online or in your smart phone!)
http://heinens.mywebgrocer.com/RecipeDetails.aspx?ROD=1&RecipeID=2992&s=132211091&g=4979a58b-f87f-4a0e-9f9e-20b7768e7da1&uc=6997347

Recipes.com  has good variety:
http://www.recipe.com/recipes/quick-easy/

DisneyFamilyFun.com  offers recipes for families including holiday desserts, like St. Patrick’s Day Pie or Yogurt Covered St. Patrick Day Pretzels!
http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/quick-meals/

Betty Crocker. She taught me how to cook when I was out of my parent’s house and on my own. It’s where I learned how to cook meat properly, choose better cuts, make homemade salad dressing and BBQ sauce, and homemade wheat waffles, when I was pregnant or nursing.  I still have my 3 cookbook set from when I was younger. Betty Crocker never goes out of style.

And now you can have Betty on the web! Where you can see Betty Crocker's editors’ pick of the day, the cookie of the day (yum!) and can search by product/brand, main ingredient, prep time, ethnicity, and more!
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes

Other places to get good recipes:
  • ·         Friends.
  • ·         Church cookbooks have a great collaboration of recipes (many of which are old-school -hand-  me-downs-from-Grandma).
  • ·         Woman’s organizations cookbooks that they put together and sell for fundraising
  • ·         The backs of food boxes (who hasn’t tried one of those recipes-Hello?-Can you say Rice-Krispie Treats?)
But you know as well as I do, your family has a household favorite. One that, if given the chance, would be chosen over any other meal available-and it’s one that never gets old.
Ours is my fiancée’s homemade pot pie. And like many favorite recipes, he’s not too sure exactly where it originated, but we love it so much we wanted to share it with you.


Chicken Pot pie
2 ½ -2 c shredded cooked chicken
2/3 c milk
1 can chicken broth (14.5 oz)
1/3 c flour
1/3 c butter (equals about ¾ of a stick, but we use 1 whole stick)
1 pie crust (top and bottom)
1 ½ c cooked, chopped potatoes
1 small can corn
1 small can peas and carrots mixed
Salt & pepper to taste (approx. 1 tsp)
Onion powder

Directions: Melt butter in large pot on stove, add onion, salt & flour. Stir till bubbly. Remove from heat. Add broth & Milk. Boil for 1 minute or until mixture thickens. Add cooked, shredded chicken & veggies. Pour into crust. Bake in oven on 425 degrees for 35 minutes or until light brown.
NOTE:A deeper pie dish than your usual dessert pie pan is necessary. (Pampered chef has a terrific ceramic one.)

If you like pot pie, you will love this recipe! Enjoy! 
And yes, this is what we are having for dinner tonight!

 

Truly,
Amber

Popular posts from this blog

Back to School Anxiety: Bullying

Image
Download “School Boy Being Stressed” by David Castillo Dominici via freedigitalphotos.net I recently wrote about how to help your child if they’re struggling with going back to school because they were bullied. My biggest most important tip was to listen, because I honestly could not write a ‘How-to-make-them-not-afraid’ column. Frankly I thought that was absurd. Fear is sometimes real. Anxiety is sometimes truly there, and for a good reason. Our job as parents isn’t to try to make it go away, it’s to try to find out the true source of those worrisome feelings. If you’d like to read more, click here. And if you’re child is struggling to find excitement about the new school year, don’t deny it, just accept it and move forward gently. Here’s some more on bullying: Family Matters Links: A Touching Story/Song Bullying: A thing of the past A Peace Poem By My Teenage Daughter A Deeper Insight into My Thoughts on People Who Bring Harm to Others Other Links: Stop Bul
Read more

Would You Rather?

Image
My kids like to play a game called ‘Would You Rather?’. I’ve always liked getting in on the fun because they usually freak out when it’s my turn to ask, ‘Would you rather?’. I will ask, ‘Would you rather…have to go to school for 365 days a year, or go without television forever?’  Or when I say, ‘Would you rather eat broccoli at every meal, or spinach?’. It’s fun to watch them squirm. Now here is one for parent’s. School shopping is finally coming to a halt (thank goodness) and there are a few items on the market that I want you to see (if you haven’t already gasped at them yourself). They are: JCPenney’s (recently controversial) Shirt for Girls: JCPenney And the 'Eye Candy' (yes, it says Eye Candy on it-actually ALL over it) notebook that I hear no one talking about and which is selling at Walmart: So, hear it goes…. Mom, Dad, Grandma, Antie….etc….. 'Would you rather ' have your teen (or younger) daughter wear the ‘too pretty for math’ shirt?        O
Read more

Good Customer Service At Home

Image
Over the years, my careers have mainly been customer service based. I started in a family business and then moved on up through the rungs from waitress, to hostess, to sales associate, manager and eventually the GM of a hotel. In all my years, my training taught me that you should always do your best to take your customer all the way to what they need, make them happy, and never leave them until they are done with you. I pride myself on my customer service abilities. Though the other day, I think I failed at customer service in my own home! I was getting ready to cut my daughter's hair and because of how long it had gotten (she's been growing it out for a year!) I felt this time it would be best  if instead of me spritzing it with water, she could wash and condition it real quick. She was fully clothed so I just suggested she run into the bathroom and wash her hair in the tub. She’s fourteen. I suppose I just assumed that she knew how to kneel over the tub and do it.
Read more