Lately we’ve been in such a rut with our meals and I keep saying it’s because my other family members are picky eaters. Or I blame the fact that I can’t seem to find 15 minutes each week to plan out my dinners. It’s difficult to make decent dinners when you’re pulling meat out of the freezer at 5pm and scouring the pantry for non-existent ingredients.

So I revisited my favorite food site, The Pioneer Woman. I’ll admit, I’ve been a bad fan and haven’t visited in many months. But lo and behold, the very first post I saw there was for Parmesan Crusted Chicken that made my mouth water. Amazingly enough, I already had most of the ingredients so I was psyched.

Let me just say…I heart Pioneer Woman!! From the beauty of her site design to the scrumptious recipes to the exquisite photographs to her fun writing style; I could have just stayed there all day long browsing and reading.

So I made the Parmesan Crusted Chicken tonight for dinner, although I ran out of Parmesan cheese and didn’t have the 2 sundried tomatoes. Unfortunately I used too much garlic salt so that significantly diminished the deliciousness of the dish.

BUT hubby said he liked it and I was “allowed” to make it again, minus some salt. Good news!

I’ve always loved chicken pot pie and am usually in so much of a hurry to gobble it down that I burn my mouth. A friend of mine told me she makes her own so I decided to give it a whirl, even though I knew my picky family wouldn’t give it a sniff never mind taste it. But since I usually make 2-3 different meals at dinner time anyway, why not make something that I wanted.

*Disclaimer: I am not a cook so let’s just pretend that this is MY pie in the picture. You wouldn’t want to see how mine really came out!

Amazingly enough, I had all the ingredients to make the chicken pot pie. Usually I’m scrambling to the store to get “one last thing” or making substitutions or even leaving out whole ingredients. See, I’m challenged in the kitchen.

Simply put:

1. Take one pie plate and place a pie crust layer in it (refrigerated pie crust worked well for me).
2. Mix together some cream of mushroom soup with 1/2 c. milk, some frozen veggies, and 2 c. of cooked chicken.
3. Take this mixture and put in pie plate.
4. Place 2nd pie crust on top, crimp edges (yeah, that didn’t happen on mine), and make a couple of cuts in the top to let the steam escape.
5. Bake for almost 1 hour at 350 degrees.

Let’s just say, my mouth is watering as I typed those directions and it couldn’t have been easier to make! I live for short and easy recipes; like I said, I’m challenged in the kitchen. It was scrumptious and it was all mine because nobody wanted to try it. Their loss!

Guess who’s cooking Christmas dinner this year?  

photo credit: zappowbang

Needless to say, the kids were not very hungry Saturday and we had one full pizza left, which we finished for dinner on Sunday night. Our money did not go to waste but I felt like I could have eaten pizza all night long.

We all love carbs in my family and I was intrigued to find the following information written by the author of the ebook, Craving Secrets:

Eating carbs like pasta, rice, bread and sweets will raise your blood sugar levels. It also temporarily elevates the levels of certain neurotransmitters in our bodies, most notably dopamine which releases chemicals including endorphins that give us a feeling of pleasure and serotonin which produces a feeling of well being.

Many of our comfort foods are also heavy in carbs. Think about the foods you want and crave when you are feeling stressed or sad. Is it mac’n cheese, fried chicken and mashed potatoes or a bowl of spaghetti? Maybe you start craving cake, cookies or pastries.

One way or another we go back to the foods mom used to give us to make us feel better after a hard day at school or when we got hurt. Combine this with the raise in serotonin levels that tell our brains that we are happy and it’s no wonder we crave foods rich in carbohydrates when we are stressed or sad. Getting more carbohydrate information will help you understand your eating habits and take control of it.

Are Carbs Really Dangerous Or Addictive?

Yes and No. Our body needs carbohydrates as a source of energy, but not in the amounts our society as a whole has been consuming carbohydrates, especially in the form or refined products such as bleached flour, white rice and processed pasta. It is also a good idea to stay away from white table sugar as much as possible. This refined sugar has almost no nutritional value other than the “empty” calories it provides.

Eating whole grain products combined with some lean protein is a much better way to give our bodies the carbs they need while also absorbing an array of other nutrients, vitamins, minerals and micronutrients. Combining some lean protein with the carbs will also keep us feeling full and satisfied longer than eating carbs by themselves.

The high consumption of refined carbohydrates from white bread to pasta, in the western world is leading to an increase in health conditions from diabetes to obesity.

Can refined carbs be addictive? Yes – not only to we get addicted to the neurotransmitters that are released by the consumption of carbohydrate rich foods, which is a reaction very similar to the “high” of a drug addict, consuming simple carbohydrates also causes our blood sugar levels to rise quickly and then plummet back down just as fast, resulting in a craving for more food. This is a desperate (and futile) attempt of our body to keep the blood sugar in balance.

Article by:
Are cravings controlling your life? Diana Walker’s book www.CravingSecrets.com will show you why you have certain food cravings, how they affect your health and your mood, and what you can do to beat them and live a healthier life.

This past Sunday was a pretty lazy day for us; we basically hung out at home and enjoyed the nice fall weather. This got me thinking about our meal plan for the week and how sick and tired I am of cooking the same, boring ol’ food for the picky eaters in my family. Thank goodness for the internet because I don’t need to scour piles of magazines or cookbooks anymore. Instead, I paid a quick visit to www.AllRecipes.com and within minutes I had a bunch of yummy recipes for the week.

Since I had all afternoon to prepare Sunday’s dinner, I chose a recipe for grilled pork ribs. Already had the ribs defrosted (a miracle that I thought to do it ahead of time!) and the marinade sounds fab. I had just about given up on preparing any kind of pork except for bacon because that’s the only thing I can prepare that doesn’t taste dry and look nasty. So I was a little bit leery of this recipe only because of my bad experiences. I was also totally thrown off by the fact that a reviewer said to BOIL the ribs for 40 minutes before putting them on the grill. What? Never heard of that before.

Let me say, the ribs were not lookin’ all that good when I took them out of the water, even though the house smelled wonderful! But this was a recipe that had gotten 4-5 stars from others who tried it so I persevered.

Those ribs were AWESOME!!  Boiling them rather than baking them first helped tenderize the meat and now this recipe is on our list of regular meals!

Not sure what my picky girls will eat the next time I make this but my hubby and I will enjoy them!

I really and truly need to become more religious about setting my weekly meals. Not only does it save my sanity at 4pm when I panic and think, “OMG…what’s for dinner?” but it saves us money on the grocery bill and prevents any hurried quick trips to the grocery store for missing ingredients. The small basket of extra ingredients often becomes a heavier basket with all the “on sale” items that we just “have” to have.

*Note to self: since you shop on Fridays, it doesn’t help much to be typing this meal plan on Sunday night.

Monday: grilled cheese sandwiches (hubby will be at a work dinner so super easy for me!), baby carrots

Tuesday: homemade chicken tenders (baked), green beans and rice

Wednesday: pasta with caesar salad

Thursday: steak with roasted potatoes

Friday: turkey club sandwiches

Saturday: we’ll be at a wedding so a night off for me!!

Sunday: meatball sandwiches 

 For more menu ideas, visit the Organizing Junkie !