Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Dinner Plans 1/23-1/29/2017

2:09 PM
Here is my meal plan for this week:
Monday 1/23: Pineapple Chicken, Rice, Asian salad
Tuesday 1/24: Haole Haystacks, Rolls 
Wednesday 1/25: Ham, Potatoes, Brussel Sprouts, green salad
Thursday 1/26: Crockpot Sweet and Sour Meatballs, Pasta, Veggies, Ambrosia
Friday 1/27: Sinigang, Rice, Green Salad
Saturday 1/28: Beef Stir Fry, Rice, Salad
Sunday 1/29: "Thanksgiving in January" Turkey, Mashed Potatoes with Gravy, Salad
A few of the recipes:
Monday's Pineapple Chicken recipe comes from this cookbook:
I don't think I can share the full recipe here (not my recipe), but essentially it is a mix of pineapple apricot preserves, Russian dressing, dry onion soup mix and pineapple poured over chicken breasts and baked. It was really good!
Tuesday's Haole Haystacks is a recipe you have probably heard of under the name "Hawaiian Haystacks" My recipe for this in my cookbook actually lists them as Hawaiian Haystacks. But my Hawaiian friend, Teresa isn't a fan of the name so we now call them Haole Haystacks. 

My recipe has somewhat evolved over the years. When I make Haole Haystacks this is basically what I do these days:
Step 1: put chicken in the crockpot in the morning.
Step 2: About an hour before I want to eat, I shred the chicken from the crock pot. I make a white sauce on the stove top (let me know if you need this recipe-it's simple) add that and one big can of cream of mushroom soup to the shredded chicken in the crockpot. Put it back on High for the next hour. 
Step 3: While the sauces are warming up in the crockpot for the hour, you need to cook the rice and prep the other toppings. I get the rice cooking first. Then I prep bowls of toppings. This is how I prep each item (because this is how I like them):

Broccoli: cut to bite sized pieces and lightly steamed (cooked but with some crunch still to them). I leave some of my broccoli raw because that is how my younger daughter likes it
Pineapple tid bits: open can, drain juice!
Coconut: I just buy a bag of pre shredded coconut and it's ready to go
Water chestnuts: open can, drain water out (if you bought the unsliced ones, you'll want to cut them a bit smaller as well)
Green Peppers: cut in bite sized pieces
Chinese Noodles: Open bag and it's ready to go
Mushrooms, sliced, cooked in butter and seasoned salt until soft and slightly caramelized. YUM.
Carrots, cut and served either raw or lightly steamed (just like the broccoli it can be served either way) serve these raw for this. And because I am lazy, I just buy a bag of shredded carrots, open it and I'm good to go. 
Frozen Peas: defrosted and warmed slightly (I do not fully cook these as I like them to be crisp and not mushy)
Green Onion: just cut it (you can actually use whatever kind of onion you want, but I really like the green onions for this)
Bean sprouts: wash and serve
Snow Peas: I cook these.
Sharp Cheddar cheese: grated

So, once you have the topping ready to serve (I usually put them in bowls), the rice done, and the "gravy" ready, then you just let everyone make their own exactly how they like it. Start with the rice layer, then I would do the cheese and other toppings, with the chicken gravy over the top of it all.

YUM! Cannot wait for this one tonight! I can smell the chicken in the crockpot right now (as a side note, I used the left over chicken from last night combined with a couple more breasts of chicken so I could would have enough).

Wednesday will be simple: we have a precooked ham in the fridge that we will pan fry. I will make either baked potatoes or Potatoes Augratin to go with it as well as baked Brussell Sprouts and a green salad.

Thursday's Crock Pot Sweet and Sour Meatballs is a recipe I am adapting from one I got in this book:

The recipe in this book is from a woman in my mom's neighborhood and is meatballs from scratch with a sauce baked in the oven. As I mentioned above, I am lazy, so I bought pre-made frozen meatballs and plan to use the recipe for her sauce. I am going to try it in the crock pot instead of the oven because Thursdays are insane here. The sauce is basically a homemade barbecue sauce consisting of brown sugar, vinegar, mustard, pre-bottled BBQ sauce, and Worcestershire sauce. I am looking forward to trying this. We will serve it with Veggies and Ambrosia (as requested by my daughter). I will share my mom's Ambrosia recipe another time. It is amazing!

Friday is that Filipino meal called Sinigang which is served with rice and green salad. Sinigang is an acquired taste. I LOVE it, as does my husband and a couple of our kids. Some of the kids will eat just rice and salad on Friday. LOL. The recipe is one from my husband that he got on his LDS mission in the Philippines. 

Before you try this out, make sure you can find a Sinigang flavor packet. We buy either this Knorr packet (this is an affiliate link to it on Amazon):
OR this Mama Sita's brand packet (Also an Amazon Affiliate link):
Here is a picture of the recipe from my Cookbook:

And in case you cannot see the picture well enough to read, here's the recipe:

1-2 Sinigang packets (depending on how strong you want the broth)
2 Liters Water
2 lbs Cubed Pork
1 Daikon (White Radish), peeled and cubed
1 lb Spinach
Cabbage, cut
Green beans
1 spicy pepper, chopped

Season and brown pork. At the same time boil water and Sinigang packet in a big pot. AND cook rice! When water is boiling, add browned pork, daikon, cabbage, green beans, and pepper. Let boil 15 minutes. Add Spinach. Boil another 5 minutes, Serve over rice. 

Saturday Beef Stir Fry served with Rice (use left overs from Friday) and salad. 

Sunday Thanksgiving in January! We have a Turkey in the freezer, so I figured we should cook it and clear our some space in there. Plus we love Turkey year round. It will be awesome! And I think I will just plan to use the left overs for a turkey noodle soup next Monday...look at me already meal planning for next week! :)

This is my plan. Feel free to steal ideas and inspiration or just skip past this and do your own thing! But please wish me luck in sticking to the plan! I am sure I will need all the help I can get to do this. 

And just like that we're back on the meal planning wagon! YEAH! 
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