Cooking Day To Be Continued...

I had big plans for a cooking day on Saturday, but then my husband decided to take the day off, and it was sunny outside and about 60 degrees. We ended up going for a long walk along the Potomac river and visited Fort Hunt. We also saw a bald eagle flying over land once owned by George Washington. Pretty cool, and worth postponing some of my cooking.

I did manage to get a lot done still, just not everything. Here's my list:

Done:
Chopped the last of my garden peppers
Cooked a pound of black beans
Shredded 4 cups of cheese
Defrosted a bunch of things that I'll need
Made hot chocolate mix
Peachy Raisin Hand Pies from Fall Favorites pg 25
Pita Bread
Caribbean Crockpot Stew (yes, again!)
Black Bean Soup
Mac and Cheese
Iced pumpkin scones
2 quarts yogurt

Here's what I still have to do:
Chocolate Orange Crumb Cake x2 from Don't Panic - Dinner's in the Freezer: Great-Tasting Meals You Can Make Ahead pg 46 (One for Thanksgiving morning and one for Christmas morning!)
No Knead Rolls from Don't Panic - Dinner's in the Freezer: Great-Tasting Meals You Can Make Ahead pg 50
Hot Pockets
Peanut Butter Cookie Dough
Pumpkin and Sausage Stuffed Shells
Homemade cream of chicken soup
Pizza Muffins
Egg noodles

Menu Plan Monday

We're still working on the goodies from my last cooking day because I can't even face the food from this weekend yet. Does anyone else have that same problem when bulk cooking? You'll see some new stuff start to show up next week. For more visit orgjunkie.com.

Sat -- Grilled burgers with beans & salad

Sun -- Out to eat

Mon -- Rosemary & Potato Pizza (Except I think I'll figure out some sort of sauce for this)

Tue -- Hamburger steaks, rice

Wed -- Quiche, rolls, salad

Thu -- Take out

Fri -- Porcupine meatballs, coleslaw & egg noodles

Thanksgiving Shopping List

Since I'm making all repeats, I have my shopping list on hand so that I can assemble my ingredients throughout the month. Click here to see my menu.

Yikes! I hope I can pull this off on a budget!

Produce:

1 butternut squash
2 yellow onions
2 lb sweet onions
1 red bell pepper
1 fennel head
2 pounds mushrooms
Fresh sage (from garden)
Fresh thyme (from garden)
Garlic
1 bag cranberries
1 lemon
1 stalk celery

Grocery:

Eggs
Sugar
Flour
1 15 oz can pumpkin
1 can evaporated milk
1 pie shell (make ahead & freeze or buy)
Salt & Pepper
Chicken broth (1/4 C or use bullion)
2 boxes corn muffin mix
Yeast
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Cloves
Frozen Green Beans
2 oz stale bread (from freezer)

Dairy:

Whipped Cream
1 package butter
Milk
Buttermilk (use powder if on hand or make some)

Meat:

1 lb chorizo
1 boneless, skinless turkey breast
16 slices bacon

Other:

White wine

Cooking Up A Storm This Week!

I've kind of gotten myself on a schedule with cooking and shopping where I shop and cook in bulk the first week of the month, and scale back on my grocery budget and kitchen activities the rest of the month. I'm so glad to see that Moneysaving Mom is doing regular cooking days again because those really inspire me, and give me ideas.

So far this week, I haven't actually completed any recipes as much as I've gotten a ton of things prepped:

• Chopped the last of my garden peppers (boo hoo!)
• Cooked a pound of black beans
• Shredded 4 cups of cheese
• Defrosted a bunch of things that I'll need
• Cleaned my kitchen from top to bottom
• Made list after list
• Shopped the Triple Coupon event at Harris Teeter (thanks for the parchment paper HT!)
• Made hot chocolate mix

Here's what I still have to do:

• Chocolate Orange Crumb Cake x2 from Don't Panic - Dinner's in the Freezer: Great-Tasting Meals You Can Make Ahead pg 46 (One for Thanksgiving morning and one for Christmas morning!)
• No Knead Rolls from Don't Panic - Dinner's in the Freezer: Great-Tasting Meals You Can Make Ahead pg 50
• Peachy Raisin Hand Pies from Fall Favorites pg 25
• Hot Pockets
• Pita Bread
• Peanut Butter Cookie Dough
• Pumpkin and Sausage Stuffed Shells
• Caribbean Crockpot Stew (yes, again!)
• Black Bean Soup
• Homemade cream of chicken soup
• Mac and Cheese
• Pizza Muffins
• Iced pumpkin scones

It sounds like a lot, but since I have a lot of the prep work done, I think I'll be able to get through it all by Sat. evening by chipping away at it a bit each day. I've already enlisted my DH to grill burgers for us on Saturday night, and Sunday we'll go out to eat using a gift card. Am I the only one who can't stand the sight of food after a big cooking day? You'll notice that I'll leave all of this off of my meal plan for at least a week because I won't be able to stand to look at it before then.*

*With the exception of the hot chocolate mix which we tried right away and loved!

Update: If you're viewing just this post and want an update, click here.

Note: I am an Amazon associate and if you were to buy a book through any of the links above I would get a percentage of your purchase. While that would be great for me, I don't expect it and know that anyone reading this blog would probably check any of these books out of the library before purchasing.

Thanksgiving Menu

Thanksgiving is 3 weeks away!

This is one meal plan I don't mess with. The Thanksgiving Menu is not the plain boiled New England affair that I grew up with, nor is it the Boston Market affair that DH's family favors. It's something that we developed that fits us, and we're not messing with it. The turkey was the last piece of the puzzle -- we added it last year. It's not traditional, and it's not frugal or light but I thought I'd post it anyway. Notice that all of the recipes come from magazines!

Turkey Roulade
Southwest Cornbread and Chorizo Dressing
Buttermilk-Onion Pull-Apart Rolls
Cranberry Sauce
Steamed Green Beans (frozen is fine)
Pumpkin Pie (using the recipe on the can!)

Note: The cranberry oat knots I tested last month will be for our work holiday pot luck.

Links!

Check out the Make It From Scratch Carnival this week -- there's a whole alphabet of things. I haven't looked at everything yet, but the plarn inspires me every week!

Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Chip muffins -- the best thing I made all week. When I first took them out of the oven I kind of thought they were a flop. They had a strange taste. I tried again the next morning, and wow! I immediately froze the remaining 2 dozen because I couldn't be trusted. I've been eating them for breakfast 1 muffin at a time and I'll be really sad when they're gone. Good thing I have a massive bag of frozen bananas to use up. My only change was to use mini-chips because I like those better in muffins.

Love this post on 4 Hats and Frugal. It's so true!

This has nothing to do with anything I blog about but I enjoyed reading it -- a new ocean in Ethiopia. Read it, and the next time you run into your boss in the elevator you'll have something interesting to talk about.

Fall Harvest Muffins

Or maybe I should call these Frankenstein muffins -- I mixed and matched a bunch of recipes to create something to our tastes and that used what we had on hand. Since Halloween is over, I'll stick with Fall Harvest.

These spicy muffins are super moist, and freeze beautifully.

Fall Harvest Muffins

2 C unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 C packed light brown sugar

2 t ground ginger

1 t baking soda

1 t cinnamon

1/2 t salt

1/8 t nutmeg

1/8 t cloves

1 egg

1 C vanilla yogurt

1/2 C canola oil

3 T molasses

3/4 C chopped pears

3/4 C chopped apples

1/2 C raisins

In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar and spices. In a second large bowl, mix egg, yogurt, oil and molasses. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix lightly. Fold in the fruit and raisins.

Scoop batter into greased muffin tins, and bake at 400 degrees until golden brown and cooked inside -- about 20 minutes.

Makes 1 dozen muffins.