Menu Plan Monday

Friday: Grilled Salmon, Rice Pilaf, Asparagus

Saturday: Homemade Pizza, Salad

Sunday: Grilled Beef and Chicken Kabobs, Roasted Potato Salad, Asian Slaw (recipe coming soon!)

Monday: Chicken, Mushroom, and Brown Rice Bake

Tuesday: Leftovers

Wednesday: Pasta and Veggies in Lemon-Parmesan Sauce

For lots more recipes and menu plans, visit I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Food Waste Friday

This week was a pretty bad one in terms of food waste. It was also a bad week in terms of menu planning and cooking frugally. Note to self: when going out of town, plan ahead and plan accordingly!

This week we wasted:

• Most of 16 oz container of strawberries that had been sitting in the fridge for an unspecified amount of time
  
• About ¼ cup of some very sad, dried out parsley
  
• 3 green onions
  
• Almost an entire package of pita bread that I had forgotten about
  

Of everything, I'm most upset about the pita. I love sandwiches made with pita bread and I meant to make some pita chips before it got so hard, but I forgot. We bought some wraps at the store today. Hopefully they won't meet the same fate as the pita bread.

For more of Food Waste Friday, visit The Frugal Girl!

Recipe: Chicken, Mushroom, and Brown Rice Bake

I found this recipe way back in December and it's taken me this long to try it, adapt it, and share it.  That shouldn't be any indication that I didn't like it, because this is one delicious recipe.  My family raved about it and, for once, had no suggestions to improve it.  I found this recipe at Finding Joy in My Kitchen and SnoWhite adapted it from Amy's version at Simply Sugar and Gluten Free, where it was first adapted from a Rachel Ray recipe.  So this recipe has gone around the block.  I imagine there are tons of different ways to make it, but I meshed both versions together to get the one I like the best.  Adding in broccoli makes it a one-dish meal, but feel free to leave it out and serve a salad or veggie on the side.  

Chicken, Mushroom, and Brown Rice Bake - 6-8 servings

2 1/3 cups chicken broth

1 1/2 cups brown rice

1 tablespoon butter

1 large onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

8 oz sliced button mushrooms

2-3 tablespoons white wine

Kosher salt, to taste

12 oz frozen chopped broccoli, thawed 

2 cups cooked, chopped chicken

1 cup chicken broth

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 cup heavy cream, divided

1/4 tsp white pepper

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  

Bring 2 1/3 cups of chicken broth to a boil in the microwave.  Spread rice evenly over the bottom of a 9x13 inch glass baking dish.  Pour boiling broth over rice and cover tightly with 2 layers of foil.  Bake for 30 minutes.

While rice is baking, melt butter (and a little olive oil if you like, I do) in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add chopped onions and cook until soft and translucent, 5-8 minutes.  Add in garlic and cook for another minute.  Add in mushrooms and cook until liquid has evaporated (mostly), about another 8-10 minutes.  Deglaze pan with white wine.  Stir in broccoli, chicken, 1 cup broth, salt, and white pepper; bring to a low simmer and cook for 5-10 minutes. 

Place cornstarch in a small bowl and combine with 1 tablespoon of cream until cornstarch is disolved and mixture is thick.  Add remaining cream to skillet and stir to combine.  Add in the slurry and stir until mixture is thickened, 3-5 minutes.  

Remove rice from oven and pour chicken/mushroom/broccoli mixture over.  Do not stir.  Cover tightly again and bake for 25-30 minutes or until all the liquid is gone and the dish is bubbly. 

Remove from oven and uncover.  Add the cheese and return to the oven for 5 minutes or so to allow the cheese to melt and brown.  Serve immediately and enjoy!

Note: Amy uses leeks in place of the onion and garlic.  It's a nice touch if you prefer the flavor of leeks over onions and garlic.  Use two large leeks and clean them thoroughly.  Proceed as directed.  

I borrowed this picture from SnoWhite, because I forgot to take a picture and she has amazing photos of all her recipes!

Sizzling Summer Book Club

A few weeks ago I asked for book recommendations for my summer reading list.  I'm still poking around and looking for books to add to my official summer reading list and I will be posting my list as soon as I make my decisions.  However, I have also decided to join a summer book club!  I will be participating in Smart Bitch Sarah's Sizzling Summer Book Club on Smart Bitches, Trash Books, one of my favorite websites.  If you are not familiar with SBTB, it's a website run by two brilliant women who just happen to love reading romance novels.  They review books, conduct interviews with authors, have contests and giveaways, and basically share their love of all things romance.  They are also the authors of Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches' Guide to Romance Novels, which is a hilarious look at the romance genre as a whole.  

One book will be selected every two weeks and there will be a live chat discussion on each book.  The club is being sponsored by AllRomanceEbooks and they are offering a 50% discount if you purchase the ebook through them.  I've never read a book on my computer, and since I don't have an ereader that's the way it's going to have to work for me.  I'm willing to try it though to take advantage of the great price.  Unfortunately, I won't be able to get the book from paperbackswap.com or the library in time to read it and participate.  So I will be looking for the best price and it looks like the ebook version is my best bet.  

The first book of the summer is Tessa Dare's new release One Dance with a Duke.  I've never read anything by her, but I'm excited and I love historical romance! 

So if you love romance or even if you would just like to try out the genre while taking advantage of a cheap book, stop AllRomaceEbooks bookclub page for more information.  If you are thinking of participating, let me know!

A Bright Spot in an Otherwise Dark Library World

Lately all I see are libraries closing, budgets being stretched impossibly thin, and librarians loosing their jobs.  It's depressing to read about and must be terrible to experience.  I've been looking for something to brighten up such a bad situation.  Today, while roaming the blogosphere, I came across this article about an Alabama library that received an awesome literacy grant from Dollar General.  It's not a ton of money, when you think about the size of some grants out there, but I know that this is not exactly a happening area of the state and they could really benefit from a summer literacy program.  Reading this a few days after some local library branches may be facing closures in the near feature makes me smile.  It's good to know that even in tough times, some libraries are experiencing change and exciting new events.  

Have you heard anything good about libraries lately?  Please share!

Menu Plan Monday: The No Plan Edition

The end of last week and the beginning of this week are a little crazy.  I usually plan my menus for the upcoming week on Thursdays because my mom grocery shops on Friday afternoons.  This week however, my mom left for a girls weekend on Thursday and I left for a bachelorette weekend on Friday; neither one of us returned until late yesterday.  No menu plan was made and no grocery shopping was done.  I trust my dad, but not enough to send him unaccompanied to the grocery store to buy a week's worth of groceries.  Thus, we have very little in the way of food in the house.  Mom was going to make a small grocery run today or tomorrow to pick up a few things, but I have a feeling that this week will be mostly a loss when it comes to budget cooking.  On the plus side, my food waste may be considerable less this week if we aren't cooking very much.  

Tonight we are having pasta with homemade sauce that we had in the freezer and I have all of the ingredients for Creamy Slow-Cooker Chicken because that got bumped last week.  There is very little in the way of fresh produce and the only meat we have is chicken.  A grocery store run is necessary this week if we are going to eat anything but take out. 

Do you ever have weeks like this?  How do you handle last minute menu planning and shopping?

Menu Plan Monday is brought to you by I'm an Organizing Junkie!

Recipe: Sour Cream Pound Cake

I love a good pound cake.  I actually established myself as a good baker by successfully making a pound cake, from scratch, on my first try.  That pound cake was an early edition of this one, but made in a loaf pan.  I prefer pound cakes made in tube or bundt pans, mostly because you get more! I also like the way it looks cooling on the counter.  I wish I had a picture to share, but I haven't made a sour cream pound cake in a while.  The last time I made a pound cake, it was this one.  Which was delicious, although a little dry, which is a problem with chocolate pound cakes.  

The trick to a good pound cake is not to over beat it when you start adding in the flour.  You want to do it small additions and beat only until combined.  Pound cakes are easiest when made in the stand mixer, but can also be made using a hand held mixer and some patience.  I like this particular cake served slightly warm with strawberries and cool whip, or with a big scoop of ice cream. 

Sour Cream Pound Cake - Adapted from Paula Deen

2 sticks of butter, softened 

3 cups of granulated sugar

1 cup sour cream

3 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

6 large eggs

1 teaspoon of your favorite flavoring (I like vanilla or almond here)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Grease and flour a 10 inch tube pan.  This is an important step; don't skip it!

Cream butter and sugar together until light colored and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.  Add in the sour cream and mix to combine.  Sift the flour and baking soda together.  Add 1/3 of the flour mixture, mix to combine.  Add 2 eggs, stir until the yolks just disappear.  Repeat twice more, alternating the flour and eggs, and mixing just to combine.  Stir in vanilla.  Pour into prepared pan.

Bake 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack, in the pan, for 15 minutes before removing from pan.  Allow cake to cool completely before storing.