Sunday, December 27, 2009

Pantry Cooking or I Need to Use the Food I Have

I have decided that Christmas has made me broke.  LOL I'm just finished sketching out the meal plan for the week, and I only have two things on the grocery list - well, if you don't count the copious amounts of milk and cereal I'm required to buy each week.  I'm not sure how two little girls eat so much cereal!!  LOL


Monday - Back to work... sigh.... We still have quite a bit of ham left from the Christmas Eve dinner the chickies and I had.  And since you can never, ever go wrong with potatoes and this recipe has been in my allrecipes.com recipe box for about 6 years, I figured the time was right for Heavenly Potatoes & Ham.

Tuesday -  I freely admit that sometimes I make a meal-plan and life gets in the way and everything doesn't always happen according to "plan" and that's what happened to Creamy Chicken Lasagna from a couple of weeks ago, but I really like the looks of this - so it is making its second appearance.


Wednesday - It does seem like "pantry cooking" is comfort cooking for me.  I love this Chow Mein Noodle Casserole, but don't make it very often.  I even know why, it is kinda high in fat & calories - even if I use low fat ingredients, but I've decided given the amount of Christmas "cheer" I have ingested over the past month - this week isn't the week to start showing restraint.... that's next week!  LOL


Thursday - I'm not exactly sure what our New Years Eve plans are yet.  Maybe the movies?  Maybe staying home and playing board games with the chickies?  Maybe an all night Wii marathon?  Maybe all of the above.  At any rate, it will be all about cheese and chips in some form or another!  


Friday - I know the traditional thing for New Years Day is black-eyed peas, but I don't really like black-eyed peas that much.  I've only made them a couple of times, but I'd rather have some Southern Ham & Brown Beans.  I know I love these guys with the best cornbread ever!


Saturday - As with my quest for the best spaghetti sauce, meatloaf, and macaroni and cheese - I long quested for the perfect roast chicken, until this Famous Dave's Country Roasted Chicken knock-off happened across my radar.  This is pretty much chicken perfection - KK loves her chicken all lemony and well SS... she always happy if she gets a leg!


Saturday - I received The Pioneer Woman Cooks from the chickies for Christmas.  THEY WERE LISTENING!  I'm not sure how I missed the basic macaroni and cheese on the website, but I thought all her mac & cheese recipes there were different and unique versions, not just plain ol' creaminess.  I saw it in the cookbook and thought... "Is this the answer to my macaroni and cheese prayers?" I've been searching for something that rivals that red box blazen with "Stouffers".  We'll have to see if PW's version can stand up to my scrutiny.  I don't recall having made a version that has both a roux and an egg.  Maybe it will be "it".  


Thanks everybody for stopping by my little corner of the web.  I would love if you would leave comments/feedback.  


HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

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9 comments:

Katy ~ said...

Yumm...that ham and potato casserole looks very very good. It makes too much for us (serves 12!) and even if I cut it in half, what would I do with half a can of cream of chicken soup, LOL. I need to borrow a family for dinner sometime, grins.

The mac "n cheese does look very good. I'll be interested in your opinion of it. I've never tried the Stoufer's, so maybe I should buy one to have something to compare it against.

Shelby said...

Your meals this week sound great! I'm definitely trying the Heavenly Potatoes. We have quite a bit of ham left over ourselves!

Jodi said...

PW's mac and cheese is very much like my grandmother's (though granny didn't add the egg). My family LOVES granny's mac, so I definitely think you should try PW's. Be sure to report back! :)

Jeannie said...

Thank you for the marina recipe. I did make it and I also made the meatballs. It has a wonderful flavor and I like it a lot. I simmered the meatballs in the sauce and they came out perfect. I am actually going to make another batch of sauce because once I added the meatballs, there was not much extra sauce. I like a lot of sauce on my spaghetti. I do enjoy reading your blog, I just found it last week after I saw the article on your pillsbury contest. Thanks for doing the research on the recipes. Your blog is fun to read and you sound like a real fun person. Thanks again!!

Susie @ Hick Chick said...

Katy - That Stouffer's mac & cheese is soooo good... and so bad for you!

HoneyB - :) I can't wait to see a pic of the potatoes and ham!

Jodi - I'll report back for sure!

Jeannie - I'm so happy you liked the sauce! Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. It totally made my day!

Linda said...

Susie, I think you're a fun person too. ;)

We have a bunch of ham left over & I'm afraid paninis will get old--LOL! We do love potatoes, so the casserole does look good.

Have you thought about using the black-eyed peas in a dip, such as Texas Caviar? The Spicy Bean Salsa on AR is also good!

Susie @ Hick Chick said...

Granny - I'll let you make me Texas caviar when you adopt me! ;)

Unknown said...

The ham and potato casserole sounds good. We're going to have ham New Year's Day. I'll pass the recipe along with the leftovers.
Thought you should know that you made this Sunday's Chicago Tribune, that's how I found your blog. You are becoming "famous".

What a Dish! said...

I need to use the food I already have, too; and my NYE will also involve some form(s) of chips and cheese!

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