Menu Plan 8/30

This week will be a little more challenging because it will be just me and the kiddo for dinner more often than not. I want to make meals that she will eat as is, instead of a meal for me and a meal for her.

Sunday - Taco Biscuit Casserole

Monday - FIFI (Find It, Fix It)

Tuesday - beef and veggie stir fry with brown rice

Wednesday - salmon cheese casserole, steamed veggies

Thursday - spaghetti with meatballs, steamed veggies

Friday - pizza with homemade pizza dough

Saturday - might be a Mama/Daughter date night!

My New Favorite Way to Make Chicken

Food on the Table calls this "Country Chicken." I call this my New Favorite. Very flavorful way to cook bone-in chicken that falls off the bones.

I did make a few changes. First, I halved the recipe because, even though it says 4 servings, four pounds of chicken is a lot and to me is more than four servings. Second, I used seasoning salt instead of the salt and pepper. Personal preference.

I served this over biscuits, but you could also serve it over rice or noodles.


Country Chicken

1/4 cup butter
2 lbs cut up chicken, with skin and bones
1-2 tsp seasoning salt
2 cups chicken broth or stock (I had turkey stock in the freezer so I used that)
1 cup water
1 cube chicken bouillon
8 oz sour cream

1. Melt butter in a large pot over medium high heat. Season the chicken pieces, then place in the pot. Cook until skin is browned, turning as necessary.

2. Add chicken broth and water. Bring to a boil and add chicken bouillon cube. Stir until dissolved. Cover and simmer over low heat for 35-45 minutes until chicken is fall-off-the-bone tender.

3. Remove chicken pieces from pot and set. Stir sour cream into the broth. Serve chicken and broth over biscuits, rice or noodles.


This makes a lot of broth, so the nutritionals will be less if you don't use up all the sauce. Also, we don't eat the chicken skin so the fat grams will increase if you do.
Nutritional info:
Calories - 214
Fat - 14 g
Carbs - 2.2 g
Protein - 20 g

Menu Plan 8/23

Yes, we are having lots of chicken this week. That's the only meat I have left in the freezer. Time to do some shopping to restock!


Monday - spaghetti (plain for the kiddo, I'm going to experiment with a basil/spinach/garlic sauce for the grown ups), steamed veggies, watermelon

Tuesday - Country Chicken (new recipe) with biscuits, steamed veggies

Wednesday - FIFI (aka Find It, Fix It; aka leftovers; aka Mama's Not Cookin'!)

Thursday - Chicken Cacciatore (new recipe)

Friday - Chicken Rice Gumbo (made this last week and it was FABULOUS! We're having friends over and I can't wait to show off this easy dish. Recipe coming soon.)

Saturday - grill out night


Don't forget to visit my main blog Not a DIY Life to follow my journey of healthy living!

Menu Plan 8/16

Back to menu planning!

I've been using Food on the Table to help with menu planning. It's a relatively new site that matches up your food preferences and sale items at your favorite grocery store to give recipe options. If they don't have your store listed, you can send them a request and they'll add it.

The new recipes below are from Food on the Table. You can plan all or some of your meals with their service. I've really enjoyed the new recipes that I've tried so far. And knowing how to fit sale items into a menu plan has been such a big help in planning lately. You can follow Food on the Table on Twitter as well!


Monday - spaghetti, steamed veggies

Tuesday - Serbian Beef, Vegetables & Potato Bake (new recipe)

Wednesday - FIFI (aka Find It, Fix It) (aka leftovers)

Thursday - Chicken Gumbo (new recipe)

Friday - shrimp stir fry over brown rice

Saturday - grill night (hot dog for the kiddo, hamburgers for the grown ups), including grilled veggies


** The opinions shared in this post are my own and I was not compensated in anyway to share my opinions.

Don't forget to visit my main blog Not a DIY Life to follow my journey of healthy living!

Vegetable Lasagna

I love lasagna. Evidence: Crockpot Lasagna, Philly Cheesesteak Crockpot Lasagna, and Vegetable Chicken Crockpot Lasagna. I've also made Tara's Garden Lasagna recently. (Her recipe has tomato sauce, this one does not.)

I didn't make this particular recipe in the crockpot, but you could easily adapt the above recipes with the below ingredients. Make sense?

This was yummy! I used all local, in-season veggies, including fresh basil from my herb garden. It was great. It still makes a mess in the kitchen, but it's totally worth it!


Vegetable Lasagna

1 T. olive oil
1/4 cup sliced green onions
2 medium zucchini, shredded (or yellow squash)
2 medium carrots, shredded
1 medium sweet potato, shredded
8 oz sliced fresh mushrooms (optional; I can't eat them)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 egg
2 cups light ricotta cheese (light cottage cheese works as well)
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1 t. dried basil leaves or 1 T. fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
4 T. butter
4 T. flour
2 cups nonfat milk
1 t. salt
1 T. garlic powder
1 1/2 cups water
9 uncooked (no boil) lasagna noodles
2 cups fresh spinach
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
2 T. fresh parsley chopped

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 glass baking dish with nonstick spray.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add onions, zucchini, carrots, sweet potato, mushrooms and garlic. Cook 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain off any excess liquid.

Beat egg in a medium bowl. Add ricotta cheese, Swiss cheese, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese and basil. Mix well.

In a large saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. When melted add flour and stir constantly for 2 minutes until flour has a nutty smell. Increase heat to medium high. Gradually add milk, salt and garlic powder. Stir often, making sure no lumps are forming. As sauce begins to thicken, add 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. (You can substitute a 16 oz jar of Alfredo sauce instead of making your own.) Once sauce is thickened and cheese is melted, remove from heat and gradually add water.

To assemble lasagna, place 3 uncooked lasagna noodles in bottom of prepared baking dish. Top with 1/3 of the sauce mixture, half of ricotta cheese mixture and half of vegetable mixture. Layer fresh spinach over veggies. Repeat layers of noodles, sauce, ricotta cheese & vegetable mixture. Final layers will be noodles and sauce. Top with shredded mozzarella cheese. Cover dish with foil.

Bake for 60 to 70 minutes or until bubbly around the edges. Sprinkle with parsley. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Makes 8 servings, around 400 calories per serving.


Don't forget to visit my main blog Not a DIY Life to follow my journey toward healthy living!

Peach Oatmeal Flax Cookies

I still have a sweet tooth. I try to satiate that sweet tooth with fruit, but every once in a while a good cookie is the only solution. I now bake all of my cookies with at least half whole wheat flour, honey or molasses instead of refined white sugar (not always possible due to moisture content), and I love to add ground flax!

These cookies were inspired by my breakfast one day last week, where I topped my oatmeal with fresh peaches. So good! And the cookies turned out great too! (Excuse the bad picture, they really tasted good!)

Peach Oatmeal Flax Cookies

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

2 tablespoons ground flax
2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
2 medium peaches, pitted, peeled and diced
1 cup raisins

In a large bowl, cream together the sugars, butter, eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy. In a medium bowl, combine flour, flax, baking powder and salt. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until smooth. Fold in the oats, peaches and raisins. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drop dough by tablespoonful onto nonstick cookie sheets. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden. Remove from baking sheets and cool on wire racks.

Back to Blogging

My apologies for leaving this blog silent so much this summer. Between vacation, crazy summer schedule, moving to a new home and being without internet for 2+ weeks, there has been little computer time for me this summer.

I will be back to regular menu planning next week, plus I have new recipes to share!