Pineapple Mush

May 2, 2011 By 4 Comments

This delicious dessert is courtesy of my friend, Jennifer from Virginia. I am going to give you two versions of this: her recipe, which is the lowfat version; and, mine, which is the exactly the same recipe using “regular” ingredients. (Both versions are equally good, my husband just won’t eat sugar free jello.)

Recipe: Pineapple Mush – Lowfat Version

Ingredients:

  • 2 packages instant, sugar-free, fat-free vanilla pudding (uncooked)
  • 1 20 ounce can unsweetened crushed pineapple (with juice)
  • 1 container of 8 ounce (or 20 ounce) fat-free Cool Whip

Instructions:

  1. Blend together all ingredients in bowl.
  2. Chill at least one hour.
  3. Serve!

Quick Notes:

  • This version of the recipe is 1 Weight Watchers Point per 1/2 cup.

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Recipe: Pineapple Mush – “Fullfat” Version

Ingredients:

  • 2 packages instant vanilla pudding
  • 1 20 ounce can unsweetened pineapple (with juice)
  • 1 package 8 ounce ( or 20 ounce) regular Cool Whip

Instructions:

  1. Blend all ingredients together in a bowl.
  2. Chill at least 1 hour
  3. Serve!

(Linked to Recipe Roundtable.)

Other recipes you might enjoy:

Sausage, Peppers and Potatoes

Macaroni and Cheese

Pumpkin Bread

 

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The Perfect Roast Recipe

September 7, 2010 By 4 Comments

This recipe is a re-worked version of a roast recipe that was posted a few years ago on a Catholic forum that is now defunct. The roast comes out so tender you don’t need a knife!

Recipe: The Perfect Roast

Ingredients:

  • 3-4 lb Rump or chuck roast
  • 2 onions, sliced
  • 2-3 carrots, cut in chunks
  • 2-3 celery cut in chunks
  • 2-3 dashes of Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/4-1/2 cup water
  • Garlic powder, to taste

Instructions:

wrapped roast

  1. Sprinkle the roast with salt & pepper and then brown all sides of roast in a skillet with a little olive oil.
  2. Put the browned roast on tin foil. (Fold the tin foil to make a little “bowl”.)
  3. Sprinkle roast with the garlic and put the vegetables on/around the roast.
  4. Add the water and Worcestershire sauce.
  5. Wrap the tin foil tightly around the roast/veggies.
  6. Put the roast in a preheated 250 degree oven for about 4 hours.
  7. Let the roast rest for about 10 minutes before unwrapping and transferring to a serving patter.

roast

Quick Notes:

  • The original recipe calls for sprinkling a package of onion soup mix over the roast, along with the other ingredients. We tried it both ways and prefer our roast without the soup mix, but you may like the roast with the soup mix.
  • You can easily adjust this recipe for any size roast. You will just need to adjust the cooking time depending on the size of your roast.
  • For best results, use a thermometer to check the done-ness of the roast: 145°F for medium-rare, 160°F for medium and 170°F for well-done.

(This recipe is linked up with the recipe roundtable and Works for me Wednesday.)

Filed Under: Menus, Recipes, Uncategorized, Wordless Wednesday Tagged With: , ,

Complimentary Menu Planner and Grocery List Worksheet

July 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Since I’ve been doing (or trying to do!) menu planning every week, I created a *very* simple menu planner worksheet and grocery list for myself.

I printed out a bunch of the worksheets and keep them in my home management binder. My home management binder is almost always open or close by, so it’s easy to add ingredients to my grocery list and put together my menu plan.

My particular menu planner worksheet doesn’t account for snacks because I don’t plan in advance for them. If I wanted to plan ahead for snacks, there is usually enough room to write them in at the end of the worksheet.

As for the grocery list, it is based on the categories of my coupon box. This template, too, has room at the bottom for notes or to add anything that doesn’t fit in the categories listed.

In case you were interested in using a menu planning or grocery list template, I thought I’d share mine with you. 🙂 Feel free to download either worksheet – or both. 🙂

Here you are:

Menu Planner Worksheet

Grocery List Worksheet

I hope you find them useful. Enjoy!

(You are welcome to pass the templates to anyone you thing might be interested, just keep the copyright info intact. Thanks!)

Filed Under: Freebies, Just for Fun!, Menu Planning, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Menu Madness July 18-24, 2010

July 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Here’s my (no so!) exciting menu for next week.  🙂 Any idea what you’ll be serving your family next week?

Breakfasts:

Sun: Breakfast casserole, fruit
Mon: Smoothies, toast
Tue: Cereal, fruit
Wed: Fruit and cheese platter
Thur: Cereal, fruit
Fri: Oatmeal, fruit
Sat: French toast, fruit

Lunches:

Sun: N/A (See previous posts)
Mon: Ham & cheese sandwiches, grapes
Tue: Leftovers
Wed: Grilled cheese sandwiches, carrot sticks
Thu: Leftovers
Fri: Peanut butter play-dough
 Sat: N/A (See above)

Suppers:

Sun: Spaghetti with homemade meat sauce (mother-in-law’s recipe), salad, rolls
Mon: Pork chops, apple sauce, green beans
Tue: Soft tacos (lettuce, tomato, cheese, olives on side), re-fried beans
Wed: Tuna helper with peas, jello
Thu: Baked chicken, rice, broccoli
Fri: Homemade macaroni and cheese, salad
Sat: Hot dogs, corn pone

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Menu Madness: July 11 – 17, 2010

July 9, 2010 By 1 Comment

Trying a few new recipes this coming week. I hope they come out as good as they look!

Breakfasts:

Sun: Poached eggs, english muffins, fruit
Mon: French toast,  juice
Tue: Cinnamon and brown sugar oatmeal
Wed: Blueberry muffins, smoothies
Thur: scrambled eggs, toast, juice
Fri: cold cereal with raisins
Sat: Waffles, fruit

Lunches:

Sun: N/A (See previous posts)
Mon: Leftovers
Tue: BLTs and apple slices
Wed: Tuna salad sandwiches, carrot sticks
Thu: Leftovers
Fri: Nutella on tortillas, grapes
Sat: N/A (See above)

Suppers:

Sun: garlic Roast Pork with Root Veggies, brownies
Mon: Meatloaf, couscous, glazed carrots
Tue: Chicken Cutlets, mashed potatoes, corn
Wed: Pasta Alfredo, salad, bread
Thu: Turkey burgers with lettuce and tomato, baked beans
Fri: Greek Salad, bread, fruit cup
Sat: Barbecue ribs, 3-bean salad, ice cream

Filed Under: Menus, Uncategorized, Weekly "Menu Madness" Tagged With: , , , , ,

Menu Madness: June 27-July 3, 2010

June 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Another week of menus. You’ll find real quick that I’m not so great at coming up with a lot of different, creative menus. 😉 Usually my menus consist of the usual favorites with one or two new ones thrown in. 🙂 Without further ado:

Breakfasts:

Sunday: Waffles with blueberries, sausage
Monday: Apple and cinnamon oatmeal
Tuesday: Boiled eggs, toast, grapefruit juice
Wednesday: Cereal with banana
Thursday: Granola bars, orange juice
Friday: Raspberry smoothies, bagel
Saturday: Homemade pop tarts, fruit

Lunches:

Sunday: N/A*
Monday: Fruit and cheese platter with crackers
Tuesday: Leftovers
Wednesday: Tuna salad sandwiches, carrot sticks
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Peanut Butter play dough with raisins, celery sticks, and m&ms
Saturday: N/A*

Suppers:

Sunday: Eggplant Parmesan, salad, Italian bread, chocolate pudding pie (celebrating Father’s day since DH worked last weekend.)
Monday: Beef tacos (lettuce, tomato, and avocado included), ice pops
Tuesday: Asian-style chicken (made with fresh veggies and brown rice instead)
Wednesday: Peas and macaroni, homemade fruit cocktail (with drained maraschino cherries added)
Thursday: Pork Tenderloin with roasted potatoes and roasted veggies, jello
Friday: English muffin pizzas, popcorn (Family game night!)
Saturday: Eating out. 🙂

*As I’ve said before, we don’t eat lunch on the weekends because we usually have late breakfasts on those days.

What’s on your menu this week? Let us know in the comments!

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Menu Madness: June 20-26, 2010

June 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Another week, another menu. 🙂 Here’s what I’m planning for the coming week:

Breakfasts:

Sunday: Breakfast casserole
Monday: Oatmeal with raisins
Tuesday: Blueberry pancakes
Wednesday: Cereal with milk and banana
Thursday: Oatmeal with cranberries
Friday: Fruit and yogurt platter
Saturday: Waffles and strawberries

Lunches:

Sunday: N/A
Monday: Ham and cheese sandwiches, green pepper sticks
Tuesday: Chicken salad, fruit cups
Wednesday: Tuna salad, carrot sticks
Thursday: Egg salad sandwiches, broccoli florets
Friday: Broiled tomatoes, avocado salad, crackers
Saturday: N/A

Suppers:

Sunday: Baked chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, brownies*
Monday: Gazpacho (I am doubling the recipe found in “Going Solo in the Kitchen“), crackers
Tuesday: Hamburgers with lettuce and tomatoes, homemade baked french fries, raspberry jello
Wednesday: Angel hair pasta with homemade marinara sauce, garlic bread
Thursday: Turkey pot pie, apple sauce
Friday: Homemade cheese pizza, popcorn (family movie night!)
Saturday: Leftovers

*Michael starts his new job today (thank you Lord!) and has to work this weekend, so we will be celebrating Father’s Day next weekend.

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Menu Madness: June 13-19, 2010

June 11, 2010 By 2 Comments

Well, the menu never got done last week. I was in the process of putting it together when I found out about my cousin; so, although I wrote up an outline, I never got the menu posted.  (She’s doing okay, btw.)

We are going to be spending some time with family over the coming weekend, so I won’t be planning for those days.

Without further ado, here’s my weekly menu for next week:

Breakfasts:

Sunday: N/A
Monday: N/A
Tuesday: Cereal, with milk and banana
Wednesday: Waffles with strawberries
Thursday: Fruit and yogurt platter
Friday: oatmeal with raisins
Saturday: Blueberry pancakes

Lunch:

Sunday: N/A
Monday: N/A
Tuesday: Ham and cheese sandwiches, grapes
Wednesday: Peanut Putter play dough (for Andrew; PB&J sandwich for me), apples
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Tuna fish with carrot sticks
Saturday: Usually have late breakfast on Saturdays and forgo lunch

Suppers:

Sunday: N/A
Monday: Steak Fajitas (found skirt steak on sale!) with peppers and onions, rice
Tuesday: Chicken cutlets, mashed potatoes, asparagus
Wednesday: Tuna pie, salad
Thursday: Meat loaf, noodles and gravy, green beans
Friday: Pizza and popcorn (It’s family movie night!)
Saturday: Grilled hamburgers (with lettuce and tomato), homemade potato fries

What will you be serving your family this week?

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Menu Madness: May 30 – June 5th (Share Your Ideas!)

May 28, 2010 By 3 Comments

menu madness

Alas, I’m not as consistent with menu planning as much as I would like. I do know that when I take the time to make up a menu plan each week (or sometimes every two weeks) I’m more organized, we eat at a reasonable time and we don’t waste money eating out.

As a motivational tactic to keep me consistent, I will be posting my (usually boring!) menus each Friday for the following week. (My menu week goes from Sunday-Saturday.) Hopefully, it will give you some motivation to make up your own menus and give you some new meal ideals.

I should warn you, as much as I try to serve healthy, balanced meals, I’m far from perfect. My hubby has clear likes and dislikes that I try to cater to when possible; and, even though I try to cook from scratch as much as possible, we do (gasp!) eat some processed foods. Oh, and my husband is pure-bred Italian, so expect to see a lot of Italian dishes. 🙂

Breakfasts:

Sunday: Poached eggs, hash browns, bacon (It’s Trinity Sunday!)
Monday: French toast, fruit
Tuesday: Cereal with milk and raisins
Wednesday: Nutmeg toast and yogurt
Thursday: Granola bars, fruit
Friday: Apple and cinnamon oatmeal
Saturday: Waffles

Lunches:

Sunday: We usually eat breakfast late, and dinner early, so we skip lunch
Monday: Leftovers
Tuesday: Grilled cheese sandwiches, sweet pepper sticks
Wednesday: Tuna salad on crackers, celery sticks
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, sugar snap peas
Saturday: None (See above Sunday’s  note)

Suppers:

Sunday: Baked chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, chocolate pudding pie
Monday: Chili dogs with sauerkraut, baked beans, green salad, ice cream sandwiches
Tuesday: Pork chops, rice, mixed veggies, apple sauce
Wednesday: Baked fish, broccoli, pasta salad
Thursday: Chicken & mushrooms, salad, rolls
Friday: Egg balls (sounds funky, but tastes so good), Italian bread
Saturday: Baked Ziti, salad, leftover Easter Candy (yes, we still have candy from Easter – quite a bit left!)

So there you have it. I’d love to hear your menu ideas. What will  you be serving next week? Leave your menu or suggestions in the comments! Thanks!

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