It's What's for Dinner

Brendan gets home from work a little before 5:00 almost every week night.  After greeting the girls and I and giving him time to decompress for a few minutes, it's usually my goal to have dinner on the table between 5:30 and 6:00.   This gives us enough time to eat (Aria takes often an hour to finish her supper) and let the girls play and pick up the downstairs for the last time before we all head upstairs to begin the seemingly everlasting bedtime routine.  All this to say, I really like for us to stay on schedule during the evening to maximize time for Brendan and I to do our own thing (or things together) for a little while before we crash and hit the sack.    The main way I do this is to know what I am cooking for the week or next several days and get started on it before he gets home.   I try to a do mixture between stove top meals, slow cooker, and baked meals.  Although I admittedly need more "baked" recipes. We had some extra food this week for leftovers and quick throw together meals, so my menu is only for the next few days not a whole week and will start on Wed.    So, if nothing goes wrong, here's the what the Johnson household will be having:

Wednesday:

Seasoned, pan fried chicken (Most likely in plenty of butter.. you could use olive oil to be healthy), roughly cubed, fried potatoes (fry them hot and in plenty of canola oil to get them to brown nicely)... one of my favorites, and a steamed green veggie TBD (Albertson's had some buy one get one free pre seasoned chicken breasts a few weeks ago...I splurged and bought 2, tossing one in the freezer.  They are pretty simple but you could easily jazz them up by adding a little garlic, pepper, and kosher salt)

Thursday:

Dinner at the Frees :) Whohoo allI have to bring is some fruit but I might toss in some cookies just to add some sugar for the kiddos :)

Friday: Company coming over

Roast: I plan on browning on the stovetop first in some canola oil to sear in the juices. Then I sprinkle with kosher salt, pepper, and garlic (fresh or powdered) and toss it in a roasting pan with new potatoes, carrots, and sliced yellow onions.  Put it in the oven at 300 F for 4-6 hours or so.

Refrigerated Rolls and a frozen pie (B. loves the Marie Calendar's Razzleberry Pie and it is just so darn easy that I can't justify making my own)

Saturday:

Chicken Marsala: recipe taken from Allrecipes.com to get it click here.

Brown Rice Medley and steamed green veggie (maybe asparagus)

Sunday:

Small Group once again, thankful to leaving the cooking to another person :)  

Monday:

Sage Pork Chops:  recipe taken from Allrecipes.com to get it click here

Roasted or steamed broccoli (to roast turn on broiler.  Toss Broccoli in olive oil, sprinkle liberally with kosher salt) spread on cookie sheet roast for 12-15 min.   Check it every five minutes and flip the broccoli.

Tuesday: Use that SLOWWWW cooker!

Chicken with Pecan cranberry stuffing:

• 3-4 lbs. chicken breast
• 2 Cups cooked rice
• 1/3 C. chopped pecans
• 1/3 c. dried cranberries
• 1 t. poultry seasoning (I never have this I just make my own with salt, pepper, thyme, basil, and oregano)
• 1/4 C. peach, apricot, or plum preserves
• 1 t. worcestershire (B.loves this stuff so I'll probably use more)

Slice chicken 3/4 of the way through every inch or so.   Stir together rice, pecans, cranberries, and poultry seasoning in a large bowl.  Stuff rice mixture between slices.   If necessary skewer meat lengthwise to hold meat together.  place in crock pot for 5-6 hours on low.    stir together preserves and worcestershire.  spoon over meat and let stand for five minutes.   PS don't use meat with skin on it as it is gross in the crock pot. ;)

Steamed green veggie

Whalla :) I am done for a few days.... unless I decide to bake some tasty treat in which case I will try to share :)