Meal Planner Monday

Happy Monday Everyone. Here are six meals for your eating pleasure. Be sure to go to AllYou.com to check out ingredients on sale in your area!

My Recipes

INGREDIENTS

• 1 3/4 cups shelled frozen edamame (10 oz. package)
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tablespoon minced chives
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 30 round wonton wrappers (3 1/2 in. diameter)
• Cilantro leaves
• Soy sauce, for serving
• *Serve with White Rice

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INSTRUCTIONS

1. Cook edamame according to package instructions.
2. Reserve 1/2 cup cooking water; drain edamame and set 3/4 cup aside.
3. In a blender, whirl remaining 1 cup edamame with ginger, lemon juice, salt, and about 1/3 to 1/2 cup reserved cooking water.
4. Transfer edamame paste to a bowl, mix with whole edamame and chives.
5. Bring a large, deep pot of salted water to a gentle boil and add vegetable oil.
6. Fill wonton wrappers with 1 tsp. edamame filling and top filling with a cilantro leaf (cover unfilled wrappers with a moist towel). Moisten wrapper edges with water, fold over filling, and press to seal. Boil wontons in batches until they float to surface, 2 minutes. Serve with soy sauce.

My Recipes

INGREDIENTS

• • 1 (16-ounce) package rigatoni or penne pasta
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 pound collard greens, washed, drained, and chopped
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cups milk
  • 1 cup shredded mozzarella
  • 1 cup ricotta cheese
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

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INSTRUCTIONS

• 1. Prepare pasta according to directions. Drain and set aside. Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly grease a 13- x 9-inch baking dish.
  2. Heat butter in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat; sauté onion 5 minutes or until just brown. Add garlic, and cook about 1 minute. Reduce heat to medium-low, and add greens; cover and cook 15 to 20 minutes or until greens are tender, stirring occasionally.
  3. Sprinkle greens with flour. Cook uncovered, stirring constantly, 1 minute. Gradually add milk, stirring well. Cook 5 minutes, stirring often, until thickened and smooth. Remove from heat; stir in cooked pasta, mozzarella, and next 5 ingredients. Place into prepared dish, and sprinkle evenly with Parmesan.
  4. Bake at 350° for 15 to 20 minutes.

Food Network

INGREDIENTS

• • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, peeled and coarsely chopped
  • 1 celery stalk, coarsely chopped
  • 1 carrot, coarsely chopped
  • 1 pound ground chuck beef
  • 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
  • 1/4 cup flat-leaf Italian parsley, chopped
  • 8 fresh basil leaves, chopped
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/4 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano

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INSTRUCTIONS

• 1. In a large skillet heat the olive oil. When almost smoking, add the onion and garlic and saute over medium heat until the onions become very soft, about 8 minutes. Add the celery and carrot and saute for 5 minutes. Raise heat to high and add the ground beef. Saute, stirring frequently and breaking up any large lumps and cook until meat is no longer pink, about 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, parsley and basil and cook over medium low heat until the sauce thickens. Season with salt and pepper. This will take approximately 1/2 hour. Finish bolognese with Pecorino Romano.

My Recipes

INGREDIENTS

• • 1 teaspoon olive oil
  • 1 cup finely chopped onion
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped carrot
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 cup ketchup, divided
  • 1 1/2 pounds ground beef, extra lean (raw)
  • 1 cup finely crushed fat-free saltine crackers (about 20)
  • 2 tablespoons prepared mustard
  • 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 large eggs
  • Cooking spray

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INSTRUCTIONS

• 1. Preheat oven to 350°.
  2. Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chopped onion, chopped carrot, dried oregano, and minced garlic; sauté 2 minutes. Cool.
  3. Combine onion mixture, 1/2 cup ketchup, and the remaining ingredients except cooking spray in a large bowl.
  4. Spoon the meat mixture into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Top each with 2 teaspoons ketchup. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until a thermometer registers 160°. Let stand for 5 minutes.

My Recipes

INGREDIENTS

• • 3 to 4 pound(s) beef chuck roast
  • 1/2 cup(s) brown sugar
  • 1/3 cube(s) tamari sauce
  • 3 tablespoon(s) garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1/2 onion, diced
  • 2 inch fresh ginger root, peeled and grated
  • 2 tablespoon(s) seasoned rice wine vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon(s) sesame oil
  • 2 whole jalapeno, diced, seeded
  • *1 splash fish oil (optional)

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INSTRUCTIONS

• 1. Spray your crock-pot dish and add beef and jalapenos. Combine the rest of the ingredients ina bowl then pour over the roast. Cover, and cook on low for 8-10 hours. Remove from pot and shred beef, add some of the leftover liquid. Serve in warm corn tortillas with slaw.
  2. Recipe for Slaw: 
     • 1 bag(s) shredded coleslaw
     • 1 tablespoon(s) Tamari sauce
     • 2 tablespoon(s) seasoned rice vinegar
     • salt and pepper to taste

Kraft

INGREDIENTS

• • 1 lb. lean ground beef
  • 1 jar (24 oz.) spaghetti sauce
  • 1 to 2/3 cups water
  • 1/4 cup zesty Italian dressing
  • 2 green peppers, chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 12 oven-ready lasagna noodle, broken into quarters
  • 1 cup Low-Moisture Part-Skim Mozzarella Cheese

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INSTRUCTIONS

1. BROWN meat in large saucepan; drain.
2. ADD next 5 ingredients; mix well. Bring to boil. Stir in noodles; cover.
3. COOK on medium-low heat 10 to 15 min. or until noodles are tender, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Sprinkle with cheese; cover. Let stand 5 min. or until cheese is melted.

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This Weeks Grand Total: $66.60...oops! I didn't mean for that total to be the mark of the beast!!

A new drive to SIMPLIFY!

I apologize for yet another LONG absence! I feel like I owe you all 5 meal plans and a few jokes. I don't have that today. What I do have for you is some fresh insight on simplifying and my journey to FINALLY getting there!!

It all started when I came back from Haiti. Something just clicked inside of me and I came home eager, no desperate, to find a way to purge myself of unnecessary clutter and things.

Being in Haiti and experiencing people who had so little in the way of material things, yet so much in rich culture and community and for goodness sake, such a laid back attitude, made me realize how having so much "stuff" is holding me back and keeping me captive. I am a prisoner to my clutter.

My things, require a lot of maintenance. They need to be cleaned and put away and organized and told they look pretty and that they're not fat in that outfit...see what I'm getting at? My stuff was a needy girlfriend and I really needed to break things off with her. After all, she adds nothing to our relationship except stress and frustration.

What's a gal to do? Where do I start?  How do finally break it off with my stuff?

Well, I actually have an answer to that.  I stumbled upon a wonderful, realistic book about simplifying. The ironic part is this book was written by a blogger I quoted once on this very blog, but I didn't realize who she was until I was half way through the book! The book is Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider the founder of Simple Mom.

 If you are where I am in life and looking for a uncomplicated way to simplify your life, then this book is for you!

Where do I start? I read the book cover to cover. Then I cried, rent my clothes and dunmped ashes on my head. A bit extreme? Perhaps. But to understand why this book means SO much to me, you have to understand where I am right now.

I've been suffering with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after the traumatic birth of my fourth (and last) child, for nearly a year now. Couple that with a natural bend toward anxiety and depression and what you've got there is the perfect storm of crazy. To make matters worse I've been struggling to try to simplify my life, to free up time for the things I truly enjoy like creating and hanging out with my family. It felt like no matter what I did to try to simplify, it just felt like too big a job. I couldn't find the ambition to get started.

When I cracked into Tsh's book, I was overwhelmed with how simply things were spelled out. I know that sound dumb, but I've read books on simplicity before that were so complicated, it felt like being simple was too hard unless you had the latest and greatest for the organization store. But alas, it's not too complicated to get simple. Don't get me wrong, it's not complicated, but it does require work. But with three boxes in hand and a pack of yard sale price tags, I set to work on my living room.

In Organized Simplicity, Tsh recommends creating a mission statement to keep you on track as you de-clutter and organize. Honestly as I thought on this, I felt a bit overwhelmed to have the perfect statement. I just couldn't find the right words. There I go again, making it harder than it has to be. After slapping myself clear across the face for being so complicated, I realized my goal was to be able to tidy up in ten minutes flat. At this point, cleaning up my living room took more like twenty minutes and that doesn't include sweeping and mopping. I wanted to be able to have this room picked up, swept and mopped in ten minutes.  In fact I want it to be that easy with each room in my house. So there it is. My mission statement is to have  the rooms in my house cleaned up in ten minutes each.

With this goal in my brain, I rolled up my sleeves and set to work. I grabbed three boxes. One I labeled Keep. The next I labeled Sell. Finally the last box I labeled Maybe. This last one was for the stuff I had to ask the Hubbers about. It consisted mostly of wires and plugs...he's a techy.

My guidelines for keeping and selling were this: If it made me happy and I found it beautiful, then I kept it. If it was forgettable, demanding or useless it went in the sell box. I think that everyone's guidelines are different, so if you attempt this in your own home, remember that it has to be what works for you.

After a successful purge, it was time to scrub the room from top to bottom. Tsh's book comes with excellent step by step instruction if cleaning leaves you scatterbrained and unsure where to start. Honestly though, once the excess of clutter is removed from the room and all you see is furniture and a few things, cleaning feels a lot like a breath of fresh air than a punch in the belly.

Here is the result of my week long de-clutter and clean session.

 So clean. Bye Bye clutter!!