Steak and Potato Soup

Steak and Potato Soup

Ingredients

 3 pounds minute steak

 4 to 6 potatoes

2 cans green beans

3 packages dry beef gravy

1 can mushroom soup

4 Tablespoons beef broth base and seasoning

salt and pepper

water

flour

EVO

Cut the steak and potatoes into bite size pieces.  Toss in flour and brown in EVO.  Place in slow cooker.  In a blener mix the cream of mushroom soup, dry soup packages and the beef stock and three or four soup cans of water and blend.  Pour over meat and add green beans and potatoes. Salt and pepper.  

Cook in slow cooker on high for 4 to 6 hours or low for 8 to 10 hours.

Easy Peasy!!

This soup warms up well and makes a big enough batch for leftovers, even for my family!

What's For Dinner? (Meal Planning)

What's for dinner?

I always meal plan.  It makes grocery shopping so much easier and more efficient.
 1.  I begin by writing down all the activities for the week and record how many I expect for dinner each evening.  Once I have that in place it makes it much easier.    I fix soup once a week and usually a slow cooker meal as well.  These meals are often what I fix on ballgame days or days where dinner time will vary for several people in the house. 

2.  I take inventory of the meat I have on hand.

3.  Locate recipes using what I have.

4.  Decide what other meals I want to fix.

5. Make a list of all ingredients for the recipes.

6. Cross off the ingredients I have on hand.

7.  Make a list of those ingredients needed for the recipes chosen. I never ever shop without one!  Even if I am only buying four things, I write it down.  To me, lists make shopping faster and so much more efficient.  I also write down everything I need according to where it is located in the store. 

8.  I add any staples such as sugar or flour that I will need for the week.  

9.  I do one big shopping day a week.

This week our schedule looks something like this:

Monday: Gymnastics at 5:30 (8 for dinner)

Tuesday:  Ballgame at home (7 for dinner)

Wednesday: Emma has gymnastics (6 for dinner)

Thursday: Ballgame  away (8 for dinner)

Friday:  (8 for dinner)

Saturday:  (9 for dinner)

Sunday: Church (8 for dinner)

The meat I have in the freezer:

4 pounds ground turkey

4 pounds chicken breast

1 whole chicken

3 pounds ground beef

1 pound sausage

1pot roast

6 chicken thighs

6 pork chops

2.5 lbs minute steak

The meals I decided to fix:

1. Skinny Cajun Chicken Linguine Alfredo with broccoli

2.  Steak and Potato Soup

3.  Chicken Chilli

4. Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken

5.  Grilled Chicken Salad

6.  Meatball Pizza Cups (made with ground turkey) served with a salad.

7.  Roast, Mashed Potatoes, Green beans and Crescent Rolls

The next step is to make a list of all the ingredients for each recipe. I cross off the ingredients I have on hand.  I type the remaining in my phone on my note so there is no chance I will leave my list at home.

This weeks grocery list looks like this:

Potatoes

3 packages brown gravy mix

frozen corn

2 cans rotel tomatoes

cheddar cheese

tortilla chips

2 lb baby red potatoes

1 small bag baby carrots

1 lb fresh green beans

bread crumbs

1 can of biscuits

1 can Crescent Rolls

Lettuce (for two meals)

red cabbage

cucumber

black beans

loaf of bread

package of butter

 dozen eggs

coffee

half  and half

5 gallons milk

Life cereal

orange juice

crackers 

So that's it!  I look at our schedule.  Inventory the main food items on hand, write out my menu, I write down my list, double check my pantry, fridge and freezer and make sure I don't over-stock, I shop, checkout, go home and unpack, and cook, cook, and cook!!

Slow Cooker Potato Soup

Yesterday was a snow day.  No school means a house full of hungry teenagers.  Warm potato soup to the rescue.  All of my family loves soup, especially potato soup.

 

I whip this up in my slow cooker all the time (and sometimes, I'll brown one pound of sausage up first and put that in too...sausage always makes a good addition to potato soup!).   

 

 

Slow Cooker Potato Soup

 

Ingredients:

1 (30 oz) bag of frozen, diced hash browns

3 to 4 cups milk

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1/2 to 3/4 cup instant potatoes 

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup butter (not margarine)

1/2 tsp minced garlic

1/2 onion, chopped

A little salt and pepper

 

In your slow cooker add hash browns, milk, soup, garlic, butter,  onion and a pinch of S&P.  Cook on low 6 to 8 hours or on high 3 to 4 hours.  About an hour before serving, add in your cheddar cheese, cover soup back up and keep heating.

Give the soup one big stir before ladling it into bowls and garnishing.

Such a yummy potato soup!

 

Budget Friendly Menu for Me This Week!

This week's menu is very budget friendly.  We had several expenses this week ranging from an unepected eye doctor appointments to three birthdays in the month of January (two this week) and purchasing a letter jacket; so my grocery budget for this week is less than normal.  I am getting creative.  First, I took an inventory of what was in my freezer.  I had chicken breasts, two packages of ground turkey, a box of frozen garlic bread, a package of ground pork and frozen cheddar cheese.  I also inventoried  my pantry.  I had on had lots of green beans, potatoes, canned cream of mushroom soup , onions, red, yellow and orange peppers, and lasagna noodles. I always have salsa, taco seasoning, salad dressing, and a variety of seasoings,  I decided to try to use items I had on hand and purchase as little as possible.  My goal was to  spend half of my normal weekly budget. 

Monday:  Chicken fajitas

Tuesday:  Ground Pork Stroganoff  

Wednesday: Potato Soup

Thursday:  Lasagna, salad, and garlic toast

Friday:  Bacon Ranch Chicken Pasta and garlic cheese biscuits 

Saturday:  Breakfast:  Saturday morning traditional pancakes

                 Dinner: Steak and Potato Soup

I fixed a new recipe for the fajitas.  It was a slow cooker fajita recipe.  It was really delicious and a hit with everyone.  I did tweak the recipe a little on the advice from a friend.   

(I doubled this recipe for my family)

Slow Cooker Fajitas

2 lbs boneless chicken breats

1 package taco seasoning

1 tbl minced garlic

large onion

red pepper

green pepper

1 can Rotel tomatoes drained

juice of one lime

Place chicken breast in the slow cooker.  Sprinkle the seasoning mix and garlic over the chicken.  Pour the can of Rotel tomatoes over the chicken and seasonings.  Cover and cook on high 3-4 hours or low for 6-8 hours on high.  

About 45 minutes prior to serving the chicken arrange the sliced vegetables over the chicken.  Cook on high for 45 minutes.  The vegetables will be slightly crunchy.  

Remove chicken, and shred with a  fork.  Ladle out most of the liquid and discard.  Add chicken back to the slow cooker and squeeze lime juice over the mixture and toss.   

Serve warm in warmed tortillas with cheese, lettuce, black olives, guacamole, sour cream and salsa.

Chicken Srir-Fry

Chicken Stir-Fry

 

 

Ingredients

2 TBL sesame oil

1 pound chicken breast, cut into strips

1 bunch of broccoli

1 package mushrooms

3/4 cup quartered brussels sprouts

1 small onion sliced

2 carrots sliced

1 can water chestnuts

1 cup chicken broth

1/4 cup hoisin sauce

1 TBL soy sauce

1 tsp powdered ginger

2 TBL cornstarch

1/2 package spaghetti noodles

 

In a small bowl, combine broth, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, ginger, and cornstarch.  Set aside.

Cook broccoli, carrots and brussels sprouts in boiling water for 3 minutes.  Immediately drain and rinse with cold water.  Set aside.

In large skillet, heat oils over medium-high heat.  Add the onions and cook for two or three minutes.  Add the chicken breast and stir-fry till no longer pink. 

Add the broccoli, carrots, brussel sprouts and mushrooms and cook an additional 1 to 2 minutes.  Stir the broth mixture and then add to the chicken and vegetable mixture and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until sauce is thickened.  Serve over noodles or rice.

Serves 4 

(21 day fix exchange per serving: 1 red, 1 orange, 1 green, 1 yellow)



Enchiladas

 

Enchiladas

 

1 lb ground turkey

package wheat tortillias

1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese

1/2 chopped onion

1 can Rotel drained

 1can black beans drained

1 container cottage cheese

1 tsp chipotle seasoning

 

Sauté' onion and add in ground turkey and Chipotle seasoning.  Cook until no longer pink. Add drained Rotel tomatoes to meat mixture. Set aside.

Place cottage cheese in a blender or food processor and process until smooth. Add to meat mixture.  Next, add drained black beans and half cup cheddar cheese to meat and cheese mixture. 

Spread EVO on the bottom of a casserole dish.  Place meat mixture in a tortilla and roll up.  Place in dish seam side down.  Continue filling tortillas until meat mixture is gone.  Pour the enchilada sauce over the top. 

Cover with foil.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.  Remove foil and place remaining cheese on top.  Continue baking 15 minutes.  Let dish sit for a few minutes before serving. 

 

Enchilada sauce

28 oz can tomato sauce

2 cloves garlic

1/2 finely chopped onion

1/2 tsp chipotle seasoning

 

Sauté' onions and garlic in a little EVO until tender.  Add in tomato sauce and chipotle seasoning.

Simmer for 15 minutes. 

French Market Soup

French Market Soup

20 oz bean mix

(with seasoning packet if available)

1 box chicken stock

2 tsp salt

28 oz crushed tomatoes

1 large onions, diced

4 ribs celery, diced

2 carrots, peeled and diced

2 whole chicken breasts, skinned, boned and diced

1 tsp seasoned salt

1 tsp ground pepper

 

Wash beans and drain. Cover with water and salt. Soak overnight.  Drain.  Add 1 box chicken stock and add seasoning packet that comes with the beans. Saute' onion, celery and carrots.  Add to crock pot.  Add diced chicken, crushed tomatoes, seasoned salt and pepper to the crock pot.  Cook on low in crockpot for 4-6 hours or until beans are tender.   

Serves 8

21 day fix:  1 green, 1 red, and 1 yellow