Monday, October 25, 2010

Quick Kitchen Tip and Our Weekly Menu


I spend incredible amounts of time in my kitchen. Therefore, I am always looking for ways to make my work there easier and more effective. Here's a time-saving idea that dawned on me this weekend:

Make pre-made "spice mixes" for recipes that call for large amounts of varied spices. One such recipe for me is Jenna's Sticky Chicken. It's super easy to make, but requires pulling 7-8 spice bottles out of the cabinet. Today when I had all the bottles pulled out, I just made multiple "batches" of the spice mixture, which will make throwing this recipe together even easier in the future!  Love it.

Another go-to spice mixture in our home is Homemade Taco Seasoning.

With that said, here is this week's menu plan. You may notice that there is an abundance of chicken in this menu. Whole chickens were on sale last week for .79/lb and I bought 4 of them, so chicken it is!

Breakfasts: Oatmeal (which I've finally decided that I like!), Cold Cereal, Yogurt, Toast
Lunches: Sandwiches, Leftovers
Dinners:
Monday--Cream of Mushroom Soup (carried over from last week), Biscuits, Spinach
Tuesday--Zesty Slow Cooker Chicken Barbecue with mashed potatoes
Wednesday--Chicken Quesadillas (anyone have a killer way of making these?)
Thursday--Spaghetti, Broccoli, Garlic Bread
Friday--Chicken and Rice Soup in the crockpot (new recipe!), Carrots
Saturday--Shepherd's Pie (my adaptation of this recipe)

Looking for more menu plans? Check out Menu Planning Monday.



P.S. While you're here, enter my giveaway for a $5 Amazon Gift Card by filling out my short survey!
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13 comments:

  1. You're up early! Sounds yummy and I'm inspired :)

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  2. Sounds very yummy!!! I hope your week is off to a great start! :)

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  3. Looking good, girl. Yummm. I'm curious about that bbq recipe. YOu likey? I have yet to try a bbq recipe, if you can beleive it.

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  4. Sounds like a great week ahead! We regularly make quesadillas at our house. Mix 2 Oz cream cheese with taco seasoning and spread it on one side of a tortilla, top with chicken, sprinkle with shredded cheese and then top with other tortilla. They are so cheesy!

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  5. Your menu looks great!

    Thank you for sharing your Taco Seasoning recipe, I've been looking for a good one. I can't wait to try it!!

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  6. I love oatmeal. I eat it just about every morning. I make mine with whole milk instead of water. Then I add chopped nuts and dried cranberries.

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  7. Such a great tip, I've often thought about pre-mixing the spices also, I do that for taco seasonings, why not the sticky chicken?

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  8. Your menu for the week looks great. I would really love your Tuesday meal plan.
    Thank you for sharing.

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  9. Pre-mixing spices a very clever idea! Thanks for sharing it!

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  10. We used canned shredded chicken (I promise it's better than it sounds) and monterey jack cheese for our quesadillas--super quick and so good!

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  11. Looking for some good meal ideas. Happy Menu planning. Have a great week.

    Nina (Author)

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  12. I did your survey! I hope it's ok I called myself a homemaker since I do make my home, it's just not my full-time job!

    As for the quesadillas, I make the chicken differently each time, depending on what works best that day. If you want shredded chicken, I would just boil and then throw in a bowl and shred with two forks. If you prefer pieces, grill in a pan or on a Foreman. I use cheesy taco seasoning on the chicken and the "fiesta blend" of cheese from the store, plus white onion and green peppers. I fold in half and place on the Foreman for a few minutes. Voila!

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  13. Thanks for all the quesadilla ideas, ya'll! Candi, I tried your cream cheese method (with the addition of some diced tomatoes)--so YUM! Thanks.

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