Notes on Extended Meal Plan - Wednesday

W - Spaghetti, Salad, Italian Sweet Bread or Garlic Rolls

This is obviously a super easy day, which is why I tried to include my bread-making goal in this meal. The thing I found out is that this sweet bread recipe is incredibly flexible. It isn't "Italian" until I sprinkle Italian seasoning on it. It makes great rolls, great bread sticks, great garlic knots, and even great cinnamon rolls!

The hard part about it is that even though making the bread only takes about 10 concentrated minutes, they have to be 10 uninterrupted minutes and that can be hard to come by these days!

Notes on the Extended Meal Plan - Monday/Tuesday

M - Mojo Chicken, Black Beans, Rice, Yellow Sauce
T - Pork Chops (or Pork Loin Roast), Broccoli, Steamed Carrot coins

I have detailed the whole "Homemade Pollo Tropical" meal in other posts - it is easy, but not quick. Making beans is not fast, but it is not extremely involved and doesn't require any work for the last hour and a half.

Our pork meal is the one bit of spontaneity in our week - there is just so much you can do with "the other white meat". I bought the biggest whole loin I could find and par-froze it - freezing until firm, but not solid. Then I was able to slice off chops and leave the last chunk whole to roast - seems fancier that way, somehow...

Notes on the Extended Meal Plan - Sunday

U - Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes

I started abreviated Sunday as "U" in college because that's how our "Racing Forms" (class registration books) did it. Our meatloaf is probably more accurately called a "Meaty-loaf" because a good bit of it is shredded or minced vegetables. Although, it's never the same twice, I base my method loosly on Alton Brown's recipe - the main thing being the glaze. I made four loaves using only 2lbs of meat. They are kind of small, but work for now. Each gets double wrapped - plastic and freezer paper - raw and after being thawed will be cooked 10 minutes before applying the glaze. Let me just say, if you don't glaze your meatloaf, you are missing out :)

For mashed potatoes, I pick two large potatoes (about 1lb each) - one red and one russet - peeled, cubed and steamed 20 minutes, then whipped with butter, milk and salt and sometimes other things (like sour cream or parmesan cheese).

Great homey meal for Sunday night because I generally like to take a mother's version of a Sabbath rest - that is no laundry or floor cleaning unless pee is involved.

Extended Meal Plan

Things have been busy to say the least since Natalie was born and that has affected how we eat. Normally, I don't like to eat monotonously, but planning unique menus for each week is more work than I need right now. Instead, I created a basic menu that repeats for 4 weeks. I make a super-sized grocery list, stock up on food, process or prepare some of it, and the result is this:
A freezer full of food - some of it ready to go, some of it just pre-portioned.

Here is the meal plan:

U - Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes
M - Mojo Chicken, Black Beans, Rice, Yellow Sauce
T - Pork Chops (or Pork Loin Roast), Broccoli, Steamed Carrot coins
W - Spaghetti, Salad, Garlic Rolls or Italian Sweet Bread
R - Chicken Stir Fry, Egg Rolls
F - Vegetable Bean Soup, Cresent Rolls
S - BBQ Chicken, Biscuits, Baked Beans, and Scalloped Corn

I chose the meals based on cost, cooking method and freeze-ability. I split the majority of the work between two days - shopping day and cooking day. On the cooking day, I made 4 meatloaves, 4 meals worth of spaghetti sauce and 4 of vegetable bean soup, and portioned 20lbs of dark chicken quarters. For the pork chops, I bought a whole pork loin and cut off the chops. I left once piece whole to roast. Also, I made two batches of cookie dough, portioned and frozen to bake later and a batch of dog treats - because I was in the kitchen anyway and can make them out of things I would otherwise throw away (and Mako likes them). It was a tiring day! But living is easy for the next four weeks!

That's Sweet: Mango Lime Sorbet

August is a time in south Florida where the buy one get one sale on mangoes is a bad deal - more than likely someone near you has a tree with a thousand tri-colored fruit dangling from it. My next door neighbor brought me two enormous mangoes - and since we were already set for fruit snacks this week, I made it into sorbet - Mango Lime Sorbet!


This couldn't get any easier:

Mango Lime Sorbet

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
2 limes
2 enormous ripe mangoes
a pinch of salt

Make a simple syrup with the water, sugar and zest of one of the limes. Set aside to cool. Juice the other two limes and dice the mangoes (not quite like any other fruit, for a lesson see here). Put all the ingredients in a blender or food processor and puree. Chill the puree before pouring it into your ice cream maker and process according to your ice cream maker's instructions. Stick the prepared sorbet into the freezer to firm up, thusly:My lovely ice cream storage container is actually a box that came with our Wing-it meant for tossing fried chicken wings in hot sauce. Since you can do that in a bowl, I like re-purposing it as an ice cream box! I think an hour or so in the freezer improves the texture, but if you let it freeze solid, you will need to set it out for a little while before you can scoop it.

June 15 - 21, 2010

T 15 - Sloppy Joes, Onion Rolls, Scalloped Corn, Broccoli
W 16 - out
R 17 - Mojo Chicken, Black Beans, Rice, Yellow Sauce
F 18 - Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Carrot Sticks
S 19 - Asian Chicken Noodle Bowls
U 20 - Veggie Delight, Penne Pasta
M 21 - Oven Fried Chicken, Broccoli, Baked Mac & Cheese

I've neglected to post our meal plans, but rest assured, we've still been eating. In fact we had spaghetti twice last week!

It is nearing the end of June, and I have been testing out my goal of at least one meatless meal a week for about half a year now. I have a few observations to report:

1. You have to replace meat with more vegetables and or pasta to satisfy a meat-eating man!
2. Vegetarian meals can be economical, but they can be as or more expensive than meaty meals too. Fancy cheeses and exotic vegetables can really be pricey!

That's Sweet : Easy Red Berry Pie

For the record, this is a modification of Berry Smoothie Pie, but I didn't follow the recipe exactly and my blender is no more, so I couldn't make it a "smoothie" pie, mine was more of a chunky berry pie! And it is super good and super easy!

1/3 cup of cranberry juice cocktail
1 .3 oz. package strawberry jello
1 6 oz. container of raspberry yogurt
2-3 cups fresh strawberries, coarsely chopped
1 graham cracker crust

Place juice in a microwavable dish and sprinkle jello over the top. Wait 1 minute, then heat on high for 40 seconds in the microwave. Stir and let stand 1 more minute.

Combine jello mixture with yogurt and berries and pour into crust. Refrigerate for 4 hours or until set. Serve with whipped cream, if desired.

May 18 - 24, 2010

18 T – Breakfast for Supper
19 W – Grilled Tomatillo Chicken , Broccoli, Carrots
20 R – Grilled Pork Chops, Corn on the Cob, Fabulous Green Beans
21 F – Mojo Chicken, Rice, Black Beans, Yellow Sauce
22 S – Tomato Basil Soup, Asiago Bread
23 U – Chicken Foil Packets
24 M – Shrimp Scampi, Pasta, Carrots

Our grill is out of service, so any "grilling" I will be doing will be compliments of the broiler. I used to use a "George Foreman" counter-top grill, but I think the broiler gives a much more "grill-like" result. This will be my first tomatillo cooking experience. A couple of these recipes are subscriber only on Taste of Home, so if you'd like the recipe, let me know.

Oh and is it obvious that Mojo Chicken with Black Beans and yellow sauce has become our new "spaghetti"? It is my go-to menu idea when I am stumped and it is cheap and easy - and once I learn to make my own Mojo marinade, it will be completely made from scratch.

And good news - I seem to be past a little slump for now and cooking doesn't sound so overwhelming this week. I know there are more fatigued days to come, but for the moment, hunger triumphs over exhaustion!

May 11 - 17. 2010

11 T – Taco Salad
12 W – Smoked Salmon Pizza, Salad
13 R – Curry Chicken Pot Pie
14 F – Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Little Green Peas
15 S – Veggie Mac and Cheese
16 U – Seafood Angel Hair Pasta
17 M – Mojo Chicken, Black Beans, Rice, Yellow Sauce

All I want for Christmas is a private chef! Whew, these last few weeks are going to be interesting. Just making a meal plan was tiring. I ended up polling the kids to see what they'd like to have on the menu. Caleb voted Chicken pot pie, which he loves and it also is a meal that gets an unusually high amount of vegetables into his belly - not that he is really picky, but he loves Curry Chicken Pot Pie. Annalise's vote was pizza, I'm not sure Smoked Salmon Pizza is what she was envisioning, but I never know with her whether she'll eat nothing or everything. This last week, we had a real hit - on Sunday night, both kids asked for seconds...of salad!

May 4 - 10, 2010

4 T – Creamy Clam Chowder, Asiago Bread
5 W – Spaghetti and Meatballs, Salad
6 R – Oven Fried Chicken, Spicy Sweet Potatoes, Green Peppers
7 F – Pizza, Salad
8 S – Curry Chicken Pot Pie
9 U – Tortellini Spinach Casserole, Salad
10 M – Deviled Chicken, Mac and Cheese, Peas & Carrots

Making meal plans is starting to be a chore, not because I'm not hungry! But I'm tired and especially the time of day when I cook dinner. Even thinking about cooking dinner makes me tired! And it is not always easy to find satisfying recipes that combine "easy", "economical", and "relatively healthy".

April 27 - May 3, 2010

27 T – Beef and Barley Stew (BC 473)
28 W – Chicken a la King (BC 296), Biscuits, Carrots
29 R – Miss Stoker’s Lasagna, Salad
30 F – L.O. Lasagna
1 S – Breakfast for Supper
2 U – Spicy Jamaican Chicken and Potatoes (BC 283), Green Peas
3 M – Easy Vegetable Chow Mein (BC 375), Vegetable Spring Rolls

April 20-26, 2010

20 T - African Beef Curry, Rice
21 W - Creamy Pasta Salad, Carrot Sticks
22 R - Mojo Chicken, Black Beans, Rice
23 F - Seafood Pot Pies, Corn
24 S - Sugar Festival all day
25 U - Parmesan Chicken, Baked Potatoes, Green Peas
26 M - Chicken Spareribs, Green Beans, Carrots, Cottage Cheese Rolls

The Creamy Pasta Salad is the featured recipe in this month's High Five magazine! So I guess it will be kid friendly. It's also our meatless representative this week. Also I have been meaning to spotlight the recipe linked as "Black Beans" - it uses a "sofrito" which is a sauce made of a combination of aromatic ingredients - they can vary from place to place. This one is a Cuban sofrito and the main ingredient is bell pepper. It smells AWESOME and makes me feel quite like I fit in here in my own little corner of Latin America :)

April 6-12, 2010

6 T – Pork Lo Mein, Egg Rolls
7 W – Teriyaki Mushroom Chicken, Ramen & Veggies
8 R – Mexican Bean Barley Soup, Cheese Quesadillas, Carrots
9 F – Breakfast for Supper
10 S – Spaghetti, Salad, Italian Sweet Bread
11 U – BLTs, corn, baked beans
12 M – Homemade Pizza, Salad

March 30 - April 5, 2010

30 T – Breakfast for Supper or go to Clewiston with Rob
31 W – Pork Roast, Mashed Potatoes, Pea & Carrots, Corn
1 R – BBQ Pork Sandwiches, Baked Sweet Potatoes, Carrot Sticks
2 F –L.O. BBQ Pork Sandwiches, Broccoli, Macaroni and Cheese
3 S – Roasted Veggie Wraps, Soup
4 U – Homemade Pizza, Salad
5 M – Pork Lo Mein, Egg Rolls

Well I'm a couple of days late, so for the record, we went to Clewiston and did not have breakfast for supper on Tuesday. Rob's not crazy about eating breakfast when it's not morning, but I have fond memories of having breakfast for supper when I was a kid, so when he has to work late, I sometimes make that for just me and the kids.

March 23 - 29, 2010

23 T – Spaghetti, Salad, Italian Sweet Bread
24 W – Sweet & Chunky Chicken Salad, Bread, Carrot Sticks
25 R – Zucchini Pancakes with Diced Tomatoes, Cheese Grits, Corn
26 F – Mojo Chicken, Rice, Beans
27 S – Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Tomato Soup
28 U – Homemade Pizza, Salad
29 M - Pineapple Chicken Stir Fry, Rice, Egg Rolls

I'm not trying to be Meredith's double with the weekly pizza - it's just I was amazed at how fast homemade pizza crust dough comes together...and there was a sale on pizza sauce. Someday I will make it from scratch...someday.

March 16-22, 2010

16 T – SW Spaghetti, Salad
17 W – Foil Packet Dinners
18 R – Vegetable Lasagna, Mary Poppins Rolls
19 F – Chicken with Cherry Sauce, Potatoes, Carrots
20 S – Homemade Pizza, Salad
21 U – Maryland Crab Cakes, Broccoli, Corn
22 M – Broiled Mojo Chicken, Black Beans, Rice, Yellow Sauce

It's St. Patrick's Day and we had foil packets for dinner, very much unlike a certain St. Patrick's Day several years ago where Meredith and I had a totally green meal, I do have a picture somewhere, but it's not digital :)

And just a note about the Mojo Chicken, I have been using the bottled Badia brand mojo marinade and it is pretty accurate for Pollo Tropical, but I forgot to get it, so I am going to look for a homemade substitute.

Homemade Dog Treats

If you don't have a dog, this probably isn't a recipe you are going to try!

I made these dog treats for Mako last week. I had spent the day making chicken stock and at the end had a pile of soft bones, chicken skin, grisly bits of chicken, and cooked carrots. I also had cooked celery and onions and whole black peppercorns, but I didn't think those things would be good for dogs, so I did my best to pick them out. I used the stock bones, etc from 3 chickens and 2 whole carrots (pureed in the blender) and about 3-4 cups of flour - basically enough to make it kind of doughy. It was about the consistency of cookie dough. I spooned out small portions and baked them for a few minutes at 350 degrees. They didn't spread or brown, but Mako liked them. Rob and I both thought they needed to be crunchier, so the next day I spread them all on a big sheet pan and baked them at 170 until the test pieces crunched when I tossed them to Mako. It took 6-8 hours.

In short, Mako LOVES them and now, not only did I get 9 cups of sodium-free stock out of the bones I would have thrown away, I got all-natural, preservative free dog treats out of them too!

March 9 - 15, 2010

9 T – Spaghetti, Salad, Italian Sweet Bread
10 W – Broiled Teriyaki Chicken (BC 341), Peas and Pearl Onions
11 R – Baked Coconut Shrimp (BC 30), Salad, Mary Poppins Rolls
12 F – Vegetarian Frijoles Negros, Rice, Carrot Sticks
13 S – 40 Cloves and a Chicken, Twice Baked Potatoes, Peas and Carrots
14 U – Shrimp Scampi (BC 321), Angel Hair Pasta, Corn
15 M – Broiled BBQ Chicken, Broccoli and Cheese Rice, Carrots

I'm pleased to announce that I've been added onto the lineup at Positively Feminine as a cooking columnist. Nothing fancy, it's not even a paying position! But it is flattering and I'll be featured on a bimonthly basis starting this month.

How to: Broil Chicken

I've heard it said that your broiler is effectively an upside down grill. I was skeptical about broiling bone in chicken, but compared ideas found online and tried it. I marinated the chicken all day in Mojo seasoning and broiled it skin on 9 inches from the broiler. 20 minutes on the skin up side, flip and another 20. Some of the pieces would have been done in 12-15 minutes, but one piece needed the full 20. They temp'd out at a safe 180 degrees and tasted...like they were hot off the grill!

With the homemade yellow curry sauce it almost seemed like we were at Pollo Tropical!

March 2 - 8, 2010

2 T – Vegetarian Tortilla Stack, Salad, Spanish rice
3 W – Cornmeal Oven Fried Chicken, Spicy Sweet Potatoes , Fresh Tomatoes with Cottage Cheese
4 R – Mission Festival Home Dinner
5 F – Shrimp n Veggie Pizza, Salad
6 S – possibly in Naples
7 U – also possibly in Naples
8 M – Broiled Chicken, Peas and Carrots, Biscuits

February 23 - March 1, 2010

23 T – 1-2-3 BBQ Sausage, Corn on the Cob, Fried Okra, Broccoli Slaw
24 W – Pizza Crescent Bake, Salad
25 R – Chipotle Chicken with Cool Avocado Sauce, Couscous with Mushroom, Carrots
26 F – out
27 S – Asian Vegetable Pasta, Spring Rolls
28 U – Mojo Chicken with yellow sauce, Rice, Black Beans
1 M – Spaghetti, Salad, Italian Sweet Bread

February 16-22, 2010

16 T – Chicken Gumbo, Red Beans and Rice, King Cake
17 W – Minestrone Soup, Italian Sweet Bread
18 R – Beef & Bacon Stroganoff, Noodles, Carrots
19 F – Chicken Ranch Potatoes, Salad
20 S – Italian Shepherd’s Pie, Salad
21 U – Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Tomato Soup
22 M – Parmesan Chicken, Scalloped Potatoes, Carrots

Last week I didn't get around to posting my meal plan. Our meatless meal was Creamy Butternut Squash Soup and Onion Cheddar Biscuits. The butternut squash really surprised me. I am very "take it or leave it" when it comes to squash and I did not expect to like it. It was very mild, but the biscuits more than made up for that. They were tasty and "dippable" in the soup. In the end, I have found that no matter how emphatically you insist to children that avocado or butternut squash have basically no unusual taste, they cannot get past the unusual color!

Today, although I have never made a special meal to acknowledge the passing of Mardi Gras, I thought it would be a great time to have gumbo. I followed the recipe linked, except I used chicken and smoked sausage instead of shrimp.


Our Mardi Gras meal was inspired by a recipe in Taste of Home for King Cake. Instead of making a real King Cake, I saved 1/3 of the cake we baked for Rob's birthday and froze it. We iced it with a lemon glaze and colored sugar (we had to make the yellow and purple). We searched for a tiny plastic baby everywhere we went - but only found what we were looking for this morning at a cake shop - actually I had to buy 6 for $.89.

Annalise found the baby :)

And in a failed effort to occupy the children while I made a roux, I had them make Mardi Gras masks, I say failed because they painted the table, the floor, and themselves green in the process. I guess the mask came out ok ;)

Gravy Train: Yellow Curry Sauce

Back before they halved their portions and doubled their prices, we liked to eat at Chicken Kitchen. The biggest benefit of Chicken Kitchen over Pollo Tropical was that their chop-chops* came with a choice of sauces...but everyone I knew always got the yellow curry sauce. Since Chicken Kitchen went high-brow, Pollo Tropical has begun offering a yellow curry sauce. Because we like the yellow sauce so much, I searched far and wide for a homemade substitute. And recently, I struck gold...or yellow I guess :)

Yellow Curry Sauce:

1 part yellow mustard
4 parts mayonnaise
curry powder to taste

Mix well, refrigerate until ready to serve. Very good over chicken or rice and beans.

(*So far as I can tell, a chop-chop is just a one dish meal with chopped up meat - usually chicken - rice and beans and other ingredients that can vary.)

How To: Make Puff Pastry

One of Caleb's favorite dinners is "Star Pot Pie" - that's what he calls it. It's a chicken pot pie and instead of topping it with biscuits I cut stars in puff pastry and top it with them. Puff Pastry isn't super expensive, but it isn't super cheap either. I wanted to make it myself, but felt discouraged when I read:

...keep in mind first and foremost that this most delicate and challenging of pastries must be made the way porcupines make love - that is, very, very carefully. Then shut off the telephone for an hour or two, cut yourself some paper pattern guides...and get to work."

in Joy of Cooking (page 643). I didn't even bother to try their way! I did, however, find a recipe online that admits to not being exactly orthodox puff pastry, but you could've fooled me, the result is a very puffy pastry that looks and tastes like puff pastry. It is not hard and not time consuming. Here is a picture to prove it:

This was a scrap piece after making pot pie - I bake the scraps and dust them with powdered sugar for dessert. You can see in the picture the layers of flaky goodness. And I can assure you it is 100% homemade with two small children underfoot.

Puff Pastry

1 cup flour
1/4 cup cold water
1/2 cup cold butter
1/4 rounded tsp salt - that is 1/4 + 1/16 or just a smidge more than 1/4 tsp

Mix flour and salt well. Cut butter into 1/2 inch slices and mix lightly in the butter and salt. Stir in water. Get out a big piece parchment paper or flour your work surface and pour out the dough. Obviously the butter will still be in huge chunks. Knead it 10 times and make a ball, then shape it into roughly a square shape. Roll it out into a big rectangle about 15x12 inches, I don't bother to measure it. (And ignore the big chunks of butter, they will work themselves out.) Then, fold the long sides in like you'd fold a letter. Think of the remaining rectangle as being in 3 squares stacked on top of each other. Then fold the top square down and the bottom square up over each other to make one square - there will be 4 folds, resulting in 9 layers. Wrap the dough in parchment or wax paper and store in the fridge for 20 minutes. Re-roll, re-fold - now you have 81 layers. Back to the fridge for 20 minutes. Again re-roll, re-fold - now there are 729 layers!!! This is basically a stopping place. I usually put it back in the fridge and leave it there until I am about ready to use it, then I take it out for about 10 minutes, then roll it and cut it.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes if you are just baking the pastry. For the pot pie, I bake at 400 for 25 minutes.

Daily Bread: Flatbread

Although the recipe recommended rice, something in me thought flatbread would be just the thing to have with our Indian dinner tonight. At first I figured I'd buy some, but I found a recipe online and decided to give it a try. It is not difficult, but it is not fast, so it is something I will probably rarely do. After you make the dough, you portion it out into little balls and roll them very thin.

Then you cook them on a hot griddle (or in my case a cast iron skillet) - interestingly, the griddle or skillet must be dry - no cooking fat added.

Cook on each side about 1-2 minutes.

Flatbread:
2 1/4 tsp yeast
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
Thyme - the recipe said 3 tbsp fresh, but I only had dry, so I just added about 1 tsp.
3/4 cup water

Mix dry ingredients well, add water and stir to make a ball. Then knead about 5 minutes. Grease a bowl, put it in the bowl to rise - about 1 hour. Portion out, roll, and cook as above. The recipe said it would make 20, my first one was too small, so I made 10.

We served it with Chicken Korma, which reminded Rob of an old roommate and reminded me of this little West Indian restaurant over on 168th St...yum!

And Cucumber Salad, called for jalapenos, I omitted them because I knew that would make it too hot for the kids. They both liked all 3 dishes. The Korma could have been spicier for me, but really it tasted very good.

February 2-8, 2010

2 T – Chicken Korma, Cucumber Salad, Flat Bread
3 W – Ratatouille Niçoise, French Bread
4 R – French Onion Soup, Salad
5 F – Oven Fried Chicken, Spicy Sweet Potatoes, Creamed Spinach
6 S – Italian Shepherd’s Pie, Salad
7 U – Curry Chicken Pot Pie
8 M – Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Peas and Carrots

I have decided on a cooking goal for 2010 - it's vegetarian main dishes - or the formal title - Vegetarian Main Dishes that Satisfy a Meat-Eating Man. I intend to include a meat-less meal at least once a week. As a secondary goal, I want to continue to make homemade bread.

Some of these recipes are from the latest edition of Taste of Home and are "subscriber only" on the website. If you would like a recipe and know my email address, I can hook you up ;)

In Season: Grapefruit

When I was a kid, I just did not know what was good - I wouldn't touch beans, stuffed peppers, or Chinese food...and of course I didn't like grapefruits - what can I say, I was crazy. Grapefruits are in season about half the year, but they have been on sale only recently in our Publix - about fifty cents per pound if you buy a 5lb bag, which I have been happy to do!

Some nutritional facts about grapefruits - they are high in vitamins A and C and are also a source of calcium, folate, and fiber. Nutritiondata.com lists cornflakes as one of the best foods to pair grapefruit with to get a complete protein...and come to think of it, that sounds pretty good!

Personally, grapefruit has such a unique tangy taste that I found myself questioning, should I be eating this while pregnant? And a little searching online revealed that not only is it fine to eat while you're pregnant, a lot of women crave it while they are pregnant.

January 20-26, 2010

20 T – Shredded Beef Au Jus (on Buns), Baked Beans, Corn on the Cob
21 W – Curry Chicken, Rice
22 R – Tuna Veggie Macaroni, Italian Sweet Bread
23 F – Mostaccioli Beef Casserole, Green Beans
24 S – A Friend’s Birthday Party
25 U – Chicken over Curly Noodles, Mixed Oriental Vegetables
26 M – Pork Ranchero Enchiladas, Yellow Rice, Refried Beans

The Shredded Beef Au Jus is leftover from tonight - it could not be an easier slow-cooker recipe. My slow-cooker runs a little hot, so I started it late. Meal planning was pretty easy this week. I thumbed through an old issue of Simple and Delicious (a spin off of Taste of Home) and just made a list of everything that looked good - and being 15 weeks pregnant EVERYTHING looked good!

Daily Bread: Italian Sweet Bread

I tried a new bread recipe recently - we were having spaghetti and I...well actually I read this recipe and it sounded good and I thought spaghetti would go well with it! It did :) This little loaf is soft and the Italian seasonings on top really liven it up. The original recipe makes 2 round loaves, but I halved it and that was plenty for us.

Italian Sweet Bread
1/2 cup milk
1 egg (beaten and divided into 2 equal portions)
1 tbsp butter, softened
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
about 2 cups of flour
1 tsp yeast (instant if you've got it!)
1/2 tbsp water
Italian Seasoning

Combine 1 cup flour, sugar, salt and yeast and mix well. Stir in milk, 1/2 egg, and butter. Stir in enough flour to make a soft, workable ball. Knead about 5 minutes and let rise - 45 minutes should be enough. Press out air, make a ball and place in a greased cake round, let proof for 45 minutes. Add water to remaining egg, brush egg wash over the loaf and sprinkle with Italian seasoning. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until the internal temp is about 200 degrees. Be careful not to go over 212!

Note, if you are using regular old active dry yeast, you must use warm milk, that is the NICE NICE NICE thing about instant yeast - you can use cold milk or water and it still rises. This eliminates a problem I used to have because I had trouble getting the water or milk hot enough, but not too hot.