Menu Monday

Monday: French Dip Sandwiches with Baked Chipotle Sweet Potato Fries served with Skinny Ranch Dip. The roast is in the crock pot right now and it smells great. It's a cold, rainy day and we are looking forward to this yummy comfort food tonight!

Tuesday: Baked Chicken with Dijon and Lime served with Baked Rice and Peas.

Wednesday: Chicken and Rice Soup. It's my mom's recipe that I've tweaked to my liking and is one of our favorites, especially in the wintertime. It makes a ton so when I make it I either invite another family over for dinner or find somebody to take dinner to that night, otherwise we eat it for the next five nights. Here's the recipe:

1 whole chicken

1 or 2 stalks celery, chopped

2 cups chopped carrots

1 package white or baby bella mushrooms (depends on what I'm in the mood for that week--I think white mushrooms have a little more flavor)

8 oz Velveeta with 2% milk (this makes it seem a little healthier, even though this part totally ruins it calorie-wise, but gives it all the flavor)

1 cup long grain white rice

Boil 6 cups of water, add a little salt. Add chicken and cook for 1 hour. Take chicken out and set aside to cool. After chicken is cooled, take off bone and chop or shred into smaller pieces. Strain broth and add a few more cups of water (it depends on how much has evaporated during cooking---I usually just put the pot under the faucet and fill it back up so it's more than half full of broth/water. Add celery and carrots and boil 10-15 min. Add mushrooms, rice, and chicken, and cook on med to med high, stirring occasionally (otherwise it will burn to the bottom) until rice is done. Chop Velveeta into chunks and put into soup and stir until completely melted. Be sure not to cook too long or your rice will turn into mush. :) Invite friends over or divide into lots of containers and take to your friends' houses---they will love you, you will have plenty to eat at your own house for a couple of days, and everybody will be happy.

Thursday: leftover soup from Wednesday

Friday: Goat Cheese and Arugula over Penne-- I'm not a pasta fan but I do try to make it a few times a month for Ben because he loves it. I like goat cheese and arugula though, so this recipe looks like it'll be good. We shall see...

Saturday: going out...will have a fun post about this day next week! :)

Sunday: Pork Tenderloin with Pomegranate Sauce--trying this out for a going away party we're having for some friends next weekend. If it's a success, it will be served then. If not, I'll be experimenting with some more recipes next week!

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Hits and misses from last week's menu:

Since I posted in the middle of the week, I already reviewed a few of the recipes....but I'd have to say the hits were the Chicken and White Bean Enchiladas with Creamy Salsa Verde and the Grilled Chicken Thighs with White Barbecue Sauce. It was my first time making the enchiladas, and they were AMAZING---they really didn't taste low cal at all. The only thing I changed was that I only used one 4.5 oz can of green chiles and I split it between the filling and the sauce instead of using a 4.5 oz can in the filling and a 7 oz can in the sauce and I used a tiny bit less jalapenos than it called for (I'm not a big fan of spicy foods) . SO, SO, SO good and I'll most definitely make again. The chicken thighs were really good, but they're a repeat favorite so I knew they'd make the hit list for the week.

The Pork Chops with Mushrooms and Shallots weren't really a miss, but they do need some tweaking. I'd definitely add a dry white wine to give it more flavor, and maybe some garlic salt too.