Thursday, January 31, 2008

Meal Planning





When it comes to meal planning, I'll take ANY help I can get! I have lots of cookbooks and seem oh so organized with that (yes, for some reason my menu planning is totally organized....must just be some freak in my nature....and I can't blame it on my curly hair!!)

Well, I found some GREAT ideas at A Year of CrockPotting. Now if you've yet learned ANYTHING about me, you must now that I can't help it, I must play with a recipe. Also, tomorrow is our bi-monthly payday, so pickins are slim, so we make do. I saw Stephanie's recipe for Sweet and Spicy Chicken Wings and my wheels started turning! I needed something for dinner......I had a huge bag of skinless, boneless chicken thighs (which I bought cuz they were cheap, NOT cuz we like them....we don't!).....I had one more jar of strawberry jam that I had put up this summer, and an almost full bottle of salsa.......ehhhh! Close enough!! (yes, this is how my brain works, and yes, Stephanie gets the credit for the idea!)

So here's our dinner cooking. I took pictures because I also wanted to show you one of my top favorite kitchen appliances. Never thought I'd say that. My youngest sis didn't want this and said I could have it AND my 5qt crockpot was not up to par (it always burnt in one spot). I don't even know what you actually call this thing, but I love it!! It is so much more than a crockpot!! You can turn it up really high or really low (and everything in between); you can take the lid off to stir it, you can cook with the lid off to thicken it......it doesn't do dishes, but that's okay I guess. Anyway, this thing is SUCH a help in the kitchen I had to share it with you. I can do what I want during the day and still have a yummy, hot dinner ready for when my Sweetie comes home!!
After the fact: This was yummy!! I guess now I can tell you what I put in it (better sit down). Chicken thighs, salsa, strawberry jam, garlic powder, chili powder, paprika, cumin, and mustard. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed it along with sides of tossed salad (made by 5yo Little D) and potato wedges/cottage fries.




3 comments:

Stephanie ODea said...

Amy, what a great idea! We always have strawberry jam and salsa!
Did your kids like it?
xox
steph

Jjlrdomom said...

I'll find out later if they liked it! I can smell it right now though, and it smells yummy!! Think we'll have steak fries and salad with that!! :)

Stephanie ODea said...

I'm so glad that your experiment worked out! I think being adventurous in the kitchen and trying new things--even if they don't turn out--is a great lesson for kids to learn.
congatulations!

I'm glad that you're going to try the sundried tomato dip. That one and the brie with cranberries are my favorites thus far.

yum!
happy friday,
steph