Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Monthly Meal Rotations

When we were studying language when we first arrived in India, life was intense.  Cooking, and thinking about meals, grocery shopping, was just something that was on the back burner.  So I made a monthly rotation of meals, four weeks of different dinners every night.  I created a grocery list for each week, and just rotated them so that i didn't ever have to think about what to buy, what to make...

A friend today suggested I post these meals, and I thought it was a great idea!  I can't guarantee there are recipes for every meal on here, but hopefully they'll be helpful if you're in that season of life that is just busy and you need more structure for meal planning. 

28 Meals: 
1. Jambalaya and cornbread
2. Moroccan Chicken, couscous, and green beans
3. Bean Tacos, Mexican rice (make extra beans and tortillas for meals later in the week)
4. Cracker Barrel Veg Platter/or Chili and biscuits
5. Caribbean beans and rice
6. Burgers and fries (lamb, chicken, veg, whatever)
7. Spinach and Bacon quiche with fruit salad or muffins or both : )

8. Pav Bhaji
9. Breaded Ranch Chicken, roasted potatoes and corn
10. Pasta and bread (it varied what kind) with veggie sticks and ranch dressing
11. 7-Layer Tortilla pie, chips and salsa
12.  Indonesian meatballs and rice, salad
13. Shepherds Pie
14.  Stuffed potatoes and salad

15. Broccoli Alfredo pasta with Italian bread
16.  Grilled chicken salads
17. Kushiri, crunchy pea salad
18. Enchiladas, mexican cream corn
19. Chicken pot pie
20. Homemade pizza
21. Falafal and pita sandwiches, fruit salad

22. Barbecue Chicken Hash, biscuits
23. Tortilla soup/Potato Soup
24. Butter Chicken, Rice
25. Fried Rice and momos (I didn't make the momos!)
26. Barbecue Cups, Mac and cheese, Baked beans or peas
27.  Cream Tacos
28.  Mojo Chicken with fried bananas and garlicky rice

This list is about two years old, so we have added a lot of things to our recipe index since then that we eat more often than some of these things.  But they're mostly pretty easy meals! If you see anything on here that you want the recipe for, let me know!

Monday, June 27, 2011

Moroccan Stew with Couscous

This is a new favorite recipe.  My husband totally loves it, and I do too. It's a bit too spicy for the kids though, so I have to tone it down by either removing some for them before adding all the curry powder, or reducing the curry powder.  So good, though!


Moroccan Stew
2 T. olive oil
4 chicken breasts, cubed
1 large green bell pepper
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 medium red onions
1 t. ground cinnamon
1 T. curry powder
10 ounces of tomato soup
1/2 c. golden raisins
1 c. cooked chick peas (optional)
1/3 c. toasted slivered almonds (optional)

Heat oil in a large wok or saute pan over medium high heat.  Add chicken and cook until well browned on both sides.

Reduce the heat to medium.  Add onions, pepper, and garlic, and cook five minutes or until tender crisp. Add cinnamon and curry and cook and stir one minute.  Stir in soup and heat to a boil.  Reduce heat to low. Cover and cook 15 minutes.

Add raisins and chickpeas to saucepan.  Cook ten minutes or until chicken is cooked through.  Stir in almonds.

For couscous:  boil 1 1/2 c. water with 1 T. butter and 1 block of chicken bullion.  When water is boiling and everything is melted, add 11/2 c. couscous.  Shut off the heat and cover the pot and let it sit 5 minutes.  Fluff with a fork and serve.  If you don't have couscous, serving with rice would be good.

Notes:  I usually omit the chickpeas because I don't plan enough ahead.  But you could easily make this an all veg. meal by omitting the chicken and doubling the chickpeas.  If I have slivered almonds, I use them.  If not, obviously, I leave them out.  : )

Also, for the tomato soup, you can use either leftover tomato soup, or just two boxes of tomato puree and season it a bit with salt and pepper and maybe some basil and cumin.  If it's too thick, thin it down with some water.  I've done both, and both come out great.  

Friday, June 3, 2011

Italian Fried Paneer Sticks

We had this at June G's house several years ago, and I thought it was such a great idea!  So easy, and a great side item for Italian meals, especially for a vegetarian pasta meal. 






Italian Fried Paneer Sticks


250 grams paneer

2 t.. salt
1 1/2 t. garlic powder
1 t. black pepper
1 t. onion powder
1 t. oregano 
1 T. butter
1 T. olive oil

Combine all spices in a bowl.  Cut the paneer into strips.  Pat them to dry on a paper towel.  Next, dredge them in the spice mixture.  Melt the butter and olive oil in a pan.  Get it nice and hot, barely smoking, then put the paneer strips into the pan.  Cook on one side until browned, then turn.  Try not to move them around much if possible to keep them in one piece.  If the pan is not hot enough, they will not sear on the outside and will crumble.  

Remove to a plate and serve!  Easy, peasy! You can mess with the seasonings until you get it just the way your family likes it! 

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