Menu Plan 2/12 - 2/18

It's been a busy week! Last night we attended the Italian Night event at the Glen Sanders Mansion. We always have a good time, though I'll admit that this year wasn't up to par. We've gone every year for the past seven or so years, and after my husband and mother-in-law went gluten free they have accommodated them by serving special dinners to them, including dessert. This year was the first year they included a comedian, but it meant that we didn't eat our main course until 10 PM - way too late for us, and by then the food was cold, the chicken was dried out... overall it was a bit of a disappointment.

Anyway. Here's our menu plan for tonight through Friday. Hopefully this is a calmer week than last week now that I'm starting to get into the schedule of work and school.

Saturday: Valentine's Day dinner. Fondue with shrimp, beef, veggies (3x mushrooms, they're our favorite, snow peas, red peppers, broccoli, any other produce that looks good at the store), served with baked potato, salad and vino.

Sunday: Fried (brown) rice with egg and all the leftover fondue veggies and meats.

Monday: Shrimp with diced ham over cheesy grits. Served with salad.

Tuesday: Leftovers for my husband, as I have a work function to attend.

Wednesday: Tacos.

Thursday: Leftover night.

Friday: Plans with friends, TBD.

Menu Plan 2/6 - 2/12

All right, back to figuring out what to make for the week. It's been a while - I actually have planned out the last couple weeks, but due to an extremely busy January they didn't make it to the blog. Now that I'm settled in the routine of work, school and personal life, it should get a bit easier to write up menu plans. :)

Now - the big highlight for this menu plan is The SuperBowl. Obviously we're going to be enjoying ourselves quite a bit on Sunday as we watch the big game (I love that "enjoying ourselves" becomes a euphemism for "stuffing ourselves silly" for the SuperBowl!) and then hopefully trying to get back on track after the junk food hangover wears off.

We've had an awesome weekend so far - friends over on Friday evening to play Dance Central (which I would highly recommend - some of those advanced moves feel like a workout!), and a birthday dinner with friends planned for this evening. So Sunday we're hoping for a nice quiet SuperBowl at home (where we can pass out in a food coma in the 3rd quarter if we need to).

On Friday, I wanted to put out some easy munchies. We just had a low-key night and planned to have 10 people total including us. I had an hour between when I got home from work and when I expected people to be over, so I put out chips and dip, threw together a buffalo chicken dip, diced up veggies with hummus and veggie dip, put out shrimp cocktail that I'd prepared the evening before, scallops wrapped in bacon with a quick brown sugar dipping sauce, and made cherry-amaretto jello shots.

OK, I tend to go overboard on food. :)

So Here Goes:

SuperBowl Sunday: Obligatory junk day. We'll be making nachos for dinner - I'm planning corn tortilla chips, seasoned ground beef, refried beans, cheddar and monterey jack cheeses, black olives, jalapenos, iceberg lettuce and diced fresh tomatoes. Topped with guacamole, sour cream and salsa. To attempt to offset this mound of calorie goodness, I have a TON of cut up veggies (celery, broccoli, carrots, cucumber, grape tomatoes) that will get eaten one way or another, and shrimp cocktail leftover from Friday. That might be a decadent-but-sort-of-light lunch on Sunday, heavy on the veggies.

Monday: Class night. There will be a ton of leftovers from the weekend for my husband - I am always afraid of the lunch thief at my office stealing my dinner, so I may pick up sushisomething between work and class. If nothing else KIND bars and fruit usually do the trick, with a Venti coffee to ensure I'm up for the rest of the evening. :)

Tuesday: Cajun-stuffed peppers. I picked up orange bell peppers (I didn't like the look of the red ones available in my grocery store) and plan to fill them with rice, ground beef, monterey jack cheese, andouille sausage (I picked up Bilinski's Chicken Sausage for this, which I love because not only do they mark their label GF, but they're also local and organic.) and spices. I am using the recipe from America's Test Kitchen.

Wednesday: By request, my hubby's favorite pasta, modeled after Uno's Rattlesnake pasta. Bionaturae penne, shrimp (it was cheaper than chicken this week!), Classico alfredo, steamed broccoli, pickled jalapenos. Add cayenne and black pepper and sprinkle with cheddar and mozzarella cheeses. Yum!

Thursday: Hubby's bowling league/my homework night. Leftovers.

Friday: TGIF! No cooking for us! :)

Hope that everyone enjoys the SuperBowl! :)

Menu Plan, Thanksgiving Edition

Last week's menu plan went pretty well. The only substitution was that instead of spaghetti with Italian sausage, I decided to make sausage and peppers instead. YUM!

Yesterday, we met some friends for dinner at Van's Vietnamese Restaurant on Central Ave, Albany. It was absolutely amazing. I completely loved the experience and will be back again soon. Afterwards, we went to a small birthday celebration at a friend's house, where they made an absolutely divine flourless chocolate cake from the America's Test Kitchen cookbook. YUM!

Now, given the fact that it's that time of year again, and we're hosting a combined Thanksgiving with our families for the second year in a row, I'm not bothering with a weekly menu plan this week. Mostly because, after cleaning the house to pass the white-glove test and taking Wednesday off to spend the day cooking, I foresee takout in our future; and hopefully leftovers after the big day!

Let's do something more fun and talk about what we'll be serving for Thanksgiving dinner.

Right now, we're expecting eight people: hubby and myself, our parents, my sister-in-law and hubby's uncle. I wanted to get my favorite low-cost pinot grigio, Ecco Domani, but unfortunately Empire Wine was out of it when I went there this weekend so I picked up Cavit pinot grigio to sip throughout the day. Most people usually stick with that for the turkey, but we have Blackstone pinot noir on hand as well for red-wine drinkers.

Appetizers:

• A hot crab dip, consisting of canned claw meat crab, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, and scallions. Mixed together and baked at 350 until bubbly, topped with extra cheddar cheese and baked for another 10 minutes, and served with freshly baked and toasted whole-grain gluten free bread for toasting. (Sorghum and brown rice flour are perfect for this!)
  
• To go along with the whole grain toast, I'll have a bowl of Trader Joe's olive tapenade to spread on slices. YUM!
• Shrimp cocktail, a holiday staple.
  
• An assorted cheese and cracker spread.
  

Dinner

• We've purchased a 25-lb. turkey, which we'll be roasting, and of course, making gravy from scratch.
  
• Both "regular" and gluten free stuffing, to be prepared by my mother and mother-in-law, respectively.
  
• Mashed potatoes
• My mother's famous sweet potatoes, with liberal amounts of marshmallow and brown sugar
• Creamed white onions (using sweet rice flour to thicken the sauce)
  
• My mother-in-law's famous applesauce
  
• Southern corn-bread, using the recipe from America's Test Kitchen (it only calls for corn meal, so it's naturally gluten free!)
  
• Homemade cranberry sauce
• Italian-style whole green beans, tossed in garlic and olive oil
• Kernel corn tossed in butter
• Peas

Dessert

• Non-gluten free pumpkin and pecan pies, purchased from FoCastle Farms
• Gluten free apple pie, with a pie crust from Gluten Free Girl's wonderful site
  
• Gluten free pumpkin pie, with a pie crust made up of crushed gluten free graham crackers
• Pecan cloud cookies
• And, of course, vanilla ice cream and Starbucks (decaf) coffee. Irish coffee optional. ;-)
  

Fortunately, the last piece of cardio equipment for our home gym will be delivered and set up for Black Friday post-food-comatose workouts. :)

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! What are your plans??

Menu Plan 11/13 to 11/19

This weekend was.... Bad. As in, junk-food-hangover, gained-a-zillion-pounds bad.

On Friday we went to the Schenectady Bomber's with a friend, and went nuts. Wings (delicious, in a dedicated fryer), tacos (hard shells are gluten free) and happy hour margaritas made the night incredibly entertaining, fun and calorie-dense. Then Saturday we went to Outback Steakhouse to celebrate my sister-in-law's birthday. We had salad, meals, and then had brownies and cupcakes back at our house for dessert... everything was very tasty, but I'm in a bit of a salt and fat coma at the moment.

While I like to make sure my pantry is stocked at this time of year, this week the main focus is getting everything out of the freezer in preparation for hosting Thanksgiving. This means, relatively little grocery shopping and eating mostly what comes out of our pantry and freezer. No worries, though, we'll stock up again after the holiday. :-)

So, here goes:

Saturday - We went to Outback Steakhouse.

Sunday - I promised my hubby baked macaroni and cheese. And since he's outside with a leaf blower as I type this blog entry, I should probably deliver, right? I'll make it with Bionaturae elbows. On the side I'll serve stewed tomatoes and steamed green beans. I'll partake in a teeny-tiny bit of pasta and mostly veggies.

Monday - Class night. Is it over yet? :-)

Tuesday - Frozen wild salmon with risotto and some sort of frozen veggies. Either broccoli or snap peas.

Wednesday - Spaghetti with hot Italian sausage and red sauce.

Thursday - Leftovers, quickly before running to the store and doing the bulk of our Thanksgiving shopping.

Friday - Boys' night (hubby's on his own), and Girls' night with the book club girls, yay!