Mandy and Jace

Well, for those who don’t know, last Friday Jace and I became homeowners for the first time. We are VERY excited, and we are in the process of moving in right now. I will do a post in the next couple of days with all the photos so everyone can see our beautiful new home.

This week’s meal plan is a little different due to Memorial day and unpacking but I am still going to be cooking almost every night. It saves us so much money and it is also much healthier than fast food. The more I read about the complete unhealthiness of fast food the more I want to cook. That doesn’t mean we don’t do any take out, but we just try to keep it to once or twice a week.

Here’s the plan.
Tonight: date night!
Tuesday: sauteed chicken and rice
Wednesday: grilled cheese sandwiches and sweet potato fries
Thursday: take out after praise and worship practice
Friday: Steak, mashed potatoes and corn on the cobb

I have a confession to make. I pray the cooking gods will forgive us. We cheated when we made this dish…

We started to chop all the veggies and I was exhausted and very lazy. So we threw all the veggies into the food processor and pulverized them.

I know, we’re terrible. However you choose to chop the veggies though, it will be very tasty.

Jambalaya
1 tablespoon oil
1 diced bell pepper
2 stalks diced celery
2 diced shallots
2 chicken breasts, cubed
1 1/2 tablespoon butter
1 1/2 cup rice
1 carton chicken broth
Tony Chachere’s, salt and pepper to taste

Season the chicken generously with the salt, pepper and Chachere’s.

In a large pot, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add in the shallots, bell pepper and celery and salt them well. Cook for about 3 minutes or until tender. Add in the rice and cook for about 2 minutes to toast the rice. Add in half the carton of chicken broth. Reduce heat to medium and cook until the rice absorbs the liquid and is soft. Add more chicken broth during cooking if needed.

While the rice is cooking, heat the butter in a saute pan over medium high heat. When butter is brown add the cubed chicken and cook until done.

Pour the cooked chicken into the rice mixture and season to taste with salt, pepper and Chachere’s.

So, I know I should have done this at the beginning of the year but honestly I really wasn’t thinking about it then. I have lots of goals I want to reach by the end of the year and I have come to the realization that if I don’t tell someone about them, I won’t get them done. I have already conquered one goal but the rest I haven’t even thought about yet. So here is a list of my goals for this year.

Read more books
Learn to drive a standard transmission
Bake more breads
Learn to shoot (and look like Angelina Jolie doing it)
Learn photoshop
Climb the alpine tower at Lone Tree
Eat more candlelit dinners
Find a piece of seafood that I can stand to eat

I’ll post my achievements as I get them done through out the year. I’d love to know what your goals are, and if you don’t have them I encourage you to get a piece of paper out and write some down. You never know what you can do until you try and the pride that comes with conquering your goals is priceless.

We are back at Monday and it is complete chaos around our house. Boxes everywhere and there is no organization whatsoever (hint, hint). My organizational OCD is on overload right now and I think my brain may explode at any minute. Other than that everything is great!

We are taking turns cooking this week. You can tell who’s making what by just reading the plan. Naturally, my dish is the easy quesadillas and Jace’s is the harder looking one. I’m ok with that though, I’m just happy he’s willing to cook for me and he’s great at it.

Here’s this weeks meal plan.
Tonight: grilled chicken and pineapple quesadillas
Tuesday: chicken paella
Wednesday: probably leftovers
Thursday: take out after practice
Friday: date night!

Lately, I have become a big fan of soups. I usually eat some kind of soup for lunch at least twice a week, sometimes three or four times. I found that soups are very low in calories and they fill you up more than just a salad. While I am fine with just chicken noodle, when I have time, I like to take my Saturday afternoon to let a big pot simmer on the stove, then eat it through the week. It also makes the house smell amazing!

Chicken tortilla soup
1 red bell pepper, julienned
1/2 onion, julienned
1- 1 1/2 cartons chicken broth
1 can diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
Velveeta cheese
Salt, pepper and fajita seasoning to taste
chicken, cooked and shredded (optional)

Heat a Dutch oven or pot to medium high heat. Cook the onions and peppers down until very soft. Pour in tomatoes, a carton of chicken broth, and the tomato paste.

Cook for several hours and add more chicken broth as needed. Using a emersion blender or regular blender, blend until smooth.

At the end of cooking put in little bits of velveeta to the desired thickness and taste and add chicken.