This week's recipes! (Nov 3-6)

Pot Roast - I'm throwing a beef roast into my crockpot along with cubed red potatoes, onions, and a can of carrots. I'll season with salt, pepper, and whatever else strikes my fancy at the time. I will add a little water, so I can have more juices to use as a sauce. Super easy. 

My Easy Alfrado Pasta - this is the cheater's version for a weekday when I need something fast. I buy one of those alfrado sauce packets. Cook according to directions. Boil pasta on the side. During the last five minutes I throw in frozen broccoli into the boiling pasta. Drain when done. Mix with sauce in a larger pot. Add milk and more parmesan cheese and stir over low heat till melted. If I'm in a garlic mood, I'll add some garlic salt and pepper. 

Italian sausage spaghetti - Bring a pot of water to boil. Boil pasta according to directions. Meanwhile, brown 1/2 lb of ground Italian sausage. When sausage is browned, add 1/2 to 3/4ths of a jar of Preggo's Italian sausage tomato sauce. Serve with sauce over the pasta. Top with parmesan and/or mozzarella cheese. Easy peasy.

And since DH and I didn't get through our whole menu last week, instead of going out to eat Thursday we will be eating one of the two meals we didn't eat last week. :)

It's a week of EASY EASY meals, but we're both working long hours this week on top of packing for our trip (we leave bright and early Fri morning). We....no, I....lol....needed EASY EASY this week for dinners.

Lunches this week will be mini pumpkin pancakes, leftover homemade pizza, leftover alfrado pasta, and spinach brownies that have been in the freezer for awhile and need to be eaten. ;)

Pizza!

Last Friday for those in Nevada was Nevada Day. Basically Nevada businesses and schools get the day off. I had the day off and DH and I enjoyed a day together out and about. We gawked at the stores at the Town Square - if you're ever in Vegas it's a great walkable shopping center with a kid's park too! It's just south of the strip. While there we enjoyed ourselves some California Pizza Kitchen. It only took us two years of living out west to finally eat there! I'll never be able to go back to their frozen pizzas again. However, I'm glad I've been in a pizza mood this weekend! Tonight's dinner was homemade pizza. While I'm not a CPK, I'm not half bad! :)

Pizza Crust

2 3/4 to 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 package of active dry yeast (or 2 1/4 teaspoon)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup warm water (120-130*)

2 tablespoons cooking oil (use what you have, I used olive)

In a large mixing bowl combine 1 1/4 cups of the flour, yeast, and salt. Add water and oil. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping bowl. Beat on high for 3 minutes. Then stir in as much as much of the remaining flour as you can. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (6 to 8 minutes). Divide in half. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.

Grease to 12-inch pizza pans or baking sheets. Pam works great. If desired, sprinkle with cornmeal. On a lightly floured surface, roll each dough portion out into a 13-inch circle (or whatever shape you can manage because mine are never circles lol). Transfer to pans. Build up edges slightly. Bake in a 425* oven for 12 minutes or until brown. Spread out your sauce and whatever toppings you want on top! Bake again for 10-15 minutes or till bubbly.

If you like a crisper crust, before baking the first time stab the uncooked crust with a fork. Continue as directed.

I like this crust because there is no rising needed, so I don't have to plan ahead for PIZZAS. Geeze, I just cannot bring myself to plan ahead all day for a pizza dinner. It's still just pizza! These are normal crusts - not super thin, not thick. Just normal. Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

DH and I carved our pumpkin tonight. He's kinda cute for a skull. I saved the seeds and will bake them with cinnamon and sugar later tonight. Mmmmmm....I think I only carve pumpkins every year just for the seeds. :D

Our Grocery Bill

Well, I finally have my receipt, my computer, and myself in one location! :) I'm proud of my last shopping trip. lol

Our total was $182.87 after the 5% surcharge. Since we went shopping on base, there is no tax.

Of that total, $47.44 was supplies we bought for the burger and hotdog burn we helped host last Saturday night. We bought all the stuff, but was reimbursed later. I saved $16.61 thanks to coupons too! Apparently this was the first time DH ever really watched the total, and he was shocked how much we saved from coupons. He informed me that I can keep cutting coupons and annoying the cashier with them. lol. All in all, if it wasn't for the BBQ junk we bought we would have only paid $132.23. Not too shabby. Of course it helps that we're going to be out of town or otherwise engaged a few times during the coming month. 

The only thing we weren't able to buy that we needed was 24 packs of water. They're not located on the same aisle as the rest of the water (cause that would make sense lol), and we just forgot them. We also did not buy milk because milk is almost always cheaper at the local grocery store (it's often a loss leader for them). 

All in all it was a satisfying grocery trip. Other than a couple of items we have to wait to pick up in a couple of weeks after our trip home, we're pretty much set for a month! :)

This week's recipes

Boy, I thought the first half of this week would be a breeze. So far it hasn't been! Man is time getting away from me right now.
For now, here's this week's recipes from my menu. Not that I'll actually get around to fixing and eating this week's recipes at the rate this week is going. lol.

Apple Quesadillas
I stole this from allrecipes.com after a friend told me about this. So yummy. Unless you're my DH who says apples shouldn't be in these, so I leave apples out of his half. I also have a quesadilla maker thingy (wedding gift), so I make 3 large quesadillas from this recipe in my maker.....so feeds 3 HUNGRY adults or 2 hungry adults get dinner and lunch the next day. lol.

Chicken Parmesan
This is the recipe I follow for chicken parmesan. It's so quick and easy that I doubt if I'll change what I do anytime soon. I don't mind making this during the week after working.

Tomato and Sausage Spinach Pasta Toss
This is the recipe from kraftfoods.com. They've actually changed the recipe up slightly since I first ran across this. lol. There wasn't anything wrong with it in the first place, so I don't get that. Anyways, I use 1/2 lb ground Italian sausage, 1/2 package of pasta, 1 package of baby spinach, 1 can of diced tomatoes no salt added, and Italian seasoning to taste. We top with whatever white cheese we happen to have handy. I've doubed this recipe without any issues before and doubed it fed 5 grown adults. It's a quick but very yummy recipe.

Smoked sausage - well, I'm just browning smoked sausage cause DH likes it. Easy meal.

Grilled chicken breasts - Since it's just the two of us, we bought a George Forman grill. It's perfect for cooking two chicken breasts. We'll usually eat this as a sandwich using my homemade whole wheat bread. You could just as easily grill it or just bake it in the oven.

And despite my issues with making chicken noodle soup, it's wonderful to eat. Usually I'll only use half of my chicken and half of my broth for the soup. This time I used it all. So DH, my coworker, and I are all eating chicken noodle soup for lunch...this whole entire week. lol. It is fairly healthy at least, and I don't have to worry about packing lunches. :)