The Power of NO!

 

Hope everyone had a great week! This week I practiced the art of “No” sometimes its so hard to do this and you worry about what others may think as a result. But it can be so empowering to make a decisions for YOU that works best for yourself, your family and your lifestyle. You just have to pick and choose what will fit into your schedule and what is a priority. So don’t let the word NO scare you, it’s also very invigorating to make a choice and stick to it. I’ve recently practiced the art of NO with my food choices. I downloaded the app called “Lose It” you can track your daily intake, it’s amazing how some of those quick decisions can benefit your health and calories! So practice the art of NO, its so good for you and your diet!

Weekly Dinner Plans

Monday – Philly’s Cheese Steaks & French Onion Soup

Tuesday – Sheppard Pie   

Wednesday –   Taco’s & Black Beans

Thursday – Taco Tator-Tot Casserole

Friday – Favorite Take Out

Saturday – Chicken Alfredo & Broccoli

Sunday – Chicken Enchilada’s

Grocery List
Check your freezer, cabinets, and fridge for items you may already have to save cost on groceries!
Meats
- Thin Sliced Steak or you can even buy the freezer section of PepperJax brand.
- 4 Chicken Breast
-3 lbs. Ground Beef
Veggies
-Potato’s

-Head of Lettuce

-Tomato’s
Freezer
-Fajita Style Pepper and Onion Frozen veggies

-Frozen Mixed Veggies (carrots, corn, green beans, peas)

-Tator Tots

-Broccoli
Bread
-Hoagie Buns
- 2 bags of Tortillas (Taco size/Burrito Size)

-Linguine Noodles

Seasoning

-2 pck’s Taco Seasoning
Canned
-French Onion Soup

-Black Beans

-Black Olives

-Can of Corn

-Green Chilies

-2 cans Enchilada Sauce

-Alfredo Sauce
Dairy
-Provolone Cheese
- Sour Cream

-2 pck’s Shredded Cheddar

-Heavy Cream

-Cream Cheese

-Parmesan Cheese

RECIPES

Sunday – Philly’s Cheese Steaks & French Onion Soup

With this recipe you can substitute the veggies for frozen to make it easier or the meat I have even bought the PepperJax Brand Freezer Meat, its really easy and quick but never as tasty as the real deal. And with this recipe I just posted for direction. But honestly I don’t even bake them instead I put my oven on Broil Low and cook everything up on the stovetop so really all you are doing is toasting the bread and melting the cheese. Hope that makes sense. Put your Hamburger in the fridge if you have it in the freezer. Heat the French Onion Soup in the Microwave and then dip your sandwiches in it! SO good.

http://www.tablefortwoblog.com/cheesesteak-sandwiches/

Monday – Sheppard Pie

Honestly I had to try and make after going to the local Irish Pub McKinney’s they had a Cottage pie that was so delish and I wanted to try and make something similar at home. This was good.

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/updated-shepherds-pie-69212.aspx?cm_mmc=Social-_-Pinterest-_-Ahalogy-_-69212#_a5y_p=1464950

 Tuesday – Taco’s & Black Beans

Taco’s are such an easy meal. Fry up 2 lbs of the meat. (After you are finished you will save half of the meat mixture for your meal tomorrow. You can follow the recipe on the back of the packet. Just make sure you have ranch and salsa!! Heat the Black Beans in Microwave. Also save about a cup of the black beans & black olives for tomorrow’s meal.

Wednesday – Taco Tator Tot Casserole

This is so great, you can use up the meat from yesterday’s meal. And throw everything into the casserole so delicious and easy. Save some of the green chilies, corn, for Friday’s meal.

http://blogchef.net/taco-tater-tot-bake-recipe/ 

 Thursday – Chicken Alfredo & Broccoli

Cook up all the chicken and other half in the fridge for Friday night! I sometimes just buy the alfredo sauce but if you want to make your own follow the ingredients in the recipe below. A tip when you boil your noodles throw in the broccoli so that will cook at the same time!

http://damndelicious.net/2014/01/24/skinny-fettuccine-alfredo/

Friday – Chix Enchiladas

So here we are the end of the week, a lot of the ingredient you used this week will go into this recipe!

http://www.thespiffycookie.com/2011/07/29/cream-cheese-chicken-enchiladas/

Saturday – Take Out

 

Consistency

Happy New Year Everyone! I can't hardly believe we are mid January already. Have you all made resolutions? I honestly haven't really thought about it until yesterday. How sad, its been so crazy with the hustle and bustle of the holiday, then returning to work, kids and all that jazz you know the gig. I recently attended a workshop called "Creating a Vision" by Deb Payne/life coach. It was amazing being put in a room with other successful & inspirational women and hearing their stories. It inspired me to become consistent with my family, faith, health & career goals! I have a lot I want to work on for 2015, its going to be such an exciting year! I want you all to know one of my goals is to become consistent with my blog posts. I want this to be a place you can rely on and come to make evening time more organized. I realized last week when I received a text from a friend "should the rice go in with the jambalaya or make it separate?" She then ended to thank me for the recipes. So to everyone who is visiting my page reading this, thank you for coming to Evening Table. It truly means so much and I can only hope it makes your busy life a little easier! So I challenge you to make some goals for 2015, what are you going to become consistent about???

Menu for the Week
My menu plan feeds: 2 adults + 1 toddler + 1 infant who is eating table food as well. Double or triple  to feed your hungry mouths!

Saturday - Burgers on the Grill & Waffle Fries
Sunday - Pulled Pork & Slaw
Monday - BBQ Pizza & Corn
Tuesday - Spaghetti, Meatballs, & Salad
Wednesday - Meatball Sandwiches & Green Beans
Thursday - Polish Sausage, Dumplings, & Sauerkraut
Friday - Date Night or Order Take Out!

Grocery List
Check your freezer, cabinets, and fridge for items you may already have to save cost on groceries!

Meats
-1 Pork Loin
-Polish Sausage Package (I usually buy the already cooked ones for this recipe)
-1-2 lbs. Ground Beef
Veggies
-Can Green Beans
-Can of Corn
-Can of Sauerkraut
-Head of Lettuce
-Bag of Slaw
-Onion
-Garlic
-Red Pepper
Freezer
-Frozen Meatballs
-Waffle Fries
Bread
-Hamburger Buns
-Hoagie Buns
-Pillsbury Pizza Crust Mix
-Spaghetti Noodles
-Biscuits to make donuts in deep fryer
Sauce
-BBQ Sauce
-2 cans of Spaghetti Sauce
-Jug of Oil for Deep Fat Fryer
-Cedar Vinegar
Dairy
-Provolone Cheese
-Mozzarella Shredded Cheese
Baking
-Powdered Sugar


Saturday - Burgers & Waffle Fries & dessert is Donuts in Deep fryer!
50 degree weather's got me itching to grill. Burgers on the Grill with Fries in the deep fat fryer!
Make your patties to your liking, prep the deep fat fryer with oil (I always set it up in the garage or outside so it doesn't stink up the house.) Biscuits are for donuts I have been wanting to try to make them in the deep fryer. Throw your patties on the grill, when they are almost done throw on a slice of cheese, and butter the buns and put on the grill for a quick minute! 
Donut Recipe: http://www.cooks.com/recipe/3t5n81dd/french-market-donuts.html Pretty Easy & FUN  Saturday night dinner!
Don't forget to take the pork out of the freezer if you already have a loin in your deep freeze. I always prep the meat the night before if its defrosted otherwise do it Sunday AM.

Sunday - Pulled Pork & Beans
Season both sides of the loin with BBQ seasoning. Then add some liquid BBQ Sauce to top the loin. Put on low for 8-10 hrs or so. After the meat is done grab your cutting board and shred the meat with a fork. Put all the meat back in the crock with the grease left at the bottom it will add flavor along with some BBQ sauce and let it set for another 20 minutes or so. Save about a cup or more in a dish for tomorrow pizza.
Prep your slaw :
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Creamy-Spiced-Coleslaw/Detail.aspx?evt19=1

Monday - BBQ Pizza & Corn
You will use your pork left over meat, and just follow this simple recipe! Heat the Corn in the Microwave!
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/bbq-pulled-pork-pizza/

Tuesday - Spaghetti, Meatballs, & Salad
This is super easy! Get a large stock pot, sautéed some onion and garlic. Then put the two cans of spaghetti sauce in and your frozen meatballs, heat on medium for anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours. I work in a Senior Living community and I asked an Italian Woman what the key to the best Mariana sauce is, she sad, "let the sauce simmer for 3 hours with the meat in so the greases mix into the sauce! (Take out less than half of the meatballs apprx 20 total meatballs with some meat sauce in a dish to put in your fridge for tomorrow meal!) Boil your water for the noodles and prep your salad! So easy and Delish!

Wednesday - Meatball Sandwiches & Green Beans
Grab your meatballs and sauce and heat in microwave to heat. Put the oven on boil LOW. Butter your hoagies, then layer with the meatball, sauce, and top with provolone cheese. Since you already heated the meat sauce really you don't have to boil long you just want to toast and melt the cheese! Heat the green beans in MIC!

Thursday - Polish Sausage, Dumplings, & Sauerkraut
Boil large stock of water. Throw your sausage in. Prep the dumplings (see my Aunt Rita's recipe below)
2 C Flour, 2/3 C Milk, 1 Egg, 1/4 tsp salt, 2 tsp baking powder. Mix & knead all together it will be dough like. Roll into balls. Drop into the boiling water with the sausage. This should be on medium to low, COVER and DO NOT OPEN the lid for 10 minutes and heat the kraut in the MIC!

Friday - Date Night or Order Take Out!
If the sitter is coming before Date night, I usually feed them before or pre-make food, or even easier make PB&J. Don't have the sitter make food for you like Mac and Cheese you can risk your kids getting burned this actually happened to us so be cautious and make it simple!