Menu Plan Monday Dec.12

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Last week's meals went pretty well.  I tried some new recipes and some family favorites.  The new one that really surprised me was the Sloppy Joe.  Mr. Homegrown loves sloppy joes.  Me, not so much.  I have never liked them.  The little Beanes seem to be on the fence about them, so I just do not make them often.  But this version of Sloppy Joes was actually pretty good.  I enjoyed it.  The little beanes ate it okay.  Bottom line.  Next time I make Sloppy Joes to make Mr. Homegrown happy, I will use this recipe.

This week will be mostly new recipes!  I love to try new foods so here we go.

Monday

Spaghetti

Garlic Bread

Salad

Tuesday

Mexican Chicken and Rice Casserole

Wednesday

Pizza using Beer Battered Pizza Crust

Corn

Left over Salad

Thursday

Captain Crunch Thai Style Chicken Tenders

Green Beans

Friday

Rotisserie Chicken

Cajun Style Cornbread

Applesauce

What do you have planned for this week?

I am linking up again at Menu Plan Monday.  Go check out what is on every ones menu this week.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars!

Many of you have read about String Beane's allergies.  He was diagnosed with food allergies when he was just under 1 year old.  Peanut was one of his allergies.  We have avoided peanuts for the last 5 years.  That is how long it has been since I have bought or eaten peanut butter in my house!  5 Y.E.A.R.S.!

String Beane turned 6 years old on December 4th and on December 5th he went for a food challenge for peanuts.  He passed!  He is no longer allergic to peanuts. 

I have spent several days now searching for recipes that uses peanut butter.  The first recipe that caught my eye was this one for peanut butter chocolate chip bars.  They just look long over due for me.

I had to make a few adjustments to the original recipe to make them milk/dairy free.  Here is the recipe.

Ingredients
6 Tbls Flieshman's unsalted margarine

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup chocolate chips (Ghirardelli semi sweet chips)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease an 8 x 8" pan

Whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder. Set aside.

Cream the butter and peanut butter together until smooth. Beat in the sugars until combined.

Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Stir in the vanilla.

Stir in the flour mixture. Add the chocolate chips, stirring until combined.

Spread the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30-32 minutes.  Cool completely before cutting.

They were ooey, gooey and so good!  I had forgotten how good peanut butter treats could be.  If you can eat peanut butter, and I hope that you can, make you up some of these wonderful treats.  You will not be sorry. 

I am linking up with Metamorphosis Monday and these other totally Awesome Parties!


 Check out my Giveaway of a great eBook package from Modern Alternative Mom.  Leave a comment to enter!

Friday Favorites

 Check out my Giveaway of a great eBook package from Modern Alternative Mom.  Leave a comment to enter!



The Beanes are officially nuts!  String Beane passed his in office food challenge for peanuts last week!  Woo to the Hoo!

I have not been this excited about food since he got the go ahead to eat shrimp.  After his allergy appointment, we went to Target and I bought every peanut/nut item I could find that did not contain milk/dairy. 

We have added alot of new snacks! 

I have had the most fun looking on Pinterest for some new recipes that contain peanuts or peanut butter.  My Friday Favorites this week are all recipes that have peanut butter in them! 

Here they are:

Fluffernutter Cupcakes

I am pretty excited about this whole Fluffernutter thing.  I have the ingredients on hand.

Peanut Butter Cups

I have dreams of these.

Warm Gooey Peanut Butter Marshmallow Treats

These are at the top of the list!

Nutter Butter and Chocolate Cupcakes

These look so good!

Peanut butter Sheet Cake

I used to love peanut butter cake.  I can't wait to eat it again.

Lunch Lady Peanut Butter Bars

I wonder if these taste like the ones from Jonesboro Elementary?

Peanut Butter Popcorn

I am looking forward to trying some of these peanut butter recipes.  It has been 6 years since I have bought peanut butter! 

I am linking up again at Finding Joy in My Kitchen.  Go by and check out what everyone else has bookmarked.



Christmas Morning Breakfast Casserole

I love breakfast casseroles.  The trouble is, most of them have a ton of cheese in them.  Don't get me wrong.  I love cheese.  LOVE.  But my String Beane is very allergic to milk so, no cheese here.

I also love sausage.  It is by far my favorite breakfast meat.  I really like it when a little bit of syrup gets on it.  Sort of like the McGriddle concept. 

I ran across this recipe on Pinterest and thought I could adapt it to fit both my loves.  Breakfast casserole and sausage. 

This is basically a French Toast Casserole with some sausage in it.  Yum.  It turned out so good!  My little beanes liked it too.  Butter beane liked it the best and he is a decidedly picky eater.  I decided that it would be a great thing to have on Christmas morning.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

1 loaf of French Bread, cubed

6 eggs, slightly beaten

1 cup of Almond Milk

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 pound of sausage, browned and drained

Place the bread cubes in a 9x13 dish.  Sprinkle the sausage over the top of the bread crumbs.  Mix the eggs, almond milk, syrup and cinnamon together in a bowl and pour over the bread/sausage mixture.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. 

Bake 45 minutes to 1 hour at 350 degrees. 

This will be a yummy and easy Christmas breakfast for us.  What do you do to make Christmas morning easy? 

I am linking up at Metamorphosis Monday and these other Awesome Parties!  

 Check out my Giveaway of a great eBook package from Modern Alternative Mom.  Leave a comment to enter!

Menu Plan Monday December 5

It is Monday again!  It is starting off pretty good so far.  String Beane goes to Duke this morning for a peanut challenge!  So he is not going to school today and so I am not having to do the school morning rush around here!  Happy Monday to me.

String Beane can now eat pecans and almonds and if he passes peanuts today I may throw this whole menu plan out the window and eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and peanut butter cookies all week! 

Last weeks meal plan went a little off track.  I never got around to the Turkey Hot dish and Yam Brownies.  I will have to try them another time.  Our favorite way to use up left over Thanksgiving was the BBQ Turkey Calzones.  Butter Beane and String Beane did not love this but Jelly Beane and Mr. Homegrown and I thought it was delish.  Definitely a great way to use left over turkey. 

This week looks like this:

Monday

Everyone is on there on.  String Beane and I will eat out after the food challenge.

Tuesday

Chicken Pot Pie

Broccoli

Applesauce

Wednesday

Quiche Lorraine (recipe to come)

Bacon, toast and grits for String Beane

Thursday

Sloppy Joes

French Fries

Fruit

Friday

Taco Spaghetti

Frito's

Salad

I am linking up again at Menu Plan Monday.  I hope you have a great week.

Friday Favorites

It is Friday again!  Woo Hoo!  I love the start of a weekend. 

I am officially in full Christmas mode.  I have had the best time on Pinterest picking out things to make this year for Christmas goodies.  My top 5 favorite finds this week are on the list for Christmas treats this year.  I am so looking forward to trying out some of these recipes.

Here they are:



Salted Mudslide Cookies

These sound so good. 

English Toffee

These are at the top of my list for Christmas treats this year.

Peppermint Snickerdoodles

My little Beanes would love these cookies.

Hot Chocolate on a Stick

I am going to try homemade marshmallows this year.  I hear they are a life changer.

Chocolate Peppermint Crunch Cookies

This one looks pretty and simple. 

I am linking up with Friday Favorites!  Go check her out to see what has made the list.

Frugal Advent Calendar

The countdown has begun!  Our Christmas tree is up and decorated and slowly, but surly, the rest of the decorations are making there way up around the house. 

The little Beanes are VERY excited this year.  Every commercial they see sparks the desire to have that toy. 

I am excited too.  I love Christmas.  I love the excitement that my little Beanes have.  When I was growing up, my favorite Christmas tradition was the advent calender.  I always had the kind that you buy in the card section of Hallmark.  You open the door every day counting down to Christmas Eve.  My favorite kind was the progressive story.  Each day it told a little bit more.  I remember having one that told the story of the Littlest Angel and one year I had one that told the Bible Christmas story. 

This year, I am trying out a new advent calender for my little ones.  I hope it builds a cool Christmas tradition that we can do as a family for many years to come.

I went through all of our children's books and pulled out all of the Christmas ones.  I wrapped each one up in newspaper and tied a Christmas ribbon around each one.  I used some old scrapbook paper and number stickers to number each present 1-24.

I used to teach kindergarten and I have a love for children's books, so I actually had 23 Christmas books.  I am going to have to run to the dollar tree and pick up one more to wrap up.

We will use this as our advent calender this year!  Each night, before bedtime, one of the children will get book numbered for that date and they will open it up and we will read it at bedtime.

I did not order the books I had in any particular way.  With the exception of, book number 1 is the Elf on the Shelf book and book number 24 is my favorite version of The Night Before Christmas. 



This one is The Elf on the Shelf



This could totally been done in a much cuter way.  But I am one of the crafty impaired moms of the world.  My little ones really just love to open presents and, truth be told, so do I.  And I was trying to create a frugal Christmas Advent calender and buying a bunch of wrapping paper and supplies would not have been cheap!  So I just used what I had on hand.

I am trying to decide how I want to handle this though.  Should I just let the little Beanes take turns opening the book each night or should I have one of them get the correct number and give it to their brother or sister to open up?  What do you think? 

What Christmas traditions are you trying this year? 



I am linking up at Metamorphosis Monday and these other Awesome Parties!