Menu Plan ~ July 12, 2009

Baseball is officially over.  We only have swimming & ice skating now.  Seems like a breeze to me!  LOL!  This week I only have Regan (my little sister that I watch; she is 7)…Emma (the 2 year old I watch) is on vacation.  I promised Jon, Hannah & Regan that we would do some “big” kid activities this week since we don’t have to worry about little Emma.  They are super excited.  On the agenda are multiple pool days, Magic Mountain Family Fun Center and maybe some bowling or a movie if the weather gets rainy or too cold.  I see one tired Mom by the end of the week!  LOL!  Our evenings are pretty free this week, with the exception of ice skating.  Mary, my mother-in-law, is taken care of this week for dinners, as her sister is in town staying with her. 

Sunday ~ Rotisserie Chicken (can’t beat $4.97 for a chicken!), roasted veggies & salad

Monday ~ Burgers, sweet potato fries, green beans & salad

Tuesday ~ Grilled chicken, quinoa & chickpea salad, broccoli & salad

Wednesday ~ BBQ Pulled Pork, baked potatoes, cole slaw & salad

Thursday~ Spaghetti & meat sauce, asparagus, salad & foccacia bread

Friday~ Homemade pizza, zucchini & salad

Saturday~ leftovers

Baked Goods

Raspberry-Coconut Bars (from the cookbook that I reviewed)

Betty Crocker Yellow Cake mix

Pamela’s Bread

Angela at Angela’s Kitchen is hosting the Gluten-Free Menu Swap this week.  Angela chose cabbage at the ingredient of the week.  I love cabbage in all shapes & form.  Sauerkraut, fried cabbage, stuffed cabbage (especially my dear Grandma’s) & cole slaw.  I have cole slaw on the menu for Wednesday to go with BBQ pulled pork.  In the South, apparently they put cole slaw on their pulled pork sandwiches.  I hadn’t ever seen anything like that until my sister, who lives in Atlanta, told me about this last year.  I have since tried it and now love it! 

Also, don’t forget to check out Orgjunkie for lots more menu ideas.

Oh, I have 2 new articles up on the Examiner, too!  Support groups in Columbus and a Fundraiser for research for Celiac Disease.  Thanks for peeking!

LiveJournal Tags: menu plan

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Before I went to bed last night, Jon asked if I could make pancakes for breakfast.  I told him that I would think about it.  I decided when I woke up to go ahead & make them, as it had been a while since we had them.  I used Pamela’s Baking & Pancake Mix, which I buy in bulk on Amazon.  It is much cheaper to buy in bulk and if you sign up for Amazon’s Subscribe & Save program, you always get free shipping and an additional 15% off.  You choose the frequency in which the products are sent and can change that at any point in time.  There is no cost to join the program.  Okay, enough about Amazon, onto the pancakes! 

Today I decided to make “special” pancakes.  I followed the directions on Pamela’s Baking & Pancake Mix, but doubled the recipe so that I could freeze some & Jon can reheat them in the microwave or toaster during the week.  I used:

2 cups of Pamela’s Baking & Pancake Mix

2 large eggs

1.5 cups of water

2 TBSP oil

2 TBSP P.B. Loco Premium Peanut Butter with Jungle Banana

Nestle’s Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips (I sprinkled these on each pancake after I poured the batter in the pan)

Yield:  12 good size pancakes

Here is the Peanut Butter that I used:

Jon’s plate, topped with his favorite syrup, Aunt Jemima:

He declared these pancakes the best EVER!!  This was after he asked me if I used the “banana PB“.  He had some the other day on toast & said he didn’t like it, so I told him that I hadn’t used the banana PB this AM.  Ooops!  Little white lie.  After he kept raving about them, I went ahead & told him.  He couldn’t believe it.  At first he was mad, but I told him that he would not have had an open mind if he had known I used the P.B. Loco PB, he would have made up his mind that he didn’t like them.  I used the P.B. Loco PB because it is much creamy than the Skippy Natural that I have on hand; it mixed very well with the pancake batter.  He said they were still the best ever!  He is looking forward to the leftover breakfast pancakes this week. 

LiveJournal Tags: breakfast,P.B. Loco,peanut butter,pancakes