It’s a Tuesday afternoon, I’ve been running errands most of day and trying to catch up on laundry for the few moments I have been home. Then I look at the clock and a uggggg sound comes out of my mouth. It’s already time for the husby to get home for work and I haven’t even thought about dinner. I run to the pantry to skim the contents, then head to the fridge only to remember I don’t have any meat thawing. Now what am I going to do? Supper is going to be late, and I can’t think of anything to throw together.
Does this sound like you? Do you ever have those days when you cannot think of another single meal to cook?
Well, your not alone, I think as wives and mothers we all have those days more often than we would like to admit. That is when I started Meal Planning. I used to just write a menu and tape it to the fridge, but then I decided why not share it with you guys.
So WELCOME to “What’s Cookin with GraceandGravy:Meal Plans”!
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Each Sunday I will share with you what my meals for the week will be. Maybe we can help to spark creativity in each other for our nightly dinners.
My dad raises chickens for eggs. He recently had a few “heavies’ as they are called. I really felt sorry for these chickens. They were so heavy they could barely move, it was really, really sad and worse of all they weren’t laying. He made the decision to butcher them and asked if we would like the meat and of course I said yes. Free chicken for the family. They are so large they take up to much freezer room so I have been boiling them, and picking off the meat to put in freezer bags. I also have saved the broth. One chicken was large enough to make 4 meals. Ummm YES!
So needless to say, my family will be having a lot of chicken this week.
Would love to hear your meal plans for the week. And I hope you enjoy a few of my meals!
I cannot ever decide what to cook and am constantly thinking I should have taken the meat out of the freezer HOURS ago. This is a great idea Miranda!
I wanted to remind you this morning that Thee Angel Project monthly link-up is up and running. Feel free to stop by and start visiting some of the other participants’ blogs.
http://theeangelproject.wordpress.com/2014/07/20/where-two-or-three-are-gathered/
Homemade chicken and dumplins…recipe?
Thanks Heather! I just stopped by and I will be visiting the ladies this evening!
I love to tweak recipes and make my own, but sometimes mama knows best so I use her chicken n dumplin recipe. There is 2 versions. I will give you both.(:
First Version:
Boil a whole fryer chicken until done. Pick all the meat of the bone and set aside. Strain the stock to make sure no bone pieces have been left.
Add the amount of chicken you would like back to pan of stock.
Add 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp of pepper
For Dumplins:
Mix together 1 1/2 cups of flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 egg, 1/4 cup oil, 1/4 cup of water until a sticky dough forms.
On a piece of parchment paper, sprinkle flour and add dough.
Continue sprinkling flour on dough and paper until it is no longer sticky.
Roll out until about 1/4 thick and cut with a pizza cutter 1×1 inch squares.
When stock and chicken is at a boil, drop dumplins in.
Cook 20 mins or so until dumplins are no longer doughy.
Version Two:
Boil 2-3 chicken breasts and shred apart.
Add appx 32 ozs of chicken broth and 16 oz of water to a boil
Make your dumplins the same way as above. Cook the same way
Hope you enjoy. I make this before church a lot and after I add dumplins to pan and cook for appx 5 mins, I dump everything into a slow cooker on low and they are perfect when I get home!
I do a meal plan too. I find it saves me more often than not–especially during the school year. Instead of doing a menu every week, I have a 4 week rotational menu. My monthly grocery shopping list is always the same, and we always have variety. I still have my nights where I forget to pull out meat to thaw, but at least I know what I’m supposed to cook, right?
I love that! I think having the same grocery list every minty would be phenomenal. Could you share a few of your menu choices? I always love new ideas. We eat a lot around the seasons. So whatever the garden is producing, if my dad has extra chickens, if my son has killed a deer or rabbit. But having that list even for a backup would be great.