What's for dinner?

Lately I've found my self in a 5 o'clock tizzy.  I break into a cold sweat when a member of my family asks the dreaded question..."What's for dinner?".  Arrrg!!  Yet again I have no idea.  I try to access the photographic memory (which I do not have) to remember what ingredients I have and what the contents of the fridge maybe.  The past few month's I think we have surpassed the national average of 1/2 lb of pizza per person per week...it's such an easy, albeit not good for you, option.

I used to be really good about menu planning.  I had a beautiful weekly printout showing our activities and what was on the menu, thus enabling me to be more prepared and less manic.  Sadly this seems to have been slowly forgotten with the expansion of our family.  So with the new year I am working on a buffed up me.  I can't make me new but I can improve on what I've been blessed with.

Seeing as I'm sure I'm not the only one in this situation (you only need to search "weekly menu" or "meal planning" to see I type the truth), I thought I would take a few to share my success, tips, as well as failures and seek a few of yours while I'm at it.

When I initially attempted to begin my meal planning endeavor I wrote my families favorite meals on tabs and would put them on a calendar.  After losing tabs, and the calendar, I began to look for other methods.  There are blogs (see my right column for some of my favorites), templates, once-a-month-cooking, and sites galore.  My first tip is to look at several and figure out what you can do realistically.  Write down what you want to accomplish and see what method accomplishes this the closest.

I was enamored with cooking ahead after having my appendix out my sisters came to my home and prepared and froze a weeks worth of meals for my family.  I loved the convenience of this.  However I soon realized that a whole day of cooking was not to be for me.  Managing my little ones and trying to cook just wasn't working for me.

My next attempt and planning was e-mealz.  I found it through Dave Ramsey.  This site has been the most beneficial to me and my family.  Yes there is a small subscription cost but to me it more than paid for itself.  I could go on and on but I'll let you some investigation and trial and error on your own.

Another method I did for quite some time was a freezer group.  I, along with about a dozen other people, would get together once a month and prepare 8 entrees for a cost much less than if I made them on my own since we were buying in bulk.  This involved work on everyone's part but in the end quite worth it.  We used a book Fix Freeze Feast.  I bought a copy of my own and love it. 

Along with my freezer, another tool I find invaluable is my crockpot or slow cooker as some call it (they are the same thing, promise).  I love the ease of tossing everything in and then it's ready around dinner time.  It gives me such a giddy feeling when I come home from work or picking up the kids to know I don't have a ton to do before my hubby gets home.

Ok so there are a few of my tips and successes.  What are yours?  Do you meal plan?

Until we eat again!

Stuffed Pork Chops and a how to video

Tonight we had stuffed pork chops.  We do often stray from chicken on the menu but my hubby does love a good pork dish.  So I saw a good deal on think cut pork chops and that Stove Top has a new Apple Stuffing so our Friday night dinner now had a plan.

I combined two techniques that I've used before to prepare my chops: brineing and salting (if there is a cooking term for this I don't know it).  I know you're thinking that these are the same things but the difference is that when I've brined my chops in the past I soak them in a salt water solution, usually over night, in a cold environment.  Salting is something I picked up from The Steamy Kitchen.  You set the meat out to come up to warm temperature and salt it liberally. 

Ok so the chops have now set out for about 1 1/2 hours and I've rinsed them and patted them dry.  I used boneless thick cut pork chops for this.  Bones don't make good stuffing examples.

I had a friend ask me how one actually stuffs a pork chop so I have made a short how to video.  It's pretty simple and makes for a yummy surprise.

 Once the pork chops were stuffed and lightly breaded, I added a bit of butter to a very hot pan. *Note: adding the butter when you begin to stuff the chops only results in burned butter*

Cook for about 5-6 min on each side getting a nice sear on the chops.  Then in a 325 degree oven I put the whole pan in the oven until the middle chop reached 170 (using my trusty probe thermometer).

 

Turned out delicious!  The chops were moist and the salt is balanced by the sweet apples in the stuffing.  So there you go, now you can eat what we had!

Until we eat again!