Turkey For Me, Turkey For You....

What's on your Thanksgiving Day menu?

This year, Thanksgiving will be quiet at the Realistic Eats household. It's just the hubs and I this year, no friends, no family... nice and quiet. The day will start with a spin class for me and then some relaxing with the parade, Bond Marathon, and quite possibly some cinnamon rolls! (What, I said I was going to spin first - the bike is already reserved!!) And since we're both still watching what we eat very carefully, I've considered everything for the meal with the utmost care.

Tonight on the way home, the hubs picked up our turkey from our local farmer. While it was quite a bit pricier than I would have liked, I'm hoping it's worthy of the price - the legs alone are HUGE and I can't wait to delve in on Thursday. And it does make me happy to know that: 1. my turkey is antibiotic and hormone free 2. is free range 3. supports a local farmer and business 4. that I got to take a trip to the farm about about a month ago and see the turkeys, and all of the other animals. Seriously the piggies and horses were my favorite things there! The ducks were pretty awesome too - especially the fancy ducks with toupes - sort of like these that I saw at the IN State Fair this summer.

This year's menu:

Roast Turkey - still deciding how I want to prepare it

Green Bean Casserole with my homemade cream of mushroom soup which I'll also add a bit of flour too so it thickens in the oven a bit. Contemplating the crock pot again this year for the casserole.

Sourdough, apple & mushroom stuffing using the hub's homemade sourdough bread. Although I am going to omit the egg and baking of the stuffing and just serve it from the stovetop.

MAYBE some rosemary and sage roasted butternut squash.

Crustless Pumpkin Pie, maybe following Hungry Girl's recipe for at least the topping.

Changing up the Menu

So, ever since I can remember I've been really great about making a weekly menu and shopping list. And we're really good at sticking to the list as well - which is great for our budget!

But we get in to ruts with our weekly menu - all new recipes one week, we forget about ones we've liked in the past and don't make them again, too meat heavy, too veggie heavy.

So I decided I needed to come up with something that would make the weekly menu planning a little more fun and the weekly eating a little more exciting too.

I came up with a new "schedule" for our weekly menu. The hubs loved it and agreed it's a great way to bring back old favorites, try new things and may help us decrease (even more) the amount of eating out we do - because right now, we usually only eat out once or twice a month.

Sundays: Sit Down Sundays: We'll have a nice full meal that will provide some leftovers for lunches or another repurposed dinner during the week. Roasts, stews, something nice and that takes longer to make.

Mondays: Meatless Monday: A national trend now, we do already follow meatless nights in the house, but moving it to always having one on Monday is a good way to come down off the weekend and prep the gut for the week.

Tuesdays: Tried and True Tuesdays: We'll revert back and pick out some of our favorite meals from the past that perhaps we've forgotten about.

Wednesday: What's New Wednesdays: We'll try a new recipe or a new ingredient. This can still be meat free (although the hubs declares Meatless Mondays are more than enough - I say 7 meals in a week, more than 1 can be meatless).

Thursdays: Take Out/In Thursday: Instead of spending the $ eating out, and consuming more calories, fat and sodium than we healthfully need - we'll be making some of our favorites at home. Tacos, Chinese, Thai, Sushi, Steaks, whatever we're craving. The hope is by having something "restaurant like" at home on Thursdays it will help curb our desire to eat out over the weekend.

Fridays: Fast Fridays: Fridays will be a quick meal or leftovers, since this is the night we do our weekly grocery shopping, we like a quick meal to eat, get to the market, and get home by 8 to enjoy the weekend. Seriously, if you never shopped Friday nights and you're like us and are typically home anyways, try it - there are NO LINES, it's quiet, you can get in and out very quickly and then you're done for the weekend!

Saturdays: Splurge Saturdays: We will make something that's more of a splurge - albeit calorie wise or $ wise. Lobsters from the docks, good steaks from the butcher, a creamy delicous pasta, something sinful and delicious!

So that's the plan! It's now on a sticky note on our fridge next to my menu planning calendar and grocery list - and I can't wait to make my menu tomorrow night and get creative!

I think we're both most excited about Tried and True Tuesdays. So often we make something we LOVE but then we forget to ever make it again. This is a great way each week to throw back to some favorites! I'm also really looking forward to starting to make some mock takeout recipes and restaurant recipes. It will be good for me to learn how to make things I like eating when we go out but do it with lower fat and sodium and calories!

The Best of 2009

So I've never done a best of the year for my blog before but figured, I'm bored, why not!

So here are my favorite recipes from 2009.

ENJOY!

Carrot Souffle

Peanut Butter Noodles

Creamy Bacon Mushroom Soup

Caramel Apple Pork Chops

Pizza with Shrimp, Artichoke and Bacon

Cabbage Casserole

Larb Gai (we've made this about 6 times in 6 months!)

Bacon Wrapped BBQ Shrimp and Creamed Spinach

Puff Up Pancake

Penne a la Betsy (yes, we both like this one better than the lemon baked pasta from PW)

Pioneer Woman Flank Steak - the cuke salad we made with this was great too!

Red Lentil Dal

Do You Always Use a Recipe??

I have gotten asked this before from people, do I always use a recipe each night for dinner.

Truth is - no I don't.

I do like to follow recipes because I think it's just easier for me with my schedule - I know what I need, what to do, I don't have to fret over anything (Not that I ever fret over cooking to begin with!).

Sometimes, I make something that I've made so many times that I just know the recipe by heart and wing it. Sometimes it's things I grew up eating or my husband grew up eating that we just instinctively know how to make. Other times it's just easy, tossed together meals that you really don't need a recipe for at all.

Last night was a non-recipe night and it was Mmm Mmm Good!

A lot of inspiration for meals in our house comes from what's in the pantry, what's in the chest freezer, or what's in the fridge for leftovers. Last night I took inspiration from the leftovers and chest freezer.

I had two beautiful artichokes in the fridge that I wanted to use and a bunch of leftover stuffing from thanksgiving - so voila! Stuffed Artichokes. Steam the chokes up, stuff with the room temp. stuffing, drizzle with melted butter and bake in the oven on 350 for about 20 minutes until warmed. Then I figured some protein would be good with dinner - but I didn't defrost anything. So I found a half bag of peel and eat shrimp that needed to be cooked up in the chest freezer. Voila - Shrimp Boil! Boil a pot of water with 1 T salt, some peppercorns, garlic cloves, bay leaves, a lemon juiced and popped in the water and boil the shrimp for about 5-6 minutes until done.

So good - so easy - and cleaned out the fridge and freezer!

Menu for the week of June 29

Lots of fun and new things this week!

Sunday: Sushi Bowls - vegetarian style
Monday: Hubs gets to eat on his own - I'm out
Tuesday: Ground Turkey Lettuce Wraps
Wednesday: Steak and Potato
Thursday: Toss it together night - we'll come up with it Thursday
Friday: Burgers, Corn on the Cob and potato salad - Happy 4th!
Saturday: Grilled Pork Tenderloin - Mojito Style

Weekly Menu

Sunday: Roast Chicken with German Potato Salad and green beans

Monday: Hunan Pork and Zucchini Stir Fry

Tuesday: Bow Ties with Mushroom Cream Sauce (and sliced chicken)

Wednesday: Hoppin' John Chowder in the Crock Pot

Thursday: Cheese and Pork Enchilada Casserole (using leftover pork from pork roast this weekend)

Friday: Chicken Milano from Ramen Cookbook

Saturday: If our friends comeover it will be an early dinner of homemade chicken strips and mac and cheese or perhaps meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

Menu for week of October 1

Sunday: BBQ Chicken Pizza
Monday: Chicken with Mustard Cream Sauce from Southern Living
Tuesday: Out - IMAX Night
Wednesday: Crock Pot - Cincinnatti Chili
Thursday: Leftover Chili
Friday: Shake and Bake Pork Chops, Gravy and Mashed potatoes
Saturday: Surf and Turf Sandwhiches