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The other day I had an extra frozen pizza that was just begging to be dinner. My problem was that the pizza happened to be a cheese pizza—a big hit with the kids and not so exciting for Mom and Dad.
I love getting creative with my food (which is why I’m not the best baker), and a cheese pizza is all I need to get my creative tastes brainstorming for a semi-homemade dish.
Cheese pizza with a kale and bacon topping
I left a little less than half the pizza plain, just enough to please the kids. Then I got to work on the adult portion: kale, diced onions and bell peppers, bacon bits (real, not imitation), and a little sprinkling of cheese on top. Kale is not something I normally have on hand, but I had extra after using it in my Zuppa Toscana soup recipe (think Olive Garden, yum!). The kale came out crispy, subtle, and a perfect compliment for the bacon. The pizza was absolutely delicious, probably one of my favorite combinations.
And it gave me a brilliant idea for several other variations of the semi-homemade pizza: Tuscan; chicken bacon ranch; mexican. The possibilities are endless! Best of all, I can have all the custom ingredients of homemade without any nightmares with yeast or homemade dough.
I’ve got meal planning on the brain, so while I’m in the meal planning/cooking mode, I figured I’d share one of my favorite recipes from my rotation. This recipe is a constant. In other words, it’s on my rotation all year round because it is such a family favorite. It’s my mom’s recipe, and it’s a good one.
List of Ingredients
1 c flour
2 t garlic salt
2 t salt
1 t paprika
1/2 t seasoning salt
2 t black pepper
1/2 c milk
1 egg
Mix the first six ingredients in one bowl, and the last two ingredients in a separate bowl. I usually will use 3-4 chicken breasts cut in half to make tenders (it cooks faster this way). Dip in the milk/egg mixture, then in the batter, once more in the milk/egg, and a final time in the batter. Double-coat if you are frying the bird; coat only once for oven-fried (the less batter, the better chance for crispy with oven-fried). And one note on the batter: it looks like a lot of pepper, but it really balances out with all of the salt. However, feel welcome to adjust to your family’s tastes.
When I deep-fry (which is an extra special treat at our house), I’ll cook the battered tenders 3 at a time for 10 minutes at 360 degrees. The time will vary a little bit depending on the thickness of the tenders.
To oven fry, cover a baking sheet in aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray. Spread the tenders onto the baking sheet. Then spray the tenders thoroughly with cooking spray. I’ll bake at 425 degrees for 15 to 20. Broil for the last couple of minutes to get a little crispiness. It’s tasty, but of course not quite as tasty as its deep-fried cousin.
I will warn you, however, that neither my husband nor my father would ever buy restaurant fried chicken after eating this recipe. Your KFC days will be at an end. It’s just that good.
Yay! Here it is folks, my newly updated fall/winter rotation of meals. I’ve got a lot of new recipes I’m trying, and so far they’ve been very yummy.
A few of the recipes I’ve adjusted to taste. For instance, on Day 2 I really don’t have parmesan on my potatoes and my chicken. I usually leave the parmesan out of the chicken recipe because it gives the chicken a tangy flavor that my family doesn’t prefer. Also, I’ll often oven fry the recipe, while sometimes for a special treat, I’ll deep fry it. It’s a family favorite that I will definitely be sharing with you.
- Want to find out more on how I use my rotation? Read “Rotating a Meal Plan.”
- For more info on the planner I use to create my meal plans, click here.
About four years ago, soon after the birth of my first child, I was taking a walk with a close friend and discussing the challenges I was facing with meal planning. What had always been my nemesis had become an absolute nightmare. Trying to come up with a meal plan had always been difficult, even when it was just my husband and myself. Now, attempting to maintain a menu and BE the menu at the same time with my nursing child, was way beyond what I felt capable of.
My friend’s solution was a monthly rotation of meals: a four week plan that repeated itself each month. As we walked, I think I gave her absolutely every excuse for why it “wouldn’t work for our family.” We loved variety. I couldn’t think of a week’s worth of meal’s much less four weeks. I hated to be tied to anything for that length of time. What if I didn’t want what was planned? But after all of my excuses, I went home and tried it anyway. After all, I was desperate.
Now after four years, that’s still my method of choice.
Setting up the rotation
The first thing I did was to sit down with a piece of paper and write down every meal I knew how to cook. I was shocked to find how long my list actually became! From that master list, I choose seven meals for my first week of a rotation, and stopped. That’s all I did—one week. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s that time of the year. The weather is getting cooler, and soups are starting to sound tastier. The salads and grilled menu items are not the highlight they once were. The garden is all but gone. And it’s time to pull out the fall menu.
For the last several years, I’ve done my meal planning in a rotation. I have a spring/summer rotation and a fall/winter rotation, each 4 weeks long. And each season I tweak it. I’ve been tweaking quite a bit the last couple of seasons, and as it nears fall once more, I’ve had soups and casseroles and chilis on the brain. So, occasionally, I thought I’d feature some menu planning or recipe posts that keep you up to date on my process.
One favorite planning option that I’ve found is Plantoeat.com. I used this website to set up my last menu plan rotation, and it was so easy to use that I subscribed for the year. The $4 out of my monthly shopping budget was so worth it! And I’m getting to make use of it’s awesome features once more as I set up a new plan. Allow me to highlight a few of my favorite features.
1. I love that I can easily store all my recipes from all over the web in one simple location. Many recipes from 100s of sites can be added by simply searching for the recipe on the plantoeat site and clicking “add the recipe.” But even the recipes that are not directly linked with the website (i.e. the fabulous recipes you find on your favorite blogs or via Pinterest) are easy to add. The “Bulk Input” option for adding recipes allows you to cut and paste the entire list of ingredients from the blog to the website. Got a recipe that a friend emailed to you? Just copy and paste it into the recipe form. I can literally “type” and save a new recipe in about 3 minutes or less!
2. Adding the recipe to a calendar is another fantastic feature. I simply drag and drop the recipe title on the days that I want to plan that meal. You can plan all three meals and a snack each day with this method. Most of the time, I don’t mind “winging it” on the other meals if I know supper is under control. In other words, breakfast and lunch take care of themselves; I do not plan a menu for these meals. But the option is there if you like to plan the whole day’s worth of eating.
3. In addition to the drag-and-drop feature, you can also repeat a menu. This makes my menu planning such a breeze! Once I input 4 weeks worth of meals by dragging and dropping the recipes, I simply click on the option to repeat the menu and all 4 weeks worth of meals are transported to the dates I indicate. It couldn’t be faster!
4. You can also import this menu plan to your e-calendar. That way your events and meals are easy to track and in the same place. If you’re not the e-calendar type, just print off your meal plan and/or the recipes on that plan! I do both: import my menu into Google Calendar, then print off the menu and recipes for my Household Notebook.
It’s my best friend for meal planning, and what’s also great—we can share and swap recipes! Just sign-up for the free 30 day trial, and we can start sharing and planning together.
Disclaimer: I do get compensation from referrals using my links, but I wouldn't refer you if I didn't already love the service!
Well, we’ve covered the Planner section and the Household section; now, we’ll peak inside my Family and Personal Sections.
The first division in this section is for my phone numbers, my quick lists. These are the phone numbers that I either use routinely or would want handy in case of emergencies: for instance, utilities and services numbers (the electric company, cable company, the police station, the DMV and insurance company, the hair salon, etc.).
Following the phone numbers quick list is my division for babysitter information. Many of these forms come from Listplanit.com. This section includes a quick list of babysitter phone numbers, a list of emergency numbers and procedures, our schedule and meal options, and some notes on discipline. This information allows me to have everything a babysitter might need without having to rethink it every time someone new comes to watch the kids. I hope it’s helpful for them; I know I love it.
Next comes the medical information. This section is rather new to my notebook, but I am wishing I’d started it earlier. Just this weekend I was able to put some of the information to use. First is a quick list of medical phone numbers. No matter what doctor we need, I have one place to look–a quick and easy system. I also have a form for tracking medications/reactions and a log of appointments (what tests were run, what the dr. said, when the next appt. will be, etc.)
“Celebrations” include forms for birthday and party planning (most of them from Listplanit), records of past birthday celebrations, and any upcoming holiday preparation. This section comes in so handy when I’m trying to remember how much we spent on birthdays last year or what this child received at the last party.
Travel lists includes the master packing lists for vacation and other short trips. I don’t use this section nearly as much as I used to, but when the children were infants and came with diapers, burp cloths, wipes, pack-n-plays, etc. it was so nice to have master lists for traveling needs–whether we were taking short day trip or a long car ride.
Last but not least, I keep track of any family/individual goals in this section. These goals will include both spiritual and physical areas of improvement that we have set out to accomplish at the first of the year. Again, the forms for this section come from Listplanit.
My Personal section includes my form for tracking Thank-you correspondence and other endeavors at hospitality, my blogging schedule, my “items loaned/borrowed” form, fitness/health goals, and other personal projects. Two handy forms in this section are specifically for planning events or meals. Again, these forms provide quick reference for what we did and what we ate previously (event planner), but they also allow us to evaluate what went well and what could be improved upon (event post-mortum).
And that pretty well sums it up. Hope you enjoyed the tour! And be sure to link up with your favorite household notebook posts.
If you are interested in more printables, you can check my list of forms or a list of links to other forms.
In my last post, I took you on a tour of my planner section. This time, I’m going to show you my Household section, which includes meal planning, grocery shopping, housework, and home improvement. Come take a look!
For my meal planning section, I have a printed plan from Plantoeat.com. This website allows me to import all of my web recipes to one location and then drag/drop them into a calendar format. You can also customize a grocery list from the menus you have chosen (but I haven’t had a chance to perfect that, yet).
Behind my menu plan, I keep my actual recipes. Because I do my meals in a 4 week rotation, I repeat a month’s worth of recipes throughout a season (spring/summer or fall/winter). So, keeping all of the recipes for one rotation is not only doable but extremely convenient for me. I’ve really enjoyed this arrangement.
The next divider in my Household section is for my grocery lists. Eventually, I’d love to be able to get my rotation and grocery list automated, but for right now I have a master grocery list that I’ve created from the items we purchase most frequently. I circle the items we have run out of and pencil in any extra items that are not on my master. This saves me time and makes my trip more productive since I do not have to rely on my memory. But it’s not fool-proof, and I am still working on perfecting this part of my system.
Though I am not couponing as much as I used to (the logistics of distance, time, and two small kids have severely limited its effectiveness), I have kept this section for “just in case” I get back in to it. Coupon policies and a form for tracking rebates were kept in the this section, as well.
Housework follows in the next division. In addition to my cleaning tickler and my regular routine, I keep a few handy cleaning checklists from Real Simple‘s website as well as another form from Life as Mom.
Last of all, under home improvement, I file magazine pictures and other ideas in sheet protectors. Many of these ideas have to do with organization–what I’d like my freezer to look like some day; what I envision for under my sink; etc. I do have a form for home improvement/organization as well (check under Printables); it’s just not currently in use.
That’s it for this section. I’ll take you to my Family and Personal Sections tomorrow. And if you are in need of forms or just love my Divider covers, check my printables for free downloads, or check my list of links.
I thought it was about time I shared what my household notebook looked like. I’ve had my notebook for over a year now, nearly two years actually; and it has been so helpful.
Proverbs 31:27 is my goal, that I will look well to the needs of my household. The Notebook allows me to do just that.
The first page of my notebook is a place for my husband to jot down notes or tasks for me. I love this arrangement! Whatever it is that he wants me to remember, he writes it down for me. This way, not only will I remember what it is he has asked me to do, but I can get the details right, too. And it prevents scrap notes from floating around the house.
The planner section is my favorite section. When I use it faithfully, my life runs very smoothly. As I’ve been developing my new routines, I haven’t been as faithful–and I can tell! It makes such a difference in my life when I have a planner.
For my calendars, I’ve been using Google Calendars, that way my husband and I can sync our lives together. What I want to do (and must confess I haven’t done yet) is print off this calendar a few months at a time and place it in my planner; I’ve learned that, although technology is convenient, I’m not as faithful on a daily basis with my technology as I am with a paper calendar where I can write those last minute details and events that come up.
In this section, I also keep my calendar tickler of family birthdays and anniversaries. I got the form from Listplanit.com, and I love it. It has been so helpful for keeping up with these dates.
I also love having a tickler of special sales that occur each year. For instance, organization supplies usually go on sale around the first of the year. Target typically has a clearance sale on baby items and kids clothes some time in February as a part of getting their inventory ready for tax time. I love being able to plan my purchases around these times of the year. And a tickler helps me to remember from year to year when those sales are going to occur.
After my calendars are my actual planner pages and my master schedule. These are forms I have created and are available under my Printables tab at the top of the page.
One more page that I like to keep at the front of my notebook is a reminder of what it means to be an abiding mom rather than “super mom.” Click the link or the image to download one for your notebook.
Over the next couple of days, I’ll be sharing other sections of my notebook. Want to link up? Share posts and ideas from your Notebook, Control Journal, or similar household management system.
The following is a list of links for household notebook forms. Not all of them are forms I have used, though a number of them I have found useful. If you have a favorite link that is not included in this list, please add it in the comments section. Enjoy!
Free Forms
Complete Books for Purchase
Forms for Purchase/ Site Memberships
