Rouladen

This recipe is one my mom made for us when we visited one time, and my husband LOVED it. He loves most german food, but this was a winner.



Rouladen

4 sandwich steaks, 6 oz each
2 tsp dijon mustard
1/4 tsp pepper
4 slices of bacon
2 dill pickles, cut length-wise
1 onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups beef broth
4 peppercorns
1 bay leaf

Lay steaks flat, spread each with mustard and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place a strip of bacon on each one. Place pickle and onion at one end, and roll up jelly roll style, securing with a toothpick.

Brown well in butter drippings and then place in baking dish and pour beef broth, peppercorns and bay leaf in as well. Cover and bake at 350 F for 1.5 - 2 hours, or until tender.

Remove rolls from pan, remove toothpicks, place on heated tray/plate, thicken sauce with cornstarch for gravy.

Best served with spaetzle. For the meal we photographed, we weren't able to find spaetzle at the store (and we didn't want to make it ourselves that day), so we served it with gnocchi, which works, but not the same. Usually you can get dehydrated spaetzle at the store, for quick german dishes, and it is pretty easy to make at home.. just time consuming.

Corn Chowder

Here is another recipe from Don't Panic, Dinner's in the Freezer. I love these books. Nothing has disappointed in these books yet.




Hearty Corn Chowder

1/4 cup butter, melted
6 Tbsp onions, chopped
3/4 cup celery, diced
2 1/2 cups hot water
2 cups potatoes, peeled and cubed
3 cups frozen kernel corn
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
3 Tbsp flour
1 quart half and half

Saute the onions and celery in butter until tender. Add water, potatoes, corn, sugar, salt and pepper. Cover and simer until potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes. IN small bowl, whisk flour into 2 cup of half and half. Stir into soup, then add the remaining half and half. Heat until desired thickness, stirring frequently.

You can freeze this is freezer bags, for future, or enjoy now! Top with grated cheddar cheese and bacon bits.



I think we all really enjoyed this soup, perfect for a cool day, topped with cheese, and green onion (we didn't have bacon in the house, rarely do, in fact). But this was delicious, but I think I'd make a couple substitutions next time.... maybe only use 1/2 quart of half and half, and use skim milk for the remainder to cut the fat. Also might add some carrots to it. I love carrots in soup. :)

Meal Plan for the week

Here is what I've determined for our meal plan this week, eating only what we have in the house already, and based on weather for that day:

Monday - leftover turkey dinner
Tuesday - burgers, salad
Wednesday - crockpot ribs, rice and veggies
Thursday - corn chowder
Friday - leftovers
Saturday - Enchilada Casserole, salad
Sunday - leftovers

Lots of leftovers this week... either from this weekend, or from larger meals I'm making this week. Hopefully I can stick to my first meal plan as the mom of 2!

:)

Been greatly enjoying the lettuce and green onions from the garden.... I've got several tomatoes coming, my potatoes are getting big plants on them, and my onion tops are huge! :) Carrots are definitely sprouting too :) My first garden, so I'm very pleased!

Cranberry Chicken

Last month I prepped a lot of recipes for the freezer, since baby was on her way. I knew I wouldn't be able to cook as much this month.

This one came from the book Don't Panic - Dinner's in the Freezer. So far the recipes we've tried from this book have been awesome! You can make a single serving of the recipe, multiply it for 3 meals, 6 meals or 9 meals.



Cranberry Chicken

8 oz Catalina dressing
1 pkg dry onion soup mix
1 can of cranberry sauce
4 boned chicken breasts (I used boneless, skinless)

Mix together everything, except the chicken.... pour in freezer bags, and then add uncooked chicken breasts to the bags. Lay the bags in a flat container once you have them sealed (removing what air you can). This makes them take up less room in the freezer.

When you go to make them, thaw completely. Place chicken with cranberry sauce in greased baking dish, and bake uncovered for 1-1.5 hours on 350F.


My husband was very skeptical of Cranberry Chicken... but we both loved it. It's delicious, and quick with little effort. Would be delicious with stuffing, but it's not overwhelmingly cranberry either. It's just a delicious sauce on a yummy moist chicken breast. Definitely a winner, and will be doing these for the freezer in the future (although I still have another 2 meals of it in there now).

Been a little busy

The last few weeks have been fairly hectic around here... hosting 2 birthday parties, out of town company, prepping for baby to come and just being hot and uncomfortable, didn't lead to much blogging. I do have some major catch up to do though.. and hopefully, I can get a little break here and there to do so.

We finally, 7 days late, welcomed little Julia to our family on July 11th. She is so much like her big sister... Paisley is just completely smitten with her, and is the biggest helper and friend to her. They're so cute together:



I haven't taken too many pictures yet, but will get on that right away ;).

Once I get Julia on a somewhat decent routine, we should be able to get things running again. I've got about 6 recipes photographed and ready to blog when I have time. The menu plan went out the window when company arrived on the 28th of June, and we haven't had a chance to do another yet. Company heads out tomorrow though, so I aim to have at least a week's menu plan ready for Monday. It's so hard to grocery shop without one. I feel like we (or someone in the house) has run to the grocery store almost every day for something while we weren't following a menu plan.