Recipes in Review!

I'm hmm-ing and haw-ing about what to post today... but here goes nothin'! 

So, after this busy week, i realize how nice it was to have meals already prepared! This week for dinner I made Pasta Fagoli in the crock pot as well! I made a couple of changes and this recipe turned out wonderful. My only real change was on the pasta. I shop at Trader Joe's (love them!) and they have a really yummy selection of dried pasta. I especially like the pesto filled tortellini, but this week i went with the cheese filled tortellini! They were delicious in this recipe. The other thing i did to make this great for dinner every night was to keep the pasta separate from the soup. So all my left overs are now going into the freezer into individual servings! They will be great in a couple weeks and I won't have to make several recipes at once! I have quite a bit left over too because we took my mom out for Valentines day! 

We also had salads for lunches this week and I made a yummy rice salad that we put on top of our salad greens and then added crock pot BBQ chick for a little bit of protein! I found the recipe for Crock pot BBQ Chicken here. The chicken recipe was delicious, but if you don't like too much spice, go easy on the pepper flakes! For my hubs and i the chicken was perfect! The brown rice salad recipe (found here) was delicious by itself! It would be a great item to bring to a summer BBQ and share with a bunch! The veggies were crisp and the spice just right! 

That is the week in review for the food coming from my kitchen! Now I'm off to go figure out what to make for the upcoming week. Hope you try one of these recipes! What did you make to eat this week? 

On the Menu

Hey there! Hope everyone who has the day off is truly enjoying their day off in remembrance of a GREAT man! I wonder what our lives would be like without Martin Luther King Jr. 


Any who, I have spent the morning grocery shopping and getting the oil changed on my car. The shopping was in preparation for the meal planning I have done for the week. What's on the menu this week? For lunch we will be having the Candied Pecan, Apple, and Gorgonzola Salad from The Girl Who Ate Everything. I love that blog and have found some great treats and healthy options because of her great blog! For our dinners I have altered a recipe that I found on Skinnytaste. (I felt I wanted some more veggies and also, a few more spices!!!) Here's my version of a crock pot veggie turkey chili.


Crock Pot 3 Bean Turkey Chili Ala Simone
Servings: 12 

• 1.3 lb (20 oz) fat free ground turkey breast
• 1 bag of onion, chopped
• 3 bell peppers, seeded and chopped, any color will do (i used red, yellow, and orange)
• 1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes
• 1 (16 oz) can tomato sauce
• 1 (4.5 oz) can chopped chilies, drained
• 1 (15 oz) can chickpeas, undrained
• 1 (15.5 oz) can black beans, undrained
• 1 (15.5 oz) can kidney beans, undrained
• 2 tbsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Topping:

• 1/2 cup chopped red onion
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro for topping
• shredded cheddar to top 

Brown turkey, onion, and chopped bell peppers in a medium skillet over medium high heat until cooked through.
Drain any fat remaining and transfer to crock pot. Add the beans, chilies, chickpeas, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, cumin, cayenne, and chili powder mixing well.
Cook on high 6-8 hours.
Garnish with onions, cilantro and cheese and enjoy!



This recipe is currently bubbling away in my crockie! I will take a shot of a bowl later tonight when i serve it up for dinner! Yum! So last week I promised a screen shot of my grocery list to go along with my meal planning. Here they are: 

Here's the app that I use on my iPhone to take my grocery list with me. This prevents me from forgetting my list at home and also prevents me from forgetting items. 

So as you can see, I have items on there ready to buy for my chili and as I added each item to my cart, all I had to do was touch the item and it disappears from the list. I do this every week and I think people look at me like I am texting and shopping, but it really does work for me. This app can be found for Android and Blackberry phones! What would we do without our smart phones? I hope my hint might work for you!