Hello everyone! I’m back! I’ve actually missed posting the weekly menu, but I really have tried to force myself to scale back and take it easy after this last hand surgery. But today I am feeling up for getting the weekly menu pulled together! 

MONDAY:

• Grammy’s Orange Chicken with Rice and Salad (in the freezer lovingly made by my mother-in-law)

TUESDAY:

• Spaghetti and Meatballs (another freezer meal from Pat waiting to be eaten!)

WEDNESDAY:

• Leftovers

THURSDAY:

• Dinner from a friend

FRIDAY:

• Eat out night

SATURDAY:

• Homemade Hamburgers

SUNDAY:

• Smoked Meat Night

Your turn! Share those menus in the comments below!

Hello, everyone! I took an unexpected meal planning hiatus, but we’re back! This is my last week before the {hopefully} final hand surgery, so I am cooking myself, my recipes, no Hello Fresh. 

MONDAY:

• Bolognese, Pasta and Salad

TUESDAY:

• Chicken Pot Pie

WEDNESDAY:

• Spicy Chicken Tacos with Fresh Masa Tortillas

THURSDAY:

• Cilantro Sour Cream Enchiladas

FRIDAY:

• Leftovers

SATURDAY:

• Takeout Night

SUNDAY:

• Smoked Meat Night with salad and potatoes of some sort

Your turn! Share your menus in the comments below!

Hello all! Let’s get down to business, shall we?

MONDAY:

• Middle Eastern Steak with Rice Pilaf

TUESDAY:

• Cheesy Smothered Mushroom Chicken

WEDNESDAY:

• Banh-Mi-Style Beef Tacos

THURSDAY:

• Saucy Pork Burrito Bowls

FRIDAY:

• Leftovers

SATURDAY:

• Takeout Night

SUNDAY:

• Smoked Meats Grill Night

Your turn! Please share your meal plan in the comments below!

We’re doing Hello Fresh again this week, but then for the next month I’m going to cook my own recipes again…until the next (and hopefully last) hand surgery later in May! 

MONDAY:

• Pulled Pork and Black Bean Tacos

TUESDAY:

• Chicken Fajita Bowls

WEDNESDAY:

• Firecracker Meatballs with Green Beans and Rice

THURSDAY:

• Thai Coconut Curry Chicken

FRIDAY:

• Orange Chicken

SATURDAY:

• Leftovers / Takeout

SUNDAY:

• Smoking meat night!

You know what to do…share those meal plans in the comments! Have a good week, everyone!

Hello everyone! I blew it with last week’s menu…thanks to Spring Break and Easter! But we’re back to normal this week…

MONDAY:

• Spaghetti Bolognese

TUESDAY:

• Chicken Fajita Rice Bowls

WEDNESDAY:

• Pulled Pork Tacos

THURSDAY:

• Leftovers

FRIDAY:

• Rachel Sandwiches

SATURDAY:

• Eat out night

SUNDAY:

• Smoked Meat Night!

Your turn! Share your own meal plans in the comments below! And have a delicious week!

Hi everyone! Let’s get down to it, shall we? (And, yes, those are Hello Fresh meals below and, no, I’m not normally fancy like this.)

MONDAY:

• Shwarma Spiced Chicken Rice Bowls

TUESDAY:

• Korea Beef Bibimbap

WEDNESDAY:

• Buffalo Chicken Drumsticks

THURSDAY:

• Pork Enchiladas

FRIDAY:

• Rosemary Demi-Glace Pork Chops

SATURDAY:

• Leftovers

SUNDAY:

• Meat Smoking Night

Please share your meal plans in the comments below! I love how we can all inspire each other week after week!

Years ago I wrote a series for Disney’s website Babble: 3 Kids, a Mom & a Kitchen. Babble has since been closed down and the posts are no longer online, so I have decided to sharing my favorites here on my website! This is a recipe that one of my readers Kelly said had become a favorite in their family but she could not find it online anymore. This one’s for you, Kelly! And thanks for reminding me to start sharing these great kid-friendly recipes once again!

For this month’s cooking project, I decided to teach my kids how to make risotto. When I told them, they were pumped! And, as it turns out, they had never tried risotto before, so it was really cool teaching them something totally new in the kitchen.

Risotto seems like an intimidating meal to make to a lot of people, but it’s actually quite simple. It just takes a little time and care to prepare, and, as I just discovered, is actually a great dish to make with kids!

Choosing the Recipe

I love risotto but hardly ever make it at home. I hoped that if my kids learned how to do it, we’d be more likely to include it in our menu in the future. It’s also a pretty basic recipe that I would love my kids to have in their kitchen “toolbox” when they leave home one day. 

Rankings

This recipe was a big winner in the “cooking with kids” department! They had a lot of fun making it and thought the risotto was delicious. When I asked if the recipe was hard, Anna and Cate confidently declared that it was not at all.

Steps Where Kids Can Get Involved

This recipe takes about 40 minutes of hands-on cooking time. The three kids rotated in and out of the process, which worked really well. No one got bored and there was plenty for them to do whenever they wanted to participate.

• Grating the cheese: Owen, my 3-year-old, did some of the grating and when he got bored Anna, my 7-year-old, finished it up.
• Chopping add-ins: Cate is 10 years old, so she was able to help chop the prosciutto and cook the asparagus. It was good practice for her to work on her knife skills.
• Stirring Galore: There is so much stirring in this recipe, which is my kids’ favorite thing to do when cooking. Actually, there is so much stirring they got tired of it — something I never thought could happen! The girls also loved pouring the ladles of broth into the rice.
• The Tasting

Usually our recipe tastings don’t stress me out, but this one had me on my toes. After all, the final product was dinner — if the kids didn’t like it, I didn’t know what we were going to eat that night! Thankfully all three kids enjoyed the risotto and Anna even declared it her second favorite food ever, second only to boxed long grain and wild rice mixes.

The Recipe

I used The Kitchn’s tutorial for homemade risotto as a guide and made adjustments to the recipe where necessary. I talked to the kids about how risotto is a great blank canvas for all kinds of flavors and add-ins, especially depending on the season. For example, in the fall I sometimes make Butternut Squash Risotto. Since it’s spring, we all decided to go with asparagus, which is in abundance right now. Prosciutto and asparagus are pretty much made for each other, so we had to throw some prosciutto in, too!

Asparagus and Prosciutto Risotto

 

Print

Cook time

40 mins

Total time

40 mins

 

Author: Jane Maynard

Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 6-8 cups chicken stock or broth
• 4 tablespoons butter
• ⅓ onion, chopped
• 2 cloves fresh garlic, minced or pushed through garlic press
• 2 cups arborio rice
• ½ cup white wine
• 1 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup cooked asparagus, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 5 thick slices prosciutto, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Prep all ingredients ahead of time so they are ready to go when you’re cooking.
2. Heat chicken stock in a large saucepan over medium heat, then keep warm over low heat while you continue with the rest of the recipe.
3. Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a deep 12-inch skillet. Add onions and cook over medium heat until they have softened and are translucent. Add garlic and 1 more tablespoon butter and stir.
4. Add rice and raise heat to medium-high. Constantly stirring, cook rice until toasted. You should start to smell the rice toasting and the grains should look clear on the edges, with some white still in the middle of the grain.
5. Deglaze the pan by adding the white wine and cooking until wine evaporates.
6. Add 1 ladle of the chicken stock to the rice. Reduce heat to medium. Keep stirring until most of the stock has been absorbed by the rice, then add another ladle of stock. Repeat this process, until the rice is cooked through (taste testing is necessary!). The rice cooking process will take 20-30 minutes. Towards the end of this process, sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper over the risotto. Do a little at a time and taste it as you go — the saltiness of the chicken stock will depend on how much salt you will need.
7. Once the rice is the texture you like, add the last tablespoon of butter, 1 more ladle of chicken stock, and the Parmesan cheese. Stir and cook until the risotto is a nice creamy texture.
8. Stir in asparagus and prosciutto and serve immediately. (Feel free to experiment with other seasonal add-ins — risotto is a great canvas for all kinds of flavors!)

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Hi All! I think when I hurt my thumb in October it also damaged some of my brain cells…I completely spaced last week’s menu! As is often the case around here lately, we’re relying on Hello Fresh meals this week. Lifesaver. Speaking of Hello Fresh, I have four boxes I can give away, so if you want one let me know in the comments. First come, first served!

MONDAY:

• Sesame Beef Tacos

TUESDAY:

• Ancho BBQ Sloppy Joes

WEDNESDAY:

• Yucatan Citrus Chicken Bowls

THURSDAY:

• Korean Beef Bibimbap

FRIDAY:

• Shwarma Spiced Chicken

SATURDAY:

• Smoked Meat Night #1

SUNDAY:

• Smoked Meat Night #2

Your turn! Share your own meal plan in the comments! Have a great week everyone!

It’s ALL Hello Fresh meals for us this week. Serious lifesaver for us right now!

MONDAY:

• Mexican Pork and Street Corn Tacos (Hello Fresh)

TUESDAY:

• Crispy Buffalo-Spiced Chicken (Hello Fresh)

WEDNESDAY:

• Moroccan Chicken Sausage Tagine

THURSDAY:

• Steak with Mushroom Cream Sauce

FRIDAY:

• Leftovers

SATURDAY:

• Local Takeout

SUNDAY:

• Nate cooking something on the smoker!

Your turn! Share your meal plans in the comments below! Have a delicious week!

Hi all! Menu time!

MONDAY:

• London Broil
• Rice and salad

TUESDAY:

• Chicken Sausage Spaghetti Bolognese (Hello Fresh)

WEDNESDAY:

• Sweet & Smoky Pork Tenderloin (Hello Fresh)

THURSDAY:

• Mexican Pork & Street Corn Tacos (Hello Fresh)

FRIDAY:

• Leftovers

SATURDAY:

• Local Takeout

SUNDAY:

• Smoke night! (Nate just keeps on smoking amazing dinners for us!)

Your turn! Share your meal plans in the comments below!