Menu Plan 10.31.14

Heading out to the state park Friday for the weekend! This will likely be the last time we take the RV out until Spring. I switched Tuesday and Thursday this week so that I could have something simple Thursday night since I will be doing most of our shopping for the next week that day. For now here is the plan:

Friday
? Date Night ?

Saturday
Eggs and Bacon (B)
Fish Tacos  with Slaw and Beans (L)
Corn Dogs with Chips and Veggies

Sunday
Eggs and Venison Sausage (B)
Pulled Pork Sandwiches and Fries (L)
Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with Chips and Tomato Soup

Monday
Spaghetti with Salad and Garlic Bread (L)
YOYO

Tuesday
Honey Pecan Crusted Chicken with Steamed Broccoli and Cauliflower

Wednesday
Sausage with Spinach and Strawberry Salad (L)
Roast Beef Sandwiches with Onion Rings

Thursday
Mystery Meal ? (L)
Burgers with Fries

My Mystery Meal may be on a day other than Thursday. I just know that John is leaving on Monday and won't be home until late afternoon/evening on Thursday. My in-laws like going out for lunch so I figure there will be at least one day that I will be on my own - thus the mystery meal. Something I will throw together for a one person meal.

Blue Cheese Biscuits

I wrote this post nearly a year ago as a guest post on one of my fav blogs: Love Bakes Good Cakes. I have never posted this recipe on my blog. Very yummy! Have not made these in a while and I really need to correct that!

Hi! I'm Terry and my blog is RV Life and Food. My husband John and I have been living full-time in our RV for nearly three years now and we wouldn't dream of trading it in and going back to a sticks and bricks life. We do not move around a lot so despite the name of my blog, it is mostly a food blog with rare posts about our life in an RV.

This is my first ever guest post and I would like to thank Jamie for this opportunity to share here with all her wonderful readers! Jamie is one of my absolute favorite bloggers so I jumped at the chance to do a guest post for her. She is always so sweet and positive, not to mention she posts some AMAZING recipes.

The recipe I am sharing is an adaption of the typical cheese biscuit recipe. If you like strong cheese flavors you will love this recipe for Blue Cheese Biscuits! They were amazing!!

I don't do a whole lot of baking since temps here in South Texas tend to be on the warm side 90% of the year. These biscuits are an exception and will be served throughout the year! We've had these with chicken noodle soup for dinner and with bacon and eggs for breakfast! Fast, easy and yummy - always a winning combo at our house!

2 1/4 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut in to small cubes
1 cup crumbled blue cheese
1/2 cup colby jack cheese, shredded
3 to 4 green onions, sliced
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees (425 for most RV ovens). In large mixing bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar.

Mix in cubed butter until mixture resembles a course meal, I prefer doing this with my fingers but you may also use a fork or pastry blender. Stir in cheeses and onion.

Add buttermilk and stir until all of dry mixture is moistened. Spray baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray. Drop dough in twelve equal portions onto baking sheet about two inches apart. Bake for 16 to 20 minutes or until golden. If you have a finicky RV oven like mine you will need to turn the pan after 10 minutes.

Serve and enjoy!

Shared with:

My Turn For Us
Love Bakes Good Cakes

Big Changes

John and I recently made the difficult decision to move back to Brownwood. It has something we have been praying about for sometime. Now we feel that this is where we need to be for several reasons. I am already back in Brownwood, hunting for a job. We decided that I would return first and find a job before he put in notice with his job, that way at no point will we be without income.

I am not sure what this will mean for this blog, since we will no longer be full-time RVers. Most likely I will just change the name. I have not put much thought into that at this point, that is something that will have to wait until things settle down a bit. If I do not post for the next week, this is why. Looking forward to joining back in my regular parties and hops!

Menu Plan 080513

Had plans to go out of town for the weekend to help friends move. When I made last weeks menu plan there was a chance that those plans might fall through. So I planned meals that could easily be moved to this week for Friday (Cashew Chicken) and Sunday (Pork Carnitas). We had plenty of leftovers in the fridge for Sunday when we got back home. However, after arriving in Lake Jackson Friday afternoon and working for about five to six hours, we were called back to San Antonio for work. So we had the pork carnitas Saturday night and still had the leftovers on Sunday. I don't know of anything coming up this week that should change our plans but you never know. Change is what keeps life interesting! For now this is the plan:

Monday
Slow Cooker Cashew Chicken (reduced for two) with Egg Rolls

Tuesday
Burgers with Fries

Wednesday
Black Bean and Chicken Pizza

Thursday
Brats with Grilled Corn

Friday
Pork Carnitas with Chips and Salsa

Saturday
Dinner Out or Leftovers

Sunday
Chicken and Rice Skillet* with Green Beans

*New Recipe

Peach Habanero Slaw

I made this yummy slaw to go with/on our fish tacos earlier this week. I had planned to make the slaw using Cilantro Cotija Sauce like I did here for fish tacos. When I went to get the sauce at the store, next to it was this Peach Habanero Splash. How could I not give it a try? The flavor of yummy peaches and spicy habaneros on slaw sounded perfect to go with/on fish tacos! It turned out super yummy!

Both of these sauces are HEB brand dipping sauces that come in little 3 oz containers and sold in their fish market area. I don't know what other stores have that would be comparable or a name brand sauce that would compare to these. They are sooo yummy.

1 3 oz container peach habanero splash
2 cups slaw mix

Comine in medium sized bowl. Refrigerate for about an hour before serving.

Enjoy!

Whoopie Cookies

No, not whoopie pies but whoopie cookies! These cookies were the "test" for my oven after it's most recent repairs. It seems like this time they got it right. Yippee! Anyway, back to the cookies. I bought a roll of pre-made cookie dough for this test and decided to jazz them up a bit and make Whoopie Cookies! Super Yummy! Can't wait to make these again!

1 16.5 oz roll of chocolate chip cookie dough
1/2 cup whipped cream cheese
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp milk

Divide dough into 16 equal portions and bake according to directions on package.

Remove from oven and allow to cool completely. While cookies are cooling combine remaining ingredients in medium bowl and mix well.

Once cookies are completely cooled spread two tablespoons of peanut butter mixture on eight of the cookies.

Top with the remaining cookies. Enjoy!

Shared with:

See Ya' In The Gumbo

All My Bloggy Friends

Menu Plan 072913

So far the oven seems to be working, yippee! The cookies were great!! Now for a week filled with more great food:

Monday
Chicken Alfredo with Salad

Tuesday
Fish Tacos with Cilantro Slaw and Beans

Wednesday
Southwestern Crusted Shepherd's Pie with Salad

Thursday
Corn Dogs Off The Stick* with Fries

Friday
Cashew Chicken over Rice  (reduced for two) with Egg Rolls

Saturday
Dinner Out

Sunday
Pork Carnitas with Chips and Salsa

*New Recipe

Texas Rice

I had started out to make a skillet version of Hot Rice Casserole. Only to realize that I was out of plain rice. All I had was a box of Texas rice. Similar to rice-a-roni, it has rice and a seasoning packet and comes in a variety of flavors. In this recipe I used a flavor call Texzest. The spices being a blend of brown sugar, cumin, chile peppers and other seasonings. We really liked it and will be having this again soon!

1/2 lb ground turkey or lean ground beef
1 serrano pepper, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp butter
11 oz box Texas rice, texzest flavor
2 1/2 cups water
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup shredded cheese
2 Tbsp cilantro

In a large skillet cook the ground turkey and serrano pepper over med-high heat. Stir in salt. Add butter. When butter is melted, stir in the rice.

When rice begins to brown add the water and the seasoning packet from the rice. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and cook for about 15 minutes. Stir in sour cream, top with shredded cheese, cover and heat until cheese is melted.

Top with the cilantro.

Serve and enjoy!

Menu Plan 072213

Well, we take the RV in to get the oven fixed on Thursday. Hopefully this time it will actually be fixed. I'm going to bake some cookies to test it out. I've been craving some home baked cookies and that would be a good test for the oven, that way I'm not depending on the oven to get dinner done. This is the plan for this week:

Monday
Tex-Mex Sloppy Joes with Onion Rings

Tuesday
Grilled Chicken Alfredo Pizza* with Salad

Wednesday
Steaks with Salad

Thursday
Seafood with Stuffed Jalapenos ? Not 100% sure of what we will be doing here - depends on what time we get the RV back ?

Friday
Buffalo Chicken Nuggets with Grilled Corn

Saturday
Dinner Out ? Depending on what happens Thursday, the two may be switched ?

Sunday
Spicy Chicken-Peanut Fried Rice with Egg Rolls

*New Recipe

Peach-Cilantro Vinaigrette with Spinach Salad

This month's Improv Challenge, hosted by Kristen at Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker, is to make something using peaches and herbs. Almost immediately a recipe for a Peach Vinaigrette Salad Dressing began taking shape in my mind. I made a few notes, but had to do some thinking on what herb I wanted to do. Finally it dawned on me - Cilantro. I use this stuff in everything, so why not in a vinaigrette with peaches? The hubby is not a big fan of vinaigrette dressings in general. He likes a combo of ranch and french dressing. Well, he added this as a third and said it was really good! I think it was super yummy!

For the vinaigrette:
1 large peach
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp red pepper
1/8 tsp coarse sea salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro

Using a vegetable peeler, peel the peach. Remove pit and chop. Place the chopped peach into blender. Add balsamic vinegar, garlic, brown sugar, red pepper and salt.

Blend until peach is pureed. Add oil and blend until smooth.

Pour into jar, add cilantro, top jar with lid and shake well.

Serve with your favorite salad and enjoy!

For the salad:
mix of spinach and spring greens
red onion strips
grilled peach slices
avocado slices
feta cheese crumbles
dried cranberries

To grill peach: take one large peach. Peel, cut in half and remove pit. Brush the inside of each half with olive oil. Place on grill, flat side down, and grill for about five minutes. Cut into slices.

Place desired amount of greens in bowl. Top with onion, peach slices, avocado slices, feta cheese and cranberries.

Serve with Peach Vinaigrette Dressing and enjoy!

Shared with:

All My Bloggy Friends

Thursday Favorite Things

Freedom Fridays

Grilled Pizza

I have been looking at grilled pizzas for a while, and with the oven on the fritz and temps in the upper 90s and low 100s, this seemed the time to give it a try. I really liked the way these turned out. Nice and crispy crust, topped however you like!

olive oil, mixed with a dash of garlic powder
3 thin six inch pizza crusts
pizza sauce
whatever toppings you like (just make sure to precook all meat)
we used:
     shaved parmesan
     pepperoni
     breakfast sausage cooked with about one Tbsp chopped cilantro
     shredded mozzarella cheese

Assemble all toppings together on cookie sheet to make them easy to carry outside.

Heat grill. Brush one side of each pizza crust with olive oil. Place oil side down on grill and cook for two to three minutes or until crust reaches desired brownness. *Remove from grill. Brush ungrilled side with olive oil. Turn over to side that has been grilled and top however you like.

Return to grill, close lik and cook for an additional two to three minutes until cheese is melted and bottom is brown and crispy. Remove from grill.

Serve and enjoy!

*Another method would be to not remove pizza crust from grill but go ahead and brush top side with oil and flip over. Add your toppings right there on the grill. You will need to do this quickly so that the crust does not burn. Once topped, close lid and cook until cheese is melted. Remove from grill, serve and enjoy!

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Menu Plan 071513

Finally getting my menu for the week done and posted. There have already been a couple of changes to this plan since I didn't cook all weekend. So some of last weeks menu is on this weeks menu, nothing too unusual there. Here is the plan for this week:

Monday
Grilled Jerk Chicken with Creamy Chipotle Corn

Tuesday
Grilled Pepperoni Sausage Pizza* with Spinach Salad*

Wednesday
Sausage Wraps with Fries

Thursday
Chopped BBQ Chicken on a Bun with Chips

Friday
Sausage with TX Rice*

Saturday
Dinner Out?

Sunday
Chili Dogs with Onion Rings


*New Recipe

Skillet Tuna Melt

I am not a huge fan of tuna but enjoy it every now and then. If I'm really going to enjoy it, it has to be spicy, imagine that, lol. This skillet version of a tuna melt came about because my oven is still on the fritz (hopefully it will be fixed the end of the month) and I liked it well enough to decide to keep the recipe. Loved the veggies in this! Yummm!

12 oz can white albacore tuna, drained
1/2 cup sour cream
1 jalapeno, chopped
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt or to taste
1 Tbsp dried chives
1 small avocado, chopped
1/3 cup chopped tomato
1/3 cup chopped red onion
Butter
3 slices of bread
3 slices of colby jack cheese

In medium bowl mix together tuna, sour cream, jalapeno, cumin, coriander, salt, chives, avocado, tomato and onion.

Set aside. Butter one side of a slice of bread and place butter side down in a small skillet. Top with a slice of cheese and 1/3 of the tuna mixture.

Cook over med-high heat until bread is browned and cheese is melted. Repeat with remaining two slices of bread.

Serve and enjoy!

Shared with:

See Ya' In The Gumbo

All My Bloggy Friends

Thursday Favorite Things

Freedom Fridays

Italian Chicken

This is one of those recipes that came together almost by accident. In other words it took a couple of unexpected thing to happen for it to work - #1 leftover pasta from spaghetti night and #2 a FREE package of frozen Italian vegetables from HEB. I planned this as soon as I obtained the pkg of vegies, but without the pasta. Glad I had the leftover pasta, that made it more of a meal. Turned out very yummy, you may want to add some of your favorite pasta sauce but it is good without it.

2 Tbsp olive oil, cut into bite sized pieces
2 sm chicken breasts
1 Tbsp dried parsley
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp basil
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 Tbsp minced onion
12 oz frozen Italian vegetables
2 cups cooked whole wheat spaghetti, cold

In large skillet heat oil. Add the chicken, parsley, garlic, Italian seasoning, basil, salt and minced onion.

Cook until chicken is almost done.

Stir in the Italian vegies and continue to cook for four to five minutes.

Toss in pasta and continue cooking until heated through.

Serve and enjoy!

Crispy BBQ Chicken Strips

This is one of recipes that came about right as I was cooking it. I had no real idea of how I was going to cook this chicken when I took it out of the freezer. I did plan on frying it but that is as far as my planning went. It turned out pretty good although in the future I would use a spicier BBQ sauce, this was a little on the sweet side for me, although the hubby really liked it.

2 lg chicken breasts
1/2 cup of your favorite BBQ sauce
1 cup panko crumbs
canola oil

Cut chicken breasts in half, as if you are going to butterfly them but cut all the way through. Cut each half in half lengthwise, this should give you eight chicken strips.

Dip the the strips in BBQ sauce, then in the panko crumbs. Heat oil over med-hi heat.

Once oil is hot add the chicken strips and cook until done, three to five minutes on each side.

Serve and enjoy!

Shared with:

Love Bakes Good Cakes - All My Bloggy Friends

Menu Plan 070113

Well I think things are starting to settle back down to normal around here. No plans to go anywhere for a while, not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, right now it feels good to just be home! That may change in a week or so and we'll decide it's time to get away from San Antonio for a couple of days, we shall see. For now here is the plan for this week. I never posted one last week, didn't even get one ready until Tuesday after we picked up the RV. Now back to this week.

Monday
Easy Spaghetti with Salad

Tuesday
Spicy Jamaican Chicken Breasts with Fruit served over Rice

Wednesday
Hot Rice Casserole with Salad

Thursday
Fiesta Mac and Cheese with ?

Friday
Sausage with Texas Rice*

Saturday
Dinner Out or Leftovers

Sunday
Chicken with Corn

*New Recipe

Potato Patties

I used to make these a LOT! I don't know why I stopped, they are quite yummy. When I decided to make them again I could not find my original recipe. My first couple of tries I tried to imitate that original recipe but couldn't seem to hit the mark. I finally decided to just start over. This ended up being the keeper.

1 1/2 cups leftover mashed potatoes, I used loaded mashed potatoes made with red potatoes
1 Tbsp cilantro
1 Tbsp flour
2 cups panko crumbs
2 Tbsp olive oil

In medium bowl mix together mashed potatoes, cilantro and flour. Form mixture into four patties.

Coat patties with the panko crumbs. Heat oil in skillet. Add patties to skillet and cook on each side for three to five minutes or until patties reach desired brownness and are hot all the way through, add more oil if needed.

Serve and enjoy!

Shared with:

My Turn For Us - Freedom Fridays

Love Bakes Good Cakes - All My Bloggy Friends

Lamberts Lately - Create it Thursday