How many of you plan your menus around what’s on sale at the grocery store each week?  I’ve been planning my menus (a week at a time) for a long time, and I’m back to reviewing the sale ads and clipping coupons after a long baby-induced hiatus.  I’m fed up with spending $200 a week on groceries (for 2 adults and a 14 month old….ridiculous, right?)  Groceries are such an easy place to cut back spending, and all it takes is a little planning.  Now don’t go rolling your eyes at me.  Keep reading…this is not really a lecture on how you should plan your menus, but a tale of caution about the pitfalls of over-planning.

This week I read online at one of my couponing sites that pork loin was on sale at my grocery store.  “Woo hoo!”, I thought, “we love pork loin, and I’m getting tired of all this chicken and ground beef.  Bring on the pork loin!”  So I eagerly planned not one but TWO meals this week with pork loin.  And off to the store I went, with my list of sale items and coupons in hand.  After buckling The Littlest Apple into the cart, I realized that I failed to grab my grocery list.  List of sale items, yes, but the more important grocery list, no.  With a very short window-of-opportunity for shopping with my Littlest Apple (a ticking time bomb), I decided against my better judgment to press on and get as much as I could remember from the list.  Then, when I reached the meat section, the pork tenderloin, the star of my menu….NOT on sale.  As my Littlest Apple kicked off his shoes for the 30th time in 5 minutes and threw his pretzel to the ground, I tried to wrap my brain around what to do.  Do I buy something else that is on sale and come up with new dinner ideas on the fly?  Do I buy the pork at full price?  You see, I probably rely a little too heavily on my lists and my planning.  When things don’t go as planned, I get all out of sorts.  I don’t have a spontaneous bone in my body, except maybe my little toe.  As you’ve probably surmised from the title of this post, I bought the pork anyway at full price.  This recipe makes me so glad that I did!

The recipe comes from Kristin at You Got Served.  Kristin’s blog is new to me, but packed with delicious recipes.  I especially love her posts that include the full menus.  Those are great!   This pork is excellent and easy to make.  I love that you can just use one skillet and move it from the stove-top to the oven.  This makes a lot of meat, so I’m freezing half of mine with the glaze.  I’ll provide an update later on how it tastes reheated from the freezer.

Brown Sugar Pork Loin

from Kristin at You Got Served

Rub Ingredients:

• 2 t salt
• 1/2 t black pepper
• 1 t ground cumin
• 1 t chili powder
• 1 t cinnamon
• 2 pork tenderloins (2 1/2 lb. total)
• 2 TB olive oil

Glaze ingredients:

• 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 2 TB finely chopped garlic
• 1 TB Tabasco

Preheat oven to 350.  Stir together salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder, and cinnamon, then coat pork with spice rub.  Heat oil in an ovenproof 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat util just beginning to smoke, then brown pork, turning, about 4 minutes total.  Leave pork in skillet.

Stir together brown sugar, garlic, and Tabasco and pat on top of each tenderloin.  Roast in middle of oven until thermometer inserted diagonally in center of each tenderloin registers 140, about 25 minutes.  Let pork stand in skillet at room temperature 10 minutes.  (Temp will rise to about 155 while standing).

I hate to post again with no picture, but this recipe is too delicious NOT to share with you.  A friend and I first discovered this recipe a few years ago when we decided to make a big elaborate meal for our significant others for Valentine’s Day.  Since then, I’ve made this recipe for several events, including a shower last weekend  These toasts are always a hit, and they are super simple to make.  You can be pretty lax with the measurements, as long as you get all the flavors in.  I just throw all the ingredients together and it always comes out tasty!

Warm Goat Cheese Toasts with Rosemary, Walnuts, and Honey

from Bon Appetit, November 2003

Ingredients

• 1 8-ounce French-bread baguette
• 8 ounces soft fresh goat cheese
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts (I substitute pecans)
• 1/2 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary

Preheat oven to 350°F. Cut eighteen 1/4-inch diagonal slices from baguette. Spread goat cheese on each slice. Arrange in single layer on rimmed baking sheet. Bake until edges are slightly golden and cheese softens, about 10 minutes. Set aside on sheet. Heat honey in small saucepan over medium heat until warm, about 2 minutes. Sprinkle toasts with walnuts, then rosemary. Drizzle with honey and serve.

Ahhhhhhhhh, Autumn is here!  Well, it is according to the calendar.  I mean, it is almost Halloween, right?!  This has been the first week of cooler weather here in Houston.  Up until now, it has reached the mid to upper 80s every day.  But has that stopped me from celebrating the arrival of fall?  Certainly not!  My house has been decorated for fall since mid-September, with leaves, pumpkins, acorns, apples, and all of those gorgeous fall colors.  However, my fall decorating has had one casualty already:  one of the little pumpkins on my lovely fall wreath seems to have cracked from the heat, showing off its styrofoam innards.  Hopefully the weather will cool down further sometime before the end of the year…

One of my favorite things about fall is using pumpkin in baked goods.  This recipe is from Rebecca Rather’s The Pastry Queen cookbook which hasn’t let me down yet!  This is delicious and easy bread, with lots of pumpkin flavor as well as cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice and pecans.  The recipe makes 2 huge loaves, so you won’t feel so bad eating a whole loaf yourself…you’ll still have plenty to share!  I LOVE this bread!  It is my new favorite fall bread/muffin!

Autumn Pumpkin Bread with Pecan Streusel Topping

from The Pastry Queen, by Rebecca Rather

Bread:

• 1 1/2 cups pecan pieces
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 3 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 (15 ounce) can pure pumpkin
• 1 cup water
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Topping:

• 1/2 cup firmly packed golden brown sugar
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup toasted pecan pieces (above)

To make the bread: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Arrange the pecans on a baking sheet in a single layer and toast them in the oven for 7 to 9 minutes, until golden brown and aromatic.  Reserve 1/2 cup of the toasted pecans for the topping.

Grease two 9 by 5-inch pans or 36 standard-size muffin cups with butter or cooking spray.

Whisk the oil and sugar in a large bowl.  Add the eggs, pumpkin, and water and whisk until combined.  Stir in the flour, baking soda, spices, and salt.  Gently stir in 1 cup of the pecan pieces.  Pour half of the batter into each loaf pan.  For muffins, fill the muffin pans almost to the top with batter.

To make the topping: Stir the sugar, butter, cinnamon, and the reserved 1/2 cup of pecan pieces in a medium bowl.  Sprinkle the topping liberally over the loaves or the muffins before baking.

Bake the loaves for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Bake the muffins for 30 to 35 minutes.

Last weekend was The Littlest Apple’s FIRST BIRTHDAY!  We had a small family gathering at our house to celebrate his big day.  For the party, I decided on cupcakes instead of cake.  It got a little complicated because The Littlest Apple is allergic to milk and eggs and one of our family members doesn’t eat chocolate….so what’s a mommy baker to do?!

Well, for starters, the birthday boy got his own special allergy-friendly cupcake and frosting.  I used a cake recipe from the Depression era when milk, butter, and eggs were too expensive for many people.  This recipe uses vinegar and oil.  I made chocolate buttercream using shortening…..the consistency was perfect…my only problem was with the awful artificial butter taste from the Butter flavored Crisco.  Bleh!  I’ll use plain shortening next time.  So the allergy friendly cupcake tasted pretty decent, and was just right for my Littlest Apple.  He’s really not big on cake/muffin texture (okay, let’s be honest, he doesn’t like to eat anything.  Period.)  He did take a few licks of the frosting, but that was about it…..here’s his cute cupcake picture.

For everyone else, I took a mix-and-match cupcake approach.  I made vanilla/vanilla, vanilla/chocolate, chocolate/chocolate, and chocolate/vanilla.  Two cakes, two frostings.  The chocolate cake with chocolate frosting was a hit with the guests, as was the chocolate cake with vanilla frosting.  MY personal favorite was the vanilla/vanilla.  I guess they were all good!  This is my all time favorite vanilla buttercream recipe…..I absolutely LOVE the salt in the frosting!

I used the Wilton pre-rolled fondant and alphabet cutters to spell out the Happy Birthday message on top of the cupcakes.  It was super easy, but the letters were a little small and spaced too far apart, making it kind of hard to read.  I’ll definitely try this method again on a cake!

We didn’t capture any closeup pictures of the cupcakes, but here are all of the recipes…

Milk and Egg Free Cake

• 1 1/2  cup  flour
• 1  cup  sugar
• 1  tsp  baking soda
• 1/2  tsp  salt
• 1  Tbsp  vinegar
• 5  Tbsp  oil
• 1  tsp  vanilla
• 1  cup  water

Preheat oven to 350F.  Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix thoroughly.  Mix wet ingredients in a separate bowl and stir to combine.  Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until you get a smooth batter. Do not beat.  Pour into greased and floured pan (8″ square or 9″ round) or 12 cupcakes. Bake in oven until tests done – about 35 minutes for cake, about 20 minutes for cupcakes.

Buttery Vanilla Cupcakes

recipe from Stephanie’s Kitchen

One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes

recipe from Martha Stewart

Vanilla Buttercream

recipe from My Sweet and Saucy, adapted from Demolition Desserts

• 4 oz. unsalted softened butter
• 2 1/2 c. or 10 oz. powdered sugar
• 1/2 t. kosher salt
• 1 T. plus 1 t. whole milk
• 1 t. pure vanilla extract
• 1 t. fresh lemon juice (I put 1/2 t.)

In a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter & salt for about 30 seconds and then add half of the powdered sugar and the milk to the butter and beat again until combined. Scrape down the bowl.  Add the rest of the powdered sugar, the vanilla, and the lemon juice and beat until combined.  Scrape down the bowl again.  Beat on high speed for 5-6 minutes or until the frosting is fluffy.

Chocolate Buttercream

recipe from Stephanie’s Kitchen

The Picky Apple and I have breakfast for dinner several times a month, typically in the form of an assemble-your-own breakfast taco bar.  We’ve used the assemble-your-own approach in the past because The Picky Apple favors lots of eggs with jalapeno added, and I prefer lots of hash browns, cheese, and light on the eggs.

Ree from The Pioneer Woman posted this recipe for Breakfast Burritos recently, and I decided to give it a try.  (Definitely check out the rest of her site too!  It is one of my faves!)  This recipe isn’t that much different from what I was doing already, but I’ve never attempted mixing all of the breakfast ingredients together while cooking like Ree does.  As simple as that sounds, I definitely think it takes our boring old breakfast burritos to the next level.  There was just the right balance of all of the ingredients for each of our tastes.  This recipe is a keeper!

I’ve only recently started eating lettuce wraps, and my experience with them is limited to PF Chang’s, Pei Wei, and Chili’s.  I’m not sure why I was so resistant to them previously….maybe because I’m not that big of a lettuce fan?  Is anyone really that big of a lettuce fan?  Lettuce by itself is bo-ring, if you ask me.  I found this recipe for lettuce wraps in the July/August issue of Cooking with Paula Deen.  I know what you’re thinking.  Paula Deen is not exactly the person who comes to mind when you want homemade lettuce wraps, but this recipe is surprisingly good!  Both The Picky Apple and I enjoyed them.  Next time I will add peanuts for additional crunch and flavor.

Grilled Chicken Lettuce Wraps

from the July/August 2008 issue of Cooking with Paula Deen

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 tbsp plus 2 tsp minced fresh ginger, divided
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1/2 cup finely chopped water chestnuts
• 2 tbsp minced green onions
• Lettuce Wrap Sauce (recipe follows)
• 2 heads butter lettuce, separated into leaves

In a large resealable plastic bag, combine cilantro, vegetable oil, soy sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, 1 tbsp ginger, sesame oil, and garlic.  Add chicken; seal bag, and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Preheat grill to medium-high heat (350 to 400 degrees F).  Spray grill with nonstick nonflammable cooking spray.

Remove chicken from marinade, discarding marinade.  Grill chicken, covered with grill lid, for 5 to 6 minutes per side, or until chicken is no longer pink in center.  Cool chicken for 10 minutes; cut into 1/2 inch pieces.

In a large bowl, combine chicken, water chestnuts, green onion, remaining 2 teaspoons ginger, and Lettuce Wrap Sauce, tossing gently to coat.  Spoon onto lettuce leaves to serve.

Lettuce Wrap Sauce

Makes about 1/4 cup

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp hoisin sauce
• 4 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/2 tsp rice wine vinegar

In a small bowl, whisk together hoisin sauce, soy sauce, oil, pepper flakes, and vinegar.  Cover, and chill.

Jenny over at Picky Palate has been cooking and baking up some great stuff lately (ok, she’s always got great recipes, but I’ve been bookmarking recipes from her blog like cr-azy the last few weeks in particular).  She posted this cookie recipe several weeks ago, and I baked them as soon as I got a chance!  I sent them to work with The Picky Apple, and he reported that they were gone within an hour!  I’m not surprised.  They turned out great, and really, what’s not to love?  Brownies….peanut butter….oreos.  Yum!!  You can find the recipe here.

Have you ever been to one of those assemble-your-own-dinner places, where you prep a whole bunch of dinners in one afternoon then freeze them at home for later use?  I went once a couple of years ago since I was intrigued by the concept.  I think places like that are great for people who don’t like to cook and don’t have picky eaters, but not the best fit for me.  If I remember correctly, The Picky Apple only liked one of the 6 or 7 different meals I prepped.  I have done lots of stuff like this on my own though: ground beef sessions when ground beef is on sale, chicken sessions when chicken is on sale.  Eating from a well stocked freezer isn’t about eating “reheated” food, for those of you who are turning up your nose at the thought of meals for the freezer.  It’s also not all condensed soup laden casseroles, though I do like some of those from time to time.  Most of the stuff I do is just prepping the meat to cook later on with marinades, spices, etc.  This way, the thinking is done, and all you have to do is throw it in the skillet/oven/crockpot and be done with it!  Doing this kind of planning ahead was extra-useful when I was pregnant and not feeling well.  It also came in handy during those first few weeks after The Littlest Apple was born, particularly during his 10 days in the NICU.  The last thing I wanted to do those nights after a 10 hour day at the hospital was figure out what to eat for dinner.  It was so comforting to come home and have food basically ready to go.

This recipe is based on one of the meals offered at the assemble-your-own-dinner place I visited way back when, though it is not necessary to freeze it (I’ll give directions for both).  The Picky Apple and I both loved it, and I found it tremendously simple to recreate.  (They don’t give out recipes at those places…how else would they keep you coming back?!)  It is easy for each of us adapt our pitas to suit our tastes.  I use a feta/olive topping, omitting the red peppers sometimes, and lots of the lemony sauce.  The Picky Apple uses white rice (he’s GOT to have white rice with chicken, always always always!) and red peppers.  No sauce for The Picky Apple, naturally.  He’s not a very saucy guy.

Greek Chicken Pitas

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup olive oil
• 1 cup lemon juice
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 3 tsp chopped garlic
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• pita bread
• crumbled feta (optional)
• chopped red pepper (optional)
• black olives (optional)
• cooked white rice (optional)

If freezing for later: combine olive oil, lemon juice, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper in a freezer safe zip-top bag.  Add chicken to bag, seal and freeze.  When it is time to cook, you don’t even have to thaw ahead of time.  Just dump the contents of the bag into a skillet, cover, and cook on medium heat for at least 30 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.  Follow remaining directions below.

If cooking immediately (no freezing): add olive oil, lemon juice, oregano, garlic, salt, pepper, and chicken to a skillet.  Cover and cook on medium heat for approximately 30 minutes.

Once chicken is cooked through, remove chicken from pan and continue to cook the sauce uncovered until it reduces some (approx. 10 minutes).

Slice chicken and assemble on pitas.  Top with feta, black olives, red pepper, rice, and sauce from skillet as desired.

Bananas foster is one of those delicious desserts that I love but always pass up on restaurant dessert menus for something chocolate-y instead.  I should really give bananas foster more credit!  I love the buttery, cinnamony, banana flavor and it tastes amazing alongside vanilla ice cream.  Did you ever try the Haagen Dazs Bananas Foster ice cream?  I can’t find it in the stores now, and I don’t see it listed on their website, so it must have been a Limited Edition.  If you missed it, too bad for you…it was amazing!

This week we wound up with quite a few ripe bananas that needed to be used asap.  The Littlest Apple appears to be sick of bananas.  Well, not just bananas.  Bananas and everything else under the sun!  Yes indeed, he has become the reigning Picky Apple in our house, and he’s still a few weeks shy of his first birthday!  I scoured the internets looking for something new and different to try with my bananas and came across this recipe for Bananas Foster Crumb Cake that I bookmarked on Culinary Concoctions by Peabody.  She’s always baking up something amazing, and her photos are gorgeous, so be sure to check it out!

I left out the alcohol, only because I didn’t have the right stuff on hand.  Shameful, I know!  The cake turned out great, though I may have over-blended the bananas into the batter.  One other tip: when she says to put a cookie sheet under the pan, don’t ignore that part!  My pan overflowed a bit and my kitchen is still stinky from those burned bits.  I would also recommend serving with caramel sauce (which we did not)…you can see my slice of cake below looking lonely and forlorn without his caramel sauce.  You can find the recipe here.

I saw Paula Deen make these Chicken Empanadas on her show a few years ago, and practically ran to the store for the ingredients.  Empanadas, which are popular in Spain, Portugal and Latin America, are stuffed pastries, sometimes sweet, sometimes savory, sometimes baked, sometimes fried.  Paula’s recipe is stuffed with chopped chicken, cheese, and spices, and baked (which is a little surprising coming from Paula Deen, don’t you think?).  These have earned a regular spot on our menu rotation of favorites, with a few adjustments.  Paula’s recipe calls for storebought pie crusts, but The Picky Apple and I both prefer the taste of these empanadas with homemade pie crust.  Also, instead of using a 3″ cookie cutter, I use a margarita glass because we liked a larger filling to pie crust ratio.

Chicken Empanadas

Recipe courtesy of Paula Deen, from the Food Network website

Ingredients:

• 3 cups chopped, cooked chicken
• 1 (8 ounce) package shredded Colby and Monterey Jack cheese blend
• 4 ounces package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 (15 ounce) package refrigerated pie crusts
• Water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Lightly grease a baking sheet.  In a large bowl, combine the chicken and next 7 ingredients.  Unroll 1 piecrust onto a lightly floured surface.  Roll into a 15-inch circle.  Cut out rounds, using a 3-inch cookie cutter.  Re-roll dough as needed.  Repeat procedure with remaining piecrusts, making 12 to 15 circles total.  Arrange 1 round on a clean, flat surface.  Lightly brush the edges of crust with water.  Place 1 heaping teaspoon of chicken mixture in the center of the round.  Fold the dough over the filling, pressing the edges with a fork to seal.  Repeat with the remaining rounds and chicken mixture.  (Up to this point, the recipe can be made ahead and frozen for up to 1 month).  Arrange empanadas on the prepared baking sheet.  Bake for 15 minutes.