Back-To-School Menu for BUSY Nights

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #NestleSchoolDays #CollectiveBias

Menu planning is something I take seriously around here. My strategy is pretty simple. I look at our calendar of activities and I plan our meals according to what we have going on. Savannah has ballet on during the week and on those nights I whip up a fast meal that I know everyone will enjoy after a long day.

I also plan a little after school snack for the kids to bridge the gap between after school and dinner time. This very easy (perfect for Fall) treat is easy to make and it only takes about 35 minutes from start to finish. This is something I make first thing you can do first thing in the morning after the kids are in school.

I'll be using Nestlé products available at Safeway for today's menu to show you how easy, simple and helpful they are for busy back-to-school nights.

#NestleSchoolDays Sweepstakes

This my friends is Chewy Cake...

To make Chewy Cake preheat your oven to 350. Cook one box of light brown sugar and one stick of butter on low heat stirring constantly until the mixture is smooth.

Pour mixture into a bowl. Add each egg one at a time beating mixture after each egg until the egg is completely incorporated.

Add the flour and mix.

Add the vanilla.

Add the pecans and give it a good stir. The mixture should be sticky. Bake in a greased and floured 9x13 pan for 25 minutes. Do the toothpick test to make sure your cake is done. If more time is needed add one minute at a time until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Now for the caramel drizzle. Oh, yes. It gets better...

Cook 3/4 cup of butter, 2 Cups brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of water and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a saucepan and cook until butter has melted.

Bring the sugar mixture to a boil and boil for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add 1 tablespoon of vanilla and half a can of Nestlé® Carnation® Evaporated Milk. Add more to reach your desired consistency. Poke holes in the top of your cake and drizzle caramel sauce on top. You can also cut the cake into squares before drizzling like I did here.

NOTE: I make the caramel sauce while the cake is baking in the oven.

For dinner on busy nights I like feeding them something that I know for sure they will want to eat without any negotiating. Pizza is always a winner around here. We love DIGIORNO® RISING CRUST® Pizza and pizzeria!™ from DIGIORNO® Pizzas for pizza nights at home. I grew up eating DiGiorno so I have been a fan for years.

I add a tossed salad to the table to make sure they are getting some veggies too and dinner is served!

Savannah will no doubt want to take pizza with her to lunch at school the next day. So here's a little Mom hack that I find to be helpful.

I make a Hot Pocket® sandwich for her in the morning. I slice the sandwich and I place it in her bento box for lunch. Mom hack - If your child has a thermos you can use it to keep the Hot Pocket warm!

This is one of the ways I survive super busy nights during the school year. I always keep pizzas and Hot Pockets in the deep freezer because my family loves them so much and it beats loading three kids into the car to get takeout.

Take this list with you to Safeway to make this easy dinner for your family.

Safeway has tons of ideas and coupons to help Moms stock up on everything they need for their pantry and freezer for back-to-school. Visit their site to see more recipes and visit their store to grab some of these great deals. I also have to to share that during my most recent trips to Safeway I saved $40 by using the coupons from their site and my Safeway card!

I walked out of the store feeling like a MomBoss!!!

What's your favorite go-to meal for busy nights?

RECIPE: Cajun Chicken & Shrimp Pasta

A Facebook (and high school) friend just asked for this recipe so I thought I would share it here too. Since sharing this pic on instagram I am asked for this recipe pretty often. It's so simple and tasty.

My husband says this is his favorite dish and it may become a favorite in your house too. The recipe and ingredients are below. Please keep in mind that I am a MomChef so my measurements may not always be numerical. 

Shall we proceed? Yes - indeed!

INGREDIENTS:

Olive Oil

1 tablespoon of butter

4 slices thick bacon, cooked & chopped

baby portebello mushrooms - a handful, chopped

cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

1lb of large Shrimp, peeled & deveined

4 thin skinless boneless chicken breast (4 normally come in a pack)

green onion, chopped

minced garlic - 1 teaspoon

parsley, dried is fine - use fresh if you're feeling fancy

1lb fettuccine noodles

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup chicken broth

Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning (just leave it on your counter 😉)

Parmesan Cheese

THE ROAD TO GLORY:

Cook fettuccine noodles to al denté according to package instructions. Remember to salt and oil your water. Reserve about 1 cup of pasta water when draining noodles.

Place shrimp in a medium bowl. Drizzle with Olive Oil. Season with half a tablespoon of Tony's. (You can always use more, I do. The more you use the spicier it will be!) Heat enough oil in a pan to cook the shrimp, about 1/4 a cup.  Cook the shrimp until they are a nice pretty pink. Remove shrimp from pan. 

Cook your bacon until crispy. Drain the bacon on paper towels. Crumble or chop the bacon once it has cooled. 

Melt one tablespoon of butter and cook the mushrooms and cherry tomatoes until the mushrooms are wet and tomatoes are soft. Remove from pan.

Season both sides of chicken breast with Tony's and cook it until is done. It will cook fast if you're using thin breast. You may want to open a window at this point.

Once the chicken is done remove it from the pan. Deglaze your pan using the chicken broth. Turn on your stove fan. I hope your window is open.

Using a spatula scrape all the good bits in the pan to the center of the pan. Add your garlic. It should smell really good in your kitchen by now.

Stir in the heavy cream until it mixes well with the broth. Add two big sprinkles (handfuls) of parmesan cheese. Whisk like there is no tomorrow. You do not want your cheese clump. (If it does it's okay. This is so good no one will care about clumped cheese.) Add a half of a tablespoon of the Tony's to your cheese sauce. Stir. Taste. Add more until you reach your preferred level of spiciness. 

Add noodles to sauce and toss to coat evenly. Top your pasta with the mushrooms, tomatoes and shrimp. Sprinkle parsley, bacon crumbles and green onion on top. Plate with chicken breast.

Healthy No Sugar Mongolian Beef

A few weekends ago when we were in Seattle hanging out with my brother we had lunch at the fanciest Chinese restaurant I've ever been too. There were tablecloths and tea and all kinds of breakable items on the table for the kids.

There was a view overlooking the water and there was Mongolian beef. I immediately fell in love and wanted to try making it at home.



All of the recipes I found call for brown sugar or enormous amounts of honey. Neither one of those fits into my new meal plan so I thought long and hard about how to still get that sweet beef on my dinner table without using all the sugar.

My long nights of watching Chopped paid off and I decided to try using a honey crisp apple as my base for the sauce. Let me tell you, I have never been so happy with an educated guess before in my life.





This meal was so easy to make. Now - if I'm being completely honest this did not taste like the restaurant's Mongolian Beef. BUT - it was good and tasty. I haven't had fake sugar since July 10th so my tastebuds were very happy.

If you'd like to make my healthy no sugar Mongolian Beef the recipe and instructions are below. Don't forget to pin it for later.



What you'll need:

2lbs Flank Steak, chopped
1/4 cup cornstarch (you could always use arrowroot)
1/4 cup water
2 TB olive oil
1 cup olive oil for frying
1 medium honey crisp apple
1 1/2 TB gluten free (wheat free) soy sauce
2 tsp fresh ginger, chopped, 1 tsp chopped
1 tsp minced garlic, 1 tsp minced garlic
green onion
veggies of your choice

What to do:

1. Slice flank steak against the grain. Dredge in cornstarch. Let it sit for 10 minutes before frying.
2. Start buy cooking your apples in a tiny bit of water (just enough to cuddle the apples) until they are soft. Puree apples using a blender until smooth.
3. Cook 2 tsp pf ginger and 1 tsp of minced garlic in 2 tablespoons of olive oil until fragrant. Add apple puree and cook until the sauce begins to thicken. Add soy sauce. (Taste the sauce - add more soy sauce if needed) Remove sauce pot from heat.
4. Heat oil in a wok or frying pan and cook the flank steak for about 2 minutes, flipping over halfway. Do small batches if needed, do not overcrowd the pan. Drain steak on paper towels as you cook.
5. Put all the steak back into your pan and add the sauce. Toss to coat. Simmer for 2 minutes.
6. Pour grease out of pan. Try to reserve any flavor bits that may be there.
7. Add water to the pan and toss in veggies and remaining ginger and garlic. Cook until done to your preference.
8. Sprinkle with green onion after plating.

That's it! So easy and fast. I served our Mongolian beef over brown rice. It was delish. Not as sweet as the restaurant's sauce but still oh so good - and good for you!

Oven Beef Brisket

Our grill is out of gas. Even if we had gas my grill master was playing in a basketball tournament this weekend so grilling anything was out of the question. I still wanted to try my hand at making brisket so I did a little studying online and found this recipe that seemed promising.

I wanted the smoky taste of the grill. My tastebuds craved that sticky smoky saucy flavor that Texas brisket is known for. The images on Pinterest convinced me to give brisket in the oven a try.

The only thing I did different was substitute the salt and garlic powder with a teaspoon and a half of garlic salt. 

I didn't get a picture of it but I also followed the steps of adding the bacon. I didn't use a whole pound like she suggested. Instead I did five strips across the top. That seemed like plenty.

I cooked the brisket on 225 for eight hours before following her instructions for the sauce and broiler. The sauce in this recipe is delicious. Do not be tempted to buy sauce instead of making it. You may regret it.

That crust from the broiler was perfect. I also want to share that I did not strain the bacon and onion out of our sauce like she recommends. I wanted to try a chunky BBQ sauce. Those little bacon bits in the sauce were like little morsels of heaven.

This hunk of love was served with mac-n-cheese and skillet fried cabbage. So southern, Texas and tasty. My husband took brisket sandwiches for lunch today. I picked up some hoagie rolls and he'll use that for his bun.

Have you ever tried making brisket in the oven? If not, give this recipe a try. 

Braised Short Ribs...

Sundays are for supper. Sunday dinner was always such a big part of my life growing up. I remember my Mom or Grandma making the most delicious meals on Sundays. We'd come home from church and come right in to a hot dinner.

How did they do it?

My guess is that someone was up super early cooking while I slept. I can manage to do that sometimes but not as often as I'd like.

I love a good comforting Sunday dinner and I look forward to that time in the kitchen. I might dread cooking every other day of the week but not Sunday.

Sundays are when I try new things. I give myself time to cook without the pressure of getting food on the table by a certain time. This Sunday I tried braised short ribs in my dutch oven pot. I normally make them in the crock pot but not this Sunday. This Sunday I tried something new and it was delicious.

I started patting the short ribs dry before sprinkling them with kosher salt and black pepper. In the dutch oven I cooked some pancetta until is was nice and crispy. It didn't render enough fat (for me) so I cooked a piece a bacon and all was right with the world (and in my kitchen).

I dredged the ribs in flour before searing them. I was not patient and rushed through the searing. As a result my ribs were not as brown as I'd liked. Won't make that mistake again... Patience is a virtue.

I added all of the ribs back to the dutch oven. Sprinkled them with some dried rosemary. Poured two cups of chicken broth (cause I didn't have beef) into the pot. A dash of red wine vinegar. Added the bacon and pancetta. Cooked them in the oven for two hours on 325.

They were fall off the bone good. Everything about them was good. They smelled good and they tasted like somebody's Grandma made them. 

I served them with brussel sprouts and sweet potatoes. Is it Fall yet?

April 16-30 Family Meal Plan

April is half way done. Can you believe it? That means that we are that much closer to a moving truck showing up at our house. I am not ready. At least our dinners for the rest of the month are planned.

I think I'm going to attempt grocery shopping today because it's suppose to rain all weekend. I have a hair appointment Saturday morning and I really don't want to get caught out in the rain grocery shopping with freshly straightened hair. So I may shop today. I need to make a grocery list first.

I am anticipating a larger grocery bill because there are other things we need for the house. I was able to carry a meal or two over from the last dinner menu so maybe that will balance some things out. We shall see. I'll share my grocery haul and answer some of the questions I received via email in the video. Thanks for watching those! 

If I look a little sleepy in the video (or on snapchat) it's because my husband is in training for his upcoming promotion and that has left me pretty busy with the kids solo. Moses has been sleeping well but he's still not sleeping all night. Pumping is literally draining the life out of me but I will push through like all the other Mamas out there. There is a blessing in being tired and that is how I push through the tough times. I'll share my philosophy on that in another post.

Happy Friday, Mamas! Do something special for yourself this weekend (after you go grocery shopping)! 😉

CiCi's Pizza Stuffed Crust & Fiery Mango Tango Pizza

Yesterday the kids and I had the opportunity to visit CiCi's Pizza to check out their newest pizza inspired by one of the winning dishes on Food Network Star. I am a fan of that show and was already familiar with Eddie's win so I was extremely excited to trying out this new pizza at CiCi's.

I have to admit, I don't think I've been to a CiCi's Pizza since college. I remember hitting up that buffer for five dollars and some change, getting full and sharing laughs. Those were some good time with my girls. These days I'm hitting up CiCi's with a new crew and I have to say that even though my squad looks a little different we still had just as much fun.

Savannah was so happy to join the other kids and make her own pizza. They learned about baking and ate their masterpieces while the Moms and smaller babies got all the dish on the new Unlimited Stuffed Crust and the Fiery Mango Tango Pizza.

While Sav was busy making new friends, Mikey and I were making our very own Unlimited Stuffed Crust Pizza. The crust on this pizza is so yummy. Between now and October 25 you can treat yourself to 100% real cheese baked right inside a handmade garlic crust topped with pepperoni. 

Here I am giving my pizza some extra love with some parmesan cheese. Don't worry all of the Unlimited Stuffed Crust pizza have lots of cheese, not just mine. (get you some and thank me later)

While my pizza was baking away in the oven I learned all about the new Fiery Mango Tango Pizza. A sweet, tropical blend of pineapple and mango with a cinnamon sugar crust, cream cheese icing and a jalapeño kick - it tastes as good as it sounds. When I first heard all the ingredients I wasn't convinced that I'd love it but I'm eating my words now because it was love at first bite.

This pizza was so sweet and spicy all at once. A pregnant lady's dream. Just when I thought I couldn't be more satisfied my Stuffed Crust Pizza came out of the oven...

Ten extra cheesy slices of pizza just for me (and my Mikes - I shared). Each slice had enough sauce, cheese and pepperoni - soooo good! Little Mike even ate some and I can hardly get him to eat anything covered in sauce. 

CiCi's Pizza is such a great place grab lunch or dinner with your family. They have also made some updates to their salad bar so you can make sure your little ones get some veggies to go along with all that pizza while you're there.

When was the last time you visited CiCi's? Get there soon because the Fiery Mango Tango is only available until August 16!

May 2015 Meal Plan

Hello, May!

I can not believe it is already May. This is a busy month for us. School registration is next week, Savannah's social calendar is full of birthday parties and we have so school activities this month. Not to mention Little Mike is quite the runner and climber these days so I have been very busy chasing him.

This is my first monthly meal plan in a couple months. I didn't realize that people were enjoying them as much as they were. I appreciate all the feedback that I received on instagram. As promised, here is a meal plan for the month of May.

I hope it helps you as much as it helps my family. This time around I included links to some of my favorite recipes. Click here  or on the pic below to get the version with the links. If these monthly calendars are helping you please let me know in the comments!

Have a great weekend!

Monthly Meal Planning: February 2015

It's almost February which means it's almost MY BIRTHDAY!!! (screamed like Oprah)

Since so many of you said you would attempt planning out your meals for the month starting in February I decided to go ahead and share our meal plan early in hopes of encouraging you to stick with it. Remember, you don't have to grocery shop for the entire month like I do but you can plan your meals.

Having a meal plan for the month frees up so much more of my time during the week. I don't have to spend time thinking about what I'm going to make for dinner. All budgets and families are different but if you are a weekly or bi-weekly shopper I encourage you to still give this a shot. Even if you keep your same shopping schedule I bet you'll experience a sense of relief knowing that you've already selected your meals for that month.

So who's still planning to try this for February? Feel free to share your meal plan with me on Instagram using the hashtag #ChicFEBMeals. Don't forget to tag me as well, @chicsahm!

How I Plan a Month of Meals

The monthly meal planning post got a nice response. Thank you to everyone that commented here and on IG. The feedback was great and I enjoyed hearing everyone's responses. A few of the main comments were:

• "I could never do a monthly plan."
• "Do you really do this?"
• "It seems like a lot of work."

The answers to these questions are:

• Yes, you can.
• Yes, I do.
• It kind of is but not really. I'll share how I do my planning and maybe it will help you. 

This is our January dinner meal plan. I do not normally type it up and make it look all fancy. That should make someone out there feel better. On the last day of every month I sit down with the previous month(s) plan and I begin to create a new month of meals.

Step One -Make a Calendar/Chart

The first step in my planning process is to draw a calendar on a piece of notebook paper. If I run out of space I flip the page over and put the last few days on the back. Normally my squares are always too big. I'm pretty sure that someone more artistically inclined can make a better looking chart.

Anyway.

Once my chart is made I label the days to reflect the calendar for that month. Easy, right?

The "X" means we've already eaten that meal.

Step Two - Fill in the meals

The next thing I do is fill in all of the Sundays. Sunday meals are important to me so I square those away first. Next I think of any days that will be busy for us. If I know in advance that we have long days of errands or appointments I automatically plug-in a crockpot meal on those days.

 Then I look at my previous plans to see what meals my family really enjoyed and what meals they didn't like as much. I always take into consideration that on Fridays I don't really ever feel like cooking so I try to put my "easy" or "fun" meals there.

After that it's just a matter of using some of the meals they enjoyed from the previous month(s) and finding new recipes to try on Pinterest. I also really love AllRecipes and the Food Network.

Don't forget to throw in a couple "Eat Out" days or days where you can expect leftovers.

Step Three (Optional)

Transfer your meal plan to a prettier calendar if you'd like. Make your grocery list based on the meals you've planned. I also make a weekly produce list at this time too. I put the weekly list in my purse so I always have it when I'm ready to stop at the store.

This whole process might take me about two hours. It really depends on how often I get asked to make a cup of milk or a snack while I'm trying to get it done. I haven't gotten to that point in my life where I save things like this until after they've gone to bed so I do this during the day.

So. It's not that much work and yes we really do follow the plan. As you can see we skipped Prime Rib night but we'll be having it one day this week. The plan always seems to work itself out even if you have leftovers you weren't expecting or if you skip meals due to your taste for that day.

I hope this answers a lot of your questions. Please let me know if you need me to clarify anything. I always respond to the comments.

Do you feel like you could try this out now? Oh. And by all means give yourself more breaks than I do. We're just not eating out much these days to save money. Gotta love a saving season!

Monthly Meal Planning

Back in December I decided that I was tired of making multiple trips to the grocery store. It seemed like every visit resulted in us getting things we had no intentions of buying prior to our trip. Which means that we ended up spending more than we intended too.

Then eventually at some point during the month I would wonder, "Where did all of our money go?". I know where it went. Right to all those extra little things I felt like we needed. Impulse buys.

In an effort to save money and stop spending so much of our extra money I started making a meal plan and shopping once a month. I still go to the grocery store once a week for milk and fresh produce. The difference is now I go by myself with a very short list. There's no one with me asking for Oreos or "tiger chips" (Cheetos).

So on the the last day of every month I sit down and make a menu for the entire month. I only plan dinners. My husband takes leftovers for lunch and the kids and I will have something here. We'll either eat leftovers from dinner, a salad or something else quick and kid friendly like sandwiches. 

What I love about meal planning is it takes the guess work out of what we're eating everyday. What I dislike about meal planning is that I literally cook everyday except for the one or two days I schedule a dinner out or eating leftovers. Pushing through my exhaustion and laziness did help in a big way in December. We only ate out twice in the entire month of December. Once for our wedding anniversary and we drove through Chick-Fil-A one day while we were hanging out. To give you an idea of how much we use to eat out -- On any given week we would probably visit Chick-Fil-A for lunch at least 2-3 times. Resulting in about $15-$20 per trip and that would be on the low end. Whenever I get a salad it's more than that.

Needless to say that was about $60 a week that we were spending on eating out. Not good. Creating a meal plan helps me to see what we're eating too. I cook everything from scratch. Everyday. (the black beans do come from a can. Sue me.) I try to create a mix of the soul food my husband loves with healthier options that I need and fun foods that the kids like.

I'm still working on getting it down to a science. The relief that monthly meal planning has given me is life changing. No more random grocery store trips. 

Do you plan your family dinners for the month? Have any tips for me? 

The New Menu at Chuck E. Cheese

Last week my family had the opportunity taste the new Chuck E. Cheese menu created specifically for grown-up tastebuds. Before this tasting I was very familiar with the pizza and salad bar at Chuck E. Cheese.

As a kid I had many birthday parties there and now as a parent we go to Chuck E. Cheese a couple times a month for play time and lunch. I love going during the week when it's less crowded. If you've never been during the week I highly recommend it. It's a completely different experience than going on the weekends.

On our next visit I'll be ordering the new BBQ Chicken pizza. It was delicious. The crust was thin and crispy and the pizza was drizzled with the yummiest sauce. My husband and I both enjoyed the flavor of this pizza.


My husband's favorite from the new menu is the Italian Sandwich. We love a good sandwich. It's also a healthier option if you're not in the mood for pizza.

There were so many new sandwiches, wraps (the club wrap was pretty tasty!), wings (the order the sweet chili boneless - thank me later), breadsticks and pizza dogs were all really good.



Once you've had your lunch don't forget to try some of the new desserts. The new and improved cinnamon sticks were so good I could easily see myself enjoying those instead of birthday cake. A San Antonio favorite will definitely be the new Churros served with salted caramel and white chocolate icing. Yes. Yes. Yes.

If you're planning a trip to Chuck E. Cheese soon I encourage you to check out the new menu. When was the last time you took a trip to see Chuck and his friends? What are you excited to try from the new menu?

A Chic Thanksgiving: My Cooking Plan

Now that we've made a menu and gone to the grocery store let's talk about our plan of attack. How are we going to get all this done? With little kids and no one to help it can be difficult to cook such a large meal. To keep frustration and rushing to a minimum I start prepping days in advance. Doing a little bit each day helps me stay organized and in the holiday spirit. 

To start off the week of Thanksgiving I normally check (and double check) my grocery list and recipes to make sure that I have everything. I do any last minute store runs and get all of my fresh produce. If I plan to buy flowers or anything like that I go ahead and make those arrangements too. Or I take note of what my grocery store is offering for decorations. Normally when it's the week of Thanksgiving you can get a pretty good deal on anything Fall/Thanksgiving related.

On Tuesday, I do my mise en place. (Can you tell I'm a Top Chef fan?) I chop up all my celery and onions. I clean and shuck my corn and cut it off the cobb. I cut and clean all my veggies. Once everything is clean and chopped up I place everything in a zip-loc bag or a tupperware container. Everything goes back in to the fridge.

Wednesday afternoon, maybe around lunch I'll start cooking. I make the cornbread for my cornbread stuffing. While that's in the oven I start on my pie fillings and appetizers. When my pies are ready for the oven I get all my veggies going. After my collards, corn and green beans are on the stove I make my potato salad. So by the time Wednesday is over I've cooked all my desserts, the potato salad and all the veggies. If you're like me and you only have one oven then you know it only makes since to make some this stuff a day ahead. 

I normally wake up at about five on Thursday morning because I like to have my dinner ready around one or two. I make my rice and dinner rolls the day of too. Thursday morning is all about the Turkey and casseroles. I make the Turkey last. While the stove is working hard I mix up the lemonade and make sweet tea. I begin heating all the veggies about half way through the Turkey's cook time. Once the Turkey is done I let it rest for a while and then it's time to eat!

This is how I tackle getting all that cooking done. I plan to have Savannah help me as much as she wants. I know it may seem like a lot but splitting it up really helps. I have been asked about sharing the recipes for the Thanksgiving menu I created. I am working on that and hope to share it early next week. How do you prep and plan for big dinners?