Spices Over Yanda Blog (Previously Allyson's Attempt at Domestication)

My October menu plan worked so well I'm excited to do it again this coming month.  Here is my November menu items... :) Beef roast Baked chicken thighs Grilled chicken Grilled steak Chicken pot pie Sausage Calzones Sloppy Joes Baked Chicken Parmesana Vegetable soup Heavenly Chicken Burritos and Quesadillas Spaghetti Chicken and noodles Fajitas Roasted Rosemary Chicken Sausage Alfredo Ham and Potatoes Baked Parmesan Chicken Sausage and Ziti BBQ meatloaf As a side note: Some might be wondering why there are no traditional Thanksgiving meals, but we are going camping over Thanksgiving and so will be doing camping food instead.  The ham and potatoes is for the weekend after that we get back. :) Have a great month of cooking! Allison

The monthly menu has gone very well.  It's been a good learning experience and I do believe I will continue with this idea next month.  I found it smart to do my monthly menu in pencil as I have had to go through and tweak it here and there.  If I knew the schedule was changing I would go and switch things around to better fit the schedule.  It's still a great thing though because I know what I have ingredients for and so I just switch things around.  I do think I've spent more than I planned on already.  I think the reason why is when I go to grab milk I think of other things i need and grab them rather than just going without.  Also, I've been in the mood to cook and bake.  With the pressure off of having to figure out what to make every day, cooking has become more fun again. :)  Overall it's a great step in the right direction. Sunday I found out that my oldest daughter needed to take a dessert Wednesday (today) night to church.  O...

A couple weeks ago I found myself BORED with my menu.  Whenever I get bored with my menu, we end up eating out too much.  I vowed to find some new recipes.  I tried three new recipes in the past week and two of them were awesome! The third one we won't talk about other than....YUCK! ;) The new recipes did the trick and I'm back to cooking.  Now if I could just find a way to get un-BORED of cleaning my kitchen after above mentioned cooking... blah! Tuesday and Thursday I am out of the house at swim practice until 7 pm.  Dinner is hard.  Walking in the door with two kids that just had an hour long work-out and are literally STARVING, a 12 year old that is just finishing her homework and a husband who has worked all day...we need to eat ASAP...no time for cooking, it has to be ready.  These are the days where I love my crockpot.  I will either have something in there that is ready to eat or I will have done up a casserole like the sausage and zit...

I know..haven't posted in forever...blah, blah, blah....oh well, I'm here now! :) I've been trying some new things in the kitchen lately and I wanted to share a recipe I made up last night that turned out sooo good. Basically I was wanting to bake chicken in the oven. I like to do this every now and then with boneless breasts of chicken and I've used several items as breading, things like chips and crackers etc. Last night I didn't have any of my "normal" ingredients I would usually use, so I improvised, which for me is kinda new, LOL! Here is what I did... I used a large handful of almonds, 2 handfuls of wheat thins, a large dash of parmesean grated cheese, onion powder, garlic powder, kosher salt and white pepper. I threw it all in my mini food processor and gave a big whirl. Yum! I then just dunk my chicken in a egg, then the breading and baked at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. I also roasted some potatoes and veggies to go with. I used my de...

It's been forever, I know.... My garden fizzled out since we have had record heat, unrelenting days of over 100 degrees for a couple months now! My garden just couldn't hang on. I did enjoy it while it lasted! Since May I have been enjoying getting fresh produce from a co-op called www.bountifulbaskets.org . It has been great! I thought about opening a pick up site here locallly, but realized I just don't have the time to commit to it. If I have the time I drive about 30 minutes to the nearest pick up site and the produce is AMAZING!!! Today, I picked up my normal basket, which included: 1 head of lettuce; 1 head of broccoli, 3 large ears of corn, 4 tomatoes, 14 plums, 3 pears, 5 nectarines, 1 lb. strawberries, 1 large back seedless black grapes, 1 cantaloupe and 7 bananas. In addition I decided to order their case of plums. It said it would have 10 variety of plums, 12 lbs. for $10.50. I got 12 lbs. of 4 different variety, but that's ok. But, it's A LOT o...

First harvest of the season!  I was watering my tomato plants and saw some bright red peaking threw and lo and behold, TWO gorgeous cherry tomatoes just waiting to be picked!  I saved one for my daughter who eats tomatoes like candy and one for my husband.  They both enjoyed them immensely! I have pea pods!  I can’t believe it!  I am soo very excited for these to plum up so I can pick them.  I think it’s important with peas to get them in early and enjoy them before it gets too hot.  My peas in years past haven’t done well if I wait too long to plant. Look at all the glorious tomatoes just waiting to ripen up.  I am very exited, especially since tomatoes are soo dang expensive right now! My spinach and lettuce are coming along nicely as well which is exciting.  I’ve tried every every year with lettuce and I just haven’t had much success.  I am going to clip some baby leaves off the lettuce soon to see if that helps it to keep gro...

For information on the food co-op I'm talking about go here . Today I picked up some great produce from Bountiful Baskets Food co-op. I'm very excited. In my standard $15 basket this is what I got: 3 large onions 1 head romaine lettuce 2 bunches celery 1 bag carrots 1 head broccoli 2 6 oz. bags radishes 9 small Persian cucumbers 6 oranges 8 apples 6 mangos 3 lbs. strawberries I also ordered the tropical pack for $10.50 which included: 1 coconut 1 pineapple 1 starfruit 3 mangos 2 limes 2 lemons 1 bag fresh mint 2 vanilla beans I'm soo excited! I've been waiting all day to get home and google recipes to figure out what I'm gonna cook all week with my loot! :) Here are some of the things I've found. Asian Pork chops with mint Coconut mango chicken with black beans Braised Radishes Roasted Radishes Grilled Radishes I have two in my family that really enjoy salad. In fact one of my children will eat a salad in her lunch daily if I send it. I'll use the lettu...