Weekly Meal Plan [plan for leftovers!]

This is a pretty easy meal plan for the week, depending on the size of household you plan to feed. We had leftovers available for lunches and for a dinner as well.

Monday: Crockpot Shredded Beef Tacos with Mexican Rice.

The Mexican rice is super easy! Melt 2 tbsp of butter in a dutch ove pot. Stir in a chopped onion, garlic and 1 cup of rice and sautee until it starts to lightly brown. Pour in 2 cups of chicken stock, or water, and one can of diced tomatos, 1 tsp of chili powder and 1 tsp of salt. Bring to a boil, then cover and take down to a simmer. Let it cook for about 15-18 minutes, until rice is tender. Once finished, remove from heat, stire in 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese and some cilantro & enjoy! The best part is, you can change this up to meet your tastes! When peppers are in season in the garden, we like to add those too! And note, you have to use 'regular' rice for this recipe -- quick cooking type rices won't work!

Tuesday: Steak on the grill with Baked Potatos

Wednesday: BBQ Crockpot Western Style Ribs

I am still working on this recipe, but this time around wasn't bad. I mix up my own 'bbq' sauce. Also, for this, I use bone-in western style ribs because, a) they have more meat than a spare rib and b) when cooking in the crock pot for 10-ish hours, bone-in works better with a long cooking time. They don't dry out as fast. If you turn on your crock before you leave for an 8 hour work day, you know you likely don't get to the food it is cooking for at least 10 hours :)

Thursday: Leftovers

We still had plenty of shredded beef left over for some quick soft tacos/burritos as well as some ribs from the night prior.

Friday: Homemade Pizza Night!

This is a handy, quick meal. Make up some of your favorite pizza dough or pick up a dough ball from your local pizza parlor on your way home! If you make your own, usually the recipes call for enough to make 2, so you can freeze one for next Friday :) Our favorite way to do pizza, which happens to be my husband speciality, is to simmer down a can of whole tomatos and a small can of tomato sauce, add our favorite seasonings and then we kick it up a tad with some crushed red pepper, load it with cheese and some mushrooms and cook!

So, what are you cooking for dinner this week?

Linked up with Pennywise Platter!

Homemade Fish Sticks

These could not have been easier! And they were seriously so good!

My hubby, who is conservative with his compliments when it comes to food ;) even proclaimed they were better than the fish fry he went out for during lunch last Friday.

And the best part, no nasty additives - just fish!

I checked out a few other leading brands of fish sticks to see if I could find out their ingredient list. For my recipe, the total ingredient list maxed out at 5 - fish, breadcrumbs, egg white, salt and pepper. 6 if you include the cooking oil.

For Gorton's Classic Breaded Fish Sticks:

And for Van de Kamp's Crunchy Fish Sticks:

Ingredients
Alaska Pollock (Fish, Sodium Tripolyphosphate to Retain Fish Moisture), Bread Crumbs, (Wheat Flour, Sugar, Salt, Yeast), Wheat Flour Enriched With (Niacin, Ferrous Sulfate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Vegetable Oil (Cottonseed and/Or Canola, and/Or Sunflower, and/Or Soybean With Tbhq and Citric Acid As Preservatives), Water. Contains 2% Or Less of: Modified Food Starch, Salt, Sugar, Leavening (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate, Monocalcium Phosphate), Dextrose, Monosodium Glutamate, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Spice, Paprika. Contains: Fish (Pollock), Wheat. Manufactured On Equipment That Also Processes Other White Fish.

So just a few ingredients that stand out to me - both brands have Monosodium Glutamate in them - better known as MSG. Ugh, really? And they both have nasty Vegetable/Canola/Soybean oils.

Both also mention 'Tbhq' - what the heck is that? According to Wikipedia, it is a food preservative, however, Natural News states it best - 'The FDA allows amounts of up to 0.02% of the total oils in food to be TBHQ. This may not sound like a lot, but it does tend to make one wonder why there needs to be a limit on the amount if it is apparently a 'harmless additive.'


They go on to list countless other things we could tear apart, caramel color anyone?, but why bother. It is a fish stick people - not a space ship. It shouldn't be so complicated -- and nasty!

So, back to the point of my post - my super simple Homemade Fish Sticks! Try them - they rock. I promise! And no MSG or nasty fillers, minced fish 'pieces' etc etc. They will take just as long for you to make from scratch as the nasty ones would take to bake in the oven.

Super Simple Homemade Fish Sticks

Ingredients:
1.25 pounds white fish of your choice - I used wild caught Cod
1.5 cups breadcrumbs - eyeball the amount, add more as needed
1 egg white - I had just enough so depending on the size of your egg, you may need two egg whites
Salt and Pepper
Coconut Oil for frying - I used enough to get about a quarter inch in my dutch oven
---
Heat your oil in a dutch oven or deep sided skillet. Cut your fish filet into chunks or sticks, whichever suits your fancy! Season the fish pieces, then dip into the egg white. Transfer to the breadcrumbs and coat each piece well. Place pieces in dutch oven with hot coconut oil. I had mine set over Med-High heat on my electric oven. You will only want to cook a few pieces at a time - overcrowding the pan will drop the oil temperature. Depending on the size of your fish sticks, they need to cook about 5-8 minutes per side.

Remove from cooking oil and place on plate to rest & keep warm while you finish cooking the rest.
Enjoy! I know this kid sure did :)

Disclaimer: Child was not given whole fish stick to naw on :) I still break it into pieces for him - and he chowed!



This post shared over at Weekend Gourmet and Monday Mania