Menu Monday

       This week's menu includes some new recipes and some old favorites. I am still enjoying trying out recipes from my new Pioneer Woman cookbook and of course, Skinny Taste has tons of great healthy recipes for fall. I can't wait to try her most recent recipe which is a turkey potpie with a sweet potato crust. It sounds really yummy. My in-laws are coming to visit this weekend for a pre-Thanksgiving get-together so we'll be having a "Thanksgiving" type meal, though not a traditional one since we'll both be having turkey later in the week. 

• Monday: Chicken spaghetti casserole. This is an older recipe from Pioneer Woman's blog that I haven't made since we lived in Washington. It was one of the recipes that I made when we were expecting Owen and froze a bunch of it for after he was born. It is really tasty. Or at least my version of it is. I leave out the green peppers and pimentos in exchange for chopped green chiles to give it a more mexican-type flavor and some heat. It is really warm and comforting and will be great for our parenting class's casserole night where each couple brings a different type of casserole to share. 

• Tuesday: Italian meatball soup. This is a recipe included in Pioneer Woman's new cookbook. It looks really delicious and is packed with vegetables. This will be the fourth of the seven soup recipes in the cookbook that I will try. We are soup fanatics at this house and could eat soup pretty much every day of the week once it gets cold. Even Owen loves eating soup, though we mainly have to feed it to him because he still doesn't understand why gravity doesn't hold the food to his spoon even when he holds it vertically. I also love making soups on Tuesdays because Tim always has to work late and I never know when he'll come home so I can have the soup made if I have to feed Owen early, yet the soup will still be warm and ready for whenever Tim comes home. 

• Wednesday: Leftover soup.
• Thursday: Skinny chicken enchiladas. Enchilada perfection. I have never made this for someone and had them not say that they were the best enchiladas they had ever eaten. And they are relatively healthy! This is one of my favorite Skinny Taste recipes and one that I will continue to make forever and ever. Amen.

• Friday: Chicken pot pie soup with easy garlic cheddar biscuits. This is a really easy and tasty soup from Skinny Taste and a way to have the chicken pot pie flavor without as many calories. Also, the biscuits are a copy of the Red Lobster cheddar bay biscuits which are delicious too. I am curious to see if Owen will like this soup and if it will allow us to sneak some more vegetables into his diet. He's been pretty vegetable skittish lately, though he did eat brussels sprouts twice last week. Weird, huh?

• Saturday: Tangy tomato brisket with mashed potatoes and roasted garlic brussels sprouts. This will be our Thanksgiving-ish meal with Tim's parents. It is a Pioneer Woman recipe and one that looks super easy and super delicious. Only three ingredients for the brisket and then you just let is roast away in the oven for seven hours. Since there will only be the three adults and one toddler, I didn't plan to make a ton of side dishes or anything. We will most likely have my apple pie for dessert because Tim requested it. I am a little nervous about the brisket because I know that the ideal brisket is smoked and I've never made this before. But I have never been severely disappointed by a Pioneer Woman recipe and hopefully the first time won't be while my in-laws are visiting. 

• Sunday: Homemade pizza night with side salads. For an easy dinner the night before my in-laws head back home, we will have a homemade pizza night. I can make a few pizza dough balls early and then we can top them however we like and clean-up should be pretty easy too. I am thinking that we will make a plain pepperoni pizza, Pioneer Woman's steakhouse pizza, and a third that will feature whatever toppings my in-laws enjoy best. The last time we made pizza at home, Owen had a great time helping put cheese and toppings on. Though for some reason, he wasn't able to put pepperoni anywhere but in his mouth!