Pot Roast, Italian Wedding Soup -Planning Ahead Meals.

Sophia decided to go to bed tonight at 5:30/6:00...So i took advantage of that and started cooking up some yummy food for the week! I had meats in the freezer from a good sale...and some ingredients in the fridge that needed to be used so it worked out great!

MEAL ONE: Melt-In-Your- Mouth-Pot Roast

I didn't have all the ingredients..but i had enough of them that i went for it! The Recipe I started off with was from my Betty Crocker CookBook-Bridal Edition *thanks tricia zuniga. :) I didn't follow it exactly. The rebelliousness in me came out...oh i know, i'm outta control!

Ingredients

-4 pound beef arm, blade or cross rib pot roast (or whatever you ended up with from the

grocery store. i'm pretty sure i didn't have the right piece haha.)

-1 to 2 teaspoons salt

-1 tablespoon chopped fresh (or 1 teaspoon dried) marjoram leaves

-1 tablespoon chopped fresh (or 1 teaspoon dried) thyme leaves

-2 teaspoons chopped fresh or 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves

-4 garlic cloves, crushed

-8 small cut potatoes, cut in half

-8 medium carrots, cut into fourths (or whatever you have left! clear out the fridge with this one!)

-8 small onions

-1 can (10 1/2 ounces) condensed beef broth

I wish i had all the fresh herbs...but i don't and i'm fine with that! Maybe one day i'll have a little garden set up...that would be awesome. but for now i'll stick with killing my mums in my front pots. (mums are hardy my butt.)

-Chop up the carrots, onions (and potatoes if you have them.. i didn't)

I wanted to brown the edges..they are prettier..and tasty that way. but mostly pretty. haha.

 next sear in the yummy-ness of the beef.

-sprinkle beef with salt, pepper, the dried herbs and pour in broth.

-Heat to boiling, reduce heat. Cover and simmer 2 hours and 30 minutes. just let it do it's thing. At this point i started making another meal for the week.

-Add carrots and onions (and potatoes if you have them)

-Cover and simmer about 1 hour or until beef and vegetables are tender! Your house will smell amazing!! (go easy on the thyme..it kicked my husbands butt when he opened the lid. those are his words exactly. but other than that...awesome.)

Cover it up and throw it in the fridge! one meal ready for tomorrow. I think we'll have rice with it. and maybe make some gravy from the juices there. mmm. yum.

MEAL TWO: Italian Wedding Soup

Some people told me..ok..no..it was just my sister...but she told me that she craved things more when she was nursing then when she was pregnant..and I found this partly true. I alwayssss wanted to get this soup. everywhere we went. So i was so excited to try and make it myself. kinda nervous i would ruin it and never be able to eat it again....but one bite of the soup and i realized i didn't have to fear!! it was delicious! go me! I found the recipe by typing it into allrecipes.com and picking the prettiest one . haha. i know typical me.  I hope you try this one out...You will feel all fancy when you make it.

I used half of my meat for sloppy joes..which we already ate for dinner.. and then i had spinach ready in a ziplock back, leftover from creamed spinach recipe a few nights before. clean out that fridge ladies! one thing i hate doing is throwing away forgotten food in the fridge..i really try to use up everything..we all hate throwing away money into the trash can.

Ingredients 

• 1/2 pound extra-lean ground beef
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 2 tablespoons dry bread crumbs
• 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 5 3/4 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups thinly sliced escarole
• 1 cup uncooked orzo pasta
• 1/3 cup finely chopped carrot

-In a medium bowl, combine meat, egg, bread crumbs, cheese, basil and onion powder; shape into 3/4 inch balls. bake them up! 350*

-Chop up spinach and place aside.

-In large saucepan, heat broth to boiling; stir in escarole, orzo pasta, chopped carrot(i used up all mine in the pot roast. oops. hehe.) and meatballs.

-Return to boil, then reduce heat to medium. Cook at slow boil for 10 minutes, or until pasta is al dente. Stir frequently to prevent sticking. (You could always add more spice or other herbs to punch it up! maybe even put in different types of broth. try it out!)

ok...i have to go to bed. while posting this i've been eating all of sophia's apple sauce. some people eat straight out of the tub of icecream late at night... i eat a bowl of my daughter's mott's applesauce. my wild days are gone. ;)