Menu Plan Monday

• Whole Wheat pancakes, eggs, fruit
• Leftovers & Girl’s Night Out
• Baked Potatoes & salad
• Build your own taco bar
• Beef tips in mushroom sauce(crockpot) & broccoli
• Pasta salad
• Sandwiches

I’ve found myself not wanting to be at the stove or cook things in the oven since it’s warming up. My usual solution is meals on the grill, however, we’re out of propane, and on the off chance that we don’t get around to refilling it I figured I’d go ahead and make other plans. I always try to plan breakfast for dinner at least 1 night a week. The kids absolutely love it, and it’s a nice change of pace for us. We’re big “brinner” fans at this house!

Beef Tips in Mushroom Sauce Crock Pot Recipe

Ingredients:
2 pounds lean chuck – cut in 1 – 3/4 inch pieces
1 can 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup
1 pkg. onion soup mix
1 can Diet Sprite or 7up

*Feel free to bulk this up with any zero point vegetables that you choose!

Directions:
Put meat in crock pot. Pour soup & onion soup mix over meat. Add Diet Sprite/7up. Cook in crock pot all day on low (or high for at least 4 hours). Turn off and let sit for 30 minutes before serving. Serve over rice or noodles. (extra points)

Makes 8 servings.
Each serving = 6 Weight Watchers Points

Nothing better than fresh baked bread

Last summer (maybe the one before that, even) my mom brought home a loaf of fresh baked bread, baked by Great Harvest Flower Mound, who participates in their neighborhood’s farmer’s market. I don’t even remember what kind of bread it was, but I do remember how tasty it was! I immediately stuck 2 pieces in the toaster and buttered one and added peanut butter to the other. Oh, my! This was soooo tasty, I threw another in the toaster. Faster forward to earlier this year, when I started reading Kath’s blog. She is always enjoying Great Harvest breads since her husband, Matt, works there and they are in the process of opening their own. I had to have Great Harvest, again!
While we live about 30 minutes from Flower Mound, it’s not too far from Jonathan’s Mother’s Day Out. I decided I needed to pick up a loaf when I was out that way. Since all of their breads are made the day of, they offer different specialty breads each day. I picked up a Whole Grain Goodness loaf and holy moly! best. bread. I. have. ever. had! I have been craving it since then. Only problem? They switched the day they have Whole Grain Goodness to Mondays. Jonathan does not go to MDO on Mondays, and as much as I love this bread, and need more, I am not willing to drive 1 hour, round trip, for a loaf of bread. I’d rather wait until I plan on being out that way, for one reason or another, on a Monday. Of course, I could always just try a new one, one that they do bake on a day that Jonathan goes to MDO. But today, today, I just couldn’t take it any longer. I started searching for something I could bake myself. I have a bread machine, which makes it easy on me by doing all the kneading and waits for it to rise, then beeps to let me know I can take it out, place it in the loaf pan, and bake it in the oven. Or, I have the option of baking it in the machine, but then the loaf has a hole in the bottom, where the bread machine paddle is since it mixes and “kneads” it in the machine as well.
I decided on this Oat N Honey recipe, that I altered – I used half honey/half molasses, 2 cups whole wheat and only 1 cup all purpose flour and the addition of 1 tablespoon of flax seeds. I also used regular oats and not quick cooking oats, because that’s what I have, and I did the buttermilk trick where you add milk to 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar because I don’t just keep buttermilk on hand. I also sprinkled some oatmeal and flax seeds on the top. I baked it at 350 for 30 minutes, rather than in my machine. It’s not as dense, and it doesn’t have the crunch that whole grain goodness has, but it is still super tasty, and still healthy.