Meal Planning Week #3

I have been trying really hard lately to plan out meals so I am not running to the grocery store more than necessary and so weeknight evenings have more leisure time and less time prepping, cooking and cleaning. I am going to document the meals here so I can have a record of what worked well and what did not. I do also use emeals occasionally, but this week I needed two crock pot recipes and there were not any included. Boo! That is actually my big gripe with emeals, sometimes it works great, but other times it just does not.

Monday- walleye, wild rice and a green salad (wild rice was made in a large batch and frozen prior to this week)

Tuesday- crock pot chicken cacciatore with spaghetti squash and steamed green beans (cutting this recipe down to 4 servings, will prepare aromatics ahead of time, spaghetti squash and green beans can be prepared in the microwave)

Wednesday- crock pot pork stew served in lettuce wraps with cauliflower rice (will prepare cauliflower in food processor prior to wednesday)

Thursday- Kowalski's rotisserie chicken, sweet potatoes, steamed broccoli (pick up chicken, microwave sweet potatoes and broccoli)

Hope everyone has a great week!

French Toast Casserole

Thanks everyone for coming to our housewarming brunch! I have had a few requests for the French Toast Casserole recipe and here it is. Charlie's mom, Suzanne Rand made it first, and it was so awesome, I had to repeat it. Also, here is a link to the quiche I made, which is from the New Basics Cookbook. I used only 1/3 cup of gruyere cheese and next time I would add 1 egg and reduce the amount of half & half to 2/3 cup.

Casserole1 lb. French bread, crust cut off,
8 oz. cream cheese, cut into cubes
1 c. blueberries
12 eggs
1 c. milk
1/3 c. maple syrup

Syrup
1 c. sugar
2 T. cornstarch
1 c. water
1 c. blueberries
1 T. butter

1) Grease a 9 x 13 casserole dish with pam, olive oil--whatever you choose.
2) Either cut the bread into cubes or rip it into bite sized cubes. Put half of it in the casserole dish.
3) Sprinkle half the blueberries and half the cream cheese on the bread. Cover with the rest of the bread and top with remaining cream cheese and blueberries.
4) Beat eggs with milk and maple syrup. Pour evenly over the bread mixture. Cover and leave in the fridge overnight.
5) The following morning preheat the oven to 350. Let the casserole sit out of the fridge 30 minutes before putting in the oven. Cover the casserole with tin foil and cook for 30 minutes. Uncover and cook for 25-30 minutes more until the top is golden brown.
6) Serve with blueberry syrup.

Blueberry Syrup
1) Combine all syrup ingredients into saucepan, whisk and bring to a boil until thick and purple. Serve over casserole.