Weekly Menu

Labor Day weekend is the start of apple season for Lynd's Fruit Farm near our house.  Every week they open a different section of their orchard to the public for picking and each section is a different variety of apple.  Families come from all over to pick apples with their kids, some even bring their dogs (Snoop would be eating all of the apples and would look more like a pig by the end).  I always associate apples with autumn and usually forget to check the apple schedule until the last week.  This year is the first time we got apples that weren't winesap or goldrush... we actually got some of their honeycrisp apples which are fully picked from the orchard within 24 hours!

So with about 30 pounds of apples, I have some baking to do!  My husband is requesting apple crisps and I will definitely be making some fresh apple juice with my juicer.  Here are some other apple recipes to try out... slow cooker applesauce, apple pie chips, apple cider caramel cookies, and personal apple pies.

Last week was a busy week making for a hectic, on-the-go dinner schedule.  This week might be a little more low key and get us back on track.  So here is this week's menu...

sloppy joes with salad
chicken pomodoro with garlic pasta
turkey apple and cheddar grilled cheese
stuffed shells
quesadillas

Broccoli Stuffed Chicken - total time 35 minutes

I used to buy those premade stuffed chicken breasts from the freezer section of my grocery store.  That used to be one of my "I'm in the mood to cook so I'll put these in the oven with some potatoes and we'll have a gourmet dinner that I slaved over a hot stove for".  How times have changed!  I don't even want to know what all was in those little plastic pouches.  I'm sure it was still better than going to a fast food place, but I would rather spend a little more time and energy on what is fueling my body.  Plus, I get to pick the filling... and I pick gouda!

This really is pretty easy.  If you start out with chicken cutlets, you really just lay out the chicken and filling, roll it up, and tie it closed.  I like to use really thick freezer bags covered in a towel to flatten meat... it keeps everything nice and clean.  And then another trick... instead of using toothpicks which can be hard to find once cooked and easy to find when you're taking a big bite... use baker's twine.  At the end you just give it one snip and the twine is easily peeled off.  Plus, it is usually in bright colors and easy to see once cooked.

This recipe is pretty versatile too.  Try it with turkey, pork, of fish.

Sauteed Zucchini Parm - total time 20 minutes

Zucchini season is winding down, so maybe you're working with a bumper crop or just noticed that zucchini under all of those leaves that is practically the size of your leg.  This recipe is a quick one that could be a great afternoon snack or part of your lunch or dinner.  It's like mini pizzas, just without the carbs!

Weekly Menu

Happy Labor Day!  The unofficial end of summer when school starts up, pools close (at least in Ohio), and you start bringing out your sweaters and jackets.  It's also time for Fashion Week in NYC where designers show off their latest designs for Spring... so Labor Day is kind of the launch of Spring depending how you look at it!  :)

Outside of those couple unofficial things, I wasn't really sure what Labor Day was really celebrating.  We get a day off work for a holiday that sounds like we should be laboring away working on something.  So I looked it up... gotta love the Information Age... which, on a side note, I just read that we created 5 exabytes of information between the dawn of civilization through 2003, but that much information is now created every 2 days according to Google's former CEO, Eric Schmidt.  Craziness.  Any way, back to Labor Day... we are actually celebrating the eight hour work day (or really, the 40 hour work week).  Before 1886, Americans would work 10-12 hours six days a week to make a living wage and keep their jobs.  After some legislation, some rioting, and then more legislation we now have "eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what we will!".  So it is interesting the fast food minimum wage protest is making headlines right now.  Not sure where I stand on the minimum wage issue since I understand where both sides are coming from.  If you raise minimum wage across the board, which labor is every companies largest expense, prices will have to increase to maintain margins and profitability (if the company isn't profitable, it can't employ workers).  On the other hand, if someone working in the fast food industry has to maintain at least one additional job and still live paycheck to paycheck... well that it awful and makes me appreciate what I have.

On to less serious topics... after my post last week about easy ways to preserve summer's bounty, I spent some of this weekend doing just that.  Canned a bunch of tomatoes, froze some peeled and chopped peaches, froze some corn on the cob and off the cob, and made some lemon ice cubes... perfect for adding to a drink or using in a recipe.  My freezer and pantry are getting rather full!

Now it is time to plan another menu for the week.  It's going to be an easy one because it is a short week with a couple nights of on-the-go eating.  And even though a lot of people rioted almost 240 years ago for my right to only work 40 hours a week... my project at work goes live this weekend, so there will be a few late nights where my work day will definitely be over eight hours.

turkey burgers and crispy roast potatoes
ravioli
ginger soy salmon filet and green beans
pizza