Menu Plan Monday – February 27

How is it already March this week? Time is flying past me. Hard to believe that our darling daughter has been with us 7 weeks today. Thankfully we are settling into a routine around here. I am finally starting to feel like myself again, regaining strength, energy and focus to balance being a mom, wife and business owner. I also got to spend a great deal more time in the kitchen this past week – hooray!

This past week’s menu went almost exactly according to plan, though slightly rearranged at times. There were definitely some stand out meals. The Slow Cooker Pork Chops were a hit. I loved this recipe and its simplicity, plus it renderered some wonderful juices that I used to make quinoa. The leftover quinoa was also used as part of my filling for stuffed bell peppers – I’ll be posting that recipe very soon for those. My sister’s Chicken and Lentil Curry dish was outstanding. Too bad she’ll never be able to tell me exactly what she did so that I can recreate it. She is an incredible cook that creates wonderful dishes though she never can seem to remember or write down exactly what all she did.

This past week I made a few fun kitchen purchases, including a donut pan! I had been toying around with the idea for a while and finally did it. I must admit, that I do love a good donut every now and again. The idea of being able to bake my own and control the ingredients was too much to resist. My first creation were these Apple Butter Maple Syrup Donuts (though mine were not gluten free – I subbed white whole wheat flour) using the last of my homemade apple butter from the fall that I had in the freezer. Can you say A – MA – ZING?!? These donuts had the perfect outer crust that gave way to a moist center and the brushing of suger and cinnamon on the outside gave it that extra bit of sweet without ovedoing it. I’ve had to hold myself back from devouring them all. The whole family loved them, even though my husband kept teasing me to fry them. Thankfully no one gave us the deep fryer for our wedding years ago that he snuck onto the registry – guess all of our friends and family knew better!