Menu Plan Monday July 7

Well, good morning! I just had a slice of applesauce bread and a glass of milk. Yum. I'll post a review of the recipe below my menu. This week there is one repeat because we didn't get to it last week.

Spinach Lasagna Rolls, Salad

Loaded Baked Potatoes, Salad

Chicken Salad Sandwiches, Carrots/ranch

BBQ Pork Chops, Steamed Broccoli, Veggie (whatever I can find on sale)

French Toast, Baked Apples

I'm improvising on the lasagna rolls this week. I mean how hard can they be? Ha.. I'll let you know. Loaded baked potatoes have been on my menu many times here lately... I LOVE them. I'm not sure R gets very excited about them. He's like, "Where's the meat?". I guess bacon bits don't count (although occasionally I do fry 'real' bacon with them). I'll probably throw a few chicken fingers on his plate so he doesn't die of starvation. I'll make chicken salad Wednesday since Wed. night is my easy night. The pork chops are a repeat from many menus... I really need to cook them! And french toast just sounded good. I rarely make it, and by rarely I literally mean I've probably made it 3 times since we've been married. I'm going to try the apples in the crock pot so I don't have to heat up the kitchen with the oven. I have a good recipe but I'm not sure how it will work in the crock pot.
So now on to the Applesauce Bread. If you have read just a small sampling of the recipes I try you probably know that I rarely stick to the actual recipe! I'm not sure why I don't... I just have something in me that says do it different!!! So, why should this time be any different! This recipe (the original you can get by clicking the link) looked really healthy so that's mainly why I tried it. I'm always looking for ways to get healthy food into Luke. Luckily anything even mildly sweet and bread-like, Luke loves. So after looking over the recipe I did change a few things. I'm sure the original is great.. and one day I may even try the original recipe! I was just afraid that it might be too 'whole wheatish and not sweetish' for my family. Here is my altered recipe, which is still quite healthy:

Applesauce Bread
3/4 c whole wheat flour
3/4 c ap flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt (I use kosher, in a pepper mill so that it's finer)
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t pumpkin pie spice
1/3 c honey
2 T brown sugar
3/4 c applesauce (no sugar added)
2 eggs
1/4 butter, melted

(and yes, the butter is in the original recipe... I am not scared of butter though! I'd much rather have butter in my baked goods than plastic... I mean margarine.)

Mix all dry ingredients together. Make a well in the center, add applesauce, eggs, butter and honey. Mix well. Pour into greased and floured loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes or until toothpick stuck in center of loaf comes out clean. Let cook 10 minutes before removing from pan.
It's really yummy sliced and heated up with a little butter on top! Next time I might get adventurous and add some shredded carrots or raisins.. or use this recipe for healthy pumpkin bread! BTW, I just used Sparkpeople Recipe Calculator to determine exactly how healthy it might be... and it roughly has 145 calories (12 servings) and 5 grams of fat. Not that I'm counting calories at all, but it's nice to know! Oh and I didn't figure in the butter on top! ;)

Go to orgjunkie.com to see more recipes and menus!

Time to grocery shop!