Meal Reviews, Menu Planning & a little crafts

Good morning! This weekend was very hectic as my 'in-laws' (I'm not yet engaged or married - but having dated someone for 5 years, I think I can call them in-laws) were in town so it was a lot of running around and hanging out.

Catching up on last weeks meals:

The Balsamic Pork Cutlets were uber tasty. The 'sauce' or 'gravy' that was made out of the vinegar, onions, etc was soo good. I made mashed potatoes as a side & all I wanted to do was pour that sauce over the mashed potatoes and have that as a meal.

As for the Chili - I didn't remember to write everything down as I was doing it - but here is what I remember using to make it.

3 lbs ground beef
2 large onions - chopped

Brown your ground beef & onion. Drain & set aside.
Add to the ground beef:

1 large can of whole tomatoes - chopped
1 large + 2 small cans of diced tomatoes
~ 4-6 tbsp chili powder (I added about 3 at the beginning & kept tasting while it was simmering & adding more)
2 tbsp garlic powder
1-1/2 tbsp red pepper flakes

I brought this to a simmer & just let it cook for about an hour - stirring & tasting to see if I needed to add more chili powder.

At this point - I split my pot in about half (my boyfriend is not a fan of beans) and I added 1/2 a large can of kidney beans to one half of the chili & left the other chili to simmer. I cooked the portion with beans for another 15-20 minutes to get the beans tender.

Then I added cheese & sour cream & it tasted fantastic. Personally, I think I still could have added a little more chili powder and/or red pepper flakes, but it was still good.

I made the Mushroom Fusilli w. Garlic Breadcrumbs on Saturday night while everyone was home & it was a very fast meal to make. Of course, I made two pastas (one regular & one gluten-free) and so I had to split the sauce made from the cream in two. I think in the future, if I make this again - I'll double the amount of cream because the pasta was a little dry, especially with the breadcrumbs on top. I still think it was a very tasty meal.

As for this week:

Monday/Tonight is left over pasta

Tuesday was supposed to be Corn Bread-Topped Sausage Pie from my Betty Crocker cookbook but since it's my birthday, I think we may go out and I'll make this Wednesday.

Thursday is Chicken w. Sun-Dried Tomatoes from a Campbell's Soup ad

I still haven't made the toast with asparagus, ricotta & egg yet - but I really need to use the asparagus that I have so I hope that will happen this week.

I believe the rest of the week will be left overs (if we have any...).


Craft help needed!!

We are doing secret santa again for book club & I need to determine if I should make one of the three of the below objects:



The flower wreath & cone are found at Home Decorator's magazine & I found the monogram note cards on Etsy, but I saw a tutorial for them in Real Simple.

What should I do?!?

Thanks!! Rachel