At least we'll eat!

My Monday got off to a hectic start. As I was giving Clara her first feeding of the day, Meredith comes bounding in the room and declares, “I made a big mess everywhere! It was an acci-gent and YOU need to clean it up!” (She had spilled her milk and cereal all over the kitchen table and floor.) Sigh ...

As busy as I’ll be this week, at least we’ll eat. Here’s the meal plan.

1) Chili in bread bowls, green salad w/ feta, cranberries and walnuts

2) Hawaiian pizza and green salad—I’m going to try this dough recipe

3) Beef Carbonnade over egg noodles w/ roasted carrots and squash—this is an excellent recipe I found in Cooking Light (I’ll post it below).

4) Cheddar and Beer Soup w/ baguette croutons, and fruit salad

I’m also going to try making homemade cinnamon wheat bread (not sure what recipe yet). I’ve been inspired lately to bake more bread. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve done this on a regular basis. And, is there anything better than bread fresh out of the oven?

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Beef Carbonnade

2 bacon slices, finely diced
1 ½ pounds boneless chuck roast, cut into 1-inch cubes
½ t. salt
½ t. black pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
5 cups thinly sliced onion (about 4 medium)
3 T. all-purpose flour
2 t. white wine vinegar
½ t. sugar
½ t. dried thyme
1 (10 ½ oz.) can beef broth
1 (12 oz.) bottle light beer
1 bay leaf
6 cups hot cooked wide egg noodles (about 12 oz. uncooked pasta)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cook bacon in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat until crisp, remove bacon, reserving drippings in pan. Set bacon aside. Add beef, salt, and pepper to drippings in pan, cook 5 minutes, browning beef well on all sides. Add garlic, cook 30 seconds. Remove beef from pan with a slotted spoon, set aside. Add onion to pan, cover and cook over medium heat 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in flour, cook 2 minutes. Add vinegar and next 5 ingredients, bring to a boil. Return bacon and beef to pan. Cover and bake at 325 degrees for 2 hours or until beef is tender. Discard bay leaf. Serve over noodles. Yields six servings.