Meal Planning Monday 2/1-7 and Brunswick Stew

Hmmm! It's a new month. I really need to go to the grocery store for breakfast foods and snacks, but I think we've still got quite a few dinners (and lunches cause I love leftovers) in this house.

Breakfast - cereal, oatmeal, fruit

Lunch - leftovers, sandwiches, soup

Dinner -
Monday: Just me and Ariel since Jason is at SMOV - we had leftover brunswick stew over mashed potatoes (and Ariel had carrot slices too) and cranberry orange muffins
Tuesday: Graduate Dinner for MACU students - they even have child care, so it'll be a mini-date too :)
Wednesday: Church Planning Meeting in VA - Aaron is putting together something quick from what I understand - Highlight: Small groups start after the meeting!!! Yay! Ariel gets to visit Gram and PaPop, too!
Thursday: Lindsey is bringing dinner, I think chili and chocolate chip cookies, and they are all staying the night! It's gonna be fun. I think it'll be Savannah's first sleep over at our house.
Friday: Spaghetti and garlic bread (still haven't made it even though its been on the plan for like three weeks)
Saturday: Headed back to Wilson - things got snowed out last weekend so we're gonna try it again
Sunday: Jason preaching & teaching at StoneybrookCC - I think we're staying late, so we can watch the Super Bowl...I'm hoping we'll have beefy salsa dip and chips.

Last Week's Recipe Review: Brunswick Stew

I really love Brunswick Stew. I honestly don't know many other people who love it the way I do (especially not in my family). This is only the second time I've tried making it and the second recipe of tried. The first was more simple and traditional. It was good, but this one was great.

I followed the recipe pretty closely, but I didn't have everything so as usual I made a few of my own changes. I used boneless chicken breasts and just boiled them and shredded them. I didn't have cooked pork, but I did have half a sliced ham, so I sliced some of it up really thin (about 2 cups) and threw it in. I used canned veggies too instead of frozen. I also didn't have regular hot sauce so I used tabasco sauce instead and definitely not 2-3 tbsp of it...more like 1/2 a tsp (which for my taste was still too hot, but more on that later).
The result was a stew that was full of flavor. I think this is mostly due to the ketchup and brown sugar (though the worcestershire sauce was noticeable too). However, as I said it was a little firey for me and Ariel, so I did some research on how to correct that. I did some experimenting. On Thursdays, we planned to eat the leftovers, so I left it on the stove on low most of the day, added a few splashes of lemon juice, another can of corn, a couple tbsp of brown sugar. I hoped these things would balance the flavor out a little. It was still spicy for me, but also still good. I also tried it with some mashed potatoes and found it a pretty good combination for the spice (this was especially helpful for Ariel) and flavor.

This recipe made a really good amount. We had enough for dinner Tuesday, lunch Wednesday, lunch and dinner Thursday for Chris & Lindsey and us, lunch Monday, and there's even about one meal in the freezer.  Jason really enjoyed it and Ariel liked it once I added the potatoes. I really enjoyed it too when I could bear the heat. We'll definitely have this meal again (and again)!