February Cooking for a Month

I think I had a theme going on this month for my monthly cooking - Mexican food and chicken! I think it started with great sale and coupon deal on Ro Tel at the end of January and ended with 2 rotisserie chickens I had frozen in my freezer. That's fine though cause there is nothing like spicy Mexican food on cold winter days to warm you up!

Here is my February Menu:


Spinach & Chicken Salad, Broccoli & Ham Cheese Casserole, Bread Salad, Egg Rolls, Tortilla Soup (2 times), Chili Mac (2 times), Beef Fajitas, Beef Stew, Pork Chops and Potato Wedges, Salmon Chowder, Chicken Fajitas, Chicken Wild Rice Soup (2 times), Mexican Lasagna, Cheese Chicken Tortellini, Winter Soup

Here is (just about everything) I already had in my stockpile to make my menu. I say just about everything cause I think while cooking I had to go back to my stockpile and get a couple more cans of Ro Tel, Beans and a few other things.


Here is everything I had to get at the store that I didn't have on hand to finish my monthly cooking.

I spent a total of $27.95.

The first thing I did when I started cooking was put my 2 rotisserie chickens in water to boil. This would give me the chicken broth I needed for my soups. While the chicken was boiling, I chopped all the veggies I needed.

As I chopped the veggies, I put all the carrot peels, celery and onion ends into the water with the chicken. This would give the chicken more flavor as it boils and also flavor the broth. I am thinking next month I might chop my veggies the day before - just to take a little time off doing it on cooking day.

If I decide to cook my noodles or macaroni for a dish, I always cook it a little more than al dente. That way when I finish cooking it or heating it up the noodles will just finish cooking and not over cook or get mushy. The Broccoli Ham & Cheese Casserole, I cooked the macaroni and sauce and mixed it all up in a casserole dish and marked how long to cook it for and what temperature.

After cooking all day, one of the very last things I want to think about is what's for super. I always try to plan something quick, simple, healthy and filling. I made some horseradish cream cheese and ham spread for pita chips. I actually used 3 packets of horsey sauce left over from Arby's a few weeks ago. Worked great! I also made a quick and easy cheesy broccoli and cheese dip. I had some left over celery which I spread with peanut butter. I didn't have any raisins (for ants) so I used mini chocolate chips. Interesting combination - but the kids loved it!

For desert we had fresh blueberries with whipped cream. I sprinkled nut meg and green Christmas sprinkles on top. Aside from the green Christmas sprinkles, I was surprised how good the flavors of blueberry, nut meg and whipped cream were together.

(There is only 6 because my daughter was at her friends house).

So now I can relax for the rest of the month and feel good when I get inspired to make something and not feel like I've already been in the kitchen all day.