Menu Madness

If you've read my post on Menu Planning then you know there's a method to my madness.
This is just the bare bones of our menu for this week.  To each meal I add healthy sides of vegetables and fruits that are in season for us.  (For example, I may list "meatloaf" on the menu, but when I put it on the table there is also steamed broccoli, mashed potatoes and pomegranate to balance everything out!)

This week we are having:

Monday- Soup in a Pumpkin
Tuesday- Pho`
Wednesday-Pumpkin Soup (yep you guessed it, made from the leftovers of the pre-baked pumpkin on Monday!)
Thursday-Simply Great Chicken
Friday- This is always our "Family Pizza Night" I usually make our pizza at home and I'm excited about the challenge of trying different types of pizza (like this amazing Mamma!)

 This week's recipe will be the Soup in a Pumpkin (please, oh please help me come up with a better name for it!!)  We've used this recipe two years in a row and it will certainly be a tradition in our family for years to come.  It embodies the season of Autumn with it's warmth and use of the traditional orange pumpkin.


Two years ago my husband's folks sent the kids an ABC's of Halloween book.  It's an adorable holiday book and I love children's books about the alphabet.  I'm not a big fan of Halloween though so the first year we had it the recipe went completely unnoticed by me!
Last year while reading it to my children I realized that the letter X was labeled "eXtra good Alphabet Soup in a Pumpkin" and there was the recipe right there on the page.  I loved the idea of cooking the soup inside the pumpkin and getting selections of pumpkin flesh in the serving of the soup.  So I purchased the ingredients and gave it a try.  It was wonderful!  The only adaptation I made this year was to double the recipe to include some dear friends who came to have dinner with us!

Extra Good Alphabet Soup in a Pumpkin

 (for the printable recipe click here)

1 Medium Pumpkin (cleaned out and set aside)

4 cut up Chicken Breast

3 Tablespoons of Butter

3 sliced Carrots

2 sliced Celery Stalks

½ Cup of Scallions

    
     1 can each of:

 ::Cream of Chicken Soup

 ::Cream of Celery Soup

 ::Chicken Alphabet Soup

1 can of water

⅓ Cup of Sour Cream

½ teaspoon of Nutmeg

Saute chicken in butter until cooked through.  Remove and saute carrots, celery and scallions.  Add the cans of soup.  Stir in 1 can of water (or milk if you prefer), sour cream, and nutmeg.  Mix well and pour into the hollowed out pumpkin. Add chicken and stir.  Top with the pumpkin top.  Place on a baking sheet and bake in a 350 degree oven for 90 minutes.  Scrape sides of pumpkin while serving.
Makes 8 servings.