What's For Dinner? Book Review and Giveaway

Well HELLO from Seattle where the weather is absolutely PERFECT! I hope all of you are doing well!  I am having SUCH a nice vacation! 

Last Saturday I attended the WHO (Washington Homeschooler Organization) Convention and had the pleasure of meeting the author of a wonderful cookbook called "What's for Dinner?"  Jana Schofield has written, I believe, a very useful tool to helping busy families plan dinner and make time to sit together for a nightly meal.  I LOVE this cookbook and I cannot say enough good things about it!  The book provides 30 weeks (that's over 6 months) of weekly dinner menus and provides easy recipes as well as tips for planning ahead.  The best part?  There are NO REPEATS!  Love this book!  The recipes can and menus can easily be switched around to provide for even more variety in weekly menus!  Each menu includes a main dish, a vegetable and a dessert, so you could make as much of the menu or as little of it as you like!  In addition, it is really easy to substitute some ingredients for lower fat or whole grain options.
Since I am staying with my mom, she and I decided to pick a week and make the recipes for that week!  It was really easy to go through the recipes and find the ingredients we needed to get at the store, we did our shopping and then we made the recipes!  We chose to go with Week 15.  We opted to skip the desserts but made the main dishes.  Here's the menu:

• Sunday- Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole, Crunchy Green Beans, Pomegranate Cream Salad, Cherry Pie
• Monday- Taco Soup, Pretzels, Peach Cobbler
• Tuesday- Chicken Supreme, Paprika Whipped Potato, Broccoli Salad, Banana Pudding
• Wednesday- Barbecued Beef on a Bun, Three Bean Salad, Caramel Chocolate Cake
• Thursday- Salmon Patties, Potato Fans, Corn, Cabbage Carrot Slaw, Peanut Butter Blossoms
• Friday- Leftovers, Go Out, or Try New Recipe
• Saturday- Soft Tacos, Bean Dip, Picnic Cake

Now many of you know that I like to mess with recipes, but for the sake of reviewing I made the recipes exactly as printed by the author.  The only thing I did differently in the following recipe is that I used 12 grain crackers instead of saltines for the topping.  This was a very easy recipe that can be made ahead of time and frozen.

Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole

• 2 cups cooked rice ( I used brown rice)
• 3 cups cooked chicken cut into pieces
• 6 slices ham
• 6 slices swiss cheese
• 2 cans cream of chicken soup (I used homemade, there is a recipe in this cookbook for homemade cream of chicken)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 10 saltine crackers, crushed
• 1/2 tsp. paprika
• 1/4 tsp. garlic salt
• 1/2 tsp. parsley

Spread rice in a 13X9 inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray.  Arrange chicken over the top of rice.  Layer swiss cheese on top of chicken followed by a layer of ham cut into bite sized pieces.  Mix soup, milk and sour cream together and spread on top of ham.  Crush saltine crackers and add spices.  Sprinkle on top of soup mixture.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  

Jana Schofield sells her book for $15 but she has agreed to give away one copy to a lucky Foodie Mommie reader!  Here's how to enter:

1.  Leave a comment on THIS entry telling me how this book would make your life easier!

2.  Get an extra entry for becoming a follower

3.  Get another extra entry for "liking" me on Facebook

Winners will be chosen from Random.org on SATURDAY JUNE 26th!  Be sure to leave your e-mail address so that I can notify you that you have won!  Book will be sent directly from the author!