View Full Version : August cook at home challenge!
Bastelmutti
8-3-11, 11:59am
Here we go!
Bastelmutti
8-3-11, 12:06pm
After eating out dinner with the family, we wrapped up July/kicked off August with a visit to a friend's summer cottage, where we cooked in due to one of the kids having food-related medical issues. Breakfasts were some version of eggs, lunches were mostly sandwiches, and the two dinners were ribs and side salad + potatoes one night and brats and side salad + potatoes another night. Yesterday we came home to a pretty empty fridge, but I was able to make eggs and toast for breakfast, am planning mac & cheese for lunch and brown rice/veggie/tofu bowls for dinner. Tomorrow morning I will definitely have to shop, but will only get a few things to get us through the next 2 days since we are off again for a week after that to camp - that will be all eating in or all eating out depending on how you define it! The very reasonable family price includes meals and lodging, so we just eat every meal there. It's about the same as my grocery bill for the week, and pretty good food, too.
How is everyone else doing?
We've been doing okay here. We did eat out on Monday, but it was a planned date, so I'm deeming that okay. :-) All breakfasts and lunches have been at home (or packed from home). Lately I have been making salad with some of the wonderful garden produce my neighbors and MIL have been sharing.
Last night I made salisbury steak and herb roasted potatoes. Tonight I will use the leftover potatoes and make chicken and dumplings. I actually just made chicken and dumplings two or three weeks ago, but DH loved it and requested it again. Maybe I will make him a pan of brownies for dessert, too.
Tonight is crock pot roasted chicken with creamed potatoes, carrots and peas and possibly a rhubarb crisp.
Tomorrow is crock pot pulled pork sandwiches with a fresh veggie tray and homemade brownies. Wednesday is pork and gravy over spaetzle with beets and wax beans and Thursday is Asian style chicken and rice soup. Friday is soba noodles with veggies.
Tonight was pork chops on the grill. Tomorrow will be hamburgers. Wednesday - summer chicken pasta. Thursday - pizza from our local place (DS is leaving for college on Sat - special treat for him). Friday - Tacos.
We did kind of crummy for a couple of days there. I wasn't feeling well, so we ordered in Italian and Chinese AND we picked up a couple of sandwiches. Ugh! The last few days have been better; I managed to make macaroni and cheese with hot dogs and yesterday I made pumpkin burgers (kind of like sloppy joes with canned pumpkin). Today I have a big pot of chili simmering away.
Kat I was just thinking about you. You are due pretty soon aren't you? I pretty much just give up on responsibility in late pregnancy and sleep.
@stella--I am due in a week and a half. I've been trying to keep up with the housework and cooking, but I've been really exhausted. So I let some things slide and nap instead :laff:
@stella--I am due in a week and a half. I've been trying to keep up with the housework and cooking, but I've been really exhausted. So I let some things slide and nap instead :laff:
Good! Birth is hard work. Rest up even if it means eating out sometimes. I'm so excited for you!
Back home after 2 weeks of travel, visiting relatives, and looking forward to being in my own kitchen again. Tomorrow I'll cook a batch of black beans, some hard-boiled eggs, and some chicken breast, and also will prep a ton of veggies as I am really craving them.
definitely sleep through these next 10 or so days, Kat!
I made the silly mistake of staying up on the night that i went into labor! Actually, it was double silly! On Wednesday night, I stayed up late watching TV, and then i had to get up extra early on Thursday because i forgot DH had a meeting in the city, and I needed the car outside of the city! So, i had to get up at 5 am. I think i had about 5 hrs of sleep!
Then, i was up on my feet all day running errands and teaching yoga classes, and when I finally got home, instead of crashing at 7 pm like i felt like doing, i forced myself to stay up and watch Obama's acceptance of his nomination to run for president!
So, i finally wandered into bed at around 11:30 or 12, and by 12:30, i could not get comfortable. I realized I was in early labor -- and I should have slept! But I didn't! No, silly me, I wanted to "experience" everything about labor, and so I just sat up and enjoyed every contraction. Little did I know that it would take me 24 hrs to get there. I was never in any pain, but I was *exhausted*.
and then I had a newborn to take care of!
Definitely SLEEP! see if a friend or family member will help you out with household chores for the next three or four weeks! :D
----
doing well at the cook at home challenge. we're struggling with how to handle lunches. we don't eat sandwiches. :) this paleo stuff is great, but transportable, tastey food is tough for us.
Zoebird - I don't eat sandwiches, either. Things I pack for lunch:
- salad (I have salad veggies prepped in the fridge at all times, add some nuts on top, dressing in a small container)
- hard-boiled eggs or cooked, sliced chicken breast with raw veggies. DD likes to make 'sandwiches' with lettuce leaves.
- chickpea or black bean salad (beans and veggies)
- soup, in a thermal jar
we do most of those (we don't do beans or grains), but I think we're just not buying enough quantity to manage what our whole family needs.
eg, we have enough food for breakfast and dinner, but not enough for lunch. so, i'm trying to figure that out. how much more quantity do I need in order to have enough for all of my meals over 6-7 days (between organic box deliveries and grocery runs).
Thanks, ladies! I have been sleeping more the last couple of days. I've been overdoing it and figured I had better sleep while I have the chance! :-)
Been enjoying the fresh veggies my neighbor has graciously shared from her garden. Last night I was tired, so I made a quick dinner of scrambled eggs, zucchini fritters, and some leftover jello with fruit. It was easy and good. Today I am making some bread from the "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" cookbook. I've never tried it before, and the method really goes against everything I know about bread making (no proofing of the yeast, no kneading, etc.). But I love the ease of it and hope to have a good result.
Bastelmutti
8-14-11, 3:44pm
Ditto what Zoebird said, Kat! Sleep! I stayed up late, too, and had a 24-hour labor. It's called labor for a reason LOL
We're back from camp! Were treated to dinner out last night and have friends coming in today, so will eat out tonight. Otherwise I have planned the usual pasta and rice/bean meals, but need to get to the Asian store soon to make some more interesting stuff.
We are going out of town next weekend for our 25th anniversary which was in June. Meals are: breakfast, sloppy joes, chicken fajitas, hamburgers and BLTs. We will be car camping, so we will do some cooler meals but will eat out, too.
Haven't felt much like cooking lately. I'm not feeling badly due to the pregnancy--just kind of lazy ;) We did manage to eat in most of the time, though, except for our planned date on Friday night. I took half of my steak home and made steak and eggs for lunch the next day while DH was working. The rest of the weekend we made due with simple things--sandwiches, chips, fruit, cottage cheese, etc. Today I really should make some muffins for DH's breakfasts and some candied chicken (which I didn't get around to as planned last week). I will also make some things for later in the week, I think, while I still have the energy!
Ahhhh. I feel like myself again. I am actually cooking things for dinner instead of scrambling last minute.
Today I am roasting a chicken, a pan of mixed red, yellow and purple potatoes and a pan of roast beets. Tomorrow I will make a creamy chicken, potato, carrot and pea soup and a batch of homemade biscuits.
I also made and froze a batch of pesto. That should make Friday's meatless meal easy. We'll probably have pasta with pesto and a caprese salad. Saturday we have a picnic at the Friary and Sunday I am thinking I'll make chicken and pesto pizza.
We ate out 4 times while on our 2-week trip. Two of those meals were very disappointing for me; one was ok, and one was excellent. I have a much higher success rate than that at home. The kitchen is stocked again and we've been eating well - and lots of veggies.
Bastelmutti
8-18-11, 8:36am
I'm sick! Have been all week. Kids, too. So, we're eating down the fridge, which wasn't too full to begin with. Need to make it to the store today!
I did make the muffins and candied chicken on Monday. Tuesday I felt yucky, so we ordered pizza. Yesterday I made a big pot of spaghetti and meatballs. This morning I made peanut butter chocolate chip granola (thanks for the recipe, stella!); tonight's dinner will be BBQ chicken in the crock pot and some California style veggies.
Bastelmutti
8-20-11, 10:04pm
Tonight's dinner was chicken drumsticks, veggie potstickers, garlic bok choy & kimchi - yes, I finally made it to the Asian store to stock up. Yay! I don't have a plan for this week, but might make Thai red curry w/ tofu (maybe in soup form) and rice, chickpea curry w/ rice, chicken thighs w/ edamame, pasta w/ fresh tomatoes. I have a lot of quinoa to use up and some black beans in the freezer, so that could be another meal.
Yesterday I made biscuits and gravy for breakfast. Delicious! Last night I made more of the crockpot pork so tonight's dinner is going to be carnitas tacos and tomorrows will be watercress and mango salad with pork. Lunch today is chicken salad sandwiches. Today I am going to make a crockpot chicken for a few meals during the week. This seems to be working for me while things are crazy, making some kind of big hunk of meat and having it in different forms throughout the week.
We went camping this weekend. I prepped everything at home on Friday morning so that I didn't have to chop any veggies at camp. We had -
Friday dinner - turkey-black bean chili (turkey and black beans had been cooked and frozen separately; I added spices and veggies as we cooked it at camp)
Breakfasts - oatmeal and homemade trail mix, grapes
Sat lunch - salad and chicken sausages
Sat dinner - lentils and rice with veggies (carrots, green onions, and wax beans)
I'm glad to be back to my kitchen. Tonight I'm making omelettes with kai lan (Chinese kale)
Bastelmutti
8-22-11, 9:14am
Discovered a great homemade chai mix recipe that I tweaked to my taste: To one can of sweetened condensed milk, add 1 t. cardamom + 1/2 t. each cinnamon and nutmeg + 1/4 t. each ginger and cloves. Add a spoon of this mixture to a cup of black tea. I put it in a mason jar in the fridge. I needed to get out of my tea rut and don't really love a lot of the cafe drinks that are available for $3-4 each. Most of the chais have too much sugar in them. If you like it less sweet, you could actually up the spices and use less condensed milk, or maybe make stronger black tea.
Had a cookout yesterday, tried this, it was awesome: http://www.pbs.org/food/fresh-tastes/panzanella/. If you have too many tomatoes or stale bread, definitely a good recipe to use them up.
Bastelmutti
8-23-11, 10:03am
Fed 6 kids and a friend yesterday for lunch - bean tostadas. Today will be 8 kids and another friend - we're doing GF and regular pasta w/ butter, parmesan, red pepper flakes. Thank goodness school starts next week!
Tonight I'm sticking random Mexican food leftovers plus some cream cheese and corn tortillas in the crockpot for "Mexican casserole."
Thanks for the recipe creaker. That looks good and I often have too many tomatoes and stale bread.
Last night we had chicken pita sandwiches. Tonight is going to be a Mexican style chicken and black bean tortilla soup. The kids requested soup. I'm winging this, taking cues from a recipe I have for a simple tortilla soup with a recipe I have for a yummy vegetarian black bean soup.
Some upcoming meals:
-Mango watercress salad with pork
-Asian style turkey meatballs with veggie fried rice
-Hoisin chicken lettuce wraps
-Chicken enchiladas
-Green bean spaghetti carbonara
-Baked eggs with herbs, muffins, fruit
Tonight:
Grilled Garlic/Peppercorn pork tenderloin
Roasted sweet potatoes
Spinach salad
Last night - pad Thai (light on the noodles, heavy on the cabbage)
Tonight - chicken sausages, broccoli, fresh corn from the farmers' market
treehugger
8-23-11, 5:42pm
I've never participated in this thread, mostly because it's not a challenge for me to cook all our meals at home; it's a financial necessity. But I do like to read it to see what everyone else is making. I realized I should post something, even if I can't join in the spirit of the challenge.
As of 2 months ago, I now make all our bread at home (except flour tortillas). I am still new to yeast breads but I have learned a lot already. I got a tortilla press for my birthday, so have added corn tortillas to the repertoire.
I don't cook or bake every day, certainly. Instead, when I cook, I plan for leftovers so we eat the same thing for a few days. This works better for my schedule and energy level.
I also make sure to always have a few staples around to throw together a quick meal for when we have run out of leftovers and I don't feel like/have time to cook. This includes pinto or black beans, cooked a crockpot-full at a time and stored in small packages in the freezer. We use those to make bean burritos or to eat as beans and rice or beans and cornbread. Cheap, filling, somewhat nutritous. There is always at least one container or soup or stew or chili in the freezer, only a microwave defrost away from a meal. Grilled cheese or tuna sandwiches are other always available stand-bys.
This past weekend I made whole wheat bread, peanut butter granola, chicken stock and chili for the freezer, and red beans and rice with kielbasa for dinner (still eating that).
Upcoming meals planned:
- Pizza (on the menu about every 2 weeks; I make the sauce and keep in the freezer, and use the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes method to keep pizza dough handy)
- Sliced london broil in herb sauce that I have frozen in marinade in the freezer to saute and use for sandwiches (need to make pita bread)
- Lentil stew
- Lemon chicken
- Lasagne (I need to make more marinara for the freezer)
- Pasta puttanesca (a quick, throw-together pantry meal)
- Fried rice
Kara
treehugger
8-23-11, 5:45pm
Discovered a great homemade chai mix recipe that I tweaked to my taste: To one can of sweetened condensed milk, add 1 t. cardamom + 1/2 t. each cinnamon and nutmeg + 1/4 t. each ginger and cloves. Add a spoon of this mixture to a cup of black tea. I put it in a mason jar in the fridge. I needed to get out of my tea rut and don't really love a lot of the cafe drinks that are available for $3-4 each. Most of the chais have too much sugar in them. If you like it less sweet, you could actually up the spices and use less condensed milk, or maybe make stronger black tea.
This sounds really great. I love spiced chai and I have almost used all my stash of Stash Chai bagged tea (nicely spicy, add milk and sugar to brewed tea) that I got for Christmas. Thanks for posting this.
Kara
Bastelmutti
8-23-11, 10:05pm
Sure, treehugger! I have had a few cups and tried it out on my DD and a friend, and it's really good! Tomorrow we're going to try homemade iced green tea frappuccinos with matcha green tea powder, ice and vanilla soy milk. The matcha packets aren't cheap, but per drink it will be much less than the $3-4 Starbucks charges. The hot green tea lattes are pretty much the only thing I ever drink there, and not every location can even make them well, so I want to try the hot and the iced versions at home.
folkypoet
8-24-11, 11:13am
I guess I can join in now. Son (13), brother and I just moved in with our father in North Texas. We're a bit out in the middle of nowhere, so going out to eat isn't much of a lure. (We'd have to drive into town first, and the town isn't all that great to begin with.) So, we decided to use this opportunity to get healthy. Son would like to lose a little weight and clear up some acne, brother has Crohn's Disease and would also like to lose a little weight, and I have MS - so we all need to be eating well. Lots of green smoothies and fruits and steamed veggies and lentil soups and beans and salads.... So far, it's been good for each of us. We've only been here a week, but everyone seems happy and thriving.
So, yesterday we snacked all day on fruit (strawberries, watermelon, apples, Valencia oranges), and last night it was a garlic lentil and split pea soup with sweet potato, carrots and spinach (ran out of onion). We had carrot sticks with hummus and a bowl of green grapes and cherries along with it. Yummm! We had quite a bit left over, so that might be tonight's fare. Planning to make a few green smoothies today and maybe steam some squash. Oh, and eat a few peaches - we came across the loveliest, juiciest, cheapest organic peaches I think I've ever eaten, and I bought up quite a few.
Until we moved here, we all ate out far too often. This is so much better. I feel more energetic, and I'm keeping what little money I have saved up (well, a greater portion of it, anyway). The boys have each dropped several pounds. Now, we'll see if our respective ailments respond well, too. :o)
Looking forward to these threads!
Bastelmutti
8-24-11, 2:53pm
Rock on, folkypoet! I know people who have had much success with the Eat to Live or grain-free diets for autoimmune issues - sounds like yours is a variation of that.
folkypoet
8-24-11, 10:32pm
Yup! A good chunk of my family actually does Eat to Live (my mother, in fact, has a blurb at the beginning of the new edition - her name's Kay). My brother is eating gluten-free, and by default, my son and I are as well (for the most part). Looking forward to better health! :o)
Today I am making Chicken Parmesan, enough to have leftovers for a couple of meals.
Bastelmutti
8-25-11, 9:18am
Green tea frappuccinos turned out pretty well. 1 cup vanilla soy milk, 1 matcha packet, ice - needed more ice. But tasty!
We got through the weekend of potlucks with a few leftovers remaining. Last night we had leftover bbq chicken along with some green beans and mashed potatoes. Tonight I made shepherd's pie with the random vegetables from last week's farmers' market run, the leftover green beans, and leftover mashed potatoes, and one stray piece of bbq chicken. DD liked it so much that she didn't even complain that there was zucchini in it.
I'm roasting some beets right now, since the oven was on for dinner, to use on salads this week. DD picked out the pink and white striped ones at the farmers' market today and said she would try them. Also on the menu:
an eggplant curry with coconut milk and tofu (DD has figured out that she can pick out almost any vegetable if she tells me she'll try it. She hasn't liked eggplant in the past, but we'll try again.)
kale and chicken sausage eintopf (one-pot... German peasant fare, one of my favorite fall foods). I think I'll add some butternut squash to it in lieu of the traditional potatoes, as I picked 3 squash in our garden yesterday.
turkey tacos with cabbage
Bastelmutti
8-30-11, 9:21pm
We've been sticking to our menu for this week:
Veggie bibimbap with brown rice (check)
Tostadas with pinto beans (check)
Chicken drumsticks with chard and brown rice (check)
Tomorrow is school night for me, so it will be pasta, sauce & salad
Tilapia, sweet potatoes
Thai red curry w/ tofu, veg and noodles
PS I am with your DD, Rosemary. I don't like eggplant much except in eggplant parmesan, which only really tastes great fried, so I never make it. I have had a garlicky eggplant dip I liked before, but I can't remember what it was called. It was served at a kosher Israeli place that used to exist in St. Paul.
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