February Cook-at-Home Challenge [Archive]

Kat

1-31-11, 4:42pm

Well, I'd love to only eat out only on special occassions, but DH LOVES to eat out, so we do it more like 1-2 times a week. I'm joining the challenge, though, to help keep me motivated to cook. If I don't feel like cooking, we usually end up eating out even more.

I know it's a day early, but I just made two loaves of homemade bread and a big pot of loaded baked potato soup. That should last us a couple of days. Tomorrow night or maybe Wednesday I'll cook something else for a little variety. Maybe a big vat of macaroni and cheese!

Bastelmutti

1-31-11, 5:44pm

I love to eat out, too, Kat - it's vice, but one I'm trying to control by emphasizing quality over quantity and eliminating the "I'm tired/I'm bored/I'm too busy", etc. excuses. That made our planned meal out on Sat. so much nicer and more enjoyable, not to mention guilt-free.

Hey, those of us in the Midwest might get an extra incentive to eat in for the next couple of days with this storm that's on its way!

Fawn

1-31-11, 9:54pm

Hey, those of us in the Midwest might get an extra incentive to eat in for the next couple of days with this storm that's on its way!

Yes, and since I have been doing a "Food Stamp Challenge" I didn't go out grocery shopping this weekend...was planning on the stock up trip on Tuesday night....but will feed the kids scraps or scrambled eggs or something.

My goal for the next month is to spend less than our food stamp allotment ($420) this month on both food cooked at home and eating out. You can see how we did for January at my blog.

earthshepherd

2-1-11, 8:01am

I loved the January challenge! It got me off to a great start to the new year and I definitely want to keep it up! Thanks bastelmutti!

Bastelmutti

2-1-11, 11:03am

Thanks to you, earthshepherd!

Last night we had easy pasta w/salad. Tonight I think I'll use up some odds and ends & make falafel from mix for the veg DD & sweet potatoes & salad with steak for the omnivores - we'll see, though, it's defrosting after a long stay in the freezer, so I hope it's still good.

Also just cooked up some black bean chili to have tomorrow or put in the freezer to save some beans that would have otherwise had to be thrown out.

maribeth

2-1-11, 1:00pm

Woo, mid-morning on February 1 and I'm on a roll! (So is the smoked salmon I brought for lunch.)

danna

2-1-11, 10:23pm

Feb 01
Bought $48.56 worth of groceries today and the plan is to try for only $200.00 including eating out if we do (that sounds a little too hopful but we need to use up some of the food we seem to keep accumulating)
Lunch--- was BBQ Pork on Buns leftover from previous nights supper.
Supper--Buttered Chicken from the freezer/curried mixed veggies from yesterdays leftovers/quiona and brown rice.
Enough leftover for our lunch tomorrow

Terri

2-1-11, 10:59pm

I have some planned eat-out occasions in February (business lunches and dinners, a 60th birthday dinner for my mom next week, and a few meals out when I head to Vancouver). However I will continue to post my "eat in" successes here.

For this week's business trip, that includes picking up a box of cereal and milk for breakfasts for the next three days. I will stop at the grocery for dinner tonight (salmon and vegetables with fruit for dessert) and lunch for Thursday and Friday (probably ravioli, tomato sauce and basil, with an apple - I will also need to buy containers to transport it to work since I forgot to bring them this trip). Thursday is a work dinner, and Friday I fly home so will cook dinner there.

Kat

2-2-11, 8:39am

I made BLTs on homemade bread last night and baked some fries from the freezer as a side. Still eating leftover birthday cake now and then, too. Lunch today will be the rest of the potato soup and some bread. I think tonight I will make that macaroni and cheese...

earthshepherd

2-2-11, 6:55pm

Pita bread (homemade) with hummus tonight. The mideast version of fast food! Really good!

Anne Lee

2-2-11, 8:24pm

Frozen pizza and salad tonight. I have to figure out the food I want to bring with me while I travel. Hmmm... salad, lentils/brown rice, tortilla, fruit, cereal and for dinner...?

Bastelmutti

2-2-11, 8:33pm

Anne Lee,
We have done pack of tostadas/bag of tortilla chips, can of refried beans & jar of salsa before - doesn't even need to be heated, but it's a bonus if you have a microwave. Plus shredded cheese and/or sour cream if you have a cooler.

Kat

2-3-11, 9:22am

I did follow through and make that homemade mac n cheese...and boy was it ever good! :-) I made some lima beans from the freezer to go with it, and there is enough of both for lunch today. I have to teach tonight, so I pulled some BBQ pork from the freezer so DH could eat a sandwich and some chips for dinner. I am pulling out some baby back ribs to thaw and then tomorrow I will put a rub on them and cook them for dinner.

Stella

2-3-11, 10:38am

We did go for lunch yesterday with our valentine's money from grandma. This month I am aiming to eliminate eating out because I am tired. I am not counting date night coffee. Zach and I want to take advantage of date nights before the baby comes. That is a worthy expense to us.

TMC

2-3-11, 9:13pm

I am so in this month. We did pretty good last month.

You all would have been proud of my ingenuity today. DD is in a musical and had rehearsal until 5:30, than our first 4-H meeting for our family was at 6:00, and 1/2 hour away. I made wedding soup in a thermos, grilled cheese sandwiches and wrapped them in aluminum foil and met them at the meeting. DH and DD sat in the back and ate their dinner. We didn't know it but the leader had everybody pitch in for pizza. It doesn't matter though because with DDs restrictive dietary guidelines these days (DX severe reflux) she couldn't have eaten the pizza anyway. She's OK with having her own food because she has learned that eating this way has stopped her bellyaches.

Rosemary

2-3-11, 9:45pm

Meals planned for the next week. Tacos tonight and tomorrow night. The remains of the beans will go into black bean soup on the weekend.

I was noticing that we've been eating a lot of dried beans this past month (and we normally eat them regularly, so I really mean a lot)! It must be partially due to it being winter, and the general lack of fresh vegetables. We eat plenty of green stuff, but not nearly as much as we do in the summer, when the farmers' markets are full of a huge array of beautiful vegetables. Plus, hot foods are more appealing than cold salads this time of year, and beans figure prominently in most of my soups, stews, and chilis. I've also been cooking for myself for lunches instead of grabbing something simple like a PB&J sandwich - lentil soup, black-eyed pea/veg stew, bean/squash burritos, etc.

Stella, sorry you're so tired! This is a really rough time of year to be in that last fatiguing trimester - the mornings are so dark, and it's so cold, and so annoying to be outside with all of the messy slushiness and necessary winter gear... and equally annoying to have to clean up all that winter gear along with the drips and gravel and salt that get dragged indoors. Wishing you a smooth finish to your pregnancy, and I hope your energy starts to return with the longer days!

earthshepherd

2-4-11, 6:47am

TMC. what a great "take-out" supper!
I had to buy a car this week, because my old clunker finally, completely, bit the dust. That knocked our cash assets down by quite a bit, so now home cooking is going to be even more important as I re-save money to catch up my savings fund. DH and I did go out to lunch yesterday to celebrate the new used PT Cruiser (it's SO cool), but we used a gift cert left over from Christmas, so technically we still haven't bought a meal out. :)

leslieann

2-4-11, 7:24am

The January challenge was great for me, even though I didn't post at all. I was reading and thinking all along and we ended up with only ONE meal out (one of those unplanned and under-appreciated times when you are at Home Depot and suddenly starving and without food in the car....fifty bucks later, we all had had lunch but I don' t like getting caught like that). Anyway, last night we dodged the bullet with DSD chanting "Let's get pizza" but because I had Planned Ahead all the stuff for beef stir fry was here, DH had that in his head, and so he cooked it. Yay for us....

So I am aiming to continue to cook at home! And I guess one lesson for me is to have the meal "plans" public so DH knows that there is something in the hopper. Thanks to the thread starter(s).

Kat

2-4-11, 9:29am

We ate pulled pork for supper last night as planned, but we BBQ-ed it, so I won't be making the BBQ ribs. (Too much BBQ makes for queasy tummies in this house). DH actually cooked dinner last night, which was really nice. I am in that "could be sick at any minute" stage of pregnancy, and some days I just don't have it in me to cook! So I am trying to decide what to make for dinner, and I am thinking I might try chicken pot pie. It is one of DH's favorites, but it is pretty labor intensive with the homemade crust, homemade filling, then baking. I am feeling okay as of right now, though, so maybe I'll make the crust now and do all the chopping that needs to be done. That way the hard stuff is done if I get tired later.

Bastelmutti

2-4-11, 1:40pm

Way to go, everyone! Stella, hope you're doing OK. Earthshephard - you, too. I know it's a tough time right now. And TMC, good to hear that home-cooked food is helping your DD!

It's Friday night, temptation night - especially after being snowed in this week. Instead, we're making pita pizzas and may have some people over, too. It's actually a pretty fun dinner & all the cooking isn't on me, because everyone makes their own pizza. We have a pita bakery in the area, and I can get them hot out of the oven for $2/dozen, so I don't have to make crust.

Went shopping today for the rest of the week and planned the following dinners: spaghetti & meatballs, stirfry, burritos, chicken, and salmon pasta bake. I am taking a class Thu/Fri/Sat next week and know they serve breakfast and lunch, but I need to check whether the food is included in the price of the class. I hope it's not awful. If it is, I may brown bag-it anyway.

Bastelmutti

2-4-11, 1:44pm

So I am trying to decide what to make for dinner, and I am thinking I might try chicken pot pie. It is one of DH's favorites, but it is pretty labor intensive with the homemade crust, homemade filling, then baking.

Nigella made a pretty tasty-looking one very quickly on her show recently:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUIZPzJigSg

Stella

2-4-11, 9:39pm

Thanks for the good wishes guys!

TMC

2-4-11, 9:44pm

Good evening everybody. KAT hope you are feeling better, I remember being pregnant and wanting to eat nothing but pancakes for dinner every night :~). Who knows why....I don't even like pancakes that much. >8)

Today was another challenging meal day. DH and DS are on a road trip today and tomorrow and left early to beat the storm that is coming across the country ...here we go again. So they left two hours early and I wasn't ready to feed them lunch yet so I had to pick them up two $5.00 footlongs from subway....phoey....but I did have grilled chicken cold in the fridge and cold tortellini salad with grape tomatoes and broccoli in the fridge ready to go so I packed their subs, their dinner and some chocolate chips I made for them and sent them off with a bulging cooler. Tomorrow they will be eating the free continental breakfast, pb&j they took for lunch and they will be home by dinner, I will have a hearty dinner for them.....probably rotisserie chicken, sweet potato biscuits, steamed broccoli and roasted potatoes. Yummm I think I'm hungry now. :~) Happy Friday!

TMC

2-4-11, 9:45pm

earthshepherd

2-5-11, 7:27am

Last night was shepherd's pie, with tofu and TVP instead of meat, and I am happy to report that the men ate it and were surprised by how much they liked it! I also made a crockpot of homemade baked beans, which I loved but the guys think the canned kind is better. Saturday is usually homemade pizza day, so that's an easy one.

Bastelmutti

2-5-11, 9:54am

Salmon pasta bake - I buy the wild-caught canned salmon. It's about $6-7/can, but sometimes I can get 2-for-1. Pick out the skin and bones from the salmon & mix into a white sauce (milk thickened with a little flour & butter). Mix with a box of cooked pasta and season with salt, pepper, dill. I usually also mix in and top with a bit of Parmesan or other cheese (Italians don't do fish & cheese, but Scandinavians do - I'm going Scandinavian on this one). Bake until bubbly. It's pretty tasty. You can also change the seasoning if you don't like dill. The other pasta bake I do is the same theory but with red sauce, cheese, and a package of frozen (cooked) spinach.

Earthshepherd - That's interesting about the beans. I recently started making them from dried, and DH says they're more "al dente", not necessarily in a bad way. I thought the black beans came out pretty much the same as canned, but the chickpeas were quite a bit better, actually (esp. tossed w/ a little olive oil and kosher salt while still warm!)

earthshepherd

2-5-11, 10:35am

bastelmutti, re beans: I also like te rehydrated version of chick peas and black beans. Northern beans, which is what I used for baked beans, come out a bit less soft than canned baked beans even when I cook them overnight and then all the next day! But they are pretty good (to me) and I like knowing what the extra ingredients are -- brown sugar, salt, garlic, molasses and ketchup. Unfortunately I never write the proportions down so they turn out different every time, which might be part of the protest. :)

Kat

2-5-11, 10:56am

That chicken pot pie looks good, Bastelmutti. It even has bacon! ;-)

@TMC thanks for the well wishes. That is too funny about the pancakes! There was a two-week span over the New Year in which I ate only Cheerios. It's all I could keep down.

Fell off the wagon yesterday. I had good intentions, but I started feeling really nauseous around 10:00 and shortly after got a screaming headache. So I sluffed around all day, and we ordered some sandwiches for dinner. Sigh. Will try to do better today!

Bastelmutti

2-5-11, 12:00pm

Things like that do happen, so I think aiming for "better" (eating out less frequently) rather than "perfection" (never eating out) is a good goal for me. Maybe you, too?

Kat

2-6-11, 11:17am

I agree, Bastelmutti. This challenge has certainly made me more mindful about eating out and has helped me plan things out a little better. I think it's always better to strive for improvement rather than perfection, though. :-)

Bastelmutti

2-7-11, 10:32am

Well, we had family over Fri. night and a couple of kids sleep over Sat. and that really decimated my grocery supply. And I only went shopping Friday! Already out of bread, fruit and a few other staples. I'm thinking I won't really be able to reduce my grocery bill by as much as I had hoped, but at least the extra for entertaining at home will be less than entertaining out. So, it's even more important for me now to stick to this challenge!

Kat

2-7-11, 2:55pm

I'm forcing myself to make some eggplant parmesan with spaghetti for supper tonight. I'm not feeling all that well, but I know I will feel even worse later. So I figure if I can get is assembled and in the casserole dish, DH can stick it in the over later.

For some reason, all I want to eat is Cheerios and turkey sandwiches. ;-)

cattledog

2-8-11, 12:14am

This is a hard challenge for me. I *have* to get out for my lunch hour or I go bonkers. There isn't much to do near the suburban office where I work, so I usually go out to eat 1-2 times a week. I have to admit that I look forward to those days. I save time in the evening/morning by not packing a lunch!

I also really dislike eating at my desk (those days seem so long!). However, I am going to try to pack my lunch as much as possible this month. Even eating at a salad bar twice a week sets me back close to $60-70/month. I have much better uses for that money (college fund/retirement!). We do have a toddler, so we eat most dinners at home.:)

Bastelmutti

2-8-11, 9:26am

Hey, cattledog - You and me both. I work at home, so getting out now and then really is essential to my sanity & free places to "get out" are hard to come by in the winter among 5 ft. snow drifts. Excuses, excuses, I know. The plain fact is that I also enjoy going out to eat, so I don't want to cut it out entirely. Frame the challenge as it works best for you. Some people here do manage to not eat out at all - inspiration for the rest of us!

On that note, I did have a shake from a fast food place yesterday. My sis and I were coming back from a looooooong meeting & got one at 11pm before we went home. Cheap fun w/ pregnant sis!

earthshepherd

2-8-11, 10:07am

well-- I am drawing a blank for supper tonight. Hmmmm. Will report back! :)

Bastelmutti

2-8-11, 10:16am

Tonight it's chicken and/or bean tostadas or tacos with lettuce, salsa, etc. here!

Rosemary

2-8-11, 10:33pm

Made kung pao tofu for dinner. Yum.
Cooked a vegan bittersweet chocolate pudding in response to DD's request. She's been watching her classmates eat pre-packaged pudding at lunch. It took about 20 minutes and is delicious. She can't wait to take some for lunch tomorrow.

Tomorrow I'm baking some no-knead Vollkornbrot (German-style whole grain bread) that I mixed up a few days ago and will roast sweet potatoes and cauliflower to go with leftover chicken.

lhamo

2-9-11, 5:03am

Since getting back to beijing on Sunday I have been batting 100% on this one! Last week was difficult, as we were at my inlaws and celebrating Chinese New Year, so there was a fair amount of eating out with the family, but we only paid for one meal of it (and at roughly $130 for a fabulous and filling meal of Mongolian hot pot for 14 people, I think we did amazingly well!). But I have made all my meals since being home, which is more of an accomplishment than it sounds like because the temptation to order out is HUGE. I stuck to my guns, though, and made a big pot of penne vodka (from the recipe posted on the old boards just a little while before they went down) with whole wheat pasta, which was dinner on Sunday/Tuesday and lunches on MOnday and Tuesday (yes, I ate the same thing for lunch and dinner on Tuesday, but at least it was cooked by me!). I had a bowl of leftover soup I dug out of the freezer for lunch today. And I just finished making a big batch of spicy sichuan tofu with veggies - a modification of the traditional recipe for mapo tofu -- which I had for dinner today and which will be lunches for the next two days. Monday night I had crackers and cheese for dinner, because I could. Tomorrow I'm thinking maybe corn flakes or some other "I can't eat this for dinner when the kids are around, so I am going to live it up and eat what I feel like" meal.

I also bought myself a bottle of inexpensive chilean cabernet, which is surprisingly good for the price, and I have been enjoying that.

lhamo

earthshepherd

2-9-11, 6:51am

lhamo, if you have a minute to share the tofu recipe...I have a big block of locally made tofu that I would love to do something yummy with!

Last night, I ended up defrosting a container of homemade chili soup and then I threw together a low fat tomato quiche. And they LIKED it, which is always a good thing. Today is split pea soup day with homemade pizza for those who won't eat pea soup. In my family, there's always someone who wants something different, which makes this challenge all the more fun!

Kat

2-9-11, 9:50am

Good job, everyone!

We had leftover BBQ pork for dinner yesterday and DH has been eating chili out of the freezer, too.

Bastelmutti

2-9-11, 11:52am

My class is starting tomorrow and runs through Saturday. I did find out that breakfast and lunch are included, so that's taken care of for me. Dinner is tougher because I usually work @ home, so we have dinner early. It'll be late those days. The plan for the three dinners is to make pasta w/ a jar of red sauce, hot dogs (ramen noodles for the vegetarian) and frozen ravioli, each with salad. Family was ready to eat pasta 3 nights in a row, but not me. I went with quick-to-make dinner foods & got a few convenience items for the kids' lunches - all in all, it should still be cheaper than ordering out. The funny thing is that those are the only convenience foods I could bring myself to buy - everything else looked, well, *gross* (yeah, I know, hot dogs are gross, too, but hey, this is Chicago, and we like our hot dogs!) Back to healthy & from scratch next week.

Monday night is DH's b-day dinner, so we will go out then to celebrate.

lhamo

2-9-11, 4:15pm

lhamo, if you have a minute to share the tofu recipe...I have a big block of locally made tofu that I would love to do something yummy with!

Well, here is what i did last night -- you could probably omit the meat, but I have never tried it that way.

Ingredients:

about 1-2 Tbsp vegetable oil, enough to coat the bottom of your pan (I used just plain vegetable oil, but olive oil also works)
About 1/3 lb of ground pork or beef (I used pork)
1 block firm tofu, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
4-5 ****ake mushrooms, sliced
4-5 nodes of baby bok choy, thinly sliced and with hard stem parts separated from the leafy parts
1-2 Tbsp Chinese cooking wine (Shaoxing is best)
1-2 Tbsp soy sauce
Sichuan beanpaste to taste (preferably the authentic stuff from Pixian, but you can also use Lee Kuan Yew brand in a pinch)
Sichuan peppers (optional, as not to everyone's tastes and difficult to find)

1. Cut the tofu into roughly 1/2 inch chunks and put in a small saucepan with water to boil briefly while you prepare the other ingredients.

2. Wash and slice the veggies, keeping the harder stem parts of the baby bok choy separate from the leafy parts

3. Add oil to a heated skillet or roasting pan (I used my enameled roaster, which is my new favorite kitchen toy). Throw in a handful of Sichuan peppers and cook for 1-2 minutes to season the oil. [Note: Sichuan pepper is an acquired taste. It makes your mouth numb, and lots of people find it strange. But it can be really addictive -- I love it now, in small doses like this]

4. Add the ground meat and break up into small pieces as it is cooking. cook until brown

5. Add Chinese cooking wine, soy sauce, and a spoonful or two of Sichuan bean paste -- I put in a HUGE spoon and it was very spicy (and yummy). As typical for my cooking style, I didn't measure any of this -- just kind of pour the liquidy stuff in until it looks right. Simmer for a few minutes to thoroughly cook the meat and let it absorb the flavors.

6. Add the mushrooms and the harder stems of the bok choy. Let simmer for a minute or two, stirring occasionally

7. Use a strainer spoon to transfer the tofu from the boiling pot (where it should have boiled by now) to the sauce mixture. Stir VERY LIGHTLY into the sauce (too much stirring will break the tofu into tiny bits), cover and let simmer 2-3 minutes.

8. Stir the leaves of the baby bok choy into the tofu and sauce mix very gently, then recover the pot, turn off the heat, and let it sit for 5-10 minutes so that the leaves wilt (and the tofu has more time to pick up the flavor of the sauce -- this works well in a enameled roaster, which retains its heat -- not sure how it would work in a wok.

Eat copious amounts with rice. Yummmm.....

lhamo

JaneV2.0

2-9-11, 6:30pm

I think I need a restaurant meal challenge. I get tired/bored of cooking but I do it every day.

Breakfast today was bacon and cheese scrambled eggs, lunch was flax seed/almond meal muffins with cream cheese frosting. Dinner will be corned beef and cabbage.

Kat

2-10-11, 6:32pm

Just made a chicken meal from a box.

lhamo

2-11-11, 8:06am

Veggie victory today -- well, at least I feel a bit virtuous. Kids wanted ramen for dinner, which has become a new Friday tradition (we only let them eat it once a week, tops). So decided to make pasta for DH and I, since they don't like the whole wheat pasta much. I was going to put some ham in the sauce, but in the end decided to substitute beans for a vegetarian meal. The sauce was an improvised version of the pasta with cabbage and beans in Bitman's How to Cook Everything -- sauteed lots of garlic in olive oil, then added mushrooms, siced baby bok choy, and a can of a funny brown italian bean I bought by mistake several months ago. I thought it was ok, not great, but DH and even DS liked it. And we contributed to one less dead animal today. Of course that doesn't make up for the fact that DH ordered KFC for the kids for lunch today. I really have to get him to read Eating Animals....

lhamo

maribeth

2-11-11, 1:02pm

Beef stew over noodles last night -- not bad, and visiting BIL liked it. DD refused it in favor of cheese and crackers -- her loss.

Today is our office's annual Chinese New Year Dim Sum Run (CNY-DSR). I really look forward to it after my recent restaurant fast!

sugarbowlbaby

2-11-11, 1:10pm

Ok, I just have to share this recipe. It's one of those, "I don't know what to make for dinner so I'm gonna have to get creative" meals!

Hotdog Soup
5 sliced course ground natural casing weiners
1 can mixed vegetables
1 can dark red kidney beans
2 packets of beef ramen noodle seasoning packets
1/2 cup quick cooking barley
dash onion powder
dash garlic powder

It sounds very boring, but it was soooooo good! I wish I had some cabbage, it would have gone great with the weiners.
Thought I would just share. It would have been just as hard for us to go out to eat!

Anne Lee

2-11-11, 10:46pm

lhamo

2-11-11, 11:05pm

The eat at home thing has not been going well this week. Thursday AM, bought my sons breakfast for movinga heavy exhibit at work. I got a bagel. Thursday PM, dinner out at the steak restaurant. Friday lunch, last minute lunch out with my middle son, who was going back to Camp Pendelton after a 2 week post-deployment leave. That's two meals I did not plan on eating out.

Boo.

Those all sound like reasonable and appropriate outings to me -- especially the lunch with your son! Coming home after being deployed is certainly worth celebrating.

Successful lunch today. Made chicken curry, dal and sesame snap peas. The latter two were based on recipes in How to Cook Everything. Seseme snap peas were a HUUUUGE hit, the dal not so much. I didn't have mustard powder, so maybe the spicing was not quite right. I will continue to experiment with it, as dal and rice with a little bit of assorted stirfry leftovers would be a good staple lunch for me -- the dal has both protein and fibre, and is more healthy/filling than rice alone.

Planning to make pasta for dinner tonight, though I have a trainer session at 4:30 so not sure if I'm going to feel like cooking when I get home. May ask DH to order pizza (which we haven't done for a long time), and then I'll make the pasta for lunch tomorrow.

lhamo

earthshepherd

2-12-11, 8:26am

thanks for the recipe lhamo! I will try it without the meat, and not sure how I'll find some of the Chinese ingredients. I have my sources however! :)

Kat

2-12-11, 9:29am

We realllllly need to go shopping--it's been almost three weeks! But we stayed in to eat last night. I had cereal and DH (against my better judgment) ate leftover birthday cake for dinner.

lhamo

2-12-11, 5:04pm

thanks for the recipe lhamo! I will try it without the meat, and not sure how I'll find some of the Chinese ingredients. I have my sources however! :)

If you like spicy Asian food, see if you can get Fuschia Dunlop's WONDERFUL book "Land of Plenty" from the library. It is the most amazing exploration of Sichuan cuisine, and has lots of cultural/philosophical stuff in it, too. And I think she has a source list in the back with suggestions of where you can order a lot of the ingredients if you can't find them locally. Her recipe for Mapo Tofu is more authentic than what I posted above, and AMAZING (my brother made it for us last summer following the recipe exactly (he's an engineer :)) and it was as close as I have ever seen anyone get to what I remember as the flavors from the famous Chen Mapo Tofu restaurant in Chengdu.

Happy exploring!

lhamo

Bastelmutti

2-12-11, 7:29pm

Just finished 3 full days of class & did slip & eat out burritos w/ family on Friday, but tonight it's back to cooking (DH, fortunately, not me!) Monday is his b-day dinner out, but next week I will otherwise be back to menu planning.

Anne Lee

2-12-11, 8:09pm

Back on track. We had potato bar tonight. Tomorrow sloppy joes. Monday, Valentine's Day will be chicken enchiladas. Maybe I'll buy a bottle of red wine to make it a little more special. The Barefoot Zin wasn't bad.

lhamo

2-13-11, 12:45am

Ended up having leftovers for dinner last night, pasta for lunch today, and will make baked chicken, sweet potatoes and broccoli for dinner tonight. Bought steaks and potatoes (plan to mash) for dinner tomorrow -- a little something special for valentines -- and will probalby make an asian cole slaw to go with it. Tues and Weds will be DH's responsibility to figure something out for, as I'm off on a business trip. Helper comes back on Weds so he really only has to manage one night, but I would not be surprised if he ends up ordering pizza. At least I did my best and we made it through another whole weekend eating in house food!

Just finished a batch of cookies to share with the neighbors who are coming over for a playdate. The kitchen smells amazing....

lhamo

maribeth

2-13-11, 5:36pm

Ribs are on! And there is some orange salsa flavor-mingling in the fridge.

Charity

2-14-11, 11:12am

I had a bad week last week. I always go home for lunch and make my own lunch. Last week on monday my car was hopelessly stuck in ice in my driveway. I got a ride to work and my sister picked me up at lunchtime and fed me. Then on thursday I got most of the way to work and realized I had a flat tire and no spare. Since it was -14 I opted to wait until the next day to get it taken care of so I had someone pick something up for me at lunchtime and didn't go home. The next day, by the time I got my car taken care of and picked it up at the station, I only had time to go through McDonald's drive thru. One thing I noticed both times was how thirsty I was after lunch. It's because of the sodium content in fast food.

At least this weekend I did a reconnaisance mission in my downstairs freezer and made beef stock for later use and deboned a lamb roast and rolled it with a spread of previously frozen chimmicurri sause and roasted it for dinner last night.

Anne Lee

2-14-11, 12:11pm

Charity, sometimes despite our best intentions...

Kat

2-15-11, 8:39am

I've been cooking at home--made shepherd's pie with french silk last night and am thinking about tacos for tonight. The cook at home challenge is about to get very tricky for me, though. Our contractor is coming in to remodel our kitchen, so I won't have access to my stove for a week or longer. The fridge will be plugged in (in the dining room), so I am thinking about cooking a bunch of food ahead of time and then heating it up in the microwave (which will also be plugged in somewhere). When that food is gone, we can have sandwiches and canned soup heated up in the microwave.

Bastelmutti

2-15-11, 11:58am

Charity, my thinking is that we do our best to avoid eating out on "normal days" so that when the occasion arises, whether emergency or planned celebration, it's covered & we can relax and enjoy it.

Kat - let us know how that goes! I once lived w/ just an electric boiler for a month. Not so fun.

Menu plan this week, in no particular order:
* Steak - crockpot baked potatoes - salad (chickpeas for the veggie)
* Chicken drumsticks - rice - cauliflower (chickpeas or tofu for the veggie)
* Pasta bake w/ red sauce and some kind of vegetable, maybe spinach and/or broccoli
* Noodles with broccoli, tofu and peanut sauce (leftover meat for the non-mixed food eater)
and that's as far as I've gotten. I have a lot of eggs, so the fifth meal might be baked eggs or huevos rancheros.

Rosemary

2-15-11, 1:45pm

Our menu this week -
pasta with sauce & broccoli
tacos with lots of fresh vegetables (2 nights)
mystery night - my friend's turn to cook for us
roast chicken, cornbread stuffing that I froze a couple of months ago, green beans
chicken soup, maybe Asian-style, with stock made overnight in the crockpot from the chicken carcass

TMC

2-15-11, 2:55pm

So it was the weekend...it was cold....we were tired....so we planned to go out and have a little fun, we would go to the local Science Center, see an Omnimax movie and get some dinner. Big plans that we planned all week. So Saturday comes and all of us lazy winter bums couldn't drag ourselves all the way to the city so we decided to just go out to eat instead and used our entertainment budget on it. We went to a shopping area with lots of restarurants, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Smokey Bones, TGIF....we could not get into any of them, mobbed. So we finally get into a new place. It was horrible and has made us swear off eating out.....as a matter of fact we have given it up for Lent.

The meal cost with tip $90.00, the wait was 45 minutes, it was so dark in there you couldn't even see your meal and some parts of it were just plain bad. No we didn't complain, we just decided never to return. The price was just outrageous for what we got, we didn't order any alcohol, party of four and DD had water.

So we are recommitted more than ever to eating at home. We have decided to make eating out a very special treat, plan ahead, get reservations and go to places we feel are worth our spending $$$.

Dinner last night was homemade spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread, green salad and I splurged on four chocolate covered strawberries ($3.50) for our V-day desert. I put a nice tablecloth on the table, used the good dishes and we had a really really nice time talking with the kids.

Bastelmutti

2-15-11, 4:40pm

TMC, luckily we live in an area with abundant cheap & good restaurants, but the bane of my existence is being forced to spend money to eat at Applebee's w/ relatives. I ALWAYS get a bad meal there.

Bastelmutti

2-16-11, 5:31pm

School conferences tonight, a night I would love to eat out! BUT we're having leftover rice, broccoli, peanut sauce and choice of tofu or chicken drumsticks. As a matter of fact, I have to go make it now so that we can avoid the temptation of stopping to eat because we're super-hungry after conferences.

Kat

2-18-11, 9:44am

I think I will make spaghetti and meatballs tonight. Or maybe macaroni and cheese...

Anne Lee

2-18-11, 10:49am

Friday nights are taco nights at casa de Lee. Tacos and wine. Tonight's it's an old vine zin.

TMC

2-21-11, 8:32pm

TMC, luckily we live in an area with abundant cheap & good restaurants, but the bane of my existence is being forced to spend money to eat at Applebee's w/ relatives. I ALWAYS get a bad meal there.

Oh my goodness, me too! Apple bees has always been one of the worst places to eat by us. I went and did some serious grocery shopping this weekend so that we could cook good stuff at home. Today we had a fresh roasted turkey breast. Kind of a chore during the week but lucky me I was off today ;)

TMC

2-21-11, 8:34pm

I forgot that yesterday my DS cooked dinner all by himself. He has never been much of a cook so this was great. Dh and I are finishing the basement right now ourselves so him pitching in was great...chicken stir fry with broccoli and baby corn. Everything is better when somebody else cooks it for you!

Anne Lee

2-21-11, 10:12pm

The old vine zin was so so. We are semi-sweet red types and it was too dry for us.

Tonight, we had chicken tenders in parmesan and Panko bread crumbs and vegetable hash per Mark Bittman. The tenders could have use a bit more spice but the texture with the Panko bread crumbs was outstanding. First time Panko user. The vegetable hash which was supposed to be vegetable pancakes still came out pretty good. I made mine with turnips, carrots, onion and white potatoes. I also made vegetable stock today. I used mini-portabello mushrooms so it's QUITE fragrant. I think it will make a killer base for a tomato soup with a splash of Worcestershire sauce. AND, I mixed up some bread dough. I still need to make up lentils and brown rice but that's what tomorrow is for.

earthshepherd

2-22-11, 7:12am

Black bean soup was last night's frugal dinner, but tonight I am treating the poor longsuffering menfolk to a pork roast dinner. I'll have salad and soup, but they will be happy, and that's a good thing!

Kat

2-22-11, 9:01am

We went grocery shopping last night and stocked up on easy stuff for the remodel--namely sandwiches and microwave dinners (gross!). But eating those and using what we have from the freezer for awhile will be better than eating out all of the time. I guess we'll see how it goes!

Bastelmutti

2-22-11, 9:06am

Good job, everyone! Everyone's meals sound so yummy. And bonus if the kids cook it! :-)

We had friends visiting this weekend, so we ate out once - it was delicious Thai food & although this wasn't the plan, they ended up treating us. So we made taco bar & bagel brunch for them @ our house. I think the fam also ate out lunch, but that day I had my volunteering gig, so I brought mine.

Yesterday was spinach & broccoli pasta bake & the next few days menus will be steak/crockpot baked potatoes/salad, Vietnamese noodle bowls w/ tofu or chicken, and probably another pasta bake w/salmon or the salmon made into patties & veg side.

Bastelmutti

2-22-11, 9:08am

PS A site I've returned to for inspiration lately: http://www.mediterrasian.com/

PS2 Kat, good luck w/ the remodel!

PS3 Stella, good luck w/ the baby!

TMC

2-22-11, 8:35pm

Leftover turkey breast today was recreated into the best pot pie. I made quite a large one so that tomorrow we can eat it again, tomorrow is going to be another crazy day:)

Anne Lee

2-22-11, 9:30pm

Tonight was hamburgers. I made the rolls from the Artisan Bread/5 minute a day recipe. My, they were dense. Nobody complained though. I couldn't do the steam oven thingy as I was also roasting the potatoes (I know, I know)

Still it was good. I was supposed to be out of town this weekend and I see that I scheduled take out. That trip got canceled. We'll see how motivated I'm feeling and whether I can think of anew recipe.

Charity

2-23-11, 11:22am

I did well this weekend using up things in my freezer and pantry. And I froze portions for future use. I used up a package of country style pork ribs to make a slow simmering spaghetti sauce recipe that called for pork neck bones. The flavor of this recipe is outstanding. I used the sauce to make stuffed shells with spinach and ricotta. I assembled them in small casserole dishes and froze them for future use. I also roasted a leg of lamb and after eating some for dinner I cut the rest off the bone and froze that in three big chunks. I'm going to make shepards pie with some of it when my daughter and future son in law come this weekend.

The bonus is that my sister is sick and I brought her one of the frozen stuffed shell dishes so she doesn't have to cook.

earthshepherd

2-23-11, 11:50am

I love that mediterrasian site! Thanks bastelmutti!

Tonight is grilled cheese and soup night. It's easy, and I have a meeting, so that will make cooking easier. For my boys left home alone this evening, there will also be a pan of berry crisp. Yum!

SiouzQ.

2-23-11, 8:28pm

I just made a very interesting and quite tasty grilled cheese sandwich ~dark rye bread, asiago cheese, cherry tomato and slices of avocado! Really very good! And a side dish of sliced english cucumbers, more cherry tomatoes (man, are they ever ripening fast!), thin red onion slices, feta cheese, ground black pepper, a little oregano, olive oil and a splash of red wine vinegar.

Rosemary

2-23-11, 9:43pm

Dinner tonight was a kidney bean & veg dish in which the veggies are lightly sauteed and then topped with cornbread batter and baked. I had a lot of fresh cilantro to use up and it was pretty good.

Kat

2-24-11, 8:19am

Sounds good, Rosemary!

So far, so good with the frozen dinners. I haven't felt much like eating the past few days.

Bastelmutti

2-24-11, 9:11am

Kat, I took your idea and got frozen fish sticks and egg rolls and served with cut-up vegetables for the night my kids had a performance at school. Wouldn't want to eat that every day, but it worked in a pinch! Back to the menu tonight with the chicken I skipped last night.

Kat

2-24-11, 1:14pm

I hear ya, Bastelmutti! I don't want to eat like this forever, either, but having something fast and easy on hand for those crazy nights really helps curb the temptation to eat out! :-)

screamingflea

2-26-11, 1:08pm

While I didn't join the challenge, I think I did a mediocre job this month. A lot of it came down to a stressful certification class I took last week. They fed us during the day which was great, but I was tired enough that I invested in a large pizza that I gnawed on in the evenings through the week. Then on Thursday I had a nice big lunch at Ye Greasy Spoon - along with 6 cups of coffee as I sat and studied for 4 hours. I ignored the Clif Bar in my bag yesterday in favor of a Taco Bell Burrito because it was way too cold to stand out at the bus stop for 15 minutes. I had a lot of moments like that.

I'll come to March with a renewed sense of resolve. Some of the food suggestions here have been great to get me thinking about options. My biggest problem with eating at home is getting out of the sandwich rut - I have to pack something every day, and they're so darn portable. And boring, good god, the monotony of it all!! :0! Tedium is the worst pain.

maribeth

2-26-11, 1:33pm

Yesterday, I made a grapefruit shrimp curry from an online recipe. It was, without a doubt, the most disgusting, vile dish to ever come out of my kitchen. I am thinking of marketing it as a weight loss recipe.

Kat

2-26-11, 3:45pm

@ maribeth--at least you are adventurous with your food and willing to try new things!

We've been staying in for most meals. I've been eating some french cabbage soup my dad gave me for lunch this week. I ate at my in-laws once and my step-grandma's once, too, and will eat with my dad again tomorrow. I appreciate their kindness in providing home cooked meals for us during the kitchen remodel. I feel really blessed and will return the favor as soon as I am able.

We did go out one night. But I ordered $7 all you can eat mostaccioli. They brought the first portion out, and it was huge. I ate a little there, took the rest home, and got two more meals out of it. So I guess $7 for 3 meals isn't so bad considering the frozen ones we've been eating are about $2 each.

Bastelmutti

2-26-11, 9:23pm

Good job, everyone! Kat, nice that you're getting home-cooked meals. Maribeth, and grapefruit sounds so refreshing. LOL! Glad you said the recipe stunk - I would have looked it up & tried to make it! Flea - Think about starting a packable lunch thread. That would be a great topic.

As for me, we ordered pizza tonight. My sister had her baby & I got my turn to visit in the hospital! It was great. Back to cooking tomorrow.

maribeth

2-27-11, 10:55am

We had a big box of grapefruit that we bought for a friend's school fundraiser, and I was looking for ways to use it up. After some experimentation, I have concluded that the best way to use up grapefruit is to eat it as-is or give it away.

Last night I told DH he was responsible for dinner, so we got Indian takeout. Tonight, more cooking.

Kat

2-27-11, 11:08am

We ate with my in-laws again last night. Waaaaaaaay better than TV dinners. And I have the BEST in-laws in the world, so can't complain about a thing. :-)

@maribeth--my dad was telling me how, when he was growing up in the 40s and 50s, people used to bake grapefruit with a little brown sugar on top. I found this recipe online and have been wanting to try it:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Broiled-Grapefruit-Crisp/Detail.aspx

I don't know if that sounds like anything you'd be interested in, but let me know if you do give it a shot and like it. Like I said, I can't vouch for it. But it seems interesting. I also thought this seemed kind of good:

http://www.food.com/recipe/get-gorgeous-grapefruit-granita-151018

and possibly this (although it could be really weird):

http://www.food.com/recipe/avocado-grapefruit-salad-56581

I think I might be with you in thinking grapefruit is best just eaten as normal. LOL