View Full Version : November Cook at Home
Today: teriyaki salmon and steamed green beans
Feta stuffed chicken breast
Baked sweet potato
Oven roasted corn on the cob
Two pieces of pizza and spinach. Made the pizza on Sunday. Will also have a bowl of French onion soup in a little bit. Made that on Monday during the hurricane.
Macaroni & Cheese
Corn
Raw veggie tray
studentofecology
11-2-12, 2:03pm
Home made pasta with chard, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil.
Homemade mac 'n cheese, with fresh tomatoes in the middle before baking. Wonderful comfort food - and I have all ingredients except tomatoes.
Wilma Flintstone pork ribs. The sauce was pretty good (sweet and sour), but I had forgotten I'm not really crazy about ribs. Maybe I'll make bone broth will all the left-over parts, then some kind of Asian-inspired soup.
Bacon sandwiches
Oven fries
Veggie tray
lunch yesterday: DD had the day off school and I cooked up some kale and potatoes, German peasant food.
last night: "chicken jook with lots of vegetables" from Mark Bittman's Food Matters Cookbooks. Next time I'll add more garlic and ginger, but it was good, warming and filling. Had salad and fruit with it. I assume this is Chinese peasant food - using water to stretch a little rice and even less chicken to many servings. Peasant food is underrated in the U.S.!
today: we had the rest of the jook and salad for lunch. Tonight is an event at our church and I'm making a big pot of chili to bring. This will be "3 sisters chili" - with red beans, zucchini and pumpkin, corn, and peppers.
tomorrow is soup day at our church and I'm bringing one of the 4 soups - need to figure that one out now.
I just did my week's shopping. I will not be eating out at all this week. I'll be making the following:
Chik'n a la King, coleslaw and cranberry sauce
burritos
Luscious Coconut/Macadamia Bread
dog biscuits--bacon
bfast @ school--steel cut oats and veggie sausage
I also bought some brussels sprouts and have NO IDEA what to do with them. But I want to do something that is delicious so I buy them again and again... Any ideas?
Finally, I will make some more apple butter in the crock pot. I made it a few weeks ago and it was phenomenal. I will never buy store bought again!
Ok, update on the Brussels Sprouts. Here's what I did. They were phenomenal.
1 # Brussels Sprouts
a little less than 1/4 c toasted pine nuts
2 T olive oil
4 cloves garlic chopped
1 sm-med sweet onion sliced
@ 1/4 c balsamic vinegar
salt/pepper
Cleaned Brussels Sprouts. Steamed for 9 minutes then shocked them and sliced them in 1/2.
Sauteed onion in olive oil until caramelized. Added garlic during last 2 minutes. Added Balsamic and reduced (took about 1 minute.) Added Brussels Sprouts, cut side down added a little bit more Balsamic and salt/pepper to taste and toasted pine nuts. Tossed and heated through on med (about 2 minutes.) They were wonderful.
I ate about 1/2 of them before the remainder of my dinner was even ready. Will eat the remainder tomorrow. This would probably be a good addition to a T-give menu. But I'd allocate 1/3 # of Brussels Sprouts per person as they are really good and I can't imagine anyone not liking these.
These are the first Brussels Sprouts I've eaten in about 35+ years as the last ones I ate were those my mother boiled and forced me to choke down. Those usually came right back up. No wonder I had a phobia...
Blackdog Lin
11-3-12, 9:23pm
bunnys - I intend to try your great-sounding Brussels Sprouts recipe this winter (minus the pine nuts - too expensive). :) DH and I both also thought we hated Brussels Sprouts till a year ago or so. This is what I've been doing to them that changed our minds (we even went so far as to try growing them in the garden this year - with limited success). You might like the more frugal preparation.
Garlic Brussels Sprouts
1 lb. fresh Brussels sprouts, cleaned and cut in halves
3 tbs. butter, divided
2 tsp. olive oil
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 c. chicken broth
fresh cracked pepper, and salt to taste
Heat 1 tbs. butter and the olive oil in large saucepan and saute garlic 1-2 minutes. Add sprouts and toss to coat. Add broth and pepper, cover, and cook over medium heat 12-14 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain and remove to bowl, then toss with remaining 2 tbs. butter. Salt to taste.
Good stuff.
We love brussels sprouts roasted in the oven. Toss with a small amount of olive oil, salt, pepper. Cut large sprouts in half. Place on baking pan and cover with another pan. Bake at 400 for abotu 15 minutes; remove top pan and bake another 10-15 minutes or until done to your liking.
I had brussel sprouts for the first time last year at Christmas and LOVED them. Very hard to find here in Beijing, though.
Did great with cooking at home this weekend. Here was what was on the menu:
Breakfast Sat: Mini-fritattas with shrimp, onions, yellow peppers and feta. Shrimp had too much liquid so they were a bit watery. DH and DS preferred the ham ones I did last week.
Lunch: Another pizza party with friends. Mixture of tomato/pepperoni for the kids and pesto/chicken/veggies for me and DH. Plus salad. Friend who came has celiac, so she had a frittata and salad.
Dinner: Pasta and garlic bread.
Breakfast today: Muffins with chocolate chips and dried cherries. They were a hit -- only half of one left!
Lunch: DH cooked spicy tofu and broccoli
Dinner (in the pot): Rice cooker bibimbap. Modified the recipe from the NYT, using slivers of roast pepper beef and some green veg instead of spinach and salmon. Also threw in julienned carrot and cucumber. Need to go stir the pot now!
lhamo
Made soup for church today: Mediterranean vegetable (chickpeas, roasted red peppers, zucchini, etc and a fair dose of rosemary from the plant I brought inside)
Dinner: chicken with a red wine sauce that I cooked on Friday when I made the jook, steamed green beans, and salad
Need to make some soup tonight for DD to take for lunch this week. Probably will be lentil.
Minestrone soup for dinner tonight. I used up some items in the fridge that needed to be used up and the only glitch was having to use black beans instead of cannellini beans. No one seemed to notice. It was fine and there's plenty for lunches and dinners this week.
Simpler at Fifty
11-4-12, 7:06pm
We had french toast and bacon for dinner. I usually make a big breakfast on Sunday but was meeting a friend at a craft sale at 9. So we ate leftover homemade pizza for breakfast and had breakfast for dinner.
Dinner is sweet and sour pork soup, made from spare rib leftovers. I nailed the sweet and sour part. Pretty good.
Baked Cod Fish
Oven Roasted Carrots
Oven Roasted Corn on the Cob
studentofecology
11-5-12, 9:31am
We attended a potluck pizza-making party. I brought the pizza crust dough.
try2bfrugal
11-5-12, 10:34am
We had free pizza dinner for doing volunteer work with one of our clubs.
It's looking like hamburger Stroganoff for dinner, over Cauliflower mash. Fortunately, all the leftovers have finally been consumed.
Leftover feta stuffed chicken breasts
Baked sweet potato
Leftover roasted corn on the cob
Roasted potatoes and brussels sprouts, and bratwurst
Dinners from the last few days:
minestrone soup with rosemary focaccia
roast pork loin and salad
mushroom soup and salad
wild rice stuffed pumpkin, salad, and zucchini frittata. We had guests over for dinner tonight and everything I needed was already in the pantry. This was the last pumpkin from our garden.
I made a batch of chicken-spaetzle stew for DD to take to lunch this week. DH and I will have salads for most lunches; breakfasts have been fruit salads (mine with 1/2 avocado, DD's with cheese or nuts) or roasted sweet potatoes with nuts.
Tomorrow's dinner will be leftover wild rice and pumpkin gratin, with a roasted chicken breast and some sauteed cabbage. When I put the remaining portions in the fridge, I chopped up the pumpkin and mixed it up. I'll modify it somehow tomorrow night when I reheat it, to make it more of a gratin.
ApatheticNoMore
11-12-12, 2:36am
Made a chicken stew (chicken breast - whole front with bone, jar of homemade salsa, tomatoes, onions, a hot pepper). Also made cream of carrot soup to use up a bunch of orange, yellow and purple carrots (carrots, corriander, bay leaf, onions, lemon juice, cream). So I've pretty much got my dinners for the coming week (also have a piece of fish plus some other veggies - cauliflower and chard both will last awhile before I have to use them - to round out the weeks meals).
What I had tonight though, Mexican take out :~). Last night was cauliflower with cheese and homemade tomato sauce, the two nights before - mexican type salads with ground beef, romaine lettuce, homemade salsa, sour cream.
Baked cod fish
Oven roasted corn on the cob
Oven roasted carrots
A big pot of ham and bean soup on the stove. Cornbread should add just the right touch for a cold night tonight.
treehugger
11-12-12, 1:19pm
Roasted (cubed) butternut squash and fresh sage tossed with browned butter, more sage, and cheese ravioli (frozen from Costco). Delicious and a favorite fall/winter meal around here.
I defrosted a boneless leg of lamb yesterday. I think I am going to make it into lamb curry in the crockpot tonight (to cook overnight). Cooking lamb in the oven makes my dog freak out (it's bizarre; she reacts the same way she does to thunder and fireworks), so I am hoping the crockpot method doesn't elicit the same reaction. I don't even buy lamb, but FIL gave this to us and it's been in the freezer for at least 6 months. Time to be cooked!
Kara
flowerseverywhere
11-12-12, 2:56pm
found a really good website
www.thegardengrazer.com (http://www.thegardengrazer.com) Lots of good veggie recipes
today homemade pizza topped with cheese, tomato slices, and sauteed mushrooms, zuchini and peppers, will be lots of leftovers.
big pot of minestrone soup after farmers market on Saturday we had again yesterday with homemade biscuits. Then biscuits for breakfast today
tomorrow quiche with spinach and feta.
I decided to freeze most of the pumpkin/wild rice dish. It has cranberries and hazelnuts in it and will be perfect to take to our church potluck this Sunday. There was so much remaining that my family would have been really, really tired of it this week.
Tonight we had a little of the pumpkin/wild rice, along with braised kohlrabi with dill and my grandmother's chicken recipe, which is cooked with peppers and mushrooms in a sauce that is flavored lightly with sherry and tomato paste.
Tomorrow we have an evening event, so we'll have the rest of the chicken and a salad. Easy dinner with minimal cleanup.
Plans for Wednesday, currently: a cauliflower/pea curry. Subject to change.
Spaghetti and meatballs
Green beans
try2bfrugal
11-13-12, 11:24am
Since I have been trying to reduce energy costs, I realized quite a bit of our energy use came from food storage and preparation. The rice cooker and the crock pots seem to be two of the more economical ways to cook, so I made organic rice in the rice cooker and steamed some frozen shrimp and a pile of assorted, fresh vegetables on top in the steamer basket on top of the cooker at the same time. I sliced the vegetables thin with my new mandoline so they would cook quickly. In the crock pot I made barbecue chicken, eggplant stew and soup stock (with the vegetable trimmings and onion skins).
Chicken and Rice Casserole
Raw Veggie Tray
I made enchiladas tonight instead of the curry. They were delicious. Lots of veggies - cauliflower, carrot, celery, onion, peppers, plus one chicken breast half and some pepper jack cheese... and a big dose of cilantro. Made a total of 6 servings from this, and will have the rest tomorrow or Friday. I put the second meal in a separate baking dish so they will be fresher than if they were heated twice.
I roasted the rest of the head of cauliflower along with some carrots for snacking/topping salads, seasoned with garam masala. Very good.
For lunch I made myself an asparagus-quinoa salad that was really tasty. I had a salad with these main ingredients at one of my favorite local haunts last weekend, but mine was a lot less oily. Steamed asparagus, cut into small pieces; peppers, shredded carrots, green onion; and dry-roasted pepitas and prunes cut into small pieces. Added some fresh cilantro and a little curry powder. No dressing was needed as it was fairly moist.
treehugger
11-14-12, 7:53pm
Still coasting on the leftovers of ravioli with butternut squash, and lamb curry with rice (the curry ended up using a bunch of carrots and swiss chard from the CSA box, and it turned out great). Thank gawd for leftovers in crazy weeks!!
Kara
ApatheticNoMore
11-17-12, 2:53am
Had salmon and (leftover) cream of carrot soup tonight. Have about 1 carrot soup serving left.
Ate that chicken dish I made like 3 times or so this week with sour cream and avocado, good food but tired of it, but still have 1-2 portions left, so just put it into freezing (otherwise I will be so very very sick of poultry by big poultry day!). Think I may just alternate fish and vegetarian meals until then (thinking of making lentil soup with chard - ocassionally I add ground lamb to my lentil soups but probably will just top with olive oil or truffle olive oil).
On Thursday we were at a volunteer activity until dinner time so I made some savoy cabbage and pork loin chops in the crockpot.
Yesterday we had the rest of the enchiladas.
Today, DH and I are going out with some friends for dinner and I will make chicken parmigiana for DD and her babysitter, along with some steamed green beans.
Tomorrow is our big Thanksgiving potluck at church. I'm bringing the wild rice/pumpkin dish as well as a Romanesco broccoli salad. This will ensure that there is plenty there that is the kind of food that I like to eat, which isn't always the case at potlucks. So tomorrow night at dinner we'll have vegetable soup and salad.
Florence
11-17-12, 10:44am
Bacon sandwiches
Oven fries
Leftovers-- leftover spaghetti and meatballs or leftover chicken & rice casserole. Whatever isn't eaten this evening is lunch tomorrow. Clean out the fridge day tomorrow.
treehugger
11-18-12, 8:26pm
Today has been a marathon kitchen day:
- pear butter (in the canner now)
- white bean/kielbasa soup (just finished)
- broa (Portuguese yeasted corn bread)
- roast turkey just went into the oven (since we are going out with the family on Thursday)
- to go with the turkey: roast potatoes and steamed broccoli
Kara
I bought two free-range turkeys this morning at the best price I've ever seen them - a smaller one for us to eat over the winter and one for our Thanksgiving dinner with friends at our church on Thursday. I'm cooking the one for us today, since I had time and it was fresh, rather than putting it in the freezer, because a huge frozen bird is a big hassle to defrost - not enough space in the fridge. So, we'll have plenty of easy meals in the freezer (sliced turkey, shredded turkey for tacos/burritos/chili etc, and scraps to add to stir-fries).
While I was at it I made another quinoa-asparagus salad (quinoa, steamed asparagus, sliced red bell pepper, green onions, shredded carrot, slivered prunes, pepitas, and a little curry powder - no oil or dressing needed). I'll have this for lunch the next few days. Also cooked a package of mushrooms that was in the fridge. I like to add mushrooms to many meals, salads, etc, but do not like to eat them raw. I used the residual water that came from the mushrooms and from steaming the asparagus to cook the quinoa.
Dinner tonight will be leftover bean/veg soup for me and the last of the chicken parmigiana for DD and DH, with steamed green beans. Cleaning out the fridge!
Dinner tomorrow night will be turkey/barley soup and salad.
Baked fish
Oven roasted carrots & thyme
Oven roasted corn on the cob
SteveinMN
11-19-12, 8:34pm
Dinner tonight was fish tacos. We're digging into the fish now that DSD (who does not care for fish) has moved out. Not particularly frugal (bought fresh fish because the co-op didn't have any frozen), but good for us (Omega 3s, lots of vegetables, and not a lot of oil). Went together in 20 minutes. Disappeared even quicker. Kind of a nice treat!
ApatheticNoMore
11-20-12, 1:01am
Found a recipe for lentil, chickpea, and greens (chard) soup in a Mediterranian cookbook, just those ingredients plus garlic and dried hot pepper. Made it. Ridiculously healthy tasting, had to salt it up (must remove healthfulness!!! :) ), it says to serve it with an olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt topping which ought to improve it as well. That's for later this week really. Today: cauliflower, cheese, and tomato sauce (yes having this all the time, but soon will near the end of last summers tomato sauce). Yesterday: fish and the last of the cream of carrot soup.
Fruited chicken salad
Sourdough bread
the turkey-based soup tonight will be an Asian-style noodle soup with lots of veggies. Haven't had that since... last winter!
Used up a little bit of leftover pasta for a sort of stirfry with a tiny bit of leftover pesto and some tofu (pan fried)
Granola and almond milk is a really filling breakfast!
Used up stuff about to go bad in a quiche which is both lunch and dinner. Figured out how to tackle that massively hard hunk of hardened goat cheese - blender!
ApatheticNoMore
11-21-12, 10:02pm
The lentil, chickpea, and chard soup, salmon on the side. Added more salt and hot pepper flakes to soup, topped with lemon juice and olive oil (it really does need the lemon juice & olive oil topping, bland without but yummy with). Broke a 24 hour fast tonight so no dinner yesterday. Will make scallop potatoes to contribute to thanksgiving (standard recipe sub rice flour for wheat, add a bay leaf).
try2bfrugal
11-22-12, 1:25am
Tonight we had pasta with organic meat sauce, steamed beets and carrots, and a crock pot eggplant / bean / leftover side dish. I also have a chicken veg soup cooking in another crock pot for tomorrow. I cleaned out the fridge and freezer and tried to use up all of the leftovers in the crock pot side dish and soup.
I used the Cooks Illustrated recipe for the Vietnamese noodle soup and it was really delicious. Had lemongrass in the freezer from our garden this summer.
Today I'll roast a turkey with fresh rosemary that I brought inside from the garden. I don't know if there will be many leftovers after our church dinner, but I will be making more stock.
Thursday, I made the turkey we shared at our Thanksgiving dinner. While we were eating the turkey bones were simmering to make stock.
Friday, we had Thanksgiving leftovers.
Saturday, we had Thanksgiving leftovers - from many houses - at my friend's annual post-Tgiving potluck.
Tonight, we had an acorn squash/kale curry and salad. I made a big pot of DD's favorite lunch stew using some of the turkey stock I made on Thursday.
The refrigerator is finally showing some space.
I think tomorrow night will be a tofu/broccoli stir-fry.
Florence
11-25-12, 10:31pm
Made a big pot of veggie soup and toasted some leftover sourdough bread. Yum. No turkey today. ;)
ApatheticNoMore
11-25-12, 10:49pm
Cream of tomato soup (used something in a glass jar called strained tomatoes, onions, garlic, saffron disolved in hot water, rice, homemade veggie broth, lemon juice, a few hot pepper flakes, a few basil leaves from a plant outside, salt, pepper, cream). Decent, still haven't topped the trader joe recipe which was what I was craving but eh, they have a whole factory of stuff to put in soup or something.
Also cream of nettle soup (nettles, onion, garlic, olive oil, cream, salt, pepper). Not near nettle-y enough, and injuries were sustained, so I don't consider that recipe a success at all, just edible is all. Yea wild food is a whole other level of cooking and not one I'm very good at. May just freeze and use as a base for something better in the coming weeks (green potato soup or something)
Weekend was just leftovers and not eating much - really too boring to relate. WAY too much soup around at this point (still have that beans and greens soup as well).
Roasted two chickens on Saturday for a late mini-Thanksgiving, then boiled up the bones for stock. Made a MARVELOUS chicken soup on Sunday that I had for dinner and then again for lunch today (Monday already here in China). Need to do that more often. It was really yummy and lower carb than my typical leftover lunches.
lhamo
Baked fish, baked yams (leftover from Thanksgiving), and braised cabbage (using the rest of the head of cabbage that wasn't used in yeesterday's veggie soup).
DH is traveling for work this week and DD and I are eating simply.
Monday night was scrambled eggs, steamed broccoli.
Tuesday night was broccoli/carrot/tofu stir-fry with some leftover roasted garnet yams, my favorite. A much tastier accompaniment to a stir-fry than rice, let me add.
Tonight I will make my favorite German peasant food, kale & potatoes, with some chicken sausage.
SteveinMN
11-28-12, 9:23am
Eating south of the border this week:
http://i47.tinypic.com/2rm8jo1.jpg
- Porotos guisados, an Argentinian vegetable stew that could be vegan if vegetable stock were substituted for the chicken stock. Potato, sweet potato, winter squash, cabbage, beans, and peas, in a savory sauce. Bonus: I only had to buy a couple of potatos and sofrito; I had everything else on hand. Yum.
- Giant white corn and pork stew. (no picture yet) I had never heard of giant white corn before. Apparently it's a breed of corn, not a processing method. I got it at a Mexican grocery. It takes a lot of soaking and cooking, but the stove heat warms up the kitchen. I probably could slow-cook it as well, though cooking the corn is only half the recipe. Half a pound of pork (tougher cuts are OK) for lots of servings and some onions, garlic, tomatoes, and some spices and we're good to go. Also very tasty. And it didn't require much of a purchase beyond stuff I already had on hand. Win...
I had never heard of giant white corn before. Apparently it's a breed of corn, not a processing method. I got it at a Mexican grocery.
Steve, is this similar to hominy? My kids were weaned on posole, a Mexican soup with hominy as the star ingredient. In our stores hominy is available either white or yellow in cans. I usually go for white. I'm not sure if the kernels are oversized before the hominy corn is soaked in lye (or other alkali solution) or if they swell during that process. I do know that substituting regular corn in the recipe transforms posole from a religious experience to...plain old soup.
SteveinMN
11-28-12, 10:05am
Steve, is this similar to hominy?
I thought it was, at first. When I first found the recipe, though, I did a quick Web search on "giant white corn" and the first few results that came back pointed to a specific variety of maize. Okay, there are varieties of apples and varieties of carrots; no biggie that corn is not all tiny yellow kernels. So I quit thinking about it. But in looking now and including the word hominy in my search, I found that' they are similar -- though hominy is giant white corn usually treated with lye to soften it (and then rinsed really really well).
So, yeah, they're pretty close. :)
Love your sig line, btw.... Who said that?
Not sure who to atribute the sig line to, I stole it from a poster in another forum. Sounds exactly like things I hear in my own family so it made me smile.
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