January Cook at Home

[lhamo]

I was up at 3am this morning (still jetlagged) so I cleaned out the freezer. Threw out some frozen pumpkin that had been there at least two years. Almost threw out some fish we bought several months ago because it was majorly freezerburned, but decided to try to salvage it for lunch -- glad I did because it turned out great! More on that below. While sorting through stuff I discovered two separate containers of leftover roasted cauliflower, so decided I will make cream of cauliflower soup for dinner -- had been planning to make clam or seafood chowder, but better to use up the cauliflower first and free up more space. I resorted everything in a way that made better use of the space, and there is actually quite a bit of room now in spite of my cheese stash! Pulled out the remainder of a package of parmesan cheese to use in making breakfast, which was....

Sausage and veg fritatta. Turnd out great. DS and I each had a large piece, and I still have 4 more pieces which I will eat for breakfast over the next few days.

For lunch I made DD's favorite baked chicken dish, plus fish baked in foil with vegetables -- varied the recipe in How to Cook Everything just a little bit by adding some dill, which turned out nice. I was surprised at how well the fish turned out given the sad state it was in when I took it out of the freezer. It generated a lot of liquid, which I skimmed off and will probably throw in the clam chowder when I make it (probably next week). I think the tomatoes, onions, olives and dill with the fish will probably taste even better cold, so I may make another batch of it -- DS wants tacos tomorrow, so I may just make mine fish and olive tacos (I have some low carb tortillas I brought back from the US that I need to use up anyway).

So, plans for the rest of the week are:

Cream of cauliflower soup for dinner. DD will probalby have leftover chicken but I think DS will eat the soup. I may make him a toasted cheese sandwich to go with it.

Fritatta leftovers for breakfast, with fruit on the side.

Tacos for lunch tomorrow -- may make more of the baked fish for me, and will use leftover chicken for the kids.

Beef stew for dinner tomorrow. Will probably make the red cabbage salad to go with that.

I'm also going to boil up chicken bones now for another batch of stock. I want to make more soups for my lunches this winter, and you can never have enough stock! I'm using up two batches this weekend as it is (one for the cauliflower soup, one for the beef stew tomorrow), so the freezer will still not be overstuffed.

Oh, I also cleaned out the spice/staple drawer and got rid of some stuff that had expired/was past its prime.

lhamo

[Rosemary]

dinner at our friends' was cancelled last night, so we had the chili from the freezer a night early, along with salad.
DD and DH have requested pasta w/ meat sauce and the local natural foods store has everything 10% off today so I will go get a pound of grass-fed ground beef and make that for them tonight, and then freeze the extra sauce. I'll have salad and roasted eggplant.

[TMC]

Breakfast was quick and on the run, fried egg sandwich on homemade squash rolls I made yesterday.

Lunch was a pleasure, we had gift cards to a local Mexican place and I found some coupons so the four of us ate lunch and will have enough on the gift cards to eat out another day.

Dinner will be something light to combat the tacos from lunch.. Probably have green salad and grilled cheese sandwiiches and sliced pears. Pears are so good right now.

[bunnys]

Breakie: Piece of apple crisp I made last weekend.

Lunch: Burrito of the .90 batch I made last weekend and froze.

Dinner: Out at Chili's. It's gonna be tough. They have virtually nothing on their menu that's vegetarian--and even less that's vegan.

Also, made a loaf of bread in the bread machine today. So cheap and so good.

[Rosemary]

Made the bolognese sauce for DH and DD, alongside pasta. 1# grass fed ground beef, resulting in at least 12 servings of sauce. Really good sauce, too - I sampled a tablespoon of it on the eggplant I roasted today (since I can't eat very acidic foods in any quantity). I had a big salad for dinner. Made a curried red lentil/carrot soup with coconut milk for lunch today, received good reviews all around.

Tomorrow's dinner will probably be a repeat of today's because I spent the entire afternoon cooking and am pretty much worn out. In addition to roasting the eggplant and making the sauce, I roasted some mushrooms, made 2 zucchini, pepper, spinach & goat cheese frittatas (one for friends who just had a baby and one for our freezer, for DD and her babysitter to have for dinner next weekend), a batch of muffins for the friends with new baby, and also roasted some sweet potato for breakfasts. The fridge is full of food that is ready to eat.

[TMC]

Been cooking at home a lot and really happy about it. The weekends are our problem area for sure with eating put. We did do lunch out yesterday but it was planned with coupons and a gift card we received as a gift.

Breakfast today was egg sandwiches with home made sourdough english muffins, egg whites, spinach and a little pepper jack cheese.

Lunch was a great soup out of Stanley Tuccis new cookbook, I think it was called Layered Chicken and Cheese soup. Oh my it is good. Those of use watching our weight skipped the cheesy part and just stuck to the broth full of escarole and chicken meatballs.

Dinner was cabbage and potatoes in the slow cooker with the last little bit of ham, finishing up our half ham this week. I'm happy it's gone, I'm so sick of ham.

[Rosemary]

Just planned the menu for the rest of the week. Tonight we finish the weekend's leftovers. The red lentil/carrot coconut curry soup was even better reheated.
Tomorrow: Thai chicken/coconut curry soup with bean thread noodles and vegetables. Have to use up that can of coconut milk.
Wednesday: bean burritos for DH and DD, refried beans and salad for me. Using up tortillas and the cilantro that I need to buy for Tuesday's soup.
Thursday: leftovers. Will be out of tortillas so will do something creative with remaining home-cooked beans.
Friday: tofu bibim bap. Need to look up recipe to make something like gochu jang sauce from ingredients I have.
Saturday: date night for me and DH. Already made a frittata for DD and babysitter and they can reheat the frozen slices along with some green beans.

[Florence]

This weeks dinners:
Monday- baked fish, corn on the cob, oven roasted carrots w/ thyme
Tuesday-oven BBQ chicken, leftover corn on the cob, baked beans
Wednesday-Spaghetti & meatballs
Thursday-veggie soup

The rest of the week is YOYO (You're On Your Own).

[TMC]

Frugal victory today...thought about lunch with DH after some appointments but we managed to be strong and came home instead. Dinner is homemade pizza, crust is rising, sausage browned. Yummy

[Rosemary]

The Thai chicken/coconut curry soup was excellent. Added carrots and brussels sprouts, and all the cilantro stems, which add great flavor to soup when cooked, unlike the leaves, which are best added at the end of cooking. DD and I will have some for lunch tomorrow. I have about 5 more stalks of lemongrass from my garden in the freezer, and will definitely make this again, with variations depending on what I have in the fridge.