View Full Version : May Cook at Home
As suggested last month I'm posting this in Food instead of Dailies & Challenges.
We met an out-of-town friend for dinner tonight, so I had a night off from cooking... but not really since I spent a couple of hours this afternoon prepping foods for the fridge. I made:
- cauliflower roasted with herbes de Provence, DD's favorite seasoning
- roasted asparagus
- roasted carrots
- corn chowder
The veggies are for my breakfasts and salads. The soup is for lunches. I'm chaperoning DD's field trip tomorrow and it will be nice to have some steaming hot soup on a snowy MN day. Yes... in May.
Tomorrow night we'll have chicken & bean tacos.
treehugger
5-2-13, 12:30pm
Oh, now we have 2 threads (see Kat's May Eat at Home in Dailies & Challenges). Wonder if they can be merged. I love seeing this conversation continue - no reason for us to compete. :)
Kara
Because of my specific diet we eat home a LOT.
B - usually oatmeal with raisins and almond milk
S - freshly made juice from veg and fruit
L - sandwich of some kind of special bread, no dairy with lots of veggies
D - lynn's loaf from Engine 2 with miso gravy, potatoes and more veg
S - popcorn (no butter) more fruit, a few nuts, you get the picture.
What I have found is that I assemble food a lot.
Sorry, I did not see the other thread.
No apologies necessary. I just didn't want these good conversations getting lost. Food and cooking are pretty much my favorite subjects. :)
Kara
Sorry, Rosemary! I didn't see your thread, either, and since I didn't participate last month, I didn't see the suggestion to post over here instead of in Dailies and Challenges. Is there a way to merge these two threads into one? I'd be glad to post here...
I've been falling into bad habits and spending paydays getting a bite a drink. It's comforting if expensive. but, for this week: Homemade Spaghetti, beans and rice, chicken pot pie, hummous and bread *hummous from whirling up a can of garbanzos* Cheese and mushrooms on toast. homemade black bean burgers. Split pea soup.
Kally, a lot of what I do, especially for breakfast and lunch, is "assembly," to. My breakfasts this week have been various roasted vegetables, reheated, topped with 1/2 avocado.
Friday I made a lentil/veg soup and invited friends over for lunch on an unusually cold May day. That night we cleaned out the fridge for dinner.
Saturday night we had a Thai tofu/broccoli/carrot curry with forbidden rice (DD loves that black rice!).
Today is Soup Sunday at church. I'm making a pinto bean soup with peppers and onions, seasoned with cumin, oregano, garlic.
Tonight I'll cook the rest of the cabbage we used for tacos, along with some chicken sausage for DD and DH. I'll eat the leftover curry.
Busy afternoons in the coming week so I'm planning to roast a couple of chickens after going to the store on Monday, and use the meet all week in various forms.
domestic goddess
5-5-13, 12:05pm
I have really fallen off the wagon recently. Got some stupid virus in April, and have just been too tired to deal with the thought of shopping and cooking. Can barely drag myself around as it is, but I do seem to be getting better, and I think I will get better faster with some good, homemade food!
Today will be a crockpot meal, as I don't have the energy to stand over something on the stove, so I am making Lemon Garlic Chicken. It is a new-to-me recipe, so we'll see how it goes. Haven't a clue for the rest of the week, except that there will be mac and cheese, because I just love it. I hope to make barbecued beef for sandwiches sometime this week, too.
Blackdog Lin
5-5-13, 8:55pm
Love reading everyone's menus. Lemon Garlic Chicken: sounds right up my alley. :)
Very unusually for us, we ate out way too much last week - life just happened. We met DH's buddy for lunch Tuesday at our favorite area mountain oyster place (said buddy was transferring a large bucket of morel mushrooms to our possession so hey I get morels AND a mountain oyster lunch - a definite win-win situation). Then Wednesday was our normal bi-monthly shopping day out-of-town, and DH simply cannot go out of town and not do lunch. And Friday I gave someone a ride to the big city for a medical procedure, 2 hours away, so no cooking again that day.
But I'm back in the saddle and ready to get back to our usual thrifty home cooking. Yesterday was the last of the morels in the fridge (but have more frozen) along with carrot and celery sticks. Today was taco salad, as I had getting-old romaine to use up before it went bad (and Cinco de Mayo, you know?); tonight I'm in the middle of making a decadently rich and delicious cream of asparagus soup, using the rest of the asparagus we picked wild (got another lb.-and-a-half this evening). It's a dish we usually only get once a year and it's a personal favorite of mine. (life is good.) Tomorrow is "pizza" stromboli, frozen bread dough was on sale last week and I will also use some frozen green peppers from last garden season. Oh, and I'll put the last of the taco meat from today's taco salad in it too.
I have a couple more days of menu ideas written down, but we'll wait and see how the leftover situation settles out. My weekly menus seldom survive daily life intact. :)
I get morels AND a mountain oyster lunch - a definite win-win situation)
Lin, I know you've said that you believe our cooking styles are quite similar. I largely agree! But I have to say that cooking or eating mountain oysters is not very high on my list. :) (I have tried lamb "oysters" and they were fine; I'm just awful with offal.) Morels -- now those I can enjoy readily!
Speaking of mushroom-like objects, I made a beefless stroganoff for dinner tonight, with crimini and portabello mushrooms. Kind of putzy to put together and it was missing ... something. DW really liked it; I probably would have liked it more if I didn't log all the time to make it. There are leftovers, however, so I'll have to figure out what I want to do with them. Maybe some pepper (recipe didn't call for any) and a little more sour cream (actually unsweetened fatfree Greek yogurt).
Well, we did really poorly on Saturday--we ate out for lunch and dinner. Ugh! We did much better yesterday, though--fruit and cereal for breakfast, homemade waffles for lunch, and leftover chicken for dinner. I did have a crock pot meal planned for tonight, but DH has some out-of-town family that wants to eat out at a pizza buffet tonight. So I guess I'll do the crock pot thing tomorrow.
We had a pretty good weekend in terms of home cooking -- did eat one meal out while we were out doing some other errands, but otherwise mostly ate at home and have plenty of leftovers for lunches this week. Menu included:
Baked salmon, spicy sweet potato "fries" (actually baked with a very small amount of EVOO, so fairly healthy), veggie sticks and homemade hummous (that was dinner on Saturday)
Frittata (for me and DH), bacon and pancakes (for kids), plus fruit salad (breakfast Sunday)
Pork shoulder cooked in enchilada sauce, with two types of salad (one a black bean/corn/spicy salsa thingy, one a red cabbage/red onion and carrot slaw), and tortilla chips -- it didn't even occur to me until after I made this that it was perfect for Cinco de Mayo! (lunch Sunday
Bruschetta with roasted asparagus and roasted red/yellow peppers, with a side of tomato/mozerella/mint salad (store was out of basil so I experimented with the mint -- prefer the basil but it was an interesting change out)
I'm trying to bring our food budgets way down and really scale back on eating out, so will be watching this thread for inspiration the rest of hte month!
Blackdog Lin
5-6-13, 10:31am
Steve: re: mountain oysters: :). Back in the day, the guys used to hit the butcher shop up for 10 or more pounds of 'em, and we'd have a big mountain oyster feed for everyone. But after seeing them in their raw state (they look.....like what they are) I couldn't eat them for YEARS. Gross. I was finally able to forget the sight of them raw - and now love them as long as they are presented to me already breaded and fried and ready to eat. A delicacy we don't get often enough.
treehugger
5-6-13, 12:01pm
Weekend cooking: 2 loaves of whole wheat sandwich bread; pot of black beans cooked in the crock pot with a pork bone from the freezer; chicken adobo (Costco organic chicken legs - great deal) with rice and steamed green beans; hard boiled eggs for egg salad and snacks. I still have not managed to make marinara sauce. Grrr.
Kara
[...]after seeing them in their raw state (they look.....like what they are) I couldn't eat them for YEARS. Gross. I was finally able to forget the sight of them raw - and now love them as long as they are presented to me already breaded and fried and ready to eat.
The lamb "oysters" I tried this year were one of the new foods at the Minnesota State Fair. Already breaded, already fried, already served with a garlic mayonnaise. And they were good. I definitely would eat them again. But, yes, a big chunk of bull testicle -- umm, no.
Then again, there are some foods I really like that look like &*#!. Tongue, for one. Much easier to eat when it's sliced and on a sandwich. Lobster is an interesting meal if you get to look at the body and the antenna. And oysters -- well, whoever ate the first oyster was pretty darn hungry!
We ate out with DH's out-of-town family last night, but my FIL generously paid for everyone. This morning we will probably have yogurt for breakfast as that is what DD has been asking for! Lunch will probably be sandwiches, and dinner will be a chicken meal made in the crock pot along with some frozen veggies. Kind of boring, I guess, but I am pretty close to having the baby now, so I consider anything edible on the table a victory! :-)
Carried through on my plans for yesterday. DD and I actually used a random tomato we found in the fridge to make tomato sandwiches for lunch, and they were delicious! I forgot how much I love plain tomato sandwiches! The crock pot meal came out okay, and there were enough leftovers for dinner tonight. For lunch, I am planning to make DH some party subs with meat, cheese, and buns from the freezer. He can have a few chips with that if he wants, or carrot sticks or an apple. I do need to start thinking about dinner tomorrow night, though, as I will need to take some meat out of the freezer to thaw...
Kat, I love tomato sandwiches! To me that is the taste of summer. When I was a kid my parents would send me to my grandparents for a month or so, and those are my fondest summer memories. My grandfather was a man of few words who grew awesome tomatoes. Looking back, I am fairly confident that he loved seeing me dig into his tomatoes. Sliced, on rye, with a little mayo. Yum.
Monday night was below my usual standards... I opted to postpone grocery shopping and instead cook 2 local/organic turkey drumsticks that were in the freezer. I put them in water to thaw in the morning, left it on the counter for a couple of hours, then put it in the fridge, still in the water. Well, they didn't thaw and so took too long to cook. It was already late because my fruit plants arrived and I had to get them planted ASAP due to the sudden warm weather.
So, we had the leftover cabbage and potatoes with cheddar grated on top. It was pretty good, actually.
So after dinner, I finished poaching the turkey and made stock with the liquid and the bones, and put everything in the fridge. On Tuesday I used the stock and turkey to make 2 turkey pot pies with GF crusts. One is in the freezer. Also in the pot pie: 1 zucchini, 2 c frozen green beans, 1.5 c frozen cauliflower, 2 c chopped carrots, onion. In the crust I used a mix of GF flours, and the fat was just the few tbsp of fat from the turkey stock.
I got groceries last night while DD was at an activity. Since then I have cut up a pineapple and a watermelon, sauteed mushrooms, roasted asparagus and carrots, cooked some wild rice (that was from the pantry), and right now a chana dal is slowly simmering on the stove. And I'm making yogurt. Dal + salad for dinner tonight.
Aww...sweet story, Rosemary. :-) My dad is the one who grew the tomatoes when I was a kid; he would make a big deal about finding a "one slice" tomato--that is, one slice of the tomato was big enough to cover the whole piece of bread. :-) Your pot pies sound delicious. I have never thought of using the fat from the stock to make the crust. I will have to try that sometime!
Lunch today will be leftover sandwiches and chips. Dinner tonight will be Salisbury steak with mashed potatoes and veggies. I think I might make some Fruity Pebbles treats tonight, too. I have several boxes I got for less than a dollar plus some marshmallows a friend gave me for free.
treehugger
5-12-13, 7:49pm
Weekend cooking report - not too prolific since I am studying for an American Lit exam scheduled for next Saturday.
Friday night: chicken sausages and salad.
Last night: pizza with homemade crust and sauce (one pepperoni and olive; one zucchini, red onion, mushroom, and garlic).
Tonight: leftover pizza and salad.
Lunches this weekend have been black bean and butternut squash burritos (wow, that's alliterative).
I have a pot of marinara sauce on the stove, bubbling away while I study. I will probably make puttanesca for dinner tomorrow night. It's a great pantry meal, assuming I have marinara on hand (most of this sauce will go into the freezer). My freezer is getting too bare for my liking but I haven't had time to do bulk cooking to stock it.
Kara
Tonight, poached salmon with homemade tartar sauce that remained from making oven-"fried" cod on Friday night. With the salmon, roasted sweet potatoes and steamed cauliflower seasoned with herbes de Provence.
Saturday, frittata with roasted broccoli, green peppers, and yellow summer squash, with a really good salad (mixed greens, roasted beets, toasted pepitas, dried cranberries, shredded carrots, green onions) and roasted asparagus. Leftover frittata and salad for Sunday lunch.
With the fish on Friday we had salad, not quite as fancy, and a wild rice-vegetable salad as well.
The fridge has gone from being jam-packed on Wednesday to having a lot of space.
My mom is visiting and requested tacos and black beans. It works out well to make everything for that tomorrow and have tacos again on Tuesday, and maybe some black bean soup on Wednesday if it's not too hot (oh, the irony, since it was chilly with 40mph winds yesterday!).
Wow, great job with the cooking at home everyone! And all the meals sound so delicious! We've been cooking at home, but nothing too elaborate. Green salads have been the focus the past few days as our greens our exploding and we're eating them as fast as we can. Some days the salads are topped with various combos, including: walnuts, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, carrots, slivered almonds, and croutons. Other days it's just dressed greens.
Had the first local asparagus of the season this weekend -- olive oil, salt and pepper, and a few minutes on the grill. YUM.
Taco stuff did not last for two dinners. Tonight we had mu shu tofu over red bhutan rice. My mom and I had a wilted spinach salad with black bean soup on the side for lunch.
Tomorrow, sweet potato, black bean & spinach burritos. I'll have mine tortilla-free.
treehugger
5-14-13, 9:48pm
I'm making pasta puttanesca right now. Well, I am boiling the water for the pasta and the sauce is heating. I made a large quantity of a basic marinara on Sunday, and for puttanesca, I added capers, red pepper flakes, chopped kalamata olives, and tuna in olive oil. Also about to bake a loaf of [Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes] olive oil bread, but that's really just to have on hand, not necessarily for this dinner.
Kara
ApatheticNoMore
5-15-13, 1:02am
Trying to duplicate an excellent caper based tomato sauce at a San Francisco Italian seafood restaurant just off the top of my head. Some onions, and a dried garlic clove and two fresh garlic heads sauteed in olive oil (fresh garlic is mild so it doesn't taste heavily of garlic), tomato puree, about 1/2 jar of salt packed capers rinsed, a bit of anchiovie paste (I have no idea why - because it was a seafood restaurant), squeezes of lemon juice, salt, a bit of cream (it's a light red sauce not a pink sauce) - lots of sour stuff it had a heavily sour taste I'm trying to capture. But it came out too sour so I added a pinch of white sugar (hate that I had to) and some white balsimic vinegar to cut the sour. Decent, but I won't put the restaurant out of business anytime soon! It's really an absolutely superb restaurant, most restaurants are not of that fine quality and of course neither is my cooking! Ok to serve with what? Fish I hope, as was done there, halibut and maybe also salmon. It would make a decent pasta sauce of course, but I'll probably be healthy and use it on veggies and fish instead. Not what I'd hoped for, but has a pleasingly sour taste I keep oddly going back for anyway.
The only other cooking I did was to make a fresh raw tomato basil, jalepeno salsa for hallibut I guess (not all in a row! I don't eat fish every day). Other than that I've mostly been eating left over frozen lentil soup that has a little ground beef in it, sometimes with rice (the beans and rice is to pay for the hallibut - just kidding but it does help :)).
Made black bean soup last night - vegan (although a bit of cheese would have been nice), very good. Nice way to use up some cilantro I had.
SteveinMN
5-15-13, 12:59pm
I made three meals in about an hour this morning:
- a casserole -- supposedly white beans, kale, and chorizo, but I didn't have time to soak the beans (fast or slow); I couldn't find kale in our local grocery store so I used turnip greens; and I couldn't find chorizo there, either, so I used merguez sausage. It will be several lunches, though, and it's still pretty darn tasty.
- the slow cooker has teriyaki beef in it. Rice and broccoli will be added later to make it a complete meal. I have to say that I love that my microwave can properly defrost frozen meat. It makes meal planning that much easier.
- "S'more Chicken" is ready to hit the pressure cooker for tonight's dinner. Despite the name, it does not contain graham crackers and marshmallows. Apparently it's called "s'more" chicken because people want s'more after they've had a serving. >8) Chicken, onions, garlic, soy sauce, and a little nutmeg.
Frugal in time as well as frugal in avoiding restaurants/takeout.
Totally bombed over the weekend. On Friday, we took DD out for Mexican beans and rice. Then Saturday we ordered food since DH's parents dropped by and I didn't have anything made for 5 people. Then Sunday we went out for breakfast for Mother's Day...ugh! Oh well. Monday was a new day! DH's parents were over again (they are helping us with the nursery), but my MIL graciously brought over some BBQ and salads. Last night I made salads and a chicken crock pot meal for the five of us. Lunch and dinner tonight will be leftovers. Tomorrow I am thinking I will make chicken caeser salad sandwiches in the crock pot with simple sides--maybe leftover veggies, carrot sticks, or frozen sweet potato fries. Already have the chicken thawed! I also made individual jar salads with the rest of the salad ingredients, so we can have those, too, for lunches. If I don't prep the salads ahead of time, we never get around to eating the stuff and it goes to waste. The leftover lettuce will be good on the chicken sandwiches tomorrow!
Had leftovers and salads last night as planned. DH mentioned eating up some leftover spaghetti for lunch today so it will not go to waste. I am on track to make the chicken caeser sandwiches for dinner. I'll make some kind of simple side to go with it and top the sandwiches with the rest of the leftover lettuce. Then hopefully tomorrow night we can celebrate family movie night with a $3 frozen pizza and some homemade popcorn.
Breakfast today, sweet potatoes, black beans, and spinach. Lunch for DD, quinoa & peas; mango/strawberry salad. Lunch for DH, my mom, and myself: salads with hard-boiled egg and sliced strawberries.
Dinner tonight will combine chicken, asparagus, mushrooms, and carrots, in an as-yet undetermined form that will take shape as I let the possibilities simmer. I roasted some veggies this morning and made some veg stock from the trimmings. I'll freeze that since I won't need it for at least a few days.
I'll be making a meat loaf later (with green pepper, carrot, onion, jalapeno and garlic), and chicken gumbo soup, as well as roasting part of a turkey and possibly making bacon-wrapped jalapeno poppers. That should do it for awhile. I'll probably have to freeze part of it.
Whole chickens on sale this week. In the past, I have bought two chickens, disjointed into breasts, wings & leg-thigh quarters and grilled on the charcoal barbie. It's a meat-for-the-week thing I do.
This Sunday, I will spatchcock (http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/08/the-food-lab-how-to-grill-a-whole-chicken.html)the birds. Expect results to be about the same, but I love saying that word, "spatchcock". If this works, it will save time vis a vis disjointing.
...
This Sunday, I will spatchcock (http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/08/the-food-lab-how-to-grill-a-whole-chicken.html)the birds. Expect results to be about the same, but I love saying that word, "spatchcock". If this works, it will save time vis a vis disjointing.
It sounds like a household repair.
Last night was roast chicken thighs, mushroom barley pilaf and a black bean/corn salad.
We had lunch out with my mom, who is still visiting, yesterday. It was a big meal, so we just had salads for supper.
Saturday we had corn/potato chowder and salad for lunch, and cod with a lemon/caper sauce with steamed broccoli for dinner.
Friday night we had bratwurst, sauerkraut, boiled potatoes, and salad.
Tonight I'm making a pot roast with potatoes and carrots, and roasted cauliflower. This is dinner x 2 nights (or more, in the case of the meat). Got an organic, grass-fed roast at the farmers market.
It's been a meat-heavy week. My mom doesn't like a lot of the ethnic foods we usually eat so I'm cooking more to her tastes.
Bacon-wrapped jalapenos with cream cheese poppers on the menu, along with some almond meal/cheese/jalapeno focaccia later.
JaneV2.0--Yum!
We've done very well eating at home--mostly leftovers, sandwiches, and cereal for breakfast. My in-laws have been over here a lot helping DH work on the nursery, so there are two extra people to feed, and they almost always suggest eating out. Friday night they were here and thought we could order a pizza, but I heated up two frozen pizzas instead. Then Saturday for lunch, my MIL said she'd run to a local sandwich shop, but I convinced everyone to eat sandwiches here instead. We had chips and homemade cookies for dessert. Saturday night they were still here, and I gave in to a fast food run. I am a week from my due date and just not feeling the best. My MIL did end up paying that meal, so that was nice.
Yesterday we had leftovers and sandwiches. Tonight we are having tuna and noodles and veggies and ice cream for dessert.
Blackdog Lin
5-20-13, 10:36pm
Weirdest thing. I am the queen of cooking-at-home. Truly, it is (usually) not a challenge for us to eat homecooked as opposed to eating out or takeout. It is just a very basic part of our efforts at a simple-living life. As such, this is my favorite thread on our entire forum. I adore reading people's menus, thinking about all the differences in food genres, and localities, and fresh-foods availability, I love swiping ideas and marveling at y'alls creativity.....
And then back to the weirdest thing: May 2013. I swear we've eaten out 3 times a week this whole month! Not from my choice, it just seems like life recently has been conspiring against my best efforts to cook at home. Little things. Stupid things. Out of the ordinary things. (and a DH who will let NO trip out-of-town for any reason whatsoever stop him from procuring a restaurant meal instead of our usual homecooked one.)
I am giving up for the month of May. I am certain that I will get back to our usual ways starting in June. (please!) And I am now a little more understanding that life's challenges and time constraints sometimes prevent us from doing the homecooking we all wish we could do every single day. I understand that I have been a little guilty of being a little judgmental.
Carry on.
treehugger
5-20-13, 11:13pm
I haven't been doing as much cooking at home this month, either, Blackdog, and as a direct consequence, my freezer is severely lacking in supplies of ready-to-defrost-and-eat meals that fill in between the cooking times. We have been eating a lot of beans and rice, and are actually getting tired of it (never thought that would happen).
Tonight's dinner = a desperation meal of chicken chowder from the freezer and bread I baked on Saturday. That chowder did not sound good (it's warm here), but it was there and needed to be eaten and saved us from getting take out.
One more week and weekend to get through of too much to do, and then I can have a nice cooking spree on the long Memorial Day weekend (first holiday of the year, yay!).
Kara
I spent the weekend cooking at a "retreat" for several friends of mine. Others offer the cabin, bring bikes to ride, provide fishing gear, etc. I don't have those things, but I can cook! I served almost 40 plates of food over 2-1/2 days:
Saturday dinner: Potato skins from baked potatoes, covered with onion, peppers, and cheese (the vegetables were portions taken from ingredients purchased for other weekend recipes) and shrimp slathered in a jalapeņo/cilantro/garlic mayonnaise and grilled, served with brown rice and a salad of varied lettuces with a homemade creamy lime dressing.
Sunday breakfast: frittatas with peppers (bells and jalapeņos) and onions, served with fresh-baked bread.
Sunday lunch: chicken fajitas (more peppers, onions, and cilantro, and mushrooms and grape tomatoes) served with (prepared) salsa, (prepared) guacamole, sour cream, cut-up jalapeņos, additional cilantro, and some green cabbage for garnish.
Sunday dinner: a sweet-tart pork roast with rhubarb (for the tart) and brown sugar (for the sweet), sliced and served on (prepared) potato buns and served with a cole slaw with a tangy mayo-based dressing.
Monday breakfast: leftovers (!).
All those meals were served for just under $120 and there was hardly anything to take home -- the potato innards, which I will combine with the little leftover sour cream as a dinner side dish, a bit of the pork roast (served for dinner last night on leftover potato buns with some celery we already had in the house). Some leftover lime juice. A couple of jalapeņos (I bought a package of maybe a dozen at ALDI). It was a blast to put together and all of it cost about what each diner would have paid for one dinner out.
treehugger
5-21-13, 12:31pm
Steve, that is a very impressive undertaking. Good for you, and I am glad you enjoyed it, too. I love when friends all pitch in with their particular skill and interest for a group event. Everyone wins!
Kara
Steve--That is fabulous! :)
Well, two nights ago, DH really wanted a cheeseburger. So he brought supper home. Last night, though, I asked him to grill some hot dogs for us, which he did. They were delicious, and we had fresh grapes and mixed veggies to go with. Ice cream for dessert. Lunch today will probably be sandwiches. Supper will be leftover hot dogs!
treehugger
5-22-13, 8:15pm
Last night was another desperation (lack of time) dinner: I threw sweet potatoes in the oven, and when they were almost done, added kielbasa. Ate the kielbasa with Dijon mustard and the sweet potato with s&p and butter. Had more of the same for lunch today. Dinner tonight will be black bean and sweet potato burritos.
What arrived in the CSA box this afternoon, for upcoming meals: basil, peaches, carrots, green beans, broccoli, beets, and oranges.
Kara
Made a pot of veggie soup yesterday and made Fruited Chicken Salad today. Leftovers tomorrow. Sourdough bread all three days!
Fish tacos tonight. I had to buy the cod. But everything else was already in the fridge, so this was an easy and (relatively) inexpensive meal.
treehugger
5-22-13, 8:49pm
Sourdough bread all three days!
Oh! That reminds me. I need to wake up my neglected starter and make sourdough bread this weekend. It's been toooooo long! Thanks for the reminder. :) I am so looking forward to the long weekend to have time and energy to spend in the kitchen.
Kara
Chinese broccoli and tofu stir-fry with short-grain brown rice.
Blackdog Lin
5-23-13, 6:45pm
Steve: way to go on the cooking-for-a-crowd. Thrifty and good. And y'all baking homemade sourdough bread: awesome!
treehugger
5-23-13, 8:33pm
And y'all baking homemade sourdough bread: awesome!
I actually just remembered to get my starter (her name is Tartine!) out of the fridge. Shocking, considering how bad my memory is these days (since I am cramming for an English Lit exam and have used up all my brain power).
Kara
I made roasted veggies for supper. Cauliflower, brussels sprouts, potatoes and carrots with oil and garlic. Very delicious. I am having a difficult time understanding why Woolton pie was such a flop.?:confused:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolton_pie
Last night's dinner: boneless/skinless chicken thighs baked in (leftover) marinara sauce spiked with (leftover) frozen sofrito, served over (leftover) spaghetti squash with some (leftover) frozen carrot/bean/sprout/onion mixture. It went together better than I expected and there's still enough left for lunch today. Normally I don't buy b/s chicken, but I had purchased it a while ago for another recipe to be cooked in a hurry and ... well, that didn't happen.
Simpler at Fifty
5-27-13, 11:06am
I read Tiam's thread and wrote out our menu for the last couple months. I came up with a list of 45 items. Today we are having pork brats, baked beans and potato salad. It is our tradition for Memorial Day. I make the potato salad DH does everything else. We don't have buns with the brats.
AmeliaJane
5-27-13, 12:47pm
I am working my way through some leftovers, but I did make some chili-spiced peanuts and a loaf of banana-ginger-chocolate bread to take to work on Tuesday. I really liked the peanuts...think I will tuck that recipe away for holiday gifts. It was considerably easier than some spiced nut recipes I have which involve a ton of fussing and stirring. The bread required a small amount of whole-milk yogurt. Turns out plain, whole-milk yogurt is incredibly hard to find in the small cups. My supermarket has, literally, 30 feet of yogurt displays. The only brand that carried small cups was totally sold out...I ended up with vanilla, and cut back the sugar in the bread by a bit. Go figure.
I bet you could use sour cream in recipes calling for whole-milk yogurt.
Blackdog Lin
5-27-13, 8:12pm
Way to go everyone on your marvelous menus, and trying to keep with cooking in, and not eating out!
As mentioned earlier, this month has been.....bad for us eating out. As in, we've been eating out way too much. Twice a week, even! Life events just kept coming up.
We went out of town on an overnight trip (2 days of eating out) last week, and that's it! I'm truly kinda sick of eating someone else's cooking, not to mention I've always got good food setting in the freezer that needs used up before it goes to waste. So starting the Friday of the holiday weekend, we've been noshing on:
Friday: bean soup and cornbread (used up getting-old ham hocks and some homemade freezer chicken stock); Saturday: sausage, eggs and hash browns for brunch, then fried morels and okra for snacking on Saturday night (both the morels and okra in the freezer needing used); Sunday sausage and waffles for brunch, and grilled hamburgers w/pickles and onions for evening. Today (Monday) was a Philly cheesesteak Stromboli w/cucumber salad and garden radishes; tonight we'll munch on leftover hamburgers (oh, and coming back from the cemeteries this evening happened on a small patch of wild asparagus. So picked it, and steamed it for eating cold with our hamburgers.) Tomorrow is (previously and in the freezer) grilled chicken thighs w/broccoli casserole. Getting ready to prep the broccoli casserole right now, so DH can just throw it in the oven tomorrow.
Wednesday is our usual out-of-town shopping day, and I have to figure out a way to con DH into not eating lunch out. He's not gonna understand that I am truly SICK of eating out.
I bet you could use sour cream in recipes calling for whole-milk yogurt.
Or Greek yogurt.
ApatheticNoMore
5-27-13, 10:53pm
My new to me Greek (to me? :laff:) cookbook came so I cooked today, made marinated mushrooms (i'm thinking I may regret using the "peppery" olive oil for them though!). Also made an eggplant dish from a section of the book on "oily" dishes :) - it's just a basic mediteranian eggplant dish: tomatoes, eggplant, olive oil, onion, garlic etc. - of which many variations exists the most famous being ratatoulle - this was less involved though and it is wonderfully oily. Says to eat with feta and I have a TJ inauthentic cowsmilk feta that's been sitting around a month and is still good. That's for later in the week.
Tonight: a most unfrugal salmon. Previous nights: 1) cauliflower in tomato sauce and cheese I often make. 2) Ground beef cooked with onions and garlic, chili and onion powder, served alongside guacamole made in a blender, lettuce, a little sour cream.
ANM, I love marinated mushrooms. Anytime, anywhere. Something I really ought to learn to make myself....
treehugger
5-28-13, 12:51pm
I love 3-day weekends! I had time and energy to have a real cooking marathon. I have missed working in the kitchen till I was too tired to stand! :)
I made, in no particular order (and much of this went into the freezer for use later): 2 huge loaves of sourdough bread (Tartine-style (http://www.marthastewart.com/907240/chad-robertsons-tartine-country-bread)), sourdough English muffins (http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/sourdough-english-muffins-recipe) (a first for me; to use up some discard starter), a California-style* muffaletta (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/real-nawlins-muffuletta/), blueberry pancakes with lemon curd, pinto beans, chili, cut up three pounds of stew meat, salsa crudo with fresh mozzarella, balsamic chicken breasts, steamed green beans, egg salad.
Still to come this week: roasted beet and arugula salad with goat cheese, morning glory muffins (http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/morning-glory-muffins-recipe), and a stir fry to use up the beet greens, some carrots, and broccoli.
Kara
*made by a Californian who has never had a real New Orleans one
Only a couple more hours to go on the ribs; they've been in the oven for four. I ended up doing a mole-like rub with chocolate, garam marsala, paprika, pasillo chili, garlic, and a dash of brown sugar. I'm working on fauxtato salad, but just noticed I'm out of celery. Next up: broccoli slaw with lots of sweet onion.
treehugger
5-28-13, 3:29pm
http://www.simplelivingforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=1263&d=1369768958
I wanted to post a picture of my sourdough bread. I began this starter, from the book Tartine Bread, in July 2011, so she (:)) is almost 2 years old. She is very forgiving and very active. I can neglect her for months at a time in the fridge, and then only need to take her out and feed her a couple of times, a few days before I want to bake.
Kara
Wow! Treehugger that is one amazing starter. And I love the picture of the loaves!
Tussiemussies
5-28-13, 7:31pm
Absolutely beautiful bread Kara!
Kara, that bread looks terrific! We don't eat much bread in this house, but we'd be looking for butter and jam for that!
treehugger
5-28-13, 9:35pm
Thanks, y'all. These were my highest-rising loaves yet. I have now made the master recipe so many times I have it down. Time to branch out. Luckily, this bread freezes beautifully, so we don't have to stuff ourselves to eat it all before it goes stale. I usually cut the second one in half and gift it to friends or family.
Kara
Blackdog Lin
5-28-13, 9:46pm
Wow Kara! I am so envious (being a total homemade-bread-hates-me type, myself).
That bread is an absolute work of art. My ribs, on the other hand, look like the aftermath of arson.
treehugger
5-29-13, 11:57am
That bread is an absolute work of art. My ribs, on the other hand, look like the aftermath of arson.
I sincerely hope you are talking about your pork ribs and not *your* ribs. ;)
By the way, if anyone has an interest in working with sourdough, I highly recommend the book Tartine Bread. I learned so much from the author and, following his method, I have been turning out bread like that for almost two years. It not only looks good, but it has such a rich, complex flavor and a perfect chewy-tender-moist-crusty texture. I know that sounds immodest, but it's not me, it's the method!
Kara
Beautiful bread, treehugger!
Meals over the past week have included lots of salads, turkey/bean chili, chicken-rice-veg soup made from homemade stock.
I made corn/blueberry pancakes over the weekend.
We've been eating a lot of watermelon and cantaloupe.
Yesterday I bought 2 organic chickens and roasted them, pulled all the meat off the bones and made the above-mentioned stock. Lots of meals in the freezer now. Split the stock into 2 pots, one for our dinner as noted and the other for DD's favorite chicken-spaetzle stew that she likes to take for lunch (loaded with peas, carrots, celery).
Tonight, leftover chili. Tomorrow, pad thai with roasted tofu.
Blackdog Lin
5-29-13, 8:42pm
Proceeding apace on the homecooking front. Not gonna let any more weeks occur like this last whole month has been.
Stuck to the menus I posted so far this week. Today was (previously frozen - see my leftovers of leftovers thread) chicken chimichangas. DH said they wouldn't freeze well, as he's always heard both cream cheese and sour cream don't freeze. I am happy to find out that for short-term anyway, a chimichanga with both will freeze and then fry up fine. (they were frozen about 8 days.) And we had them with our first-of-the-season garden romaine salad! And it was one heck of a head of romaine, so I now have to figure out how to use up both the salad I made, and the rest of the lettuce leaves.
Tomorrow will be toasted ham-n-cheese sandwiches (ham and cheese and a half-loaf of French bread all in the freezer needing used) with the leftover romaine salad.
(Rosemary: chicken-spaetzle stew. I've made spaetzle before and adored it, but it's not something in our regular meal rotation. May I get your recipe? I think it's a meal that would fit into our lifestyle.)
Blackdog Lin, this is how I make the chicken-spaetzle stew... it's really easy. I use dried spaetzle from Aldi's; I think it is stocked most of the year, in 500-gram packages imported from Germany that cost about $1.99. One of these packages makes about 3 batches of this stew. My mom makes spaetzle from scratch but after seeing my German relatives use the dried stuff (in Germany, to be precise), I decided to allow myself this serious time saver. It is not as good as homemade, but it is pretty good. They're basically egg noodles so you could also sub those. The way I make this depends on having the dried noodles to absorb the broth.
I start with 1 quart chicken broth and a bay leaf. If you want meat in the stew, poach the chicken in the broth and then remove and chop. Add onions, carrots, celery*, and cook until mostly softened. Then add about 2.5c dried spaetzle - the idea is for the noodles to take up most of the broth. Cook the spaetzle per package instructions, and then add thyme, salt, pepper to taste. Then add about 1/2 to 3/4 pound frozen peas (and chopped, cooked chicken, if using) and either reheat to cook the peas or portion into containers for fridge/freezer storage.
* for 1 quart of broth I would use about 4 large carrots and 4 ribs of celery, both chopped into small pieces.
Blackdog Lin
5-30-13, 8:36am
Thanks Rosemary. Your recipe is my basic chicken soup recipe (though I need to remember thyme and bay leaves!), so it's very doable for me - it just never occurred to me to try making/putting spaetzle in it. In fact, there's a ziplock of homemade chicken broth in the freezer needing used, so I'm excited to try this next week.
The loaf of bread in the freezer for today's toasted ham-n-cheese sandwiches was moldy (obviously I didn't get it into the freezer soon enough :)) but I found 6 tortillas I had frozen, so the sandwiches are morphing into ham-n-cheese quesadillas for today. And I'm writing down ideas for a filling to make lettuce wraps for tomorrow or Saturday, to use up some of this giant head of garden romaine.
Chicken and snow peas stir fry this evening.
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