menu plan monday - 4/21

first things first, having my menu planned out in advance last week was huge for me. i wasn't in the middle of doing one thing, then suddenly realizing that, crap! i have no clue what dinner is and it's 4:30! i made sure that in my day planner i made as a task for the day before to take out what i needed from the freezer so i wasn't hoist on my own petard.

just as a recap for my own neediness in this endeavor, a recap: monday through thursday pretty much went off as planned; friday j went out with the boys from work after a busy day/week, so i nuked some leftovers; by saturday, j was very very sick - not hungover, mind you, honest to goodness sick - so we had chef boyardee ravioli for dinner instead of the dijon rice and egg dish; hence it reappears on this week's menu (boys need comfort food, too!); and sunday i roasted the chicken, but we kind of picked at it - j's appetite still isn't up to par and i'm hoping that all he has is a bad cold, not the flu.

and now for the menu for the coming week:

monday: spanish rice casserole - this sounds so very yummy; most likely i'll make it with ground beef, but i've got some ground chicken that would also do well, i think. we'll have it with white rice, because i absolutely hate the texture of brown rice, i do not know why. apparently i'm unhealthy to the very core of my being, lol...but we will probably have a veggie alongside, like corn or broccoli, because i'm not all terrible.

tuesday: herbed pork chops with raspberry sauce - i knew when i saw this that i'd have to make it. j is a little twitchy about pork chops, but he yummed when i showed him this recipe. most likely i'll make this with blackberry jam, because that's what i've got hanging around at the moment.

wednesday: leftover veggie frittata - this just sounded awesome, and i'm really looking for ways to work more "not as heavy on meat" ideas into our regular rotation. both of us are definite carnivores, so left to our own devices, we tend to aim for meat. we try to balance that out, but both of us like egg dishes, so...this will likely have some leftover roast chicken in it, and we're both really looking forward to trying it.

thursday: SOS - bless my honey's heart, he confessed while we were talking food that he's had a hankering for some SOS, so we're a havin' it. i've found a few recipes for it, here and here most notably (probably will use one of the recipes from the second link), but the gist of it, for the uninitiated, involves ground or chipped beef browned then heated with a white(ish) gravy of some sort, then served over toast. it's an old military recipe, and is pretty good from what i remember, depending on who made it and how. haven't had it in years, but it's thursday's dinner and it sounds easy - sold!

friday: spaghetti with meat sauce - no recipe for this, but i think this is really my go-to meal. when i'm tired and cranky and don't wanna cook, this gets made more than anything else in our arsenal. j absolutely loves pasta and meat individually, but put them together and he's one of the happiest campers ever. i do it the simplest way possible: brown ground beef, pour off the fat, dump in a can of hunt's spaghetti sauce, heat through, ladle over cooked spaghetti. i've tried getting all super domestic and making my own sauce, but my attempts - although none have really flopped except one that i can remember - just haven't had the same joyous taste to j that hunt's has...so hunt's he gets... :)

saturday: dijon rice and egg skillet - i don't know why i'm so fascinated by this dish, but i cannot wait to try it.

sunday: leftovers - something from the freezer or from this week's adventures.

for more menu adventures for this week, head on over to the organizing junkie and share the menu love!

bread bricks

i've been cooking my fool head off today. nothing else has cooperated, so at least i accomplished something.

i made some split pea soup and decided that since we were having a hearty soup for dinner in honor of the rainy/thunderstormy/nastiness that is today, i'd bake a loaf of yummy crusty bread.

the beauty of both of these is that with the joy of mechanical assistance (hellllooooo, bread machine!), both the soup and the bread didn't have to be pampered or watched much. which left me free to deal with assorted other dilemmas. my soup? looks and smells yummy. my bread? is a brick.

a somewhat flat, hard brick.

ahem. this is not what the bread machine and i discussed.

i dutifully measured out each ingredient and made sure that each was at the right temperature before placing them in the machine in the exact order prescribed. all should have gone quite according to plan. but no, i have a brick.

i remember reading somewhere, i apologize for not recalling where, that bread dough is something you just have to learn. kinda in a zen way. hopefully soon i'll get to that point. i do think that i'm close...i peeked in on this batch (as i always do...can't. leave. the. machine. alone.) and noticed that the dough did look a smidge dry...but i had put in all the right measurements, so surely all would turn out well, right? not so right.

once i learn to trust my instincts i'm sure that i'll have far fewer final products like the one today, but i'd be lying if i didn't say it was a bit disheartening.

linky lurve: feeeeed me!

i've been heavily into the bread thing lately, and i would desperately love to finally find a recipe that gives me a loaf similar in consistency to the sandwich bread we get at the store so that i can stop buying it. something about the preservatives and all just really turns me off, plus i am getting a kick out of making our bread. not to mention the fact that i've got all the ingredients on hand, so it's not costing a ton of money to make a few loaves. this has led me to what feels like thousands of variations on my theme. i'll let you know what if anything finally works...

i liked this article on organic food myths. yes, i like the overall idea of organic food, i don't like preservatives and pesticides, but there are some parts of this that make sense. i don't believe that organic food is the be all and end all to all of our troubles in the world, as many try to make it out to be. with everything in life, i think we need to approach the concept of organic food in moderation.

these cinnamon sugar muffins look absolutely heavenly! i may have to take a break from bread and bake some of these...

cheese toast is one of my favorite snacks...a slice of tomato underneath and a smidge of salt and pepper before topping with cheese? heavenly...

this post over at money saving mom has some great links to frugal menus and budgeting while still eating healthy. i've loved reading meredith's series on the 50's style menu. i'm not nearly as adept as either of these ladies yet, but i'm learning more and more. baby steps.

i totally want to do this. i don't use buttermilk often, mainly because i'd have to buy it and it just isn't something that really fits into the budget. if it's this easy to make though? wow, that would be great to have around. i had a wonderful recipe to make my own yogurt, too, and i cannot find it to. save. my. life. grrrr.

what's been cooking

just because i haven't been typing, surely that doesn't imply we haven't been eating or i haven't been cooking. let's see, where to begin...

i was ecstatic when i found this recipe. j and i both love granola, but it is hella expensive. i've made this several times now, and it's just awesome. the first batch, i went way overboard with the cinnamon. when you were munching it dry, it wasn't noticeable, but wow, pour some milk on that bad boy and the cinnamon practically carjacked ya. the second time i made it, i forgot the vanilla, but you almost didn't notice because it was so damned yummy.

i haven't made this yet, but it's on the short list for this week, i think. we inherited a bread machine this weekend, and i've been learning how to use it and making a few loaves of bread. next item that's coming out of that thing? the dough for these. and if i can figure out how to make a decent sandwich style bread dough? ohhhhh, that will rock mightily.

something else that we've made a weekend event is ham and egg cupcakes. i ran across the recipe a couple of weeks ago when i was cleaning out some old 3 ring binders. i've got a link for the recipe, but it seems to be a dead link now, and i can find some things that are close, but not quite this. so here's the scoop:

- 6 slices of shaved ham
- 6 eggs
- 1 T cream (i used half&half, and it worked great)
- 1/2 t salt
- 3/4 t pepper
- 2-3 T sliced mushrooms (i've left those out each time...gotta be judicious with my mushroom use around here, or j will rebel entirely... :D)
- 1/2 C grated cheddar cheese (i'll be honest here and say i hate shredding cheese. plus i'm not wild about the texture of melted cheddar with eggs. i know, i'm a pita. so i used american cheese slices instead. not gourmet, by any stretch, but it melts well and i like american cheese better in eggs.)

mkay, now spray down a 6 cup muffin tin lightly with cooking spray. line each cup with 1 slice of shaved ham, forming a little cup. in a mixing bowl, beat eggs with the cream, salt and pepper until frothy. add mushrooms and cheese. (i tear the slices up and add them to the individual muffin cups after i pour.) stir until blended, then spoon 1/2 cup of the egg mixture into each ham cup. bake at 375 for 20 - 25 minutes or until eggs are puffed and set.

yumminess, and perfect for those sunday brunches where you don't know what you want but it's getting to that point where you know you've gotta eat...

when good ideas take that wrong turn...

i should know better. truly. every now and then, i get a fantastic idea and then my tiny voice (eh, or voices. whatever.) says, but wait....it would be so much better if we did this. c'mon, do it!!!

this time it started with pork chops and slow cooking them, then shredding them, dousing it all in some lovely barbecue sauce, and narfing them down with hubby for dinner. then those blasted creative juices started firing off. waaaait...there's that can of pickled jalapeno peppers in the pantry that you've been shuffling around for months now. what would happen if we drained that, threw in a can of diced tomatoes and their juice, and let everything simmer a bit??

you'll singe the fuck out of your mouth just from the fumes, that's what'll happen. dumbass.

it wasn't a total loss. i learned all kinds of nifty things from the internet about what will help cut the fire out of a spicy dish. never got everything to die off completely, but there was *significant* improvement.

the resulting hot mess (and i mean that in every way that you could possibly interpret that phrase) was served over rice and was edible. and i'm just now getting the feeling back in my lips and tongue. j luckily is much fonder of the spicy foods than i am, and he proclaimed it to be yummy, if a bit still on the spicy side.

me 'n my bright ideas...

also. if anyone ever tells you that it's easy to rinse hellfire off of shredded pork to rescue it? they're totally lying.

wherein i learn something new...perhaps...

as we speak - more accurately, as i type - i'm roasting a whole chicken. it's only a little over 4 pounds, but it's my first one. it's just this side of terrifying, i must admit. i checked the neck...or what i assume was the neck? was a large cavity...for the oft rumored "bag o' giblets" that notoriously has been accidentally roasted within the bird a billion and one times. i found what i can only presume was the neck bone? ew. and something else that also got tossed, but no bag o' stuff. i'm hoping against hope that the folks who sent this thing to the grocery store just knew that i would be the one purchasing it and therefore took care of this little problem already.

it's a fairly small bird. maybe they didn't have room for it? pardon while i go stare at the nesco intently and will this thing to cook...

ETA: yummmmminess...beautifully roasted, and yes, there was a heart and a liver and something else that i don't really wanna know about in there when i pulled the chicken out of the roaster. luckily, they weren't in any sort of bag or anything...yes, i can be a right dumbass... :) however, the chicken fell off the bones it was so tender, and i made the best gravy. plus clio got a bit of a treat with her dinner tonight in the form of roasted heart/liver...win/win for everybody...

links and randomness, 2/12/08

i've got a post brewing that i've been laboring over for days...it was time to get out of my head for a bit, and i stumbled across this little beauty:

sooo would have thought that i was a middle-of-the-nighter, but the description is so very me...well, except for the no worries bit, because anyone who knows me knows that i'm just a giant ball of constant worry...i wish i'd copied the full description, but it mentioned things that were very true for me...

other things distracting me from my current bout of introspection-slash-navel gazing:

• i so want to make this soup very soon...
• speaking of awesome foodstuffs, the pioneer woman defies description....go! read! drool!
• i see a pattern here with food...hmmm...but how awesome would it be to be able to make my own pita bread??? now if i can only find that recipe for homemade yogurt as well as the one for that other thing that sounded awesome....
• more from the motherload...i'm about 50/50 on whether i rinse our ground beef or not. i'll probably do it more often now, this was an interesting read.
• and, to keep all this food in, more bento info! i truly covet the lock & lock lunch sets, featured here, but they are infamously impossible to find in the us and even online, really. i found a couple of online stores, but they don't ship to the us. probably i will just bide my time and wait, but as perfect as it looks like it would be for j, there are things about it that wouldn't work...for example, there is the ubiquitous pb&j that wouldn't fit and would need its own container, or mushing...then there's the fact that i would probably send water or some other good for him drink in the hella cool drink container, but i doubt that he'd be into that...so maybe what i'll do instead is seek out some single lock & lock containers and use them in our adapted system...ha! i said system. like there's some sort of system in use here. i crack me up.... :)
• sandy rocks! ran across her the other day on an organizing website, heaven help me if i remember where now...she is a personal virtual assistant, and will remind you of whatever you need reminding. she can manage your calendar, help you in scheduling meetings and appointments with others, keep lists for you, maintain bookmarks and notes...pretty much anything a real assistant would do...within limits, of course....

happy surfing!