Happy Mother’s Day

Curt made brunch today – it was glorious.  Quiche Lorraine, a spinach and feta quiche, potatoes, and my sister and fake brother-in-law brought cut up fruit and banana bread.

The child very much enjoyed playing with her grandmothers.

Since it is Mother’s Day, I decided that I didn’t want to spend all day cooking for the week – so this week’s menu is super, super simple.

Sunday – crunchy black bean tacos (found on Pinterest – they were ok but next time I will just make quesadillas and be done with it) + salad

Monday – salmon puttanesca pasta (found one lonely salmon filet in the freezer – thought this would be a good way to use it up)

Tuesday – veggie burgers + baked potatoes & sauteed veg

Wednesday – falafel salad

Thursday – “pork” and beans (chicken sausage and baked beans)

Friday – kale & feta pinwheels (a spanikopita-inspired version of this recipe)

Happy Mother’s Day to everyone out there who is a mother or has a mother – and here’s to a week of easy food!

Back in the saddle

We survived!  We’ve found most of our stuff and are still figuring out what all the light switches in the new house turn on and what other fun quirks the house (built in 1937) has.  

After way too much takeout and half-ass meal planning, here’s what we’re eating this week:

Saturday:  Korean turkey meatloaf (based on this recipe, but with a different glaze – so good), soba, sauteed broccoli

Sunday:  fish tacos + black beans

Monday:  Thai fried rice (I forsee something like pineapple fried rice with shrimp, but I don’t have a recipe in mind so who knows how it’ll turn out)

Tuesday:  crock pot minestrone (so something is ready when we get home late – Tuesday is toddler swim class!)

Wednesday:  Buffalo chicken salad

Thursday:  veggie burgers + …something

Friday:  homemade pizza!  Our former neighbors are coming over – should be fun.

Maybe next time, photos.  :)  I know where all the camera parts are, but need some time to figure out the lighting in the new place.  For food photos.  Here is a photo of the child instead:

Have a good week, everyone!

Moving is horrible

We are moving.  In just over two weeks.  We are at the packing stage where I think we should just throw everything away and start over.  We are not, of course.  We will continue to pack up all our crap and nice gentlemen from Two Men and  a Truck will come and carry it over to the new house.  Blergh.

In preparation, we are also trying to cook down the fridge and freezer contents.  It’s getting a little funky.  Next week we will be within spitting distance of All Takeout All The Time but for now, we are still cooking.

Breakfast:  breakfast cookies, pumpkin quinoa steel-cut oatmeal

Sunday:  apple cider vinegar chicken stew with onions and kale + Israeli couscous

Monday:  breakfast for dinner!  Scrambled eggs, breakfast sausage, blueberry pancakes

Tuesday:  chicken Thai curry + rice

Wednesday:  pasta with sausage and red sauce

Thursday:  freezer dinner (cassoulet I made a couple weeks ago for this moving time)

Friday:  homemade pizza.

The breakfast cookie thing is from Pinterest.  I am less enamored with Pinterest lately, to be honest.  I think I have seen too many pins of “recipes” that include things like powdered ranch dressing mix.  Or there is this pin floating around that calls for boneless chicken breasts, green beans, and potatoes all cooked together in butter and salad dressing mix (Italian, not ranch).  For an hour.  THOSE POOR GREEN BEANS!  Ugh.  But this recipe is a real recipe, does not include powdered salad dressing at all, and is very tasty to boot!

Have a good week, everyone!

Friendsgiving and plan – week of February 16th

I failed at another resolution and missed a week last week.  Woe is me.  I have nothing to blame that one on except being busy.  I am blaming the gym failure on the general plague that will not leave our house (stomach bug E, stomach bug C, feverish cold thing that won’t go away me, ear infection E).  Is it spring yet?

One bright spot in winter is Friendsgiving, which is my favorite made-up holiday.  It was Saturday night.  There were 16 adults, 1 child, 1 toddler, three babies, and two dogs in attendance.

We made this turkey (which is AWESOME, btw) and a cornbread bundt cake.  Other people brought:

Spiced beef phyllo triangles with chutney

Artichoke-olive rolls

Bread & cheese

Mis0-glazed sweet potatoes

Mashed potatoes with spinach

Roasted brussels sprouts with pecans

Ginger lime kale with squash and chickpeas

Roasted veggies (carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, bell peppers, pearl onions)

Bacon-toffee cheesecakes

Peach & raspberry pie

Apple nut pie

It was amazing – I love that we have this party every year and that we have friends who are into it enough to bring so much awesome food over.

The rest of the week:

Sunday:  Spanish couscous pilaf, sauteed salmon, and steak (have I mentioned that Curt’s friend Scott is visiting?  He’s a chef.  I highly recommend befriending chefs when possible.)

Monday:  mole-braised beef short ribs, black beans and rice.

Also we had eggs benedict with bacon for breakfast.  Again with the visiting chef.  AWESOMENESS.

Tuesday:  pasta with pesto chicken (Scott goes home tomorrow.  Can you tell?)

Wednesday:  cassoulet

Thursday:  breakfast for dinner (eggs and roast potatoes, I think)

Friday:  homemade pizza

Have a good week, everyone!  Less than two weeks left in February!

The plan – week of February 3rd

Last week was crazy.  Curt was sick, then we seem to have gotten ourselves in contract for a house, then I got really sick.  Still not sure with what except not the flu.  We will heretofore refer to this illness as the plague.  I spent all day Friday huddled under piles of blankets wearing my pajamas plus wool socks and a sweater, shivering and convinced I was going to die.  So that was unpleasant.  My fever broke about 8:30 PM on Friday and I feel much less like I am dying.  Still sick but definitely not dying.

Anyway, so we got a bit off track.  There was a lot of toast and tea in my life this week.

Sunday:  sausage and peppers pasta – Curt made homemade sausage a few weeks back and we picked up some of the fire-grilled peppers and onions at Trader Joe’s, so we mixed those together and whoot, dinner.

Breakfast:  overnight oatmeal.  I like it, actually.  I even made it with sunflower seed butter last week.

I has arrived as a food blogger.

Monday:  mapo tofu + green beans + rice

Tuesday:  gumbo (made last week and frozen because we didn’t eat it; see plague, above)

Roux

Trinity

Wednesday:  pesto chicken sandwiches

Thursday:  roasted acorn squash and beet salad with goat cheese and bacon vinaigrette

Squash beware

Roasted

Friday:  broccoli and cheddar pinwheels (I wrote about them in this post)

Anyway.  Stay healthy and have a good week, everyone.

The plan – week of January 27th

E is starting at a new daycare on February 4th, and between that and starting our taxes I am covered in paperwork.  Ugh.  Happy new year?

Breakfast:  overnight oats.  Not in a jar though.  Tomorrow’s is supposed to be maple blueberry but we’ll see if I actually remember to put the blueberries in it.

Sunday:  meatloaf and mashed potatoes

Monday:  chicken tortilla soup

Tuesday:  honey-soy salmon, rice, sauteed green beans

Wednesday:  shrimp and andouille gumbo

Thursday:  BBQ pulled pork and roast sweet potatoes

Friday:  mac & cheese (Curt is on his own that night – I am going to a much-belated holiday party with a friend of ours)

Have a good week, everyone!

Power to the pancakes.

Steel cut oats, quinoa, apple and pear breakfast porridge

This turned out to be really good, so I wanted to share.  It’s warm too, which is nice for this time of year when I always start to have that “why do we live here, exactly, and OMG I AM NEVER GOING TO BE WARM AGAIN” feeling.

But this helped.  I swear.

Steel cut oats, quinoa, apple and pear breakfast porridge - inspired by Jenny’s suggestion to add shredded apple to oatmeal.

Makes four to six servings.

Two apples, cored

Two pears, cored

Juice of one lemon

1.5 tsp cinnamon

0.5 tsp kosher salt

0.5 C steel-cut oatmeal

0.5 C quinoa (rinsed)

2 – 3 cups water

Cooking spray

Spray the inside of a 1.5 qt casserole dish with cooking spray.  Pour 3 cups of water into the bottom of a six-quart crock pot and turn it on high.

Shred the apples and pears (I used a food processor).  Toss with the lemon juice, cinnamon, and salt and add to the casserole dish.  Top with steel cut oats and quinoa.  Stir in the water gently – the casserole dish will be very full.  Use closer to 2 cups if you want it to be more “solid.”

Set inside the crock pot (which is now a double boiler!  surprise!) and cook on high for 4 to 6 hours.

Top with a little maple syrup if you like, and serve.  Or divide and then reheat as needed during the week.

People always say things like “this tastes just like a cupcake, except it’s Paleo!”  Or “this is a great brownie recipe, and it’s vegan!”  Usually this leads me to think things like “it has been a long time since you had a real cupcake/brownie/whatever.”

So it is with great trepidation that I say this EXCEPT that it is totally true – this tastes like pie filling.  And I got to eat it for breakfast.  Hooray!  I love it when kitchen experiments work out.

The plan – week of January 20th

Ah, Sunday – we meet again.  E is in bed and is jabbering to herself and seems to be having a grand old time (at least based on my view via the baby monitor).  Which is insane to me as she is alone in a pitch dark room but… whatever.

Have I mentioned that she can crawl?  Nothing is safe.

Today she crawled right over to an outlet and tried to stick her fingers in it.  Thankfully I had already put outlet covers on but good lord.

Food for the week:

Breakfasts:  steel cut oats, quinoa, apple and pear porridge.  Spinach fritatta.

The perfect cut pear!  I haven’t eaten the oatmeal yet but if it is tasty I’ll post the recipe.

Dinners (and leftovers for lunches):

Sunday – chili

Monday – Asian meatball and edamame soba salad

Tuesday – sweet potato & red lentil stew

Wednesday – chili cheese baked “fries” (leftover chili and oven wedge “fries”)

Thursday – beef & Guinness stew

Friday – homemade pizza

Have a good week everyone!

The plan – week of January 13, 2013

Christ on a bike, it’s mid-January already.  Things are humming along – last week was my first full week of work in ages.  I miss the three and four day weekends, but it is nice to be back in a regular routine.

Also, the child is ten months old.  She celebrated by learning to crawl and is now into EVERYTHING.

I am holding steady with the flossing.  Yay me!  The rest of my resolutions, not so much.  I only made it to the gym twice last week.  But this is a new week and I already went today, so that’s one down.  Three more to go.

This week:

Breakfasts:  pumpkin quinoa & steel cut oats

Snacks:  black bean “hummus” – black beans, an avocado, chili powder, lime, salt in the blender.  It’s pretty tasty for something I made up out of stuff in the pantry or on the counter.

Dinners:

Sunday – honey-soy roasted salmon with brown rice and baby bok choy

Monday – crock pot Mongolian beef with brown rice and broccoli

Tuesday – southwestern shepherd’s pie (freezer)

Wednesday – pasta puttanesca with chicken

Thursday – shrimp Vindaloo with naan.  Probably a vegetable too.  What vegetable side goes with Indian food?

Friday – homemade pizza

A commenter asked about last week’s individual omelettes.

Cute, huh?

1 dozen silicone muffin cup liners

Muffin pan

Cooking spray

2 Bell peppers, finely diced

2 – 3 big handfuls of raw kale

Sriracha

Salt & pepper

Eggs or egg whites (I used 2 whole eggs and 2 cups of egg whites in a carton.  I know, lazy.  It would probably take about 8-10 whole eggs)

Cheese (probably only about an ounce or two?  Not much is needed, they’re small)

Preheat your oven to 350F.  Prep your pan by spraying with cooking spray or brushing with oil (in case of spillage), and place the liners in the muffin cups.

Sautee the bell peppers over medium to medium-high heat until soft and lightly browned.  Add the kale, salt and pepper, and sriracha to taste.  Cook for a minute or two until the kale is all wilted.  Place a tablespoon or so of pepper/kale mixture into each lined muffin cup.

Beat the eggs to combine, and pour into the muffin cups, stopping when they are about 3/4ths of the way full.  Top with a little bit of cheese – this is both for flavor and to protect the eggs a bit while they’re in the oven.

Cook for 20 minutes, rotating the muffin pan halfway through your cooking time.  They should be a bit soft still when they come out of the oven.  Cool in muffin pan until they can be handled, and then put in the fridge until consumed.

Now I’m sad I didn’t make more mini-omelettes this week!  Damn.  Have a good week, everyone!

The plan – week of January 6, 2013

I still can’t believe it’s 2013.  I just tried to date this post 2011 – clearly, I am a bit behind.

But look at me!  Blogging!  I am doing well on my other resolutions too.  Even the flossing, which I still hate but which is starting to suck less every day.

This week:

Breakfasts:  slow cooker pumpkin oatmeal (I really should post this recipe sometime) and individual omelettes.

Sunday:  pork tenderloin roulade (stuffed with rice, kale, dried cherries, and pine nuts) + roasted carrots.

Monday:  chicken fried rice (made with the rest of the rice not stuffed into the pork tenderloin, plus peppers, broccoli, and the mandatory garlic/ginger/scallions).

Tuesday:  beef tenderloin sweet potato hash (made with trimmings from the steaks we had on New Year’s Eve) + eggs

Wednesday: pork medallions (other half of the tenderloin from Sunday) + whiskey sauce + sauteed veg

Thursday:  burgers + big salad

Friday:  homemade pizza (probably one pesto/parm and one just tomato sauce + cheese)

Have a good week, everyone!