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!

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 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!

Clearing out the cobwebs

My, but it’s been awhile, hasn’t it?  Last weekend I was in San Francisco for my race, and I visited a friend from college who lives in the Bay area.  He asked if I was still cooking, which is a fair question since I have not been posting.  And the answer is yes, I have been cooking.  Just not writing about it.

There is this feeling of obligation (for me at least) that if I haven’t posted in ages, my opening post must be epic!  And contain tons of pictures!  Etc.  But I haven’t had time to compose an epic, photo-heavy post because the child is distracting me.

An adorable distraction, but a distraction nonetheless.  Which is as it should be, but I’d like to post more often.  So here goes.

It’s fall!  Time for soup and stew and butternut squash in everything.  Today I’m making cochinita pibil and also boeuf bourguignon, Julia Child’s recipe.  I also made some beginner’s beef ragout from this book for the baby.

She loved it.  So far, feeding E has been a lot of fun.  She likes everything but avocado (darn.  More avocado for meeee!) so far.  We’ve been using a mix of homemade and store-bought foods, and she’s just starting to get some meals at daycare too.

I think we’re going to try and work our way out of purees and see if she can start feeding herself soon.  If nothing else, the dogs will LOVE it when she throws things on the floor.  Especially Nettie.

The plan – week of 9/10/2012

I have hit the wall.  I cannot eat another quesadilla or bowl of pasta that I do not intend to eat.

Why, hello there.  No, I am not dead.  I am the working parent of a very small child and between doing the things I have to do for those things, I have little time left for blogging.

 

Also, the child is standing on the butcher block wearing astronaut jammies.

We have been cooking, sort of.  But I’ve also been eating way too much convenience food and takeout – I don’t think there is any training plan that advises Thai takeout twice a week.  Or quesadillas/grilled cheese more than once a week.

So this week, I decided that I was going to make a plan.  Even better, I was going to cook ahead for the week so that we could have things ready to warm up instead of having to cook, deciding to forgo cooking, and having pasta or quesadillas again.

The plan:

Sunday:  spinach and havarti omelettes + English muffins

Monday:  harissa marinated chicken thighs (mixed plain yogurt and harissa paste for the marinade; left them for 24 hours.  Super good.) + mashed sweet potatoes + sauteed collard greens

 

Greens are good.

Tuesday:  soup & sandwich (not shameful if planned!)

Wednesday:  black bean & roasted squash enchiladas (made on Sunday)

Thursday:  honey-sesame chicken (made on Sunday) + brown rice (made on Sunday) + sauteed broccoli

Friday:  pizza

Our fridge looks like this now:

But in all those containers is stuff we can eat this week!  Nary a quesadilla in sight!

So this was the plan, and this morning I found out I have to go to Alabama on Thursday for a mediation.  (Business travel is super-glamorous.)  And now I have 3.5 days to get 5 days worth of work done, and things are going to be nuts.  And Curt can have whatever he wants on Friday night now because I won’t be there!

Anyone have good restaurant recommendations in Mobile?