Resolved

It’s kind of cheesy, but I love the idea of a new year and a fresh start.  A chance to start over and exchange bad habits for new.

In 2013, I resolve to:

• Blog at least once a week
• Floss (ugh.  I hate flossing.)
• Work out 4x a week
• Eat more fruits and vegetables

That ought to do it.

I made these today – they are dead simple and actually not bad for you at all.  Plus, banana!  Winning at New Year’s Resolutions!

Two-ingredient Cookies, from The Burlap Bag

Happy 2013, everyone!

The plan – week of November 24th

Thanksgiving is over – so sad.  I love Thanksgiving.

This year was especially fun because it was Eileen’s first Thanksgiving.  She tried mashed potatoes and turkey and squash and looked very cute.

This is what we had:

Turkey

Gravy

Cranberry-tangerine sauce

Mashed potatoes

Green bean casserole

Bread dressing

Roasted brussels sprouts with bacon

Butternut squash and greens gratin

My mother-in-law made pies – apple and pumpkin.  One of these days I will be able to both cook and make dessert but Thursday was not that day.  Oh well.  They were delicious.

 

Also, my sister bought E a turkey hat.  I can almost see the therapy bills accumulating in this photo.

This week, we’re using up leftovers!

Sunday:   turkey, apple, and cheddar quesadillas + butternut squash soup

Monday:  squash and chickpea curry + frozen naan

Tuesday:  shepherd’s pie (made with leftover turkey)

Wednesday:  omelettes + home fries

Thursday:  enchiladas (freezer)

Friday:  homemade pizza

 

Have a good week, everyone!

The plan – week of November 10

The weather turned on us overnight.  Yesterday the high was 75.  Today, the high is expected to be 32.  Welcome to Nebraska.

Saturday:  gnocchi with Italian sausage and red sauce; roasted broccoli with balsamic and pine nuts.

Sunday:  Asian meatballs + rice + sauteed broccoli.

Monday:  acorn squash and cauliflower mac & cheese.

Tuesday:  butternut squash and black bean enchiladas (frozen).

Wednesday:  quick pasta e fagioli soup (from Debbie‘s book).

Thursday:  crock pot Mongolian beef + rice + broccoli.

Friday:  homemade pizza.

Have a good week and stay warm out there.

Sweet potato and black bean fritters

This one is kind of a… Southwestern latke?  Can there be such a thing?

Either way, I was inspired by this recipe, and wanted to make E some finger foods that would use up some monstrous sweet potatoes I bought.

 

Would you like to share some pancake?

Sweet potato and black bean fritters

1 15-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 very large sweet potato (approx. 1 lb), peeled

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 C flour

1 tsp baking powder

0.5 C milk

0.5 tsp cumin

0.5 tsp ground coriander

0.5 tsp chili powder

Makes 18-24 fritters.

Mash the beans with a fork or potato masher in a large bowl to your desired texture (I mashed it up pretty well since E only has a few teeth).  Using a food processor or box grater, shred the sweet potato and add to the bowl.

 

This is what E did while I cooked.

Whisk dry ingredients together and add to the bowl with mashed beans and shredded sweet potatoes.  Stir to combine.

Add eggs and stir to combine (mixture will be very dry still).  Add milk a little at a time – you may not need the whole half cup – and mix until flour is just incorporated.

Warm a heavy skillet (I used our cast iron) with a tablespoon or two of oil in it over medium to medium-high heat until the oil shimmers.  Drop the fritter mixture into the warmed skillet by tablespoonfuls and cook for about 3 minutes, or until the outside is lightly browned and the edges are starting to dry out on top.

Flip and cook for about another 3 minutes.

Serve immediately, or cool completely and freeze.

To warm, bake at 350F until crisp (5 – 10 minutes).  I’ll probably do it in the toaster oven since she’ll only eat one at a time – fingers crossed she likes them!  Even if she doesn’t, I think they are tasty so we’ll use them up somehow.

The plan: week of November 3, 2012

On October 5, I resigned from my job.  On Tuesday, November 6th I start a new one – I’m very excited to be making a new start.  But after a month of FUNemployment I think it’s going to be tough to get back in the swing of getting everyone fed in the time between 5:30 and 7 pm.

Saturday:  breakfast for dinner – waffles and homemade breakfast sausage.

Sunday:  BBQ spiced shrimp (based on this recipe), cheddar polenta/grits, sauteed broccoli.

Monday:  harissa-spiced chicken thighs, mashed sweet potatoes, sauteed greens (frozen from the garden).

Tuesday:  pork and black bean enchiladas (previously frozen).

Wednesday:  Spanish spaghetti with olives (this recipe).

Thursday:  soup and sandwiches.

Friday:  housewarming party at my friend Hang’s new house.

Stay balanced this 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?

Korean stewed chicken with spinach (dak bokkeum)

My, it has been awhile, hasn’t it?  I have no excuse except for the baby.  Oh, also the running!  I’m training for another half marathon with Team In Training.  My site is here if you’d like to donate.

I’ve been back at work for three months now, and the concept ruling our dinners during the week is FAST.  Followed closely by EASY.

We’ve been making a lot of stuff on the weekends, so that during the week Curt can pull dinner together while I feed E right after we get home.  We get home between 5:30 and 6 pm, and E is going to bed right around 7 pm – so our evenings are a race against the clock, and against eating dinner at 9 pm.

It has taken me four days to write this.  There are no photos of the dish.  But what I wanted to say is that you should make this.  I don’t think it’s particularly authentic because I googled some other recipes and they all seemed more stew-like than the way this turned out.   But it is awesomely tasty and very, very easy.

 

Leaving me with a little more time to figure out the loopy ball thing.

Maybe sometime soon I’ll be able to figure out the whole “blogging regularly” thing too.

Blueberry limeaid cocktail

We cleaned out the freezer last weekend.  This is always an exciting experience, as the freezer can sometimes be Where things Go to Die.  We found some fun things this time though:  frozen blueberries and some blueberry vodka.

There wasn’t much of the vodka left, so I decided that in the interest of clearing up some space I should make a cocktail.  Purely in the interest of clearing up space, of course.

Blueberry limeaid cocktail (makes two drinks)

Ice

4 oz. blueberry flavored vodka

Juice of one lemon

Juice of one lime

1 TB powdered sugar, or 2 tsp simple syrup

Soda or sparkling water

Frozen blueberries (garnish)

Combine ice, vodka, lemon and lime juices, and sugar or simple syrup in a cocktail shaker.  Shake until very cold.

Serve over more ice topped with soda water (to taste) and garnish with frozen blueberries (or just serve over frozen blueberries).

Yum!  Glad to have suffered through this one for the sake of cleaning out the freezer.

The plan, mid-June 2012

My father-in-law passed away on June 8th.  He had cancer, diagnosed a couple of years ago, and we knew it was coming – but somehow you are never quite as well-prepared as you think you should be.  There is pretty much no way to prepare for this kind of thing.

So things have been a little… hectic this week.  I didn’t write a full meal plan with days and everything, but I did make up a menu.  These are all things that can be made on a whim – no crock pot dishes.  We’ll pick and choose from this list for the next couple weeks.

Coconut curry noodle soup

Grilled chicken + greek quinoa salad

Pizza (spinach & artichoke, margherita, plain cheese, and I want to try a beet, goat cheese, & arugula one)

Smoked sausage & white bean casserole

Jerk chicken + greens

Soup + quesadillas

Burgers in pita + salad

Tamales (frozen) + rice & beans

Italian sausage, couscous, greens

Pasta with white beans, spinach & artichokes

BBQ spiced shrimp + cheddar polenta

Frittata + toast

Rest in peace, Rick.  You are missed.