Where Did Last Week Go?

So, last week was almost a total loss. The Giant came down with a fever and cough on Sunday afternoon, and spent almost the entire week sick. My mother-in-law came down for a few days to watch him while the Carnivore worked his usual rotation so that we wouldn't have to miss work, and whenever the in-laws are here they like to treat us to dinner. The Giant ended up seeing his regular doctor twice last week for his fever,  had some specialist appointments on Wednesday and Thursday, and ended up having to take another round of steroids along with some antibiotics to kick out the sickies. Steroids turn him into one giant temper tantrum. I cooked twice last week (a baked ziti using the leftover meat from the whole chicken I made last weekend and some salmon pinwheels with quinoa courtesy of my local grocery store), cobbled together some salads using Tyson chicken tenders and odds and ends we had lying around, and had some pizza courtesy of my mother-in-law.

This week, I'm going to try my hand at meal planning. I have a chicken and shrimp gumbo going in the crock pot for today. I've never made a gumbo before, so I cheated and bought dry roux at the store rather than attempt to make it myself. I'll save that for another day. To make the gumbo, I sauteed a chopped onion, bell pepper, and minced garlic in a skillet with 1/4 cup water and 1/4 vegetable oil.  Most recipes call for celery and okra, but I don't have celery in the house and I can't stand okra, so I left them out. While the veggies were cooking, I turned the crock pot on high and threw in 36 oz of chicken stock, a can of diced tomatoes, a can of corn (drained), a dash of salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, paprika, chili powder, and about 1 tbs of sugar. After the onions were translucent, I removed the veggies from the heat and added 1 cup of the dry roux and stirred it up, then threw that in with the broth. I have two boneless skinless chicken breasts in there cooking, and once they're cooked through I'll shred them by hand, throw them back in, and turn the heat on the crock pot down to low. About an hour or so before I plan to serve it, I'll add some frozen raw shrimp that is already peeled and deveined. I'll serve it over rice that I plan to make in my brand spankin' new rice cooker.

It's a work in progress. I hope it turns out!

The rest of the week will look like this:
Monday- Chicken fajitas (I buy pre-marinaded chicken at the grocery store)
Tuesday- Use the leftover fajita meat for homemade nachos, since I have a long day scheduled at work.
Wednesday- Dirty rice and cajun-seasoned green beans
Thursday- Swimming lessons for The Giant, so it'll either be sandwiches or a frozen pizza
Friday- Tortilla crusted tilapia (bought frozen from Costco), wild rice, and mixed vegetables
Saturday- Crockpot chili and cornbread

I'll be blogging with pictures all week to try to keep myself accountable.

Update:


It was delicious! This one is getting added to my rotation. Even The Giant scarfed it down, saying "Mmm, gummo!!".

Wipe the drool off your chin.

Weekend Cooking and Introspection

Weekends are usually for chores, but for the past few weekends I've also been trying to make some things that will help with meals during the week.

I love muffins, and breakfast for me is frequently a homemade muffin, some fruit, and a cup of coffee. I'm strange in that I can eat the same breakfast over and over and not get sick of it. So, on a weekend, I might make a batch of a dozen muffins and freeze them. Bread products in general freeze well. I can pull them out one at a time, zap them in the microwave for about a minute, and I have an instant hot breakfast. If you prefer to eat different things in the morning like a normal person, the freezing trick is great because your muffins won't go stale. Last weekend I had some raspberries to use up, so I made raspberry muffins using a new recipe. Those weren't as good as I thought they'd be, so I'm leaving them in the freezer for variety's sake. Today I'm trying a cinnamon muffin recipe that I found here.

I made a few changes to the recipe. I doubled it, substituted half of the oil for applesauce, and half of the flour for whole wheat flour. I also added a tsp of vanilla extract and put a cinnamon streusel topping on them.

Can't wait to eat these. Must. Resist. Until. Breakfast.

I have a whole chicken cooking in the crock pot as I type. I combined some minced garlic, salt, pepper, rosemary, sage, and thyme in a bowl and mix it up. I then took the garlic mixture and shoved generous amounts of it under the skin of the entire chicken. I stuffed the body cavity with sliced baby portabella mushrooms and the leftover garlic, and then let it cook in the crock pot on high for the afternoon. 


When you cook a whole chicken that way, no extra liquid is needed. The chicken will naturally end up with a good bit of juices in the crock pot as it cooks. You can use those juices to make a gravy by combining one cup of the juices with one cup of water, salt/pepper/spices you like, and some cornstarch. Bring it to a boil and then reduce heat to let it thicken. 


I'll serve the chicken and mushrooms over either rice or quinoa and have a salad on the side, and then the leftover meat will go into a pasta bake for tomorrow's dinner. 

Taking the meat off the bones is the hardest part of this dish.

This "not eating out" thing hasn't been easy, and it's only the first week. Since the purpose of this blog is to give myself some accountability, the pressure is on to be honest about what we're eating. It's a good thing since it gives me some external motivation to provide better meals for my family, but it is HARD. I find myself planning meals in advance, whereas before the start of this little experiment I would usually start thinking about what I was going to make for dinner on my drive home. I'm thinking that meal planning to some degree is going to be the key to making this experiment successful, but that is one habit that is going to take some time to develop. For now, I'm just proud of myself for having a plan for not only today's main meal, but tomorrow's as well. I've even got breakfast going for most of the week. 


We've eaten out twice this week: once on Thursday (which I already blogged about), and once yesterday because I had a workshop to go to all day and then we went to the zoo and had dinner out at Jason's Deli afterwards. Compared to previous weeks, we've cut our eating out in half at least. It's not perfect and it certainly isn't in line with the goal I wrote down in my first post on this blog, but it's improvement. 

Comfort food

I almost caved in and picked up a bite tonight. We did our big shopping run at Costco for the month, but I came home and cooked anyway. Score one for fighting temptation.

I made a dish tonight that makes me think of my childhood. We ate this once a week for years. For a long time, I couldn't touch it because I was burned out on it, but after a long stretch I ended up making it again. I've added my own tweaks to it, but the basic recipe is the same from my childhood. We always just called it "casserole", but it isn't really a true casserole in that it isn't baked in the oven.

Cheesy Hamburger Casserole

1 can cream of mushroom soup

Mushrooms, either canned or fresh (fresh is better)

About 3 oz of cheese. Use your favorite kind.

1 lb ground beef, browned and drained

1/2 package of egg noodles (I use the kind made without egg yolks)

Finely chopped frozen spinach

Onion powder

Small amount of garlic powder

Pepper to taste

Brown your meat and drain it, then put it back in your skillet. Add your cream of mushroom soup plus one can full of water, your mushrooms, spinach, cheese, and seasonings. Stir it all up and turn the heat on medium, stirring frequently. While that's simmering, boil your noodles and drain them. When your sauce is no longer runny, stir in your noodles and serve it. 

The spinach is something I added to sneak vegetables into the dish. When it's finely chopped, you don't taste it at all. I didn't get any complaints from either of the men in my life.

 Our side dish for tonight was some organic frozen mixed vegetables from Costco served with a little butter, salt, and pepper. Nothing fancy, but simple can be good. 

Not a bad shot for an iPhone picture, if I do say so myself.

This meal isn't the healthiest thing in my repertoire, but it isn't horrible if you choose healthier cheeses, noodles, and cream of mushroom soup. Sometimes comfort food is worth a few extra calories.

Remember how I said I'm not Martha Stewart?

I'm not Suzie Homemaker, either. I fell off the cooking wagon today. Well, not so much fell off as intentionally stepped off. See, today was one of those days where my feet hit the ground running when the alarm went off at 5, and they didn't stop moving until after the Giant was in bed 20 minutes past his bedtime.

In addition to my usual 7:30-3:30 day at work, plus 30 minute commute each way, our daycare provider's daughter is super sick. My sister agreed to watch the Giant for us, but she lives in a town that is an additional 30 minutes away from the city I work in. The Giant is in swimming lessons at an indoor facility that is located (you guessed it) 10 minutes away from my house... in the opposite direction of my sister's place. Swim lessons start at 5:15, and we managed to sneak in right at 5:15. By the time that was done, it was 6:00 and the Giant's bedtime is at 7.

Tonight's menu: A Jr. Whataburger with cheese and some fries for me, and a chicken strip, a cup of peaches, and some fries for the Giant. If you're wondering why the Carnivore isn't mentioned in all of this, it's because he works 12-13 hour shifts plus a 20 minute commute and doesn't get home until around 9 or so.

It's hard to find the balance when you're juggling a full-time job and a household. I'm hoping that in our case, doing this blog will motivate me to cook more often, but not make me feel guilty for the nights like tonight where homecooked food just wasn't in the cards. I suppose I could have planned it better and had something going in the crock pot, but, well... I didn't. Life goes on, and I've already been thinking about what to make for tomorrow night so that counts for something, right?

FFYS

I was brought up by a single mom who worked nights. As a consequence of working nights, she frequently functioned on very very little sleep. She still managed to get a hot dinner on the table most nights, but occasionally we were told that it was an "FFYS" night. FFYS stands for "Fend For Your Self", and it meant that we were to either reheat leftovers or cobble together whatever was available from the freezer.

Tonight was an FFYS night. The Giant goes to a home daycare, and his daycare provider's daughter was diagnosed with RSV today. If you don't know about RSV and young children, all you really need to know is it's a very serious virus when the child is two or younger. So, his daycare provider took him over to our backup person, but by the time he got there it was a full two hours past his usual nap time. The backup person laid him down, but he didn't nap. Two year olds who have not napped are scary little creatures. Poor little guy was alternating between demanding food, demanding to play outside, and losing his balance while standing still and falling over. Cooking was not in the cards.

So, my menu of the evening was leftovers from last night with a cup of pineapples instead of veggies. It's still homecooked, so I say it counts. The Giant, on the other hand, had a hot dog and pears. Some battles are just not worth fighting

So I'm not Martha Stewart. Then again, I've also never had a fraud conviction...

Something New

Tonight's menu: teriyaki brown sugar glazed chicken breasts, quinoa, and a stir-fry mix of veggies that I chose not to stir-fry.

The chicken was easy enough. In a small bowl, combine 3-4 tbs teriyaki sauce (NOT the thick kind. It should be the same consistency as soy sauce), 1 tbs olive oil, 1 tbs brown sugar, garlic powder to taste, and onion powder to taste. Brush it liberally over boneless skinless chicken breasts and bake uncovered at 400* for 20 minutes. The glaze that runs off the chicken will probably burn a little on the pan, but that's okay. Still tastes good.

Be sure to cut into the thickest part. If there is no pink and the juices run clear, it's done.

I cheated with the veggies. Costco has a stir-sry frozen vegetable mix that I like. I didn't feel like stir-frying tonight, so I just boiled them and threw on some salt and pepper afterwards. They came out a little bland, and I probably could have spiced them up a bit by stir-frying, but I was tired and the Giant was demanding food by then.

They look pretty, even if they were boring for my taste buds.

And the thing that is new: QUINOA! Oh my goodness, why I haven't tried to cook this sooner I have no idea. For tonight, I did 1/2 cup quinoa, 1 cup chicken stock, a pinch of sea salt, poultry seasoning, garlic powder, and onion powder. Stir it all up and bring it to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes. Quinoa has a great nutty flavor and apparently it's considered a "super food". I'm loving it because it was delicious and a quick side to throw together. Quinoa will be gracing our table again for sure.

This may not look like much, but trust me. You have to try this. Your belly will thank you.

Now that tonight's meal is documented for posterity, I thought I'd talk about the importance of having a well-stocked spice cabinet. Investing in dried herbs and spices is the key to being able to prepare food that tastes good even if you have a slim budget. I always have the following things on hand (for this list, assume all herbs are dried):

Garlic powder

Onion powder

Rosemary

Thyme

Basil

Oregano

Sage

Ground ginger

Ground mustard

Cinnamon

Nutmeg

Chili powder

Cracked red pepper

Cumin (also called comino)

Sea salt

Black pepper corns

Seasoned salt

Various spice mixes

Olive Oil

White and Red cooking wines

Balsalmic vinegar

Corn starch

For baking, I always keep certain basic supplies on-hand as well. That way, I can whip up some cookies when a craving hits in the middle of the night, or make a mean loaf of bread in my bread machine. Here's the baking supply list:

White flour

Whole wheat flour

Sugars- white, brown, and confectioner's

Vanilla extract

Baking soda

Baking powder

Cocoa
Yeast

Various flavored extracts (lemon, mint, etc.)

If you can get things like these in your pantry, you might have a large expense once, but after you've made the initial purchases it becomes very affordable to keep them in stock as you run out. I buy the things I use the most in bulk at Costco.

What's your pantry must-have?

The Inaugural Dinner

Tonight's menu: mini meatloaf, oven roasted green beans, and homemade wheat bread served with butter and honey.

I like a good meatloaf, but it can take forever to make. Mini meatloaf, though... that only takes a little while. About 30 minutes from start to finish if your ground beef is already thawed. They come out just as yummy as the original thing, but the cook time is cut by over half.

Start off with  1 lb of extra lean ground beef. I like to use 94/6 for this one. The less lean your beef is, the more your meatloaf will be sitting in grease. Me no likey grease.

Preheat your oven to 450. To your thawed beef, add 1 egg, 1/2 cup of milk, 1/2-3/4 cup bread crumbs (Progresso makes some Italian Bread Crumbs that are my go-to item for stuff like this), onion powder to taste, garlic powder to taste, a dash of salt, pepper, 1/2-1 tsp sage, 1/2-1 tsp dry mustard, a dash of Worchestershire sauce, and stir it all up until it's well-mixed. Get out your ice cream scoop and put it into ungreased muffin cups. Bake it for 25 minutes.

Don't look at my poor muffin cups. They've been used and abused, but they're made of silicone and I adore them. Look at the deliciousness cooking inside them. There you go!

Next up is the bread. I have a bread machine, so yesterday I made a loaf of wheat bread to go with our chicken soup. We served the leftovers tonight as well. If you have a bread machine, for the love of all that is holy, don't use the mixes that I've seen sold. Making bread from scratch is just about the easiest thing in the world with a bread machine. You can't mess it up. Really. I like to use the Hillbilly Housewife's recipes, but if you do a Google search you can find a ton of yummy things.

Served warm with some butter and honey. It's almost like dessert.

Last is the oven roasted green beans. Easy-peasy. Wash some fresh green beans, snap off the ends, drizzle with a little olive oil, and throw on some sea salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. Mix it up well and spread it out on a cookie sheet. Bake at 450 for 10 minutes for al dente, longer if you want them more cooked. 

Crunchy and delicious. The Carnivore went back for seconds, even if the Giant wouldn't touch them. Baby steps, baby steps...

Gotta Start Somewhere

Why am I starting this blog? To motivate and document my attempts to cook more often and eat out less. My husband and I both work demanding full-time jobs, and I'm the only one in the house that cooks. Gourmet chef I am not, but I try my best to make things that are relatively healthy and also taste good.

Hubby is the resident Carnivore of the place, and our two year old Giant is your typically picky toddler. Trying to please the Carnivore's vegetable-hating palate while also making something the Giant will at least try is no mean feat!

When I work, it's all too easy for us to end up at a fast food joint. Those are the days when I'm exhausted from a full day and don't feel like cooking. Since the Carnivore doesn't cook and loves a good burger, he encourages my laziness. Our bank account has been protesting our love of fast food. In short, we need to make a drastic change for our financial and physical health.

I'm not a health nut, although I have been convinced that High Fructose Corn Syrup has no place in our diet. My goal is to create balanced meals that taste good and don't take forever and a day to prepare. I try to incorporate fresh things, whole grains, and organic produce when I can afford it, but I'm by no means strict about it. I plan to blog our daily dinner and be honest about it. Hopefully, documenting our eating habits for all to read will force me to think twice before picking up a burger. Restaurant food will probably still pop up from time to time. My goal is no more than twice a month.

Here's to accountability! May it produce a fatter wallet.