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.