Because I know everybody out there is just dying to know what we’ll be eating this week… all my loyal followers! (Hello, you two!)

I hit Wal-Mart last week and escaped under $150 with a big buggy – excuse me, cart – full of groceries. Didn’t have a list, so I am now finding strange discrepancies in what we have (4 loaves of bread, 2 packs of hot dog buns) and don’t have (any meat other than those 2 packs of hot dogs and the 1.5 lbs of round steak). The lack of meat is making me nervous, because, I’ll just be honest here: we eat a lot of meat.

I keep intending to cook less meat-centric meals, and honestly I try, I do, but it seems like whenever I buy one of those gigantic packs of chicken breasts they disappear in one meal. I read recipes that call for “4 chicken breasts” and can only wonder, In what universe does that work?

And I’m not sure what the problem is, since there are not that many of us (5, but 3 of us are under 5 years old) and though we’re carnivorous (obviously) we also are big fans of salad, fresh fruit, vegetables of any kind, and carbs of any kind. I can dine quite happily on crackers, cheese, and a plate of fresh fruit. Or bread and butter. Or a baked potato. Or a big salad without any meat in it. Or pasta with a little a lot of Parmesan and butter.

I think the problem is not our pickiness – since none of us (okay, except for Robbie) are picky eaters. Joe does like having meat at a meal, because it kind of completes it in his mind. That’s fine, and normally I accommodate that, and he’s also super about accommodating my less meat-centric meals, when I do manage to come up with them. But that’s the problem, I think.

I’m not good at coming up with those meals.
My two stand-bys for a meat-light meal are curry and stir fry. both of which we love and both of which I usually make with some meat, just not a lot. But maybe it is a lot and I just don’t realize it? Is 1.5 pounds of round steak a lot for a batch of stir fry that will feed us at least twice, probably three times? I don’t know. I should go look up some stir fry recipes and find out, but that’s the other problem, I guess.

I don’t really follow recipes.

Like, ever. I get ideas from recipes, but I’m not good at shopping for a specific recipe. So I modify the recipes I like to fit with what I have on hand. Usually things turn out fine, albeit different than the original. Sometimes they don’t turn out so well, and I bow my head to acknowledge the greater wisdom of the recipe writer.

Not following a recipe means that amounts are always subject to, er, interpretation. If a shepherd’s pie recipe calls for 2 carrots and 3 potatoes and 1 pound of ground beef, and I have 5 carrots and 5 potatoes and 1.5 pounds of ground beef, guess what I’m going to do? Use everything I got. I figure, hey, we’ll have leftovers. And that’s good, because Joe takes a lunch to work almost every day, and the kids and I need to eat lunch every day, so having leftovers makes that lunch-stuff pretty simple. (I love leftovers that morph, too, like when you make a great beef roast with carrots and potatoes in the slow cooker, and have all the juicy good bits left over to make a fabulous stew for the next night. Everything old is new again.)

Enough rambling about my meat-centric cooking habits. I’m going to try to come up with a menu that will last us for this week without necessitating another run to the grocery store. Fortunately, I do have a bit more, um, meat in the freezer…

Our Menu

• Monday: Chef salad, Asiago cheese bread [I'm going to a Ladies Christmas Party for my church tonight, to which I'll be taking Cranberry salsa, chips, and maybe a caramel cake... depending on how the rest of the afternoon goes, and how much time I spend writing about food vs. how much time I spend actually preparing food.]
• Tuesday: Stirfry with beef, red cabbage, pineapple, and carrots
• Wednesday: Chicken pot pie [church night = one-dish/make-ahead meal night]
• Thursday: Corn chowder, broiled mahi mahi, some sort of veg on the side
• Friday: I’m hoping for eat out or bring-home-a-pizza
• Saturday: Big pot of soup of some kind, egg salad sandwiches.
• Sunday: A birthday lunch at the in-laws! Leftovers for dinner.

Now I don’t feel so bad…

• Pasta Shells for Meat Lovers (2.5# ground beef!)
• Meat Lovers Quiche (more meat than eggs by a long shot)
• Grilled Steak and Arugula Salad (1.5# steak to 1# lettuce)

Image by Alex E. Proimos. Post linked to OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday.

…that IS the question.

Our menu for the week

Sunday: (as in, yesterday) Joe made us a huge pot of garlicky, warm smoked sausage and potato soup and french bread.
Monday: green salad with baked lemon chicken (it was going to be grilled, but it’s raining, so never mind), garlic-butter breadsticks.
Tuesday: cheesy, ultimate comfort food: homemade mac’n'cheese {recipe below} with ham, on the side we’ll have stir-fried cabbage and fresh fruit.
Wednesday: we’ll have smoothies for dinner (kids will get leftovers), then snacks with our home Bible study group. I’ll do a tray of olives, prosciutto, cheese, and crackers and either the oatmeal cookies or these oh-my-goodness chocolate butterfinger cookies from Rach’s Blog Bite. Oh my goodness. Chocolate + butterfinger + cookies.
Thursday:So I’m indebted to Rach again for another great recipe: the tortellini salad that sounds amazing. Yum. I’ll do some dill-marinated cucumbers on the side.
Friday:Fajitas with green peppers and onions, pineapple salsa and chips, and some fresh guac if avocados aren’t outrageously expensive. Mmmm.
Saturday:either homemade pizza or grilled brats, potato salad, and red beans.
Sunday:a big pot of chicken and dumplings sound just right. Salad, a tray of fruit and cheese, and maybe some apple pie for dessert, unless I can talk Joe into making some of his amazing chocolate mousse. I think I’m gaining weight just thinking about this meal.

Let’s talk about homemade mac’n'cheese. Actually, let’s talk about any luxuriously comforting creamy baked pasta dish. It all comes down to the sauce, my friends. The homemade, creamy, and, yes, easy to make sauce.

Basic White Sauce

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup all purpose flour
In a large saucepan or saute pan, melt the butter until it is all liquid; immediately sprinkle the flour on and start whisking until the flour and melted butter are mixed together in a lumpy, doughy looking thing. Yum. Looks promising, doesn’t it? Don’t panic. Turn the heat down to very low, or pull it off heat for a moment, and get out
4 cups of milk
Pour in about a cup of the milk, more or less, and whisk away until the lumpy-doughy butter/flour mix has made a saucy mixture with the milk. Keep whisking to get the lumps out. Keep the pan over low heat so the milk won’t scald. Now pour in another 1 or 2 cups of milk, whisk, and then let it bubble until it starts to thicken. Now pour in the rest of the milk, whisk, and keep it over low heat. Give it a stir every now and then. You want to let it just cook on very low heat so it thickens. This would be a good time to season the sauce, so pull out
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
Stir the salt and pepper into the sauce. Now, if you want to, you can add more seasoning. For example, I might add
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried chervil
1 teaspoon lemon zest
if I want a creamy sauce with some good herby flavor and a little zesty kick. Something a little lighter, good for Spring, to pour over pasta with peas, mushrooms, and Parmesan shavings. But today I’m making mac’n'cheese, so light and springy is not exactly what I’m going for. Instead, I’m going to add
1 tablespoon (okay, I’ll probably add 2) minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon dried parsley
Now, once the seasonings are added, you just want to let the sauce simmer a bit so all the flavors meld together and the sauce bubbles away and gets thicker. You’ll want to taste it and add more salt and pepper as needed. (If it’s a bit too salty, don’t worry; you’ll be pouring it over pasta, so you want it to have a good, intense flavor. If it’s much too salty, add another cup of milk.)
That’s it for white sauce. Since I’m turning this into mac’n'cheese, though, we need to add…. cheese. Glorious cheese.

to make the mac’n'cheese

I generally just use whatever I have in the refrigerator. This week I have cheddar and monterey jack, so I’ll grate enough to make about 2 cups of cheese total and then dump that into the sauce, stirring so the cheese doesn’t stick on the bottom. Once the cheese is melted, the sauce is finished. Now, set the sauce aside and continue on:
Cook 1 pound of pasta (shells, macaroni, mostaccioli, whatever you like) according to package directions. Drain and pour into a 13×9 baking dish or a 3 quart casserole dish or whatever else you have handy that is oven-safe and will hold 1 pound of pasta plus sauce.
Fry up 1 pound of bacon or a couple of big slices of ham, or saute 1 pound of chicken breast, or cook 1 pound of ground beef, or any combination you like, or just leave out the meat altogether. It’s superfluous, as far as I’m concerned, because I’m really just interested in the cheesy pasta, but my husband really likes his homemade mac’n'cheese with chicken and bacon.
Once the meat is cooked, drain it if needed to get off the excess grease, then let it cool enough to handle. Chop it up into bite-sized pieces, then dump it in with the pasta.
Get your sauce and pour it over the cooked pasta.
Now you have options. You can cook it right away, or you can cover and refrigerate it until just before dinner time. Whenever you’re ready to cook, uncover the pasta and stick it in a 350-degree (F) oven. Cook it for 20 minutes, then sprinkle about 1 cup of grated cheese on top (any kind) and let it melt.
Serve. Eat. Don’t count calories for this one.

This post is linked up with OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday.

Sometimes, when it comes to food, the simplest is the best.

Let’s talk about soup.

I love soup. Soup is my friend, except in summer when I’m in a state of perpetual sweatiness. Then the only soup I’m into is gazpacho, ice-cold, but during the other three blessed seasons of the year, me and soup, we’re tight. We’re buds. We’re close.

I could happily eat soup every night, but I don’t because 1) sometimes I’m lazy and I like just throwing chicken breasts in the baking dish and voila! dinner; and 2) my husband likes soup, but not quite as much as I do, so I try to be nice and make stuff besides soup too; and 3) a 3 1/2 year old and a 2 year old eating soup every night is too hard on my kitchen, and the cleanliness thereof. I don’t like wiping soup off the floor every evening. (Did you catch that “sometimes I’m lazy” bit, above? That comes into play again here.)

That said (why, I don’t know, I just felt compelled to give you a little discourse on the soup-eating habits at my house),
I decided to make French Onion soup the other night for dinner. I love French Onion soup, but I’ve only made it a couple of times, and the last time was just a flop. I don’t know what went wrong, but it was just kind of blech. I decided to try again.

I started with some well-seasoned chicken broth I had leftover from cooking chicken. It was that yummy thick kind of broth, with a healthy dose of garlic salt and pepper. I got that reheating in the slow cooker while I started the olive oil heating in my big saute pan.

And now we interrupt this program for a word about olive oil. Confession: I don’t really like olive oil. For a person who collects cookbooks, reads M.F.K. Fisher, and spends inordinate amounts of time thinking about, talking about, and dreaming about good food, not liking olive oil is akin to sacrilege. But there, I’ve said it. Something about olive oil is just very heavy and a little too much. Maybe I’m buying the wrong kind (on the cheaper end, okay, we’re a family of five on a budget), maybe I’m using it the wrong way. Don’t know.

But I’m trying to get more of the “good fats” (omega-3) and fewer of the “not-so-good fats” (omega-6) in our regular cooking and eating habits. Hence, I put the butter back in the refrigerator, with a sigh and a tearful gaze, and I glugged in some olive oil instead. In go the thinly sliced onions (2, large) and the finely chopped garlic (2 whole heads) and then I doused the whole mess thoroughly with Worcestershire sauce (lots of glugs) and pepper and garlic salt (I like garlic).

And it smelled like heaven in a saute pan.

Meanwhile, my broth had gotten all soupy and delicious-smelling again. I added about half three-quarters of a carton of Swanson’s organic chicken broth (bought on sale at the little discount food store down the road, oooh yeah!). I let the onion-garlic-olive oil montage simmer on low for twenty minutes or so, then dumped it into the broth, popped on the lid, and kept it on low till dinner time. Four hours later,

it smelled like heaven in a slow cooker.

Joe ladled ours onto slices of provolone, and the cheese was all melty and stringy, and we devoured the bubbly, garlicky, cheese-laden French Onion soup alongside leftover beef fajitas,

and it was like heaven in a soup bowl.

I don’t know how I’m going to top that this week. Oh wait, yes I do. This week I’m going to attempt a recreation of one of my favorite soups: the broccoli cheese from Bread Co (St. Louis, Panera, Atlanta…). Mmmm. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Anyway, here’s my menu, and if you’re looking for another dish for yours this week, I recommend French Onion Soup.

Menu:

• Chicken, carrots, and corn in the slowcooker (that’s tonight; Joe made this yesterday and it cooked all night and it smells delicious and now I don’t have to cook dinner! Yes, my husband is awesome, thank you very much. By the way, this bring me to a question I’ve been pondering: does anyone have a regular “husband’s night to cook” or “mom’s-night-off-so-we-eat-out” time in the week? I’d like to institute something like that but not sure exactly how to work it… advice?)
• Breaded tilapia (carry over from last week), salad with marinated cucumbers, some kind of veggie side.
• Fried rice, sweet and sour veggie stir fry
• Turkey filets… have to do something with those turkey filets in the freezer. What do you do with turkey filets?
• Artichoke pasta (carry over) with some kind of amazing pasta sauce. Alfredo? Cajun cream sauce? Tomato basil? Jury’s out. Anyone have other ideas? Not sure what sauce goes best with artichoke pasta since I’ve never had artichoke pasta before.
• Tuna Salad Lettuce Wraps. This will be our quick meal for Wednesday night, when we have worship practice and then cell group.
• Broccoli Cheddar Soup! I can’t wait, but I need to go buy broccoli… and maybe cheddar.

I just realized I’ve got (potentially) 3 vegetarian meals planned! And 2 with fish (tuna and tilapia). I think I’m getting better at not planning meals around a big hunk of meat.
Here’s to happy meal planning!

It’s 5′o’clock….

Meat in your freezer is great, except when you forget to thaw it out soon enough to cook it for dinner. Great, frozen meatloaf. Mmmm. Kids love that one.

Keep This In Your Freezer

Here are a few items (plus a few ideas on how to use them) to keep in your freezer that will thaw quickly enough (in a morning, left out, or in ten minutes or so in the microwave) that you can still come up with something appetizing, even when you forgot to plan ahead.

1. Smoked sausages:

   I think the 14 ounce packages with 6 smaller links (rather than a single, giant link) thaw faster and give you more options for how you cook them. I can pull a package out of the freezer around 9 in the morning, let it sit in the sink, and it’s thawed by lunchtime. That means if you forget dinner until 3 in the afternoon, you can still have these thawed by 6; or you can throw them in the microwave for even faster thawing (take them out of the package first!).

   How to use them:

   • Gourmet Hot Dogs: Slice lengthwise, then saute (cut-side-down) with a sliced onion and a few banana peppers. Serve on toasted bread or buns. Yum. Way better than hot dogs.
   • Sausage Potato Soup: Peel and chop 5 medium potatoes; put in large pot, cover with water, bring to boil, and cook until tender. Use a spoon to smush up some of the potatoes in the pot. Slice the sausage into medallions and add to the potatoes. Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder (or fresh garlic if you have it; much better). Simmer on low and add a cup of milk just before serving.
   • Kinda-Jambalaya: Cook enough white rice for your family. In a large saucepan, saute a chopped onion, then add the sliced sausages and 2 cans of diced tomatoes (or rotel). Simmer until heated through. Serve over the rice.

2. Tilapia filets.

   My grocery store sells these in individual packages, so you can pull out just as many as you need. You don’t even have to thaw them, actually, but leave them in the sink for an hour or two before cooking and they will be thaw. Tilapia is a very light fish, great for people who aren’t big on seafood because it doesn’t have a fishy taste.

   How to use them:

   • Italian Parmesan Tilapia: Place the filets in a greased baking dish. Sprinkle with salt and lemon pepper, then pour prepared Italian dressing over the filets. Bake at 350 for 10 to 12 minutes, until cooked through. Sprinkle with shredded Parmesan.
   • Citrus Dill Tilapia: Use any citrus fruit you have (lemon, lime, orange) to get 2 to 3 tablespoons of juice. Brush a griddle or frying pan with oil, then cook the tilapia on it over medium high heat, about 4 minutes per side.

3. Prepared meatballs.

   You can make your own and then freeze them, or buy a bag when they go on sale at the local supermarket. I like the Italian style; I think they have a little more flavor. This is a convenience food for me; I’ve made my own meatballs before, but it is kind of time-consuming and I’m not very good at it. I buy the frozen and keep them on hand for the nights I forget about dinner or I just need a quick, easy dinner.

   How to use them:

   • Cheater Chili: There’s no “real” recipe for this because the point is to use what you have in your freezer, pantry, etc. The concept is simple: combine whatever canned beans and tomatoes you have in a large pot. Bring to a simmer. Add the frozen meatballs and cook until the meatballs are done. Season well with chili powder, garlic, and salt and pepper as needed. A dash of Worcestershire and/or hot sauce helps. If you feel really industrious, dice up an onion, saute it, and throw it in, but that’s totally optional. Simmer the chili till you’re ready to eat.
   • Baked Meatballs: (If you have a jar of pasta sauce, you can use it instead.) Combine 2 to 3 cans of tomato sauce (or paste and enough water to thin out to a sauce) in a mixing bowl; stir in minced garlic (or garlic powder), Italian seasoning (or basil, oregano, and parsley). Season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour meatballs into a baking dish, top with the tomato sauce, and bake in the oven. (Follow the meatball package directions or go for 350 for about 20 minutes, or until meatballs are cooked through.) Serve the meatballs on sandwich rolls for meatball subs, or on cooked pasta, or by themselves with a salad on the side for a low-carb meal.

Image courtesy of friedwater.

So here’s the thing: I love fresh food, new cuisine, ethnic dishes, getting creative, organic and gourmet and simple and healthy and fresh, fresh, fresh.

Except at the holidays. Please do not bother me with your prosciutto-wrapped figs. Please do not wave your organic hummus under my nose. I will hurl on your hummus, and then I will hurl you and your hurled-upon hummus out the window.

The holidays are special. The holidays are all about going home, even if you can’t. Cooking up the food you loved and grew up with is a way of going home. That’s important to me, especially since I lost my Mom.
[Insert link here to post about Mom]

My veritable plethora of holiday recipes includes nothing trendy and probably nothing healthy. This is my version of going-home food, and, well, I’m from the South. But you know what I’ve noticed? Comfort food speaks in many accents. I’ve served up dishes of my personal favorites from the deep South genre, and I’ve watched as they were consumed eagerly by folks who wouldn’t know a purple hull from a butter bean.

Christmas is a great time for comfort food.

Appetizers

• Why-Not-A-Cheeseball (right here in River City…uh…SisterWisdom)
• Bisquick Sausage Balls (Southern Cuisine at Suite101)
• Bacon-Cream Cheese Roll Ups (Gourmet Appetizer Recipes)
• Spinach Dip (Sister Wisdom)
• Deviled Eggs (Hey That Tastes Good – beautiful photos. I didn’t know deviled eggs could look that good.)
• Cocktail Smokies (A whole thread at Southern Living Community forum. That’s how important they are.)

Main Course

• Cornbread Dressing (Paula Deen, who else could do Southern Cornbread Dressing?)
• Green Bean Casserole (
• Sweet Potato Casserole (Southern Food at About.com)
• Brined and Roasted Turkey (Instructables – cool site)
• Ham with Brown Sugar Glaze (Betty Crocker)
• Yeast Rolls (Dine and Dish)

Dessert

• Holiday Fruit Cookies (aka Candied Fruit Cookies at Taste of Home)
• Swedish Wedding Cookies (Apparently the Swedes stole them from the Mexicans, or vice versa; Cooking Mexican Recipes)
• Homemade Mounds Bars (Instructables again)
• Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Cookies (SisterWisdom)
• Pecan Pie (Karo Syrup)
• Caramel Apple Pie (There’s no real recipe for what my sister makes; basically, an amazing apple pie plus caramel sauce under the apples. Or on top of the apples. Or both? Mmmm)
• Popcorn Cake (first make the perfect popcorn with Dine and Dish, then make the cake with Emeril. All the cousins used to fight over this…)

Image courtesy of museinthecity.

Since we will be leaving Tuesday, my menu plan consists of, well, not much:

• Monday: eat whatever is left in the fridge so it won’t get icky while we’re gone. Mmm. Since I didn’t cook much over the weekend (I got in vacation mode a little too soon) it will probably be a slim meal. Oh well. We’ll make up for it while we’re down in MS.

Since I don’t have a great menu plan, I will put up some recipe links of food I want to make soon. Maybe this will help inspire me when vacation is over and it’s time to come home and start cooking again. Or maybe I’ll cook some while I’m at my Dad’s house. They have a nice big kitchen…

Recipes… and be sure to visit OrgJunkie for more menus, links, and recipes!

• Homemade Granola Bars (my recipe, good, and I need to make some again. Should make some to take with us for snacks on the road but that’s probably not going to happen…).
• Thai Chicken Salad with Peanuts and Lime – sounds delicious. Love this site, too.
• Honey Wheat Bread… because I need to quit making all-white bread but I don’t love completely whole wheat bread. This recipe sounds like a good compromise for me.
• Hummus and Tomato-Avocado-Mozzarella Salad and Hashbrown Quiche and Oatmeal Applesauce Muffins (with suggested tweaks, maybe add dried cranberries too?). Love this site; wonderful recipes and I love how she has a pic of each plus a little “Results” section at the bottom to summarize the recipe and how good it was or what needs changing. A new favorite on my Bookmarks list.
• Smoked Beef Ribs. Um, yes. Oh, yes. Goodness, yes. I am drooling. I love barbecued anything (okay, almost anything). I’m thinking I should institute a weekly “Joe-cooks-on-the-grill” night and I’m thinking this should be our first recipe.
• Jamaican Chicken. Yum. Yum. Yum.
• Snack Basket. Not exactly a recipe, I know, but this is a great idea for Moms. I think I will set one of these up when we get home next week.

Image courtesy of Pink Sherbet Photography.

This morning I got up and went to the gym and worked out in the beautifully air-conditioned space. It’s one of those 24/7, let yourself in deals. I was the only one there at 4:45am (weird, don’t more people just love getting to the gym at 4:45 am? No?) and so it was like I had my own private air-conditioned gym. I still couldn’t change the channels on the televisions, though…

Another lady got there while I was mid-way through my graceful cardio huffing-puffing-nearly-keeling-over-20-excruciating-minutes-on-the-elliptical-death-machine portion of my work-out. I didn’t mind sharing my gym space by that time. I was just glad someone else was there to pour a little water on my face in case I fainted and fell off when the demon machine upped the resistance again.  Beauty is just so painful sometimes.

So, in unrelated news, here’s my menu for the week.

• Monday: fish curry, brown rice, strawberries & pineapple. I’m a little nervous about this because our neighbors are coming over for dinner and Shema (the Mr.) is from Sri Lanka. He’s Hindu, so he doesn’t eat meat, which is no problem since we like fish anway. But 1) I’ve never made curry with fish before and 2) I’m cooking curry for a man who knows what REAL curry should be like and makes it and consumes it regularly. I have a strong suspicion that my Americanized version of curry is nothing like Shema’s authentic curry… oh well. It’s the thought, right…?
• Tuesday: Stuffed pitas + clean out veggies in fridge: corn on the cob, green beans, and salad. I’m not sure what I’ll stuff the pitas with yet: maybe this or maybe something more substantial, though with ground beef or turkey instead of lamb. Don’t have much lamb sitting in my freezer these days… weird.
• Wednesday: Joe’s day off! Big brunch mid-morning (sausage or bacon, pancakes, eggs) then veggie stirfry and noodles for dinner.
• Thursday: Pasta carbonara…some kind of side…
• Friday: Broiled tilapia, oven fries, marinated carrots.
• Saturday: Zugu & meatballs (and pasta to eat it on, of course).
• Sunday: We’re either doing fellowship lunch at church or birthday dinner at the in-laws; I’ll grate some cheese to make quesadillas for supper in case we’re home by then and hungry again.

Visit the host of Menu Plan Monday!

Image Credit: jynmeyer on stock.xchng. Yeah, I’m not quite ready to put up a picture of myself, post-workout. Maybe someday…