Friday
Short version: Scrambled eggs, pasta with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese, leftover green beans
Long version: Sysco food is not the most flavorful food. I got a 25-pound box of Roma tomatoes from the school Sysco program, and they were the hardest, palest, most flavorless tomatoes I have ever encountered. I used some of them to make a sauce for the kids' pasta. It was uninspiring, but serviceable.
The mozzarella was also from the Sysco program. Pre-shredded, part-skim mozzarella is not my preference, but you know what they say about beggars choosing.
Saturday
Short version: Roasted Italian sausage, roasted potatoes, roasted tomatoes, roasted green beans
Long version: ROAST ALL THE THINGS!
Actually, the tomatoes were greatly improved with roasting. Cubby took a bite and said, "Hey, these tomatoes actually taste like something." Indeed. It didn't hurt that I added salt, garlic powder, and dried oregano to them, too. They were good with the sausage, anyway.
Sunday
Short version: Lamb gyros, french fries, bunny cake with ice cream
Long version: It's a Greek Easter.
So I marinated a leg of lamb that A. had boned with a bunch of tomato juice left from when I was cutting up the sad tomatoes to roast, olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic. It sat in the refrigerator for almost 24 hours, which was a good thing. Then I tied it up, browned it, and threw it in a 400 degree oven with the french fries.
While that was cooking, I was making the pita bread*.
You know what P.I.T.A. stands for? Yeah, these were that. The dough wasn't particularly difficult to make, but then each pita has to be rolled out with a rolling pin, using a lot of flour so that it doesn't stick. But then all that extra flour goes on the screaming-hot griddle along with the bread and there, it burns. So the ENTIRE TIME I was rolling out and cooking the breads, every single smoke detector in the house was going off and Cubby was running hysterically around the house opening every last window.
They were good, but I'm not convinced it was worth it.
Anyway, I made french fries just because I always like french fries. And this is the bunny cake:
Even by my low standards, this is an Ugly Cake. A bit creepy, too. Delicious, though!
Short version: Leftover meat pizza-style, potato slices, green salad
Long version: There was a bit of lamb left from the night before, plus a couple of sausages, so I sliced both of those thinly, fried them, and added some tomato sauce I had made earlier.
I actually made Finny's Sauce with the terrible tomatoes from Sysco. I didn't have any wine, either, and just used a bit of balsamic vinegar. Even with terrible tomatoes and no wine, that sauce is still good. Maybe I'll re-name it Finny's Magic Sauce.
This is still salad from MY LETTUCE HOORAY! The excitement never dims.
Tuesday
Short version: Sheep lap, curried split peas, baked potatoes, garlic bread, carrot sticks
Long version: Man, this was the most random meal ever.
The lap is the breast of the sheep. It's a very thin, fatty, and quite tough cut. I had seen somewhere that it can be used to make a sort of bacon, so A. found a recipe somewhere that called for a dry rub of salt, pepper, and brown sugar, and we left it in the refrigerator for two weeks.
The resulting meat was quite sweet. Not much like bacon, but it was reminiscent of the lamb ribs A. makes sometimes. So I baked it at a low heat for a couple of hours, adding paprika and garlic powder to it. This made a chewy, crispy, very fatty meat. A. and Cubby liked it, Poppy ate it, but Charlie and Jack tried it and refused. They had some cheese instead.
I mostly made the curried split peas and baked potatoes for me, because I love curry and potatoes. Rafael had given us all those split peas, and I used to sometimes make dal, which is made with split lentils. Lentils split smaller than peas, but the peas still cooked up pretty quickly. All I did was cook some diced onion and garlic in oil, fry some sweet yellow curry powder in there, then add rinsed split peas, salt, and water. I ate mine over a baked potato with sour cream on top, and it was delicious.
Let us pause for a photo of this year's floofy Easter dress. Sadly, it went unappreciated by our church at large, but we all appreciated it very much.
And I didn't have to worry about the clashing striped pants underneath, so that's a bonus.
Wednesday
Short version: Bunless cheeseburgers, rice, frozen green beans
Long version: That cheap Sysco ground beef is much better as thin hamburgers rather than meatloaf. Not as wet.
Thursday
Short version: Grilled cheese sandwiches, frozen green beans
Long version: Those who wanted pizza grilled cheese had the remainder of Finny's sauce with mozzarella and, in Cubby and A.'s case, anchovy paste.
Speaking of Cubby, I decided to try to include him in the preparations for Easter dinner by asking him to make a centerpiece for the table out of some of the modeling clay they got in their baskets. I suggested a bunny. This is what he put on the table:
The beheading of the creepiest Easter bunny in existence.
Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?
* I used that recipe mostly because the author explained how her Palestinian grandmother used to make bread: She saved a small ball of dough from each batch and dropped it right into a bag of flour for the next batch. SEE? SEE?! No one is throwing away flour in places where food is hard to come by. (And where bread is made frequently.)
Poppy is too cute in her Easter finery!
ReplyDeletetakeout
ham, chicken breast, mashed potato stuffing, green beans, rolls, fruit cobbler
leftovers from Easter
mini meatloaves, roasted carrots, sautéed spinach & mushrooms
tuna patties, roasted potatoes, more sautéed spinach & mushrooms
sloppy joes, kale salad, chips, pear cobbler
zucchini pizza, chips, cobbler
Linda
Linda: How'd the tuna patties turn out? Also, I think mini meatloaves are the best, because of course, the crusty end bits are the best, and there's a much higher ratio of crusty bits to soft middle in a mini one. I don't make them, though, because I'm feeding too many people and making a bunch of mini meatloaves would be basically like making meatballs. That is, too time consuming.
ReplyDeleteI love the Easter centerpiece! He would fit in well at our house with that sense of humor.
ReplyDeleteGo Bunnies! I loved the bunny cake AND the centerpiece. So here is what I ate this week. Rather pathetic at times.
ReplyDeleteFriday: Green salad, mashed sweet potatoes, a chunk of cheddar cheese.
Saturday: refried beans with cheese, green salad with apples and toasted walnuts
Sunday: cheese souffle (first ever, oddly enough), green salad, the last of the rice pudding
Monday: Chickpea rotini with sauce and two cheeses: cream cheese and pecorina
Tuesday: bowl of Scotch steel cut oats (I made them in advance by cooking briefly and then just covering and turning off the heat.
Wednesday: chicken rice soup
Thursday: ham steak and sweet potato. I bought a rather large bag of sweet potatoes; ergo all the sweet potatoes.
The tuna patties were excellent, with your recipe. (I was in a hurry this morning when I commented & forgot about mentioning that.)
ReplyDeleteYeah, we've been enjoying the mini meatloaves. They are a good change from the regular size loaf.
Linda
As a bunny cake person, thought yours was exceptional. Lookes don't hold a candle to taste, and nothing bad can be said of chocolate and M&M's! However, the table bunny, although creatively inspired, left a bit to be desired if "happy" was to be a part of the easter vision. Seemed way too much effort for the lowly pita, but then it was a special Easter holiday dinner! Our special was a bundt carrot cake; way too much for only two, but really good.
ReplyDeleteYou must have some "intense" bunnies out there!
ReplyDeleteThis week in no particular order because I forgot to write it down every evening.
Take out Taco Bell
Left over homemade Chili and Baked Potato soup
Easter leftovers, Ham, Cheesy potatoes, deviled eggs and fruit salad
Waffles and Bacon with a Smoothie
Hamburgers, oven fries, onion rings and tomato/cucumber salad
I'll try to do better next week. I have my menu made out already as I was preparing my Wm Grocery Pickup order.