Friday
Short version: Chocolate chip pancakes at home, camp food on the mountain
Long version: A. took Cubby and Charlie scouting for the elk hunt Cubby drew for December. The mountain he drew is over three hours away, so they were camping and I threw together a bunch of random food for them.
They had a couple of leftover pork chops, cheese, salami, bread, peanut butter, canned sardines, crackers, apples, cherries, carrot sticks and raw green beans, and cookies. I have no idea what of that they ate for dinner and what they ate the next day for breakfast and lunch, but almost all of it did get eaten at some point.
I made chocolate chip pancakes for the children remaining at home, so they could feel they were having fun too, even if they were just sitting at home with boring old Mom. They spent the afternoon grazing in the garden on tomatoes, green beans, and thinned carrots, so I figured their vegetal needs were met.
Saturday
Short version: Steaks with garlic/basil butter, garlic bread, roasted sweet potatoes/bell pepper/onion, roasted green beans
Long version: For the return of the campers, I cooked all the remaining steaks my parents sent us for our anniversary. It was a lot of steak, but there wasn't all that much left over.
I didn't have any steak sauce left, so instead I made some garlic butter by mixing one clove raw garlic and the remains of some roasted garlic into soft butter, and then a few minced basil leaves as well.
You know how food people like to go on about how it's the little extras that make food extraordinary? I hate to admit it, but they're right. That butter made the steaks way better than you would think. Which is annoying, because it's those little things that are often just that much too much for me when I'm trying to get dinner on the table night after night for six people.
It's delicious when I do make the effort, though.
Sunday
Short version: Sausage/rice skillet, sauteed calabacita/green beans/tomato/onion
Long version: Cheap breakfast sausage+onion+rice+frozen peas+cheese. And the vegetables were calabacita, chopped green beans, a couple of tomatoes, onion and garlic.
I just love it when I can harvest multiple vegetables from the garden for dinner.
Monday
Short version: Breakfast sausage patties, curried split peas, leftover rice, green beans, cookies
Long version: School is starting for us next week, so I was busy all this Monday doing various required teacher trainings. While I was busy, Cubby decided it was an excellent opportunity to bake cookies. He found a recipe in my old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook for oatmeal/peanut butter/chocolate chip cookies.
"I didn't realize the recipe is supposed to make 60 cookies," he said ingenuously when he was telling me about his baking adventure.
So we had some cookies.
Break for a random photo of the backyard garden:
Hello, tomatoes.
Tuesday
Short version: Loose meat sandwiches, green salad with ranch dressing
Long version: "Loose meat sandwiches" is definitely one of the most unappetizing-sounding foods ever. But wait! It gets even grosser! Loose meat sandwiches made with chub meat!
Ew.
I did use the cheap ground beef from the chub for this, though. All I did was brown the meat, cook some onions in there, then simmer that with barbecue sauce. My mother used to do this, and we called them sloppy joes, but I'm not sure barbecue sauce is usually used in sloppy joes.
Doesn't matter. It was easy, and fast, and all of the children liked it. Win.
Wednesday
Short version: Carnitas-style pork, rice, carrot sticks with curry dip
Long version: Pork butt (another unfortunate food naming situation) cooked in the morning, then fried for dinner. Never bad.
Every child cleaned his or her plate with this one, mostly because of the curry dip. Jack and Poppy dipped their carrots in the curry dip, dipped their meat in the curry dip, and then, for good measure, mixed the rest of their curry dip in with their rice.
Whatever works, right?
Thursday
Short version: Tuna salad for kids, leftovers for A., randomness for me
Long version: The kids ate their tuna salad with crackers and some frozen green beans. The green beans were still frozen, and I just threw them right on top of their bowls of tuna with a few crackers. Gourmet, without a doubt.
A. ate some leftover pork with barbecue sauce, and some leftover rice.
I made myself a couple of pieces of bacon with sauteed calabacita, onion, garlic, tomato, and melted cheese. And thus were we all fed.
Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?
6 comments:
I had to look up the meaning of chub meat. I know, I live a sheltered life! :)
I would be so afraid of snakes, sleeping without a tent.
BLT's, sweet corn, cantaloupe
tilapia, sauteed corn, zucchini, mushrooms & cantaloupe on the side
skillet meal of zucchini, mushrooms, chicken, cheese & tomato sauce over macaroni
grilled hot dogs, potato salad, peach/tomato curry salad
chicken caesar salad
and for tonight, the skillet meal again with zucchini, chicken, cheese, mushrooms, tomato sauce, over macaroni
Linda
I remembered to keep track of my food this week, though it was mostly boring, as I had no sauce for the roast pork.
Friday food: Scottish oatmeal with cream and honey for breakfast.
Random cucumbers as snacks throughout the day.
Supper: checking the fridge: I sauted an onion in bacon fat, found an old ear of corn in the fridge, cut off the kernels and added them, then added some garlic scapes that have been sitting in the fridge, and slices of a nice little cousa squash from my garden. I knew that would not be enough, so I cooked some potatoes, boiling them with the ends of the garlic scapes. I also found chard in the fridge, so I cooked that, too. After eating the squash combo, I ate a small potato with butter, and then had some chard with vinegar and olive oil. I meant to use lemon juice, but I grabbed the vinegar bottle thinking it was the oil, so vinegar. And then I had yogurt and a peach for dessert. A late snack of ice cream finished off the day.
Saturday: Roast pork with roasted tomatoes. Ice cream for dessert. The roasted tomatoes were according to Marcella Hazzan’s recipe. They took much longer to cook than she indicated. I have been drinking some Heart and Hands dry Riesling, which is good.
Sunday: leftover roast pork and tomatoes. A fried leftover potato
Monday: more of the same; lots of fresh cucumbers
Tuesday: more of the same; half a cantaloupe, followed by an allergic reaction
Wednesday: skillet of onions, lots of cousa squash, fresh tomatoes, the remains of the roasted tomatoes, grated cheese, and eggs baked in with all the rest.
Thursday: leftovers of the skillet; leftover chard; yogurt
Charlie seems to be getting tall (growing up but not out!)
Your garden looks really good. We have so much heat and humidity here in the south that by August powdery mildew has taken over everything.
How do you freeze your green beans? I have tried to freeze them and mine just seem to turn into a mushy unappetizing mess.
Cheryl: I follow the Ball Blue Book instructions--three minutes in boiling water, into an ice bath, then freeze. The texture will never be like fresh beans, but they don't dissolve or anything.
@Linda & Kristin - I think I am still a tad confused on what Chub meat is?! Isn't it just ground beef that comes in a tube type packaging? I generally don't buy my ground turkey that way but I also never buy my meat in a tube so I guess I lead a semi sheltered life. My week of cooking was a disaster seeing as I purchased my first house yesterday and its a new construction home and there are quite a few projects to take care of before I can move in so there has been a lot of take out and pizza! Can't wait to move into the new place as I will have a gas oven ! <3
Lindsay: Yes,a chub is a giant tube; five pounds of meat. The cheapest meat comes that way.
Congratulations on your house. That's so exciting.
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