Friday Food: Everyone Fed, the End

Between the county fair last weekend, starting work for teacher in-service this week, and a pretty bad sprained ankle mid-week, my only goal was "everyone fed." 

I met that goal, but not much more.

Friday 

Short version: Bunless cheeseburgers, bread and butter, cucumbers and carrot sticks

Long version: I actually managed to make cheeseburgers from the ground beef I had thawed. Given that we spent another five hours at the county fair, I was quite proud of myself for the accomplishment.

Standards are low these days.

Saturday

Short version: Extemporaneous tacos, cucumbers, hot chocolate with marshmallows, parade candy

Long version: It's our tradition to buy the kids dinner at the county fair concession stand on the last day after the kids' rodeo. There's only one concession stand, and by the end of the fair, they usually only have hot dogs and chips left, but the kids always enjoy it.

However.

Just as the calf riding was getting underway, a storm blew in and the torrential rain put a quick end to the event. That's the last event of the rodeo, anyway, so we just went home. 

These young cowboys were very disappointed to miss their chance to ride. Disappointed to miss the hot dogs and chips, too.

Luckily, I still had a pound of ground beef from the day before that hadn't been cooked, so I browned that, added half a pint jar of pinto beans, garlic powder, chile powder, mild salsa, cumin, and salt, and put that in corn tortillas with cheese. 

I made the hot chocolate to console disappointed children, forgetting they had bags stuffed with candy from the fair parade. And then, when I was reading in bed after dinner--county fair exhaustion always drives me to my bed--they got into their bags and ate . . . a lot of candy.

Oh well. The fair is but once a year.

Sunday

Short version: Pot roast, spaghetti with pesto, summer skillet, raw green beans, chocolate ice cream sandwiches

Long version: I made the pot roast in the morning, but I didn't quite let it cook long enough. So then I had to slice it and simmer it again just before dinner. Oops.

It was fine.

The ice cream sandwiches were left over from a social sponsored by a local group at the county fair. The lady who supplied them didn't want to take them home and offered them to me since we were about to head home. My children were more than happy to take them off her hands.

Once the calabacitas and tomatoes start coming in larger numbers, I pretty much always have some of this on hand.

This is the (uncooked) summer skillet. Sometimes I put onions in there, too. This time it was just the calabacitas, tomatoes, garlic, and olive oil, cooked down until very soft and bit caramelized. So good. My children do not agree, but that's fine. More for me!

Monday

Short version: Leftovers skillet, raw tomatoes

Long version: And here's where the crazy really started. I worked all day, and then had to go pick up Cubby from his first football practice of the year. But since I wasn't sure how long their practices were going to be, I got there way early and sat there for over an hour. I didn't get home with him until about 7:30 p.m.

Luckily, I had started dinner before I left home, so A. could feed everyone else easily. 

I had baked half a dozen potatoes in the oven with the pot roast on Sunday, so I just chopped those up and fried them with the leftover taco meat and beans in butter, along with some more spices. I was going to add shredded cheese when I got home, but it was fine as it was.

Well, I thought so. The younger boys told me there were too many potatoes and not enough meat. 

Unrepentant carnivores, the lot of them.

Tuesday

Short version: Leftovers again

Long version: I was gone at an off-site training all day and didn't get home until A. was leaving with the kids for judo* at 5:45 p.m. So he fed them his own combination of leftover pot roast, spaghetti with pesto, and the summer skillet.

Pretty sure they picked around the calabacitas, but that's fine. I wasn't there to see it.

Wednesday

Short version: Bull tacos, cucumber spears

Long version: I had taken out a bag of prepared bull meat before I left for work. When I got home, I found most of an onion in the refrigerator from Cubby making an onion-heavy omelet for breakfast. So I used the onion, all the Roma tomatoes on the counter, and the bull meat--plus a lot of butter/oil, garlic powder, cumin, and chile powder--to make taco meat to go in corn tortillas with cheese.

Thursday

Short version: Yet more leftovers, plus some raw green beans and giant donuts

Long version: I had to stop at the tiny store in the village to get milk, and while I was there, I saw a package of flour tortillas. I very rarely buy flour tortillas, but I did this time. They made for a very quick dinner when I put the leftover bull meat and some cheese in them and fried them in butter.

The donuts were brought to school by our very nice team of IT guys. They brought three dozen giant donuts from a city bakery. There were only 16 staff members at the school, and not all of us even eat donuts, so when I saw the boxes were still almost full by the end of the day, I figured nobody would mind if I took four of them home. 

I chose four identical chocolate-frosted donuts (because then there couldn't be any fights over who got what), each the size of a toddler's face, and the children were very happy.

Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?

* I think I haven't mentioned before they've started judo. The guy we used to buy milk from is an instructor and started classes for kids in the community center of the village about ten miles from us. All four of them have been doing it since about July, and they all like it and will continue.