Friday Food: An Unusual Beginning

Friday 

Short version: Gas station food and snacks

Long version: We went to Cubby's football game a couple of hours away in the afternoon. 

Nice day for some 6-man football.

I had brought a bunch of snacks--cheese, summer sausage, carrot sticks, pistachios, animal crackers, graham crackers--and that all got eaten on the ride there and during the game. So when the game was over at 4:30 p.m., we decided to stop on the way home to get dinner. We didn't drive through any big towns to get there, though, so our options were pretty limited. Our first and closest choice was closed, unfortunately, which led us to the Allsup's gas station.

Allsup's is a somewhat famous convenience store around here. They sell hot food along with standard gas station snack things. So the kids all got either chimichangas or grilled chicken sandwiches, plus chocolate milk.

There were no tables at this gas station, so they ate on the curb, watching the trucks go by.

Fine dining, indeed.

A. finished what the kids didn't eat, and I had some leftover pot roast when we got home.

Saturday

Short version: Leftover chicken nuggets, posole, rice, cucumber and tomato salad, Otter Pops

Long version: The school cook sent me home with a gallon-sized bag of chicken nuggets the previous Wednesday, which I froze. We had our monthly Saturday Mass this day and didn't get home until almost 5:30, so I decided to use the nuggets. 

I re-heated them by frying them in cast-iron skillets of butter, which I suppose improved them, but I think I probably could have thrown them on the kids' plates stone-cold and they still would have been excited about eating chicken nuggets.

I did not share their excitement. I had fried eggs with salsa and half an avocado.

A. had some of his venison and tripe posole from the freezer. There were three half-gallon containers in there, so I figured I'd better start using some of it.

The Otter Pops were from the county fair parade. People on the floats just give our kids handfuls of them, and I throw whichever ones aren't already leaking into the freezer for some other time. This was the time.

Sunday

Short version: Italian steak, spaghetti with roasted tomato sauce, roasted calabacita, carrot sticks, pots de creme

Long version: I used the tenderized bottom round steaks and cooked them like Swiss steak, except I added oregano and a bunch of fresh parsley to the tomato sauce. I only have the parsley because A. started a bunch of seeds, thinking they wouldn't do very well, but they really did. So now I have a LOT of parsley to thin out.

It was really good tomato sauce. Must've been the parsley.

And good tomatoes, of course.

Monday

Short version: Pork stir-fry, rice, cantaloupe

Long version: I had been planning on frying some of the commodities pork after work, but then the school cook gave me about a pound and a half of leftover pork from the cafeteria. It was fairly dry, and didn't have any sauce on it, so I decided to use it for stir-fry.

I used one bag of frozen stir-fry vegetables, and added to that some cooked mushrooms I had in the refrigerator, plus some frozen peas. And the same sauce I always make, which is just soy sauce, vinegar, powdered ginger, and peanut butter.

The cantaloupe came from the commodities lady. It didn't look too promising, but it turned out to be surprisingly good. I mean, if you like cantaloupe. I don't, but other members of the family do.

Tuesday

Short version: Bunless cheeseburgers, fried onions, boiled potato chunks, sauteed or raw green beans

Long version: It had been awhile since I had made cheeseburgers, and I was bummed to see that we don't have very much ground beef left. Need another cow, I guess.

The school cook had given me some leftover American cheese slices, which I used for these cheeseburgers. A. was particularly happy with this. A nostalgic taste, I guess.

Wednesday

Short version: Quesadillas, posole, raw green beans

Long version: I had made taco meat with some of the ground beef the day before, along with half a can of black beans. And someone had left a package of flour tortillas on the counter at school for the taking. So I took them and used them to make quesadillas with the meat and some cheese.

A. finished his posole from the freezer. And I had some of the taco meat with cooked green beans.

Thursday

Short version: Fried rice

Long version: I really needed to make some space in my refrigerator, which means using up leftovers. Therefore, leftover rice, leftover pork stir-fry, and a couple of eggs to make fried rice.

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