Friday Food: Illness and Elk

Friday 

Short version: Elk and ram stew, crackers, cheese

Long version: We butchered our older ram last month (keeping one of the ram lambs as our flock ram), so I took a bag of stew meat from that out of the freezer. It wasn't a lot of meat, though, so I also took out  bag of elk stew meat.

I made this stew the day before and left it right in the pot to refrigerate. I knew I would be getting home right at dinnertime after a trip to physical therapy in the afternoon and the obligatory stop at the grocery store afterward, followed by an hour and a half drive.

That is indeed what happened. I got home right at 5 p.m., put the pot of stew on the stove, heated it while I put away groceries, and served it with the crackers. Also cheese for those who wanted it.

Incidentally, I used the last of the turkey stock in this stew. Always a good feeling to finish the very last of the turkey from Thanksgiving.

Saturday

Short version: Fried elk strips, mashed potatoes, frozen green peas

Long version: Elk steaks, cut into thin strips, then fried and finished off with onions and cream to make a kind of gravy. Simple, but tasty. Especially with mashed potatoes.

Sunday

Short version: Elk stir-fry, rice, baked custard

Long version: I had mushrooms, carrots, and onions to add to the bag of frozen stir-fry vegetables, which were heavy on the green beans. 

I can never resist taking a picture of stir-fry. It's so colorful and pretty. Something that cannot be said of most of my food.

I made the baked custard for the sick child with a bad sore throat. Custard is a favorite sick-child food in our house. It is very easy to swallow, and incredibly high in nutrition, given all the eggs, milk, and cream in it. A good thing to eat for skinny kids who don't want to eat a lot of anything, but need the calories.

Monday

Short version: Elk fried rice, or eggs and leftover mashed potatoes

Long version: I had made a very large pot of rice the day before, counting on it for other meals this week. This was the first of those. I just chopped up the rest of the stir-fry and fried that with the rice and some scrambled eggs.

Fried eggs and mashed potatoes for the one child whose throat still hurt, and the one child who isn't a fan of fried rice.

Tuesday

Short version: Spaghetti and meatballs, green salad with vinaigrette

Long version: I made the meatballs with--what else?--elk. I had also roasted what might be the last pan of garden tomatoes from the box in the kitchen. Since I was planning on making the spaghetti, I also roasted garlic along with the tomatoes and used that and the tomatoes to make the sauce for the pasta and meatballs.

Wednesday

Short version: Sandwiches, grapes, yogurt

Long version: I got home at 5:45 p.m. from the First Communion class. Luckily, I had already planned on sandwiches. I had fresh bread I had baked the day before, and both deli ham and salami, so everyone got to choose what they wanted. They could also have leftover spaghetti if they were still hungry.

Grapes because I was too rushed and lazy to even cut up carrot sticks. And yogurt for those who were still hungry after what was, admittedly, not the most filling of dinners.

Everyone was satisfied in the end, though. And actually, they were pretty excited about having sandwiches for dinner. It's a rare treat for us to have deli meat sandwiches like that.

Thursday

Short version: Elkloaf, rice, chicken-rice soup

Long version: I used some of the meatball mixture to form a small meatloaf on Tuesday. That was just waiting in the refrigerator to be baked. I was scheduled to substitute at school this day, so I planned on sticking that in the oven when I got home. Despite its somewhat small size, it still wasn't quite done when it was time to eat. So I just sliced it and fried the slices in some butter to cook all the way through.

I knew that meatloaf wouldn't be enough for everyone, but two different kids had come down with the latest plague and had sore throats, so I made soup for them.

I had a couple of cups of chicken breast from the last chicken I had roasted that I had put in the freezer for just this situation. I didn't have any homemade chicken stock, so I used Better than Bouillon. I did saute onion and garlic, but for the rest of the vegetables, I used a can of something we got from excess commodities called Veg-All. It's a mixture of canned vegetables, including carrots, green beans, corn, and potatoes. 

I've never used this before, and I was a little wary about the flavor of canned vegetables, but it was fine in the soup. I added the last bit of tomato sauce to boost the flavor a bit, too, along with a teaspoon or so of vinegar.

The soup expanded, as soup always does, until there was very little room in the pot.

Soup's on!

This made a very respectable soup that was ready to eat half an hour after I walked in the door. Not too shabby.

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