Friday Food: Solo Food and Peaches

Friday 

Short version: Solo cottage cheese and chips, leftover omelet

Long version: A. left this morning with all the children for Tucson, to celebrate his father's 95th birthday. They stayed in a motel in Lordsburg this night, and they ate the barbecue meatballs and boiled potatoes I sent with them.

I stayed home to take care of the animals. And this is what I ate on my own:

Cottage cheese and potato chips are kind of balanced. Book  (The Luck Uglies) recommended by Jody here, and now by me. Thanks, Jody.

I had been in the garden just before I ate dinner, weeding and harvesting, during which I had eaten several small tomatoes, a small cucumber, and a few raw green beans, so I felt like my vegetable needs were met.

Saturday

Short version: Salad, ice cream

Long version: The salad was heavy on the cucumber, since the garden is heavy on the cucumbers right now. It also had tomato, hard boiled egg, feta, and pickled onions in it.

Much healthier than the previous night's meal. Except for the ice cream not pictured.

Sunday

Short version: Chili, ice cream

Long version: Even though I didn't really need to cook, I decided to make a pot of chili just to have on hand in the freezer for nights when I don't have time to cook. So I made that, and had some of that for dinner this night. 

Chili in a pot.

Same ice cream. Cookies and cream, in case you were wondering.

Monday

Short version: Brisket, mashed potatoes, sauteed calabacitas and tomatoes, cucumber with salt and vinegar, rice pudding

Long version: The return of the travelers, as you can tell by the large meal. I hadn't intended to cook brisket, but that's what was in the bag I took out of the freezer that I thought contained pork butt. So I cooked the brisket. And, of course, since the oven was on so long, I also made rice pudding.

I found another calabacita in the garden and sauteed that with tomatoes, onion, and garlic. 

A happy summer skillet.

Tuesday

Short version: Scrambled eggs, chorizo patties, leftover mashed potatoes, tomato/cucumber/feta salad

Long version: I had planned on having the leftover brisket, but then I thought I'd better save that for an after-work meal the next day. By the time I came to that decision, it was too late to defrost anything big from the freezer. We did have a small bag of elk chorizo still in there, though, which thawed quickly.

Not everyone likes chorizo, though, so I cooked it separately as patties for those who wanted it and kept the scrambled eggs plain.

Wednesday

Short version: Brisket Spanish rice, cucumbers, peaches and cream

Long version: I made a pot of rice before I left for work in the morning, so when I got home, I added that to chopped brisket, already-cooked onion from the freezer, salsa, frozen corn, spices, and grated Monterey jack cheese to make something like Spanish rice.

Nick the Peach Guy had told me on Sunday that he had been away the previous week, and his peaches had started ripening while he was gone. So they were very ripe by Sunday, and I didn't have any children to help me pick them. I brought two of the boys over there after school to pick peaches while we waited for Poppy to finish cheer practice, so we had lots of fresh peaches on hand for peaches and cream.

Thursday

Short version: Chicken drumsticks, pasta bake, cucumbers with ranch dressing, chocolate pudding with cream

Long version: I made the pudding in the morning with milk and cream that were starting to go off. And then I spent over three hours dealing with the peaches.

Because they had almost all fallen off the tree on their own by the time we got to them, and then they had to sit while I was at work on Wednesday, they were in pretty rough shape.

I ended up with four quarts of peaches in syrup, five pints of peach jam, and one gallon bag of frozen peaches. Also a complete disinterest in cooking. However, the show must go on! Especially since one of the boys had a friend over at dinnertime, and teenage boys eat a lot. In case you didn't know.

I had some roasted tomato sauce in the refrigerator I had made on the weekend when I was baking bread, as well as some pesto, so I used those to make the pasta bake, along with asadero cheese.

And because I had an Italian theme going there, I marinated the drumsticks in olive oil, vinegar, and Italian spices before baking them along with the pasta.

A fairly easy meal after a long day in the kitchen.

Refrigerator check:

Lots of pudding left in that big bowl.

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