Friday
Short version: Birthday sausage, oven fries, corn on the cob, green salad with vinaigrette, chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting, vanilla ice cream
Long version: This was the birthday girl's requested dinner. My sister got the corn on the cob for me before she came to visit, which was good, since I was not near a grocery store in the week leading up to the birthday.
I ran out of fresh eggs earlier in the week. Good thing I had some in lime still.
I completely forgot to take the cake layers out of the pans before they cooled, and then they . . . really did not want to come out. Crumbs everywhere.
My sister had the good idea to make cake pops out of the crumbs and a bit of frosting. We used those to decorate the cake, along with M&Ms and colored sugar. I mostly covered up the thrashed cake with the frosting, but it was definitely one of my uglier cakes.
Short version: Lots of leftovers
Long version: One child had pasta with pesto and the last three meatballs.
One child was sick and just had some of the soup I had made on Sunday with the leftover sausage, mostly to be my work lunches, but it came in handy as a cold descended upon us.
The other two children had the last of the pork in corn tortillas with cheese. Not homemade tortillas. It was a work day.
A. had the last two slices of roast pork, and I microwaved and fried a potato for him, too.
Tuesday
Short version: Leg of lamb; roasted potatoes, onions, and carrots; cucumbers with salt and vinegar; lemon jello; oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
Long version: Only if you raise and butcher your own sheep will you just casually pull out a leg of lamb to roast on a random Tuesday. I just coated it in olive oil and spices and put it in the oven at high heat until it was done.
The vegetables went in after the meat had been in for awhile. I should have put them in earlier, because I did have to cover them with foil for the last ten minutes or so while the meat rested, to make sure they were soft enough.
I made the jello for a sick child. And the cookies for everyone else.
Wednesday
Short version: Pork burritos or scrambled eggs and pasta with pesto, corn on the cob, tomato/cucumber salad, cookies
Long version: I had frozen the rest of the taco-spiced pork for a future meal. That didn't turn out to be very far in the future, as I was kinda stumped on dinner for after work and ended up just pulling that bag of pork out of the freezer in the morning.
I did toast the kids' burritos in a pan, which I feel is very ambitious of me for a workday. Especially as I was starting to feel the first symptoms of the family cold.
The child who had stayed home from school with said cold said his throat hurt too much for toasted burritos. So for him, I scrambled eggs and added that to the last of the pasta with pesto. I ended up eating that, too.
Corn on the cob brought by my sister. The dressing on the tomato and cucumber salad was actually made by Poppy. She will occasionally go out into the garden and gather things to make me a salad. She did that this past weekend--green beans, tomatoes, basil, and parsley--and then made ranch dressing for it. Her ranch dressing included sour cream and milk, dill and mayonnaise, but no garlic powder. It was pretty good, actually. Good enough that I saved the extra and actually used it.
Thursday
Short version: Lamb curry, rice, cookies, switchel jello
Long version: The leg roast from Tuesday had quite a bit of meat left on it, and just like with the pork roast, the best way to get it off is to simmer it in liquid. I had plans to cook some split peas to add to the curry to thicken it and bulk it up, but then I felt pretty rotten with the cold, so I just put the lamb bone in a pot with some tomatoes and onion ends and simmered that until I could easily get the meat off. Then I chopped all the meat and heated it with already-cooked diced onion from the freezer, frozen peas, the rest of the lamb, onions, and carrots from the roast, some more tomatoes, curry powder, garlic powder, and heavy cream.
I also cooked the rice in some of the lamb broth from cooking the lamb bone more.
The most recently ill child came down not with a cold, but with a wicked stomach bug. This child is also the one who loves switchel, so I decided to make him some jello with switchel instead of the lemonade I typically use. It worked very well, and he appreciated having that when he finally felt able to put something besides water in his stomach.
Of note this week in food: I stopped by church on Tuesday and saw outside our parish hall a big bin with dozens of bags of giant carrots.
Fri- fried rice to use use miscellaneous vegetables, leftover chicken for others. Maybe ramen?
ReplyDeleteSat- two boys out, so scrambled eggs and bagels for kids, husband had rice and bean burritos. One boy ate eggs once he got home. Other boy ate expensive sandwich at band competition and got home at 1 am.
Sun- leftover fried chicken from freezer, a chicken breast cooked on the side for some, chips, pineapple, apple slices.
Mon- I was out at big big city with kid for doctor appointment, so teen was in charge. He did chicken strips and fries, and warmed up leftover baked chicken for little brother who is not a fan of chicken strips. I think I had a cold chicken strip and a spoonful of ice-cream when I got home. Kid with me had had cold chicken nuggets in the car.
Tues- husband's birthday, but a chaos evening, so I got pizza. And I did make a chocolate layer cake. Even the kid who doesn't like frosting had 2 pieces.
Wed- hamburgers, leftover chicken, chips, apples, broccoli.
Thurs- out at parent-teacher conference, so I had prepped sausage and garlic bread. Teens made spaghetti and warmed everything else up. The bread wasn't good- the dough was too dry so i added water, which made it way too wet- but butter helped.
Enjoy the weekend!
Friday-pierogi (bought frozen), beets, apple crisp with vanilla ice cream
ReplyDeleteSaturday-chicken enchiladas, green beans
Sunday-roast chicken, baked potatoes, cauliflower, cherry pie (I never buy pies, but my husband spotted this one on the markdown rack - $17.99 marked down to $5. Irresistible. It was pretty good, too).
Monday-sausage and eggs, fried potatoes, carrot sticks
Tuesday-chicken salad, biscuits
Wednesday-salmon loaf, baked potatoes, peas
Thursday-lentil spinach soup (I know it sounds awful, but it's not), fresh sourdough bread, apple pie (I made this one)
I traveled last week, leaving DH home to fend for himself, so sadly no creative meals to report here. However, I hope you consider the many requests you got on the frugal girl's blog and show the world (or at least YouTube) how cooking great food does not require the most updated, stylish and large kitchen or newest cool gadgets. I love the smitten kitchen's cookbooks and she feeds her family extravagantly in a tiny New York apartment.
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