Friday Food: Soup 'n' Stuff

Friday 

Short version: Leftovers, rotisserie chicken, bread and butter

Long version: I got home from my night away just in time to put groceries away and then take the basketball player to his game, along with the two younger children. We got home from this around 5 p.m., at which point I heated up leftover lamb steaks, black-eyed peas, and the rotisserie chicken I had bought at the store. Bread and butter to round things out a bit.

Saturday

Short version: Salisbury steaks, mashed potatoes, leftover carrots

Long version: A. and I spent a couple of hours grinding elk meat, so I used some of that to make Salisbury steaks for dinner. I've never looked at a recipe for these. All I do is make essentially a meatloaf mixture--meat, bread crumbs, milk, eggs, onions, seasoning--and then form it into basically very big hamburger patties. Brown, cook until tender in some stock--I had chicken stock I had made from the rotisserie chicken carcass--then make a gravy with milk or cream. So good.

As A. remarked, this whole meal was like a cafeteria lunch, except actually good.

Sunday

Short version: Epiphany tacos, gingerbread with whipped cream

Long version: The last celebratory holiday meal. I did not make tamales at all this year, but Poppy had requested tortillas, which seemed much more reasonable. I had enough leftover pork butt for the filling, so we had pork tacos.

We have tacos a lot, but these were fancy tacos.

Because of the homemade tortillas.

And I also thought ahead enough to get avocados and lime for guacamole.

The gingerbread was the extra I had frozen after making it for the FFA auction. We definitely did not need any extra treats at that time, but it was very appreciated this night. I microwaved it for a minute to heat it up, because gingerbread is much better warm. And with whipped cream, but that goes without saying.

Monday

Short version: Creamy chicken soup, salami and cream cheese sandwiches, ice cream

Long version: I had actually made the soup on Saturday just to have on hand for my lunch at work or whatever. And then I definitely did not think ahead enough for dinner after work. I'm just very tired of the kitchen right now, and planning dinner on top of going back to work at school was too much.

Good thing we had the soup! And salami. We needed the sandwiches, because there wasn't a lot of soup. And also, most of my family does not consider soup to be a meal unto itself.

I had a little bit of chocolate chip ice cream in the freezer that had gotten a bit icy and needed to be eaten. So I microwaved it a bit, which made it a little melty and took care of the icy problem. It was eaten with no complaints.

And yes, every part of this meal had something in it made with cream. What can I say? We're a dairy family.

The basketball player had leftover salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, black-eyed peas, and a banana when he got home.

Tuesday

Short version: Hunter's pie, cookies

Long version: This was pretty much shepherd's pie, but since I used the ground elk in it, I suppose it's a hunter's pie. Or something. I had to be gone right before dinner to pick up Poppy at cheerleading, so having something made ahead of time was a good idea.

It was baking while I was driving, so when I got home after 5 p.m., we could eat right away. I had thought there would be leftovers of this. There were not.

And I'm back to making cookies for school snacks. These were chocolate chip/peanut butter/almond cookies. I made that kind mostly because the child who likes to eat bowls of microwaved peanut butter and honey had left like half a cup of that when he got interrupted to do something, so I saved it and used it in the cookies.

Wednesday

Short version: Spaghetti and meatballs, fried potatoes and ham, raw bell peppers and radishes

Long version: These were some more of the meatballs I had formed and frozen some time ago. I just took them out thaw while was at work, then broiled them and baked them in the oven with some of my roasted tomato sauce from the freezer. 

Same sauce on the spaghetti, except I added some butter to it. I do this a lot in lieu of grating Parmesan cheese, which often just seems like the culinary straw that will break this cook's back after work.

Not to be too dramatic or anything.

There wasn't quite enough of the meatballs, so I also took out a small bag of ham I had frozen last week when we were down to the last of the leftover Christmas ham. I microwaved a couple of potatoes, chopped them and the ham, fried them both in butter, and added the last of the grated cheddar cheese from Sunday's tacos.

Thursday

Short version: Creamy sausage and vegetable soup, cheese quesadillas

Long version: I had to sub for a classroom teacher this day, but I knew on Tuesday that I would be doing this. So while I was in the kitchen making the hunter's pie and cookies, I used the rest of the chicken stock I had on hand to make soup with a package of smoked sausage, carrots, potatoes, frozen corn and peas, and some of the dried lamb's quarters I'm still trying to use up.

And some cream at the end, because my family likes pretty much all soups more with cream in them.

Quesadillas so it wouldn't just be soup. 

This was a very nice meal to have on a terribly windy and cold day at the end of a long first week of school back after break. Dare I say comfort food? Yes, I dare.

Refrigerator check:

The overstuffed Christmas refrigerator is a thing of the past.

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