Friday Food: Beans x 2

Friday

Short version: Magic beans, leftover rice, cucumber and tomato salad

Long version: I reeeeally did not want to make dinner. I was in town in the afternoon and didn't get home until 4:30 p.m. I had nothing prepared for dinner, and was so hot and sleepy in the car on the way home that I really considered just telling everyone to make themselves a cheese sandwich for dinner.

By the time I got all the laundry hung up that I had brought home from the laundromat* and put away all the groceries, I was awake again. So I made dinner.

I had six barbecue meatballs left, and quite a bit of rice. I had thought to stretch the meatballs with beans, and the barbecue sauce the meatballs were cooked in is very similar to the ingredients in baked beans. So that's pretty much what I made. 

I sauteed onion in bacon grease, added the chopped up meatballs, then one can of rinsed kidney beans and one of black beans, and then molasses, ketchup, and vinegar, and simmered it all together while I made the salad. This messy mixture was served either on or over rice, according to preference.

A slightly blurry photo that still conveys the sloppiness of this meal. Tasty, though.

Saturday

Short version: Pork chops, macaroni and cheese, frozen peas, ice cream

Long version: I used one big package of sirloin chops for this meal, first browning each one individually and then broiling them on a big pan all to finish cooking. This is an annoying way to cook them, but I do it this way because I have to cook so many that I would have to use two big skillets.

I very, very rarely make macaroni and cheese. I'm not sure why it came to me to make it this day, but I did. Poppy helped me. We used this recipe, except we used half Parmesan and half cheddar. This was, unsurprisingly, very popular.

Ice cream just because I wanted to get the last of the mint chocolate chip out of the freezer.

Sunday

Short version: Leftovers

Long version: We were at our parish potluck in the late afternoon. I brought coleslaw and some Crispy Rice Treats that Poppy helped me make. No one was particularly hungry for dinner, although a couple of boys had leftover mashed potatoes or macaroni and cheese at some point before bed.

Monday

Short version: More leftovers, and sausage

Long version: I had far too many containers of random things taking up space in the refrigerator. Therefore, I put together plates for everyone with leftover rice, macaroni and cheese, or mashed potatoes, plus the rest of the magic beans, some sausage I cooked, and either coleslaw or Holy's cabbage.

Tuesday

Short version: Ram curry, rice

Long version: It was cool enough this day to cook dried split peas and then simmer some ram pieces I had saved for stew. These I just simmered until I could pull the meat off. That meat was then combined with some of the split peas, pureed tomatoes from the ones I had roasted the day before, onion, garlic, some carrots I harvested from the garden a few weeks ago that had gotten a bit bendy, curry powder, diced potatoes, and cream at the end.

The rice was cooked in some of the broth that resulted from simmering the meat.

I forgot that the older boys wouldn't be home for dinner, so I really should have made something simpler. However, this gave me the opportunity to freeze some of the curry--before I added the potatoes and cream--to have something prepared for later.

I had some of the ram meat in a collard salad.

Hers 'n' his dinners.

Wednesday

Short version: Pintos and sausage, leftover rice, cornbread, cucumbers

Long version: I am once again reminded that my family is very picky about sausage. There was a lot left after Monday's meal, but I knew most of the family would not want to eat it plain. That's why I thawed a quart of frozen, cooked pinto beans and added the diced sausage to that. I also made a roux and added onion and tomato, so it was very much like red beans, but with sausage instead of ham.

The cornbread was not at all soft this time--I used almost half a cup less milk--which made it much more popular.

Thursday

Short version: Cottage pie

Long version: I typically use frozen corn and frozen peas as the vegetables in my cottage pie, since a couple of my children have a great aversion to cooked carrots in anything. Annoyingly, I found I'm out of frozen peas, but while I was searching for them, I found the last cup or so of green beans from last year's garden. I chopped those up and used them instead.

This year's green beans have produced a total of five beans, so it's not looking like I'll be freezing any this year. Or even really eating any.

Refrigerator check:

Now that school has started, I can get the Sysco milk again. Yay.

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

* Yup, still waiting on a "control panel" for my washing machine. We're at one month and counting of tub laundry and laundromats. The repair place told me the part will be there at the end of next week. I certainly hope so.