Friday Food: Double Pudding and Calzones

Friday 

Short version: Leftovers

Long version: There was leftover pasta bake, chicken, and mashed potatoes that I divvied out. My refrigerator was getting a little crowded.

Saturday

Short version: Beefy Spanish rice, butterscotch pudding

Long version: I had some lamb-y rice leftover and then made some more with the rest of the beef stock that resulted from cooking the tongue. I used that, plus ground beef, the last of the pinto beans in the refrigerator, frozen corn, and pureed tomatoes to make something like Spanish rice. Oh, and I added cheese, too. 

I made the pudding because I wanted to get through the last couple of gallons in the refrigerator before I picked up four more gallons at school on Monday. Pudding uses a lot of milk and makes everyone happy. Most of the family loves butterscotch pudding, although I'm not wildly enthused about it. 

I double this recipe and add a bit of molasses to it, because my family likes molasses. 

Sunday

Short version: Lamb roast with potatoes, carrots, and onions; cucumbers with salt and vinegar, chocolate pudding

Long version: This was the last leg of lamb in the freezer. I marinated it, shoved garlic into slits, and put a spice rub on it, so it had lots of flavor. 

There was room enough in the dish with the lamb to cook potatoes, carrots, and onions, so I did that.

Sunday roast.

More pudding to use more milk, but chocolate this time (doubled, with the optional cocoa and half dark chocolate chips, half semi-sweet chips). I did the extra step of sieving the pudding when I was scraping it out of the pot because no matter how careful I am, I always end up scraping out some of the layer of cornstarch, etc. on the bottom of the pot, and that makes little lumps. Half the pleasure of pudding is the smooth texture, so I sieved it this time. Much better.

Monday

Short version: Calzones, raw radishes, cookies

Long version: A mom from school just had her fourth baby, which means she now has four kids under 8 years old.

Been there. That mom needs food.

Her oldest daughter is in Poppy's class, so I asked Poppy what she thought I should make for their family. She thought pizza. Okay. That's what I made for them.

We had pizza not too long ago, so I thought I would try something a little different and make calzones. Pretty much pizza, just wrapped up instead of flat.

Of course, calzones are individual and have to be rolled out, which makes them a bit more time consuming. I also felt like I couldn't get enough filling in them, because they were so bulky before the cheese melted.

They browned nicely, though. And they were certainly large.

I made extra sauce for whoever wanted it, which was everyone except Poppy.

I had also made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for the other family, and there were enough for our family, too. We got the ones that I over-baked when I got distracted, but they were still happily dunked in milk and consumed.

Tuesday

Short version: Stuffed pizza

Long version: The general consensus on the calzones was that they needed more sauce and cheese. There were four of them left, and only four people eating this night, which worked out nicely. It also worked out to have leftovers, as I was at First Communion class with Poppy until about 5:30 p.m. 

A. re-heated the calzones in the oven before I got home, and then I topped them with more sauce and cheese, just like pizza. So they were pretty much like a stuffed pizza. Much better.

Wednesday

Short version: Eggs and rice, leftovers

Long version: The younger children had a party at school in the afternoon, at which they filled up on many snacks. I knew they would do this, so I hadn't planned on anything too elaborate for dinner. Also, the eldest was traveling home at dinnertime from an FFA event, so he ate on the road.

There was enough leftover lamb roast, potatoes, and carrots for A. and the middle boy. Poppy and I had fried eggs and rice. The youngest boy wasn't hungry at all and didn't eat dinner.

Thursday

Short version: Spanish tortilla, Snow's clam chowder, raw radishes, chocolate wafer cookies

Long version: I had thought I would be at a basketball game, so I made a Spanish tortilla ahead of time for dinner. I completely filled a 12-inch skillet with the tortilla and wasn't careful enough when I poured the scrambled eggs in with the potatoes and and so on.

Fun.

I didn't end up going to the game, but it was nice to have dinner already made. I did add the clam chowder since I was home and it was rainy and cold.

Refrigerator check:

Pretty empty.

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