Friday Food: Who Needs the Name Brand?

Friday 

Short version: Pre-made jambalaya

Long version: It was very handy that I had that jambalaya I had made the day before that no one ate. I ended up being away from home during our usual dinner time with one child, so A. just heated up the jambalaya and everyone ate before we got home.

Saturday

Short version: Potato and ham gratin, still-frozen green beans, asparagus

Long version: I had frozen some of the ham from Easter, which I used to make Julia Child's gratin. Except I didn't really follow the recipe very closely, one big change being that I never have Swiss cheese, so I used cheddar. It's a good recipe, though. The worst part is grating the potatoes. I used my food processor, so that I could then use it to puree green garlic, which also went in the gratin. Or maybe the worst part is wringing the liquid out of the potatoes in a dish towel. Little shreds everywhere.

Anyway! A good final product.

Asparagus from the garden? But of course.

Sunday

Short version: Pork ribs, garlic bread, Poppy's salad, pots de creme with cream

Long version: I had two racks of spareribs that had been in the freezer for awhile, so I pulled those out to cook on a cool day when the heat from the oven would be helpful rather than punishing. I was also baking bread this day, hence the garlic bread.

I felt okay in the morning, but by afternoon, my upset stomach was making me not happy, so I turned over the salad making to Poppy. I already had washed lettuce--from the garden, yay!--in the refrigerator, cherry tomatoes, and already-made vinaigrette on the counter. So all she had to do was tear up the lettuce, cut the tomatoes in half, shake the dressing, drizzle it on, and mix.

She was very proud of her salad and served it to everyone herself. A. served everything else.

Thankfully, the pots de creme had been made in the morning when I was feeling okay, so everyone could just pull their own little bowl of it out of the refrigerator and add cream. This self-serve situation meant that some had as much cream as pots de creme, but whatever. Life is for living, right?

Monday

Short version: Cinco de Mayo chips and salsa, leftovers

Long version: This is definitely the lamest way I have ever "celebrated" Cinco de Mayo, but it was a work day. I did have some tortilla chips on hand, which is unusual, so I put those out before dinner with some salsa and wished everyone Feliz Cinco de Mayo.

And then I heated up ribs, the ham and potato gratin, and jambalaya so everyone could choose their own dinner of leftovers.

Tuesday

Short version: Ham and rice skillet, some ribs

Long version: I ended up subbing at school this day, so for dinner, I diced the last of the ham and made a skillet of food with that, leftover rice, already-cooked onion, and frozen green peas. 

There were a few ribs left, which had gotten kind of dry with re-heating, so I made a barbecue sauce for them with ketchup, mustard, maple syrup, vinegar, and Worcestershire sauce.

Wednesday

Short version: Toasted burritos

Long version: Yet another work night, and no more leftovers. I took some ground elk out of the freezer and made lazy taco meat when I got home. This means I don't chop onion or garlic. Instead I dump in salsa and spices. 

This time I had some pureed green garlic in the refrigerator, so I used some of that, which gave some good flavor. And then I used that meat, plus cheese and canned black beans, to make toasted burritos in flour tortillas.

No vegetable. I just didn't.

Thursday

Short version: Archery snacks, clam chowder, rotisserie chicken, Twist and Shouts

Long version: One of the boys has been doing archery with his class all year, and they had an archery party after school so the families could all see what they've been doing, and also try shooting the bows. They had some snacks out--cheese and deli meat, crackers, chips, vegetables and fruit--which the three children with me availed themselves of quite freely.

A. made some Snow's clam chowder when we got home for himself and anyone else who wanted it, which was pretty much all of the kids. 

I had bought a rotisserie chicken when I was at Walmart earlier, and some people had some of that. I had also bought the Walmart store-brand version of Oreos--named, unfortunately, Twist and Shout--to try. They are literally half the price of Oreos, so they would have had to be significantly different to justify buying the name brand cookies. And they weren't. Different, I mean. Except for the fact that the cookies themselves were somewhat smaller than Oreos, I really couldn't tell a difference. Good to know.

Refrigerator check:

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

An Annoying Truth

Remember that little throwaway line I had a couple of weeks or so ago when I mentioned my hands and feet were slightly swollen and painful, so that's why I wasn't running? This caused some concern among the parents--as in, mine and A.'s--because that can be a symptom of some more-serious problems.

What was actually happening was that mostly my hands were tingly and going numb overnight, which was annoying because then I would wake up and have to massage one or the other of my hands back to life. They sort of hurt, too, as did my feet a bit. 

I otherwise felt okay, though, so I did what I typically do with random symptoms like that: I monitored myself--paying attention to my heart rate, energy level, mobility, etc.--and waited to see what would happen, meanwhile mulling over possible causes and ways I could make it better.

One of the things I did was ask A. to massage my hands and feet. You should know that this was a great act of bravery on my part, because A. has incredibly strong hands, and his sort of massage is more like deep-tissue massage than a gentle rub. It is undeniably effective, however, so I gritted my teeth and presented myself for treatment.

Although he did massage my hands and feet, he also moved on from there to my arms, calves, etc. And that is when he found something very interesting: I had bands of muscle reaching from my pectoral muscles--in my chest--to my fingers, and also from my lower back to my toes, that were so tight, he could barely touch them without extreme pain on my part. 

The diagnosis from A. was that stress was causing me to constantly hunch in on myself, curving my shoulders down and shortening the muscles so much that those muscles were pulling painfully all the way to my hands. 

Bad posture also had a bad effect on my lower back, which was tightening the muscles all the way down to my feet, but I think that tightness was more caused by the fact that I hadn't been running. And when I am not running, I am sitting more, which is very bad for my hips, legs, etc.

It had been at least a month since I had been running--or even walking--regularly, thanks to a cold that then turned into a persistent cough. After about two weeks of that, I was definitely out of the habit of running. And once I get out of the habit, it's very easy to make excuses to not go. 

I am not someone who exercises because I love it. But I am, clearly, someone who exercises because I need to do it to be mobile and functional.

And so, knowing that it would be Not Fun to get back into the running groove, I put on my purple shoes and started again last week.

Although they look less purple and more gray here.

That first run was . . . slow. I think the best word to use for it would be "ponderous." The second run wasn't much better. But my body? It is much, much better. About a week of A.'s authoritative massage, consciously straightening myself up and stretching out, and starting to move again has completely fixed the tingly hands and feet.

Running can be painful, yes, but not as painful as not running. So annoying. But true.

Snapshots: Garden, Books, and Candle

Last Sunday, I asked our priest what I should do with the remainder of the Paschal candle that we replaced this Easter. This candle had been blessed, and blessed items can't just be thrown away. They're usually burned or buried. He told me some people take the candle home and finish burning it there. Poppy happened to be with me to overhear this, and she was all about it. Which is why we now have a home altar in our living room.

The flowers were Poppy's touch. Her mother's daughter, that one.

I am now in Watering Season.

Flooding the collard greens.

Odin kept a close eye on me through the gate.

I am also now in Salad Season. Hooray!

Featuring lettuce, arugula, green onion, and asparagus from the garden. And an egg from the chickens. Plus some other things from the store.

Too bad I've had a touchy stomach for a few days that would not be happy with this much roughage. Oh well. Soon.

We are now six for six on voracious readers in the house. The younger children typically read on the couch, which is why the couch usually looks like this.

Literary clutter.

And last, I finally made it to a track meet last week, only for it to be canceled because of lightning after about an hour.

Very dramatic view from the track for that hour, though. Also, very windy and cold.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: Re-imagined Food

Friday 

Short version: Sonic on the road, toasted bean burritos at home

Long version: I was gone until about dinnertime with one kid in town. He got Sonic before we started our drive home. A. used canned refried beans, cheese, and flour tortillas to make toasted burritos for the kids at home.

Saturday

Short version: Pizzas, carrot sticks with ranch dip

Long version: I hadn't made pizza in awhile, but I had a giant blocks of asadero cheese (my mozzarella substitute) in the refrigerator that needed to be shredded and frozen, plus I had dough on hand for baking bread. Sounds like pizza time to me. I even found the very last bag of roasted tomato sauce from last year that had gotten to the bottom of the freezer. To that I added frozen pesto cubes to make the sauce.

I had some pepperoni in the freezer, too, as well as the chopped bell pepper from when my friend had given us salad ingredients. I had frozen the bell pepper for something later. So one pizza was pepperoni, bell pepper, and pickled onion, and one was just cheese.

Pizza time.

Sunday

Short version: Roasted chickens, baked potatoes, asparagus, frozen corn, brownie sundaes

Long version: I got these whole chickens from extra commodities food that was left at school. They were already seasoned, so all I did was drizzle on some olive oil and roast them.

Everything else went in the oven with them, too, which is the easiest way to make dinner.

I totally forgot I was planning on making brownies until about ten minutes before we ate. Luckily, that's about how long it takes to get these brownies in the oven. Then I just delayed dessert long enough for them to cool down a bit before I served them with ice cream and the chocolate syrup I almost always have in the refrigerator.

Monday

Short version: Chicken paprikash, mashed potatoes, Holy's cabbage or sauerkraut

Long version: I had made two chickens specifically to have leftovers. And then I used the leftover chicken to make chicken paprikash. That used up the paprika sludge from dying Easter eggs, plus leftover chicken, onions, garlic, and a bunch of sour cream. 

The mashed potatoes I made with all the leftover baked potatoes, scooped out, re-heated, and pureed.

And the cabbage came from the freezer. Very handy to have. I can actually just microwave it right in the bag for thirty seconds so I can get it out of the bag, then dump it into a bowl and microwave a few more minutes until it's hot. One kid doesn't like it, so he had some of the raw sauerkraut that's been in a jar in the refrigerator since last summer.

Tuesday

Short version: Leftovers

Long version: I went to the last track meet of the year, leaving a list on the refrigerator of all the available food for dinner. The kids all got their own dinners--mostly mashed potatoes and cheese, but at least one had pizza--and then A. and I finished the pizza when I got home. The trackster ate a green chile cheeseburger, french fries, and a milkshake with his team before we left town.

Wednesday

Short version: Smoked sausage, garlic bread, leftover vegetables

Long version: This particular sausage is some kind of Walmart brand. Not Great Value--some "fancier" brand that's still made by Walmart. It's actually pretty good.

Two packages fit perfectly in a 12-inch skillet.

I had made the garlic bread when I was baking bread a few days earlier, and there was leftover corn and cabbage. This made for an easy after-work meal.

One child had been sick, so for him I made rice in chicken stock and he had a small bowl of that. The one who doesn't like sausage had the rest of the chicken paprikash with the rice.

Thursday

Short version: Not jambalaya or cookies

Long version: I had a lot of rice left, four sausages, and some chicken and chicken stock I had made with the chicken carcasses. Sounds like jambalaya to me. 

I cooked onion, garlic, and celery, then added the jambalaya spices--cumin, chili powder, paprika, a bit of cayenne, Worcestershire sauce--and some tomato sauce before dumping in the diced meats, rice, and just a little stock. Easy and good.

I had made the cookies earlier in the day: chocolate chip with peanut butter added. I didn't make cookies during Lent, and the children are very happy now that I'm making them regularly again. Easter is a joyous season, indeed.

And then no one ate any of it because A. had taken the elementary school on a field trip at which they had pizza. The extra pizza came back to the school, one of the boys snagged an entire pizza, and then the older two boys ate the entire thing on their way home. Poppy had one piece, too. A. had eaten at a Chinese buffet while he was waiting for the children to finish at the museum. So no one was hungry and I saved the jambalaya for the next day.

Well, I ate a scoop of it in chicken stock as a soup, but there's still plenty left.

Refrigerator check:

Jambalaya in the red pot, ready for tomorrow.

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

The Countdown Begins

Many years ago--seven years ago, to be precise--I came up with the idea of counting down to the last day of school with a piece of candy for each child each day as they get on the bus. It was an idea born of desperation to get small children on the bus with a minimum of drama.

I started this tradition when I only had two children in school. We were living in New York at the time, which has school until agonizingly late in the month of June. Now we live in New Mexico where we get out of school in mid-May, and I have four children getting on the bus every day. None of them are very small anymore, either.

But still, every year when we have twelve days left of school, the egg cartons come out and the candy goes in.

Ready for the countdown. 

Come on, summer. 

Snapshots: Back to Walking

One of Poppy's classmates brought his chess set to school, and there was quite a bit of interest in it during recess.

In addition to the boy who brought the set, Poppy and another girl know how to play, which is pretty impressive for a first-grade class.

We got some eggs from our neighbor. One of them was really strange.

First time I've ever seen a wrinkled shell. The egg inside was fine, it just looked kind of creepy.

My dad had a pair of cowboy boots that he bought when I was just a year old. He doesn't have much use for cowboy boots, but they turned out to fit his eldest grandson very well. Those 44-year-old boots put in their first real day of cowboy work at a branding last week.

As my dad said, they finally got their spurs. Literally.

I've had some very irritating and slightly painful swelling in my hands and feet recently, which has meant I do not want to be running. I can walk, though. And when I walk, I can bring my cell phone, which I do not do when I run. That means pictures!

I found some flowers on my walk yesterday that I added to the remaining two roses from the Easter flowers I bought. Plus the decorative alliums that are blooming right now in the mechanic's pit garden.

The obviously-cultivated roses look a bit self-conscious in the midst of the wildflowers.

And at church, I discarded the wilted flowers--which was most of them--and managed to put together one smaller arrangement for the altar.

Last year's Easter flowers lasted a lot longer, but that's okay. They really only needed to last through Easter morning. Anything else is just a bonus.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food

Friday 

Short version: Shrimp or bean burritos

Long version: Last meatless Lenten Friday. I had a couple of small bags of shrimp, which I sauteed in butter with taco spices and lime juice. I also took out the last container of chili beans--pintos spiced like chili--so everyone could choose to have either shrimp or beans in their burritos. Or both.

And I had all the good toppings.

Including, most importantly, avocado. Yum.

Saturday

Short version: Thursday's dinner, revisted

Long version: We had enough of my sister's giant lasagna left over from Thursday to have it again this night. I very much appreciated not having to cook after a busy day of preparing the church for Easter and making a pie for Easter dinner. 

We had a salad again, too, but this time Poppy made it. 

Sunday

Short version: Easter ham, scalloped potatoes, asparagus, maple carrots, strawberry-rhubarb pie, vanilla ice cream, chocolates

Long version: We should, of course, have had lamb for Easter dinner. And I know I have a leg of lamb somewhere in the freezer, but when I was digging in there, I found a spiral-sliced ham first. I considered it a sign and cooked that instead.

The children wanted scalloped potatoes, so that is what I made. Well, my sister and I made. She did all the hard work of peeling and thinly slicing the potatoes. All I did was layer the potatoes with milk, cream, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

The asparagus was from the garden, of course, as was the rhubarb in the pie. The carrots were the blanched carrots I froze in the fall, and the strawberries were frozen store berries.

I didn't get a picture of the dinner buffet. But I got one of the pie!

My sister did the lattice top, as well as the eggs and bunny cut-outs, which is why it's much less ugly than my typical pies.

Monday

Short version: Leftover ham, potatoes, carrots, raw radishes

Long version: Nah.

Tuesday

Short version: Ram and chickpea curry, rice, still-frozen green beans

Long version: I had the curry sludge from dying eggs, plus half a can of tomato sauce in the refrigerator. I also had a container of cooked ground ram from the last time I made chili. I had more meat than I needed, so after I sauteed it with the garlic and onion, I froze some. That's what I used for the curry. 

I also had a container of cooked chickpeas I had taken out of the freezer, thinking I would make hummus to have before Easter dinner. But then I had made deviled eggs, and we had pistachios, so I didn't make hummus. I added the chickpeas to the curry, instead, along with quite a bit of yogurt. 

Tasty, if not particularly attractive.

There were also a few lamb chops left from almost a week earlier, which I heated up for A.

Wednesday

Short version: Leftovers, garlic bread

Long version: We had leftover ham and potatoes, or curry and rice. The garlic bread was just some I had made the day before when I was baking bread, with no particular plan in mind for it. 

Thursday

Short version: Nachos and candy at school, leftover curry and rice at home

Long version: I took the younger two children to the spring crafting event at school.

Many crafts were made.

They had nachos there--chips with queso and meat, plus toppings--and lots of candy.

It was in the old gym, which is why all the photos look green.

Alien nachos.

The older two kids and A. had the leftovers at home.

Refrigerator check:

Blurry and messy. Like life sometimes.

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