Tonight's Dinner, Brought to You by Freezerpalooza

Here it is: Freezerpalooza consisting if 2 bean & cheese burritos, 3 veg pot stickers, 3 chicken pot stickers, 2 garden veggie medley burgers, 2 spicy black bean burgers (w white American cheese garnish). Dinner for four. Because I just didn't plan.

Time to Make the Dough?

I just read this quick description of making french baguettes. I've never seriously considered making my own bread, but this makes it look so simple, I might have to try it. Of course, I'm also going to have to figure out how to make it at altitude, but I've got pluck so I'll give it a try! Here's the link at the Nosh Cookbook: http://www.noshcookbook.com/2011/08/baguette-recipe-of-simple-kneads.html

Menu Plan Monday 5 - Week of August 15, 2011

This is what our family will be eating this week:

Special Notes: I recently signed up for "The Six O'Clock Scramble," which is a service you pay for that suggests a weekly menu. I like it because you can modify each week's menu according to your family's dietary needs and it helps me to expand my repertoire of dinners. One of the best features is the shopping list. Every ingredient is marked with a key that identifies which meal or side dish the ingredient is meant for. That way, if you are whizzing through the market with small children on the verge of an unexpected meltdown, you can quickly edit the list (in your mind) for the critical items you need for that night's meal, or the next few nights' meals instead of the whole week. Also, if you are a multiple location shopper, like me, you can easily figure out whether or not you have enough ingredients from one store to complete the meal. 

Monday: Black Bean Burgers (The Six O'Clock Scramble) with a side of sauteed yams and corn.


Tuesday: Honey Sesame Spaghetti (The Six O'Clock Scramble)

Wednesday: Black Bean, Fennel and Tomato Stew (The Six O'Clock Scramble)


Thursday: Moo Shu Vegetable Wraps (The Six O'Clock Scramble)

Friday: Apple Bacon Cheddar Frittata (The Six O'Clock Scramble)

Saturday: Coconut Chicken with Mango (The Six O'Clock Scramble)

Sunday: Leftovers (The Six O'Clock Scramble)



Further Inspiration:
Looking for more menu planning ideas? Check out "Meal Plan Monday" on OrgJunkie.com.


Info on Who I Feed:

Our family consists of myself, my husband, our preschool daughter and toddler son. Everyone has different food preferences. I love onions, garlic and peppers and flavors like stir-fries. I'm not fond of meat, but eat it sparingly. I don't ever eat pork (no, not even bacon), lamb, rabbit or veal. I love carbs. My husband is directly opposite - no garlic, onions or peppers, lots of meat. Our children fall in the range between us. 


I try to be budget-minded and healthful, but some weeks are easier than others. Every now and then I get on a diet type of kick. I'm going to label each week's meal plan according to the overall healthfulness of it. 


At the end of the week, I will make notes about whether or not we stuck to the plan, adaptations and how the meal went over.

A Return to the Blog

I've taken a bit of a hiatus from this blog - with good reason! In the past year I finished my master's in Gerontology at an accelerated pace (almost double the load) while continuing to be the full-time, stay at home mom that I am. In addition to finishing with a 4.0 GPA, we got pregnant again with #3 (yay! - due in January 2012) AND got moved to Denver for my husband's job just after graduating.

Nothing like preparing a house for sale, packing for moving, scampering halfway across the country for two day school finding trips and finishing a thesis with morning sickness to make you wonder if you've taken on too much!

Nevertheless, as I'm setting into a new routine here in Denver and looking forward to moving into our new home next month (we are presently in corporate housing), I'm finding myself wondering what, exactly, we've been eating for this past year! I know we were in an easy routine with home cooked meals, but can't for the life of me recall what we were eating every week! I think there was a fair bit of tortellini involved. Also, living up here at altitude I've discovered it's pretty tricky cooking meat properly so I've pretty much abandoned it. My husband, cycling more than ever, needs his protein but is content cooking his own meat.

At some point this spring I discovered the Six o'Clock Scramble and subscribed. It's a GREAT cheat sheet for creating a menu plan. I don't mind that it costs some money because I really like the convenience and the meals have challenged me to try new foods.

Today, as I was making dinner, I remembered Disasters in Homemaking and thought I'd get back to it as a great way to keep track of the meals and household rhythms that seem to work for our family.

I'm really happy to be here in Colorado - it's simply gorgeous and I love a new adventure. The one thing I'm sad about in the move is that we didn't get the chance to garden this growing season. I'm hoping to learn about produce gardening in the Denver area so that next spring I can start at the right time. I think we are going to put a greenhouse in our yard too, which will be really exciting! I only major drawback to the Denver area I've found is that it simply cannot compete with California in terms of the bounty of farm fresh, year-round produce available. That's what you get for living somewhere with four full seasons, I guess! It inspires me to grow our food even more, so we'll see what comes of it then. I'll be posting those adventures over at the Plant Killer.

Stay tuned for menu updates and adventures in homemaking!

Menu Plan Monday 4 - Week of August 9

Craving Levity



This is what our family will be eating this week:

Special Notes: I'm taking everything from the "You on a Diet" book. I can't say I've actually done the whole diet / exercise program outlined in the book, but I have given a number of the recipes a stab and they're very good. They're also easy and quick to make. It's funny, but this is one of the best cookbooks I've used, as far as the recipes being well written and consistently producing yummy food. I'm ready for a change and thought I'd give the whole two-week "You on a Diet" thing a spin. We'll see what results I get in energy or weight! The "diet" involves exercise as well, and you have to follow it for breakfast and lunch as well, but I'm just listing the dinners here. 

Monday: Asian Salmon with Brown Rice Pilaf (p. 285, You on a Diet)

Tuesday: Stuffed Whole Wheat Pizza (p. 287, You on a Diet)

Wednesday: Mediterranean Chicken with Tomato, Olives and Herbed White Beans (p. 289, You on a Diet)


Thursday: Royal Pasta Primavera Provençale (p. 290, You on a Diet)

Friday: Apricot Chicken and Green Beans with Almond Slivers (p. 291, You on a Diet)

Saturday: Turkey Tortilla Wraps with Red Baked Potato (p. 292, You on a Diet)

Sunday: Broiled Trout, Orata with Rosemary and Lemon, Rock Aparagus (p. 293 & p. 301, You on a Diet)


Further Inspiration:
Looking for more menu planning ideas? Check out "Meal Plan Monday" on OrgJunkie.com.


Info on Who I Feed:

Our family consists of myself, my husband, our preschool daughter and toddler son. Everyone has different food preferences. I love onions, garlic and peppers and flavors like stir-fries. I'm not fond of meat, but eat it sparingly. I don't ever eat pork (no, not even bacon), lamb, rabbit or veal. I love carbs. My husband is directly opposite - no garlic, onions or peppers, lots of meat. Our children fall in the range between us. 


I try to be budget-minded and healthful, but some weeks are easier than others. Every now and then I get on a diet type of kick. I'm going to label each week's meal plan according to the overall healthfulness of it. 


At the end of the week, I will make notes about whether or not we stuck to the plan, adaptations and how the meal went over.

Lusty Bagel with Cream Cheese and Tomato

One of the reasons I took up gardening a few years ago is that I wanted some certifiably home grown tomatoes to pull ripe and warm off the plant and exalt over on a bagel with cream cheese. This is the essence of summer flavors for me.

My large tomatoes haven't come in quite yet, but we have received a few gorgeous tomatoes in our weekly CSA box. I didn't intend for this tomato to look like it's smiling. I'm a little bummed about that actually because it detracts from the real focus of the photo: look at the amazing deep red of that tomato!!! Look how gorgeous and succulent it is! It's almost like a persimmon, the ways it's just drizzling out of its skin with juiciness. It was simply fantastic.

Thumbs Down on Karam's Garlic Sauce

One issue I have with Sriracha sauce is that is can be rather spicy. Normally I like this, but sometimes I just want full-flavored garlic on my food without the spice. I happened across a garlic sauce on the refrigerator shelves of Whole Foods recently. It was pretty pricey - something like $6 for the bottle, but I'll pay a pretty penny for a truly great condiment.

The sauce is "Karam's Garlic Sauce." It has a simple ingredient list - olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, salt, pepper. The problem I have with it is twofold:

A) it basically tastes like any plain old bottled Caesar salad dressing

and

B) it doesn't hold up when applied to heat - the oil separates.

These two factors combing to make me feel like I'm adding something to a dish that shouldn't be exposed to heat (like salad dressing) and makes me think of mayonnaise that's been sitting around unrefrigerated at some sandwich counter all day. In short, because of the actual texture of the sauce, I can't shake the feeling that I'm eating instant food poisoning.

Apparently there's a cult following behind Karam's sauce and more power to them. I'm sticking with my Sriracha for now and hoping I'll discover the ultimate basic garlic sauce somewhere else.