Stumbling Through Adulthood

I miss it when I do write my menus here. Yes, I can -and often do- go back over the paper versions, but sometimes the comments I make to myself about why I'm adding something are important too.

We never did get to do any grilling this weekend, so hamburgers it is for tonight, LOL.

Tuesday: hamburgers, tots, roasted asparagus.


Wednesday: strata with chicken sausage and apples.


Thursday: chili with cornbread. (*)


Friday: pizza.


Saturday: pulled pork on buns.


Sunday: couscous with kielbasa and carrots.



(*) My chili is all beans and I used dried, soaked overnight. I try to buy a bag or two, when they are on sale, usually at $0.99. When they are not on sale, they're usually $1.49. They were $2.99 a pound the other day. Almost 3 bucks for a pound of small red beans. So much for 'beans and rice' being a cheap meal, LOL. (I don't think it ever really was, unless you have a reasonably equipped kitchen to back it up: spices, a safe place to soak beans overnight, a crockpot or someone on hand to watch simmering beans during the day. And did I mention spices? Yes. But mentioning it again. Because spices.

Next week I'll have a pretty full house when it comes to food: my aunt will be down from BC on Monday, my mom and Linnea get back from Louisiana on Tuesday, my sis and BIL are driving up on Wednesday. I have to start thinking about those menus, and probably pre-make some stuff just to ease things a bit. I'll have dh smoke a pork shoulder next weekend, so pulled pork for dinner for us and cubano sandwiches for dinner one evening, Linnea loves those, as does my mom. I should also make some biscotti and other cookies. My mother claims she doesn't, but she does eat a lot of cookies if they are available, and calories are good.

I need a source of chives that does not involve mini plastic clamshells. Garden is not an option. The deer and bunnies like them as much as we do. Random thought: I used to have chives in the garden for years. Then one year, both plants were devoured by deer and/or bunnies and no dice since. We seem to be getting a lot more bunnies, I suspect we have a dearth of predators, to the detriment of my garden. Roses are being eaten too... My favorite one and a brand new one were munched despite wire fencing around them, sigh. The front deck is just too hot for chives. I do have a long term place I think they'll grow well, but because of some work that needs to be done, it's not an option this year. I've been buying veggies at a local fruit stand, but even their chives are pre-packaged in plastic.

Well, kinda a menus post. Not feeling the holidays, don't feel like cooking, but whatever.

Anne-Chloe gets back from Yurp day after tomorrow, I'm sure poor Nader is going to be thrilled. We're going our best, but I think he really missed her, poor pup.

Monday: pork chops, Brussels sprouts.
Tuesday: grits with bacon and cheese (dh request).
Wednesday: cheese and crackers (AC back.)
Thursday: chicken tikka masala and naan. Thanks Costco!
Friday: sourdough bread bowls with clam chowder for the fish people, baked potato chowder for Perry and maybe me. I'm not a soup fan. Dessert will be cookies, chocolate, and the plan is a low key evening of reading and hanging out.
Satuday: brisket, mac and chee, asparagus if I can find it. Cranberry-lemon bars (NYT recipe that my sister sent me!). Linnea has requested a bûche de Noël and I don't know if I can muster the energy. We shall see. Rolls. Linnea has also requested cinnamon rolls for breakfast.
Sunday: leftovers.

Advantage of brisket: 100% on dh.

We may or may not go up to Bellingham for Linnea's symphonic band concert on Wednesday. If we do, who knows what we'll for dinner. If we don't, ugh, I'll have to drive up early Thursday to pick her up and drive her down to an eye doctor appointment.

Anyhow, menus.

Monday: chicken tikka masala, naan.
Tuesday: one more round of turkey leftovers.
Wednesday: chicken breast and roasted potatoes or ???? if concert.
Thursday: fried rice (have a recipe to try).
Friday: jerk chicken and puréed yams.
Saturday: couscous with chicken breast and carrots.
Sunday: waffles. Or pancakes. Or something like that.

I have to freeze the leftover cranberry sauce and the gravy base (this was planned) for Christmas.

Also, I hope I5 is open and stays open. I cannot deal with having to make a detour. Especially since the concert is at 8pm, and we'll be driving home very late even in the best of circumstances.

I think I'm finally going to get the mapo tofu that has been on the menu for the past few weeks made this week. Week before last we... forgot to buy the tofu. Yesterday... we forgot to take the meat out of the freezer (and, tbf, get the rice started).

So.

Monday: mapo tofu.
Tuesday: flank steak with onions, avocado, tortillas.
Wednesday: chicken tikka masala, roasted cauliflower, naan.
Thursday: bacon, eggs, and toast.
Friday: pork tenderloin, rice?, gai lan or bok choi.
Saturday: spatchcocked chicken, roasted potatoes.
Sunday: chicken salad on lo rye bread.

Need to get some new things into rotation. We're starting to get the hang of just cooking for two (or three, so dh can have leftovers the next day if it's something 'high value'), but I do see the rut. Part of it is the 'empty the freezer' bit, part of it is me on Weight Watchers, part of it is just... it's just the two of us, whatEVER.

Veggies usually get shoved in their somewhere. Green beans have been nasty these past few times, dunno why.

Random thought which I may actually consider executing. One of the annoying things about making mapo tofu is cooking (by which I mean: remembering to cook) the frozen peas in advance, because otherwise, they're hard. I wonder if it would totally ruin the rice if I tossed them in the rice cooker to cook in there? Most of the info I've found is one rice and dried peas, not frozen ones.

More boring menus.

Tried a sheet pan dinner last night, from WW rather than the Asian pork tenderloin and rice I'd been planning, mainly because I went to the fruit stand and was able to find a small acorn squash. It was ok, though I made my own spice mix since there's was basically cumin and cumin only. Not my thing. Anyhow. I'm always suspicious of sheet pan dinners: I cannot get things ready at the same time and last night was no exception, despite following the recipe: the meat was way overdone long before the onions had browned. I'll get it eventually. I don't find sheet pan dinners the most bestest thing in cooking like a few people I know, but they are convenient. Oh, and this WW one? Had you adding some vinaigrette over the cooked meat and veg at the end, and ew, not. I tried, but because WW, there was too vinegar for the oil, so it was way harsh on top of browned sheet pan food. It might work, but with a better balanced vinaigrette, with much much less vinegar.

Anyhow. This week. Veg added last minute as I find it.

Monday: roasted sweet potatoes, chicken breast.

Tuesday: jerk pork chops, puréed yams (*)

Wednesday: chili with cornbread muffins

Thursday: Ikea meatballs and boiled potatoes (**)

Friday: flank steak with onions.

Saturday: chicken peanut curry over rice. (***)

Sunday: breakfast chicken sausage, hashbrowns, eggs, probably mushrooms (****)

(*) Perry will be home for dinner before his flight to Boston. He's still working to make weight, he's apparently about 3lbs over, which is apparently an ok place to be. Anyhow, I'll make his pork chop without too much salt in the spice mix, and he likes the yams.

(**) Didn't have them last week, but a few weeks ago I made couscous and froze half the sauce base. Ended up with that.

(***) Ended up having one of the chicken curries from Costco rather than making my own because Safeway was out of lemongrass paste.

(****) The regular hash browns. Apparently we had fewer of the patties left than I thought, thank goodness.

Completely aside. When I review my menus weeks later to get inspiration for that week's menus, my * comments sometimes help me more than the actual listing, LOL.

Menus. Boring. And worse, it's just Dh and me eating, so we're both learning to cook for just two, or we have a lot of leftovers, LOL.

Anyhow.

Monday: fake samosas aka curried chicken, potatoes, and peas filling in tortillas, baked in oven. Quite yummy.


Tuesday: couscous with turkey kielbasa and carrots.


Wednesday: chicken shawarma with naan.


Thursday: jerk pork chops with yam purée.


Friday: naan pizza with goat cheese.


Saturday: tri-tip steak with roasted potatoes. Linnea will be home. Linnea likes steak.


Sunday: French dip sandwiches with roasted zucchini. Another Linnea fave. The kid is all about beef.



Bought naan and we're not going to be able to go through it at quite the rate as when Perry would eat three with dinner, hence the naan pizza, which should be good! I might start buying the frozen ones from Trader Joe's. Or learn to make my own... though baking bread is usually not a great thing. I made choc chip cookies for Linnea and sent them up with Perry, there is a tub here for dh. I ate one, but eh, I can give them a miss. Freshly baked homemade bread? I eat all the bread! LOL.

Damn, forgot to post menus last week, so these will reflect what we actually ate vs what I'd planned.

Eaten
Monday: grilled leg of lamb, olive oil, lemon and parsley potato salad, green beans.
Tuesday: chicken breast, pasta, Brussels sprouts.
Wednesday: leftover chili, corn, with cornbread topping.
Thursday: pork tenderloin, rice, blistered green beans.
Friday: leftovers.
Saturday: Casse-croute (bread, olive oil, harissa, giardiniera, olives, capers, hb egg, tuna for the fish eaters)
Sunday: pick up. Plan was pizza but forgot to make dough and everyone tired.

To eat
Monday: pizza. Dough is made.
Tuesday: spatchcocked chicken, green beans, potatoes.
Wednesday: French dip sandwiches, sweet potato fries.
Thursday: mapo tofu with rice.
Friday: risotto with steak and mushrooms.
Saturday: couscous with chicken breast and carrots.
Sunday: shrimp with pasta

Monday: taco salad


Tuesday: chicken tikka masala, naan, roasted cauliflower.


Wednesday: meatballs with breadsticks and tomato sauce. Perry.


Thursday: chicken sausage with rice.


Friday: chili with cornbread (Perry has a cast iron skillet...).


Saturday: grilled leg of lamb, roasted potatoes.


Sunday: meatloaf, rice pilaf.

I had zero desire to make menus this week, end result is that a lot of the suggestions come from everyone else. I am planning a fancy breakfast for Wednesday, and maybe even some mimosas. I usually don't drink so that may make the rest of Wednesday less than productive.

Monday: pulled turkey on rolls (freezer from Thanksgiving!)


Tuesday: gnocchi with tomato sauce and mushrooms


Wednesday: chicken breast saté, rice, grilled onions


Thursday: jerk pork, puréed yams.


Friday: polenta with garlicky spinach, fried egg.


Saturday: homemade pizza.


Sunday: roasted spatchcocked chicken, roasted potatoes, Brussels sprouts.



I have no idea what the kids will eat when dh and I eat polenta, but dh and I like potenta, so polenta will be eaten, at least once in a while.

Perry wants to make curry from scratch, as in not using curry paste from Uwajimaya, so if he gets off his butt and does the research etc, that may sub one of these meals, I don't know.

Blah.

Monday: chicken breast, roasted potatoes, green beans.


Tuesday: chicken tikka masala, naan, roasted cauliflower.


Wednesday: chicken piccata, noodles, green beans.


Thursday: couscous with chicken (lol, so much chicken), sausage, and carrots.


Friday: rye bread with cheese.


Saturday: risotto with veggie (asparagus if I can find it) and thin sliced steak.


Sunday: baked potatoes, creamed spinach, mushrooms, bacon for those who want it.



Yeah, lots of chicken. I know Perry doesn't much like chicken any longer (sigh...) but I need the simplicity and the low points! Plus, the tikka masala trumps chicken, so he should be fine with that, and he's welcome to pick out the chicken from the couscous. Of course, none of my kids like couscous either, but too bad.

I'm making the rye bread. I absolutely love rye, but I'm not great at baking with it. All the best recipe require a sourdough starter and I will not go down that path. So I'm going to try my hand at baking it again. The Norwegian bakery has a great rye bread, without caraway seeds even, but I really want to learn to bake it myself. So away I go.

So sick of food planning, shopping, prep, and cooking.