Quiche!

Today was clean-out-the-fridge day ~ anything that look it had been in the fridge too long got cooked up.

Soft bananas -> banana nut muffins for breakfast

Old pizza & leftover bruschetta -> lunch

Spring onions, leftover ham, and cheese threatening to mold -> quiche for dinner.
I also cooked the corn that had been in the fridge for a week, and carrots for me that doesn't like corn. Two pints of oldish strawberries gave us a few each, and unripe and too-ripe peaches and apples are now a peach-apple crisp for dessert.

And now I have room in the fridge to move things around and FIND stuff!

The quiche was really good - my Betty Crocker recipe calls for 4 eggs and 2 cups of half-and-half (!). Not going to happen, but it hasn't turned out as well as I'd like when I fiddled with it in the past
Tonight I used 6 eggs and whizzed them up with the immersion blender, then added 1 cup of milk (of which about 1/3 was half-and-half) and whizzed again. Added the lightly browned onions, diced ham, and shredded Swiss cheese and whizzed again. I unplugged the immersion blender and pulled out the cheese stuck in the holes, poured it in the pie shell, and baked at ~350 until it was nice and brown, starting at ~400 because I was cooked the leftover pie crust as a snack. mmmmmmmm...pie crust.

Father's Day

The Small Man and I went out this morning for Father's Day donuts - only to discover [yet again] that Donut King is closed on Sunday. Oh well - something to look forward to next Saturday. Instead, we went to the Dunkin' Donuts; the bonus there is that it's a combined DD/Baskin Robbins, so we could get TMOTH a quart of his favorite ice cream.

We had a late lunch at Red Robin yesterday after the Small Man's karate belt test (now a purple belt!). Good burgers, but not really in a mood for a big dinner. TMOTH and I had leftover chicken pot pie and the boys grilled hot dogs outside - then s'mores for dessert.

Last day of school was Friday, so now I have to make sure there's enough food in the house during the day for two ravenous boys. Oy. Boys also need to go to karate during the week in the summer.

Menus for this week:

Tonight: Steak, potatoes, etc. (Dad food!)
Monday: Pasta
Tuesday:Soup (bean soup from the freezer, tomato soup for kids)
Wednesday: Chicken
Thursday: Pork chops
Friday: karate night
Saturday: find a crockpot recipe

menu plan - an interesting week

Last night we had sandwiches - with yummy 7-grain bread from the farmers market. I'll be buying that bread again.

There is lots going on this week - Small Man has cub scouts Monday night, but TMOTH and The Lovely Daughter need to be about an hour away from home at 7 for an awards ceremony. It may be a soup night. The Lovely Daughter has another awards ceremony (at least closer to home) on Wednesday night.


Tonight: possibly quiche
Monday: something easy to work around timewise - maybe a casserole TMOTH can put in the oven? Cheese enchiladas?
Tuesday:Spaghetti and meatballs, salad
Wednesday: pork, rice
Thursday: Farmers market veg, fish or chicken
Friday: Karate night
Saturday: Bean soup

An odd dinner tonight

Sunday we did have chicken - thighs roasted with garlic - and last night we did have lasagna.

Tonight, I stopped by the Grand Mart, but no fresh fish/seafood caught my fancy. I did buy some frozen monkfish for tomorrow.

I also bought some wonton wrappers to make this awesome appetizer: Wonton Wrapped Mozzarella.
I cut my string cheese into quarters and wrapped mine a bit differently - but they were AWESOME.

For actual "dinner", TMOTH went and got Chinese food. Yum.

Two days without cooking dinner

Last night was karate night, and we were able to get a table at the pizza joint. Plenty of leftovers for lunches as well.

Tonight is the Cub Scout Blue & Gold banquet, and all I have to provide is some dessert to share. I'll be making cupcakes later today. I *KNOW* we have cupcake liners in the house, because The Lovely Daughter and I bought about 3 packages at Michaels last weekend. But can I find them? Of course not. So a trip to the grocery is also in order.

Menus for next week:

Sunday: Chicken
Monday: Lasagna (as long as I remember to take it out of the freezer!)
Tuesday: Shrimp, rice
Wednesday: Steak
Thursday:  Pork tenderloin

Burgers

Thankfully, TMOTH formed the burgers. I hate handling hamburger :)

pancakes

According to the Karate Kid, this week is "butter week" in Russia, and pancakes are eaten to celebrate the coming of spring. So tonight - pancakes!

Lots of eating out

It's been so busy - we've eaten out quite a bit.

Thursday I was home with a migraine, but had recovered quite a bit by supper-time, so made a lovely cracker-crusted cod with broccoli on the side.

Friday - karate night - and our regular pizza place was PACKED. They recently passed a referendum in that little town that allowed restaurants to serve beer and wine, and they just started. Hopefully the novelty will die down and we can eat there again soon. Since we had to have the middle kid through dinner in time for karate, and The Lovely Daughter was with us, we split up. The boys all went to McDonalds (TMOTH took one for the team there) and TLD and I went to the Chinese restaurant down the strip mall from the pizza place. It was absolutely AWESOME. The Chinese place near karate that had gotten rave reviews was just awful the one time we had takeout, so I wasn't expecting much, but this place was really good. TLD and I shared some General Tso's tofu, and it was just right.

Saturday night TLD's boyfriend was around, and we had leftover lamb stew (and TLD had leftover tofu).

Tonight was a dog-and-pony show for Tulane in Tyson's Corner, VA, and TLD and I wound up eating Mexican food for dinner. I think those leftovers are still in the car - the only bonus I can think of for weather this cold is that I don't have to worry about them going bad because it's so dang cold.

Not planning the menu for last week really put a kink in the process. Not a good idea. So for next week:

Monday: Beef shish-kebab [it's quilt guild night for me]
Tuesday: Pasta
Wednesday: Grilled chicken [we may have snow :(]
Thursday: Burgers, maybe - TMOTH may have to cook since I have to take TLD to the airport, plus it's woodturning night for TMOTH
Friday: Karate night

Tacos

The Lovely Daughter had veggie crumbles; ground beef for us.

It's a day late on the menu plan - last night we had whatever-you-could-find, since we were eating on different schedules because of Boy Scouts and karate.

Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches

TMOTH cooked tonight!
He used this recipe, which has some history as well: Pork Tenderloin Sandwich

I'd gone to the grocery and gotten ingredients for tacos, and when I went to put the ground beef away found the pork and asked about TMOTH's plans for it. He stepped up to the plate, and wow, they were great!

For the rest of the week:

Monday: Tacos
Tuesday: Omelettes
Wednesday: Lasagna
Thursday: Soup of some sort, sandwiches
Friday: Karate, but maybe not for the Karate Kid, so might actually not have to have pizza

Truffles!

Not for dinner - but as a treat.

I used the Eagle Condensed Milk recipe.

I used a bag of Ghirardelli 60% cocoa chips and the remainder Ghirardelli semi-sweet chips. Most were rolled in a mixture of cocoa and confectioners sugar.


TMOTH decided he wanted to try dipping some in chocolate - here they are waiting to for him to melt the chocolate. They're setting up now - along with some chocolate dipped vanilla wafers!

Grilled chicken/grilled tofu

Both marinated in Trader Joe's Soyaki sauce.

TMOTH brought home asparagus and good bread, and we had broccoli in the fridge, so a very nice Valentine's dinner was had.

GUMBO

It's all in caps because it's such an investment ~ both time and $$ :) I've been wanting to make gumbo for a while, and the SuperBowl last week just bumped things up a notch.

SO, yesterday, I bit the bullet and bought the ingredients for seafood gumbo. Happily, I could get frozen wild-caught shrimp (Key West pink shrimp from Weis) but the crab...not so much in Maryland in February. And I was NOT going to buy canned crab. So I wound up buying king crab legs instead - I figure I'm at least still supporting the US economy.

This morning, I made the roux - in the oven! While making sure I still knew how to make gumbo, I found the oven roux technique on the Deep South Dish blog. Well, I am NEVER EVER NEVER making roux on the stovetop again. This was easy and amazing. I am SOLD. I had my roux, with enough left over to put in the fridge for more gumbo later.



While the roux was in the oven, I chopped the trinity of vegetables - onion, bell pepper, and celery. My college suite-mate was from New Orleans, and her mom taught me to chop those veggies small! I spent the rest of the morning picking crab and shelling shrimp. Honestly, I think king crab legs are even harder to pick than blue crabs. The shells went into a stockpot for broth, the seafood back into the fridge.

After a pick-me-up lunch of leftover pizza, I started the stock. I'd found some Cajun seasoning, so added that, water to cover, and let 'er rip for an hour or so.

About 4, I started heating up the strained stock, and cooking the vegetables, plus a little garlic, in the roux that I"d kept out. No measuring here - maybe a third of a cup of the roux? Added a bag of sliced okra to the mix, a few bay leaves, bits of oregano, thyme, and parsley (since somehow we don't have dried basil in the pantry). About 20 minutes before eating - about when I started the rice - I put in the shrimp; 10 minutes later the crab.

And yum. I love gumbo.

We have lunch for Fat Tuesday in the fridge, and three big containers in the freezer.

Chicken-fried steak

This is one of the two things I've been craving yesterday - the other is gumbo, on tomorrow's menu :)

With the cube steak, we had mashed potatoes (and gravy for TMOTH), biscuits, macaroni & cheese for The Lovely Daughter and the Karate Kid, and cantaloupes and strawberries. For some reason, the Small Man decided he didn't like the brand of pasta The Lovely Daughter chose (it WOULD be too much to ask for all of my kids to eat the same things) so he tried the cube steak and liked it! He even tried the mashed potatoes (although those didn't go over as well).

Menus for the rest of the week:
Sunday: GUMBO
Monday: (cub scout and boy scout night) - pasta
Tuesday: Grilled chicken
Wednesday: Cheese and Crackers
Thursday: Omelettes
Friday: Karate Night

Waffles!

With watermelon (!) and bacon.

The watermelon was the "personal" size, and for $3, I wasn't going to be too bummed if it was awful - but it was surprisingly good.

I never took the lasagna out of the freezer, and there was no way it was going to be thawed/cooked in time for evening activities tonight.

Lots and lots of pizza

Friday night was karate night and we at at J&P Pizza in Damascus. TMOTH and the Small Man had pizza, the karate kid had ravioli, and I had a Philly cheese steak. It was great! a nice change from pizza - especially since we had pizza for dinner tonight! It was the Small Man's 8th birthday, and he wanted to go to Cici's. So we did :)

Menus for the rest of the week:
Sunday: Burgers
Monday: Lasagna
Tuesday: Chicken
Wednesday: Fish
Thursday: Sloppy Joes

Beef Ribs

TMOTH cooked tonight. If it's beef ribs, he's the one that cooked :)

Bean soup and cornbread

GOOD cornbread - it's amazing what a difference fresh baking powder makes!!

We had freezer food last night - butterflied shrimp for TMOTH and me; fish sticks for the boys; french bread pizza for The Lovely Daughter and Small Man (he eats a LOT).

Pulled pork sandwiches

Soooo good. I made chili-lime coleslaw, and made more biscuits for the boys - ham and macaroni for them.

Grilled ham and cheese

Sewing kind of got in the zone, and by the time I realized I needed to do something about dinner, it was kind of late. TMOTH and the Karate Kid went to see "The Hobbit" this afternoon, so I was left with the other two kids, who amused themselves while I sewed.

The crockpot pulled pork got pulled and mixed with sauce after dinner, and is waiting in the fridge for tomorrow's dinner. Yum.

Steak

A little deviation from the meal plan there :)

Basically, they didn't have chicken thighs at the grocery, but they had a nice rib-eye 50% off. And since The Lovely Daughter wasn't home, I didn't bother with the broccoli. And we had baked potatoes instead of roasted potatoes. At least the biscuits were according to plan!

Pizza Hut

Delivered dinner last night. It was snowing, roads were OK but traffic was crawling, so we didn't brave the trip to Damascus for karate.

Menus for this week:

Saturday: grilled chicken, roasted potatoes, steamed broccoli, biscuits from a can
Sunday: crockpot pulled pork (assuming I can find a pork shoulder the right size)
Monday:  Freezer fish
Tuesday: Bean soup & cornbread
Wednesday: pasta
Thursday: enchiladas
Friday: Karate night

Free For All

That's what the Karate Kid asked for, and what we had. I'm not in the mood to cook if nobody will eat it.

Cheese and crackers for me, TMOTH had chicken soup, the Karate Kid had corndogs, Small Man had cereal, and I'm not sure that The Lovely Daughter ate any dinner (although she had mac & cheese for lunch).

Pasta

Just pasta. I think the Karate Kid had some alfredo sauce, and I did make garlic bread and wash grapes. Most of us are still sick.

Sloppy Joe

Since I had the only one - TMOTH is still sick and refusing to eat.

Pancakes

I love having breakfast for dinner. I'm usually just not that hungry in the morning, so peanut butter on toast is my usual breakfast. But for dinner? I can make pancakes! And bacon! And strawberries! And tonight the pancakes were awesome - it really makes no sense how some nights the pancakes are big and fluffy and other nights flat as a ...pancake. Fresh baking powder probably had something to do with tonight's success.

I also made the sloppy joe filling for tomorrow's dinner today. I kind of smushed together Rachel Ray's recipe here and The Pioneer Woman's recipe here.

My recipe:
1. Open big package of ground beef. Vacuum two one-pound chunks and freeze. Make two hamburger patties and refrigerate. Brown remaining pound of beef.
2. Add the three cremini mushrooms hiding in the crisper, diced, while browning beef.
3. Move browned beef to a bowl, drain fat into a custard cup to add to the dog's dinner, and wipe out the skillet so the vegetables will be vegetarian.
4. Cook an onion in a bit of canola oil, dice and add the top inch of a green pepper and about half of a cup of already-diced pepepr, then add about 3/4 of a jalapeno pepper, and realize that if you added the rest of the diced pepper and another onion, you'd have a really good start on chili later on. Do that, then add about 1/2 tsp chopped garlic. Put half of this in the freezer for later.
5. Add the beef back to the veggies.
6. Put some water in the almost-empty ketchup bottle (maybe 1/4 cup left in it), shake it up, and add to the pot.
7. Add about a tablespoon Worcester sauce, a tsp of steak rub, about a tablespoon of brown sugar, and quite a few grinds of black pepper.
8. Scrape off a couple tablespoons of frozen tomato paste and melt those in. Simmer until blended. Taste and enjoy :)
9. Refrigerate for tomorrow.

Cumin-lime almonds

I saw this recipe online a while back and kept the tab open so I'd remember to try it: Cumin-Lime Almonds.

I added a little extra splash of olive oil, and about 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper. And at the end, I just grated the zest of one lime over the almonds, and didn't measure how much it was. At any rate, they're pretty good. The next time, I think I'll use an entire pound of almonds, up the spices accordingly, use the zest of 2 limes, and cook for a little longer - I think they could be a little bit more roasted.

Menu plan, week 4

Today, I need to decide how to divide the 3 pounds of ground beef in the freezer, and go through the refrigerator to see what I need from the grocery. (The next milk run is coming up soon.)

Monday - Pancakes w/bacon or sausage, strawberries
Tuesday - Sloppy Joes (if I can find a recipe that doesn't rely on pre-made SJ sauce in a can)
Wednesday -  Pasta w/pesto sauce, salad
Thursday - chicken stir-fry with rice
Friday - everybody should be well enough to go back to karate and have pizza night!
Saturday -  Bean soup - need to check the freezer
Sunday - Quiche

Roasted chicken thighs

I made "the Good Rolls," steam-in-a-bag veggies, mashed potatoes and gravy as well. And Spinach Pie for The Lovely Daughter (and me, as a side). I *mostly* used Jennifer's recipe, except that I halved it, and used ~1/3 cup of grated romano instead of the feta. It was good!

Cheese & crackers!

Hadn't had C&C for a long time - but I'd spent a chunk of time at the mall prom dress shopping with The Lovely Daughter and her BFF and then sewing and really didn't want to cook. And no time to make rolls to go with the chicken!

Hot dogs and pizza rolls

Really, it was all about getting the boys to eat SOMETHING tonight. I was pretty sure the pizza rolls would work, and they did. Hot dogs for me and TMOTH ~ we haven't had hot dogs for a long time, and they were really good. And not much work since nothing was planned. I guess I need a back-up plan for karate night!

Lobster tails

A fancy bit of dinner :) Little lobster tails were on sale at Harris Teeter when I went by to look for fish. So - grilled with lemon-dill butter. Yum. Roasted potatoes and broccoli and a glass of red wine.

The boys are still sick, sick, sick, so they had fish and chicken fingers, and didn't even seem interested in the pasta.

The Lovely Daughter conned me into a grocery trip for cookie ingredients after dinner, so I was able to get popsicles for the boys as well. She's almost done with the dough now, and hopefully we will have cookies soon.

Burgers

Just your basic burger, chips on the side. The Lovely Daughter's boyfriend (usually referred to as That Boy) had dinner with us tonight. Brave of him - we're the house of the sick, although TLD contends that he's the one who gave it to her, and she shared with the boys.

Leftover lasagna

Still yummy :) Salad and garlic bread to go with it.

Soup, no sandwiches

I wound up getting hope a little on the late side - we were on time for Scouts, but barely.
ALL KINDS of soup - I had clam chowder, TMOTH had Italian wedding soup, The Lovely Daughter had tomato/roasted red pepper, and the boys both had Campbell's tomato with pasta added.

This weekend

Friday was karate night and we wound up eating pizza again.

Saturday, I had karate lunch as well - the Red Rooster in Damascus, the BEST fried chicken around.

Saturday night, TMOTH and I went to a retirement party for a colleague at my boss' house ~ my contribution was bringing the samosas from Il Forno/Metro Dhaba. There were also Costo min-quiches, stuffed mushrooms (another colleague has promised to share the recipe), a pork loin, black beans and rice, and a pretty green salad. And dessert! I brought plenty of cake home for the kids.

This morning we got up and went to breakfast at the local fire house. Pancakes, sausage, bacon, eggs, biscuits and gravy, hash browns, fried apples, orange juice - even the coffee was good!!! I was completely stuffed!

Tonight, the Lovely Daughter had a "thing" in Baltimore - a dog-and-pony show from Florida Southern College, one of the schools she's applied to and seriously considering. We had snacks at the reception - hot pretzels and Cracker Jacks - and then I fed her at Subway after finally escaping from Baltimore. Why the heck cities WILL NOT put up signs telling you how to get to the major interstates is beyond me. It just makes me hate driving in Baltimore (and DC is even worse!) so I don't go as often as I would otherwise. I think the boys back home had pizza.

The menu planning process has gone well and really reduces my stress level in the evenings. So for the coming week, we'll have:

Monday: Soup & sandwiches
Tuesday: leftover lasagna
Wednesday: Fish
Thursday: Burgers
Saturday: Chicken
Sunday: Cheese and crackers

Subject to change without notice, but at least I have a plan :)

Lasagna

Mmmm...home-made lasagna. Not too much sauce, NOT chunky. We didn't seem to eat very much of it, so we'll be having lasagna next week as well. Probably Monday, since it's Scout night.

I stopped at Panera and bought baguettes, so we had reasonably good bread to go with the lasagna. (And probably why not so much lasagna got eaten!)

Tonight, we tried this recipe: Border-Style Shrimp

We scaled it back a bit - with two of us eating shrimp, we used half of a one-pound frozen package. It's not clear in the recipe whether you should shell the shrimp first or not, but I DID - makes them much less messy to eat! It was quite yummy - if a big lacking in spice. I didn't want to overdo it, since TMOTH doesn't like TOO much spice. Even with adding a bit of chopped jalapeno, it needed a bit more. Next time (and there IS likely to be a next time) I'll add some more jalapeno, a little more hot sauce, maybe some pepper seeds. The Lovely Daughter had her leftover tofu; boys had fish/chicken.

I also made yellow rice - I stock up on MSG-free Sazon seasoning when I visit Florida - and added onion and green bell pepper and a tiny bit of jalapeno.

We had quesadillas and chips and salsa as well.

Pork chops

TMOTH found a recipe that called for brining the pork chops, then serving with caramelized onions. He also made boiled potatoes and salad! (I LOVE boiled potatoes- much better than mashed to me.)

Stuffed Peppers

I made these on Sunday and left them in the fridge for TMOTH to put in the oven. A pretty much totally invented recipe~ I had a bag of 10-minute barley from Trader Joe's (the only barley they had!!) and cooked it up. I cooked up about half a package of chopped mushrooms, the first inch or so off the top of a red pepper, and most of a chopped onion until soft, added the barley and some tomato sauce, then some Italian seasoning and a couple teaspoons of grated Parmesan (what was left in a shaker can).

I filled one green pepper with the vegetarian mixture and put it in a dish for the Lovely Daughter. Then I added some browned ground beef from the freezer and put that in a couple of peppers for me and TMOTH. I could tell I'd have filling left over, so I have little bins of vegetarian and meat filling in the freezer as well!

TMOTH cooked as per directions and they came out great - AND I have leftovers for lunch.

Sriracha-Glazed Chicken or Tofu

http://www.marthastewart.com/335370/sriracha-glazed-chicken

I used this Martha Stewart recipe, with modifications - I didn't have any fresh ginger, so added ground; I didn't have any toasted sesame oil, so used a bit of canola oil. I know I lost some flavor there, but I wasn't going to the store just for toasted sesame oil! The chicken was still good, and the Lovely Daughter even liked the tofu.

Served with roasted potatoes and veggie sticks.

Pancakes and Next Week's Menu

Tinted green per the Karate Kid's request :) We also had bacon and veggie sausage, and fruit: cantaloupe, strawberries, and mango.

Menu:
Sunday: Chicken
Monday: Stuffed Peppers
Tuesday: Grilled pork of some sort
Wednesday: Shrimp, rice
Thursday: Lasagna
Friday: Karate night
Saturday: Party at the boss' house

Pizza!

Friday is karate night in the Frazzled household. Both boys - one at 5 pm and the other at 7 pm, so we eat dinner at 6 pm in the bustling metropolis of Damascus, MD. Not a whole lot to choose from, and we often eat and J&P New York Pizza. Their Sicilian pan pizza is pretty awesome, and we have plenty of leftovers.

Bacon-Wrapped Monkfish

Mmmmm. I bought the monkfish at Harris Teeter on the way back from taking the Lovely Daughter to school after her eye appointment. I had shrimp on the schedule - BUT - I'd forgotten to take it out of the freezer (not actually a dealbreaker) and we had pasta last night.

TMOTH also made roasted new potatoes and roasted broccoli with parmesan cheese to go with it. It was yummy.

Pot roast

YUM! It was a lovely roast - and I don't know what it was! Just a hunk of beef that I found in the freezer...with onions and the surviving vegetables from the fridge (celeriac, two sad mushrooms, carrots), beef broth, and a small can of tomato sauce. Served over pasta.

A very nice (for January) cantaloupe and kiwi, and sub rolls to round out dinner.

Garam masala grilled chicken

Biscuits, cheesy broccoli, and strawberries as well.

A new year, a new plan

PLAN being the operative word.

Menu planning is, for some reason, difficult for me, but life is SO much easier when I do it.

For the remainder of the week:

Tuesday: Grilled chicken thighs, vegetables, biscuits, strawberries, maybe salad
Wednesday: Crock-pot roast beef, french bread (This is ready to start tomorrow!)
Thursday: Pasta with shrimp, salad
Friday: Karate night!
Saturday: Pancakes, bacon & sausages, fruit
Sunday: TBD, planning on Friday or Saturday