New Year's Resolutions: Kitchen, Home, and Me

I admit it, I like the whole resolution thing. Here's how I did compared to what I set out to do.

Goal 1:


Maintain a healthy, half-budget grocery bill. According to Mint, I spent 92.5% of my grocery budget for the year. I had actually forgotten about this as a goal, updated my budget in Mint, and stuck to it. We did a meat CSA, veggie CSA, and split a cow from a wonderful ethical farmer.

Assessment: SUCCESS.


Follow-up for 2011: Drop another 10% from the monthly grocery budget, skip the meat CSA while the freezer is so full, plant a better garden.

Goal 2:


Target the top 3 food stress days. I think I did a moderately good job with this goal -- but toward the end of the year, I really fell off the meal-planning wagon and this goal suffered for it. I think having a few more meals in the freezer stockpile would help me keep on track here, but I'm also going to need to rethink my overall meal planning cycle in the face of the new job.

Assessment: Mixed Success and Failure.


Follow-up for 2011: Increase my thinking to a sliding two week window so that my plans are more resilient against busy weekends.

Goal 3:


Observe Kitchen Wednesdays. This one really fell apart by mid-year. My work-at-home day fell by the wayside with the new job, and that was the end of the goal.

Assessment: Pretty much a failure.


Follow-up for 2011: I still want to have special meal days. It seems like the only way to work this into our new lifestyle is to either spread the prep out over a couple of days or to target the weekend.


Oh...and no snowbound cookie challenge in 2010. So, January.

Yellow Curry Tofu & Pineapple Rice

Yellow Curry Tofu

2 carrots, diced
2 onions, cut into wedges
peas (I used frozen)
tofu (one block, cut into chunks)
yellow curry sauce (maybe 2/3 of a bottle from trader joe's)
sesame oil

I cooked the onions in a very small amount of oil until they were softening and browning in places, then added carrots, then peas, then the tofu. All this simmered while I played on the floor with my kids and let it cook.

Meanwhile, I also had a pan of pineapple rice going.

Pineapple Rice

leftover rice from takeout, a couple days old and dried out is kinda perfect
can of crushed pineapple
sesame oil

I cooked the rice in the oil until I started to worry it would stick to the pan, then poured in the pineapple. All the juice soaked up into the rice and the whole thing simmered happily while the curry heated.

The kids liked the rice, but have yet to show much interest in tofu, even without the curry. Oh well, more for me ;). Lazy delicious dinner, and the nice thing here is that by having two quick and easy dishes instead of a single-pot meal (not that there is anything wrong with going single-pot) is that you can always grab an extra bite of rice if the curry gets to be too hot.

Meal Plan for 12/5/2010-12/12/2010

I'm trying to make this week's plans fairly low-impact and drawn from ingredients I have on hand -- not only is it a freezer-cooking month around here, it's almost time for the twelve days of cookies. You heard that right... it's almost time for the twelve days of cookies!!! More about that in another post, however. This is the plan I have for the next week plus:

12/5
-----
Lunch: leftovers
Dinner: pot roast with french bread
Prep: chicken/spinach pies

12/6
-----
Grocery shopping day: freezer cooking month version (i.e. buy only items that are either practically free or on the absolute essentials list)
Dinner: chicken/spinach pies, pita chips & hummos

12/7
------
First day of the twelve days of cookies!
Dinner: crock pot shepherd's pie: ground beef, carrots, peas

12/8
------
Dinner: Yellow curry tofu w/chickpeas & naan

12/9
------
Dinner: crock-pot chicken cordon bleu

12/10
------
Dinner: turkey nachos

12/11
------
Lunch:
Dinner:

12/12
------
Lunch:
Dinner:

Roasted Tomatillo Sauce

Fill a cookie sheet with halved tomatillos and hot peppers to taste. Roast in a 300-degree oven for an hour. Puree in blender with a few tomatoes and a little olive oil. Store in fridge in a container with a tight lid. This seems to keep well for several weeks. Add generously to whatever you're cooking -- simmer with half a cup of water, leftover rice and pinto beans.

Orange-Chipotle Turkey Nachos

Quick & easy Thanksgiving leftover recipe:

- shredded cooked turkey
- sliced onion
- orange
- chipotle powder
- cumin
- olive oil

Saute onions in olive oil (I used leftover from Thanksgiving prep) until they start to soften. Add shredded turkey and spices. Squeeze all the juice from the orange and simmer until absorbed.

Meal Plan for 9/6-9/13

Last month was pretty much a big Fail in the menu planning department. Maybe September will be better. Then again, since it's traditionally the busiest and craziest month at work, I'm doubtful... Eh, I guess we'll see.

Dinners

• roasted chicken with oranges
  
• ground pork burritos
  
• curry tofu, split pea dal, paratha bread
  
• big pot of chili
  
• homemade pizza
  
• frozen stockpile chicken crockpot thingys (x2)
  

Make-Aheads

• meatloaf
  

Mealplan for 8/8/2010-8/15/2010

This month we are lucky to have my mom staying with us -- work has been super busy, but I want to take advantage of the fact that I have another adult to feed and use it as an excuse to try some new recipes. She does not eat red meat, so having her here is also an interesting challenge for my meal planning. We don't eat that much red meat (although the 350 lb of beef which just arrived in my freezer suggests that our future may shift our habits in this regard...) but we do mix it in to keep things interesting. We hit the farmer's market, Whole Foods, Jewel, and our CSA dropsite today, so our fridge is stuffed with food. I suppose it's a little late to make a meal plan, but better late than never!

• chicken w/pesto butter -- portland palate p176
  
• shrimp sesame salad -- portland palate 49 and spicy peanut slaw summer cook's 35
  
• tofu stirfry
  
• tofu something else?
  
• leftovers
  
• ground turkey
  
• roasted pork --NC style -- summer cook's 23
  

Food and Fun for Next Week

My girls' babysitter is taking a vacation next week, so I took Monday and Tuesday as vacation days. I want to spend the time primarily on relaxing and enjoying time with my girls, but I also want to schedule my cook-a-thon and maybe get some sewing done during nap time. Fortunately they seem to take synchronous afternoon naps, so that means I'll have at least a few hours when both of my number-one priorities are asleep.

This week's dinners:

• breaded chicken & salad
  
• brats & buns
  
• slowcooker shredded pork nachos
  
• Indian curry tofu with potatoes
  
• pork chops something something?
  
• leftovers
  

Sides:

• kale, kielbasa, and brown rice
  
• rice
  
• smashed potatoes
  
• roasted cauliflower
  
• sauteed broccoli
  
• kohlrabi something something?
  

Prep:

• Cook-a-thon items
  
  • pineapple muffins
    
  • strawberry bread
    
  • black bean burgers
    
  • sw eggrolls -- use pork filling??
    
  • chicken cordon bleu
    
  • slowcooker chicken in mushroom sherry sauce
    

New Month, New Plan

Work has really been work this last month, and I think I'll leave it at that. It's a gorgeous weekend, my cupboards are full of food, and I need to make a meal plan to catch up. We hadn't been to the store in so long we just needed a general stock-up run, and I didn't have time to make a plan beforehand. We'll see what sorts of budgetary disasters ensue...we fronted a bunch of cash for half a cow and a summer's worth of organic veggies, and we're still paying that back to ourselves. I'd like to get far enough ahead that those investments don't send us into make-believe arrears, but we're not there yet.

This week's dinners:

• breaded chicken & salad
  
• lamb & pita (cucumber)
  
• brats & buns
  
• tropical shrimp teriyaki stirfry (mango, pineapple)
  
• ground pork tacos (double batch)
  
• leftovers
  

Sides:

• kale, kielbasa, and brown rice
  
• rice
  
• smashed potatoes
  
• roasted cauliflower
  
• sauteed broccoli
  

Prep:

• bread
  
• banana bread
  
• turkey meatballs
  
• blueberry coffeecake
  
• black beans
  
• Cook-a-thon items
  
  • pineapple muffins
    
  • breakfast burritos
    
  • strawberry bread
    
  • black bean burgers
    
  • sw eggrolls -- use pork filling??
    
  • chicken cordon bleu
    
  • slowcooker chicken in mushroom sherry sauce
    

Next week's dinners

• brats & buns
  

Some Kinda Meal Plan....

This month has been full of disorder and stress -- the mix of a new j-o-b and trying to figure out how to wrangle both an infant and a toddler has left me drained. It surely was handy to have so many freezer meals -- thinking back on the month, it felt like we ordered a lot of takeout, but looking at the budget, we actually didn't. Instead of going out to eat on the weekends, we've been kinda hunkering down, and takeout has been a stress response on the toughest weekdays. June will be better, surely. I love spring weather, and I have no interest in my girls growing up any quicker than necessary, but I'm ready to leave May behind, thankyouverymuch.

I realized today that my accumulated ground pork is pretty perfect for tacos (Secret Meat Club seems to include quite a bit of ground pork; the only use I'd come up with prior to today was eggrolls, which are frozen and awaiting stirfry meals). Despite eating out of the freezer quite a bit, I still have quite a stockpile from my previous rounds of freezer cooking. Today I stumbled across a couple of stuffed pancake cupcakes .... yum!

Dinners

• grill out 2x -- hamburgers, lamb sausage, steak
  
• pork tacos
  
• lamb curry stew
  
• turkey meatballs
  
• sweet & sour shrimp stirfry
  
• DIY pizza w/mozzerella & pepperoni
  

Sides

• asparagus risotto (or grilled)
  
• wild rice
  

To Freeze

• chopped asparagus
  
• chopped rhubarb
  
• creamed corn
  

My Freezer Cooking/Meal/Gardening Plan

Here's the items I want to make in this month's cook-a-thon:

• Pizza Rolls
  
• Chicky Nuggets w/peach sauce
  
• Buffalo Shrimp
  
• Ravioli Lasagna
  
• Turkey-egg-cheese "muffins"
  
• Twice-baked potatoes
  
• Lasagna
  
• Taconess
  
• Bread! Finally!
  

I am splitting this into a 3-day plan...which will be a little more of a challenge than usual because I don't have my work-at-home day this week. I'm also integrating in my meal and gardening plans to try to give myself a full & reasonable picture of what I'll be up to.

Tuesday AM: put pork roast into crockpot. Tuesday PM: Chop vegetables. Dinner tonight: shredded pork tacos; Also, start lamb roast and ground beef defrosting.
Wednesday PM: Cut potatoes, bake. Prep pizza dough. Freeze chicken that won't be used for nuggets. Chop chicken for nuggets, prep, bake. Put ground turkey into crockpot. Dinner tonight: leftovers. Garden plan: Dig a hole for sage, replant. Plant peppers in space vacated by sage plant, get tomatoes in the ground.
Thursday AM: Put ground beef in crock pot to cook overnight.
Thursday PM: Prep potatoes, freeze. Scramble eggs, mix with turkey and cheese, bake. Prep pizza rolls. Bake. Assemble lasagna, freeze. Assemble taconess, freeze.
Dinner tonight is Italian chicken, pasta, & sauce.
Plant perennials in back. Tote window boxes up to the back deck, plant annuals.
Friday PM: Plant leftovers.
Saturday AM: put lamb roast in crockpot. Leftovers...eat them, plant them. Get bread started.
Saturday PM: Dinner tonight: crock-pot lamb roast in pita with greek yogurt.Punch down bread.
Sunday AM: stirfry w/eggrolls
Sunday PM: Dinner tonight is BBQ.

Some people just don't know when to quit....

My last published meal plan is dated April 7th, and it's May 1. I mention this not because I feel like a slacker for not making and posting meal plans....although I suppose it's true. I don't feel guilty about it particularly, although it does remind me to redouble my efforts. Nope, I mention the time gap because in reality, I spent the last 24 days attempting to follow my April 7th meal plan, and not having very much success. So as I sit down to make the next week's plan, I'm trying to sort out what went wrong.

Dinners:


Pan-seared chicken breast from cook's illustrated
This I actually did make, last week. It was more effort than I really wanted to spend on worknight dinner, but the sight of several ingredients approaching the end of their useful life convinced me to suck it up.

These three never got made:
Beef Strogonoff from cook's illustrated

thai lemon grass pork chops w/ginger-lime sauce

chiang mai noodles

The first one didn't make it because I never bought the beef to go with it....I assumed that I had the right sort of beef in my giant freezer stockpile, and I was wrong. The other two depended on me not being too tired and hungry to deal with new recipes....

This one got made:
turkey meatballs
...in part, I think, because they are one of my specialties, and popular with the family.

Freezer:


Hah. Didn't happen. I bought all of the ingredients except for the chicken, made plans to get the chicken on sale, missed the sale, and never recovered.

In the intervening weeks, I entertained my in-laws during their "new grandchild" visit, cooked and ate most of the pre-cooked meals I put aside earlier in the year, and ended up going back to work earlier than I had planned -- I took 4 weeks leave instead of 8.

What was my real error in all this? I didn't recognize failure early enough. 3 weeks spent trying to implement a 1-week plan should have been a sure sign that I hadn't made much of a plan, that circumstances had changed, that a new plan was needed, but I never took a step back to observe things from an outside perspective.

So, what's the plan this week? Step 1, use the Freezer inventory to build the meal
plan...not my "wow, we have a lot of meat, so I'm sure we have THAT kind" imaginings....Step 2, go back to using my "working mommy" style of meal plan, and don't plan to spend ninety minutes in the kitchen every day of the week, you silly girl!

Dinners:

• grill outside 2-3 times -- turkey burgers and hotdogs and burgers and brats, potato salad, green salad Mon and Mon next week
  
• crock-pot pork roast -- for shredded pork tacos Thu
  
• crock-pot lamb roast in pita with greek yogurt Tue
  
• italian chicken, pasta & sauce w/spinach Fri
  
• frozen stirfry mix w/eggrolls, sweet & sour sauce Sat
  
• leftovers Wed and Sun
  

Freezer:

• Fruit & Grain Bars
  
• Pizza Rolls
  
• Chicky Nuggets w/peach sauce
  
• Sweet & sour chicken
  
• Buffalo Shrimp
  
• Ravioli Lasagna
  
• Turkey-egg-cheese "muffins"
  
• Twice-baked potatoes
  
• Bread! Finally!
  

After today's shopping trip, I can proudly announce that I'm actually starting the week with all the ingredients for my week's plan in-hand.

Meal and Freezer Cooking Plan

Dinners:

• Pan-seared chicken breast from cook's illustrated
  
• Beef Strogonoff from cook's illustrated
  
• thai lemon grass pork chops w/ginger-lime sauce
  
• chiang mai noodles
  
• turkey meatballs
  

Freezer:

• Fruit & Grain Bars
  
• Pizza Rolls
  
• Chicky Nuggets w/peach sauce
  
• Sweet & sour chicken
  
• Buffalo Shrimp
  
• Ravioli Lasagna
  
• Bread! Finally!
  

Getting Back In Business

My little bundle of joy is a little over two weeks old and I'm starting to feel like myself again. I had a great week with both my mom and my honey (and two adorable little girls) in the house, followed by a great week with my honey and my girls in the house, and now we're embarking on a mixed week -- some days my honey will be at home, and some days he won't. In a way it's too bad that maternity leaves coincide with the sleepiest stage in a child's life. She will just be getting interactive at the same time as I have to go back to work.

When she's sleeping and the toddler is napping or occupied, I've been trying to invest time in things that will give me more time with them later -- mostly cleaning, organizing, and de-cluttering. I want to do more freezer cooking as well. We are still pretty nicely stocked, but I'm in a stockpiling mode.

My meal-planning lately has been mostly mental, and mostly only a few days in advance. We're going to do a quick shopping trip tomorrow after Mira's medical appointment, just to refill on milk, salad, and bread. Maybe by the weekend I'll have my plans together for a full week of meals and a freezer cooking shopping trip.

Meal Plan for 3/7-3/13

Last week didn't really follow anyone's plan. I found myself feeling really sick Tuesday evening, and got much worse overnight. We weren't sure if it was the stomach flu or something pregnancy-related, but I'm too far along for the regular clinic to see me about a suspected stomach flu. So we paid a visit to Labor & Delivery on Wednesday, followed by a visit to my usual Obstetrician on Thursday, who confirmed that it was both...a stomach bug + dehydration basically triggered early labor. Most most most importantly, the baby is ok. I guess he/she just figured "hey, if things are going to be crazy around here, maybe I'll take off early." But then everything settled down, and he/she did too. I'm no expert, but it does seem like this baby is going to show up earlier than 3/24, regardless.

With all that going on, I'm not sure what we managed to eat, but the freezer meals came in handy, as did the stockpile. Friday we ordered a big pile of Thai food, which we are still gnawing our way through two days later. Last night we did another cook-a-thon, this time with the Once-a-month Mom February menu, so that scored us another 11 meals for the freezer.

Here's what the plan looks like for this week:

Mains

• leftovers
  
• pork chops
  
• country beef stew (crockpot)
  
• steak and potatoes
  
• turkey meatballs, sauce, noodles
  
• two freezer meals
  

Make-aheads

• Bread!
  

The freezer also contains ribs, bacon, pork sausage, and a split chicken for whatever comes next.

Meal plan for 2/28-3/7 and beyond

I didn't make much of a meal plan for the last two weeks -- it wasn't too much of a disaster, since we have all these nice freezer meals to eat -- but we also didn't really end up eating dinner for several of those nights... Time to plan again. This time around is pretty low-key because I'm planning another cook-a-thon. We still have most of the meals from the last cook-a-thon, but I'm planning ahead for baby time.

Mains

• pork chops
  
• turkey taco rollups
  
• country beef stew (crockpot)
  
• steak and potatoes
  
• turkey meatballs, sauce, noodles
  
• two freezer meals
  

Make-aheads

• Bread! We are all out of flour, which really put a crimp in my breadmaking habits these past few weeks
  
• The OAMM February menu (and really, that's enough!)
  

This will leave me with a freezer full of meals, plus ribs, bacon, pork sausage, and a split chicken for whatever comes next. The next CSA meat delivery is March 16th, which might mean other than getting what I need for the freezer cooking, we are pretty nicely stocked on that front for a while. With all the necessities so well-covered and the good deals coming so regularly at Jewel, I might actually brave the budget-killing paradise known as Trader Joe's......

Cook-a-thon Round One

In the course of my mommy blog travels, I ran across Once A Month Mom. The main feature that drew me to this site is a monthly cooking plan and menu for a cooking extravaganza -- one big effort, and you've got meals in the freezer for half the month or so. The menus are designed around a two-family, day-long event -- but besides being a single family sort of gal, I don't really feel as if I have a full weekend day to devote to this. Since we both work outside the home, weekdays are also difficult. I made a series of alterations to their overall plan and broke the work into a couple of phases, which I think worked out fairly well.

• Step 0: Read through the plan and get a sense of what's involved.
  
• Step 1: Sort through the google doc documents from the site -- there's a general plan, a shopping list, and a recipe list. Save a copy of the google docs for your own editing. Remove any recipes (and the corresponding ingredients) you don't intend to include. Edit down the shopping list to remove any ingredients you already have, won't use, etc.
  
• Step 2: Watch for sales on the items in the list that you're missing, and stock up as you can.
  
• Step 3: When the gap between what you have and what you need is fairly short -- or there are good sales on perishables -- it's time to trigger the final shopping trip to bridge that gap.
  
• Step 4: Defrost meat, if needed.
  
• Step 5: Follow the 'day before' instructions to cover anything that needs to be simmered/soaked overnight. Prepare any items that are raw meat + ingredients.
  
• Step 6: Chopping time -- cut up vegetables and such, and put them into plastic bags.
  
• Step 7: Cooking time! My first time around, I trimmed 3 items from my recipe list due to lack of time and lack of interest (should have read the recipes more carefully....), and held one until the following day.
  
• Step 8: Leftovers time -- see what you can assemble from whatever is left in your stock of cooked meat, chopped veggies, etc., or freeze it for the future.
  

My modified version of the OAMM January plan yielded me:

• 8 eggwiches
  
• 2 chicken/broccoli/cheese casseroles
  
• 2 bags of buffalo chicken pasta
  
• 2 bags of chicken quesadillas
  
• 2 bags of taquitos
  
• 3 casserole dishes of cannelloni
  
• 2 casserole dishes of mexican unstuffed shells
  
• 2 bags of mandarin orange chicken
  
• 2 bags of roast beef
  
• 2 bags of beef fajita starter (actually just raw beef in marinade)
  

Leftovers: scrambled egg, celery, onion, cheese, chicken. Besides yielding a baby/hubby breakfast from the leftovers, I also cooked up a big pot of chicken chili and set the rest aside for other meals.

All in all, this put at least 21 meals into my freezer (although a couple of them, like the taquitos, are a little on the junk food side and will need to be supplemented by some veggies or salad), for about 12 total hours of effort. Planned out this way, it probably represents at least 20 hours of saved effort -- less time grocery shopping, less time cooking each night, etc. I don't yet know if this will also save us money -- it seems like it fits in nicely with the stockpiling/buy-on-sale mentality, though. Plus we are even less likely to feel the pull of an unplanned restaurant meal if we have zero-effort food ready to go in less time than it takes a delivery person to get to our house. My favorite anticipated benefit, thought, is stress reduction. There is something rather nice about contemplating a freezer full of dinners when you are a 35 weeks pregnant, mother of a toddler, outside the home working kinda gal.

Real Weeknight Dinners: Pineapple Shrimp Stirfry

This is another easy one for busy days & post-work dinners!

Serves "us" -- i.e. two hungry adults and a toddler :)

Ingredients:
1 c uncooked rice (we used white long-grain rice)
1 lb pre-cooked shrimp
1 red onion
8oz pre-sliced mushrooms
3 stalks of celery
1/2 can crushed pineapple (or use more....the other half can goes to toddler food in our house)
1/2 cup peanuts (I used roasted, lightly salted because that's what we had -- add them to the pan earlier if yours aren't roasted already)
ground ginger
soy sauce
sesame seeds
peanut oil
rice wine vinegar (optional)

1. Get the rice started according to the directions on the package -- mine said to simmer it for 15 minutes in boiling water and then let it sit for 5 minutes.

2. Heat some peanut oil in a frying pan while you chop the onion. Allow the onion to soften in the oil while you chop the celery. Add the celery and then the mushrooms and then the peanuts.

3. If the shrimp is tail-on, pull the tails off as you add it to the pan. Sprinkle in the ginger, soy sauce, and sesame seeds. If the shrimp seems a little too strong, add a dash of the rice wine vinegar.

4. Add the pineapple in the last five minutes or so, allowing the juices to release from the fruit and thicken. If it seems like there is too much liquid, a pinch or two of cornstarch will help.

Real Weeknight Dinners: Pork Chops with Orange Sauce, Smashed Potatoes, Salad

So many quick dinner cookbooks cheat! They have ingredients lists which assume at least a half hour of prep or an army of sous chefs at your beck and call. I thought it might be useful to post a collection of what works for us as a true walk in the door, cook for 30 minutes, sit down and eat kind of meal.

I'm going to tag this one as two-handed -- four-handed tags will mark recipes written up for two people to work on, and six-handed for three people. Someday I'll probably also have a "plus toddler" when my girl is old enough to pitch in :).

Ingredients:
- 3 oranges
- 2 good-sized pork chops
- chop seasoning (we like Urban Accents' "Chicago Steak and Chop" mix) -- or some salt and pepper and such
- 4 good-sized potatoes
- salad & your favorite dressing (marzetti poppyseed works nicely)
- olive oil
- rosemary
- honey
- cornstarch
- 1/4 cup of milk

Directions:

1. On your way in the door, flip on the broiler. We have a gas oven, so it is quick to pre-heat -- your results here may vary, but mine is always ready to use by the time I finish getting jackets and shoes squared away. Put the chops on a broiler-safe pan, drizzle it with olive oil, and sprinkle it with the chop seasoning. Put the chops in the broiler, and set your timer for 8 minutes.

2. Cut the potatoes into eighths or smaller if they're particularly large. Put them in a microwave-safe bowl with hot water out of the tap and microwave it on high for 20 minutes or until soft enough to smash. We like our potatoes chunky and unpeeled, so that's what this recipe will give you.

3. Squeeze the juice from two oranges into a small saucepan and allow to simmer. Cut the orange pulp from the peel of the third orange and dice. If you like pulpy orange juice, you might like pulpy orange sauce, so feel free to add some of this diced pulp to the sauce.

4. Flip the chops when the timer goes off, and give them another dose of chop seasoning before returning them to the broiler. Set the timer for another 8 minutes, or to your preferred level of doneness.

5. Squeeze a little honey and add some rosemary to the orange sauce. Stir in a pinch of cornstarch. Check it every now and then -- when it starts to thicken, turn the heat down to low.

6. Toss your salad with the orange bits (to taste...anything unused is a snack :D). We have been particularly fixed on the refrigerated/produce aisle types of dressing lately, rather than the shelf-stable kind. You can use whatever, of course, but we had ours with poppyseed, and that matched nicely with the orange.

7. When the potatoes are done, smash them up and add the milk with a little dash of chop seasoning and/or rosemary to help tie the flavors together. Mix thoroughly and sit down to dinner!

Meal Plan for 2/7/10-2/13/10

Edited to mark things as 'eaten' or 'done', as applicable
Mains
** means it's a quick meal, meant to be served M/Tu/Fri

• rack of lamb, from French cookbook
  
• chicken cordon bleu from p251 in make it fast book**
  
• jerk chicken - p 289 in make-ahead book for marinade recipe**
  
• crispy asian-flavored chicken thighs with sweet-and-sour sauce, cold sesame noodles - p 97 & 98, make-ahead cookbook
  
  
• pork loin chops something??
  
  
• teriyaki shrimp skewers
  

Make:

• beans
  
  
• chicken enchiladas, p 255 in make-ahead cookbook**
  
  
• bbq chicken buns
  
• bread (3 loaves)
  
• cupcakes
  
• muffins
  

Cara Cara Chicken, Homemade Bread, and Salad

Dinner tonight was easy and delicious -- a roasted chicken covered in herbs and slices of cara cara oranges, some slices of homemade bread with honey or butter, and some salad right from the box with poppyseed dressing and crumbled blue cheese. I actually ended up cooking with two oranges and slicing two of them up for eating. Maybe it is just my mood or diet right now, or maybe Cara Cara oranges are something special....whatever it is, they really hit the spot tonight. Who needs dessert when you can eat these fab oranges?

I had considered making something a little more complex (an orange sauce, some smashed potatoes) but the napless wonder turned into a late napping, please-don't-put-me-down snuggler and I just let it all go....and I can't say I regret it a bit. She is not normally clingy, but tonight she had some needs and that's ok. I have days like that myself. And, hey, dinner was fab anyway. We ate it all up, and the baby loved the chicken, the oranges, and the bread -- I had to go back for seconds because she ate so much of my first helping. Sometimes she is a little funny about eating meat that isn't ground up or cut very small, but she ate quite a bit of chicken right from my plate with no problems.

Meal plan for 1/31/10-2/6/10

Edited to mark what we've consumed so far

Mains
** means it's a quick meal, meant to be made M/Tu/Fri
means try to make this in advance

• bacon-wrapped pounded chicken rollups of some kind
  
• rack of lamb, from French cookbook
  
• herb-roasted whole chicken, from p263 in make it fast**
  
• red onion jam stuffed pork rib chops with port, pecans, fruit from make-ahead book just broiled them instead
  
• chicken cordon bleu from p251 in make it fast book**
  

Also I made up some ground turkey nachos as a quick dinner (turkey and cheese was from this weekend's shopping, mixed in a diced onion, rotel, chips, barley, and corn from the stockpile, a little leftover spaghetti sauce, and some cilantro that was kicking around the fridge trying to go bad, plus some barley simmered in black bean soup, also from the stockpile). Yum! Even though the pantry challenge is officially over with, I still have a lot of stuff in my pantry. Overall, even though I love to cook and try new recipes, I am trying to keep the quality/variety up while spending less by moving toward a stock-up model for grocery shopping. Made and froze for later:

• lasagna with ground beef and spinach
  
• baked ziti with pork sausage p.226 in make-ahead cookbook -- altho I didn't end up using the pork sausage, just some meat sauce I came across in the freezer
  

Ideas for later:

• chicken enchiladas, p 255 in make-ahead cookbook**
  
  • need tomato sauce, canned jalepenos, sharp cheddar, corn tortillas
    
• jerk chicken
  
  • need scallions & molasses
    
  • p 289 in make-ahead book for marinade recipe**
    
• crispy asian-flavored chicken thighs with sweet-and-sour sauce, cold sesame noodles
  
  • need egg noodles, sesame oil, red bell pepper, scallions
    
  • p 97 & 98, make-ahead cookbook
    
• pork loin chops something??
  
• ground pork something??
  
• shrimp something??
  
• chicken something??
  

Um, delicious. Thai-style Slow Cooker Chicken

This worked out incredibly well.

Simmer 1-1.5 lb chicken breasts (I didn't thaw them) for 8 hours in a mix of:

• 1 can coconut milk (I used the low fat kind)
  
• some lime juice
  
• splash of rice wine vinegar
  
• sweet curry powder and galangal powder to taste (I would've used ginger if I hadn't had galangal)
  

So tender & tasty! I served it with cooked carrots, brown rice, and snips of cilantro.

Pantry Dinner & Kitchen Resolutions Put to the Test!

So, it was bound to happen -- we came home tonight with nothing on the meal plan to suit a quick Tuesday night meal, and not much in the pantry. So many things from the meal plan had to get refiled into February because I didn't have the ingredients, and the situation looked a little impossible. Silly me. I felt like I had nothing, but I pushed myself to be patient and think, not just reach for the takeout telephone. The shelves were low but not empty, and surely if I were actually poor or starving I would be amazed at the variety despite its eclecticism.

I had everything I needed, I just needed to put the picture together. Here's what I came up with: italian chicken with leeks (running low on spices, had to tap the stockpile there, and the leeks were a random little baggie my girl pulled out of the freezer when she was playing), sauteed spinach (which I'd meant to use in a different dish that I then could not make due to lack of shopping), whole wheat pasta (half a box left over from some other meal, which had fallen down back behind things), sorta-alfredo sauce, and mashed potatoes. The chicken had to be defrosted in the microwave (ugh...but it was frozen solid despite sitting in the fridge for 24 hours), and the alfredo sauce was made with fontina and brie instead of parmesan, and the mashed potatoes were the rest of the free box of instant potatoes I opened earlier in the week. When it was all assembled, DH was impressed that we'd gone from "nothing" to filling every pan on the stove.

While I finished up, I also sent him down on a delayed errand to dig supplies out of the deep freeze for me, and he came up with a bunch of different veggies. Now I have a plan for tomorrow, and a very short shopping list (just milk) for tomorrow.

Pot Roast

I think pot roast needs a new name. Imagine a delicious cut of beef, simmered for hours and hours in apple juice and red wine vinegar, sprinkled with peppercorns and herbs, piled up with onions and garlic and tomatoes. Kitchen-smells-wonderful, fork-tender, oh-I-want-seconds, make-sure-you-save-all-the-leftovers -- yes. "Pot roast" -- awww, do we have to call it that? Although it does bring to mind the Tom Lehrer lyric about bullfighters facing down "half a ton of angry pot roast"....I think it has a serious brand identity issue. Today's roast was sirloin tip roast -- and although I know almost nothing about cuts of meat, my sense is that sirloin tip is a better cut of meat than chuck roast, which is what I typically find at the store. I thought we might turn the rest into a chili dinner later in the week, but I'm not sure we have enough leftovers! I suppose we are fortunate to only have the two of us eating full meals -- I can't imagine how families with, say, four teenagers manage to keep enough protein in the house!

Week 4 of the Pantry Challenge

The Goals:


- Only spend half our grocery budget, preferably less!
As of the end of 1/23, we've spent 42.9% of our budget, and we're 74.2% of the way through the month. Hooray! I guess we won't really hit "preferably less" but it does look like we'll come in at about half. I think we'll need to restock on milk and fruit at some point, but I don't expect to do a big shopping run. There aren't that many good deals in the papers this week, so it's hardly worth the trouble (or the risk of ruining my plans :D).
- Eat from the pantry as much as possible -- in part so that I can get it better organized.
The hardest part about this lately has been figuring out what to feed the baby. She can be a little picky, and some of the things I come up with are either saucy or spicy in a way that doesn't really work for her -- we just weren't stockpiled particularly well with toddler-friendly alternatives.
- Stick with my kitchen resolutions and boost our preparation for my maternity leave in the spring. 

Made/froze so far:
• 2 dozen rolls
  
• Chopped carrots
  
• Eggrolls
  
• Beans
  
• Mac & cheese for Stella's packed lunch
  
• Bread -- 1 baked, 2 frozen loaves [we've now used 2 of the 3 loaves, next week we'll probably want to make more].
  
• Peanut butter kiss cookies
  
• applesauce [need to make even more]
  

Meal plan for the rest of January

We picked up our CSA delivery for the month, so it's time to plan meals for the rest of the month. I feel a little discombobulated trying to do this on a Tuesday night with no shopping planned, but I guess it does encourage me to stick with the whole pantry cooking thing.

Mains
** means it's a quick meal, meant to be made M/Tu/Fri -- may have make ahead work

• Hot banana curry shrimp with brown rice & veggie stirfry
  
  
  
• pork loin chops in apple-cream sauce
  
  
• pot roast, using sirloin roast -- shredded beef chili with the leftovers **
  
  
• bacon-wrapped pounced chicken rollups of some kind
  
• rack of lamb, from p325 in make it fast**
  
• herb-roasted whole chicken, from p263 in make it fast**
  

February meals

• red onion jam stuffed pork rib chops with port, pecans, fruit
  
  • need red onion, orange, pecans, blue cheese
    
• chicken cordon bleu from p251 in make it fast book**
  
  • need ham, swiss
    
• lasagna with ground beef and spinach
  
  • need ricotta, mozzerella
    
  • will need to freeze spinach to prevent spoilage
• baked ziti with pork sausage**
  
  • need ricotta, parmesan, ziti. p.226 in make-ahead cookbook
    
• chicken enchiladas, p 255 in make-ahead cookbook**
  
  • need tomato sauce, canned jalepenos, sharp cheddar, corn tortillas
    
• jerk chicken
  
  • need scallions & molasses
    
  • p 289 in make-ahead book for marinade recipe**
    
• crispy asian-flavored chicken thighs with sweet-and-sour sauce, cold sesame noodles
  
  • need egg noodles, sesame oil, red bell pepper, scallions
    
  • p 97 & 98, make-ahead cookbook
    
• pork loin chops something??
  
• ground pork something??
  
• shrimp something??
  
• chicken something??
  

Apparently I am looking forward to unfettered shopping in February :). Edited to remove all mentions of needing marinara sauce...wow did I find a lot of that stuff already in my freezer today...along with things that have been in there for a long, long time. I might need a cook from the pantry challenge twice a year....!

Spaghetti & Meatballs

Tonight's dinner was a nice combination of easy, popular, and cheap -- spaghetti and meatballs.

My usual approach for meatballs is to combine the ground meat (in this case, ground turkey breast) with egg, milk, and fine breadcrumbs, mixed by hand and made into balls. I opted for the longer but easier method of cooking them -- baked in the oven while we did various other things, like clean the kitchen (the dishes were really getting out of hand after our weekend of ad hoc meals and snacks) and try to comfort The Napless Wonder in her exhausted misery (poor thing was ready for bed by 730 pm...wonder when she'll wake up....).

For the sauce, I mixed some canned fire roasted tomatoes with some cherry tomatoes that were threatening to go squishy and a can of cream of mushroom soup to make a tomato cream sauce. We had some red pepper puree that I'd frozen and then defrosted, which added a little bit of invisible vitamin power to the whole concoction. The pasta was whole wheat spaghettini.

Unfortunately, there were no leftover noodles or meatballs to send in our girl's lunch :( she likes noodles and meatballs quite a bit, but we were hungry it seems! We do have some leftover sauce, and I'm thinking about making either some kind of stromboli or or else lasagna with it. We do have a container of fresh spinach to contribute to either meal, and some nice lasagna noodles....but not much in the way of cheese. But meal planning is a task for tomorrow, when I'll actually know what meats to plan around.

Dinner tomorrow will either be North African stew or banana curry shrimp -- both will be from the freezer. Since it's a Tuesday, quick and easy will rule the day.

Frugal Map on BargainBriana.com

I was actually going to post about this anyway, but then I noticed that she is having a giveaway to promote the new site. So, if you think the existence of a contest will color my review, skip this post :).

Anyway! This is the sort of thing I have been hoping to find for a while, and I'm glad that someone has finally done it. I have family in Texas, Georgia, Oregon, and New York, and when they are curious to understand what I'm talking about with coupons and deals and such, I can't be as helpful without local bloggers to refer folks to. Plus I am always on the lookout for more locals to keep an eye on.

The Frugal Map is a clickable map of the US which lets you view bloggers in your state. It's a simple concept, but a big benefit to people trying to save money. There are plenty of frugality blogs out there, and you would go nuts trying to follow all of them (plus they often "rebroadcast" content from one another, so there's a diminishing return after a while). Reading a local blog or three carries some additional benefits -- not only do they often highlight truly local deals or give reviews of individual franchises of big chains, but their store circulars will more often match yours. It's definitely frustrating to head to the store to collect on a great deal you just read about online, only to find that it's some kind of regional thing -- plus it can be a little disheartening to read week after week about the great deals to be had at someplace you can't possibly visit!

Pantry Challenge, Week 3!

We are going to make it all the way to the CSA delivery on the 19th without a major protein re-supply run! I've picked up a few deals here and there as supplements, but the giant twice-weekly meat shopping extravaganza at Whole Foods has been avoided. I don't expect we'll do this well next month, since it only actually lasted us about 3 weeks max, but at least I have the breathing room to stockpile based on some sales -- like I did with shrimp last week, and I'm doing with chicken breast and juice this week.
The Goals:


- Only spend half our grocery budget, preferably less!
As of the end of 1/17, we've spent 38.5% of our budget, and we're 54.8% of the way through the month. We're approaching a better spend rate, but I haven't done any meal planning or really thought about what to eat past Monday....
- Eat from the pantry as much as possible -- in part so that I can get it better organized.
One fun thing this week is that my husband has been getting involved in the challenge -- suggesting meals, or asking if we should pull something or other out of the freezer. This is making our cooking a little more democratic, which is great. In the past, I was the one with the stack of cookbooks and the grocery list and the web browser full of tabs, working out a combination of tasty, interesting, savvy recipes to yield a meal plan. I always ask for ideas and such, and grocery shopping and cooking have always been a 100% team effort, but usually I end up being the "creative" force. Mostly this is because I enjoy it and I'm pretty good at it, and while he loves to eat what we make and is just as supportive and helpful as anyone could be, he generally can't remember what something tastes like, or imagine whether it will be good based on a recipe or ingredients (going to restaurants with him has always been very amusing....I've never met anyone else who had no memory or imagination for flavors). When all the meal components are whatever's in front of you with minimal supplement, it's a lot easier to participate. At any rate, it has made this week of the pantry challenge more fun to have my forever companion working at it with me.

As far as the organizing thing goes....it's getting there. The fridge in particular is starting to look quite bare. But it's amazing how much stuff we had packed into the pantry shelves....I don't think we'll need to buy brown rice for months and months....also it is taking a while to figure out what to do with all these cans of soup, since we don't actually eat soup all that much...I have some thought that cans of vegetable soup would be perfect for baby food if run through a blender, but the baby who might eat such a thing won't be born for another 2 months, and then won't be eating baby food for 6 months after that....so it's a little early to crack open the cans.
- Stick with my kitchen resolutions and boost our preparation for my maternity leave in the spring. 

Made/froze so far:
• 2 dozen rolls
  
• Chopped carrots
  
• Eggrolls
  
• Beans
  
• Mac & cheese for Stella's packed lunch
  
• Bread -- 1 baked, 2 frozen loaves [we've now used 2 of the 3 loaves, next week we'll probably want to make more]. I don't know why we didn't do this earlier -- it is pretty easy to get into a cycle of making up 3 loaves of bread dough every few weeks, and being able to just pop out a loaf and bake it up on demand is so nice!
  
• Peanut butter kiss cookies [by request from the DH, who is not only a cookie monster, but also remembers adoring these when my niece and I made them at Christmas -- if they all stay out on the counter, they will disappear fast....so some of them are headed for the freezer!]
  

Pantry Challenge, week 2!

The Goals:


- Only spend half our grocery budget, preferably less!
As of the end of 1/14, we've spent 33.3% of our budget, and we're 45.2% of the way through the month. We'll need to slow down our spend rate if we're going to come in at 50% of our budget. We're eating up the budget a little more quickly than planned because I took advantage of some sales to stock up on frozen shrimp and I also ended up re-supplying my sugar stockpiles...those cinnamon rolls are calling to me!
- Eat from the pantry as much as possible -- in part so that I can get it better organized.
We have mostly been eating either from our meal plan or else defrosted stuff I am discovering in the freezer, but I've gotten a little creative with bits and pieces from the back of the fridge and cabinets as well. Mmmm, and Chinese takeout.
- Stick with my kitchen resolutions and boost our preparation for my maternity leave in the spring. 

Made/froze so far:
• 2 dozen rolls
  
• Chopped carrots
  
• Eggrolls
  
• Beans
  
• Mac & cheese for Stella's packed lunch
  
• Bread -- 1 baked, 2 frozen loaves
  

Meal Plan, 1/10/10

Breakfasts:

• pumpkin pancakes [freezer]
  
• pop tarts [pantry]
  
• yogurt [fridge]
  
• cereal [pantry]
  
• fruit [need to shop]
  

Lunches:

• Kaylea's takealong lunches [need to shop]
  
• Grilled cheese sandwiches
  

Dinners:

• beef roast something
  
• chicken thigh something
  
• veggie burgers, maybe w/chili or soup?
  
• lamb roast
  
• onion-coated chicken
  

Side Dishes:

• salad
  
• squash and potatoes with rosemary in crockpot
  
• roasted carrots
  
• potato-carrot pancakes
  

Prep for future:

• a cake
  
• tortillas
  

Week 1 of the Pantry Challenge: Status Update

The Goals:


- Only spend half our grocery budget, preferably less!
As of mid-day on 1/9, we've spent 15.3% of our budget, and we're 30% of the way through the month. The snowy weather is helping out in this respect....who wants to shop for anything more than the bare necessities in weather like this?
- Eat from the pantry as much as possible -- in part so that I can get it better organized.
We have mostly been eating defrosted stuff I am discovering in the freezer, but I've gotten a little creative with bits and pieces from the back of the fridge and cabinets as well.
- Stick with my kitchen resolutions and boost our preparation for my maternity leave in the spring. 
So far, so good!

Made/froze so far:
• 2 dozen rolls
  
• Chopped carrots
  
• Eggrolls
  
• Beans
  
• Mac & cheese for Stella's packed lunch
  

The first week has been pretty smooth. I need to make some bread, since our stockpile is now empty, and I didn't get a chance to make tortillas, so we've drained our tortilla chip stash down to pretty much zero by having nachos instead of tacos on two nights (leftover beef roast, yay). Overall, we've eaten more leftovers/frozen things than I had planned (you never know what you'll discover when you thaw something out...) and we ate things in a slightly different order, so the non-leftovers meals are stretching further into the month -- we may bridge the gap with our next CSA delivery with some room to spare. My cinnamon roll plan was put on ice when I realized...duh....I have no granulated sugar. We have ingredients remaining for these meals/entrees:

• veggie burgers, maybe w/chili or soup
  
• steak
  
• lamb roast
  
• onion-coated chicken
  

We also have the ingredients for these sides:

• yellow split pea-spinach dal
  
• squash and potatoes with rosemary in crockpot
  
• roasted carrots
  
• potato-carrot pancakes
  

Future prep items for now through the 15th include:

• a cake
  
• tortillas
  
• more mac & cheese
  

We have so many cookies plus chocolates from the holidays that I'm not sure that cake serves much purpose other than pantry de-cluttering. Then again, cupcakes are always welcome anywhere you take them. We have a two-pound pack of chicken thighs that I bought ages ago and have been avoiding because they were a mistake...I don't usually cook with dark meat. I am willing to be convinced to use them in the name of the pantry challenge, but I need to find a recipe. Maybe Cook's Illustrated can help me there -- I am willing to believe that if they call for chicken thighs in something, it's for a good reason. I have another beef roast, and some smoked pork hocks (so far, the only recipes I've found use them in red beans & rice, which I could definitely fall for).

Rustic Italian Dinner: Roasted Chicken with Stuffing, Oven-Crisp Potatoes, and White Bean Hummus

I am so proud of the dinner I made last night. It was a Wednesday dinner, and since one of my Kitchen Goals for the year is to make Wednesdays special, I was particularly pleased to have a success on the first round.

I don't usually cook whole chickens (this was my second ever) -- I've cooked more whole turkeys (maybe 6?) than chickens. But I went ahead and gave it a shot -- rubbed the bird down with olive oil, sprinkled with herbs and lemon juice (mostly green tea peppercorn seasoning, yum), then tossed a few onions into the pan, started it at 450 for 5 minutes then baked at 350 for about an hour. This worked out rather nicely, although the dark meat needed a little more oven time. I stuffed the bird with some bits and pieces I threw together -- some chopped tomatoes, a torn-up slice of homemade bread that had gotten a little old and dry, some boxed breadcrumbs, mixed with some melted butter. Why did it not occur to me before that stuffing is just dribs and drabs of whatever you have on hand?? Until this meal, I thought of stuffing as a thing you have a recipe for, or a boxed mix. Silly.

The potatoes I made from thin slices of a single potato I had kicking around the fridge, already washed and ready to go -- I think I had it around because I scaled back the quantity of potatoes in some dish in the middle of prep. Anyway, yes, thin slices, tossed with olive oil, lemon pepper, and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes for kick. This worked out incredibly well, as I managed to restrain myself from putting in too much pepper and didn't overwhelm the thin and slightly crispy slices. I spread them out on a cookie sheet and baked them beside the chicken for the last 20 minutes of baketime or so. The thinner ones stuck to the pan a bit and some pieces got too brown, so 20 minutes is probably too long.

Then, on to the hummus. This was out-of-the-park, eat-it-again-soon kind of territory. Yuuuuummmmmy. I had planned to follow a recipe for white bean crostini, and changed my mind at the last minute to making hummus instead, since we had pita chips in the pantry not bread to toast into crostinis. Great move, that. Here's what I ended up doing:

2 C cannellini beans (dried then cooked is what I used, I spose you could use canned)
2 plum tomatoes, chopped
1 onion, cut in thin slices
lemon pepper to taste
dried garlic bits to taste
chicken broth to taste
olive oil to taste
rosemary to taste

Whir up 1 C of the beans and half the tomatoes into a nice smooth blend with some olive oil to help it stick together in the food processor while the onions caramelize a bit in some olive oil in the frying pan, then add the other cup of beans, as well as the garlic, rosemary, and pepper. Add maybe 1/4 c of broth, depending on how soupy your mix is. Simmer on the stove until it thickens a bit. Add the contents of the frying pan to the food processor, and pulse a few times to blend. If it seems a bit dry, olive oil should help. The end result will be a nice mixture of chunky and smooth, perfect for scooping with pita chips.

Hooray for organization!

I had one of those little victories today -- the kind where you feel like all of your preparation and hard work is paying not only the dividends you expected, but unexpected kinds as well. We had occasion to thank a neighbor for some very kind effort he put forth on our behalf during our vacation, and what better way to say thanks than a plate of home-baked brownies, a loaf of home-made bread, and a note? I knew where my notecards were, I had the ingredients for brownies, and I had a frozen unbaked loaf of bread ready to go. My efforts in this area have been primarily motivated by trying to create a comfortable and peaceful home, but the ability to also be grateful in response to another's generosity is an unexpected extra encouragement to keep working at this home management thing. Yay!