Meal Plan Monday; 2-in-1

I decided to start doing two weeks of meal planning at a time. The week goes so quickly and, before I know it, I'm staring down Sunday with a dwindling produce selection and not a lot of inspiration. The meals for the following week that can be made ahead and frozen will be, and grocery shopping will be more streamlined. With a five person family, I still try to stay under $800 a month in groceries, and most of the time I'm able to, with some flex for the months of heavy meat purchases. Once I made the commitment to buy only organic and/or free-range meat, I also had to concede that we'd have less meals that included meat so I've been delving into my queue of vegetarian meals. A lot of people shy away from vegetarian meals because they think they'll lack flavor or substance, but that's just not true, it's all in the seasoning and the selection of produce and protein.

I've been pretty salad-heavy in my lunches lately, but will be trying these Eggplant Pizzas from Julia Child as a way to change things up. There are so many good, healthy and hearty options, there's no reason to be left eating your kids' cast-off crusts, or a crappy protein bar on the run. It takes a little more planning and prep time, but once you get in the habit it just becomes part of your day.

For the week of February 17th:

Monday: Quinoa Burgers, using the shredded zucchini in the recipe instead of carrots

Tuesday: Make-Your-Own Taco Bar

Wednesday: This Chili (yes, again-It's good! Making multiple batches by prepping the meat and then dividing into gallon sized bags, ready to thaw and cook next time) and Skillet Cornbread

Thursday: Meaty Lasagna, Salad and Bread (yet another that I'll make multiple of-in 8x8 pans-and freeze)

Friday: Pizza Playdate Dinner-For all the mamas whose husbands work late or travel, it's one night a month that we don't have to worry about dinner alone.

Saturday: Breakfast for Dinner; WW Waffles with Berry sauce and bacon. I love Marc Bittman's Quick and Easy waffles-I've used How To Cook Everything to death!)

Sunday: Minestrone (I make this a quad batch by browning enough meat for four batches and then continuing on with only one quarter of the meat for one batch and portioning the others into gallon-sized freezer bags with the remaining ingredients per the freezer instructions), Green Salad and Artisan Bread

For the week of February 24th:

Monday:  Quinoa and Spinach patties with eggs

Tuesday: Fish Tacos with Simple Slaw (cabbage, sour cream or greek yogurt, lime juice, salt and cilantro)

Wednesday: Brisket with Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Parmesan Risotto

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Mom's gone-Boys rule (I'll be having a delicious kid-free dinner in Portland with my bestie to ring in another year for her)

Saturday: Ditto (more kid-free loveliness, including some pampering with girlfriends to celebrate babies and birthdays)

Sunday: Breakfast for Dinner; Protein Banana Pancakes and Bacon

Holidaze

With a husband whose job requires shift work, I'm often left to fly solo on the holidays. Thanksgiving I woke up early and literally didn't leave the kitchen until I put 'dinner' on the table at 11:30am, so we could eat together.  The meal lasted approximately ten minutes, during which I heard a lot of 'this is gross' and 'I don't like like my (fill in the blank) like this.'

I roasted my first turkey, including the overnight brine, made the smitten kitchen green bean casserole which had amazing thin-sliced (home-fried) crispy onions atop a bed of blanched green beans in a from-scratch mushroom sauce. It was delicious. Or disgusting. Which depended on whether or not you were in the over or under 8-years-old set. Jack ate everything, like the gracious baby he is, and the big kids were excused from the table. After clearing the table and glumly accepting my husband's praise and gratitude for the meal, I did what any strong-willed, self-respecting grown-up does. I went into my bedroom and cried. Seriously, I didn't even take any photos of my food that day-that's saying something! Next year I'll be sticking to my original idea to have Thanksgiving brunch. Although the layered Pumpkin Pie Toffee Cheesecake was ahhh-mazing. But you can totally eat cheesecake for brunch.

Christmas was spent at our house with my mother and father-in-law and I made my first prime rib, which turned out fabulously (we'll be doing that every year!) with all the trimmings of a steak dinner; horseradish and jus, twice baked sweet potatoes, green beans and salad. The kids all loved their deliveries from the jolly guy (including the KidKraft play kitchen that took a certain elf until 3:30 in the morning to build...) Sweet baby, Jesus, maybe next year she should start before 11:30 on Christmas Eve, but there were a lotta pieces! We had friends over for dessert a few hours after dinner, and it was the perfect meld of food and fellowship. Thanksgiving's sadness was erased.

Any day spent playing blocks with Grandma is a good day.

Tiny Pliny in the kitchen

Fast forward to New Year's, where J worked the afternoon shift which ends shortly before midnight, so I decided to host a small New York New Year's Eve with friends (read: we shuttle the littles to bed when the ball drops in Times Square...at 9pm.). Living on the left coast definitely has its perks. After a search of pinterest for ideas, I knew I wanted to keep it simple, so I put together little bags of dollar store finds for random times throughout the evening. The first was mini tubs of play-doh to occupy kids that were feeling left out, or tired of playing with legos, while the adults ate dinner. The second was about an hour later, a bundle of bead necklaces to wear while watching a movie. The third was blowers (not noise makers) to 'get your second wind' at about 8:15, then it was mini bottles of bubbles to 'break out the bubbles' at 8:45. For the New Year's toast, I did Shirley Temples with a cotton candy float. All of the supplies (including the cotton candy, but excluding the drink fixin's) were purchased at the dollar store for less than $10. I just put them in brown paper lunch bags I already had, and labeled them with labels printed in shades of the same tone and attached with washi tape. Simple, but fun. Just like our evening. I hope you had a great night and that 2014 is treating you well!

Nothing says party boy like skinny jeans and a sweatervest

Luckily J got home in time for an actual kiss at midnight. But this would have been a close second.

Choc-o-Holic

I saw a post from my sister-in-law's mom on facebook the other day referencing a chocolate sorbet recipe from Smitten Kitchen that she was making for later that day. Sorbet? Smitten Kitchen? Chocolate? Sign! Me! Up!


But, then I read the recipe and was so sad to see the second to last line;  Chill the mixture thoroughly,  then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Well, boo-hiss! Our ice cream maker was one of the appliances that didn't make the cut for our tiny apartment kitchen, but that I always thought I'd someday replace. 


Had I yet replaced it? Nope. J started home-brewing last fall and I thought it would be fun to upgrade to the professional kitchen aide and get the ice cream maker attachment so that we could make home-made ice cream and home-made root beer for a truly authentic summer treat. Well, the best laid plans and I've neither a bigger kitchen-aide or home-made rootbeer. But alas, the same mother-in-law-ish said that the Cuisinart ice cream maker was awesome, and you'd have frozen bliss in about a half hour. A quick scan of amazon showed me that not only was it a pretty affordable appliance since it was on sale, but the red was also cheaper than the white. It was meant to be.


Thanks to amazon prime, I had that baby in my hot little hands in less than 72 hours. I prematurely told the boys we'd have ice cream for dessert that night-what? You have to freeze the freezer bowl first? Obviously I'm a newbie.


After a night in the freezer, it was more than ready and I whisked the sugar, water and cocoa powder in a large pot on the stove, watching it work into a frenzy of a rolling boil and then remove from the heat to stir in semi-sweet chocolate and some vanilla, along with the other 
half of the water.

Because I'm super patient, I transferred the mix to a shallow pan and stuck it in my fridge so the 'thorough chill' would happen post-haste.

After about an hour, I transferred the mix to the fridgid bowl of my ice cream maker and the magic began.


I set the timer for 20 minutes, but it wasn't until after about 25 minutes of churning that it was the consistency of soft serve. If I let it be truly, thoroughly chilled, it'd probably have a thicker consistency, but I wasn't complaining! I plopped it in a plastic container (had I not read the directions, I'd have been storing my culinary delight directly in the freezer bowl) and put in back in the freezer while we ate dinner so it could continue to harden.

It was ridiculously good, and I have to say that I wasn't even able to finish my serving because it's so rich. I feel a little bit dirty even having to type those words!  

Yes, I shamelessly smeared it on their faces for a photo op...but it really is that good!  Hee hee.

On the food front, when I get back from visiting my parents this weekend, I asked J for a little sit-down so we can make some health and fitness goals for the coming school year. If I'm serious about dropping some lbs before getting pregnant again, something's gotta change because, while this was much healthier than eating, say, a pint of Ben and Jerry's, dessert is something that's snuck back into our everyday lives far too easily. Post-marathon, I've struggled to really embrace my running schedule again and it's a little like starting all over again. 


Alas, I will make this again, too many times, playing with additions like fresh raspberries or a little mini marshmallows and slivered almonds for the kids my own guilty pleasure. Oh, the dance between letting myself enjoy food and being a gluttonous slug. All I can say is it's a good thing I run!