Sandwiches!

No turkey sandwiches here...you actually need a turkey.  But I did make chicken sandwiches for lunch the day after Thanskgiving.  This one had mayo, chicken, aged gouda, avocado, and fresh sliced tomatoes.  YUMMY.

I also have been on a bagel kick (sadly, a 6 pack only lasts 2 days with 3 people).  I had bagels with cream cheese and MORE tomatoes.

These are my garden tomatoes.  I realize that it's November, but apparently our tomato plants don't realize it yet.  The beauty of So Cal!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a low-key chill Thanksgiving.  With a cold, I just wasn't feeling up to being social, since our first set of plans fell through.  I declined other invitations so that I could nap.  We ended up watching way too much TV: Madagascar, then back-to-back Willy Wonkas (both versions).
Our dinner was simple, but still not ready on time (1/2 hour late).  Figures.  We did my favorite Ina Garten chicken recipe on a bed of vegetables.  I'm going to say it: how come the chickens at the farmer's market don't come with giblets anymore??
We started by chopping onions, carrots, yukon potatoes, and sweet potatoes and putting them in our roasting pan with olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Then you put the chicken on top and roast 1.5 to 1.75 hours.  Remove chicken, and let rest before carving.  The veggies get all caramely and delicious.

 

My husband made his grandpa's famous cornbread stuffing.  (It was missing something this year.  We aren't sure what.)

We weren't feeling up to homemade rolls, so pillsbury to the rescue!

Here's my plate before:

And here's my plate after:

I just wasn't that hungry.  Of course, I passed out at 8 pm, woke up at 1 am.  I've been awake for an hour, so I finished off my plate with a glass of milk, and I'm hoping it will put me to sleep soon.  Ugh.

Quick and Sick Lunch

So what do you eat when you are home sick, and have been sick for more than a month?  Good question!  I finally kicked the bronchitis and came down with a cold.  My boss essentially ordered me to take today off.  In fact, I even went home early yesterday.  I missed my company's status update, which apparently also included the fact that I won an award, missed out on free Indian food, and have to wait until Monday to get a $25 grocery store gift card given to all employees.

I don't feel too bad about missing it (except for the excitement of winning an award, which I found out when my engineer congratulated me by email).  I got home, put on sweatpants, and immediately fell asleep for 2 hours, sitting upright on the couch.

I spent the rest of the day tired, and spouse and I had tickets to see Blue Man Group.  We even hired a babysitter for the first time!  (Yes my son is 5.5.  Sad.  We've swapped with friends, hired a nanny for a week - but she's not local during the school year, but that's it.)  It was an awesome show, but I almost fell asleep during it.  I woke up at 3 am again...this insomnia is killing me.

For my day off, I sent my kid off to day care anyway (such a bad mom thing to do, but I am going to pull the "sick" card here).  Got some grocery shopping done and now I'm about to take a nap.
So this was my lunch today after my trip to TJ's.  Annie's Teriyaki noodles, with extra frozen veggies tossed in, and a couple of tangerines from our tree.  The tree is laden this year.  I don't buy much fruit now, I just go outside and start picking!

Later folks.  Turkey day is tomorrow.  We aren't hosting this year, nor are we going anywhere.  A couple of coworkers kindly invited us over, but with my sickness, I really just need to be somewhere where I can nap on demand.

Grass fed Tri tip

I seem to be on a once-a-week trend of posting.  Considering my bronchitis and lack of sleep, I think that's to be expected.  Luckily, I do have a general menu plan, so I can be brutally honest about what's cookin' in the FHS household.
Last Sunday was tri-tip.  My friend Kelly is my source - she is 100% paloe/Atkins, and she and her hubby buy it in bulk.  That means I get some too at a bargain $8 a lb.  Each package usually has about 3.5 lbs and two small tri-tips.  This is easily enough meat for us to eat all week.  (Truly, it's more than we would normally eat.) 
This week's menu started with tri-tip, rice with veggies from the CSA, and kale chips.

 

The rest of the week involved more tri-tip and rice, skillet pasta (with or without the meat), burritos, more tri-tip with salad...you see the trend here.  Thursday night I made more rice and quinoa to go with the meat for lunch on Friday while I was cooking a dinner of chicken, salad, and cornbread.

Friday night was pizza (ordered in).  Saturday lunch was a friend's birthday party, where we ended up with leftovers.  And Saturday night was pizza.  So, the illness means we are cooking less for sure.  I just haven't been feeling like eating vegetables either.

On that note, the CSA is over for the year.  They extended the season for four weeks, but since we'll be gone that last week, we didn't sign up.  We do need to sign up for next year though.  I should check on that.  So my haul at the farmer's market was larger to make up for it.

This year we're not having turkey (long story), but I am roasting a chicken on a bed of delicious root vegetables.

Poor hubby.  He was supposed to play tennis today for the first time in weeks.  I awoke at about 5 am to a tinkling sound of rain.  No tennis for him.  We've both been slacking on our workouts.  With the inability to breathe, I haven't been swimming in four weeks.  My exercise involves 2 days a week at the gym, 30 mins elliptical, 15 min weights.  And one day walking 2-3 miles on the weekend.  It's gotta be enough to keep me going until I am healthy again.

A brief week in pictures

The blog has been winding down lately, as I'm sure you've noticed.  There are a few reasons for this: work craziness (I now have four people working for me, and it's crunch time), husband traveling, and bronchitis.  Yay for me.  I find myself passing out between 8 and 8:30 in the evening (many times before my child), waking up at 1 am with insomnia for a couple of hours, and then awaking again at 4 or 5 in the morning.  Lovely.
So my energy level isn't that great, and the whole family is ready for the bronchitis to be over.  Here's a bit of what's been going on:

Last weekend a really great friend of ours came by for a visit.  He was in our wedding, and my hubby was his best man.  He's from Santa Fe, and he was on a business trip in San Francisco, so he swung by for a weekend.  His wife wasn't able to make it.  We had such a great time.  You know how you've got old friends (we've known him for...19 and 21 years I think) who, no matter how long you've been apart, you go back seamlessly into a great fun relationship?  Yeah, it's one of those.  He's a vegetarian, so we did a combo of cooking and eating out while he was here.
Friday night (I had the day off): homemade pizza
Saturday morning: eggs and toast
Saturday lunch: farmer's market, went wine tasting, ate sandwiches at a great deli
Sunday dinner: made black bean burritos and kale chips
Sunday breakfast: out (we love breakfast out).  Tried a new place.  It was "meh".
Sunday lunch: veggie burgers
Sunday dinner: skillet spaghetti and salad
Monday breakfast: scones.  See below...

Beef Stew-fry

That is not a typo.  We got a LOT of greens last week from the farm.  And I didn't even eat all of them yet.  Hopefully the tatsoi is still good.  But we had a big bag of "braising greens" and some mizuna from the week before.

My son doesn't like "stir-fry", so I made a stir-fry in the stew pot and called it stew.  It has local grassfed beef, greens, onions, peppers, tomato, a soy-sesame sauce, with some of our home canned tangerine marmalade to give it some sweetness.  It's almost paleo (except for the marmalade), and it was tasty.  I made it last Thursday and have a teeny bit left for lunch tomorrow.

On the health front, I still have an awful cough...I think I may have bronchitis.  So I will be heading to the doctor's office tomorrow and see what they can do for me.  Ugh.  I get winded just trying to walk more than a mile (I still do it), and I am coughing up lots of phlegm.  It's been 2 weeks!

The beef, onion, and peppers

The braising greens (kale, chard, etc)

The finished product