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...

We got a spaghetti squash.  I've never had that much success with it - could never make it so that the resulting dish was not runny.  Until now.  And this is a relatively primal-friendly recipe, if you eat dairy.  And I do.  I made this on a Monday night, which was a bad idea. Dinner was not done until about 7:30 pm.  Part of that is because I needed two items my husband was bringing home from work, and he was very late. 

First, roast the spaghetti squash.  This took about 45 mins to an hour at 400F.  Roast open side down.  Let cool.  I did not have time to let it cool, so I  held the halves with the tongs and then used a fork to pull off the strings, and my forearms and hands got so tired I wanted to cry.

Next, mix the strands in a bowl with some pesto and olives.  You could add roasted or sauteed veggies too.  I didn't have any. It was a Monday.  CSA day is Tuesday.  Place in a pan coated with cooking spray.  Mine is 9x9.

Lay on the chicken.  I used Trader Joe's frozen breaded chicken cutlets.  My kid loves these.  Now, you all know that I am big on cooking from scratch.  But boy, this is where I pull out the working mother and I-have-bronchitis cards.  Top with marinara sauce and cheese.  Bake at 350F for 30 min.  I covered mine for the first 20 mins because the chicken was frozen.

This was a great meal, and since spouse left for 2 days (to go camping in the desert - for WORK), we ate this for dinner most of the week. 

We had one night out for a pizza fundraiser at the school (now THAT was an experience I don't want to repeat.  Picture 3 adults, 4 kids, a crying baby, an hour wait for a table, a decision to get it to go instead, 2 kids crying because they want to eat there, a 30 minute wait for the food, and a crying baby the way home.)  Next time, I call ahead and just go to pick it up.  Or better yet, just give the school the four bucks.

Next up: cookies.  Chewy choc-oat chip cookies.  This recipe came off the lid of Quaker oats years ago, and I wrote it down.  Oats, chocolate chips, and for fun, I added leftover M&Ms from the halloween candy.  My company had a small BBQ for the fab folks yesterday, to thank them for their great work.  I decided to join them and make cookies. Those weekend guys love their ice cream, and they put cookies and cream ice cream in between two cookies.  That's goooood.

Also: we took soda to the party.  I love this stuff.  The orange is my favorite.  I better not buy anymore.  Too many calories.  But I wasn't drinking wine at the party.  Bronchitis again.

As promised: scones.  For breakfast the last day, I made lemon poppyseed scones.  Later in the week: pumpkin scones. 

On our various trips over the weekend, our friend mentioned these awesome scones that you only have to add water to make - and you can order them on line or find them at Cost Plus World Market.  Well, we happen to have one of those and we checked it out.  And lo and behold, they were having a sale!  Normally $5.99, they were $4.99, buy two get one free.  That's $10 for 3, or $3.33 a piece, which is a great price for something that provides breakfast for 3, 2 days in a row.  And there are no weird ingredients.  Here's an example:  (I bought 6).

Well, later friends.  On tonight's menu: roasted tri-tip (my source of grass-fed meat gave me a 3.6 pounder.  Now I owe her 30 bucks.) and kale chips, with a side of rice with celery, tomato, onion, and whatever else I feel like throwing in there.  The meat will last us all week, so I made sure to have tortillas and avocados around.  I also have some precooked pinto beans in the freezer somewhere.