The weekend cooking chores

I get so inspired by Biz's posts and the many things she cooks every week.  I have to remind myself that her kiddo is up and out, and that's a big factor in the type and amount of cooking she does.

My weekends are often filled with cooking and prep for the week.  It really depends on the week and the weekend.  Last week was the illness week.  My husband and I are both feeling behind at work.  We each took a day off with the sick kiddo.  Then I caught a bit of the bug.  Then I came home on Friday (hubby was home with the kids because school was out), and the baby had a fever (24 hour one, he seems to be fine now).  At least we are fine enough to be cooking today.

The amount of cooking a family does will depend on a lot of factors:
1.  What you like to eat
2.  The number of kids you have
3.  The ages and temperaments of your children
4.  The jobs that you have and their schedules
5.  The family you have in town (or not)
6.  The extracurriculars

I remember having a discussion with friends about this.  One friend was amazed with how much cooking the neighbor and I do sometimes.  Well, my neighbor works part time, but that means 4 days per week.  She often spends a great deal of time on Friday cooking, which gives her a head start.  Her husband makes the bread, and they often roast a chicken in their rotisserie every Sunday night.  I also work part time, but shorter days.  So I do my cooking on Saturday and Sunday, but also have an hour after I get home before dinner every night (often that time is spent feeding the baby and bottle and solid food though.)  This particular friend has a job where she is on the road a lot.  So some days she can be home early, but often it's her husband who picks up the kids.  It's hard to cook when you aren't at home.

Last weekend I only really made a pasta dish.  I made a big pot of soup the day I was home with the sick kid.  This weekend I am trying to get a bit more done.

We ate the last burrito on Thursday night, so I knew it was time to make more.  I am trying to limit my shopping right now because we're visiting family for two weeks soon, so I'd rather use up what we have in the fridge and pantry.  Usually, most of my weekend cooking chores revolve around prepping the CSA vegetables.  Washing and cutting are time consuming.

So here's the weekend plan:
1.  Cook crockpot refried beans - DONE (put them in on Friday night, and out Saturday morning.  Still have to mash.)
2.  Cook crockpot tri-tip - DONE.  My neighbor was the inspiration for this dish.  She mentioned offhand once that her boss's "Bachelor meal" is a tri-tip in the crockpot with a can or two of black beans and a jar of salsa over the top. It's now my go-to recipe for tri-tip (I do have others, but this is easy and delish.)  This was a big save too - yesterday we drove south to go play mini-golf.  We were coming home at 5:30 and were STARVING.  It would have been so easy to get a burrito somewhere.  But luckily we had a bag of sliced apples and a small bag of cashews in the diaper bag and that kept us going until we got home.  We had the beef in tacos.
3.  Make basil-arugula pesto - DONE.  It's basil season at the CSA.  I've made plain arugula pesto too, but that's pretty bitter, so I am always happy when I get both the same week.  My pesto is nut-free.
4.  Make bean-tri-tip burritos.  We start an assembly line with shredded cheese too and roll them up and wrap in plastic, put in the freezer.  This used to be just a lunch thing for hubby and I, but now it's turned into a great dinner and lunch thing for the kiddo too.
5.  Make more carrot-turnip ginger soup.  I have a bunch of carrots and turnips, and it's the only recipe with turnips that I actually like, vs. just tolerate.
6.  Wash strawberries - DONE (hubby did this)
7.  Slice another cantaloupe (when the first one is gone)

Pesto!