Delicious Eats from the Box

Well, here's a sampling of what we ate this week.

Sunday:
Brunch: Mushroom, feta, spinach frittata
Dinner:  Tamales (from Costco) with enchilada sauce, salad

Breakfasts were toast, homemade raisin bread, and cereal
Lunches were a combo of leftovers, sandwiches (dad) and salads (mom).

Dinners:
Monday: Chicken tikka masala (so...my office had an anniversary catered lunch Friday.  I missed it because I was off running the school jog-a-thon.  There were leftovers in the fridge. I took some home.  It was delish.  The kids had chicken fingers.)  Red cabbage and apple slaw.

Tuesday: Leftover tamales, red cabbage and apple slaw

Wednesday:  Refried bean and chicken tacos (bean recipe from 100 days of real food, done in crockpot on Monday), cabbage slaw.  Chicken is Costco roasted chicken.

Thursday: Bean and chicken burritos, salad (I had the slaw for lunch, by now I'm sick of the cabbage)

Friday: Red cabbage fried rice.  I'd made the fried rice last weekend and froze it, without the cabbage.  I cooked up the last 1/4 head of cabbage with garlic, mixed in the fried rice, and added leftover chopped chicken.

My basic fried rice recipe is from Weight Watchers, and I adjust it based on what I have. The kids LOVED it.  It was great.  I had sriracha of course.

This particular version included white rice, cauliflower rice, peas, carrots, chicken, sesame oil, Bragg's liquid aminos, garlic, and of course the cabbage.  And maybe ginger?  I don't remember.

Funny story, last night was the kiddo's first baseball game of the season.  My husband took him there, then watched him bat (he walked, but then scored!) then went to go get the little one.  After he got the little one, he met me for a free glass of wine at our wine club winery.  It's not exactly free when you buy a $15 bottle while you are there.  Then he took the little one back to the game, and I came home and cooked.

Now it's Saturday morning.  I took the last of the spinach, washed it, and cooked it up with some eggs and some red Leicester cheese (spicy peppers and roasted peppers).

The rest of today is chores...some groceries (it's raining, I'm feeling like split pea soup), swim lessons, and science fair project.

3 days of Indian Feasting

So Sunday was a big day.  I tried a new recipe for Crockpot Butter Chicken.  I'd share it here, but it wasn't great.  I mean, it was okay but not OMG THIS IS AWESOME.  I looked up many recipes, picked the one that matched what I had in the house (mostly), substituted Trader Joe's Thai red curry sauce for the red curry paste + coconut milk.  I know what you are thinking - Thai curry in an Indian dish?  Yeah, maybe that should have been my first clue.  Anyway, I think the problem was *mostly* the garam masala.  I don't really care for it, and this recipe seemed to have a LOT of it.  Even though I cut it down, it was still too much.

So back to the drawing board for butter chicken.

I served it with red lentil curry and roasted potatoes and cauliflower, and we ate it for days.  It was still pretty good.

Funny, when I searched my very own blog for cauliflower to see if I'd posted the roasted potato/cauliflower recipe, I found a link to a crockpot butter chicken recipe, that I apparently made 2 years ago.  I never repeated it, so it also must have been "meh".  Ah well, the search continues.  I don't know why I'm obsessed.  Well, not obsessed, but - I attended an Indian wedding about 10 years ago, and they had butter chicken, and it was awesome.

In any event, the roasted cauliflower and potatoes recipes is pretty simple: chop your veggies.  Start the oven at 400F.  Toss with the following spice mix and oil of your choice (coconut, olive, etc.):

1 tsp coriander

1 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp turmeric

1/4 tsp cayenne

3/4 to 1 tsp salt

Roast until your desired amount of doneness, for me, that's 30-40 minutes.  It's especially delish tossed with chopped cilantro.

More Crockpot Meals and 3-day Refresh Results

It's SUMMER!  Well, it's been summer for awhile.  And I live in So Cal, so it's always warm.  But summer to me means tomatoes and cucumbers, delicious salads.  Grilling outdoors.  Well, not so much on the grilling.  I don't really know how to grill. I should learn though.

So this past week, on recommendation from my coworker, I tried the Beachbody 3-day Refresh.  Since the layoff in April, I'd lost my mojo.  Not only did my weight loss stall, but due to stress and lack of sleep, I gained back 8 of the 18 pounds that I've lost this year.  My coworker tried the refresh and enjoyed it.

So two weeks ago, I got PiYo in the mail for my birthday.  It's a pilates-yoga inspired workout that is no impact but really really hard.  So the first week of PiYo (which I did even though I hurt my knee twice in two weeks boogie boarding with the kids) was great and hard, and I lost 1.2 lbs with the workouts and recommitting to my diet.  I decided to start the 3-day Refresh cleanse on a Monday, figuring it would be easier to do it during a work week.  Plus, Sunday was my anniversary, and we enjoyed lunch at the beach with the boys (18 years!)

View during our anniversary lunch

Well, the results were stellar.  I lost 5 lbs in 3 days, including an inch on my waist.  I hope it stays off (it did for my friend).  The Refresh is not cheap - but it was pretty easy to follow.  Here's a summary of what it is:

First of all, half your weight in ounces of water. Start the day with water first thing.
Also, keep workouts light to moderate.  I did 15 minutes of PiYo and 30 minutes of walking on day 1, and walking on Day 2 and Day 3.

Breakfast: Shakeology with fruit
Morning snack: green tea with stevia (there is NO COFFEE on this Refresh, so I started cutting back 5 days in advance.  Of course, I'm back on the coffee.  More on that later.)
Morning fiber drink
Lunch: a vanilla protein shake, a vegetable, a fat
Snack: a vegetable, a fat
Dinner: a protein shake, veggie broth with herbs, 3 vegetable servings, 1/2 fat

It's like a cleanse but with food.  It is very low calorie, and it's vegan.  I generally felt hungry right before lunch each day, but I did feel energized, even on little sleep.  I am at least back to 16 lbs down.  I really enjoyed the veggie broth, and plan to have that with dinner more often.  Also, it's very heavy on veggies, and it's easy to get away from that because of the amount of work involved.

The idea is to use it to bust through a plateau, or get back on track after a bad spell, etc.  Well, my eating went to crap right after.  So I hope I can get back on track again.  The final night, Wednesday, my 2 year old came home with a fever.  That night I went to my quilting potluck (and didn't eat).  Since Wednesday his fever has flared about every 12 hours.  So I've been awake a lot.  Tuesday morning from 3:30 to 5:30 am.  Thurs from 1:30 to 3 am.  Friday from 1:30 to 2:30 am.  Friday night from 10:45 to 11:45 and again from 2:00 to 3:00.

Plus my husband had a busy work week so I took one for the team.  Meaning I took two days off work, but tried to work during nap time.  Do you know how hard it is to be at home full time with a toddler who is sick but energetic?  Well, it's impossible.  For one thing, he wants your constant attention, compared to normal when he can play independently for maybe 30 minutes.  Next, he's sick with an as-yet-unknown illness.  Roseola?  Hand-foot-mouth?  Something else?  So you can't exactly take him to the park or the library.  Or at least, you shouldn't.  Because that's shitty to other parents out there.  And except for the midday fever, he's still his energetic old self.  And the fever means he doesn't nap long, and of course there is the nighttime wakeups.  Did I mention my husband came home late  yesterday?  And that he went out for a beer with the neighbor (totally deserved, don't get me wrong), and toddler woke up then?

Ugh.  Anyway, with those parameters it's really really hard to do anything, much less eat anything, much less keep to a reasonable diet.  And of course I have almost no PTO left.  Somehow I think when we come back from our August vacation I will have 14 hours (HOURS) of PTO and my husband will have 250.

On the plus side, I cooked dinner both nights and did the grocery shopping, because I was home.  The second night I didn't cook until late because I was waiting for the husband, who didn't materialize until very late because of the last minute project.

First night: baked chicken tenders with Tuscan herbs.  Bruschetta with fresh tomatoes, and steamed veggies.  (I got really used to the steamed veggies on the 3-day refresh).  I'm still not great with the chicken tenders.  They were dry and overcooked.

Second night: stir fried onions and peppers with the leftover chicken, leftover veggies, and cooked flageolet beans.  And corn on the cob.  Which took an hour to husk.  5 ears.  No pictures, but got two thumbs up from the hubby.  Kiddos aren't eating much these days.  The corn was delish, on sale for $1 for 5 ears.

Anyway, on to the meal plan and the use of the crockpot, because I suck at grilling:
Saturday: chicken tenders and TJ's Island Soyaki in the crockpot, with brown rice (pressure cooker recipe) and sauteed snow peas (leftover from Refresh) and broccoli.

Sunday: tri-tip with beans, peppers, onions, and salsa in the crockpot, with kale chips, leftover rice, and guacamole.

The rest of the weekly meals include:
sandwiches.  It's hot.  I bought turkey.
salads.  See above.  I have lettuce and radishes.
beet salad with feta
roasted vegetables.  My niece in SC is a monster - you should check out her blog - she's lost a ton of weight and is training for a fitness competition.  She's in the early phase of being a total cheerleader and a "no excuses" kind of attitude, and I totally remember being the same way.  When I was her age anyway.  Now I'm 44, with too many injuries to count, and not enough sleep. So. There's that.  Anyway, Sunday is her meal prep day and her instagram last week had three large trays of veggies roasting, so I bought cauliflower and broccoli to roast this week.

Fast and Easy Meal for a busy day - crock pot! And, vacation budget.

So, I took a day off work this week to take the family to the water park.  We got sunburned.  (Sunscreen washed off, and you know that white stripe you get from your flip flops on your feet?  Yeah, mine's red now.  So our 4th?  Not going to the beach.  Even though the water is supposedly SO WARM this year.)

Before we left, I decided to throw some food in the crock pot.  I had these raw chicken tenders in the freezer from Trader Joe's.  I found a great recipe for sesame honey chicken. But decided it would be MUCH easier to just use the TJ's Island Soyaki.  So, two ingredients: chicken, and TJ's sauce (which, you know, is made of a bunch of ingredients.  I realize this.)

Cook on low all day.  Now, with small tenders, they got overcooked.  But they were tasty (bone in or dark meat or larger pieces would be better).

When we got home, late, I got out the rice cooker.  But our rice cooker, and brown rice = 1.5 hours.  Instead, I pulled out my trusty Pressure Cooker cookbook from Lorna Sass.  I toasted up the rice, added water, salt, and voila!  45 minutes later (including heat up and cool down) rice is done.  Simple steamed broccoli finished the meal.  The boys were SO HUNGRY they mowed through it, including the toddler - he was mostly into the rice and broccoli, opposite of normal for my little meat lover.

The total cost for the water park was about $100 for 5 people (we took a friend).  Entry into the water park was $12/person, plus $10 for parking = $70.  We picked up sandwiches on the way, took bottled water and snacks - that was about $30.  It's a fairly pricey day.

As far as vacation days though, it's not too bad.  I used to be a lover of great vacations - Hawaii was my friend!  But with kids, it's different.  I read recently that mothers don't take vacations, they take trips.  So true.

When it comes to vacations, I now try to substitute cheaper options.  I love Hawaii - why?  Pool, beach, tropics.  How do I get that cheaper?  Go to the beach at home, in the summer.  Water park will take the place of the pool.  Or perhaps take a vacation to San Diego - save yourself the $800/person airfare.

So the water park is a substitute for Disneyland or Hawaii, not a regular thing.  Hiking or the zoo is a substitute for day trips to the water park...a slow decrease in the expense of the vacations.  As opposed to pre-kid days, when they get pricier and pricier!

My first "Sabbath"

So this was the weekend where I tried to institute a "Sabbath".  A day (mostly) off from chores, and a day for fun.

On one hand, this means all chores end up squished into one day.  On the other hand, I just did fewer chores.

On Saturday, I baked bread.  This is huge people!!  I don't have time to bake bread when I have a baby/ toddler.  Until age 3, cooking is dicey.  I made Moroccan lentil soup to go with it, and it's a pressure cooker recipe (you can find it on my "favorite recipes" tab).  I was going to have salad too, but didn't feel like it, so the lettuce is still unwashed in the fridge.  (Maybe for dinner tonight??)

This bread is sage-apple bread based on a yeast bread recipe by Mark Bittman.  A friend brought it to a housewarming party last weekend and I demanded the recipe.


On Sunday, I consider cooking to be a chore (well, cooking with kids around), so we had Teriyaki chicken in the crockpot, rice in the rice  cooker, and steamed broccoli in the microwave.

Teriyaki chicken dinner:
~3 lbs chicken breast: $5.71
80% of a jar of teriyaki marinade: $1.60
2 cloves garlic: $0.10
grated fresh ginger: $0.10
Total for chicken: $7.51
This is about 9 servings, give or take. $0.84 per serving

1 cup uncooked rice (cooked): $0.19 (6 servings) = $0.03 per serving.

12 oz broccoli: $1.50 (5 servings): $0.30 per serving

We celebrated our "Sabbath" by going on a 6 mile/ 3 hour hike with the kiddos.  It was fun but at one point we lost the trail (well, you cross a creekbed many times.  This time of year, it's dry.  So you get lost for a little bit trying to find the trail).  Anyway, I stepped off a rock onto what looked like solid ground.  Eh, not so much, it was quicksand.  Here are a few photos from the hike.

And...there may have been McDonald's for lunch after, and I may have split a hot fudge sundae with the boys.

Eat For Health Soup

So, a year or two ago, I bought "Eat for Health" by Dr. Joel Fuhrman.  He also wrote "Eat to Live".  He's been advocating a plant-based diet for a very long time.  His dietary recommendations, in general, are pretty extreme when you look at the sheer amount of produce he recommends.

I picked up the book again last week and skimmed a few pages.  It's cold and flu season, so I figured any veggie-heavy recipe would be a blessing.  I tend to cook ahead and soups are good for that.

The first soup recipe I found looked great.  I hadn't realized how some of the recipes in the book were written for speed in mind.  The recipe called for low-sodium tomato soup as a base, with carrot juice also (purchased, though some recipes call for fresh.  I don't have a juicer, so that's not happening.)  The vegetables he recommends adding are all frozen, and canned beans.

I followed the recipe almost exactly.  I used some pre-cooked pinto beans in place of one of the cans of beans.  I used fresh broccoli instead of frozen.  I used fresh onion and sautee'd it in olive oil first.  It was pretty good.   A little more "solid" than most soups I eat, and am used to.  Very filling. 

It's important to note that the recipes make HUGE amounts...many of the other soup recipes make 30 cups of soup (I think I only have one pot that big) and say that they serve 8-10 people.  Of course, in the doctor's world, you'd be eating 3 cups of soup as your meal.  His calorie count on the daily meals is about 1800...all from plants.  Anyway, it tasted good but looked pretty darned awful.  It was also 2x the price of my Moroccan Lentil Soup.  Still cheap though.

And I caught a cold anyway. But it's that time of year.

The other weekly meals were:
Tri tip in the crockpot - used for tacos.
Ham sandwiches.

So I made the soup on Saturday, we ate it that night with hamburgers, then froze the rest.  I made the tri-tip on Sunday, we ate it Sunday and Monday, then froze the rest.  We defrosted the soup for Weds, Thurs, and Friday, which we ate with scrambled eggs and cheese quesadillas.  The rest of the tri-tip is still in the freezer.  We will probably pull that out for the latter half of the week.  Here's my leftover-burger lunch on Sunday:

Here's how the week is shaping up:
Saturday: Tilapia and homemade tomato soup (Freeze rest of soup)
Sunday: Asian style meatballs with rice and stir fry veggies
Monday: Sunday leftovers (freeze remaining meatballs)
Tuesday: The usual (baked chicken tenders and broccoli)
Wednesday: Leftover soup with tri-tip tacos
Thursday and Friday: See Wednesday

For lunch, I am planning on making a big batch of pasta with asparagus, spinach, garlic, and olive oil.  We'll eat it all week.  Setting up my weekly meals in this schedule is making it MUCH less stressfull during the week.  Though I have to say, eating the same thing Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for dinner and the same lunch all week does get pretty boring.  But at least there is very little temptation to overeat these meals.

Chicken Tortilla Soup - and taking care of myself

Every once in awhile, I sit and think about my life.  I say every once in awhile, because with two kids (one a baby), a husband and a job, I don't have much time to sit and think.  (Hey, last night I came home early from a 7 year old's birthday party, put the baby to bed, and had time to READ.  First book I cracked since 2 days before the baby was born.  I'm a voracious reader, so it was a long dry spell.)

I was thinking about how my life's approach to health has changed with this second baby.  With my first, I worked out a lot more.  I was going to do it all.  Sure, I wanted to lose weight (but it took 2 years, so I wasn't going nuts at it), but most of the exercise I was doing was for my sanity.  I was working full time, nursing, pumping, exercising 5 days a week.  And I was exhausted.  From November through March, I was sick with one cold or flu after another.  I was healthy for about 30 days out of the 5 months, only a few days at a stretch.

This time around, I was smarter...or I'd like to think so.  I mean, I'm over 40 this time, so that's a factor.  For one thing, I made it clear to my workplace that I was going back part time (80%).  They were remarkably fine with it.  Although truth be told, they responded by increasing my workload when I got back from maternity leave.  This means...that I'm not getting everything done (80% of the time, 120% of the workload...do THAT math.)  I have also not been so into the exercise this time.  I still do it - it keeps me sane - but it's on the order of 2-4 days a week, for 30 minutes at a time.  Yes, at this rate, it will take a LOT longer to lose the weight.  I was going hardcore on the Fit Yummy Mummy program (that sucker WORKS), but as soon as I went back to work, I got sick (week one!).  So I've continued with the exercise part of the program (weights and intervals), but have not been counting calories since then.  So I haven't lost any more weight.

I am also VERY MUCH prioritizing sleep.  Americans, on the whole, do not get enough sleep.  I was incredibly sleep deprived during my pregnancy.  I had insomnia for a couple of hours every night, and got about 6 hours of broken sleep each night.  Only when I started going to acupuncture was I able to get better sleep at least a few days a week.  Sure, it was great practice for the newborn phase.  But I cannot tell you how nice it has been that baby #2 started sleeping 9-11 hours at a stretch at 12 weeks.  (Except for last night. He was up a lot.  I was hurting.)  I generally get 7 hours straight these days.

The baby caught a cold just before Christmas and has had a runny nose and cough.  His cough last night had me up three times between 9 and 1.  Added to that - he has a new skill - he is learning to "talk" (babble), and he was talking too.  In his SLEEP.  (It's so freaking adorable I can't STAND it!!)  I have been trying to avoid catching his cold - but babies, they sneeze in your face.  My "regimen" for preventing colds - lots of fluids, Emergen-C, Zicam tablets a few times a day, hot tea, soup, and lots of sleep.  Things that I avoid - any kind of hard exercise (heavy weights, any cardio harder than walking), and alcohol.  These, along with sleep deprivation, weaken my immune system and make it much more likely that I will get sick.  This is a big reason why I haven't gotten back into running yet, and probably won't until I stop nursing.  Or at least until after cold and flu season ends.

So today, I made soup for dinner.  With the sick baby, I've been home a lot and hadn't planned a dinner. I know it's weird - I'm home, so I tend to not plan as much and "wing it".  This stresses me out and makes it hard to fall asleep, my brain is constantly running.  When I got up this morning, I decided on crockpot chicken tortilla soup.  I found about three recipes on the internet and used them all as a jumping off point because I wasn't going to go shopping.  The best thing is that you can use a bunch of frozen stuff in the soup.  We also had kale chips - greens are probably really good for fighting off illness.

Crockpot chicken tortilla soup
1 lb 4 oz chicken (this happened to be the size of the 2 breasts I had): $2.49
1 onion, diced (Biz, you can leave that out): 0.20
1/4 of a 1-lb bag of frozen tri-color peppers, diced: 0.50
3 cloves garlic: 0.15
4 cups chicken stock: free (I make my own from carcasses)
1 14-oz can diced tomatoes: 0.60 (I am going to puree these next time so 6yo doesn't complain)
1/2 bag frozen corn: 0.60
1 pint home canned salsa: 0.60
1 tsp cumin: 0.10
1/2 tsp chili powder: 0.05
2 Tbsp diced hot pepper (from my freezer stash): 0.15
1 to 2 cups cooked beans: 0.50
1 cup water
a few Tbsp commercial salsa
1 tsp salt

Cheddar cheese and broken tortilla chips for serving.

Cook everything on high for several hours.  I think I had it in there for 7 hours.  I threw the chicken in frozen.  The chicken stock was frozen too - that didn't work too well, so I had to heat that on the stove eventually.  If I start with frozen meat, I prefer to start it on high so that the meat doesn't sit in any temperature "danger zone".  Shred the chicken with a fork before you serve it.

Total: $5.94 for...12 cups maybe? enough soup for probably four meals for the 3 of us.  Less than 50 cents a cup, not counting the cheese and tortilla chips (we used the crumbs).

I was going to leave out the beans, because I didn't have any cooked or canned beans.  But then I saw this bag of little green shelled beans from the CSA.  Man, it took 20 mins to clean them...they were DIRTY, not to mention the bug or two I had to get out of there.  But they cooked up in about 40 min.

We ate this with store bought taquitos and homemade guacamole...and the kale chips, of course.

Merry Christmas...enjoying the season

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas!  I sit here on Christmas morning enjoying my family.  Boy how times have changed.  Before we had kids (and even for a  year after), we would always be flying to the northeast to spend holidays with family.  This was a mixed blessing, because traveling over the holidays really sucks, someone is usually sick (or gets sick), and the weather is the big unknown.  But family is awesome.

Most of the time these days, we stick to our little corner of So. Cal. for Christmas.  We had many years of inviting friends over for the holiday dinner.  But now our kids are in school, and all of our vacations are on the school schedule, so our friends tend to be traveling.  And that's okay.  Now with the two kiddos, I have to say that it's nice to just chill out.  Especially today when the baby has a cold...sounds like a barking seal ... poor guy.  He's still sleeping and his big brother is working on the first of many Star Wars Legos.

The advantage to keeping it small is that I can decide which day to do the big dinner (or to do none at all).  This year, the big dinner (ham this year) is today on Christmas day.  We often do it on Christmas eve.  Last night, we kept it simple with leftover crockpot lasagna, roasted butternut squash, and crackers with spinach and artichoke dip.

Santa was good to me this year.  Aside from time with my wonderful family, I got great kitchen items... a salad dressing bottle (with recipes), a new nonstick skillet (mine seem to wear out every 6 months), a new cast iron skillet, and a new rice cooker.  I also got a magazine subscription and four new shirts/sweaters (the pre pregnancy shirts do not fit over the nursing-mother and post pregnancy body).

For my family, I sewed a bag for my husband's tablet computer (from the bottoms of my son's holey-jeans-turned-shorts), and I sewed a Star Wars blanket and pillowcase for my son.  For the baby we wrapped some hand me down toys. :)  I feel very blessed.  I have friends who are out of work and have to scrounge and sell items in order to buy gifts for their kids.

I'm sure the day is going to be full of building the pile of Star Wars legos that my older son got. I've already started on the Zicam and Vitamin C (babies...they cough and sneeze ALL OVER YOU).

Tastes like...

I could say "chicken".  Because we grilled chicken this weekend (it was black on the outside and raw on the inside...not our best work).  And I made my standard Trader Joe's breaded frozen chicken on Tuesday.  And Wednesday we had leftover Crockpot Butter Chicken from last week (I froze it) over the mashed potatoes we had on Saturday. (The most successful dish of the "burned chicken" night.)

But what I really mean is to channel Biz and say "tastes like ass".  Because this weekend I bought some fruit at Ralph's. And it sucked.  I bought pears which were hard and tasteless, and apples that were mealy and gross.  I mean, it's October.  Apple season, right?  Ugh, how can the apples be mealy and tasteless?  They were galas.

The last two pears and the apples are getting turned into applesauce with some better fruits this weekend, from my boss's tree and the CSA.  I bought the apples before the boss brought in the fruit.

I am a fruit snob.  From now on, I will stick to Trader Joe's for apples (pink ladies, never mealy) and cantaloupe, the farmer's market, the CSA, or my boss's trees.  Actually, last week I bought pears at Tri County Produce, and as expected (based on the store name), they were quite good.

The rest of the week has gone along as planned:

Saturday: burned chicken, mashed potatoes, salad.  At 8 pm we were eating the still burned but no longer raw chicken, that was finished in the oven.
Sunday: More of the chicken made into quesadillas with guac, green beans, mashed potatoes
Monday:  The last of the chicken and some frozen meatballs, broccoli, mashed potatoes
Tuesday: Chicken fingers, tater tots, Indian spiced cauliflower

Wednesday: Crockpot Indian Butter chicken, mashed potatoes, steamed cauliflower with feta.  Now, why I didn't make the Indian spiced cauliflower the same night as the Indian butter chicken...I dunno, I'm weird that way.

Thursday: The last of the Indian chicken with some mashed potatoes and maybe more potatoes if we run out of mashed.  And...it looks like carrots.  I think that's the only veg left in the fridge.
Friday:  Wow, I thought the curry chicken would take me until then, but it probably won't.  So probably we'll have grilled cheese sandwiches with a vegetable.

Lunch for the adults is Spaghetti Amatriciana.  I cooked up a pound of pasta and it makes 10 lunches.  Plus we're eating leftover veggies, hard boiled eggs, and carrot sticks.

Breakfast for the kiddo has been pancakes that I made on Sunday morning and froze.  I've been eating yogurt with fruit or toast, depending on whether it's a workout day or not.  Toast if it's a workout day.

The mashed potatoes were quite good and not really pictured.  You can kinda see them under that curry chicken.  We got chives.  So, they have chives, butter, milk, cream cheese, and sour cream.

The Indian spiced cauliflower was great.  I used the aloo gobi spice mix.  I steamed 1/2 head of cauliflower (it was a big head) for 3 minutes in the microwave.  I then sauteed it in one Tbsp oil in a skillet until it started to brown.  Cauliflower absorbs a lot of oil.  Then I added the spices and stirred (I used 1/4 of the spice mixture, because the full recipe has a full head of cauliflower AND potatoes), and added 1/4 cup of water, covered, reduced heat, and simmered about 5 minutes until done.

On that note, I still have a kid's lunch to pack before bedtime.  On a new-mommy note, I'd like to add that my 3 month old baby has slept 8-10 hours for three nights in a row.  From about 7:30 to 4:30 or 5:30.  I may have to revise my statement that he's the hard baby.  His big brother didn't sleep that long until 8 months.

And he's so snuggly.  I'm lovin' the snuggles I get from my boys.  Pure heaven.

Grilled Pork Tenderloin

Saturday was grill night!  This week we experimented with pork tenderloin.  I used a dry rub from America's Test Kitchen Family favorites and followed their grilling instructions...success!

We got a boatload of parsley this week. As big as my  head.  So I looked up parsley recipes and settled on chimichurri.  I mixed a couple of recipes together...you know, I winged it.  I started here, but added cilantro instead of oregano and used less olive oil.  I used garlic from our CSA.  LOOK at the size of this clove. 

This is one clove.  It's the size of 10 regular cloves.  I chopped it into 9 pieces to put through the press and saved the extra in a container in the fridge.  It went into today's Indian Butter Chicken (crockpot).

I also did a repeat of the Moroccan Carrot Salad.  This time with baby carrots because I hit Trader Joe's during stock up hour and they were out of the regular carrots.

And I followed it up with this crockpot bean dish.  I got this recipe from a cooking class and I love it.  But...I think I ate too much of it.  Gave me some tummy issues later.  From now on: 1/2 cup of beans is fine.  A full cup is pushing it!

Cooking and Prep for the Week

In general, I have been (in the past), a master of cooking and prep for the week.  I spend a few hours each day on the weekend cooking, baking, chopping, preparing 2-5 dishes so that lunches and dinners are taken care of, at least until about Wednesday.  Funny that as I keep in contact with friends from high  school, college, and all over via facebook, I've noticed that it's definitely a theme for the working parent.

Or just the working person in general - my sister (no kids) also does a lot of cooking on the weekend.  It's efficient.  I am constantly impressed by how Biz cooks and preps for the week - not only for herself, but also for others.  She's so organized!!  My neighbors (husband and wife team with 3 girls under 6) seem to seamlessly cook on Sundays for the entire week.

Enter pregnancy, work stress, and lack of sleep.  I still enjoy cooking on the weekend, but I tire more easily.  What I notice first is the aching feet, legs, and back.  I can only really stand to be on my feet for about an hour.  So that means my prep has suffered.  This means that I cook more often during the week, and by the time spouse gets home - dinner is ready, but I'm beat.

This weekend I'm trying something new.  I am still doing my cook and prep, but I will do it in 1 hour increments, then I will rest. 

Also, I walked 1 mile (up over a big hill) to the grocery store first (and back), then started cooking.  I left my shoes on when I got  home.  It seems to be helping.  I am up to 1.5 hours on my feet right now, and I'm still okay.  Maybe I need the cushion with the extra 32 lbs.  I'm not sure how much longer I can make that big hill.  But last weekend I sucked it up and bought a maternity swimsuit.  I have 9 weeks to go.  If I wear it 3x a week for the next 9 weeks, I can get it down to just over $1 per wear. :)

So here is what I am prepping for the week.  I am trying to go lower carb/ more paleo to stem this weight gain.  Hence the trip to the store for even MORE vegetables. 

I made this delicious beef roast in the crockpot yesterday (45 mins of prep - not "a dump and press go" recipe by any means).  I bought a large (6.5 lb?) roast (organic and free range) for $50 from my coworker "beef source" (she buys in bulk).  She recommended the crock pot.  The recipe came from my America's Test Kitchen Family cookbook, and was a southwestern roast recipe (in honor of Cinco de Mayo).  If you can't have a margarita, might as well make tacos, right?  The only thing the roast needed was more salt.  I used homemade stock, so my food is always under-salted.  2/3 of this went into the fridge, and the rest into the freezer for a later date.

Now, I know this soupy runny beef would taste GREAT over some rice.  But I want to limit my carbs a bit.  So I cooked up some white rice and red quinoa and put 1/2 cup in a container for lunch.  But I am also cooking up a bunch of zucchini and mushrooms, and will use that as the primary base for the lunch.

In summary:

Beef roast (tacos!)

White rice/ quinoa

Mushrooms and zucchini

Bacon, chard, beet green, turnip greean, onion, zucchini frittata (that's dinner, with a salad).

Peanut lime dipping sauce (for my carrots, snap peas, and colored peppers).  Or maybe this one.  Or a combo.

Bean Dish

Not a very exciting name, for sure. I'll give you a little history.

I learned to cook in 2002, when I realized I was fat, started on Weight Watchers, and realized that it was easier to know what was in my food if I actually cooked it. I learned a lot about cooking from the Food Network. About a year or so later, I decided to try a cooking class. I showed up for a class one night, not realizing how lucky I was. I guess this class always filled up.

It was a reasonable price. $5 per class. Unlike some "demonstration" classes, this was "participation". It was called Family Favorite Dinners and the teacher was Dan Feeney. I took the class for a couple of years (yes, same class) because I loved the food and the people. But then, I gave birth. And budget cuts have recently caused the class fee to go way up.

Dan was the master of frugality. He chose what to cook each week by what was on sale. Even at $5 per person x 25 people x 10 classes, he managed to save up extra money to buy a grill after a few years.

This is one of my favorite Dan Feeney recipes. I think the last time I made this was the week I gave birth (I didn't realize it was going to be that way, my son was 2 weeks early). We ended up wasting about 1/2 of it, since I was in the hospital. So, it's been five years. The recipe calls for 5 cans of beans, but I substituted some dried. This picture is at the 1/2 way cooking point. It gets darker and more caramel-y the longer it cooks.


Bean dish:

1 cup dried small white beans, cooked: 0.60
1 cup dried black beans, cooked: 0.60
1 can kidney beans: 1.19
1 can baked beans: 1.49
2 small onions, diced: 0.40
4-8 slices bacon, fried and chopped (I microwave bacon): 1.49 (I buy the good stuff)


Sauce
1 cup unpacked brown sugar (or less, I generally use less, and match the vinegar): 0.31 for 1/2 cup
1/2 to 1 cup apple cider vinegar: 0.25 for 1/2 cup
1 tsp dry mustard: 0.05
1/2 tsp garlic powder: 0.05
1 tsp salt (may need more if you use dried beans): 0.01

Total: $6.44 for 10 cups, or $0.64 per cup. I generally would eat 1/2 to 2/3 cup at a time.

Cook all the dried beans. Drain all beans except baked beans.

Mix sauce ingredients and simmer 20 min. Pour over beans. Mix in bacon and onions.

Cook on low several hours or on high for a few. Or you can bake it in the oven.

I have made this vegetarian without the bacon and it's still pretty delicious. And cheaper. :)

Crockpot beef bourguignon and braised summer vegetables

I used the vegetable recipe here. I was a little concerned about braising the green beans (used frozen), and having them be gray and not bright green. Which is what happened. But it still tasted pretty good, with lots of leftovers.

For the beef, I winged it. I just threw a bunch of stuff in the crockpot based on a couple of recipes.

Crockpot beef bourguignon:
<3 lb tri-tip: $16. You can eat the CAFO stuff if you like. I'm paying for grass fed now. Keeps me from eating too much beef too.
2 small onions: 0.50
2 8-oz pkgs cremini mushrooms, sliced: $3.38
1.5 cups red wine: 0 from my birthday party (gift)
1 T canola oil: 0.04
2 cloves garlic: 0.10
3 T flour: 0.01
salt and pepper to taste
1.5 tsp thyme: 0.05
1 bay leaf: 0.02

Total: $20.10 for ... at least 10 servings. Depends on how much you eat. I put the leftovers in the freezer for next weekend. $2.01 per serving

Beans and Greens Soup

The weeks of the birthday parties continue...we had birthday parties to attend on Thursday, Saturday, and 2 on Sunday.

On Sunday, I didn't know if there would be much food at the second. I suspected. But I also knew we needed food for the week, and we'd not cooked on Saturday (birthday party, homemade tortillas...oh my goodness I WANT a tortilla press for my birthday).

So, what's a mom to do when she'll be out all day. Well, while my spouse did yoga for the first time (I dropped him off and introduced him), I did a little grocery shopping. Then I started some bread in the bread machine and cooked up some soup. In the crockpot. Yum. I was a little bit worried. I wanted it to have flavor. I decided to use Trader Joe's fire roasted tomatoes with green chiles. But that's a little tricky with my child. Even the slightest hint of hot pepper is too spicy. It's getting very hard for me to use up the chiles from the farm last summer. I will have to work on how to make that for me only.

My hubby and I had this for lunch. I thought it was great, not too spicy. Said hubby thought it was a bit too hot for our child. So, for dinner the second night (tonight), I diluted 6 cups of soup with 4 cups of water, a bouillon cube, and some pasta. We'll see how it goes. I did think that it was quite tasty. I added some salt when I served it but not during the cooking time.

Beans and Greens Soup

1 Tbsp canola oil: 0.04
1 can cannellini beans: 0.89
2 cups cooked small red beans: 0.33
4 c. homemade chicken stock: 0
2 c. water: 0
1/2 c. pearl barley: 0.50
1 bunch collard greens: 1.50
3 cloves garlic, pressed: 0.15
2 small onions, diced: 0.40
1 can diced fire roasted tomatoes with green chiles: 1.09
2 Tbsp tomato paste: 0.05
3 carrots, sliced/diced: 0.25
1 tsp thyme: 0.05
1 tsp oregano: 0.05
Total: $5.30 for about 14 cups, or about $0.38 per cup

Saute the onion and garlic in the oil until the onion softened. Add the diced carrots and cook until they begin to soften.

In the meantime, wash collard greens and remove from stems. Cut into 4 slices lengthwise, then slice crosswise into thin strips. Add these to the veggies in the pan and cook until wilted.

Add veggies and remaining ingredients to crockpot. Cook on low all day. The veggies do get a bit washed out this way, but you know, when you're a busy mom...it tastes good anyway.

This was the very very best when scooped up with sourdough bread. Oh, the sourdough bread...

Sausage and Many Bean Soup

So...a new Whole Foods just opened here in our town. Word has it that there was a line around the block to get in on the first day. So I decided to wait a couple of weeks to check it out. I've never been to a Whole Foods, and I guess ours is on the small side.

On a Friday afternoon I decided to wander on over there with my boy. I enjoyed a bit of perusing...I found that red lentils are about $1.50 per lb cheaper than the other three stores with bulk bins. I scooped a bunch, then heard "but Mommy I want the colored ones!" Sure enough, right next to the red lentils was "sunshine soup" mix. Looked like a mix of red lentils, kidney beans, pinto beans, yellow and green split peas, barley, and a few other things. I wasn't sure what to do with it, but I scooped some.

Google found another poor lost soul asking for advice, which was basically "cook on low all day". I figured it was a good candidate for the slow cooker.

Sausage and Many Bean Soup
1 lb mixed bean and barley soup mix: 2.99
4 links chicken and gouda sausage: 3.00
1 Tbsp canola oil: 0.03
1 large onion, diced: 0.50
2 cloves garlic, minced: 0.10
2 large carrots, diced: 0.30
4 stalks celery, diced: 0.50
1 medium tomato, diced: 0.75
1 tsp each basil, thyme, rosemary: 0.25
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp sage
salt and pepper to taste
water

Total: $8.42 for about 14 cups, $0.60 per cup

Rinse the bean soup mix, put in the crockpot. Cover with 6 cups of water and turn on high for two hours. Reduce heat to low. Cook for several more hours.

Saute onions, sausage, carrots, and celery in a pan in oil until starting to brown. Add garlic and spices, except for salt and pepper. Saute a couple more minutes.

I have a vegetarian slow cooker book that specifically mentions sauteing vegetables - not only does it impart rich, carmel-y flavors, but it also gets them softened. I have learned the hard way that carrots don't like to soften in a low crockpot. When browned, deglaze the pan with a little bit of water.

Add the sausage and vegetables to the pot. At this point, I added two more cups of water that I heated in the microwave with a little bit of beef bouillon, until I read the package and realized there was no beef in the bouillon, but there was MSG. So, most of the cube went into the trash, but some made it into the soup.

Continue to cook over low for a couple more hours. Add the tomato, cook a bit more.

There was a method to my "add a bit here and there" madness. It's possible that you could dump everything in the crock in the morning and it would be fine at the end of the day. I don't know. I've read, though, that salting dried beans (or adding acid, like tomatoes) makes them impossible to soften. Of course, I've read elsewhere that it's not true. Being as this was a weekend, I decided why risk it? So I cooked the beans first, and basically added the rest of the stuff when the beans were mostly cooked through and softened.

The tomato was added last because I forgot about it.

Crockpot Taco Soup

This recipe originated here. I am looking forward to testing out more. I don't use my crockpot very much, but with a return to full time, I expect to use it more.

Of course, I adjusted the recipe to both make it cheaper and a bit more "from scratch". First, I used dried beans instead of canned. This meant cooking up 1 cup of dried kidney beans in the pressure cooker on Sat (and then freezing), and cooking up 1 cup of dried pintos on Sunday. On Tuesday, I browned the meat. Instead of the large can diced tomatoes and small can of tomatoes and chiles, I used 3 cans (14 oz) of diced tomatoes and 4 oz can of green chiles. I added a "cube" of chipotle (I buy it, puree it, don't use very much, put it in ice cube trays, move to a freezer bag, where it languishes. It's hot. I have to make a LOT of something so that it's not too hot.)

I also subbed some spices for the MSG-filled "ranch dip mix".

So here goes. My son loves the "juice" of soup (the broth), and kept saying "juice is spicy, milk makes it better".

Crockpot Taco Soup
3 c. cooked kidney beans, drained: 0.45
3 c. cooked pinto beans, drained: 0.33
2 cans corn, undrained: 1.78
3 cans diced tomatoes (14 oz each), undrained: 1.68
1 can diced green chiles: 0.60
1 packet taco seasoning: 0.50
1 lb browned ground sirloin: 2.25
chipotle, paprika, sugar, garlic powder, onion flakes, and parsley ("ranch dip" substitute): 0.50
Total: 8.09 for about 17 cups, or 0.48 per cup

Dump in crockpot. Stir. Cook for 8 hours on low.

This was pretty good. Not fabulously good, even with cheese, sour cream, and tortilla chips. But pretty good. I might try it next time vegetarian, and add some fresh onion and garlic.

I served this with Bok Choy with a soy sauce, vinegar, ketchup, molasses, and peanut butter sauce mixture. It was pretty good, even if it doesn't sound it.

It's a big week on the farm:
2 bunches bok choy
1 head napa cabbage
the largest head of lettuce I've ever seen
1 bunch mustard greens
1 bunch collard greens
2 kohlrabi
3 oranges
1 lb mandarins
1/4 lb spinach

Cabbage is going into ramen slaw for the big birthday bash. Lettuce and spinach for salad and sandwiches. Greens maybe for an egg dish, or collard chips. Kohlrabi for stir-fry. That should get me all the way to next Weds. I still have a bulb of fennel from last week...I traded the fennel for extra bok choy this week.