Monday, December 25, 2017

Christmas Post Game

Day Before:
bake potatoes
saute mushrooms
shred cheeses
be sure you have beans
 Take frittata order the night before.

Stockings this year: toblerone, meat sticks, cheese packets.
Set out as morning snacks: lindt truffles, ghiradelli peppermint bark, almonds in shell, trisket crackers to eat with stocking cheese packets. Nice to get away from the all-candy morning.
Had kids shovel driveway before driving out to fetch relatives. Went for a walk after breakfast, except L who was sick. Most beautiful weather EVER.

Morning
saute kale and spinach
halve the cherry tomatoes
cut up ham

Brunch: Individual Frittatas and Blueberry muffins. 
Frittatas take ~25 minutes to bake.
We did:

  • 12 eggs 
  • 3/4 cup whole milk s
  • liced baked potato 
  •  cheese: gruyere or cheddar 3/8 cup per order 
  • baby kale 
  •  baby spinach 
  • cherry tomato 
  • roasted red pepper 
  • artichoke hearts 
  • sauteed mushrooms 
  • beans sliced 
  • sandwich ham 

 They come out too hot to eat.
Next time, make the frittata first, muffins second?

Dinner:

  • Porterhouse Steak 
  • Olga's Salmon 
  • diced leftover baked potato, rewarmed in microwave (next time bake set of potatoes)
  • broccoli was cut, we ate it earlier by mistake.
  • pear salad 
    • sliced pear, 
    • 1/4 cup dried cherries, 
    • 1 cup candied walnuts, 
    • 5 oz greens, 
    • 1/2 cup balsamic dressing (too much: cut in half!!) 
  • leftover mushrooms, rewarmed in microwave 
  • drinks: 
    • martinelli, 
    • blood orange soda, 
    • watered down grape juice. 

 Steaks on the grill on the deck.
 Genius: J teaches me to light the grill with a long candle lighter instead of using built in battery sparker. 5 minutes first side, 4 minutes second side.
 Salmon prep topping ahead of time, it may take 15 minutes. bakes for ~12 minutes.
 Should have done baked potato ahead of time.

We aimed for a 9:30 breakfast, and ate at 11:00 am (flour bag ripped).
We started making dinner at 3:15 but I wasn't serious about it. and I think started eating before 5pm.


Wednesday, December 13, 2017

project: repair stockade fence 4 feet high

I need to replace one 8-foot section.  Pickets are 3.5 inches wide, height just under four feet.  I have no idea what wood the current fence is.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/4-ft-x-8-ft-Natural-SPF-4-in-Gothic-Stockade-Fence-Panel-FMS48458-U/203184249

surprising low price: $14.50.  But not available until early summer.
spruce/pine/fir



https://www.lowes.com/pd/Severe-Weather-Actual-3-95-ft-x-8-ft-Cedar-Privacy-Fence-Panel/4331620

cedar
$70.11 per 8 foot section.
but these pickets are 2.642 inches wide, so quite different.

http://blog.fenceauthority.com/should-i-buy-individual-fence-pickets-or-pre-made-fence-panels/
Or, using the two leftover panels in the back yard, build my own 8' section by removing those pickets and nailing them to new 8' cross pieces.

Monday, November 13, 2017

Holiday Pasta Deconstructed Butternut Squash Lasagna

Instead of butternut lasagna, these three parts:

Pasta
The pasta is cavatappi.

Squash
The butternut squash sauce is adapted from Simply Recipes
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/pasta_with_butternut_parmesan_sauce/

Instead of adding water or sour cream, I added half a container of Ricotta (about 7.5 ounces) and whole milk.  And onion subbing for shallots again.

I roasted and peeled the squash the day before.  So, I just pulled it out of the fridge and dropped it all into the blender.  Added the sauteed onion.  A scoop of half the ricotta container.  Milk (1/4 to 1/3 cup?) to make it thin enough to blend.

It was a make ahead night.  So we came home to cooked pasta sitting in drainer, sauce in blender in fridge.  Put the pasta and sauce in the bowls and microwaved it.  Topped it with the greens.

Greens
The greens topping
saute in
-avocado oil
the
--chopped garlic, 1 teas
--crushed red pepper, 1 teas
Fill the pan with
--mixed greens (spinach, kale, collards, mustard greens)
saute to wilt, add
--slivered almonds
--squeeze of lemon to finish.

Enough to top two bowls of pasta.  So, you'll need to work in stages?

Context
Served with turkey meatballs/Quorn, which probably wasn't necessary.  We both skipped the bread.

Monday, September 18, 2017

Decision points

Monday at 12:50.   Suddenly realize I'm so hungry.  Been working at the computer contacting people about the member ship list.

Had for breakfast: a berry mango banana and yogurt smoothie, no protein powder
a couple grabs of dry wheat chex, running off to see dietician.

No, armed with her advice, but there's nothing to eat.  The bean burrito mix had to be thrown out this orming.  there' sno chicken in the house.  no deli meat except some ham.
Want to eat: Really good chicken sandwich.
Options here: scambled eggs?  tuna without bread?  ham on white tortilla?
and whoa, what am I making for dinner now?
eating rest of the dry cereal I poured into the bowl this morning.

Tuesday
Simple dinner: ratatouille, leftover brown rice, leftover turkey, leftover beans, leftover fresh mozzarella ball.

Tuesday, end of the day. I ate constantly all day long, probably never going 90 minutes without eating.  Maintaining a constant state of full. Oddly reluctant to go outside and walk or seek exercise. Took back to bed after second breakfast series, which doubles glycemic load I would guess.  Perhaps return to weight watchers?  Still have no meal plans, and any plan is totally discouraging for its faults. All food inviting criticism and shame.


Monday, August 21, 2017

August first half

A fair bit of people eating leftovers, and lot I don't remember.

Pad Thai with peanut butter thrown in, but not bean sprouts, tomato, or cucumber.

Baked potato with broccoli, beans, hamburger meat, cheese, and sour cream.

Salad Nicoise.

Tuna Melt

Second Half August

Dinners

With friends from out of town:

Shrimp fra diavolo and green salad
green chicken enchiladas, red yam/bean enchiladas and kale salad
fish taco, meat taco, side beans, watermelon

BLTs for lunch on amazing dense wheat-rye bread
ham fried rice for breakfast

Thursday, August 17, 2017

Kale Avocado Salad

Thanks Kim.  
  • 1 (10 oz) package of kale pieces.
  • 2 c tomato, diced (3 or 4 medium tomatoes)
  • 2 c ripe avocado, diced (maybe 2 medium-large avocados)
  • 5 T olive oil
  • 3 T lemon juice
  • 2 t sea salt
  • 1 t cayenne
  • 1.5 c chopped cilantro
  • sliced almonds

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Happy New year

Had an awesome holiday week cooking with my extended family.
It's a little inspiration carrying me back home cooking just for us, our little family.

Ham fried rice
Red curry with cashews, bell peppers, onion, and spinach
Plain rice

Greek salad
Fasolada
French bread

Pork loin
Cattle beans sautéed in iron griddle with onion and garlic
Kale sautéed with apple and onion in butter and olive oil
Oven herbed potato cubes
Apple pie dessert. Light whipping cream doesn't whip

Shrimp fra diavolo
Cheeseburger on toast to hungry school kid earlier

Non-dinner: mushroom quiche

Finals week

Made pork loin again

Made ham fried rice again



Meatloaf or bean burrito
Kale side
Apple slices
French fries

MLK weekend
Vegetarian lasagna with goat cheese
Benson burritos with oranges as side
Roast Turkey. Roast cauliflower