Planning for October

Thursday:
Leftover Thai Curry with leftover rice and quinoa
Box Pad Thai that came with sauce packet (so terrible.  But the kids liked it?!!)

Friday Night:
mushrooms on egg noodles with Dragon Crescentwagon's gravy.
roasted brussel sprouts

Saturday Night:
bean soup with tortilla chips

Sunday Night
pizza made of frozen bread dough.  Pepperoni or sun dried tomato, with canned pineapple hit the spot.
(note: but thawing dough in oven not so successful for me.)

Monday Night
spicy chicken with bell pepper
lo mein

Tuesday
vegetable pot pies in individual cast iron skillets

Wednesday
spaghetti squash with goat cheese sauce, diced tomato and sauteed greens. was terrible.  just BLAH.

Thursday.
Pork Chops, roasted brussel sprouts, pumpkin pancakes.  I needed a win after last night.

http://www.cookingandbeer.com/2013/03/vegetarian-pot-pies/
mini pot pies.

Mejada (from the Jerusalem cookbook--it's everywhere)

burritos


fettucine alfredo with multicolored vegetables

make an apple pie or apple something.

Since I don't feel like cooking, anything I can make ahead, and that people can just grab, would be good.

I'm cooking up some chickpeas to add to things.  Too cold for hummus.

BLTs or Tuna Melts

BLTs, I love having them once a year.  And we have a bumper crop of tomatoes here at the end of season.  What's left on the vines may be hit by frost before it ripens.

We all love tuna melts.  So that was an also an option at the meal.  Some people had one of each, BLT and tuna melt.

Spaghetti with Alfredo Sauce, Fresh Tomato, and Kale.

Why not Linguini?  Because I don't have any in the cupboard.

I went with Ree Drummond's Alfredo Sauce recipe from her t.v. show.  The Alfredo from her blog adds the shredded cheese with the pasta, instead.  We joked that we were having ice cream for dinner; it's pretty rare for me to serve something so rich.

My daughter was worried that tomatoes were going to ruin the Pasta Alfredo.  Because the juices might dilute it.  So for her, I got the juice and squishy parts out of the tomato and chopped them.

The kale I cooked separately in an iron skillet, with some store-bought pesto to season it.

The adults mixed the pasta, tomato, and vegetables in together on their plates.   Some children ate their vegetables as solo side dishes instead.  The surprise was the kale went first.

I think it's funny that the pesce-vegetarian in the house loves Pioneer Woman Cooks recipes.  Ree Drummond lives on a ranch and does a lot of meat dishes, but the vegetarian dishes are often hearty.

Vegan cooking: Naturally Ella

Today I discovered Naturally Ella, a vegan cooking site with beautifully photographed dishes, indexed by season and featured vegetable ingredient.

The computer I keep in the kitchen is an older Mac, and my significant other keeps shaking his head at the flour and cooking oils that are depositing themselves on it.  The interface for choosing the vegetable in the seasonal recipes doesn't work for me here.  Perhaps it's a javascript issue.

I'll probably try to work my way around that, because Erin Alderson, aka Naturally Ella, has gathered the kinds of recipes I want to make.  We may not be a vegan family, but we love good vegan cooking.

Tonight I tried the Spicy Lentil Vegan Sloppy Joe and I'll be making it again, though next time I think I"ll cook the lentils and sauce separately and combine them at the end.  I did add a tablespoon of brown sugar to a doubled recipe, (don't shudder) but that was because the old balsamic vinegar from the back of the cupboard is intensely strong, and needed more than the called-for molasses to balance it.

It's an amazing and delicious sloppy joe sauce, which is what I need to overcome my teenagers' love of ConAgra Manwich.  Not being vegan, we eat it with good sliced Vermont sliced cheese.