What We Ate

So, my meal planning has gone by the way side.  But hey- let me show you what we ate this week?  It's better this way, right?  No maybe's...lots of pictures.... yeah, way better.

Sunday (Mother's Day)  I requested a shrimp boil, thinking it would be an easy Sunday dinner for Dad to cook. Dad?  I'm sorry you spent roughly 23 hours driving around town to different grocery stores, looking for obscure ingredients (like huge tins of Old Bay), and chatting up Costco shoppers trying to discover the perfect sausage.  It tasted really, really good- I think all shrimp boils should have jumbo prawns, Walla Walla sweet onions, chicken-apple sausage, and red potatoes.  Nom NOM.

Monday- Leftovers from Sunday.  Umm...I forgot to take a picture, until the end.  Will this do?


Tuesday- Had leftover pinto beans from my parent's church party, so I kind of did a riff on this recipe, virado a paulista.  Her recipe calls for black beans, kale, cracklings, pork chops, sausage, and a fried egg.  So, pinto beans, potatoes, onions, prawns, sausage, and kale is pretty close, right?  This was pretty good!  Definitely recommend it.

Wednesday- Adapted this recipe to what we had- brought a huge pot of water to a boil and threw in a bundle of asparagus for a few minutes.  Pulled them out and started throwing in handfuls/chunks of butternut squash gnocchi I had stashed in the freezer.  (The gnocchi might have been this recipe.)   Browned a bit of butter in a sauce pan, then threw in olive oil, lemon juice, leeks sliced thin, and a bit of white balsamic vinegar.  The sauce went over the plate of asparagus, and the gnocchi.  OH BOY, amazing.  I love hot vinaigrette, so this was superb.  (If you like german potato salad, try this.)



Thursday- Daddy was out, it was leftover night.  I chose gnocchi, kids chose bread and cheese.  Different strokes for different folks.


Friday- The end of the leftovers.  Finally.

Saturday- It was a long day, the kids deserved pancakes.  I felt all "pioneer"- our water main was shut off, so I used "emergency storage" water.  We were out of milk, so I used powdered.  I even made a quadruple batch of mix, so we have our own "pancake mix" in the cupboard.  Booyah.

There you have it.  The easiest week of cooking EVER.  I cooked a batch of kale.....and boiled some stuff...and made a sauce.  And pancakes.

Oh, and snickerdoodle bars.  Not quite a success, they were awfully crunchy.  But when you don't have 45 minutes to roll cookie dough into balls, and watch a toddler and a preschooler finagle their way through dunking the balls in cinnamon-sugar...well, a 9x13 pyrex is your best friend.  Kids still loved them, anyways.  I used my regular snickerdoodle recipe, smashed it into a pan, and sprinkled liberally with cinnamon and sugar.


I made it to the farmer's market today, and came home with asparagus, garlic chives, bok choy, and 2 fat bundles of pea vines.  I have firm tofu, leeks, sweet onions, red potatoes, blue cheese, and a bit of sour cream that needs using up.  Why does that last list sound to patriotic?  red potatoes....white tofu....blue cheese....hmm.

(Market breakdown:
asparagus @ $2/lb.....$7
garlic chives.....$1
bok choy @ $2/bundle....$4
pea vines @ $2/bundle....$4
Total: $16)

Nikujaga is sounding really good for this week, with the potatoes and onions.  Sauteed greens are definitely on the top of the list.  Eggs with garlic chives, and maybe scramble in the sour cream before I cook.  Marinated tofu is sounding good, too.  I'll let you know what we come up with.