Menu Plan: Week of February 24

Pink gerbera daisy from Grandma Pink's funeral service on Saturday.

This is Sonny D's first full week at his new school and he seems pretty excited about going back.  His favorite thing from the first day was Princess the hamster and he loved getting to feed her. 

Our Sunday morning.  We're holding hands in our PJs on the couch,
Sonny D is wearing my sunglasses
and I'm singing Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

For this week's meal plan I had other meals picked out for Tuesday and Wednesday, but when I went to the freezer to find the meats for them (chicken breasts and turkey sausages) I couldn't find them at all.  I can understand the chicken, we had a couple packages and I probably forgot to keep track of them, but I swear the sausages are just plain missing.  I dug through both freezers and nearly got frostbite trying to find them.  They're probably still in there somewhere, I'm just looking past them.  Maybe it's time to re-inventory the freezers since that involves taking every single thing out of the freezer and writing it down as I put it back in.     

This weekend we're having friends over for a potluck soup party. Everybody was asked to bring a slow cooker of soup to share.  I really love soup so I had the hardest time picking out which two soups I'm going to make. As of right now, I'm planning on making creamy tomato-basil soup and chicken taco soup. 

• Monday - I'm going out for Moms' Night Out, we're going to Muramoto for all-you-can-eat sushi.  I'm leaving Sonny D and Husband Jeff to fend for themselves, maybe pasta with red sauce. 
• Tuesday - I've got in-house training at the office Tuesday through Thursday, so my days are pretty busy.  Since we need to have dinner ready quickly before I head out to my cardio dance fitness class, we're having scrambled eggs, turkey breakfast sausage, and pancakes. 
• Wednesday - Asian turkey meatballs, rice, and locally made Hmong egg rolls.
• Thursday - Grandma & grandpa are picking up Sonny D and I am going to my cardio dance fitness class right after work and then going grocery shopping afterwards to buy the ingredients for the party.  
• Friday - We've got friends that are coming to town for the weekend and we're planning to go out for dinner at their favorite place in town, Fugu.
• Saturday - I've got Core Fusion class in the morning and then I'm going to be making soups for the party. 
• Sunday -  We've got nothing planned for all of Sunday, which is always nice.  We'll probably eat party leftovers for dinner.

What's Going On With Us

I don't have any recipes ready to share right now, but here's an update on our week.

I wanted to go to my cardio dance fitness class two times this week but we were busy on Tuesday and then Thursday's class was cancelled due to the weather (which ended up only being rain).  I ended up motivating myself to do two elliptical workouts in the basement as replacements.  It's not as good of exercise since the class really gets you moving, but it's my only time I can watch TV!  I use my iPad to watch shows on Netflix.  The first night I watched some training videos for new software I'm going to use at work and then rewarded myself with an episode of the TV show Scrubs.  The second time I went straight for Scrubs.  I enjoy the show but I don't love it, but it's fun, mindless entertainment that's sometimes easier to get lost in rather than some heavier things. 

I had a 'win' at work, I was setting up a new project and it actually turned out like I planned.  Yay! 

Sonny D

He's transitioning from daycare to a Montessori preschool this week.  We switched because I didn't love the old daycare.  It was fine enough but a bit "institutional" for my preferences.  Plus he was old enough and complete potty-trained, which are the requirements for the Montessori school.   Husband Jeff made an awesome countdown calendar to keep track of the days.  Each morning we cross off the previous day and look forward to the new school.  Today was his first day at preschool.  Husband Jeff took him in this morning and apparently things went great!  I'm both excited and scared for the fact that I need to pack his lunch every day.  I think it'll be a great opportunity to have him try new things, but also a lot of work to remember to do it every day!

He's eaten some weird foods this week, things I wouldn't expect him to eat at all or hasn't liked in the past.  He ate most of my bowl of 15-bean soup, somewhat-willingly ate roasted cauliflower, had canned mandarin oranges at grandma & grandpa's (won't eat them at home, only fresh) and chowed down a bowl of salad with ranch dressing.  Totally crazy. When was the last time you saw a preschooler eating salad? 

We were having some struggles with bedtime stalling, you parents know what I mean, the "I want a drink of water", "one more book", "don't go! more kisses!" issues that happen every single night.  I did some research and found a solution called the Bedtime Pass.  You give them a card (ours was a Culver's restaurant coupon printed on cardstock paper that I had been using as a bookmark) and explain that they can use it ONE time per night for ONE extra thing, maybe a few more minutes of talking about the day and holding hands, or that extra book, or whatever is reasonable.  So the kid hands you the card and tells you what they want, and you honor it.  It's important that you build in extra time into the bedtime routine for that one extra thing, but it's a lot better than the huge conflicts  that were going on 40 minutes past "lights out".  We only started it last night, but he seemed to generally understand the concept and used it for a drink of water.  The point of it is to give the kid power to make their own choices.  I hope it continues to go well for us.  "They" say that sometimes the kids end up not using the card at all because they want to save it for later but then end up falling asleep.  Maybe he'll do that.  

Husband Jeff and I watched an awesome parenting webinar over lunch on Thursday.  It was all about how to get kids to listen without nagging, reminding or yelling.  We both completely loved it. The presenter was great, she's Amy McCready, from Positive Parenting Solutions. She described the 5 Rs of consequences -- Respectful, Related to the misbehavior, Reasonable, Revealed beforehand, and have the kid Repeat it back to you to show they understand.  Here's an article about it from the Today Show.  I loved that she gave you a script of exactly how to say things, that's where I would get tripped up.  We need to practice so we know what we're doing, but I have faith in the whole thing. 

Currently Loving

• My hairstylist Daisy at Union Hair Parlor, she gave me highlights this week and they look excellent!  I explained that I felt my hair looked too long, but that I thought it might also be the dark roots showing since the last few times we've kept things more subtle.  She knew exactly what to do and gave me just the right touch of hand-painted blonde streaks to lighten things up.  She always does a great job on my highlights. 
• The Flavor Bible book.  I have had this book since August and I still completely love it.  I rarely buy cookbooks since there's so much information online but this is one I'm totally glad I sprung for (full price even!).  It sits on my nightstand and I pull it out all the time.  Husband Jeff likes to joke that I'm religious and read "The Bible" every day and I add in that it guides me in my actions (cooking and food prep). 
• These awesome Canadian ShoeZoo/CaroZoo leather slippers for Sonny D.  I originally bought these since they're like a knockoff version of the highly expensive Robeez.  He needed new ones since his toes are pushing to the ends of his current ones, so I bought him three pairs -- two for at home and one for his new school since they don't wear shoes indoors.  They arrived on Wednesday night, in time to go to school with him today.  They also sell their slippers on eBay, but they're a tiny bit cheaper from their website.  
• Cara Cara oranges.  We ran out of clementines and so we moved on to the Cara Cara oranges that I bought last time at the grocery store.  I cut them into wedges rather than peeling and sectioning.  The skin doesn't come off easily so this is a better way to do it.  Sonny D loves them, he gnaws all the way to the rind.  The flavor is sweet but not too sweet and not as acidic as navel oranges. 

I'm really looking forward to going shopping on Sunday with my friend Jessica.  I've been given the go-ahead to buy more glass food storage containers, so I can't wait to see what they've got at the Pyrex/Corelle outlet store.  Jessica wants to look for work clothes, which I don't need but will totally love checking out the spring stuff and seeing if there's anything I just HAVE to have.  :)   And we're going out for Mexican for lunch, yum! 

Menu Plan: Week of February 17

This past week Sonny D tried tacos and seemed to enjoy them, so that's nice. I'll try to make more tacos in the future.  I made an awesome chocolate "mousse" recipe on Valentine's Day that I'll need to share.  I was unsure if it was going to work since it mixes chocolate and water, but it was so cool.  Plus Sonny D got to use the whisk, which was loads of fun, we made a splattery mess all over the kitchen wall.  On Saturday we spent all day with our friends Val & Scott and their girls Evah and Marin in Cedarburg for the winter festival, which was fun.  Our Breakfast Club brunch on Sunday was pretty disappointing, the service at Ironworks Cafe could have been better but the food was generally tasty, when it was cooked correctly. Our friend John's pancakes weren't done inside (pancakes shouldn't have a "cream filling") and I'm pretty sure my egg dish didn't have the cheese. Oh well, we tried it out and found it lacking, on to more greasy spoons. Oh, and brunch ended with Sonny D spilling an entire glass of orange juice on himself and Husband Jeff.  It was super-pulpy orange juice and it looked live vomit.  Gross.

This week Sonny D's making the transition from daycare to preschool.  We've got a countdown calendar and we mark off each day and are talking about the new school in glowing terms.  I've mentioned the classroom hamster a few times, I think he'd like it.  And I'm also talking up the outdoor play area, it's so much more room than his current daycare.  And I am buying him new slippers that he'll get to wear there since they don't wear shoes inside.

• Monday - I made bean soup on Sunday so we'll have those leftovers along with some leftover grilled chicken and roasted cauliflower.  Sonny D will probably eat avocado smashed on a brown rice cake instead of cauliflower, but I'll try to get him to take a bite to try it.
• Tuesday - We're going out for dinner at Culver's for a fundraiser night for Sonny D's new preschool.
• Wednesday - We're taking Sonny D to visit his new preschool first thing in the morning. For dinner I want to finish off the partial package of hot dogs hanging out in our freezer, along with the sauerkraut my coworker's husband made and frozen sweet potato french fries.
• Thursday - I'm going to my Zumba class right after work and maybe husband Jeff and I will meet for dinner afterwards, but his brother is coming to town, so he'll probably want to hang out with him. 
• Friday - Sonny D's first day of preschool! He's going to help me pack his lunch, so hopefully he'll get excited about that.  For dinner I want to make tuna melts (and possibly add curry) but Husband Jeff was a little skeptical when I mentioned it since he's not a big fan of tuna.  He's eaten it before though and has liked it.  But this combines tuna with mayo, his dreaded arch-enemy.  I want to make a rice and sweet potato side dish,  But once again, with his brother in town, we might end up doing something different, maybe going out for dinner.
• Saturday - I'm skipping my regular core fusion class to go to the earlier Zumba class before a graveside service and luncheon for Husband Jeff's maternal grandma. For dinner I'll probably take the easy way out and make breakfast, waffles/pancakes/French toast, maybe some eggs, and turkey breakfast sausages.  I've got a recipe bookmarked where you thinly slice apple rings and dip them in pancake batter and fry, so maybe I'll get to try that.
• Sunday - In the afternoon I'm going shopping with my friend Jessica at the nearby outlet mall. Of course I've already started a shopping list of things I want to buy, I want to go to the Pyrex store to buy more food storage containers.  For dinner we'll have toasted bagels with veggie cream cheese and a can of soup. 

Quick Inspiration: Taco Bites

I'm just going to point you in the right direction because the concept for this dinner is flexible enough to let you make it your own thing.  Plus this is a weird combo of two different recipes that I am just dying to tell you about!  I didn't know if it would work out, so I didn't really document it. 

I started this dinner idea by wanting to use the 'heart smart' Bisquick baking mix we've got open and rarely use.  We used to use it for pancakes and other random things like biscuits, but I've found Kodiak Cakes flapjack & waffle mix, which I like better for pancakes.  It has whole grain wheat flour, oat flour, and just a few other ingredients, no weird chemicals with unpronounceable names.  But anyway, back to the Bisquick.  We might as well use it up in other dishes since we don't use it for pancakes.  There's a recipe from Better Crocker/Bisquick called impossibly easy mini cheeseburger pies that I wanted to try.  You use ground beef along with some other ingredients to make mini savory pies... and luckily we had some leftover ground beef!  Well, not so lucky when I looked in the freezer and realized it was very little meat, only about 1/2 cup.  Barely enough to do anything!  Certainly not enough for this recipe.  So then I needed to do a little problem-solving to figure out how to make this into a full dinner.  Some of the reviews for the mini cheeseburger pies said that the flavor was extremely boring, so I was happy to twist it to be taco pies instead to add more pizzazz. 

Shown in my hand for perspective, standard muffin size. 

You are totally not going to believe how I came up with enough filling to make these pies a meal... I remembered a recipe I had actually made fun of to my friend Chuck (vegetarian), Grape-nuts as taco filling.  I threatened to make him that for a taco feast, but after reading the positive reviews, I was intrigued.  How does an extremely crunchy breakfast cereal get turned into a savory Mexican meal?  Add salsa and taco seasoning, I guess. 

So I heated up my meager amount of pre-cooked ground beef, sauteed some peppers and onions, and added the salsa, taco seasoning, water, and cereal. As long as you didn't stir it too much, the granules of cereal stayed whole and actually looked like meat.  And even though Grape-nuts are sweetened, it wasn't sweet at all. I had Husband Jeff taste the leftover filling as he came in the door and he said it was great and I had to confess that it was Grape-nuts. 

I mixed up the Bisquick as indicated, added some chili powder and cumin to flavor it, and measured it out into the muffin pan.  I used my taco"meat" as the filling along with some shredded cheese.  Another dab of the baking mix batter on top and threw it in the oven.  Out came these adorable little filled savory muffins!   

A taco mini "pie", cold from the fridge, cut to show the interior.

They were great the first night, and just as excellent as leftovers for lunch the next day. 

Hot from the microwave with smashed avocado and salsa on top. 

I was so happy that they turned out so tasty and I was able to use up that little bit of meat and also find a new use for my Grape-nuts.  Plus Husband Jeff and I love Mexican food!  

You could probably make these in a mini muffin pan if you wanted to make them as an appetizer. I've also got a recipe bookmarked where someone used the same basic concept but made them into a mini handheld breakfast dish by putting various things in them.  Her family favorite was one with sliced banana in it and pancake syrup in the batter.  I want to try the same thing by mixing a little cinnamon, vanilla, and some mashed banana into the batter and add chopped pecans along with the slices of banana. 

So the moral of the story is to think outside the (cereal) box and give a new recipe a shot!  Don't be afraid to try a new concept, it might be your next great dinner! 

Meal Plan: Week of February 10

Happy Oatmeal Monday!  Ok, I admit that I had never heard of this holiday, but it showed up in my food holidays calendar in Google Calendar and I can't ignore anything connected with oats/oatmeal.  It's celebrated the second Monday in February and was originally created to allow the poor 17th century Scottish university students time to get oatmeal, one of the main foods they ate.  To join in, I had buttermilk-banana-cinnamon-raisin oatmeal this morning.  The buttermilk made it a little tangy, similar to what it might be if you threw a tablespoon of yogurt in your oatmeal.  I don't know if I would buy buttermilk just for my oatmeal, but if I have some leftover for a recipe I would consider using it up this way.   

• Monday - We're touring Sonny D's new preschool in the morning, he starts at the end of next week. For dinner we're having tacos along with roasted broccoli with garlic & anchovy.  Our hope is to acclimate Sonny D's tastebuds to Mexican food.  He liked tacos when he tried them previously but generally doesn't care for Mexican food, so we'll see how it goes. 
• Tuesday - We're taking Husband Jeff's parents out for his mother's birthday.  Celebrate!
• Wednesday - Another one of my favorite breakfast-for-dinner nights, I want to try Bisquick mini "pies" made with banana chunks (more like muffins, but that's what they're called), pancakes, and egg "waffles".  The egg "waffles" are essentially omelets made in the waffle iron.  It might be a horrible mess, but I want to give it a shot.
• Thursday - I want to go to cardio dance fitness and feel like pulling out a frozen container of chili since the weather is so cold.
• Friday - Happy Valentine's Day!  I'm going with an easy meal of pasta with grilled chicken (done up on the George Foreman grill) and pesto sauce.  I'll pick out a frozen veggie at the last minute and make chocolate mousse for dessert. 
• Saturday - We're having dinner out with friends.
• Sunday - Our Breakfast Club is getting together for our first meeting of 2014 at Ironworks Cafe. Husband Jeff and I met there for lunch one day and loved the food.  It's part of a teen employment program, they help kids get skills so they can get jobs in the future. 

Food Goals: Review Of 2013 And What's Next For 2014

When I started this blog last January, I decided to write down some of my food goals for 2013.  I typically make standard New Year's resolutions and I try to stick by them (with actually decent success), but these are even more fun since I get to do some experimenting in the kitchen.   

Here's a review of how I did last year and my goals for this year. 

Review Of My 2013 Food Goals

I accomplished a good number of my goals and I'm pretty happy with what I ended up doing.  I had a great time in the kitchen and tried a lot of new recipes.  

• Try cooking with new foods like fennel, parsnips, rutabaga, turnips.
  I really liked fennel with green beans and roasted a bundle of parsnips in with some other veggies. Didn't try rutabaga or turnips though. 
• Try out my new pressure cooker, got one for Christmas along with a couple of cookbooks.
  My first pressure cooker meal was  chicken cacciatore.  I also made beef brisket and another beef dish that I didn't document since I was busy cooking for guests. 
• Make a whole beef tenderloin.
  I tackled a tenderloin in the last couple days of the year, so glad I did.
• Buy more local fruits, veggies, meat, and eggs.
  We went to the farmers' market pretty much every single weekend we were in town.
  
• Toast oats for oatmeal. Make tea-infused oatmeal.  Make grapefruit oatmeal.
  I didn't get around to toasting oats to make oatmeal, but I did make tea-infused oatmeal and grapefruit oatmeal. 
  
• Make chicken livers because they're high in iron.
  I'm scared of chicken livers because my mom tried to feed me cow liver during my childhood and I never liked the taste.  But I do like duck liver pate, so I have high hopes for a chicken liver spread.
  
• Make some store-bought items at home (only made two of these)
  • potato chips
  • quick pickles
  • mayo
  • buttermilk dressing
  • vanilla extract
  • Veggie burgers
  • corn tortillas
  • pita bread
  • maybe hamburger buns
  • marshmallows

I also tackled home canning by making ancho-jalapeno lime jelly,  wine jelly, and pear butter. They weren't on my goal list but I'm quite proud of them.

Looking Forward To 2014

Here are some of my food goals 2014.  I've got a lot of things I really want to try, but these are the grander, more large-scale goals, not a standard recipes or dishes I want to try. I also transferred over everything that I didn't get done last year since I still want to do them. 

• cook a whole fish
• make a flavored mustard
• make homemade baked beans in the pressure cooker or slow cooker
• Cranberry curd
• Make meatballs completely from scratch, starting with chopping the meat at home
• Hand pies
• Oatmeal smoothie
• Rice Krispie- and nut-crusted french toast
• tackle my fear of savory oatmeal (with a soft-cooked egg on top!)
• make the Cook's Illustrated beef picadillo recipe 
• make pate a choux, the pastry dough for cream puffs, eclairs, gougeres
• make a nut butter - sunflower, almond, hemp
• Make some store-bought items at home -
  • quick pickles
  • mayo
  • buttermilk dressing
  • Veggie burgers
  • corn tortillas
  • pita bread
  • hamburger buns
  • marshmallows

I also re-organized my online bookmarks and found that I've got 54 porridge recipes.  54!  Some are inspiration for the savory oatmeal that I'm hoping to conquer, a lot of the others are different flavor variations or non-oat porridges I want to try. 

I also want to go out for breakfast with our Breakfast Club group.  We're slowly tackling a list of breakfast places around Madison, mostly "greasy spoon" type places.

No Fear Here: Beef Tenderloin

I've always wanted to make a beef tenderloin, but it scared me because it's such an expensive cut of meat.  If you screw it up, there goes a lot of money.  Our local meat market (Jim's Meat Market on Madison's north side) was having a holiday special, beef tenderloin for $9.99/pound.  I was originally going to buy it before Christmas, but I chickened out.  Then I made the decision to conquer my fears and finally bought it right before New Year's Eve.  They only had 3+ pound roasts in the case, but I wanted a 2-pound roast, so they specially cut, tied, and seasoned a 2-pound roast for me. Such great customer service!  If we want something that's not in the case, they're always willing to go in the back and get it for us.  And they make their own brats, we totally love their jalapeno & cheese brats and gyro brats (we ask for crumbled feta and gyro sauce for them). 

Well, anyway, it turns out there was nothing to be afraid of!

I feel that the one key piece of equipment is a remote temperature probe so you're not opening the oven to check the temperature all the time.  You insert the probe into the food and it has a long cord that comes out of the oven and connects to a timer/thermometer.  Mine is on the slightly fancier side and you can set it to alert you when the food reaches a certain temperature.  It works great, when you actually turn that feature on!  I meant to, but luckily I happened to catch my roast at 132 degrees, only two degrees higher than I wanted.

Inspiration

Christopher Kimball Blog (from America's Test Kitchen) simple beef tenderloin

Ingredients

• 2-pound tenderloin roast, seasoned and tied
• fresh black pepper (yes, my roast was seasoned, but I definitely wanted to add more fresh pepper)
• 2 Tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

Directions

This wasn't in the recipe I followed for the cooking instructions, but I had another Cook's Illustrated tenderloin recipe that said said you should leave the roast sit out at room temperature for two hours before cooking to take the chill off.  I've heard you should do that with most meat so we do that for burgers, etc.  

After the two hours of resting is up, preheat your oven to 300 degrees.

Long raw tenderloin. 

Spread the unsalted butter on the seasoned roast, place it on a wire rack set inside a rimmed baking sheet.   Insert a temperature probe and set it to alert you when it reaches 120 degrees for medium-rare /130 for medium.  That's 5 degrees less than the actual "doneness" temperature because the residual heat will carry it over as the meat rests.  Roast.  Flip the roast about half-way through cooking (around 25 minutes of cooking). Mine took about an hour total to get to 132 degrees. 

Once the roast is to the desired temperature, remove it from the oven.

Just finished from the oven.

Heat the oil in your largest heavy skillet over medium-high heat.  Sear the roast on all four sides, about 1-2 minutes per side. This part was difficult because it was a long, unwieldy chunk of meat, but I did my best. 

Out of the oven and into the frying pan.

After searing, transfer it to a cutting board and let it rest 15 minutes.  While it rested I didn't cover the tenderloin with foil or anything since it didn't say to.  

resting meat.

Remove the twine and cut it cross-wise into serving slices. 

My beautiful medium-rare cut.

Verdict

Wow, impressive and super easy!  

We had Husband Jeff's parents over for dinner and everybody loved this.  I was so proud!  I will definitely make this more often in the future but I will wait until it's on sale. :)

Menu Plan: Week of February 3

Sonny D's visit to the dentist last week went great! He got to see daddy sit in the chair and got a preview of what it would be like, so he was a willing participant in the whole thing.

And my plan to eat one of the unlabeled/unknown items from our freezer worked out fine too, it ended up being an extra stuffed pepper casserole I threw together one night.  I liked it a lot.   It was a good surprise, but I really don't like surprises from my freezer, so I'm going to be better about labeling things.  
 

This Week's Menu

• Monday - I defrosted walleye on Sunday but we ending up having pizza for dinner instead, so tonight we'll have the walleye with Korean sauce and a batch of rice to go with it.  We'll need a vegetable or two in there, maybe some peas.  And we'll have the last two egg rolls left over from last night.
• Tuesday -  I described several shrimp recipes to Husband Jeff and he chose shrimp & grits casserole.  I'll probably do some meal prep over lunch so it doesn't take so long after work since I've got cardio dance fitness after dinner.
• Wednesday - I was originally planning on cheesy sausage skillet, but we might go out for a quick dinner so Sonny D and I can go grocery shopping. Sonny D and I will go grocery shopping right after work and pick up a roasted chicken on our way out. That plus some sweet potato fries and either soup or salad would be great.
• Thursday - I checked and found out my cardio dance fitness class happens on Thursdays closer to my house and it's cheaper than Tuesday's class, so I might go to that while Husband Jeff makes dinner of chicken pesto pasta with a secret bunch of zucchini shreds added.
• Friday - Tofu Parmesan with frozen side dish of Trader Joe's eggplant and zucchini melange.
• Saturday - Core fusion in the morning. Possibly having dinner with friends if they're available, otherwise we'll go out on our own. 
• Sunday - Asian meatballs with a frozen bag of brown & wild rice blend with broccoli and carrots.