Annnnd it’s Friday. I’m sorry little blog, my only friend and I’ve been neglecting you.
Tuesday: cleaned the house and did some grocery shopping for the two meals I planned. Wednesday: watched Miss E again, payment of short ribs and veggies. I ate dinner that night in 15 minutes, it was so good and amazing comfort food. I need to get the recipe ASAP. To make things easier for transporting I gave Kathy one of my grandmother’s pots to use and I’m telling you what, I think food tastes even better knowing it was cooked in a dish that’s been passed down. It may be mustard yellow with small orange flowers on it, but it’s whats inside and knowing where it’s been.
If you guys have crazy weeks like we do in this house, I suggest setting up a “menu board”; I used to put a list on the fridge but for something reason the white paper with black ink didn’t catch Josh’s attention. Neon markers? YEP! That fixed things 🙂 I actually started my menu board so he would know what was off limits in the fridge and freezer, 9 times out of 10 he’d eat half of my weekly ingredients and I’d be running to the store while attempting to get dinner going. Here’s what this week looked like:
I change out the quote to keep it interesting for Josh … he’s easily amused. The last one was “Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit”. As you can see one day was leftovers, my fridge was being taken over my storage containers. While I loved the organization of it all, it was starting to scare me that they might attack. Oh, Monday’s meal was so delicious; pork chops cooked perfectly and with them being stuffed with blue cheese and cranberries, oh man MELT IN YOUR MOUTH. I’ll have to add that to my rotation as well; I’ve done Gouda/spinach and caramelized onions/apples both which are hits as well.
On to last night’s crock pot meal; it wasn’t a crazy Thursday like the last few weeks but I taught all evening. This was the easiest and fastest meal to prep, don’t be shocked when I tell you this piece of advice: BUY A MANDOLIN! I was able to slice a green pepper and 3 red potatoes in a minute. I had everything layered (shake some S & P on each layer!!!) in the crock pot under 8 minutes. Yes, I timed myself to prove to you that delicious dinners are possible. Please note, this is not the healthiest meal to date but it was good and we all need some extra goodness every once in a while.
I tried to cut corners due to teaching, I didn’t have time to empty the crock pot and then melt the Velveeta, so I used a baby crock pot for that step and I’m super thankful I lined it with foil because it burned to the bottom. GROSS. I highly suggest NOT skipping that step … Since I had leftovers I planned on taking them out then melting the remaining square of cheese, pour it on the chicken/veggies in a container and hopefully have an improvement the second time around. Well my lovely husband cleaned up while I was teaching my last lesson and that idea was quickly laid to rest. I love that he helped but now I don’t have leftover juices from the crock pot 😦 I didn’t tell him about this so when he reads the blog he’ll get upset that he “messed up”. You didn’t mess up boo boo, you were super helpful to clean up the kitchen, one less thing I had to do after an evening of lessons. Next time, don’t touch the crock pot until I say so *stink eye*, xoxo.
I was able to use some of the baby crock pot cheese, the meal didn’t turn out bad but the cheese was goopy (it is a processed log after all); it needed the juices to turn it in to a sauce.
And to finish off an unhealthy meal, an unhealthy dessert! We went out for a friends birthday on Wednesday and couldn’t pass up a slice of cheesecake … it’s sacrilegious to be near “The Factory” and not take home a slice of heaven. MMMMM NOM NOM NOM.
tails from the kitchen 