Saturday, September 20, 2014

Getting Ready for another week

Hey All,

So last week's planning paid off in big ways.  I found myself with plenty of evening time and my stress level, despite my employment's best efforts, were kept low while at home.

Here's a couple of photos to recap some of the highlights:

 This is the chicken salad sandwiches with the German Coleslaw and sweet patato tots.  Notice the big cup of fry sauce.  Fry sauce is a Utah favorite and also a favorite of mine.  Its really simple, 2 parts mayo, 1 part ketchup, and I always add a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce.  Fries without it is just wrong in my opinion.
This is the Hawaiian chicken with more coleslaw and a rice pilaf.  I buy dried soup veggies in bulk and add them in when cooking the rice.  The pilaf is really simple, cook rice like you normally would, adding enough bullion for the amount of water, and veggies to taste.  When I make Pilaf, I also add a good dose of oil, it makes it a bit slicker which I find more appealing.

The week ahead looks like it will be all about those recipes held close to the heart that have absolutely no measurement.  A bit of this, a dab of that, and viola, a meal.  Unfortunately, I am on call until midnight, working a bit from home, etc, so I didn't get to go play at a local festival.  I figure its a fair trade off since I'll be traveling all over the west coast in the next few weeks.  I may even have been coerced into making a trip to Sacramento in late October.  I never thought of Sacto as a destination, but why the heck not.....

So this week, I'm going to talk a bit more about the meals in general and how I'm going to preprep them.  Measurements are mostly by heart/taste, so use your imagination as best you can.

Meal 1:  Fajitas.  This is pretty straightforward.  For seasoning, I get the large jar of taco seasoning.  It will have well marinated top round cut into strips, bell peppers, mushrooms, onion, and tomatoes.  I don't think we have any sour cream on hand, so I'll substitute greek yogurt.  We are also blessed to live in "panaderias" according to judgmental maps.  It gives us access to amazing tortillas that you just can't get at the supermarket.  They are soft, flaky, and nearly translucent and don't overpower your food.

To prep this one.  I'll slice the steak and mix it with the tomatoes and taco seasoning and bag that up.  The veggies will be prepped and bagged separately.  When its time to cook, I just pull out the bags and cook them up.  Pretty no fuss!

Meal 2:  Chili.  Husbear makes this one.  He's perfected his chili over the years.  Things I do know about it:  Use good meat, like the top round used for the fajitas, don't make it too saucy, and cook it for a long time.  I got a good score on a corn muffin mix ($0.25 for a mix that makes 6-8 muffins).  Also reasonable price on locally made corn chips ($1.19 for a big bag, and I just found out I overpaid by $0.20, but I also didn't have to drive across town, so I'll call it even), so I'd say we're set to have a delicious meal.

To prep this one.  I learned from Melissa D'Arabian of Food Network fame that when making beans, make a huge pot and freeze what you don't use so you don't have to go through the headache of prepping beans all the time.  We'll put everything together in a crockpot and keep the crock in the fridge until the morning we are ready to start it.  Simmered on low all day, it is ready when we get home from the work day.  Easy peesy!

Meal 3:  Chipotle Chicken.  This is a recipe taught to us by my Father In-Law.  Its really tasty and easy to make ahead.  Combine 2 cups chicken stock (or 2 cups bullion reconstituted) and a small can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce in a blender.  Blend that together for a bit.  Strain out the seeds  and big matter.  I can't stress enough to strain that stuff out.  You will get a meal that is far to spicy for human consumption if you don't.  In a baking dish, slice a large onion.  White onions are recommended, but because I'm cheap, I use whatever costs the least.  If I'm making it for company, I definitely get a white onion as they tend to be a bit sweeter and break down during cooking.  Layer chicken (boneless skinless breasts or thighs recommended) on top of the onions.  Pour the stock and pepper sauce over the top, grate cheese over the top.  Bake covered at 350°F for 30 min, uncover and cook 10 or more minutes until the cheese browns.  We like this one with yellow rice.

To prep:  The chicken will be put together and kept covered in the fridge until ready to cook.

Meal 4:  Sausages with coleslaw and mustard.  So last week my tiny head of cabbage made a lot more coleslaw than I expected. What doesn't go better the coleslaw than sausages?  I always buy sausages when they are on sale and freeze them for easy meals.  The sausage gods had been especially kind over the last little bit, so we have 3 kinds to choose from.  A local hot smoke sausage, Aidell's chicken and apple, and Brats.  Keeping with German tradition, these will be lightly grilled and served with good mustard and coleslaw....never on a bun.  If I've got leftover bread, I'll serve it along side, but never put good sausage in the bun!

Meal 5:  Tuna and Noodles.  Ok, I'm not even going to take a stab at this one.  This is another one that Husbear makes.  It sounds like traditional casserole yuck, but he does it well.  We'll put this one together and also have it in the fridge, ready to cook.

A couple more weird musings from this week:

I want to try a tropical fruit salad.  I recently had a Hawaiian flavored e-liquid that has just a hint, its so subtle its hardly there, of dill.  It makes the tropical flavors totally pop.  I'm thinking pineapple, guava, a bit of mango, maybe some dragonfruit, maybe some starfruit, all mixed together in its own juices with a sprinkle of dill.  I'll likely go check out the produce at Global Supermarket.  They always seem to have intriguing tropical fruits.  I didn't know what a dragonfruit was until I saw one in person.  Also, if they have the yellow mangoes, get a bunch, they are over the top ripe and delicious by themselves or in anything using mango.  If you ask nice, they will often cut you one heck of a deal on the ones that are so ripe they are falling apart.  Oh and my brain just said, "Hey, see if they have those delicious giant coconut flakes, that'd be really good on top."

I need to revisit the thai peanut salad.  It was good and I've been having a hankering for it again.  I've also got a lot of peanuts leftover from Burning Man.

So there ya go, another week's worth of meals.  Oh and I must say, I'm proud as heck of the grocery bill this week.  $45, this includes $5 worth of snack goodies for the basket at work and a few dollars of breakfast add ons.  I'm not sure why I've been watching the budget, more than anything I get a kick out of making my home pretty awesome for cheaps.  So far for the month, excluding the week following Burning Man, which had a lot of dining out/order-in, we are at $100.

Have a great week!

3Day

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