Hot Summer Suppers

It's hot (no kidding, right?).  That means there's no way I'm running the oven.  I also only want to cook on the stove-top when it's absolutely necessary.

I keep looking for crock-pot recipes that are more summer appropriate.  Most summer recipes start with a big cut of meat and put it on sandwiches or something like that.  That's OK sometimes, but I like more one-dish meals and if I don't have that big cut of meat in my freezer it doesn't help me much.

This is what I came up with for this week.  How about you?  Please comment, as I can always use more suggestions. 


Buffalo Chicken Salad
- Buffalo Chicken= boneless skinless chicken breasts+ some of Buffalo sauce that's been hanging around the fridge for a while+ 3 or so hours on high in the crock-pot = very happy husband
- Romaine, tomatoes, red onion, carrots, red pepper, avocado (or whatever else is on hand)
- More Buffalo sauce and blue cheese dressing
(I even forgot the shredded cheddar cheese and it was delicious!)

Hot dogs with sauerkraut, veggies on the side

Bean burritos
- Canned refried beans (nonfat)
- Tortillas
- Shredded cheddar 
- Toppings: Salsa, tomatoes, avocado, onion, etc. 
Put desired amount of beans on tortilla and sprinkle with cheese.  Fold together.  Cook on low to medium in a non-stick skillet until beans are hot, cheese is melted and tortilla is lightly browned.  This just takes a couple minutes.  This feels like cheating, but it's so good and so fast (faster than spaghetti).  It only uses one skillet.  This is something we made as kids, and it was even the requested meal at a couple of birthday parties that I can remember.  It's fairly healthy (yes, I know there's sodium in the beans...homemade refried beans are on my to-do list... maybe once I get some more freezer space) and it tastes good.  You're only leaning over the stove for a few minutes too!

Greek salad
- Romaine, tomatoes, carrots, red onion, red pepper, kalamata olives, feta cheese
- homemade Greek dressing: the recipe from the cookbook is about 1/4 red wine vinegar or lemon juice to 3/4 olive oil (I think next time I'll reduce the olive oil for a little more acidity), dried oregano and minced garlic

I don't think I'm making one this week, but another favorite cold meal is Pasta Salad:
- Cooked pasta (rotini, tri-colored, whatever is in the pantry)
- Mini or chopped pepperoni
- Diced and shredded vegetables: green/red peppers, shredded carrots, finely diced (or dried) onion, green olives, grape tomatoes (halved?), and whatever else sounds good
- Shredded cheese
- Oil and (red wine) vinegar dressing with Italian seasoning, pepper, salt, garlic powder
Let it sit in the fridge for at least a few hours to let the flavors meld, then eat for lunches and dinners.

The above, plus the leftover Buffalo chicken and beans for a couple lunches and maybe another meal, should about do the trick for the week.   

Cooking this week (part of it, that is)

I had quite a break from cooking for various reasons over the past week.  I'm now sort of ready to jump back into menu planning again.  I have been browsing Pinterest for recipes as well (whether that's actually a constructive use of time of not, I'm not so sure).

Sunday-
Slow Cooker Chicken Caesar Sandwiches (or wraps, in our case) with fresh spinach.
Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Squares - for breakfasts, and because I had 2 rather nasty looking bananas that I hated to throw away.
(Two Pinterest recipes tried in one day.)

Monday-
Black Bean Soup
(Using chicken broth left from cooking the chicken for the chicken Caesar sandwiches and some kale "broth" I have in the freezer... It's not that I'm a tightwad, honest.  It's just that I hate to throw away good nutrients.)

Tuesday-
Chicken and rice?...maybe with Italian tomatoes and seasonings?

Wednesday-
Leftover black bean soup

Thursday-
Warm Lentil Salad


[I am not a fan of the "new" blogger...I've already switched back to the old once, and I don't think I can do it again.  Oh well, I'll get used to it.]

Kale

A 2 pound bag of chopped, pre-washed kale jumped into my hands during a quick stop at the grocery store. It just looked so good! And it was only $3.29. It's use-by date was April 10, so my challenge was to use it up by then without getting tired of it. But who could get tired of dark, leafy greens?

I did pretty well. It is now April 13, and I used the last of it for supper (it was fine despite being past the date).

Here's what I did with it:

1. For Warm Lentil Salad with kale, I multiplied the dressing recipe by 1.5. It didn't have quite the kick that the original I made a couple weeks ago did, but I also ran out of red wine vinegar and had to sub with white vinegar, so that could easily account for it. I added the kale (several large handfuls) in with the lentils and dressing, and cooked it until wilted. Very yummy.

2. Scrambled eggs with kale- several times

3. Kale sauteed with garlic in a little olive oil as a side for pasta with chicken, feta, olives and tomatoes.

4. Mediterranean Kale- lemony but good.

5. Pasta with Philadelphia Cooking Creme (I had a coupon) pesto flavored, a big bunch of chopped asparagus, diced leftover ham, salt/pepper and thinned out with a little pasta water- very good. It reminds me of the few times I've eaten at Noodles and Co. (I wish there was one local, but it's probably just as well there isn't). I probably won't be buying the cooking creme much, if at all, in future, but it was really good.

I'm not going to rush out and buy another bag now, but I will certainly be buying it again at some point. It's fun experimenting with new recipes and newish ingredients.

Meal Plan - week of 3/26

- Warm lentil salad with fried eggs
Edit: This was fantastic. We had scrambled eggs with mushrooms and cheese with it instead, but it would make a great one dish meal.
- leftover chipotle black bean and pork soup (this is the first time I've used chipotle peppers in adobo, and they are spicier than I expected)
- Popcorn shrimp from a box with "Outback blooming onion" dipping sauce, sauteed spinach and mushrooms
Edit: this hasn't happened yet.
- Ladies' brunch: Sausage and Grits Casserole + quick bread (below) + "potluck"

Baking: Caramelized Onion & Spinach Olive Oil Quick Break- A savory quick bread that includes spinach, onions and feta? I knew as soon as I saw this I was going to be making it soon.
Edit: I thought the olive oil flavor was a little strong at first, but it mellowed over a couple days in the fridge and I ended up really liking it.

Given that it's still tax season and I'm on my own a couple of nights (meaning scrounging/leftovers/random salads) this should probably do the trick. Best case scenario, later in the week I will come up with some ideas for the following week, instead of waiting until Monday (or never, as the case may be). However that week is also Easter break, so that gives me a bit of a break as well!

Meals this week

In more or less random order:
1. Taco soup
2. Mini spinach quiche (quiches? what is the plural of quiche?)- cooked and ready to pull out of the fridge and reheat for a quick breakfast.
3. Tortellini soup with spinach
4. Store-bought frozen fried shrimp with Blooming Onion dipping sauce(?), sweet potatoes in some form or another, and asparagus.
5. Leftovers from some or all of the above to fill out lunches and dinners.

Lists

I like lists. I make to-do lists often, sometimes too often. They tend to be scattered around the house, depending on the topic. I might have one list for class planning (which could be floating around the living room or kitchen, or it could be in my notebook where it really belongs), one list for meal planning (which probably would be on the fridge on a magnetic notepad), and one list for cleaning and errands (which might be on the fridge but might not). Sometimes these help me, sometimes they don't. Sometimes there are too many of them and I lose track of them. Sometimes it seems that instead of simplifying my life I'm trying to confuse myself as much as possible.

Rabbit trail: Does anyone else write things down on a to-do list after the fact, just so you can check them off? I do. I love the feeling of accomplishment, especially on days when it seems like I didn't do very much.

I happened to be in Michael's craft store on an unrelated errand (the quest for a non-Christmas wreath for the front door, that isn't too expensive and won't be destroyed by moisture leaking in through the storm door...it continues) the other week and looked through the "dollar" bins. I found these fantastic magnetic pads.


They have the days of the week listed on top of very long columns. They have several magnets on the back, instead of just one. They are about the size of a half sheet of paper and fit perfectly on the side of my fridge right where I can see them. They were $1.50 each and are very thick for this type of pad.

I've been using the pad for meal-planning and to-do lists, so far. The grocery/errand lists are still elsewhere, since I tear those off when I leave the house to run errands. But this has helped me with my meal-planning, at the very least. There is one place with all the days listed. It looks fairly neat. I don't have to list the days of the week myself. They are right there in front of me, so I am more likely to fill them out ahead of time instead of flying by the seat of my pants. This doesn't mean I'm not changing the plan often, and some days you can see arrows and circles showing that I moved a meal, but it helps me to have some idea of what I'm cooking ahead of time. One note on the meal-planning: I cook for leftovers often, so I like to write the leftovers' "deadline" ("eat by this date or suffer the consequences", a.k.a. to avoid waste and food poisoning) next to a meal, because I often have a hard time remembering a few days later what day I actually cooked something (usually if it wasn't planned).

So that's my nifty new trick. We'll see if it helps me stay on track. So far I'm doing fairly well.

Cooking this week

Meatloaf (turkey), sweet potatoes, and vegetable- I used this recipe, but I accidently included 2 tsp. of Worcestershire sauce in the meatloaf itself and I used dried thyme instead of marjoram. I had low expectations of turkey meatloaf but I was very pleasantly surprised. It had great flavor and I will be making this again. I used my new Pampered Chef stoneware mini loaf pan. Because of my concern about the meatloaf actually tasting like much, I made this mushroom gravy to go with it. I sort of made 2/3 of the recipe, though I added onions as well. I used store brand Smart Balance instead of butter. It was very good, and really not terribly unhealthy.

Pizza and salad- dough from the freezer makes this an easy one, plus turkey pepperoni also from the freezer. I should have saved a few mushrooms for this but didn't.
*Edit: This morphed into a pizza roll type thing, with spinach inside of it.


Pulled pork- this recipe is one of our favorites and I haven't found a pork roast to make it for a while. I found a big 8 1/2 lb one today. I was tempted by the whole shoulder blade roast that was cheaper but it was too big. Now that I think about it I could have asked if the meat counter folks could cut it up for me, but maybe next time. I will make the whole thing at once in the crockpot. Then shred the meat and chill it with the juices, skim the fat, and freeze in smaller portions. The shredded pork absorbs the juices again when it's reheated and the flavor isn't too spicy but it is so good. We've eaten it on buns either with or without barbeque sauce (North Carolina, vinegar based, is our favorite) or on flour tortillas with salsa, and it's good by itself too.

There are also leftovers from last week for meals and lunches, and all of these will make leftovers for lunch and and some suppers.

Tentative Meal Plan

Here it is for the week. The lentil soup is already in the crockpot. Friday and Saturday are "to be determined" still, but I am planning to find something to cook so we have leftovers for early next week.

Monday- Lentil soup (sausage, tomatoes, carrots, onions, garlic)

Tuesday- Spinach and Sausage Quiche (the rest of the sausage)

Wednesday- leftover Pasta with Chicken/Feta/Olives

Thursday- leftovers/on the go

Resolutions- meal planning

It's that time of year (or it was a couple weeks ago) when we think about New Year's resolutions. I never do this very formally, but it is something that bounces around in my head as I go about life.

My main/mundane one this year is to get back into the habit of meal planning. It really does make life so much easier when I have some idea of what I'm going to cook, instead of rummaging through the pantry at 4:30 (though some of those meals turn out very well). Planning doesn't have to take much time, either. I tend to beat myself up about it if I am not doing a good job organizing meals, cleaning, or generally keeping up with life. That is another issue, but at least if I can keep up with meals my life will have some semblance of order.

I like to cook, but for some reason I just haven't been very motivated to do it over the past few months. My husband bought me a new cookbook for Christmas, which has given me something new and fun to look at when meal planning. No matter how many wonderful food blogs and recipe websites there are, I still love getting a new cookbook. If they didn't take up so much space, I would probably have many more than I do!

This week, due to traveling and general craziness, has been the first week I've really gotten to any actual planning.
- Monday: Chilli from the freezer
- Tuesday: Quinoa with black beans (from the new cookbook)- very simple (not much different than the typical black beans and rice) but surprisingly unique
- Wednesday: Taco salad- I threw in chopped carrots when I cooked the meat to make it go further (and lower cholesterol/fat, of course), and froze half of the finished and seasoned meat so I will have something quick and easy to pull out when I need it.

That's as far as I got. Baby steps, right?

- Today, I think it will be frozen pizza. (Yes, I'm copping out. Remember, baby steps.)
- Friday- Pasta with chicken, feta and olives. I haven't made that recipe in a while, since it's not the cheapest or quickest, but it's so good.

Sometimes I will cook 2-3 times and plan leftovers the rest of the nights, but rather than do that this week, I designated leftovers as lunches. The pasta should make enough for both, however.

Anyway, we will finally be home over the weekend, so I should have more time to plan ahead. I'm actually little excited about that. Who knows? Maybe I'll try to post my plan each week, to give myself a little accountability (since my wonderful husband is happy and thinks I am doing a fantastic job even when I pull something together at the last minute).

On a more serious note, I very much appreciated this post from Nancy Wilson about contentment. Point number 8 really struck home, but they are all good reminders.

Happy New Year!