I hope you guys are all doing well. So, my boss repeats an old saying about no plan survives first contact with the enemy. (A quick Google shows that this is from a Prussian military leader, Helmuth van Moltke). This pretty much sums up last week.
The sausage skillet was fine, the tuna cakes never happened (this is why it’s always good to have at least one meal of things that won’t go bad, you can shuffle around and not waste food). The rest of the meals sort of survived a shuffle. The one clear winner of the week was the pork stew. I forgot to buy chiles de arbol, but I always have chipotle peppers on hand to make chipotle mayo or sour cream for taco night. I swapped in a couple of those (adding with the rest of the wet ingredients instead of with the cornmeal). The toppings and sides deviated from the original plan, but that was based on how it smelled and what I think the kids would dig. I served it over rice with black beans and tomatoes (I use a rice cooker and will just add a can of each). The kids topped it with guacamole, sour cream, cotija cheese, and crumbled tortilla chips. This meal is definitely going in the rotation despite the lengthy process. It’s worth it and I think I could safely double and freeze this one. It would also be good for a casual company dinner.
So the tentative plans for this week:
Monday – we’re having dinner with the children’s grandparents at a local Thai place. I’m truly looking forward to this
Tuesday – loaded baked potatoes (The potato hater has scouts and can make himself a sandwich) – we’ll top ours with chili and cheese and have broccoli on the side or maybe just go with broccoli and cheese
Wednesday – We’ll give those tuna cakes another go
Thursday – Sandwiches. Football may be over, but the school has a meeting, because who wouldn’t want to actually be home for dinner?
Friday – Lasagna (cheating, it’s frozen this week), salad
Saturday –Fake ‘n Bake pork chops, green beans, rice, and brown gravy
Sunday – Albondigas – doubling the batch to ensure there are leftovers during the week.
I hope all of you have a safe, healthy week. Drop a line in the comments to let us know what you’re having for dinner. It’s nice to get some new ideas.
Thanks!
Love the quote! My week has been that way emotionally. Gotta love sandwich nights and/or the frozen dinner quick and easy cause mama needs a break night. Keep the sanity! 😉
Lemon lentil soup!
Whats your recipe for this?
I’m interested in whether you modified the pork/cumin stew? Commenters seemed to be confused and some made adjustments. Would be interested if you made any, I’d like to make this one (hopefully without a “do-over” if I can help it :))
I didn’t have the right peppers so I subbed those with something different than the recipe’s intent. I also used ground cumin as I had forgotten I used up the whole with my last batch of potato curry.
We liked it a lot and will definitely make again, skimming the fat is definitely important.
It smells very much like a chili and all of the kids liked it. I had expected some complaints as it’s “different” than our usual food, but I let them top it with whatever and they were happy.
One of my cooking time and menu savers has been keeping “seasoning frozen vegetables”–onions, celery, and some red bell peppers–in my freezer. I can add them to scrambled eggs to zest them up; add to veggie soups; add to rice; etc. Speaking of rice, I usually keep several individual serve microwave rice cups in our pantry. It pairs up quickly with beef-based soups or smoked sausage or grilled chicken strips or thin boneless pork chops. Just a few quick menu savers in our household.