On the "Going to Cook" List

I saw this recipe for Chicken Pot Pie With Rice on the Whole Foods website:

I'm totally going to make this. When, I don't know. But it looks amazing.

The $2 Lunch Challenge by Liz Snyder

I just read one of the best blog entries ever about providing nutritional, healthy, organic food for our children at reasonable prices. Liz Snyder blogs about preparing a week of healthy, wholesome lunches for less than $2 each, by shopping at Whole Foods and buying from local farmers.

Check it out and enter Liz's challenge. Make your own $2 lunch and post pictures. I'll be working on that this week.

Go Liz!

This Week's Menu

If I don't figure out what we're going to eat for the week before Sunday night, it's a week full of cereal and oatmeal for dinner. Especially if I'm working late.

So, here's the plan for this week:

1. Modified turkey tetrazzini. (I didn't have enough left over turkey, so I added some scallops and peas.) It's cooked, in the refrigerator and just needs to be heated up.

2. Baked chicken thighs with sauteed vegetables and brown rice. Everything but the rice is cooked and in the refrigerator.

3. Buffalo burgers with roasted sweet potatoes and butternut squash. I'll roast the vegetables (are they vegetables?) Tuesday night so they're ready for Wednesday night. The buffalo burgers will take about 10 minutes in the skillet. (We ran out of gas for the grill, so we'll have to cook in the kitchen until next weekend.)

4. Some sort of crockpot stew. This will cook while we sleep Wednesday night and will just need to be heated up Thursday night. It's cool in Dallas, so this will be nice. Depending on our moods and the contents of my pantry, this may end up being chili.

On the nights we're having food that I can't eat (numbers 1, 2, half of 3 and 4), I'll be eating fish, edamame and apples. Quick and easy prep on these, so no big deal.

I think it sounds pretty good! We should use the rest of our produce by the end of the week, just in time for our next Urban Acres share pick-up on Saturday.

Organic Chocolate Chip Pancakes

The little boy requested pancakes this morning. With chocolate chips. Just so happened I had all of the ingredients.

I've quit putting The Joy of Cooking back on the shelf. It is now a permanent addition to my kitchen counter. Usually propped open. It's a mighty fine cookbook.

I modified the pancake recipe slightly. Instead of using all-purpose flour, I substituted 1 cup of whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup of oat flour. I'm finding that this combination works. Whole wheat flour tends to be more dense, but the oat flour lightens it up a bit.

I added 1/2 cup of chocolate chips. (I got these from the bulk bin at Sprouts.) Then I sprinkled a few on top and drizzled some of the maple syrup I got from the bulk bin aisle at Whole Foods.

I put some in the freezer that I can heat in the microwave on a weekday morning for a quick breakfast.

The State of the Kitchen

My kitchen is totally trashed.

It looks like fifty teenagers were left alone in the house for three weeks without parental supervision. They didn't go to school, either, the hoodlums. They just piled up dirty dishes until there were no clean ones left.

The irresponsible little...

Oh, wait.

I cooked a lot today. I also did two loads of dishes, but that didn't seem to make a dent in the destruction.

I made the broiled buffalo steaks and the sauteed greens. The apple oat cake came next.

Then for good measure I sauteed some veggies I had in my refrigerator (onions, red and green bell peppers with some chopped garlic), threw them in a casserole dish with a can of stewed tomatoes, and topped it off with some chicken thighs I'd browned in the skillet first. I baked until the chicken was done, then breathed in the aroma. I'm thinking about serving it either with noodles or rice. Jury is still out on that one.

After that I baked the take-and-bake pizza from Whole Foods.

Then I put scallops, mushrooms and some broccoli on the counter, realized I was really quite tired, so I put them all away. Maybe tomorrow.

Weekends are my time to cook. The work week is too crazy for much more than heating something up or plating something that's waiting for us in the crockpot. Cooking is relaxing for me. Dirty dishes are not.

Oh, well. If the kids weren't sick I'd make them do the dishes. If my husband hadn't been working on a fire drill project for work fourteen hours every day, including on Thanksgiving, I'd have asked him to do it.

Do you think the dogs could do it?

Month 2, Week 1 Budget Review

I did all of my shopping this week at Whole Foods and I went without taking any coupons which makes it all the more incredible that I got out of there, including with a chai tea latte from the coffee shop (which was $4.49), for a total of $110.17.

Sha-wing batter!

I stocked up on meat big time this week:

• tilapia ($11.87)
• scallops ($5.04)
• tuna ($6.99)
• chicken thighs ($3.92)
• ground buffalo ($8.15)
• 2 buffalo london broil steaks ($5.75 and $6.02)
• sliced salami ($4.30)
• roast beef ($2.34)

In the produce section, I got some red apples, 2 lemons, a pint of cranberries, and a huge container of grape tomatoes (all organic). We still have tons of produce from our Urban Acres share.

I got 2 half gallon containers of soy milk and a gallon of Organic Valley milk.

From the bulk bins I got organic brown basmati rice, cinnamon and black pepper. I also picked up some organic bread for sandwiches, chicken broth and a candy cane for some holiday baking.

The take-and-bake pizzas were on sale for $7.99 (normally $13.99), so I got one with chicken, red bell peppers and broccoli. I think it was a 16 inch pizza. In other words, ginormous.

My freezer is filling up with chopped veggies from our share and I still have the tuna and chicken left from the week before last.

Month 2 is off to a stellar, on budget, start.

Buffalo Steak with Sauteed Greens

Our share from Urban Acres included collard greens and kale: two things I have no clue how to prepare. So, I broke open The Joy of Cooking and found a recipe for Sauteed Greens With Garlic.


Then I marinated a buffalo london broil steak from Whole Foods in soy sauce after prepping it with salt, pepper and about a 1/2 teaspoon of lemon zest. I placed it in a glass cooking dish, poured the soy sauce on top, and broiled it on high for about 20 minutes. This makes it rare, the way my husband likes it. I cook it a little longer for mine and the kids, so it's not quite so pink in the center.

Here it is, ready to eat:

Delish!