It has been hard to blog since my sister passed away last month. It's been hard to do very much at all. Actually, I am really good at crying. I'd like to send big smoochy hugs to everyone who took the time to read about her here and send me such kind messages. It meant more than you can know.
So yesterday I decided that we were going to go bankrupt if I didn't make the herculean effort to plan a weeks worth of meals, write a grocery list and, yes, drive to the store and purchase food. We've been living on a steady diet of pizza and Chinese take-out supplemented with a lot of toast. After I put everything away and wrote the menu up on my chalkboard kitchen door so I won't forget what the heck I'm supposed to do with all those groceries, I noticed that I'd planned a menu of almost all comfort foods. Go figure.
Some of the recipes I've made before and know are yummy, and some are new but just sounded good, you know? Anyway, here are some of the meals we're having with links to the recipes in case you need a little comfort too.
Monday is fish day. We had this oven roasted sea bass with ginger and lime sauce. Except sea bass was $24 a pound so I selected the $6 cod instead. The sauce is super good. I plan to use it again to marinate chicken and I even think it would be tasty as a salad dressing.
Tonight were are trying this slow cooker honey garlic chicken. I know, it's not a very far step from Chinese take-out but whatever. Doesn't it just look like it will make me feel better? I think so.
Also I am making broccolini to go with it because I saw it in the produce section and I thought, "hey! the little chefs on 'Master Chef Junior' use this all the time to look fancy, I want to look fancy too." Broccoli is so last year.
 |
| I snapped this right before Marc dug in. |
Wednesday night we are having boiled dinner. There is no recipe for this; my little German mom has been making it for as long as I can remember. In your largest pot boil carrots, potatoes, a quartered onion, a quartered cabbage head, and sweet Italian sausage (my mom uses polish sausage). Let it all boil together until the potatoes and carrots are tender and the sausage isn't pink in the middle. In our family, this is comfort food.
I'm a sucker for a good slow cooker recipe, as you can tell, and on Thursday I'm making Coconut Ginger Chicken and Vegetables. I've made this before and it is really yummy, mild enough for the whole family, but with a lot of nice flavors.
Having said that, I recommend a few changes. One, canned baby corn grosses me out so I just don't use that weird stuff. I about double all the spices plus add a couple tablespoons of curry. My final tip, when you choose your frozen veggies, get ones without carrots. Believe me, frozen carrots just don't taste that good. I use a stir fry mix and then add some asparagus.
The last meal I planned for Friday or Saturday depending on the leftover situation is another slow cooker favorite, Vegetable Beef Soup.
 |
Link
I've made this before too and I like to make a few changes. Instead of frozen mixed veggies I use chopped whatever I have in the fridge, usually broccoli (because I also am so last year), green beans, bell peppers, onions, carrots or whatever. I never use canned corn, always fresh or at least petite white frozen. And this time instead of buying ground beef I purchased a roast that was on sale and asked the butcher to chop it up for me; I plan to season it with salt, pepper and garlic powder then brown it in a little bit of oil before putting it in the crock pot.
And that is how I am eating my feelings this week.
|
