What's Cookin'?
I love blogging and I want to blog more. But sometimes... just the mere idea of coming up with something to 'interesting' to write paralyzes me. Yet, because I love writing so much, I refuse to let the perfect be the enemy of the good, and so I decided to blog about something slightly prosaic, in part to just keep me in the habit.
I'm blogging about what we ate each night.
Although, I'm not convinced that what, or at least how, one eats at dinner is insignificant. In my bygone days of youth ministry, we were told during training to ask the teens, as a conversation opener, "What did you have for dinner?" It really is amazing what insight you can get into people's family dynamics just by inquiring into that one subject.
And of course, more and more studies are coming out, saying a shared family meal is correlated to lower instances of substance abuse, depression, eating disorders, and risky sexual behavior; eating together matters.
But... and that is a big but... I am not a huge fan of cooking. It's relentless. The cooking itself, combined with the clean-up, the buying of those actual groceries, planning those actual meals: I would guess that is where the largest amount of my time (and certainly money) goes. I fully embrace cutting corners, so long as we eat together, at predictable times, and without too much crying, complaining or otherwise.
Without further ado, What's Cookin'?
We had a massive amount of ground beef that needed to be used up so I made ginger scallion meatballs. The recipe calls for ground pork, and so that's normally what I use, but I all
I had was beef. The boys like taking leftover meatballs in their thermoses to school, so a large quantity would be put to good use.
My kids affectionately call these "Jaclyn Meatballs," after my sister, because it's her signature recipe. They also have told me, more than once, that hers taste better. Shrug.
{NB: I don't have coconut aminos on hand, so I used reduced-sodium Tamari; it makes them saltier than if using the aminos, but I like salty food, and... it's cheaper than buying coconut aminos. That's a Paleo diet substitute for soy sauce. I use the gluten-free substitute for soy sauce. Confused yet?}
I served it with Greek salad and rice.
Anna also had a hankering to make cookies, and since it was a Sunday and I was feeling relaxed, I capitulated. Recipe, here, with apricot jam in the centre and gluten-free all-purpose flour. Also, again, big batch yielded lunch box treats for later in the week. I do love front-ending my week.
I made breaded chicken strips and fries. Like, made them, for the first time, because I was craving them, and I figured it was remotely healthier to make them at home; how very Michael Pollan of me. The "fries" were just oven-roasted potatoes with olive oil, sliced in a fry shape. The chicken strips I made from sliced boneless, skinless chicken breasts, dipped in an egg wash, then into a mix of cornmeal, salt, and pepper. I heated olive oil to a high heat in a very SHALLOW pot and it sputtered angrily all over Hell's half-acre and threatened the whole family until I transferred the oil into a stock pot, whereupon I fried them, plopped them on a pan and put them in the oven for about ten minutes with the potatoes. Served with leftover Greek salad from Sunday.
Oh yes, and I hope you can envision the angry oil sputtering, me yelling "get out of the kitchen! I don't want to burn you!" with this song coincidentally playing loudly all the while:
I'm nothing if but graceful.
Patrick's boss' family had us over for dinner. It was a turkey dinner with so many delicious sides -- on a plain ol' Tuesday! -- and even cheesecake and fresh-baked cookies for dessert (as in, our hostess popped them into the oven from homemade frozen dough while she chatted with us and made the tea so they would still be warm when we ate them. Yum.)
It was the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, so our little, but mostly not-so-little Noah Paul Joseph requested bacon, eggs, and banana chocolate chip muffins for dinner. Praise hands for easy meals!
I took my littlest to Toy Bus and to the grocery store, aka I wiped myself out. Thus, tacos with prepackaged shells and seasoning. To every meal, there is a season -- a time to cook from scratch, a time to bust out the shortcuts.
I'm blogging about what we ate each night.
Although, I'm not convinced that what, or at least how, one eats at dinner is insignificant. In my bygone days of youth ministry, we were told during training to ask the teens, as a conversation opener, "What did you have for dinner?" It really is amazing what insight you can get into people's family dynamics just by inquiring into that one subject.
And of course, more and more studies are coming out, saying a shared family meal is correlated to lower instances of substance abuse, depression, eating disorders, and risky sexual behavior; eating together matters.
But... and that is a big but... I am not a huge fan of cooking. It's relentless. The cooking itself, combined with the clean-up, the buying of those actual groceries, planning those actual meals: I would guess that is where the largest amount of my time (and certainly money) goes. I fully embrace cutting corners, so long as we eat together, at predictable times, and without too much crying, complaining or otherwise.
Without further ado, What's Cookin'?
Sunday
We had a massive amount of ground beef that needed to be used up so I made ginger scallion meatballs. The recipe calls for ground pork, and so that's normally what I use, but I all
I had was beef. The boys like taking leftover meatballs in their thermoses to school, so a large quantity would be put to good use.
My kids affectionately call these "Jaclyn Meatballs," after my sister, because it's her signature recipe. They also have told me, more than once, that hers taste better. Shrug.
{NB: I don't have coconut aminos on hand, so I used reduced-sodium Tamari; it makes them saltier than if using the aminos, but I like salty food, and... it's cheaper than buying coconut aminos. That's a Paleo diet substitute for soy sauce. I use the gluten-free substitute for soy sauce. Confused yet?}
I served it with Greek salad and rice.
Anna also had a hankering to make cookies, and since it was a Sunday and I was feeling relaxed, I capitulated. Recipe, here, with apricot jam in the centre and gluten-free all-purpose flour. Also, again, big batch yielded lunch box treats for later in the week. I do love front-ending my week.
Monday
I made breaded chicken strips and fries. Like, made them, for the first time, because I was craving them, and I figured it was remotely healthier to make them at home; how very Michael Pollan of me. The "fries" were just oven-roasted potatoes with olive oil, sliced in a fry shape. The chicken strips I made from sliced boneless, skinless chicken breasts, dipped in an egg wash, then into a mix of cornmeal, salt, and pepper. I heated olive oil to a high heat in a very SHALLOW pot and it sputtered angrily all over Hell's half-acre and threatened the whole family until I transferred the oil into a stock pot, whereupon I fried them, plopped them on a pan and put them in the oven for about ten minutes with the potatoes. Served with leftover Greek salad from Sunday.
Oh yes, and I hope you can envision the angry oil sputtering, me yelling "get out of the kitchen! I don't want to burn you!" with this song coincidentally playing loudly all the while:
I'm nothing if but graceful.
Tuesday
Patrick's boss' family had us over for dinner. It was a turkey dinner with so many delicious sides -- on a plain ol' Tuesday! -- and even cheesecake and fresh-baked cookies for dessert (as in, our hostess popped them into the oven from homemade frozen dough while she chatted with us and made the tea so they would still be warm when we ate them. Yum.)
Wednesday
It was the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, so our little, but mostly not-so-little Noah Paul Joseph requested bacon, eggs, and banana chocolate chip muffins for dinner. Praise hands for easy meals!
Thursday
I took my littlest to Toy Bus and to the grocery store, aka I wiped myself out. Thus, tacos with prepackaged shells and seasoning. To every meal, there is a season -- a time to cook from scratch, a time to bust out the shortcuts.
Friday
I dunno, it was the DC March for Life so Patrick was working from 7:30 or so until about 9:30 at night with no dinner break, I had the boys home sick from school, I had been awake since 3 AM. These seem like sufficient reasons?
Gluten-free Pizza Pizza.
I dunno, it was the DC March for Life so Patrick was working from 7:30 or so until about 9:30 at night with no dinner break, I had the boys home sick from school, I had been awake since 3 AM. These seem like sufficient reasons?
Saturday
I put a pork roast in the slow cooker with potatoes, carrots, onions and some whole garlic cloves, seasoned with salt and pepper, covered it with some stock and took off to Pembroke to run errands with my family. When we came home, the house smelled delicious -- win -- so I threw together a quick salad and everyone enjoyed it. Noah requested some in his thermos on Monday. Extra win.
I put a pork roast in the slow cooker with potatoes, carrots, onions and some whole garlic cloves, seasoned with salt and pepper, covered it with some stock and took off to Pembroke to run errands with my family. When we came home, the house smelled delicious -- win -- so I threw together a quick salad and everyone enjoyed it. Noah requested some in his thermos on Monday. Extra win.
Excellent post. I'm hungry.
ReplyDeleteMe too.
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