Hot Patootie Bless My Soul. Yes, Meatloaf Again.

Hi! It was time to go food shopping again even if it meant taking a break from Game of Thrones. That took up a majority of my Sunday evening because we went to two different stores. I hit up Trader Joe’s for the usual produce and things for lunches and then Safeway to take advantage of a good sale they were having on meat. I bought enough chicken for at least two weeks and stocked our freezer. I also picked up a two pound bag of kale so I need to get creative with that for sure. There is a ton of green in our fridge right now. 

Here is our haul from TJ’s. As you can see, Hubs snuck a few things into the cart while I was elbowing people to get to my vegetables.

I am looking at you, hot dogs and chili in a can. I am not a huge fan of either but I am not here to deny a man his cravings. I was pretty sure I was going to die on Sunday if I did not get to crumble up some spicy chorizo and eat it with a spoon right out of the pan. 

Menu! LIVE NUDE KALE! ALL NIGHT!

Sunday!

A very special nacho night with stuff from Safeway; peach salsa, aforementioned chorizo, organic corn chips, cheese. Rome was not built in a day.

Monday!

Ribeye with baked sweet potatoes. 

Tuesday!

Meatloaf with an Italian twist (more on that later), sauteed sweet peppers, kale.

Wednesday!

Chicken thighs with Arrabbiata sauce, green beans.

Thursday!

Kimchi fried rice with baby spinach and eggs.

Friday!

Baked chicken legs with Brussels sprouts and butternut squash.

Saturday!

This might be a wildcard or takeout night. I am sure I will make Jer an omelet in the morning with whatever cheese or vegetables we have left.  Then I have to make a dessert to take to a friend’s house for Easter dinner.

I also have stuff to make a few things to graze on during the week or to pack in my lunch. I want to make a chicken salad, another batch of egg muffins, and a green salad. 

I worked an overnight last night so when I woke up this afternoon I decided to try out a new meatloaf recipe to get a head start on dinner. After it goes into the oven all I will have left to do is saute my vegetables. I bought a package of “meatloaf mix” from Safeway that is pork, beef, and veal ground up together. I have always found my best Italian meatballs come from a mix of different meats so I am giving it a try. I mixed it with garlic, shallot, onion, fennel seed, an Italian herb blend from Penzey’s, 1 egg, olive oil, a handful of breadcrumbs, and a handful of grated Italian cheese. Mom, it smells like home! I found a two piece silicon meatloaf pan in my pantry that I have never used. I usually make meatloaf freeform on a baking sheet but I have a feeling some fat is going to drain from this beast. Of course I will let you know how it all ends. 

Do you have a menu planned for this week? I would love to hear about it!

I’m Not A Girl That Could Linger But I Feel Like A Butterfinger.

No, no. I did not fall into a well of junk food. That is just a song lyric that has been stuck in my head. I am back! Sometimes I start a new project with 150% enthusiasm and it eventually fizzles into nothingness. But I do not want to treat my health like an old craft project so here I am.

Really, though. Busy week. Last weekend we did not do a proper grocery shopping because I had a lot left in the fridge and we needed to buy provisions for St Patrick’s Day. We had another married couple come over for dinner and it was a great time. I love cooking for other people.

I made lots of delicious stuff, see? I can make things without garlic, see?

Menu!

• Corned beef that I found at Trader Joe’s went into the crockpot on low for 6 hours… EASY!
• Glazed baby carrots
• Brussels with bacon and apple cider vinegar
• Teeny tiny potatoes with cabbage
• Colcannon. I really do not like mashed potatoes all that much but these were great. I use spring onions and kale when I make it and I leave the potatoes a little chunky. The well of butter on the top is a requirement, by the way.

I do not bake bread. My kitchen is drafty and I have very little counter space or patience. I took advantage of the lovely bakery at Wegman’s and got a sourdough and a loaf of Irish soda bread that was still warm when I picked it up. It was romantic…

The rest of the week we ate leftovers, random salads from whatever was kicking around in the fridge, etc. We had a pasta night when I worked late. Last night we explored a new Asian grocery store and made Korean BBQ at home. I was really tempted to have an OMG SUSHI night at our favorite spot but we can never get out of there for less than $100. I am trying to save that kind of outburst for special occasions.

In an earlier post I shared my receipt from my last big grocery shopping and how I planned to keep track of what we used. It worked out pretty well. I mean, there are a few handfuls of gorgonzola left and some pasta in the pantry for emergencies. I even ate the tin of smoked oysters in olive oil the other day when I needed a boost. They were tasty and full of Omega goodness but I probably will not buy them again. Jer made a separate trip for some items he wanted for his lunches; yogurt, bread, roast beef, granola bars, etc. I think there was a day I packed carrots and apples in his lunch box with a sandwich and it might have driven him over the edge. I went to the organic market for cottage cheese and Larabars for quick breakfasts when I ran out of egg muffins.

Which pretty much brings us to an empty fridge after I make us some breakfast sandwiches in a bit. Later on I will make a menu for the coming week and do it all again.

See what I did there?

You Can Get A Steak Here Daddy-O.

Last night Hubs and I shared a steak and both lived to tell about it. “Back in the day” I probably would have bought two steaks for us. We probably would not have anything else to go with it. Maybe Texas toast. Maybe a crock of ready made mac and cheese. Definitely soda.  

My dinner formula when I am going for the gold is roughly this:

• a protein, organic if possible, grass-fed if possible if we are having beef
• something green
• something red/yellow/orange
• a small amount of fat such as pastured butter, olive oil, or ghee, or cheese ( only for a very good reason)

It may sound boring, but the combinations are endless. A perfect example is our dinner last night.

We split a nice piece of grass-fed beef I got from Trader Joe’s along with a huge amount of broccoli and a sweet potato. Something about the tang of Gorgonzola cheese made it all sing, and I only used a little bit. I trimmed whatever fat I could get off the steak and cooked it without oil. It only needed a bit of salt and pepper. Delicious! 

See?

 

Steak was $9.98, broccoli was $2.29, sweet potato was $.49. I know for certain we have spent more at a drive-thru window on junk. 

I have prepared all of our meals since my little blog was born nearly a week ago. I am on the brink of feeling like it is a routine. Confidence is high! 

A Meatloaf Betty Draper Would Be Proud To Serve Don.

Growing up, we did not have meatloaf very often. My Mother’s Italian background pretty much dictated most of our dinners. As such, whenever she made traditional American food it was always a delicious meal. Maybe the other kids my age were not excited when their mom made meatloaf, but I sure was. I loved looking at all Mom’s vintage cookbooks to see all the variations of this iconic dish. Meatloaf with boiled eggs inside, meatloaf wrapped with bacon lattice, meatloaf dotted with pickles and olives, and so on. I had a pound of grass-fed organic ground beef to use and I have always dreamt about what it would be like to be a housewife in the 60’s, so last night was Meatloaf Wednesday! 

It is entirely possible to make meatloaf without added grains if you are avoiding them, but I do like a bit of “fluff” to stretch it out a bit. Otherwise the texture is too similar to… hamburgers? I blitzed two pieces of whole wheat bread (the two ends of the loaf I was saving just for this) in my mini-chopper and made my own breadcrumbs. I also put a half a bag of shredded carrots in the chopper and let it go until they were a very fine mince. I added one egg, cumin, salt, pepper, onion and garlic. Somewhere I learned the trick to mixing all the other ingredients together before incorporating the ground meat and it works very well. I bake meatloaf on a cookie sheet in a kind of flattened rectangle shape so it cooks even and does not crack. Alton Brown has a great meatloaf glaze recipe but I did not have honey so I just smeared mine with a tiny bit of ketchup. I let it bake until it had an internal temperature of 160 degrees. 

Curious about the carrot? Trust me, you do not taste carrot when the meatloaf is done. It is a vehicle to consume more vegetables and stretch the pound of beef I used. I have done the same thing by mincing up broccoli slaw and that is also delicious. If you want to go the broccoli route, add a bit of cheddar! Fantastic! 

To go with the meatloaf I threw a tray of chopped butternut squash dressed with olive oil and salt and pepper in the oven and let it roast until soft and delicious. When the meatloaf was out of the oven and cooling I quickly sauteed the last of our chard in ghee. Then it was time to eat! I took a crappy picture of my plate using my phone just for you.

The best thing about making meatloaf for two is that no one has to fight for an end piece!

Paleo Egg Muffins! And Last Night’s Cozy Dinner.

Last night was another quick and easy dinner full of flavor. I chopped up a few slices of uncured bacon and let it render down and get crispy. Let me just say now how strange it felt to open a package of bacon, take a few slices out, and then… PUT THE REST BACK IN THE FRIDGE. Hubs and I can definitely polish off an entire pound in one meal. Anyway, I poured off most of the fat and then tossed in a bag of shredded cabbage and let it cook down. I plated the happiest cabbage ever with some chicken and apple sausage from Trader Joe’s (I will talk about this sausage in another post) and sprinkled the bacon I cooked earlier on top. About an hour earlier I made some organic corn muffins for Hubs lunch snacks so I stole two of them for us to share with dinner. Perfect!

Today I had to miss work due to some… female trouble. Around noon I started to feel vaguely human enough to go into the kitchen and try a recipe that I have been reading about for a long time, egg muffins. Just about every Paleo blog has featured them in some variation. I was never in a hurry to try them out because I am more of a fried egg and cheese on a bagel gal but… yeah. I still had a half a bag of spinach kicking around and sliced baby portobello mushrooms without a purpose so that is what I used.

It looked like a lot but once I added it to 12 eggs that I whisked up with salt, pepper, garlic, and a tiny bit of organic cream, it was the perfect amount to fill my muffin pan. I greased my pan with ghee but I would use cupcake liners next time. Some of the bottoms stuck a bit and I really hate cleaning muffin pans. I also ended up storing them in the paper liners anyway to make them more portable.

See how pretty and fresh looking? I thought maybe I should have cooked the vegetables first but they ended up perfectly done without the extra step. I did not even miss cheese, for real. I baked mine for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees. I ate two for lunch and will certainly make them again. I still love you, hardboiled eggs. I just think we need to start seeing other people.

Ghee-Licious! And Last Night’s Thanksgiving Dinner.

Have you tried ghee before? It is a form of clarified butter pretty popular in Indian cooking. I tried it for the first time after reading about it on various Primal/Paleo websites. It is tasty and full of vitamins and CLA. I keep a jar on my counter (no need to keep it cold if you use it regularly) and use it for cooking. I am a huge fan of Pure Indian Foods because their ghee is sourced from happy grass-fed cows. I recently splurged on a giant jar of their cultured ghee and I love it.

Last night I sauteed turkey cutlets from Trader Joe’s in ghee and olive oil and they came out fantastic. I lightly dredged them in flour seasoned with salt and pepper. If you are avoiding wheat, you could skip that step or use a different flour. I normally make cutlets with a thick coating of egg/flour/egg again/breadcrumbs and fry the hell out of them but… health, you know? The small amount of flour I used was just right and let the flavor of the turkey come through.

While I was prepping our turkey I popped two sweet potatoes in the microwave and let them rip for 10 minutes for a quick side. We eat ours with just a touch of ghee and salt or cinnamon.

After I took the turkey out of the pan I dumped in a carton of Pacific Natural Foods Organic Whole Berry Cranberry sauce and let it cook down and make friends with the ghee. Cranberry sauce has added sugar but I am trying to use up foodstuffs cluttering up the pantry. This little carton was begging to be used since November. I squeezed half a Meyer lemon into the cranberries for extra zing. When I spooned the sauce over the turkey it made a delicious glaze. We seasoned up our sweet potatoes and dug in.  Hubs said it was a delicious dinner and I agree. I wish we had some green beans or something for the full Thanksgiving experience.

And guess what? This was another crazy inexpensive meal. Sweet potatoes are only $.49 each at Trader Joe’s. I like buying sweet potatoes individually so I can pick out ones that are similar in size for even cooking times. The turkey was $6.81. I still have cranberry sauce left that I will probably use on turkey sandwiches or blend into a salad dressing. We are on track with my menu for the week and our budget!

Do you enjoy cooking traditional holiday meals at random times throughout the year?

A Sunday Chicken Dinner Built For Two

So here is a dinner I make often that is crazy delicious and inexpensive. Hubs and I love the dark parts of a chicken (not its sordid past, I mean the legs and thighs) so a pack of organic drumsticks at Trader Joe’s is one of the best deals for organic meats I have seen. I do use chicken breast on occasion but unless I have some from Costco (great prices on organic proteins if you did not know) in the freezer we do not eat them regularly. If you have become accustomed to marinating boneless, skinless chicken breasts in bottled (GASP!) Italian dressing and then cooking them into oblivion, give this a try.

Let me just say now that I was in a hurry so all pictures were taken with my iPhone after sundown. Also, this blog is not intended to teach anyone basic cooking techniques. I am just showing you what I do and I would be happy to answer any questions!

Everything except olive oil was purchased at Trader Joe’s on Friday. Total cost for this meal is under $10.00 for me and Hubs.

A few hours before dinner, I put a package of 5 chicken drumsticks in a large Ziploc bag along with the juice and remains of 2 Meyer lemons, a generous amount of salt and pepper, and a few tablespoons of Garlic Infused Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil. This stuff is liquid gold and I always have at least one bottle at all times. I squished it all around and put in a dish to prevent leaks in the fridge. Throughout the rest of the day I squished it around again to keep it coated evenly. I let it go for a few hours. I have marinated chicken overnight before in citrus and have not seen any dissolve yet so do not worry.

When it was dinner time I arranged them on a cookie sheet lined in foil and put them in the oven at 375. I put the lemons on the tray too because they make the house smell amazing. (Smear some marinade on the foil to prevent sticks, and then toss the Ziploc in the trash if you are lazy. I am lazy.)

I roughly chopped two orange peppers and sauteed them in more garlic oil, salt and pepper. When they got a bit soft I dumped in most of a 10-ounce bag of kaleidoscope chard and let the leaves wilt down. I hardly ever add any other moisture to the pan when I cook any type of leafy vegetable.

Plate! If you need more bulk and do grains, I am sure a side of orzo would be nice. Make sure you tell your Hubs that those are lemons. I think mine was expecting a piece of yellow squash when he chomped down on one, unprepared for the burst of citrus.

As far as I can see this has no soy, dairy, gluten or added sugars. (I cannot tell you it is 100% Primal/Paleo because we heated the olive oil. You can Google that and form your own opinion.) Then I rushed to the sofa to watch another dreadful episode of Girls. At least dinner was enjoyable.

Best Laid Plans

So here is the laziest plan ever to keep track of what we have going on in the kitchen for meal planning purposes. I use a different approach than most highly effective people when it comes to shopping. We go to the store (normally I am kicking and screaming until I get there) and load up with stuff that looks good and inspiring. We make up a very vague meal plan while doing this such as “taco salad night” or “steak night” or “when was our last pasta night?” and it mostly works in terms of keeping us fed. Then when we get all our little treasures home I write a loose menu of meals for the week. Two reasons this can, and often does, go bad. 1) We did not shop with a precise list and usually go over our budget, if we even had one in the first place. 2) A lot of food goes to waste.

So in my latest quest to Get My Shit Together I am going to keep the receipt from my last shopping trip posted on the fridge and cross things off as we use them. A visual reference of what we ate might just do the trick. So, here is my list from Friday. I find that we can do just about all of our shopping at Trader Joe’s but I do like to mix it up.

I know you also secretly love to see what people put in their shopping carts, so I am eliminating the creepster factor for you. Questions, comments, let me know! I would love to hear from you.

(Thank you to Hunter S. Thompson for concealing the last four numbers of my debit card.)

As you can see, I tried to keep it pretty healthy. My apologies for the wrinkles but my epiphany came after I tossed the receipt.

Hi!

Oh hay! I have decided to revamp my online presence. So here I am. I have things to share and will hopefully find people with a few moments to spare. Oh snap!

Over the last year or so I have dabbled in the Paleo/Primal diet and it seems like something I can stick to. I even have a couple Whole30s under my belt. I am not an expert and I am not here to tell you why you should not eat yogurt or oatmeal. Truth be told (and no surprise) I am not that great when it comes to things like rules and restrictions. That is where the “F THIS LET’S GET TACO BELL” nonsense comes in. And other times, I just crave experiences and ordering every type of cheese on the menu becomes better than romance. Sometimes I am lazy. Whatever justification I dream up for my…. various indiscretions really does not matter. None of them are, to paraphrase one of my favorites lines from Fight Club, working out for me. So I suppose that is another reason for this blog. Staying motivated, staying on point, tracking my progress, and maybe even the occasional raised eyebrow from someone that reads along and knows me in real life will keep me accountable.

I did have a blog before that chronicled my attempt at weight loss but I let too much doom and gloom creep in. It was this blog but I deleted all my posts. No one read them anyway as far as I know. If it feels organic to spill details of what it was like growing up a fat kid and now being a fat adult, I will. It mostly sucks. I will not sit down and drudge it all up to make myself sad or humiliated. So, for now, the plan is keep all things light.

Cooking! Love it. Could do it all day and have once considered it. I love bright flavors. Lemons, garlic, anything salty. Noodles and dumplings from any part of the world. My worst nightmare ever would have to be cassoulet. That was random.

So anyway, here is the menu I put together for the coming week. I cook for myself and my dear husband whom I will refer to as Hubs or Jer interchangeably. I made a sizable grocery trip to Trader Joe’s yesterday. Some recipes were written to use up stuff that we already have on hand. I am just starting with dinners for now. I do not have my shit together enough for 21 planned meals right now but it is on the horizon.

Sunday!

Baked chicken legs with some sort of Penzey’s spice blend, orange peppers, chard.

Monday!

Turkey cutlets, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes. I love Thanksgiving.

Tuesday!

Chicken/apple sausages, cabbage cooked in bacon, tiny potatoes.

Wednesday!

Meatloaf, butternut squash, kale.

Thursday!

Taco salads with Trader Joe’s chili lime chicken burgers crumbled on top.

Friday!

Some sort of pasta with spinach.

Saturday!

I think we have plans to go out with friends. Steak night, if not.

Other things to prepare for? Cats. I have them and they are my babies. Leopard print. Lots of music. Inappropriate humor. Shoes and accessories. Nail polish.

Let’s get this party started.