Glaze, Ginger and Chops

Dinner tonight was great!  The only change we'd make was to have more sauce to pour on the meat.  I made a chicken flavored rice in the rice cooker, some green peas and the Ginger-Glazed Pork Chops.  I also made a boneless chicken breast just in case Miss M didn't want the pork chop.  She ate the pork chop, much to her delight so that was awesome! 

And as you can see from the gravy boat, there was only about 1/2 cup of sauce leftover after I removed what I needed for the glaze.  So double the sauce would definitely work.

All in all, it's a keeper recipe.  Nothing too exotic except maybe the ginger, but that's the whole purpose.  There was also a recipe for Ginger Basmati rice on the same page...that has possibilities as well.  I do have Basmati rice on hand.  Maybe this could be part of one of the unnamed recipes.  Hmmm.

Still not sure whether the Danish Sailor's Stew will be tomorrow or Friday.  Depends on how my life goes.  Right now I plan to cook tomorrow, but a lot can happen between now and dinner.

I changed my mind...I switched some of the recipes

This is the great thing about making a list.  You can change it, or as I prefer, rearrange it.

So I haven't had Danish Sailor's Stew in about a million years, so I thought I'd bring that back sooner rather than next week.  It was a recipe that has been with me since way back and I remember making it at home when I was a teenager who had decided that doing the dishes was a chore I had had enough of and would rather feed my family instead.  That meant having a plan when I got home and not spending too much time with my friends after school (although sometimes they came over to assist or just watch every so often) and gather our family favorites as well as find some new dishes.  This was one of my first finds.  I still think it needs a bit of a tweak here and there.  One of the things that is a bit off putting to me is the color of the gravy.  It is quite light in color.  Gravy to me should be brown usually, and especially when beef is involved.  I have added a bit of caramel coloring that I get from the King Arthur Flour Company.  Its awesome because it is vegetable based so it works with any dish!!  And of course this solves my problem.

Anyway here it is:

Danish Sailor’s Stew

2 T. Butter

½ lb. Ground Beef

1 ½ c. chopped onion

3 c. boiling water

3 peppercorns

½ small bay leaf

Dash nutmeg

1 ½ t. salt

3 large potatoes, pared, diced

          Melt butter in a Dutch Oven.  Add the meat and onions.  Stir-fry, breaking up the meat clumps, 10 minutes, or just until the meat loses its redness. (DO NOT BROWN) Add water, peppercorns, bay leaf, nutmeg, and salt; cover and simmer 30 minutes.  Add potatoes, recover and simmer very slowly, 2-3 hours or until the potatoes cook down to mush and the flavors mellow.  Remove bay leaf and serve.  Serves 4.

Also, since Graduation was yesterday and our Tuesday dinner in with friends is now dinner out, I will cook Wednesday and Thursday or Friday.

Again, rearranging a list is fun and it's good to be flexible...even with dinner!

June and July list, starting with the first recipe

This is the June/July list which will have recipe links eventually

6/11 #45 Ginger Glazed Pork Chops

6/13 #42 Danish Sailor's Stew 

6/18 #41  Bulgur Mini Meatloaves

6/20 #40 Keftedes ~ Greek Meatballs
6/25 #43 Seasoned Baked Chicken Legs
6/27 #44  Pork Lo Mein 
7/2   #38 Coal Miner's Pies
7/4   #46
7/9   #47
7/11  #48
7/16  #49
7/18  #50
7/23  #51
7/25  #52
7/30  #53
8/1    #54

 Recipes 46-54 are to be determined this week.  I just wanted to get going on this weeks stuff.  New recipe tomorrow for Ginger Glazed Pork Chops.  Gluten Free so that's a bonus.  It comes from "Cooking Light", July 2015, p.142 which highlights using up ginger.  Here it is:

Ginger Glazed Pork Chops

¼ c. unsalted ketchup

¼ c. water

2 T. reduced sodium soy sauce

1 T. finely chopped fresh ginger

2 t. minced garlic

4-4 oz. boneless pork chops

½ t. kosher salt

3 T. green onions

1 T. sesame seeds

Combine ketchup, water, soy sauce, ginger, and garlic in a saucepan.  Bring to a simmer; simmer 5 minutes or until slightly thickened, stirring occasionally.  Combine 3 T. of the Sauce and the pork chops in a bowl; toss to coat.  Sprinkle with salt.  Heat a a large grill pan over medium high heat.  Coat the pan with cooking spray.  Add the pork to the pan; grill 4 minutes on each side util the desired degree of doneness.  Remove the pork from the pan and let stand 5 minutes.  Drizzle the pork with the remaining sauce; sprinkle with green onions and sesame seeds.  Serves 4.

I'll post the rest of the recipes tomorrow or Tuesday.  Tuesday is a better bet.  I'm cooking this on Tuesday as we are having our friends over, and tomorrow is graduation night.  Not a lot of time tomorrow needless to say.  And I have to wear girl shoes!  Yikes! :(

         

          

And the hiatus is really over...

My dinner went so well, that I guess I gave myself permission to be less regimented.  So much for that.  We are nearly at a summer schedule, so this should be a time that's easier to get back into the groove.

So my calendar is freer, so much so that it hasn't been set up yet.  I'm going to still have dinner with our friends once a week.  That means out twice, once our pick, once their pick, as well as, dinner at home, once at our house and once at their house.

The calendar will be set to start with dinner at our house next.  That will be a cooking night.  Generally it is Tuesday, but sometimes it moves.  This also means that I trade the cooking night that week to accommodate dinner that particular week.  If I decide to cook Mondays, then that week I'll cook on Tuesday instead as a meal swap.  That said, Mondays and Thursdays will be cooking nights generally, but I can add and swap as needed.

Usually, it is a new recipe when we gather with our friends, so that's fun too!  I'll update a couple of times before Tuesday next arrives (June 12th to be exact).  I'm looking for something new for that night.  Also I have to make room in the freezer as well.  That's the scariest part.  I have two refrigerators and that means two freezers upstairs and then two freezers downstairs.  I think I can make space by eating through the ice cream and sorbet that occupies a good bit of space in one freezer...that and peanut butter eggs...my favorite and hubby's favorite food group as well!

It is Captain's Practice season now, so less structured for the atheltes. Then we start summer conditioning so more time during the day since we are tied to the school calendar and have the summer "off".  This will come together.  I never intended for this to be a 15 plus month break.  Calendar will be up this week.  That's the first step.  I'll also know how much room to make in the freezer.  The good news is some of the ingredients for my dinners will be readily available because I can inventory the freezers at the same time.  I am frightened at the final count of peanut butter eggs...but they freeze so well and are so yummy!

We still are gluten reduced and have found that still works for us.  I now routinely substitute sunbutter (from sunflower seeds) for peanut butter, generally use olive or sunflower oil, and we've really not missed high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oil of any kind or fake sweeteners.  The bonus on the fake sweetener is I have not had a migraine in 6+ years.

Thanks for letting me ramble...the calendar will post on Friday.  There, I've set a concrete goal!  Friday it is!

My Hiatus...

So if the last week I posted was really chaotic, this month has been a whirlwind and then some.  I've made changes to my calendar, things have worked and things haven't.  I've also learned that it's okay.

I now know that my calendar is to ambitious for a track coach's life.  Dinner needs to be all ready to go when we get home at 6:30 pm.  That makes our choices harder during season.  I know the frozen meals are helpful for those nights.  We have used some, but not as many as I would like to have.  I don't have as many frozen because cooking is not as regimented as I'd need it to be so I have 6 spare dinners every week.  The two night on, and 4 spare dinners seem to work much better.  This allows for a social life that I was missing as well.  I also miss eating out from time to time.  After all, pizza is important.

That said, I had tried reinventing my Curried Beef in Pastry by using a different type of crust and try shortcut with frozen yucky crust.  It was a failed experiment. This time, I went back to the original pastry recipe. I also splurged and used Kerrygold butter.  Needless to say, it. was. heaven.!!
We had our friends over and there was not one crumb of crust left.  I made the meal into a pot pie of sorts, and it worked!!!  This crust was just as flaky as when I made it for the team, but tasted even better...the Irish certainly make great butter!

I will put up the newest version of the calendar for Monday and start kind of from scratch with my approach.  I'm looking to cook on Tuesdays and Thursdays since we have meets on the weekends and sometimes during the week.  I can dinner swap easier when I only have to commit to cooking twice a week.  I can still cook other days, but I won't be locked into a set schedule...we'll see how it goes...

Wish me luck!

Last week was chaotic

So last week was really chaotic.  Some dinner happened and some did not.  This has me thinking that if the season is fully underway during outdoor track with more meets, this cooking plan is going to be way ambitious for me.  I'll give it a couple of weeks and see how realistic it is to cook 3 nights a week.  I am leaning toward changing the days I cook or going to twice a week.  I have saved some money doing this so I am encouraged in that respect.  I have also managed to lose some weight by just being religious about taking my vitamins which do include probiotics, again if I take them religiously.  I have noticed my fingernails are stronger, my hair has grown more (it is now just below my waist if I have it down) and again I've dropped about 12 pounds.  I think it is the combo of all the elements of my life.  Track is in full swing, I'm making food that is generally minimally processed, I'm drinking more water and taking my vitamins like a good girl. (My mom would be so proud of me!)

OK, that said, this week I'm making Meatballs with Creamy Rice (a new recipe), Oven Fried Chicken and Kofta Kari.  We are not dining with our friends this week, sadly, but the two recipes we are having later this week were recipes I have made for them before.  They are yummy so they bear repeating in our repertoire.

Meatballs with Creamy Rice Skillet Supper comes from A Betty Crocker monthly magazine from who knows when.  When it was part of a book, it came from page 41.  It wants me to use frozen meatballs, but I'll make my own using my Swedish Meatball recipe.  Needless to say, I'll do that first and then finish the cooking of the meatballs within the directions of the recipe.  I won't need them to thaw, but I'll still cook them for the allotted recipe time to coincide with the time the meatballs would normally need to cook.  I've adapted the recipe accordingly.

Meatballs and Creamy Rice Skillet Supper

1½ lb. ground beef
½ c. grated onion
2 slices bread, crust removed broken into crumbs
1/3 c. milk
2 eggs
1 t. salt
½ t. pepper
⅛ t. nutmeg
Pinch allspice
1 T. sunflower oil
1 c. uncooked regular rice
1 can cream of celery soup
2½ c. water
1½ c. carrots, diced
   
   Combine the ground beef, onion, bread crumbs, milk, eggs, salt, pepper, nutmeg and allspice in a bowl.  Form 1 1/2" meatballs from the beef mixture.  Brown in a 12" skillet in the oil.  When the meatballs are browned on all sides, remove from the pan and set aside.
   In the same skillet, mix the rice, soup and water.  Heat to boiling; reduce the heat to medium-low.  Cover and cook 5 minutes.
   Stir in the carrots and meatballs into the rice mixture.  Cover; cook 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, until the rice and carrots are tender and the meatballs are done. Serves 4-6.

Dinner Swap

So our dinner swap was awesome.  We had the Curried Shepherd's Pie tonight and man, it was easy to put together.  It was so fast I put a a milder Shepherd's Pie together for Miss M since her tummy has been bothering her and she needs to eat a bit blander.  Also the only thing I added to our potatoes was a bit more butter.  I'll use petite diced tomatoes next time also. But soooo yummy!

I boxed up leftovers for later.  Can't wait for that night!

Dinner out tomorrow but will post my recipe for Friday.