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.

My recipe list starting Monday.

So these are the recipes starting on Wednesday or tomorrow. It is a new month.  Some are familiar, some are new.  Let's see how it goes.

2/1  #37 Curried Shepherd's Pie

2/3  #38 Coal Miner's Pies

2/6  #2 Salisbury Steak

2/8  #3 Baked Curried Chicken

2/10 #4 Keema

2/13 #38 Meatballs & Creamy Rice

2/15 # 7 Kofta Kari

2/17 #8 Turkish Pilaf

2/20 #9 Oven Fried Chicken

2/22 #39 Indian Lentil Stew

2/24 #40 Keftedes ~ Greek Meatballs

2/27 #12 Swedish Meatballs

I will also plan March since it's so easy to replicate the calendar.

3/1  #14 Curried Chicken with Rice

3/3  #41  Bulgur Mini Meatloaves
3/6  #16 Rogan Josh
3/8  #17 Curried Meatballs with Rice
3/10 #18 Dopiazah
3/13 #21 Meatloaf
3/15 #24 Pastichio
3/17 #26 Curried Beef in Pastry
3/20 #29 Beef Barley Soup
3/22 #30 Chicken Korma
3/24 #32 Curried Meatloaf
3/27 #41 Danish Sailor's Stew
3/29 #42 Seasoned Baked Chicken Legs
3/31 #43  Pork Lo Mein 

Now to load these to the calendar...

The recipe for Curried Shepherd's Pie...

This is the recipe for Wednesday, but I'm making it tonight.  It is actually from Woman's Day Magazine, Dec 1, 2009.  I have made the following changes to it:  I use 2 pouches of Idahoan Baby Reds.  I will used Tikka Masala sauce from Aldi of all places.  I would use my own curry sauce recipe instead if I have time to make it.  We do not as a general rule eat sweet potatoes in our house.

Curried Shepherd's Pie

1 bag (24 oz) Ore-Ida frozen Steam n' Mash cut sweet potatoes
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
16 oz bag mixed vegetables
15 oz jar jalfrezi or other curry cooking sauce
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
1/2 c. water
2 T. each butter and sugar
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. ground ginger
Heat broiler.  Microwave the sweet potatoes as directed.  Heat a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat.  Add ground beef and onion; cook, breaking up the meat, 5 minutes or until browned.  Stir in the vegetables, curry sauce and tomatoes with the juice.  Simmer, covered, 5 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.  Mash the sweet potatoes with the remaining ingredients until smooth.  Drop spoonfuls of mashed potatoes on top of the meat mixture., spreading to cover most of the top. Broil 3-5 minutes until top is lightly browned.  Let stand 5 minutes before serving.  Serves 6.

I need to work on my calendar...

So I need to work on my calendar.  I'm in the process of figuring out how to make things work better.  I'm going to repeat our favorites that worked, but I'm adding some new recipes as well. This week will have the Curried Shepherd's pie we missed last week and I made the Biryani tonight.  It was yummy.

See, we eat green beans, too.  Miss M did not join us as her tummy was not feeling well.  I made a fridge dinner for her for later.  

I will post Fridays' recipe tomorrow.  I'm actually going to do two dinner swaps this week.  Wednesday we are going out with friends and Friday we have a track meet.  I'll cook tomorrow and Thursday.  I'm also evaluating if I want to cook 3 nights a week during track season.  I'm frequently not home til 6:15, so time is tight, especially if we need to run errands.  That's where the freezer dinners are helpful.  We'll see if I can be my own Sous Chef the night before so I can just throw dinner together.  It could happen.

Until tomorrow...

What a strange week...

What a strange week.  The same week I mention Mary Tyler Moore, she is back in our hearts as she's passed away.  We did have Poor Man's Beef Stroganoff on Monday.  It was great!  Just as I remembered.  Miss K stopped by and tasted it and decided that she'd probably use sour cream because the Greek Yogurt was too tangy for her taste, but otherwise it passed muster.

Man, it really does look like all we eat are peas.  Really we do eat other things.  It's just Miss M's favorite. 😄

The next thing was we had a dinner swap on Wednesday to Thursday since we were going out with friends on Wednesday. Chicken Pot Pie was supposed to happen, but life happened.  Well, realizing how fragile life is happened.  You see, a very dear friend of DH and I passed away.  It happened Tuesday, but we found out Thursday.  Needless to say our weekend was going to shift and we needed to accomplish errands and things so we could be at the visitation and funeral.  That did in yesterday's planned dinner as well.  So I'm having Miss K and Mr. J over for our usual Sunday dinner with DH and Miss M.  We will then have the Pot Pie.  Monday is when I'll have the Curried Shepherd's Pie and I'll post that recipe tomorrow.

The next thing is to figure out how to proceed with the rest of my weeks.  Do I just repeat my calendar? Do I dump the things that didn't work?  Do I work with the all of those recipes or become a "Test Kitchen" to perfect the minor flaws of those that just needed a bit of help?  So many questions, but I'm tired and need to just be for a bit.  I'll tackle that tomorrow.  Right now, I just need to sit and maybe cross stitch for the rest of my evening.  A bit of self care as it were.

Until tomorrow...