February 5-12

Should anyone outside my immediate family happen to drop by here, you'll want to know that I'm referencing Melissa Joulwan's cookbook Well Fed in all my meal plans. My aim is to cook my way through all the recipes in this book this semseter, to make this way of cooking and eating a way of life. Not a Rule, mind you. That's St. Benedict, and can't nobody improve on St. Benedict. But a lower-case little way . . . 


Plans for the week of February 5-12


First of all, the men of the house will be on their own from the 6th through the 11th, because the wimming (and one boy) are going to visit family. So what I'm planning, shopping, and cooking for, with regard to the upcoming week, is a kind of desert-island scenario, in which people could swim to land and go to fast-food restaurants, but won't. WON'T, I SAY. Because there will be food here, and mother will have cooked it, so there'll be guilt, too. So there. 


Meals, therefore, will be simple. I'll make a big pot of chili  big thang of Czech meatballs for Sunday night, which should provide dinner for two for at least another day. Baked or grilled chicken thighs will be good to grab for lunch, and perhaps some pork chops. Maybe one more big container of browned ground meat, possibly with stuff already mixed into it so that they don't have to think about making it into a meal. 


For example:   


Last night (Thursday), we had what I thought was going to be a cruddy desperation-dinner kind of meal. Friday is shopping day, not to mention that for us it's meatless, so on Thursday we have what I like to think of as Mardi Gras without the parade:  ALL MEAT MUST GO. 


Last week this felt like a feast, because what with one thing and another, and especially with the chili's stretching over several meals, we had a lot of meat left to work with. This past week, on the other hand, not so much. There had been hamburgers on Saturday night, and then on Sunday we had Meatza Pie (from Well Fed),  essentially a pizza with a ground-beef crust like a flat burger, which was a huge hit but very meat-intensive, using up nearly a pound per person. Perhaps I made mine too thick. Oh, well, people loved them, but I may be a little more miserly with the meat next time, or mix beef with ground turkey to stretch.


Anyway, we ate well all week, but by yesterday the fridge was starting to look empty. We used up the last few bits of chicken in a quick soup (sauteed onions and garlic in leftover chicken fat/pan juices from baking, diced chicken thighs, chicken broth, a handful of frozen green beans, salt & pepper), which left for dinner about a pound and a half of browned ground turkey, seasoned with Italian-sausage seasonings (basil, oregano, sage, garlic, paprika, red pepper flakes). By way of vegetables I had a few roasted sweet potato wedges, about a soup-bowl-ful of spaghetti squash seasoned with garlic, and a half-bag of frozen chopped spinach. And I had eggs. 


I quickly stir-fried both the sweet potatoes and the spaghetti squash in a little coconut oil, which revived them and gave them a little crispiness. To a thin pool of leftover chicken broth in another skillet I added the sausage meat and shook on the half-bag of spinach. All this I sauteed until the broth was gone, the meat was warm, and the spinach was cooked. Then I added three eggs and scrambled them with the meat and spinach. 


And I thought, This is one lame dinner. And I'm serving it to at least one person who really dislikes cooked spinach. Oh, dear. 


Well, knock me over. That dinner was the sleeper hit of the week. The non-spinach-lover declared that the spices in the sausage (which really was quite zesty, though not too hot for the 8- and 9-year-olds at the table) made him not notice the spinach, and this was quite something, because he always notices sneaked-in spinach.  The 9-year-old said that this was the best meal he had ever had in his life, with the possible exception of a dinner he remembered eating at his grandmother's when he was 8. 


So I'm thinking I'll mix that up again, so that it can be nuked and served in less time than it would take to call Papa John's. Maybe I'll omit the eggs, since it's going to sit in the fridge for a few days;  I don't think anyone would miss the eggs, and I'd only put them in to stretch the meal farther anyway.  


Menu Plan:


Sunday
brunch:  sausage and  egg scramble (sans spinach, but with some of the same meat)
dinner:  chocolate chili, a double batch in the crockpot Czech meatballs, enough for dinner for 5, plus plenty of leftovers. We took a bunch on the road with us for a car-picnic. Very portable and good even cold!



Monday
breakfast:  oatmeal/eggs
lunch:  baked chicken thighs, baby carrots, clementines, almonds (for both homeboys and travelers)
dinner:  leftover chili with salad/carrots/clementines


Tuesday
breakfast:  eggs
lunch: chicken thighs or pork chops, baby carrots, clementines, almonds
dinner:  leftover chili if there is some;  otherwise a choice of chicken thighs, pork chops, or ground meat mix, with the aforementioned selection of fresh produce


Actually . . . the whole week is going to look like this, and as I won't be the one deciding what's for lunch or dinner, I think at this point we can just say lather, rinse, repeat. 


I may make a double batch of cioppina tonight, so that it can be frozen and eaten next Friday. (Note to self:  Call the dudes and tell them to get it out of the freezer). They could do tuna for lunch. 


Snacks: 
hardboiled eggs
almonds
fruit/veggies


Shopping list
ground beef, 5.5 lbs
ground turkey, 3 lbs
boneless, skinless chicken thighs, 3 packs
pork chops, one big econo-pack
bag spinach salad
bag baby carrots
sweet potatoes
bananas
clementines
almonds
garlic powder
can tuna (4) 
eggs (box of 5 doz)
milk
frozen chopped spinach
frozen green beans
frozen peaches

We want to do a dessert, maybe for Sunday. Well Fed has a really nice-looking peach crumble kind of thing, with an almond-meal crust. I'm going to try grinding almonds in my little manual food processor and do this. It's essentially stewed fruit with some crunch on top. 


Weekend Cookup
brown ground turkey with sausage spices and diced onion, chopped spinach added
bake chicky thighs and pork chops with paprika-garlic rub
make chili, leave in crock pot to simmer and reheat 
pre-roast sweet potatoes
hard-boil a dozen eggs


That seems . . . too easy. But it should keep two dudes in simple grab-meals for a week.