feeding my family

Dinners This Week and Last, SPAGHETTI
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Dinners This Week and Last, SPAGHETTI

I did a fair amount of cooking this past week, mainly because SPORTS ARE OVER! Woot! What did we eat? Pizza, pasta with meat sauce, red curry, leftover honey chipotle chicken tacos and leftovers.

This reminds me, when I was growing up I called “pasta with meat sauce” SPAGHETTI. That was the type of noodle we used in my house, and the meat sauce was ground beef with Ragu and some spices. That is exactly how I make it these days, but the noodle shape is usually penne instead of spaghetti. Nonetheless, I refer to it as SPAGHETTI.

When the sauce was on the stove, Carla asked what I was making. “Spaghetti,” I told her. “That’s not spaghetti,” she noted, eyeing my plate. “That’s noodles with red stuff on it.” Fair point, observant child.

And yet… I don’t think I can stop referring to this meal as SPAGHETTI. My husband and I both know what I mean; it’s not like Carla deigns to eat this meal. (She has some plain noodles, meatballs, cherry tomatoes, and green beans, which feels similar to me and she will eat all those things.)

When my husband was growing up, his mom made something the whole family called Saturday Chicken. I believe it was a lemony breaded chicken dish, but who would know that from the name? When I was growing up, my mom made something we called Mommy Pizza. It was just… pizza, but that was the way we referred to it. Maybe to differentiate it from the Pizza Hut pizza my dad sometimes brought home on Fridays? Oh! She also made something we called Seashells, which was a pasta dish with Velveeta, corn, red peppers, and ground beef. Do you have any meals like this from your family-of-origin, or family-of-now? Meals that have family-based names that might be completely mysterious to others?

Well, I am getting us well and truly distracted from the main point of this post, which is to figure out dinners for the week ahead. Let’s see. What sounds good?

DINNERS FOR THE WEEK OF OCTOBER 19

Leftovers: We still have leftover spaghetti and pizza, and I am for sure going to force my husband to eat those things until they are gone rather than make something new.

Beef and Broccoli: My husband and I used to eat this ALL the time; I wonder when and why it fell out of favor?

Oven Baked Pork Chops with Something Green: Hmm. Usually I make this with steamed broccoli. Is two nights of broccoli too much broccoli? Maybe I could do green beans instead.

Sheet Pan Cuban Chicken and Black Bean Rice Bowl: I always think fondly of Ernie (hi, Ernie!) when I make this, because she recommended it to me years ago. I’ve kind of been off chicken lately, but this meal is always so good.

 

That seems like a pretty good lineup. What are you eating for dinner this week?

Dinners This Week and Last
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Dinners This Week and Last

Since my brain is once again doing the thing where it refuses to acknowledge that I have ever eaten anything for dinner in my life, let’s start with the meals I did indeed make last week.

There is a contradiction inherent in the previous sentence, I realize. The thing is, I can often remember Things I Just Ate, some of which are fine but not desirable for a second week in a row, some of which will not make the repeats list. I just can’t remember other things, and sometimes even perusing my list of Reliably Delicious Dinners (which I need to update) fails to raise palatable options. No idea why I am the way that I am.

via GIPHY

Let’s see. Last week I made a version of my favorite fall salad, but something(s) went horribly wrong and it was nearly inedible. For one thing, I think I somehow overcooked the quinoa? It didn’t seem burnt, but it was incredibly bitter and so crunchy it felt like I’d taken a heaping mouthful of very fine gravel. An equally insurmountable problem was the dressing. I made an apple cider vinaigrette, and added a little bit of Dijon mustard to it for emulsifying and flavor purposes, and it was AWFUL. Much much too sour. But by the time I realized just how terrible it was, I’d doused the entire salad in it. Oh, and I bought a nice sharp cheddar for my husband’s salad, per his request, but I’d meant to get myself some goat cheese and forgot to do so. I just don’t care for sharp cheddar in a salad, and I missed the creamy goatiness from my preferred cheese. (It probably would have sopped up some of the intense sourness from the dressing.) Also, I saw some frozen tempura shrimp in the freezer section, and bought them for Carla, who recently tried a tempura shrimp when out to dinner with friends. Since I had failed to defrost myself some salmon for my salad (I’d roasted some chicken breasts for my husband), I air fried the shrimp and they were not a good complement to my fall salad. What a disappointment. Next time, I will stick to my own recipe and my husband can power through the sweetness.

A success last week was the One Pot Lemon, Basil, Corn & Ricotta Pasta. My grocery store still has corn on the cob, and it’s still a good price. The ears were a little smaller than they were in the height of summer, but they were still decent. My basil plant provided plenty of basil. And the melty cheese mixture – ricotta and brie – turned out to be delicious. I did have a moment of panic when I realized I’d only bought half the required ricotta, so I ended up tossing in half a brick of cream cheese on a whim. It worked beautifully. I wouldn’t hesitate to make this again, although I don’t expect it’s the kind of thing I’m going to want more than once or twice a season.

Those are the only Full Meals I made last week. Unless you count brunch, which was bagels and lox – such an easy meal it feels like cheating. As per usual when I serve a meal for houseguests, I found myself lamenting my dearth of tiny serving utensils. I have one pair of tiny gold tongs, but I think I’d rather have a whole selection of matching tiny spoons, forks, and tongs with which guests can sprinkle their bagels with capers and onions and fetch a lemon wedge. We got our bagels from one of those bagel places, and the bagels themselves were in fact much tastier than grocery store bagels. But they had not been cut completely through, which was frustrating. I can think of few things more harrowing than trying to slice a bagel in half. Carla suggested we get a bagel guillotine, but my experience with those is that they don’t work particularly well, either, and it’s not like we eat bagels so regularly we need a whole tool simply for dealing with them. Speaking of one-use kitchen tools: When I was looking for a bagel guillotine, I came across some, well, unique kitchen tools for presenting bagels and donuts. I really want to know the kind of people for whom these would be sensible purchases. Yes, yes, I could see how they would be quite fun for a donut-themed party or for, like, a post-wedding brunch. But I prefer to imagine my Bizarro World counterpart using them to host a weekly bagel bash.

I seem to have become distracted. Distraction is preferable to planning dinner. And yet, the humans in my house remain unamenable to trying cat food, which is so very very easy to prepare.

DINNERS FOR THE WEEK OF OCTOBER 5

  • Chili Honey Chicken & Sweet Potatoes: This one’s going back on the list, baby! I bought the ingredients for this meal last week and I think I’ll have time to prep the “marinade” and the sauce today, so we’ll eat it tonight.
  • Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff: This is the only other definite on my meal plan this week, because it was a special request from my husband. Well, not the slow cooker part. That was my own stipulation, considering it feels impossible to pick up my kiddo from sports and then come home and whip up a beef stroganoff.
  • Korean Beef Sesame Noodles: Wow, this is beginning to look like a beef-heavy week. But it just so happens that I have a package labeled “Korean beef” in my freezer. Perhaps I could just toss the defrosted beef into this recipe, making the sauce, noodles, and some veg, and call it a day?
  • Some Sort of Tacos: I know, I know. My husband is sick of tacos. But I really, really want an excuse to make this cilantro lime slaw. Plus, he is much more likely to accept a taco for dinner if it’s not the old ground-beef standby. Perhaps I could make some slow cooker honey chipotle chicken or some slow cooker carnitas. Both options would be excellent vehicles for the slaw.

 

That seems like enough ambition for this week. What are you hankering for?

Dinners This Week
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Dinners This Week

In and among the other things I am doing, I have been thinking about dinners almost nonstop. Where an endless list of options should be is a blank space. My brain simply refuses to volunteer any ideas, except on the occasion when it brings to mind the dinner I ate last night. (Frozen pizza is what I ate for dinner last night.)

Dinner is The Worst.

Okay, okay, enough complaining. To be clear, I am in the mood for some fall food. But my current schedule has made it impossible to plan ahead enough to prepare the things that sound good. Like my favorite fall salad, for instance. It seems dumb to buy the ingredients for a salad that will inevitably wilt into unspeakable liquid in my fridge, please do not ask me how I have so readily come up with that image.


What I should be doing is making something in the slow cooker every night. It just feels like I’ve exhausted all my best slow cooker options, though. In the past few weeks, I’ve made chipotle chicken tortilla soup, white chicken chili, balsamic pork, and boeuf bourguignon (which Carla requested! and ate!!!!! and then ate leftovers!!!!!!!!!!!!). All were delicious, all produced copious leftovers.

I need QUICK – like, “can be prepped and ready in 30 minutes max” – and I need EASY – like, “sits in a slow cooker all day and can be scooped onto plates” or “can be plopped onto a sheet pan and shoved in the oven” and I need NOT TACOS because otherwise my husband might excommunicate me.

Let’s see what we can come up with.

DINNERS FOR THE WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 29

  • One Pot Lemon, Basil, Corn & Ricotta Pasta: I don’t know why I’m even listing this here. It sounds delicious, is why. But I already have a robust cons list before I’ve even put a single item in my grocery cart: 1. This is NOT a fall meal. Corn and basil are SUMMER foods. However… I do have a very happy and productive basil plant on my porch, and I think my grocery store still has fresh corn in abundance. So maybe it IS a fall meal. 2. There is no meat in this dinner, which means I have to figure out how to add it in. Probably I’ll turn to a convenience protein, like pre-shredded chicken or a ready-made chicken breast from the prepared foods section. I don’t WANT chicken though, but I guess I could make salmon for myself and Carla. 3. I planned to make this earlier this summer, bought all the ingredients, never made it, and ended up wasting the ricotta. (I do think I made use of the corn and basil.) 4. The recipe was on a list of “easy” dinners, and Teighan claims this dinner is ready in just 30 minutes, but… do I believe that??? 5. Corn silk, all over my kitchen.
  • Chili Honey Chicken & Sweet Potatoes:  We haven’t had this in a while. The sweet potatoes make it feel slightly fall-escent. It’s a sheet pan meal, so it meets the “can be plopped onto a sheet pan and shoved into the oven” criterion. But… it does take some prep work. Plus, the cilantro yogurt sauce – which is the star of the show – feels like it requires too much energy. But… maybe I could prep the chicken and potatoes the night before? And do the cilantro yogurt while everything is cooking? This dish IS delicious.
  • Sheet Pan Veggie Shawarma: If I also make this dish, I can have the cilantro yogurt sauce from the previous recipe do double duty. (I prefer it to the tahini sauce listed in the shawarma recipe.) The big downside to this recipe is all the chopping of veggies. Also, I will need some sort of protein for my husband. Maybe a rotisserie chicken could give him one breast for the corn and basil pasta and a second breast for the shawarma? That means I need to make the pasta on Night 3, though, and probably make a stop for the rotisserie chicken on Night 2.
  • Cold Noodle Salad with Spicy Peanut Sauce: We haven’t had this in a long while, and it just sounds yummy to me right now. It does not meet two-thirds of my afore-mentioned criteria, though. But it would produce leftovers, which is a plus. I don’t know. This might be a reach.

This is A Very Optimistic List. There’s no way I’m making all of these. Is there a chance that I will make any of them? Or will my husband and I continue to do the thing where one of us asks what’s for dinner and the other says I don’t know and then I end up listing the extremely unappealing contents of our fridge/freezer/pantry? Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion!