winner winner chicken dinner

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Giveaway Winner, Mystery Item Identified, Things I’m Making and Planning to Make, Something But Not a Lot

We’ve got a new week and a new month and a new blog post. Thank you for being here.

Giveaway Winner

Thank you so much to everyone who entered the giveaway for Nicole’s debut novel, Inhale, Exhale. Twenty commenters threw their names in the hat, and the winner is…

Stephany! Woo hoo! Your copy will be in the mail asap.

Mystery Item

It took until Saturday for me to remember the mystery item I’d been meaning to order last week. (By the way, I loved Kate’s suggestion that it might be chipotles in adobo, which I’d previously blogged about running out of in a previous post! Good eye, Kate – fortunately, it’s on my grocery list, although my store was completely out of chipotles the last time I looked.) The mystery item was Loop ear plugs. Not a kitchen item AT ALL. I keep meaning to get Carla a pair of these ear plugs because a) I think she could use them during in-class study time, when her teachers discourage the use of headphones and b) I know she could use them when we go to noisy restaurants, which tend to make her feel unbearably overstimulated.

Things I’m Making

Speaking of Carla: she is going through another phase of not being particularly amenable to eating. She eats a decent enough variety of things, I think, but she gravitates toward easy foods which are often less nourishing and/or nutritious than I’d like. I would especially like for her to have easy foods to grab for breakfast a) because she often skips lunch. (We have discussed this with her doctor, we are on top of it, do not worry.), and b) because I want her to be self-sufficient in the mornings.

One food she has been into lately is the Starbucks bacon, gouda, and egg breakfast sandwich, which she gets without the cheese. I am having a strange and intense aversion to Starbucks lately, which isn’t the worst thing for many reasons. But this means I am less open to taking Carla to Starbucks. Also, Starbucks costs money and I am not eager to spend money on fast food breakfast more than once a month (outside of extenuating circumstances). Anyway, this is to say that I gave in once last week and took her to Starbucks for a sandwich with the caveat of using that sandwich as a prototype from which to make our own homemade breakfast sandwiches.

I made these bacon and egg sandwiches on ciabatta bread and froze them. (I added about a quarter cup of cheddar cheese to the egg mixture, because my kid likes cheese mixed in to her scrambled eggs, she just can’t abide it melted on top of things.) The finished product seems a little dry to me (no butter? no mayo?), and Carla has yet to try one, so please cross your fingers on my behalf. I will be quite irritated if she doesn’t eat them. (I eat very few sandwiches and also dislike eggs, so I will not be eating them. Maybe my husband will eat them.)

While I was cutting up the loaf of ciabatta bread, I made a miscalculation and ended up trimming the ends off of all eight sandwiches. Which gave me an excuse to make French toast muffins, a thing that seems delightful and which I have never tried before.

The French toast muffins needed to sit for two hours, so while they were sitting, I made a batch of homemade granola. I love granola, but it’s spendy. This batch called for coconut oil, which I don’t love, but it turned out okay. I used chia seeds, which is what I had on hand (because I purchased them specifically to make granola), but I would like to try adding flax seeds and/or hemp hearts and/or puffed quinoa to future batches. I suspect it will take me a long time to make it through this batch, though – I really only add a few tablespoons to yogurt.

Things I’m Planning to Make

I suppose while I’m making things, I might as well make a meal plan for this week.

Dinners for the Week of February 2-8

  • Slow cooker Mongolian beef: This sounds good and slow cooker meals are always appealing – especially when it’s so enduringly chilly outside.
  • Cream of mushroom soup: This sounds luxurious and warming. I will have to make some sort of protein for my husband to go along with his.
  • Ramen with shrimp and edamame: My husband wanted to try the squiggly noodles from Trader Joe’s, and I am always a fan of ramen with shrimp and some frozen edamame. Easy peasy.
  • Chicken paprikas: Yes. We haven’t had this in a while and it’s the perfect cozy comfort meal for winter.

Something But Not a Lot

In a rather drastic tone change, sometimes I feel so keenly the exhortation to say something that reaches beyond my little cozy corner. I have sat at my computer, many hours and many days, trying to find the words to express my despair and disappointment at the state of the world, to articulate the scale of my love and hope for all of us. Maybe it’s ignorance or delusion or cowardice or all three, but again and again, I find that I don’t know what to say or how to say it. I continue to read and listen to voices stronger and braver and more knowledgeable and more eloquent than I am. (The fragment “Before the apocalypse, there was the apocalypse” keeps looping through my brain.) I continue to seek out blog posts, fiction, essays, and poetry to make sense of things, to offer comfort, to provide distraction, to inspire, and to organize the complicated tangle of emotions into words.

Today, this poem is resonating with me.

That’s all I have for you today, Internet. Stay warm and be well.

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Dinners This Week

At 5:30 this morning, I was torn from a nightmare by a low discordant keening. I might describe it as “toddler impersonating whale calls,” but my husband said it was more “cat meets blender.” We watched Longlegs last night, so the noise quite easily could have been the moaning of Nic Cage at his most grotesque and terrifying. (Even though I enjoyed it, I am not recommending the movie; it was Weird AF.)

We confirmined that the noise was, somehow, our neighbor’s snowplow – which means that it persisted for quite some time, as their driveway is not short. I did not fall back to sleep.

On the positive side, we got a ton of snow over the weekend. Oh, how I adore snow. I love the trees lacquered in white, how everything – shadows, blue skies, bare trees – assumes an extra vibrancy against the snow. I love sunshine caught in billions of ice crystals and winked back at me as I walk. Grey skies seem more dramatic and moody; sunny days have an extra sheen of cheer. I love it I love it I love it.

Soup is on the menu tonight, and therefore takes one of three spots for dinners this week. But before we get into that, I want to report on dinners past because they were YUM.

Dinners Last Week

  • Sheet Pan Veggie Shawarma: This was easy (aside from the veggie chopping, which is easy but time consuming) (I listen to an audiobook while chopping) and SO good. Few things are better than a big pile of roasted veggies. The seasoning/marinade was delicious, although I ended up doubling it because I added some chicken tenders to the mix. They were a good addition, especially for my husband. Also, because I was on a Green Sauce High from the previous week’s Birchie-recommended meal, I made the cilantro yogurt sauce from this recipe and slapped it on top of my veggie shawarma. One of the best decisions I made all week.
  • Salmon Burgers: For some reason, I dillied and dallied and delayed in making these, but then finally I did make them, and they were easy and yummy as usual. The recipe is from Cook’s Illustrated, and I’ve got a photo of the recipe here in case you want to try them too. Oh! The remarkable thing about this meal is that I forced Carla to eat it, too. She loves salmon and eats it regularly. This is the closest thing to salmon possible. She DID eat it, even though she didn’t particularly like it (it has teeny tiny shallots minced in it).
  • Beef Birria Tacos: The first time I ate beef birria was in Phoenix at a taco place, and I fell instantly, irrevocably in love. (By the way, I learned from my recipe search that birria is traditionally made with goat, but I’m not big on goat so I used chuck roast.) The need to eat beef birria again has been growing stronger and stronger with each passing week. However, I could not for the life of me find a recipe that I wanted to follow. Too many ingredients or too few; equipment I didn’t want to use; too many steps. What I ended up doing was cobbling together a recipe out of a bunch of recipes online… and it was SO GOOD. The recipe made enough for at least three generous meals, and we immediately froze the remaining beef and consommé, and I cannot stop thinking about it. So rich and spicy and omg perfection. My husband took over the actual taco making, which involves dipping a corn tortilla in the consommé, frying it, adding cheese and beef, and then putting on my plate for immediate consumption. This one is a keeper from a taste standpoint, but from a work standpoint, I think it’s something I would make maybe once a year.

There’s really no way I can top last week’s meals, so I’m not even going to try. This week is not about flash and romance, but instead about solid, reliable faves. Also, chicken was on sale, so it’s all about the chicken. (Luckily, these are veggie-heavy meals so I can limit or completely ignore the chicken in my own servings.)

Dinners for the Week of February 17-25

  • Chicken and Zucchini Stir Fry: I am more in the mood for this Szechuan Stir Fry, but the bell pepper quality was very poor today, so I pivoted to chicken and zucchini stir fry instead. Of course, I have to go back to the grocery store to buy things I forgot to buy (namely: the two key ingredients of Ham Sandwich: the ham and the sandwich rolls), so perhaps I will peruse the peppers to see if the prospects are more perky.

  • Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas: The bell peppers may not have been crisp enough for stir fry, but they were of acceptable quality for fajitas.

Here’s hoping that tonight I dream of swimming in a sea of birria consommé.

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Rhythms and Routines, or Lack Thereof; Summer Shakeup; Dinners This Week

It’s the first week of July, Internet! I refuse to think of how quickly the summer is flying by. We do have ALL of July and part of August to bask in summerness, which I plan to embrace wholeheartedly.

My original plan for summer was Reduce the Activities, which would, in turn, Reduce the Driving. Since I was in the car a minimum of two hours a day during the school year – sometimes three – I think you understand why I was interested in Reducing. So far, I have achieved decent success. Carla has daily summer camp, one activity that takes place directly after camp in the exact same camp location, and one activity that takes place on the weekends at a location ten minutes from our house. PERFECT. I am in the car for 45 minutes a day at most and I LOVE IT. 

We have also been soaking up time by the pool as often as possible. This has looked like two or three days a week, which isn’t ENOUGH, but it’s something. Room to improve. 

A friend (whose kid is in camp with Carla) and I were complaining to each other about how frazzled we both feel this summer. I cannot keep the camp schedule straight, for one thing, and she is having similar trouble. We’ve already had FIVE WEEKS of summer, and I’ve been working really hard to be as slothful and pool-centered as possible, but we haven’t really settled into a rhythm yet. I think that’s partly because the five weeks have all been different; there’s no routine. Sure, camp is in its third week, but I think three weeks isn’t enough to develop a structure. Especially when those three weeks include three days off for holidays. 

Lest I lean too heavily on July for developing a routine, whatever semblance of a rhythm we’ve managed to cobble together will be undergoing a shake-up this month. Not an UNPLEASANT shake-up, you understand, but a shake-up nonetheless. Should shakeup be one word? Yes, I think I prefer that. 

One of my out-of-town friends has a summer home here and arrives this week to stay until Septemberish. Also, my in-laws will be here for at least July, and are leaving and then returning at some point later in the summer; I’m unclear on the details. I am pretty sure they are staying with us this week… but, again, unclear on the details. 

So I think my Reduced Driving and Afternoons by the Pool plans will undergo a shift as I add friends and family to the day-to-day. Obviously, I will try to encourage friends and family to JOIN ME by the pool as often as possible. 

I do hope that this week isn’t a harbinger of July’s rhythm. This week is WACKADOO, let me tell you. Meetings and events and parties and get-togethers out the wazoo. Plus, houseguests. Plus, it’s the Fourth of July holiday here in the US, so we have a long weekend of parades and barbecues ahead of us. None of this is bad, in any way. Just busy. (And believe me, I know it’s not as busy as SOME PEOPLE’S schedules, cough cough Sarah; I am in utter awe of your ability to juggle all the things.)  

Dinners may be a little haphazard this week, is what I’m saying. I’ve got a plan, just in case, but I think we’ll need to be flexible. 

Dinners for the Week of July 1-7

  • Panang Curry: My husband thinks his parents would like this. The last time I made it on the stove, rather than in the Instant Pot like the recipe calls for… Hmmm… maybe my oven/stove ban will be the thing that spurs me to use the Instant Pot again. We’ll see. 
  • Hamburgers and Hot Dogs: This is our classic Fourth of July meal. Not sure what I’ll make alongside it. Maybe a couscous and grilled veggie salad? Cucumber and quinoa salad? Maybe I will just buy some pre-made potato salad and call it good? Probably I should come up with something for dessert, too. Maybe leftover birthday cake?
  • Caprese Salad with Balsamic Chicken and Balsamic Dressing: Why yes we DID have this just last week but it was SO GOOD I want it again. Plus, it’s really easy. Diane suggested I add some corn kernels to the salad and I did and it was such an excellent addition, I plan to make it a regular feature of this salad.

That seems like enough plans for now. We can always add tacos or takeout to the list, depending on moods.