Day 2 dinner

These were the ingredients I used to make this broccoli/onion concoction meal I told you about yesterday. I didn't take an after picture, but it looks really similar to how the website shows it. Bottom line was that the meal was delish. SHOCKINGLY good. I was anticipating going through the night craving candy and chips or bread or something because I knew I'd barely pick at this bowl of onions and leeks to eat only the broccoli. Not the case. phew. The only thing I would change for next time is to use either chicken or shrimp because I didn't care for the texture of the beef.

Now, if I was better at life and blogging I'd be able to tell you exactly how long this recipe took from beginning to end, but I'm not. So, we'll estimate. I took everything out and set it up for that moderately nice photo. That took no time at all. I then chopped the leek and put it into a bowl. I didn't know how much broccoli to use so I estimated and ended up using nearly 2 crowns (I figured I liked broccoli and I would need plenty to pick out). I then chopped an onion. I looked at the clock and after those 3 things were done, it had been just about 4 minutes. I then decided to chop an onion for dinner the following night. I then stood around for a minute wiping the tears from my eyes and yelling "How you doin, baby? you watchin the WOOOs??" (For those not 'in the know', "woos" are elephants) and "How ya doin, pumpkin? You need anything? You ok?" then thinking to myself "what the fuck am I doing - why can't I be more organized so I don't have to plant my kid in front of the boob tube during the last few minutes of light we have?!?!" So then I took out a measuring cup and realized since my toddler likes to play with measuring cups, my 1/2 c was missing. I like pine nuts, so I measured out 3/4c.

While we're on the topic of pine nuts, I'd like to give you a quick PSA. The pinenuts I told you about previously -that I saw at Trader Joe's for the rapist price of $7.99? Turns out that's a good price. Who knew. After the baby and I stopped the car at the ATM at 4:52 yesterday, we deposited mommy's paycheck and took out $100 for groceries for a week. We're going on a food diet and a money diet. I digress. Then we walked over to Henry's which I have discovered is the exact same thing as Sprouts because the Henry's sign was taken down and there was a banner that said something like "Different name, same great something-or-other" with a Sprouts logo under. Inside, everything was labeled "Sprouts". Fine. So we found the feta. $3.99. I can't remember the exact cost at Trader Joe's, but I feel like there may have been one a little less than that. I had to search for one at that price though - most of what I saw was $6 and up. for SIX OUNCES! WTF?! ok, so then we found the bulk pine nuts. I immediately started to freak and wonder "umm should I be getting raw or toasted???" so off we went in search of packaged pine nuts.

I finally stopped to ask a stocker. "Excuse me, could you tell me where to find pine nuts?"

him "We have bulk...over there"

me "Yes - I found those, but I was looking for packaged...Do you not have packaged? orrrr....."

him "ummm... Well, you know if you buy packaged you're paying for the packaging, right???"

me "yes. I realize that but I was looking for toasted pine nuts and there aren't any of those in bulk" (plus I secretly DID want to check the price comparison)

him "oh. ummm uhhhh"

me "nevermind. I'll just get the bulk"

him "sounds good!"

Not to me it doesn't, but whatever dude. So back to the bulk we went and had to get a package of yogurt pretzels for the baby because I didn't want to get arrested for giving him one out of the bulk, which I can only assume would have been cheaper since there is no packaging. Anyway, the pine nuts? Must be rare or exotic or something. Those suckers were OVER $20 a pound!!!! So I got a small bag: here is a picture next to the "6oz" of feta I got

These 4 items at Henry's/Sprouts?

Cost me $16.00 even. Almost 1/5 of my total weekly grocery budget.

oh ...back to dinner... quickly. It was so fast. I did the onions as suggested in the recipe until a little brown then I tossed in the meat - I think those 2 things took about 10 mins total, then I tossed in the broccoli, leek, and pine nuts, sprinkled on the spices and stirred it around for just a few minutes! Under 5! Then I poured the egg whites over and it was done in another 3 minutes or so. I can say without a doubt this is a less than 30 minute meal. May be even less than 20. Healthy and yummy. can't beat that. We'll be bringing this into the rotation.

Chicken nuggies

I sometimes feel like hubby thinks I make the same ol, same ol food week in and week out, so this week I decided to try some new recipes. Recently I've been following http://blahtota-daa.blogspot.com/ They have some really great recipes and I would try all of them, but I have to be sort of choosey since hubby won't eat just anything, you know!? I mean...he will, but you should see the look on his face when "whole wheat" and "pasta" come out of my mouth in the same sentence. He lets me know that is SOOO not Italian! I'm dying to try that veggie pasta, but I have to wait until I can eat dairy again because I know I'm going to have to hide the veggies under a bunch of cheese in order to get a bite past hubby's lips!

Tuesday night I decided to try out a chicken nugget recipe found on From Blah to Ta-Daa. My plan was foiled right from the start. Somehow my mommy brain pulled through to block the fact that we have NO OVEN! Back up plan: I'd use the toaster oven. I would just have to either make a small batch of fries and nuggets followed by another small batch of both, or I could make the fries first, then the nuggets. Hubby decided I should go with the latter plan.

First, I pulled up the recipe
http://blahtota-daa.blogspot.com/2010/04/healthy-homemade-chicken-nuggets.html
Second, I started the toaster oven, sprinkled out some waffle fries, and gave them an extra kick by tossing some seasonings on them.

Next, I began to cut up the chicken which was really no big deal as everyone likes to tell me I dissect chicken breasts so much that all that is left are nuggets...Instead of using 6-8 breasts, I only used 4. I tossed some apple sauce in one bowl and did the seasonings with bread crumbs in another. Not sure if my bread crumbs were "dry" but aren't they all dry? I'm so naive. I changed up the breadcrumb to seasoning ratio also, using a little more on the seasoning side. Coating the nuggets with applesauce then the crumbs was pretty messy, but the pain didn't last long. Only 15-20 minutes (exactly how long the fries needed to cook thankyouverymuch!)

I proceeded to put the fries on a plate (pre warmed in the microwave) into the microwave to keep them warm. Then I started my first batch of nuggets. I suspect if I were using a regular baking sheet, I would have only had to do 1 round in the oven, but I was using the toaster oven and had to go with 3 different batches. S'ok...I think had I used any more breasts, I would have had to use 2 baking sheets for sure. The breading wasn't really crispy when they came out - it was still a little soggy, but I'll tell you what. We were starving. We had already walked the 2 dogs and the baby to the dry cleaners to pick up clothes, continued on to CVS for batteries, fed the baby...twice...gotten him back to sleep...twice...

We managed to gobble down the first batch in no time flat. Like I said, the outside wasn't crispy like I'd like and we even tried to hit it on broil for about 5 minutes but it didn't make any difference. Even with the sorta soggy exterior, hubby considered giving it 5 spoons (using Blah to Ta Daa's rating system) but gave it 4 instead. In the last batch, there was a small nugget that came out crispy.

The moral of the story is that we really liked the HEALTHY :) nuggets and will try them again - it may become a staple once le bebe can eat foods like this (may be when that happens, I'll have enough time to make homemade fries to make it even healthier). I feel this was a budget friendly meal as well. Chicken breasts are often on sale (so I hear - I've never noticed it though!), but I buy the mega pack for $10. The fries are often buy 2 for a bargain price, however it would be even less expensive-o to MAKE your fries, and I nixed any greens this time. Life got in the way of my salad endeavors. Next time I think we will make the nugget size smaller and may be using an oven instead of a toaster oven will make a difference. All in all, it was healthy and pretty delish. I used the leftovers on a big, fat, delicious salad for lunch yesterday to make up for my lack thereof Tuesday night.

One of these days, I'll post pictures of my steps like all of the other fancy people do, but for now just refer to the picture in the recipe link. Mine looked almost exactly like that! TA-DAA!!!

Pulled Pork... not just a hobby

Yesterday we had company over and we haven't seen this couple for a while. I thought we were going to head out to the ol delish stand by of In N Out for lunch, but the pork roast I tossed in the crock pot was done just in time to satisfy our needs

I found a pork loin roast at the market for 50% off - my total cost was just about $3.75. I also had to send hubby to the store to get those fabulous deli rolls. $4 for a bag of 6. My recipe came out of the Betty Crocker cook book (the one with the pink cover that I was DYING to have and didn't tell anyone, but received it that very Christmas!) on page 392. I'd made this recipe before and left myself a few notes in the margin so that I could remember for the next time. Smarty pants, I know.

The recipe is as follows
1 3-pound boneless pork shoulder blade roast
8 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp. ground coriander
2 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. dried oregano, crushed
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 cup beef broth
12 hamburger buns or kaiser rolls, split and toasted

Last time I made this I think I followed it pretty well to the T except, I had accidentally purchased a pork roast with a bone in (specifically because I ASKED for bone in, because I was trying to make a different kind of pork roast, but forgot that I had to ask for the LOIN, so then I had 2 bone in roasts - one loin and one 'roast') anyhooo....when looking back, that's all I could remember. My notes tell me it was a 3.5 pound roast and it made 11 large sandwiches

This time I had a 1.5 pounder and anticipated only feeding hubby and myself for dinner then lunch leftovers. Also this time? I had a baby....So, at the time I was trying to get this all together, I had JUST gotten le bebe to la la land, I wasn't dressed, I needed to pump, I had to swap laundry (which means folding whatever is in the dryer uuugh)and get a possible meal for 4 ready. It was 11:15 and the friends were scheduled to arrive at noon.

I put the roast in the crock pot, opened a bunch of garlic. No time to count. Tossed them in my handy dandy mini food processor and dumped the minced goodness onto the meat. I sprinkled on oregano (crushed?? ummm...looked crushed to me - going in as is!). It looked a little sparce, so I sprinkled more...I had cumin (turkish cumin..wtf is Turkish cumin and how is it different than regular cumin and WHY do I HAVE Turkish cumin??? I can only think I needed it for a recipe once upon a time and that was all I could find *sigh*) I did measure the cumin out. I also measured the onion powder. Both went right on top of the meat. I can't see much of the meat anymore, but that's alright. I found coriander. WHOLE coriander seeds - *SIGH*!! WHY do I have whole coriander seeds?? I have NEVER used these. I contemplated for a second trying to crush them and then thought NO. NO TIME! NO TIME!! Opened the fridge for the broth..Instantly I flash back to the previous day at the market and thinking to myself "self. don't forget some broth!" oy vey. I forgot the broth. I found chicken bouillon cubes in the cupboard. The recipe calls for 1 cup broth, but to use a cube, you have to use 2 cups boiling water. BAH. 1 1/2 cups should do....I mean, I'm already using chicken instead of beef for a pork roast for pete's sake. I also decided to toss on a little allspice I bought from my fave store ever. Trader Joe's.

Turn that puppy on high for 4 hours and voila! I had a perfectly succulent pork roast ready for my hubby to pull apart and dish up. I had to dig into our potato chips for a side, but I had bought those 2 for $3 the day before, so the moral of this story is: anything goes with the crock pot and you'll get a delicious meal -just use what you have. The roast produced 6 sandwiches. Total cost of the meal? $10.25 and my amazing math (calculator) skills tells me that is just over $2.50 a person. Not too shabby for a Sunday funday lunch!

Sidenote: I didn't even realize until I was typing this up that I had completely forgotten the black pepper and cayenne pepper. Didn't seem to make any difference - I got rave reviews and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Know what else made me feel warm and fuzzy? The fact that I pumped, picked up the living room, and swapped the laundry before our company arrived and before le bebe awoke.

Next time, if I'm really fancy, I'll take pictures. I had great intentions of doing so for this post, but the "NO TIME! NO TIME!!" kept running through my head - my camera was in the car and my phone was nowhere to be found. Therefore, no photos :P