So I found asparagus at Fred Meyer last week for $1 something a bunch and it was a rather large bunch. It was also nice and thin, so it's easy to sautee. When I was a kid, I hated asparagus - limp, rubbery, bitter stalks of torture. Then one night I tried the sauteed asparagus my brother made out of politeness and I was very surprised to discover I loved it!
Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil on medium heat. Add a few cloves of minced garlic and heat it about 30 seconds or so, just until the garlic becomes fragrant. Burnt garlic will ruin a meal.
Add the asparagus, tossing pretty frequently. I cooked it for about 6 or 7 minutes. I like it slightly tender and crispy. Limp asparagus is lame.
Move to a large dish so you can squeeze a pretty generous amount of lemon over it, then a dash of salt, a few grinds of black pepper, and fresh Parmesan cheese.
We ate this just now with some magic chicken (cheap) and potatoes baked in the microwave (also cheap). That was half a package of chicken thighs, which would be about $5. The asparagus was about $1.38 and the potatoes were only a couple dollars for the whole bag, which we only used part of. So the whole meal was less than $10.
Two of my sons love Panda Express. I don't love it. When we were at Costco one day, #1 begged me to buy the Panda Express orange chicken sauce and I had no idea what I would do with it. I combined ideas from a couple recipes to produce a pretty yummy dish and my son was happy with it even though it didn't taste like Panda Express exactly.
Orange Chicken
3-4 chicken breasts, cut into cubes (1-2 inches)
1/2 cup corn starch
1 cup flour
3 eggs, beaten
1/4-1/2 tsp. salt
4 cups stir fry vegetables (or a couple heads of broccoli cut up)
3 tbsp. vegetable oil
Panda Express orange sauce, 1/2 to 1 cup
In one bowl, mix the eggs and salt together. In another, mix the flour and cornstarch. First coat the chicken pieces in the egg and then in the flour mixture. Heat oil in pan on medium heat, making sure it's plenty hot before you add the chicken. Cook until browned well on both sides. Set it aside and keep warm in the oven while you fry the vegetables. Add a little more oil to the pan and cook the vegetables until tender. Put chicken back in the pan, stir it all together, and add the orange sauce.
One of these days I'll learn how to make an orange sauce from scratch and I'm sure my kids will think it's disgusting.
Tonight was our Family Home Evening and we decided that #3 could have a treat with us. His brothers got to join us for potlucks and a birthday dinner with dessert, so this might be the happiest he looks the rest of the week. We also played a blind version of Apples to Apples. We weren't allowed to look at our cards before we put them down. That way our 3-year-old could play and we would all have the same disadvantage. Speaking of, she keeps asking when she gets to buy her groceries and even resorted to taking a handful of her brother's "delicious" mac and cheese and ate all of #2's gum.
Yes, I said "ate". Not chewed. We have had to tell the boys repeatedly that anything within her reach is not a good hiding place and I even organized some high shelves for them with their own containers for keeping stuff away from her. We might have a pretend challenge for her or a modified version.
And this is the "disgusting" thing we had for dinner that #3 didn't have to eat. Breakfast Casserole. This time I used bacon. Just as I was about to fry the potatoes and onion in butter, I realized I had bacon grease.
Breakfast Casserole
5 red largish potatoes (poke holes in them and microwave for 12 minutes if you're lazy and do this first because they need to cool off before you cut them)
1/2 sweet onion, diced
1 pound of either cooked sausage, bacon, or ham
1/4 cup butter (half a stick) or super unhealthy but delicious, reserved bacon grease
1 to 2 cups cheddar cheese, grated
12 eggs, beaten
Freshly ground pepper to taste
While your potatoes are cooking, fry up your bacon or sausage (or cut up some fully cooked ham). Place on a paper towel on a plate to drain the grease so you can make yourself believe everything bad for you has been magically removed.
Dice the potatoes. You don't even have to peel them. Heat your butter or evil bacon grease on medium in a pan, sautee the onions for a couple minutes or so, add the potatoes for another couple minutes, and spread it on the bottom of a 9x13 pan like this.
Add the meat. Or make your toddler add the meat.
Add the cheese
Then the eggs and pepper.
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
Did I mention this is also a gluten free meal? I have some gluten free friends, so I like to watch for meals that might counteract any feelings of deprivation. You could also garnish this with some green onion and serve it with a side of fruit, top it with salsa, etc.
Or you could yell, "BLECH!" and eat a nasty can of Chef Boyardee Mac & Cheese.
P.S. You can also put this in the fridge the night before and pop it in the oven for breakfast.
Thanks to a chef on YouTube, #2 learned how to cook some delicious burgers tonight! We made them all at once and decided to freeze the rest. He was a little grossed out by the meat, but he said it was the best burger he has ever had. He also insisted I eat one and yes, it was delicious! I didn't even miss the cheese. Lately cheese is what makes dried out beef patties tolerable.
Rather than use wine like the chef did, I added a little milk to the mixture along with some finely diced onion, minced garlic, salt, and a little dried oregano (my son's choice). It poofed up a lot when we cooked it, so next time we will flatten it more, but we are definitely converted to making fresh beef patties. These were some of the chef's tips.
1. Use 80/20 beef. "Fat is flavor."
2. Use only cold ingredients.
3. Don't mix it up with your hands. It warms up the fat and dries it out. Only touch it to form it into a ball.
4. After it's formed into a ball, put it between two sheets of wax paper and then use a plate to flatten it into a patty. Fix the edges a bit with your fingers, but don't worry too much about the shape.
5. Don't press the burgers with the spatula. You're just squeezing out the juices and making them dry. I am positive this is true.
He put it on the grill. I couldn't grill tonight, so I just put my oven rack on the highest setting and broiled the patties. Seriously good, but I still don't want to touch ground beef! :-D
#2 ate sliced tomato and sauteed onion on top of his burger. Later he asked if he could have some of our salad and it pained me to say no. #1 would have flipped because he didn't eat anything except what he bought, but I told him we would celebrate with a large salad when his challenge is over. He loves my salad, especially my homemade dressing. At times he has actually asked to have salad instead of dessert!
The rest of the family had "Magic Chicken" with salad and baked potatoes (well, baked in the microwaved). You take some chicken thighs, salt and pepper them, and put them skin side down under the broiler for 15 minutes. Flip them over, add about half an inch of boiling water, salt and pepper them again, then bake at 450 for 45 minutes. I got the recipe from my sister and I think she got it from her sister-in-law. The skin gets nice and crispy! All of my kids like it and there are few things all of them like.
This morning was orchestra and #2 had no appetite, but I made him eat anyway. I can't imagine how hungry he would be by the time lunch came. That's too long to wait.
Today was his dad's birthday and I spent most of the day preparing our meal. I had to bone and skin a duck, fry bacon, dice onion and mushrooms, mince garlic, boil pasta, slice tomatoes, make my own salad dressing, and assemble the salad. #2 said it was one of the best dinners he has ever had, so hopefully that will make this week easier for him. We also enjoyed some sparking apple cider marionberry juice. Now he just said, "If I had chosen to make my own dinner, I would have been so mad!"
If we were rich, we would go out for our birthdays, but we almost never do that. Eating out with six people, it's easy to spend at least $50. I only spent $29.72 and I have leftovers, plus ingredients to use for other meals. I bought a huge bag of chopped romaine lettuce at Cash and Carry for $2.80. We can use that for at least another few days. Unfortunately, #1 dumped my entire container of homemade dressing on the salad and it should have lasted for another two salads.
My husband sat down to dinner and grinned, "Is this duck?" There was a dish he loved at our favorite restaurant years ago, but it was discontinued. All I remember is that it had pasta, duck, mushrooms, and the sauce was kind of a brownish color. I did some searches for "pasta duck mushroom recipe" and found this.
I had just made my first recipe with duck called Spicy Duck Ragu, which was really good, but not at all like the one he liked and a little too spicy. The amazing thing was, it tasted even better leftover, so I probably will make it again someday. I printed out the recipe for Duck Pasta and have had it for at least a year. Surprising people is one of my favorite things to do!
I should have taken the picture before I added the suggested thin coating of mozzarella. That makes it look less appetizing.
#3 asked me, "Are you going to surprise me for my birthday dinner? Please don't!" Yeah, he wouldn't touch the dinner, but #1 loved it and he's usually kind of picky. Our daughter wouldn't eat it because she found out the meat was duck, but she did eat some bacon. I caught #3 trying to get into the truffles my friend gave me after he had only milk for dinner. Nice try! He's now eating some plain noodles.
Now for my laugh of the day. At times my kids have commandeered my camera and taken some rather inappropriate photos, so when I was uploading my pictures and saw the thumbnail of this, I seriously thought, "OK! Who took a picture of their bum?!"
It was just the duck! Now imagine it tiny. Wouldn't it kind of look like a bum at first glance? I totally forgot I took a picture of it. So if you were wondering what a whole duck looks like, now you know.
And this is how a professional bones a duck. He doesn't hack away with a dull knife until he's lucky enough to get some meat off of it like this "friend of mine".
This kitchen ain't big enough for the both of us! I went to teach piano and asked #1 to thaw his chicken in some cold water. Then I would come home, help him cook his orange chicken, then make a meal for the rest of us.
As I walked through the door when I came home, he had an instant realization that he had forgotten to do so, so we all ended up eating random things like cereal and sandwiches. I almost made this.
Green enchilada sauce. It's the most delicious thing I almost made. Now let's see if #1 switched the laundry over like I asked him to.
Um, yeah. Not only did he not switch over the laundry, I found every single one of our dryer sheets in the washer, sitting on top of the washed clothes. Thank goodness they're still usable! A certain three-year-old must be very pleased with herself.
#1 loved his dinner and laughed a little because he didn't have to share it with anyone. Oh yeah? Enjoy not eating our nachos tomorrow, saboteur of my dinner! If I had known how ridiculously long it was going to take, I would have made him eat some more of his leftover spaghetti.
Yeah, this picture looks like it came from a catalog!
I know potlucks typically consist of separate dishes contributing to a meal, not taking your guests' food and putting it in a recipe, but #1 only had rice to add to the meal and I wasn't feeling inspired as to what to have with a side of rice. We still have a plethora of ham from Easter, so I went to allrecipes.com and entered "rice ham". It brought up a few options and I was surprised to see a fried rice recipe. I'm not all that fond of fried rice, but I figured what the heck. I had the majority of the ingredients already. As expected, my kids' reactions to the meal went like this.
#1: Hmm. Maybe it will be good.
#2: This is good! (Before he took a bite)
#3: Fine. I'll eat it. (Expecting to be rewarded for it)
Daughter: Stared at it in horror, but ate it.
It was actually quite tasty! I bought some reduced sodium soy sauce from Trader Joe's, which I ended up liking much better. My friend said, "You must have done a really good job with the rice because he got seconds."
She was referring to #3. I ran to get my camera because he rarely likes anything I make. I told her, "No, that's ice cream."
That figures.
Now allow me to review the recipe allrecipes.com style. This is when you change the recipe and give it 5 stars.
This recipe was awesome! I doubled the ham, didn't cook the green onion as long as it said to, added about half as much salt, omitted the sprouts, used fresh chopped carrots, and served reduced sodium soy sauce on the side. 5 stars!
I love the enthusiasm my kids have for this challenge! It's only the second day, but I'm still impressed that my son is eager to learn how to cook fresh broccoli in our steamer to go with his spaghetti. Meal planning and grocery shopping were half the battle. The other half will be conserving what he bought. If he runs out of beverages, I don't think his $1.56 is going to buy him much. He also lost some of his pineapple juice to a tragic, accidental dumping into the stovetop while he was transferring it into a pitcher.
He started heating up his pot of water just now and the burner was smoking like crazy. I decided it was better to turn it off than take a picture for everyone's amusement.
The rest of the family is having leftover ham from Easter. I already used some in a breakfast casserole, so tonight we'll have sandwiches. I'm trying hard not to torture Contestant #1 with good food, at least not with food he considers good. This will be easiest with my youngest son because he hates about 99% of the dinners I make. As long as I don't eat Kraft Macaroni and Cheese in front of him or plain cheeseburgers, he'll be happy.
#1 just asked me, "I have tomato sauce in my hair, don't I?"
